F1 2021 – spoilers here

That was a lot closer than I though it would be earlier in the race, thought Mercedes had called it wrong and Lewis would be a few seconds off Verstappen by the flag.

Well, IMO that’s it for Hamilton’s title hopes to the year

Sadly I think you’re right. I’m not a blinkered Hamilton fan but I really don’t like the whole Max/Red Bull/Horner setup and the way they conduct their racing.

 I really don’t like the whole Max/Red Bull/Horner setup and the way they conduct their racing.

by beating Merc?

Good if a non-Merc won for a change.

Championship that is not individual races.

by beating Merc?

By making out they’re always the victim, thinking they have a devine right to getting the best equipment, moaning to the stewards about everything but then playing the victim when decisions don’t go their way, the way they treat their drivers who aren’t Max, Horner being a whiny bawbag and Max thinking that he can do no wrong. I thought they were a breath of fresh air when they first arrived but as soon as they tasted success they changed for the worse.

I don’t think its over yet, there are 133 Championship points available and Max has a lead of 12.

The title fight undoubtedly swung in Max’s favour yesterday but its certainly not over for Lewis.

By making out they’re always the victim, thinking they have a devine right to getting the best equipment, moaning to the stewards about everything but then playing the victim when decisions don’t go their way, the way they treat their drivers who aren’t Max, Horner being a whiny bawbag and Max thinking that he can do no wrong. I thought they were a breath of fresh air when they first arrived but as soon as they tasted success they changed for the worse.

I agree. While it’s good to see the title fight being brought to Mercedes and its really important for the sport, some of Red Bull and Max’ antics make them hard to like.

On a circuit that favoured a newly faster Mercedes, Hamilton was beaten in a pretty straight fight both by Verstappen on the road and the strategy in the pits. If I were Toto, or Hamilton, I’d be worried.

Interestingly Perez was supposed to be also in a newly faster RB, He clearly couldn’t keep up with either Max or Lewis for more than a few laps, speaks volumes about how much better than the rest of the field those two are

By making out they’re always the victim, thinking they have a devine right to getting the best equipment, moaning to the stewards about everything but then playing the victim when decisions don’t go their way, the way they treat their drivers who aren’t Max, Horner being a whiny bawbag and Max thinking that he can do no wrong. I thought they were a breath of fresh air when they first arrived but as soon as they tasted success they changed for the worse.

Absolutely every word of this.
I have nothing really against Verstappen, he’s been brought up to believe he is invincible, but it’s also nice to see someome properly challenge Hamilton. I have everything against Horner and Marko. Can not stand either of them, they make my skin crawl.

Would have been interesting to see what the outcome would have been if mini-Schumacher gotten straight out of the way like most other backmarkers would have done and not handed Verstappen a potentially race-saving DRS stint. All hindsight, but I wouldn’t have bet against Hamilton getting in to DRS and then a last lap crash taking both of them out again.

I don’t think its over yet, there are 133 Championship points available and Max has a lead of 12.

Agreed, not really getting the “it’s over” type chat. If one of them was a full race win worth of points ahead then it’d probably be done but we’re not there

Interestingly Perez was supposed to be also in a newly faster RB, He clearly couldn’t keep up with either Max or Lewis for more than a few laps, speaks volumes about how much better than the rest of the field those two are

They are both bringing their A-game at the moment, but worth a mention that Perez was apparently I’ll yesterday and had no drink beyond lap 1, so possibly could’ve been a little closer

Yes, you’re right mashr, I’d forgotten about Perez’s drink issue, that almost certainly would’ve contributed to his lack of pace, good point.

I don’t particularly like Max but hats off to him, he’s some driver and whoever of Max or Lewis wins it this year it’s well deserved.
Red Bull though are awful, well mainly Christian Horner and his whiney attitude are awful. I was also a bit blinkered to David Coultard and his Red Bull bias until the Silverstone GP, looking back it’s pretty bad. I’d still rather Lewis win this year.
Lando or Daniel next year though please, Zak Brown comes across as a good sport too.

Zak Brown got himself a tattoo over the weekend as well!… 🙂

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wolff-challenge-triggered-zak-browns-shock-tattoo/6704541/

Zak Brown comes across as a good sport too

The company I work for sponsors McLaren. Zak Brown has attended some “virtual events” he’s a genuinely entertaining guy. We did a live Q&A over Zoom and he was engaged, funny and down to earth the whole time.

