Not like he needed any. Clean air, fastest car in the field and Lando holding Merc back for 1/3 of the race. P2 was 17 sec behind. Championship is over.
Give him space lol… this is the problem at times with F1. They complain to the race director that they want freedom to race. Then you have Perez try something fantastic and run out of space and he instantly cries to the race director to stop letting them race and start enforcing rules. Next year with much smaller cars and hopefully better handling ones your going to see a lot of action like this so it will be interesting how they rule on attempts like this moving forward.
Re: Lando/Perez incident...Horner even came on the telecast before that incident was under review and said he thought it was just racing. He didn't fault Lando at all.
Speaking of the sponsors....and in particular a couple of McLaren sponsors caught my eye this weekend. The first one was a sponsor on Lando's helmet that I thought...no way it says what I think....it doesn't as it turns out but the sponsor on his chin.... A second sponsor I thought was kinda cool was the main sponsor on the side of their car this week. Usually it's a company called Velo... This week it was one of those huge music festivals that Europe is known for. Tomorrowland which is an EDM festival in Belgium. Interesting enough, I went to their website and they cancelled it for this year anyway so interesting use of advertising dollars by them but I'm sure McLaren doesn't care.
I don’t think anyone should’ve been given a penalty. I like them racing. But the rule is give a car space. You can’t just continue to drift out wide when the car is neck and neck.
Part of why that turn became such an important area was the bringing in of the gravel trap right next to the curbs. Last year it was all grass there. More tracks should take note. That risk/reward led to both more interesting racing, and penalized those who went just a hair bit wide.
I always chuckle at the post race interviews that are like: "Yeah my pace was better than (insert driver in front of him). 2 more laps and I would have had him" It's like a football coach saying "Yeah 3 more quarters and we could have won"
F1 is in such a fantastic space if they just nail this new car regulations. Max Lewis Are the elite. But Charles, Norris and maybe even Russell are knocking on that door. If we could get some balanced cars early on we may have some fantastic racing next season.
No Australia GP this year. F1 has said they will reschedule a race in its place. For logistics sake I'd put money on a European based race. Maybe Germany or Mugello if I had to put money on it.
I don't know about that. The race before is Brazil and the race after Australia is Saudia Arabia. Seems like a southern Asian country/track would make sense logistics wise or middle east.
With global shipping the way it is right now, it's likely those containers to Australia are already on the water, and unfortunately you can't just stop the boat to get them off and go somewhere else. So by the time they land in Aussie it'll be too late to get them anywhere else. With a Europe based race, they can truck everything they need from their Europe race set ups via truck from their different factories. Here's a great youtube video describing how things work logistically for F1, especially for fly away races.
I am way too invested in Mercedes second driver selection. If it isn’t George this summer, he has to start looking around right?
Over 4 months in advance? No they're not... especially since Australia has been rumored to have been cancelled for a long time now. F1 teams weren't going to prepare and put all that equipment on the water without knowing for sure that there was even a race. Only time will tell what they replace it with I guess.
Did you watch the video? Do you understand how container shipping works, and how messed up is it right now? Global shipping is such a mess right now that in my business we’re seeing sometimes as much as 6-8 weeks longer transit times due to covid, port congestion, boat availability, etc. F1 would not be immune to that either and would plan ahead for that. All that to say that they absolutely, even with the races in question put the containers on the water and plan for them to happen and adjust if they don’t. So while it’d be really cool for them to put a race somewhere new. Logistically it makes sense to either add a “local” race in Europe. Or do a back to back in a place like Austin/UAE, etc.
Yeah I've seen the video. I've linked that exact video myself and several others like it to other people who have asked about logistics of it all previously. There's no point in arguing with you about whether or not they had already started shipping to a race that they knew was likely going to be cancelled 4+ months out.
Mercedes doesn’t really have to do anything the only seats open for next season are alpha tauri, Williams, Alfa Romeo, the 2nd Mercedes seat, an atom Martin seat that’s going to stroll and the second Red Bull seat Id there was a Ferrari, mclaren or alpine seat open it would be different another reason why it was ducking stupid for alpine to extend ocon
Let’s say the last time Mercedes put a competitive driver next to Lewis it was a shit show. Rumor has it that an agreement was made, title for retirement. Allegedly… I think Lewis loves this current setup.
In the debrief, Merc was said the damage Lewis did to the car, cost him 6 or 7 tenths of a second per lap
I really wonder if Bottas would have had the pace to pass Norris on track had Norris not had the penalty.
So next race is Silverstone. The McLarens are wicked fast on the straights. Race should be a blast to watch. It's Lewis' home track so I'd expect some more daring from him. Still, no one is matching Max and the RBs in the mid sections. My ideal finish would be a Max, Lando, Sergio top 3. Also, based upon logistical challenges, if Europe is the choice to replace Australia? Wouldn't mind Hockenheim.
Mercedes is hyping their upgrade package a fair bit (which is a bit of a red flag to be honest) and Silverstone has usually been one of their better tracks so I think it will be a lot more competitive than it has been.
Lewis is normally pessimistic, but's he's very pessimistic about the upgrade coming for Silverstone. We will see. I'm enjoying see RB resurgence and the rise of McLaren. Now if Ferrari gets their shit together and maybe we some continued improvement by Aston, 2022 could be a magical year of competition.
Replace Aston with Alpha Tauri or Williams, or Haas, or Alfa and I'd be perfectly happy. Leave Aston and Alpine in the basement.
Ferrari is battling neck and neck with McLaren currently. I would expect them to be major players in 2022
Ferrari has been on poll. Sure Daniel has struggled but Ferrari isn’t the joke they were last season. Obviously they are far from fighting for a title as they expect.
Formula 1 will use Pirelli’s modified rear tyres from the British Grand Prix onwards after the FIA World Motor Sport Council approved the change following a successful trial at the Red Bull Ring All drivers tested two sets of the prototype tyres featuring a modified rear construction during free practice for last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, and following today’s meeting an FIA statement confirmed that “the world council approved the introduction of a new construction of rear tyre for the remainder of the 2021 season”. The front tyres and the compounds used on both axles remain unchanged, but the modified rear construction features higher cornering stiffness at high loads, and a higher vertical stiffness. This means it can run at lower pressures than the regular rears, with the minimum starting pressure set 2psi lower for the prototypes in Austria than the standard tyres.
Lower psi means more grip. The tire stiffens with more pressure, which can reduce the amount of tire surface area in contact with the track surface
British GP next week is the 1st of 3 weekends with Sprint qualifying. Friday is the traditional qualifying session and then Sat is the Sprint qualifying
That is my understanding. FP1 Friday morning, then the traditional 3-session qualifying after (moved up from normal Saturday spot) FP2 Saturday morning, then sprint qualifying race, lineup based on the results of the traditional qualifying Race Sunday, lineup based on results of the Sprint