F1 2021 – spoilers here

I will also be amazed if 2 Mercs and 2 RBs all emerge from T1 unscathed.. I reckon tomorrow’s race is gonna be spicy! 🙂

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

Redbull make my teeth itch, I can’t stand Horner or Marko. I had Max in there with them but as I’ve said previously I have warmed to him this past 12 months or so (even though his old traits occasionally shine through and the majority of Dutch fans seem to take great delight at any other drivers misery).

Even as a Ham fan I honestly wouldn’t mind if Max won the WDC, I think it would do the sport good, but the thought of having to listen to Horner bleat on for the next 12 months would kill me. For that reason alone, anybody other than Max to win the WDC pretty, pretty please.

I will also be amazed if 2 Mercs and 2 RBs all emerge from T1 unscathed.

Well predicted!

Hmmm – well that was surprisingly dull. Hopefully the sort of race next years cars and ground effect will fix.

Probably as good as Hamilton could expect given that they expected it to be a strong circuit for Red Bull. Second with no fastest lap point for Verstappen, Mercedes would want Bottas up there though.

Hmmm – well that was surprisingly dull.

Have we had a decent race here since it trejoined the calendar? Can’t remember one off the top of my head as they all get ruined by overly-effective DRS on the main straight or turn into a procession due to dirty air.
Also anyone else finding the season dragging in too long? Feels like we’ve had a full season and still have 4 races to go yet. I know a lot of the races have been good this year but it feels like too much of a good thing to me.

Also anyone else finding the season dragging in too long?

…my wife is!! :-)

Haven’t told her yet there’s another Sunday night one next week.

And yes, it is dragging. They need to get back to 20 races max and 24 cars on the grid. Even as an F1 fan since the 70s I’ve not got much enthusiasm for x3 middle east races to finish with.

They need to get some more cars capable of competing, third place 40ish seconds adrift does not make for an interesting race.

Also anyone else finding the season dragging in too long?

Yes, I’m kind of waiting for this season to get out of the way so we can have the new cars.

I’m dreading them making that silly sprint race a thing, we’ll end up with a really long season where to make sense of the weekend you have to invest even more time per weekend. We’ve been watching IndyCar, Formula-e and even NASCAR and they seem to pack more entertainment in a race than a whole weekend of F1.

What…………..there is no pleasing some people.

We finally have a season where Hamilton may not actually win, we finally have a season where its still too close to call at the end, we finally have a season with races at places not raced at before, we have more races than before.

If you don’t like it, go and watch something else.

Well, I nodded off at about lap 30 and woke up at lap 60-ish, and there’d been no change to the running order.

Some GPs just aren’t that interesting

its still too close to call at the end

I don’t think it is….

Well, I nodded off at about lap 30

Went to bed as it was clear where the race was going. What a contrast to the US race, which kept me pinned to the screen.

its still too close to call at the end

I don’t think it is….

I think if Lewis had that lead it’d be done. With Max ahead there is more possibility of an upset. Wouldn’t be surprised if he had an off before the end.

I don’t think it is….

I think it’s Max’s to loose quite honestly, and if he does win the championship, it’ll be well deserved, he’s driven brilliantly this year, and it’s been great to watch some-one take the fight to Mercedes who’ve been overly dominant these last few seasons. About the only interesting thing that happened  at yesterdays GP was watching him go from 3rd to 1st in a bit of a straight and a corner…amazing driving

Max has a 19 point lead with four races to go. One DNF and that lead is gone. Two Merc 1-2 finishes with Max third and that lead is gone. Still, he has to be favourite at this point. He has driven brilliantly and Red Bull and Honda have given him a very fast car.

Made the mistake of watching the highlights on the All4 website. What an awful streaming service. Makes this place seem like a paragon of internet stability.

19 Point gap with 4 races to go…

Its not unassailable yet for sure. A victory is a 7 point swing even if the other driver is in second, plus fastest laps and next up is a sprint race.