Slightly off topic, but it’s my daughter’s 21st in a couple of months and I am thinking of getting a couple of grandstand tickets for the 2022 British GP. There’s a choice of Copse (A, B or C) or National Pits Straight. I was thinking NPS as seems like there is more chance of overtaking along there but Copse saw a bit of action this year. Which would STW recommend?

Perez illness…

I hope I never feel this bad again says Perez after illness and dehydration in race

There’s a choice of Copse (A, B or C) or National Pits Straight.

According to Christian Horner no-one even attempts to overtake in Copse.

Went to Silverstone for the first time this year. We sat in Village B for the main race, but now I’d say that Luffield B is the best chance for some action as you can see them right down Wellington straight and then around Brooklands, Luffield and Woodcote out on to NPS. We watched a few support races from there. Just don’t get the seats right at the front or edges at they are not shaded from the sun.
Not much off track goings on to be seen in the support pits either – they all convoy behind the safety car round to the International pits for start/finish from there.

Actually Luffield might be an option as it’s about the same price as the other 2.

Sat in Copse B back in 2013 and it was great! Saw a number of overtakes and you can see them pile down into maggots/becketts etc. Great day out, funnily enough, my mum and dad got me the tickets for my 21st! Really enjoyed it, great atmosphere and plenty to see/do. Was nice to hear the final year of the V8s though, my god the noise was incredible!

I was unsure about Zac Brown when he started, worried he was too much style over substance. But as he’s gone about doing what needed to be done and since discovering his massive personal car collection he’s definitely won me round. He has got McLaren to turn the corner and be well on the way to getting to be championship contenders again.

What happened to Bottas? Bit lacklustre from him and a poorly and dehydrated Perez had him well and truly beaten

The reason I think that it’s all over is because Red Bull beat Mercedes at what was supposed to be a strong Merc track. Whatever Merc do, Red Bull seem to have a car and driver that maximises opportunities. Barring breakdowns (which Mercedes seem more worried about), I think Max will just gradually extend his lead

Interesting, all the comments regarding Horner and Red Bull I could well have written about Ron Dennis and McLaren in the early 2000’s
It was his attitude that put me off F1 for good.
Glad to see nothing much has changed

Very much agree jimw

Hamilton early in his career was a right brat as well and overly aggressive. I do have a little sympathy for him in that he had to grow up in public and later than most of us but the allegations leveled at Verstappen now could equally apply to Hamilton when he was younger.

He has grown up now and mainly keeps the aggression in check and its a very fine line between being too passive and too aggressive and his statements over BLM I thought showed a real maturity but there really is a huge reek of double standards on here

Hamilton was beaten in a pretty straight fight both by Verstappen on the road and the strategy in the pits

I’d only agree with part of that. In terms of pace on track, Hamilton was looking mighty strong when he was on his worn second set and the Red Bulls were on their fresh third sets: it looked to me that they both gained on their out lap and the next but otherwise Hamilton pretty much had their pace covered and then came out strong on his third set.

The strategy is another matter. It seemed obvious that the undercut was going to be significant so the question was who would dive for the pits first. Key to the race was that Max stayed close enough to Hamilton in the first stint: this meant that they could jump first unless Mercedes rolled the dice and called theirs super early, which is a big risk when you’re first on track. Hamilton wasn’t as close to Max in the second stint which meant they had to go long, which always left him the tricky job of trying to get within a second of him at the end of the downforce-critical first sector, in dirty air in a car notoriously designed for clean air running and trimmed out for speed on the back straight. His best chance was always to get DRS on that straight but it was a mammoth task.

nickc
Full Member

On a circuit that favoured a newly faster Mercedes, Hamilton was beaten in a pretty straight fight both by Verstappen on the road and the strategy in the pits. If I were Toto, or Hamilton, I’d be worried.

From the moment Lewis got in front of Max, it was always going to be strategically difficult to win the race due to the strong undercut, especially with Checo having good pace and Bottas being back in the midfield. Mercs options were limited.

As far as I can tell the Merc and RedBull cars are still very close on pace, with the RB having just a slight edge.

The RB seems significantly better in dirty air though, Max was able to follow Hamilton quite closely for a surprising number of laps before his tyres went off. He did still kill them but it took longer than I’d have expected.

