F1 2021 – spoilers here

Are we doing that fantasy F1 thingy on GridRival again this year?

I’m sure that Ricciardo has been propelled by Renault power ever since the start of the hybrid era, so there will be some acclimatisation for him getting used to the Merc engine.

You mean like not bursting into flames after two race distances?

Just noticed that the “new” redbull has been launched. How many teams have sacked off the whole launching thing this year and will just roll the car out into the pit lane at the first test session – unless you’ve got particularly picky sponsors I can’t see much wrong with that approach this time.

I’m sure another reorg will sort out what’s been holding them back for the last 15 years.

Ferrari's "performance development" division – set up as recently as 2020 – has been replaced as part of its latest #F1 team restructuring:https://t.co/5WsnliW1yP

— The Race (@wearetherace) February 25, 2021

I’m sure another reorg will sort out what’s been holding them back

Rearrange to form a well known phrase or saying;

Titanic the deckchairs the on rearranging

Interesting article on Planet F1 saying Ferrari’s punishment for cheating in 2019 was that they weren’t allowed to use as much fuel in 2020, but the engine would be permitted full power/fuel in 2021…Testing is going to be interesting.

My prediction is that the 2022 F1 thread will start some time in November

chinny reckon

I'm looking forward to owning an F1 team. Not long to wait. The infrastructure we have around British superbikes & world superbikes is already second to none. Powering premium with Rich Energy OMG Racing#RichEnergy #British #EnergyDrink #F1 #Motorsport #Entrepreneur #Business pic.twitter.com/Qerpz5ZcWS

— William Storey (@richenergyceo) February 26, 2021

This is supposed to be an F1 thread, I’m sure there are others for deluded, attention seeking fatasists…

oomidamon
Full Member

This is supposed to be an F1 thread, I’m sure there are others for deluded, attention seeking fatasists…

Okay, just for my future reference where are you drawing the line? At around the Bernie-mark or closer to EJ?

Scary thing with the RE thing, is that it is going to be much cheaper for an independant to join for this season as the joining fees have effectively been waived.. There’s been rumours of 1-2 new joiners floating around. That said, i cant see who it will be, they will need a major fuel and lubriant sponsor as well as someone to supply the PU, which can only be Renault or Ferrari..

There’s been rumours of 1-2 new joiners floating around.

A small F1 team has 200 or more employees. The top technical staff need to have experience running an F1 team and designing F1 cars. Plus they need access to a wind tunnel and a factory, not to mention an engine supply. To set up a team for the 2022 season, they would have to have the design team in place now and working in the wind tunnel, which means they would need an engine supply contract already signed. If they were that far advanced, everybody would already know. There might be people exploring the possibility, but they won’t be on the grid before 2023 at the very earliest. Not to mention, it’s probably cheaper to buy Haas or Sauber than to start from scratch.

Perez starting to subtly turn the screw on verstappen

https://www.planetf1.com/news/sergio-perez-red-bull-driver-struggles/

I did wonder about that.
If Max likes a weird car set up, which doesn’t suit Gasly or Albon, were RB thinking ‘well it works for Max, and did for Ricardo, these guys are just making excuses?’ Possible, given their lack of experience.
Checo might have an advantage here in that they may think ‘he does know what he’s talking about so if he asks us to make more like this and less like that maybe it’s worth a try’
How different can you make the two cars? Can Max have a weird front end and the other driver a more normal feeling one or will set up changes only go so far, would they/could they use totally different components, say front wings or suspension or whatever makes it feel like that?

mercedes car reveal in…

woah the sidepods look tiny!

(obviously could be decoy from whatever other tasty stuff they’ve stuck on)

If F1 car wheelbases get any longer, we’ll see cars covering a race distance as soon as the rear wheels cross the start line.

One of the most interesting things I think about “Mercedes” at the moment is that the team is only 1/3 owned by Mercedes

Surely you mean “Mmmmmmeeeeerrrrrrrccceeeeeddddddeeeeesssss”, not “Mercedes”?

Okay, just for my future reference where are you drawing the line? At around the Bernie-mark or closer to EJ?

I certainly wouldn’t describe either of those as fantasists (or fatasists!) but they are both prone to bouts of attention seeking. However, both have far more rights to be talked about in terms of F1 than a shady bloke who didn’t pay his sponsership deal but still claims to be coming back to F1, like he said he was buying Sunderland FC. Talk is cheap.

The Alpine looks nice.