I think its done and dusted if Max wins another race though

My predictions from 7 months ago

1. Gasly will get a podium-  Yep, 3rd in Azerbaijan

2. Alonso will make the Alpine look like a better car than it actually is – Mostly wrong I reckon, Ocon has scored their only win and the team is mid table, Ocon just behind Alonso

3. Perez will give Verstappen a run for his money – Haha, badly wrong

4. Vettel will make Stroll look like an amateur. Mostly wrong again I think, Vettel has twice the points haul, and has been on something of an overtaking blitz, but only one place down is Stroll quietly going about his business

5. Norris will outqualify Ricciardo in most races, Ricciardo will place higher in most races – Mostly wrong, I think apart from the one race win, Norris has had the better year. Ricciardo having something of a mare

and…

Verstappen 1st, Hamilton 2nd ,Bottas 3rd in the championship- Phew, still some time to **** this up as well though …

oh yeah, forgot one, Hamilton will break the 100 barrier for race wins…which if it happens will be just amazing!

Correct.

4. Vettel will make Stroll look like an amateur. Mostly wrong again I think, Vettel has twice the points haul, and has been on something of an overtaking blitz, but only one place down is Stroll quietly going about his business

Be fair – Vettel would have had another 18 points wouldn’t he if he’d had another half pint of fuel.

If he’d driven a percentages game at times Max should really be out of sight of Hamilton by now.

With its tight nature Brazil should be a Red Bull track. Not sure about the others as one is new (and might not even be finished on time!) and Abu Dhabi has major layout modifications.

The predictions are on page 11 of this thread if you want a laugh

Mine were

1. Vettel and Lance Stroll will run into each other more than once.

Well they hit each other but only once.
2. Verstappen will get a race ban for punching someone in the pit lane
Nope
3. Binnoti will be sacked after Monza as Ferrari are still underperforming
Nope
4. We’ll have a new race winner
Yep Ocon
5. Haas will either disappear or by bought out by the end of the season
Nope (kind of amazed they haven’t but there we are)

5. Haas will either disappear or by bought out by the end of the season
Nope (kind of amazed they haven’t but there we are)

It might still happen!… 🤣🤣🤣

Good luck to all the drivers at the #MexicoGP
Can’t wait for the reveal of our new team and more importantly to beat our competitors on track. Premium British performance ?? #RichEnergy #F1 #Chapter2 #Competition pic.twitter.com/Fu8Ln2olQc

— William Storey (@richenergyceo) November 7, 2021

Powering premium #RichEnergy pic.twitter.com/9TMnnyKmKn

— Rich Energy HQ (@rich_energy) April 12, 2021

Christ, what a fantasist

Have found mine from page 11:

1. Mazepin will receive a race ban for unsportsmanlike conduct

Mazepin has accumulated six penalty points to Schumacher’s zero, but has so far not been sanctioned with a ban.

2. Ricciardo will be a regular top six qualifier

So far out of eighteen races, Ricciardo has qualified in the top six eight times and of course has won a race. That I’m disappointed with Ricciardo’s qualifying stats this year shows just how far McLaren has come.

3. Russell to score maiden Williams points at Silverstone

I was one race out – Russell scored eighth place at the Hungaroring.

4. Gasly will outscore Stroll, Alonso will outscore Ocon

Current standings are 9th – Gasly, 10th – Alonso, 11th – Ocon and 13th – Stroll.

5. Norris will score at least two podiums

Four podiums so far, including a second place at Monza. Again, better than I dared hope for McLaren this season.

Christ, what a fantasist

Bloody hell… Storey’s twitter feed is awash with covid and climate change skepticism and some shares from a few unsavory characters’ accounts.

nickc

2. Alonso will make the Alpine look like a better car than it actually is – Mostly wrong I reckon, Ocon has scored their only win and the team is mid table, Ocon just behind Alonso

Ocon’s win was a fluke and without it, he’d be sooo far behind Alonso and this despite Alonso not being in a car capable of achieving double digit championship points shows how consistently Also has beaten him despite being out of F1 for a number of years.

Well done PJM, your predictions were much better than mine!

although @pook’s first comment on the thread was predicting Russel to Merc…pretty much bang on 11 months ago!

