Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

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To add to the Ham contract thing, I read an article a week or so ago that said it was money in that Merc wanted to only pay him $25M instead of $40M. Not saying that's true, but its another rumour, along with him retiring, length of contract and I am sure a few others as to why he remains yet to sign.

So, tomorrow's race has the elements there for a great race. I just checked the weather and site I looked at said consistent 13C temp entire race, cloudy and 0% chance of rain. Getting both sets of tires working will be the key. Also, the Top 10 can start on whatever compound they want, so that will be interesting right off the bat! There will be some weird strategies I bet. Like would 3 stops be worthwhile given you would be going in for hot tires? I am looking forward to this one tomorrow given Merc doesn't seem likely to cruise away. Max might, but maybe just for 1 stint and other set of tires don't give performance. If someone can make the hard tire really work they would be looking real good.

This has the potential of being one of those races that rain doesn't seem to really be needed to spice it up. I am kind of torn on wanting to see rain now with a dry race like this being a bit of an oddity due to all the factors at play. Might we get another new winner tomorrow? If Max breaks down or has an incident, could be!!! As a Canadian, I will be very stoked to see Stroll actually followup on the pole with a win, much like Seb did with his first win at Monza '08. Been way too long since I lived through JV's glory years from 95 to 97 so a Stroll win, even if it is not an outright dominated field in normal race conditions type of win, that would be pretty great to see. He is the only other Canadian not named Villeneuve to get an F1 pole, can he get the win to say the same?

Its a 610am start for me I just noticed. That's a bit brutal, might have to download the torrent. Too old to pull an all-nighter now! LOL
 
I started to somewhat like Verstappen, but holy shit, first his bitching and whining about tires while he was driving, then his massive tirade after qualifying now here he is moping:


Full Race Replay said:
Both Hamilton and Mercedes need each other because each party is worried about hurting their image if Hamilton goes to a worse team or Mercedes has a worse driver.
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I doubt that Mercedes cares that much about whatever legacy Hamilton might have, that's just secondary to their own image. If Hamilton leaves and ends up at, say, Red Bull and stops achieving anything and the world by and large realizes that it was all just the car and Hamilton is a midfield-driver at best, Mercs wouldn't give a shit. To the contrary, that might underline just how amazing their car is - Hamilton would be utterly humiliated and Mercedes would be further elevated.
What Mercedes really care about is raking in title after title, to show off their prowess. So their focus is on getting Constructor's champion titles and whoever gets the driver's champion title is secondary, as long as that's a Merc-driver, too. It's a nice bonus to have a driver that breaks all previous driver's records, but that is exactly what it is: A bonus. If they picked up another driver that gets consistently decent results, while Bottas wins the WDC, so they get the constructors title easily, they don't give a fuck if they lose Hamilton and he suddenly ends up on the bottom rungs. Hamilton already has gotten more victories than Schumacher and he's about to equal his number of champion titles this race, so Mercs have not that much more to gain from him in case Hamilton continues in their team tbh. There might even be a certain merit in not having Hamilton outdo Schumacher in titles as well for Mercedes.
Hamilton is very easily replaceable without much loss for Mercedes, they have already become the ultimate kingmakers, they just need a halfway decent driver to back up Bottas and continue to rake in title after title and record after record - and without Hamilton, they don't have to fuss over his stupid brainfarts of virtue signaling.
 
So, this getting up at 6AM better fucking be worth it! I thought it might not be a bad plan to start from pit lane if you were in the back, so nice to see someone is doing it.
 
Great start by Stroll, great start by Vettel. Pretty good race so far.

I feared Stroll might collide with Verstappen on first corner, but he really nailed this start and has been doing good this far. And Verstappen's spin just now was completely crazy, especially that he could avoid a crash.

On a sidenote: Car is parked right next to an exit and they go for VSC, come on, like a yellow flag wouldn't be enough for that.
 
Shame that Stroll fell back after his pitstop, he was doing very well for the first half of his race. Still ... man. Perez is a beast on track in comparison.
And credit where credit is due: Hamilton had a great race.

I am so glad Vettel got 3rd place, he earned it. Goes to show, in a situation where engine power isn't as important, Vettel can still shine. His control of his car was magnificent throughout the race and I wonder if that might be due to his experience with it under normal conditions. That is to say, the car tends to spin and is finicky under dry and hot conditions, so Vettel might have known what to expect and how to react.
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
Shame that Stroll fell back after his pitstop, he was doing very well for the first half of his race. Still ... man. Perez is a beast on track in comparison.
And credit where credit is due: Hamilton had a great race.