Indeed it does. Just to recap the potted history of the team over the last forty years:

1981-1985: Toleman
1986-2001: Benetton
2002-2010: Renault
2011-2015: Lotus
2016-2020: Renault
2021- : Alpine

The Mercedes is a bit meh – don’t think the black background helps show much though.

Love the livery on the Alpine.

Airbox looks huge in this pic

eta; closeup image nabbed from f1technical, comparing to the macca

Too much green on the merc for me (I especially hate the green wheel rings). The alpine livery looks so much better.

The massive airbox is where Alonso keeps his dummies – he needs to throw at least one out every lap. I heard there’s a direct auto-dispenser feed to the cockpit!

I especially hate the green wheel rings

I am not totally up on F1 tech but aren’t they there to stop them kerbing the rims when they park?

Covers are off the AMR21:

Some interesting nose designs this year – whether they are ‘final’ is yet to be seen though.

Can someone post a pic of last year’s merc from the same angle as that Aston Martin photo above. Just want to make sure 😉

Well it’s got last years Mercedes rear end. Nose is different though – more pinched in.

Extreme pinch to the nose to encourage airflow around the cape pic.twitter.com/ZnQAlxasj7

— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsTech) March 3, 2021

Thank goodness there’s no such thing as monochrome television any more, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to tell the Merc and Aston apart. Even the Aston’s pink swadge thingy looks exactly the same as the turquoise one on the Merc. At least we’re starting to see a divergence in nose shape between the Aston and the Merc, but I am disappointed that they’ve stayed so faithful to the historic Aston racing green, I’d have liked a more lurid Jaguar-eque tone that would’ve played better on a screen.

A small F1 team has 200 or more employees. The top technical staff need to have experience running an F1 team and designing F1 cars. Plus they need access to a wind tunnel and a factory, not to mention an engine supply. To set up a team for the 2022 season, they would have to have the design team in place now and working in the wind tunnel, which means they would need an engine supply contract already signed. If they were that far advanced, everybody would already know. There might be people exploring the possibility, but they won’t be on the grid before 2023 at the very earliest. Not to mention, it’s probably cheaper to buy Haas or Sauber than to start from scratch.

F1 is going in the right direction with the cost caps, but they really need to simplify the power units to reduce their development costs and entice more engine manufacturers/teams back to the sport.

I know we’d all like to go back to big wailing NA V10s, but that’ll never happen as it’ll be a backwards step for the sport and it certainly wouldn’t promote a “green” image for the sport.

I reckon the PU needs to be simplified by keeping it a hybrid, but remove the complex MGU-H unit and turbos, leaving the MGU-K (Basically the KERS system). Change the engine to say, a 3.0 NA V8 with a larger, more powerful MGU-K unit than before would bring back some of the noise that we love as fans, whilst still promoting a “green” image for the sport.

This would appeal to new engine manufacturers, as development costs would be way less than the current PU, whilst still allowing them to use the hybrid system to help develop and market hybrid/electric systems for their own road cars.

This would appeal to new engine manufacturers, as development costs would be way less than the current PU

They’ll still spend as much money as they have available, they’ll just be chasing smaller gains. The long-term problem is that mass-market car makers are focusing on electric vehicles, so internal combustion engines have no marketing value, that’s why Honda are quitting. For a company the size of Toyota or VW, $250 million a year for an engine program is a small part of their marketing budget. The problem is just that it’s not going to be an effective marketing strategy because most of their customers don’t give a rat’s arse about F1 engines.

Can anyone spot the Russian influence on an American car!?…

Look at the size of that airbox!! 😱😱

Can anyone spot the Russian influence on an American car!?…

Ooh let me guess. Is it having an unpleasant shit for a driver because his daddy is rich and Russian?
Funny how red, white and blue on a US car can look so Russian. 😁

Look at the size of that airbox!!

Will need to find some other photos of that from the front or rear – it looks like there like the whole engine cover is massive!

Just looking at the pics of the Alpine, it is indeed rather swollen around the airbox and the sidepods. I wonder how that will affect the aero?

I think that it’s fair to say that Mazepin Snr has sunk quite a lot of cash into Haas who are short of a few bob. It’s going to be an interesting battle of the rookies between Mazepin Jnr and Mick, who’ll need no reminder as to who’s father has bankrolled the team.

Surprising there are none of Schumacher’s sponsors on the car. Unless they only want to be associated with him and not the Haaski* team.

(*blatently nicked from Racefans comments, but seems very appropriate!)

Theyve had that HAAS logo for ages but it does have a kind of russian vibe about it.
Is Big Gene a soviet sleeper?