1. This will be Vettel’s last year, Stroll will beat him too often and he will call it a day. Replaced by Hulk.
2. Williams will beat Haas and Alpha
3. Perez will win two races
4. Bottas will lead the championship early on and then fade away (again)
5. The two drivers to hit each other most often will be Verstappen and Leclerc

One out of five so far… Although it would nice to see Checo get another win

1 Williams will make at least one Q3 session
2 Vettel won’t outclass Stroll at AM
3 Alonso to be out qualified by Ocon overall but end up with better race results
4 Rich Energy will not buy a team, become a sponsor or even sell a can of drink at an F1 circuit
5 Mclaren will win a race, it’ll take unusual circumstances but it’ll happen

Not bad

Oh and I’d expect some pretty big gaps in the field next year too – new regs usually spread the field

Oh and I’d expect some pretty big gaps in the field next year too – new regs usually spread the field

This is true. Ive always thought it weird that keel trying to change things to make it closer, usually has the opposite effect.
There’s been a few dull races this year, Zanvoort and Mexico immediately spring to mind, but overall its bee pretty good. A shake up will, as you say, spread them out agian, maybe in a different order, but will spread them out. It also does absolutely nothing to cut costs, which seems to be their other target, the less stuff you can carry over the more expensive it will be.
If anything needs changed it’s some of the circuits.

@thepurist not bad! not bad at all!

Twodogs
Full Member
1 Alonso won’t get a podium, cos the Renault (sorry, Alpine) will be heap of junk
2 Mclaren to score a race win with Riciardo
3 Bottas to finish outside top 5 in the Championship
4 Perez will be soundly beaten by his team mate
5 Christian Horner will blame everyone else for Red Bull not winning

3 right….even if Red Bull do win ultimately, he’s certainly blaming everyone else when anything goes wrong!

I think it well be max. Perez is doing a great job in support whilst Bottas seems to have gone out to lunch. Yes he was unlucky at the start to get hit but there appeared to be no fight to get back into top half of the finishing list before he was tasked with taking fastest lap

Bloody hell… Storey’s twitter feed is awash with covid and climate change skepticism and some shares from a few unsavory characters’ accounts.

What’s his opinion on Sam Pilgrim?

My predictions from page 1:

a re-run of this year with (Hamilton) leading Bottas seems pretty likely.

Nope.

Red Bull with Perez in the second seat to be runners-up again. Perez might push Verstappen, but it’s also possible he’ll find the car tricky to get on top of and end up like Albon.

Was sitting on the fence there so doesn’t count.

Ferrari will be much improved. They have a new engine on the dyno and they should understand their aero problem. Sainz should be much more competitive than Vettel, so they should be able to compete with Renault and McLaren for third.

Yes.

Renault look to be getting on top of their problems so Alonso should be able to battle with the Ferraris and Red Bulls for podium spots,

Nope.

McLaren somewhere in that battle for third to fifth. They will have a better engine and Ricciardo will help, but probably about the same as this year.

Kinda, but Ricciardo didn’t really help overall.

Racing Point will be less competitive. They will need to start developing their own car a bit more

Yes.

Alpha Tauri seventh. Gasly seems decent, but they will have a new driver who may cost them points.

Kinda, but Renault and Racing Point slipped badly.

Williams will probably be improved, but still last because the Ferrari engine should be much better, so Alpha Romeo and Haas eighth and ninth.

Nope, Williams have impressed, the other two haven’t.

I don’t think Russell to Merc was much if a risky prediction. Over on Twitter I did call perfectly how the Kimi, Russell, Bottas cards would fall though – much to Hora and Matt’s irritation

Dear god, no

Just what F1 needs…another dull street circuit with zero overtaking 😒

Hmm. Wait and see what the payout is, Baku is a street circuit and that’s always fun

looking forward to next year, and hoping that someone does what Brawn did in 2009(?) and steals the show from Merc, RB etc.

I thought the London GP was the sort of story that Bernie rolled out during the winter to keep F1 in the news – it’s been talked about for years but has never come to pass.

When no one can be arsed to put their name to a piece of bullshit fluff…#F1 pic.twitter.com/nQEPlouF9H

— Leigh M O'Gorman (@LeighOGorman) November 11, 2021