Also one other point, i’m not Max’s biggest fan but his drive really was quite exceptional yesterday. I didn’t see many mistakes at all from him in terms of lock ups etc despite his old tyres and pressure from hamilton approaching DRS range towards the last few laps.

andrewh
Free Member

What happened to Bottas? Bit lacklustre from him

He’s not a great overtaker and as I mentioned above the W12 seems relatively weak following closely. I think he’s kinda checked out since the engine penalty a few races back.

Lots of drivers turn into dicks when they start getting success – Schumacher didn’t come over well but I think he matured well, Button was a bit all over himself in the early years, Vettel started likeable then the whole Multi 21 etc changed that but now he seems to be back to his old self, and Verstappen is probably still going through it – how he comes out of it will be interesting.

But teams – we’ve had Ferrari being dicks with the media, Ron’s litigious war with Moseley (and becoming some sort of Howard Hughes of F1 in his later days) but Horner and Marko really take the “being unlikeable” thing to a whole new level. Stick someone else in charge of RB – Whitnarsh, Eric Bouiller or whoever and I’m sure they’d have more fans.

Sadly I think the season run in will be decided by a DNF – crash or mechanical – but I’d love to see them in a winner takes all front row at Abu Dhabi.

I think the season run in will be decided by a DNF – crash or mechanical – but I’d love to see them in a winner takes all front row at Abu Dhabi.

Some would say it’s a safe bet that the latter would result in the former 😉

, Button was a bit all over himself in the early years

It was Flavio Briatore who acused him of being a playboy🤣.
.
Actually, while we’re on the subject of unlikeable team managers…

No doubt Max judged his last stint very, very well at the weekend, he just kept enough life in the tyres to keep Lewis at bay. The pace picture is muddied somewhat by the rumours that Mercedes had to make some big setup changes after running away with FP1 because the car was running so low that while fast, it was just hammering the floor. They were also running higher engine modes compared to Redbull but it could be that they maybe have a small pace advantage still that they couldn’t fully show in Austin as the track was so bumpy. Going to be a fascinating end to the season!

I think F1 just attracts those sorts of folk, my dad (retired from the RAF) has said on occasion (especially fighter) squadrons messes feel very similar to F1 with young hot shots and older more mature guys, but all very alpha characters who all have to believe somewhat that they’re the best at what they do. I think those high stakes arenas attract that sort of mentality. In the sense that you can’t drive wheel to wheel at 200mph at a corner without thinking the other guy should back off, otherwise you’ve lost before the race has even started.

I can forgive them that. F1 bosses on the other hand just live vicariously through them, and their playground antics do begin to grate a bit after a while. Some of the autobiographies make for entertaining reading though

The pace picture is muddied somewhat by the rumours that Mercedes had to make some big setup changes after running away with FP1 because the car was running so low that while fast, it was just hammering the floor.

You’ll like this

^^^ Really good video ^^^

From the explanation the Mercedes suspension will work best at circuits without too many high speed corners. Like er Mexico, Brazil, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi!

Yeah but apparently they’ll be down on power at Mexico (particularly) and Brazil….something to do with the way their turbo is designed doesn’t get on with thinner air

In which case, if they can find that balance to drag the arse of the car like a dog across a carpet they might be sorted (but not too much of course)

This might be a metaphor, it might be literal, but it’s a hell of a headline either way.

HAAS NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND WHY MAZEPIN KEEPS HAVING BURNING FEET

Anyone else properly excited about the end of the season?! I’m like a kid at Christmas sat watching P1!

The prospect of a close championship battle and 5 races in 6 weeks has got me giddy. I think Verstappen will get his first WDC, as much as I don’t like the lad he showed real maturity at the last GP and it’s clear he’s thinking strategically and not just about the next corner. It’s gonna be interesting!

I was NOT expecting that! Well done Merc and Bottas. Tremendous stuff 👏

That RB looked a right handful in the closing stages of qually, tankslapping in a few places. Cannot wait for the race tomorrow.

What’s the deal with all the duct and sellotape on Vertsappen’s wing?!

Significant rear wing issue found before Q1 on both cars apparently. Wonder if it’s the same as Austin but they assumed that was just due to the bumps there? By the sound of it luck also played a part though, one iffy lap was all he got in Q3?

The Merc looked a lot better in Q2 on the mediums than the Redbull did which could come into play tomorrow (admittedly I didn’t get to see any of the long run times during practice).

I’ll be amazed if they all make it through turn 1.

“tsunoda’d”
dear god Horner’s such a twit