I am so glad Vettel got 3rd place, he earned it. Goes to show, in a situation where engine power isn't as important, Vettel can still shine. His control of his car was magnificent throughout the race and I wonder if that might be due to his experience with it under normal conditions. That is to say, the car tends to spin and is finicky under dry and hot conditions, so Vettel might have known what to expect and how to react.
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But still Leclerc was even better in comparism. I mean he was 10 places behind Vettel after the start and until the last corner he was ahead again. Just one little mistake though. I was so hoping both Ferrari would end on the podium. And on a side note: when binotto is not there Ferrari seems to make better strategies.
 
Balr0g said:
But still Leclerc was even better in comparism. I mean he was 10 places behind Vettel after the start and until the last corner he was ahead again. Just one little mistake though. I was so hoping both Ferrari would end on the podium. And on a side note: when binotto is not there Ferrari seems to make better strategies.
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Leclerc had a great race, too, and once the track dried up, he was doing better than Vettel, but when you consider, they started 11th and 12th and went in 3rd and 4th, both still were on the same high level throughout the race overall. Vettel had an amazing start, going from 11th to 4th and was really strongest when the racetrack was still slippery, Leclerc was a bit better for the second half of the race and only made a tiny mistake in the last few corners, Vettel was not as fast overall but managed to avoid any mistakes and managed to take advantage of that really tiny mistake by Leclerc.
Even Verstappen, who usually does pretty well in rain, made a couple mistakes, that cost him the podium.
In the end, I am happy that Vettel ended 3rd, cause the poor guy can really use a bit of success in this terrible season. He got shafted by Ferrari on and off the grid, the car is pretty much the opposite of what he usually prefers to drive, so at least one small breather, where he can show that he's still got it in him to succeed, to built up his confidence.

Leclerc is going to be a brilliant driver once Ferrari find back to their old groove. There's no denying, that guy has a lot of potential and unless he plateaus hard (which is unlikely), he'll have a bright future in F1.

And to be completely honest, though I wish no harm on any driver, I was hoping for Hamilton to suffer tire failure, just so we'd get Perez, Leclerc and Vettel on the podium... that would have been sweet.
Kind of a shame no one dared to try out regular slicks in the end. After the race, Vettel put it quite nicely: the intermediates were worn out so much on every car, they had essentially turned into slicks anyway. Going for regular tires might have been worth a shot, but going off the dry areas just a little would be a one-way-trip to barrier-town and getting the harder compounds to warm up might have been impossible. Still, would have been interesting to see someone on the lower ranks to try it out, just to see how well that'd work. I would not have been surprised if they would suddenly crank out fastest lap after fastest lap in such a case.

Man, such a great race, one can only hope they'll pick Mugello or Turkey in lieu of Vietnam next season. They'd be morons not to consider it.

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Aw man, he really takes it hard. Poor guy.
But unlike certain someone, he doesn't snap at his engineers or bitching about tires or whatever, he seeks the blame with his own driving. And once he ranted about that, he shows he's a true sportsman by congratulating his teammate.
Meanwhile Vettel:
Such a likeable chap.
 
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I thought Vietnam is off the table because of a case of corruption in regards to the construction of the track? I mean I would also love to see Mugello or Protimao or Istanbul as a race track next season
 
Balr0g said:
I thought Vietnam is off the table because of a case of corruption in regards to the construction of the track? I mean I would also love to see Mugello or Protimao or Istanbul as a race track next season
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Vietnam is off from the 2021 season but it's still possible that it can be entered into the 2022 calendar since the track's complete and effectively ready to go when asked. But yeah, both Istanbul and Portimao are far superior tracks than any of the dreary desert tracks in oil sheikdom number 45667345.
 
It was a great unpredictable race until it dried enough for relative normality to resume.

A real pity for Stroll that they pitted just as it got too dry to be able to turn on the inters, Ferrari hit the sweet spot where there was enough water set them up for when it dried a little past the inter window. If they had left Stroll out as he suggested he could have been on for a podium like Perez managed.
 
Lewis is off again with his "I'm the only poc ever in this sea of evil white people" unironically diminishing the achievements of all the nonwhite drivers that have come before and are in the championship now.

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I've said it before and I will say it again, F1 doesn't have a diversity problem. How many nationalities, cultures, religions are represented on the grid? How many have perticipated in F1 through its history? Not exactly a heterogeneous grouping is it.

If I was liberty and Merc I would be finding ways to quiet down Lewis on his constant bad PR of them. They need to stop going "hes a good spokesperson, great PR" and realise all his bullshit is actively casting negative aspersions onto them.
 
Just something off the rumor-mill, but it seems we're not the only ones wondering if Hamilton will force some diversity down on the Mercedes team:

Frankly, I approve. Forcing shitty diversity hires into this team might make them less dominant in the future.

Also, Hamilton could do the unthinkable and put his own money where his mouth is. How about some support-organization to take some african or african-american drivers under his wing and help them get a seat in F1? Surely, Hamilton could use some of his insanely high salary for such a noble goal instead of demanding others to spend their money to satisfy his ideals.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Hamilton went cramming diversity programs into Mercades F1, subsequently I wouldn't be surprised if it was the thing that put Mercades off wanting to bother having an F1 team. Toto is part owner of the team and is clearly getting bored of the whole thing now branching out to Aston Martin and making no secret of leaving soon.

It's great PR winning all the time but very little if the R&D on current cars translates into road car technology and it's expensive if the success stops then Hamilton's little diversitymovement will stop being tolerable.

Then what top engineering tallent wants to do all the work for the diversity brigade to have them take all the credit when top Merc Engineers can name their price at Ferrari and Red Bull?

If Hamilton wants to play the diversity game why doesn't he run an F3 or F2 team to bring through those youth? Why is he throwing his money at some flash in the pan off roading series? Why doesn't he throw money at them (you know like evil white Ron Dennis did for him) to race in carting? The thing that stops people of all races from getting into racing is how bloody much it costs.

I notice Lewis isn't pushing for more women, LGBT or Islamic drivers, sounds like he's being sexist, homophobic and islamophobic to me.

All that said I must admit I would love to see Bono replaced by some Shanequa from the hood, see how Lewis crying on the radio goes down then.
 
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Coccxys said:
I wouldn't be surprised if Hamilton went cramming diversity programs into Mercades F1, subsequently I wouldn't be surprised if it was the thing that put Mercades off wanting to bother having an F1 team. Toto is part owner of the team and is clearly getting bored of the whole thing now branching out to Aston Martin and making no secret of leaving soon.

It's great PR winning all the time but very little if the R&D on current cars translates into road car technology and it's expensive if the success stops then Hamilton's little diversitymovement will stop being tolerable.

Then what top engineering tallent wants to do all the work for the diversity brigade to have them take all the credit when top Merc Engineers can name their price at Ferrari and Red Bull?

If Hamilton wants to play the diversity game why doesn't he run an F3 or F2 team to bring through those youth? Why is he throwing his money at some flash in the pan off roading series? Why doesn't he throw money at them (you know like evil white Ron Dennis did for him) to race in carting? The thing that stops people of all races from getting into racing is how bloody much it costs.

I notice Lewis isn't pushing for more women, LGBT or Islamic drivers, sounds like he's being sexist, homophobic and islamophobic to me.

All that said I must admit I would love to see Bono replaced by some Shanequa from the hood, see how Lewis crying on the radio goes down then.
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I'm really surprised to see so many comments on youtube, stating that Hamilton can dictate whatever he wants and Mercedes has to play along, cause Hamilton has now 7 titles under his belt.
I already went into great detail why I think that's not a primary concern for Mercedes, they have won every title since 2014, they can do without Hamilton and still break all records.
Hamilton can make this demand, but I doubt he'll get more than a token few people in somewhat irrelevant positions, if at all. If Mercedes is smart, they've seen how hiring people on basis of their skin-color/minority-status has paid off for countless companies over the years. Doesn't help that we all know what kind of person rises through the ranks via diversity-hiring.
Current Mercedes company attitude is that everyone can make suggestions for improvement and openly ciriticise things, without it being used to blame someone. It's a very open-minded way of running things, that cuts through a lot of red tape to improve things quickly. Throw in someone who's been promoted purely on skin-color and who will take anything as personal attack based on racism and this process grinds to a halt. Throw in someone who's obsessed with their identity and how it holds them back (even though it was the key factor in their success), someone who lacks any kind of personal confidence and bases everything about the label of "minority" and you literally poison the well of cooperation.

Part of me hopes that Hamilton overreaches to such an extend that Mercedes just slaps his file shut and hires someone else. It's not like there is a shortage of decent drivers at the moment. Hell, they could pick up Perez, Albon, Hulkenberg or even Raikkönen. Frankly, the moment Mick Schumacher has at least one season of F1 under his belt, Merc has really strong leverage against Hamilton, by threatening him to replace him with Mick. If that guy is just half as good as his father was, he'll be a good wingman for Bottas and then maybe even take over the number 1 spot at some point. I assume that's what Mercedes plans for. They want to keep Hamilton around until Mick is ready and they want to keep him around long enough to have his input when constructing and improving the new car design past 2021. That would give Mick enough time to enter F1 with a rookie team, get some experience and then switch to Merc when he's ready.

That being said, Mercedes does want Hamilton and Hamilton wants to stay with them, so they will bang out a deal that will make Hamilton even more rich and get him his token actionism.
 
Mick is a Ferrari junior driver. Russell on the other hand is a Merc driver with F1 experience and is outperforming a shit car (on one lap pace at least). Any driver on the grid in that Merc will be regularly sticking it 1st or 2nd. Hamilton is nothing special but his fanboys are generally rabid idiots so think he's the greatest thing that ever happened to Merc (as opposed to the other way around).

The ball on contract negotiations isn't in Hamilton's favour, Merc has the best car, Hamilton has nowhere else to go and many of the other teams wouldn't put up with his bullshit (imagine him trying to get Ferrari to paint their cars black or do any of the bullshit he wants).

Hamilton has the problem that many sports people develop, he thinks he's bigger than the team, in normal sports it's nonsense in F1 it's utterly inconceivable since the team make the most important bit.

My experience of two friends who became rabid Hamilton cock suckers was spending many a conversation prior to Hamilton justifying why I would want to watch "a bunch of people driving around on a circle all afternoon". Then when Hamilton started then going on about how I should be excited because "we" have a British driver who can win now. They know fuck all about F1 prior to Hamilton and will roll their eyes and tell you it's boring if you try to talk anything F1 that isn't "Hamilton da bestest" and yes that includes if you talk engineering and car development.
 
Coccxys said:
Mick is a Ferrari junior driver.
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Yeah, but I guess he could get out of that and start at Mercedes if he wanted to. But yeah, maybe it's closer to reality when you remove the name Mick and replace it with "junior driver" in general. They want Hamilton to get an experienced driver to give them feedback when the big design changes happen and then maybe phase out Hamilton for a younger driver.
Mick Schumacher in a competetive Mercedes would be any German fan's wet dream, so I got a bit carried away there...

On that note, Ferrari has Leclerc and Sainz at the moment, it feels like they won't have an open spot for Mick for quite some time, unless they drop Sainz like a hot potato at the end of 2022. So, again, Ferrari have set themselves up in such a way that one driver will be shafted. I wouldn't put it past Ferrari to waste Mick Schumacher entirely, even though his name affiliation alone makes him one of the more significant drivers of the coming years - if he's actually a decent driver, wasting him would be the dumbest thing Ferrari could ever do.
That's why I jumped the gun and thought that Mercedes, with their two rather senior drivers, are more likely to retire one (possibly Hamilton) in favor of a young driver and even though there are many good ones to choose from, one can't deny that there is a certain glamor factor regarding Mick (well, assuming that he's not a huge let-down).

Also, yeah, casual fans who only started to watch something once they got some star to root for can be bothersome, especially when they start talking like armchair experts. Let me guess, Senna is just some former hasbeen who has nothing on Hamilton? I wonder what their attitude towards Schumacher is, who was GOAT before Hamilton... nothing favorable, I would think.
I'm pretty sure, in 10 or 20 years looking back to the 2010s, every fan of the sport will call this the most boring decade of F1, due to Mercedes being so comically overpowered. I think Vettel put it nicely, you can't really compare Schumacher to Fangio or Senna to Hamilton. It only shows us who is the "best" driver of his era, but I feel Hamilton will be remembered as the guy who just so happened to be driving for Mercedes in the decade that they were unbeatable.
 
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Hamilton is a good driver and regularly stomps out Bottas, but I find it hard to believe that there aren't at least 5 other drivers who could replace Hamilton tomorrow and equal his results with less bitching.

Off the top of my head, Alonso, Verstappen, Ricciardo, and Leclerc are all locks to replace him seamlessly. I'm nearly certain Perez and Raikkonen could, too. I'd guess that Sainz, Russell and Norris all have a good chance to do the same given a little time to adjust. But the funniest by far would be if Merc kicked Hamilton out on his ass and put downtrodden Hulkenburg into that seat, and he started reeling off victories.

That would really be the ultimate fuck you to Lewis, letting the German guy who never quite got to the podium prove that the German car made the man. No chance Merc does it, but I'd laugh my ass off every race if they did, knowing that Lewis is just boiling over watching his shit get ruined.
 
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