Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

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Coccxys said:
As for hambone's difficult position crying it was because his car was overheating so he either had to be let past or back off from Russell. So in his mind them not just letting him past is them putting him in that position.
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I had a hunch that Mercedes builds their no-pod cars like they run at the front of the pack and then finds out the hard way that cooling becomes an issue when you drive in the wake of another car. Maybe that wasn't so far off after all.
 
If Leclerc and his car are truly on another level compared to everyone else, including his teammate, combined with the issues the main (RB, Merc, McL) chasing teams are having and the fact that different drivers from those teams will alternate finishing 2nd, in 3 or 4 races he could be 3 race wins ahead in points. I mean he is at 34 right now over George in 2nd.

If he keeps finishing 1st or 2nd, and when he doesn't win the same guy isn't winning those races, he could wrap up the title quite early. Obviously very early days, but based on the first 3 races, the trend is going to have to change fairly quick or he is going to start getting to the point where not winning the race won't matter as the points loss will be negligible. If Charlie wins in Imola, and even if it is George who finishes 2nd, then he is going to have over a 40 point lead. At that point, a DNF would still leave him with a good lead. While I like competition, I wouldn't mind if Charles won 17 or 18 races this year either, which would take that season wins record from Hamilton too!

I remember talking to a friend after the first race or two of Charles's first year with Sauber to watch out for him as he was going to do quite well if Ferrari gave him a good car. Took a few years, but here we are! Remember, he won F3/F2 back to back quite handily for most part if I recall. He reminds me of Prost a lot.

PS-Glad he has been my Turbo driver in both my teams for all 3 races too! LOL
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
I had a hunch that Mercedes builds their no-pod cars like they run at the front of the pack and then finds out the hard way that cooling becomes an issue when you drive in the wake of another car. Maybe that wasn't so far off after all.
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I suspect they also didn't expect Ferrari to suddenly come out and get their shit together.
 
The Grognard said:
I suspect they also didn't expect Ferrari to suddenly come out and get their shit together.
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The funny thing is that Ferrari allegedly quit development for 2021 early and they still came out on P3 at the end. Ferrari certainly managed to get a great car and engine together for this year and as a bonus the budget cap helps them to at least preserve some of their advanatge (unless Mercedes finds the magic fix for their car) And so far Ferrari is also doing a stellar job with their strategy (though poor Carlos might disagree with his Melbourne weekend). I hope Ferrari can hold this level consistenly for the rest of the season as I am a big fan of Ferrari
 
My Mercedes/Hamilton fan friend is now busy complaining how boring F1 has become with Leclerc winning all the time, after 3 races (of which he won 2).
 
Oh yeah, did anyone catch the comment on Sky, I think the pre-race show, that there were rumours the drivers wanted Merc to go back to the Barcelona test version of the car? The one with sidepods?

I mean they did do reasonably well this race, but Alonso, Sainz having their issues and Bottas, Mag not looking great and McLaren looking good but not quite there, surely helped where they finished. So, let's say at Imola the above-mentioned all have a better time of it, Merc should realistically have to fight, hard, to be Top 5 finishers. And if that is indeed how it all goes down, will these rumours start to get louder?

I mean at some point they have to do something, whether resigning themselves to not winning this year, or doing something drastic, if they can't get on par with RB/Fer. All those teams behind them, and Fer and RB ahead, have the advantage of more development perks due to the finishing order last year. Its not until after Race 11 when that dynamic will shift to reflect current WCC positions, and Merc won't be 10th, probably 3rd (If RB hasn't got something inherently wrong) so they won't see a huge advantage if they are in 3rd place in the WCC.

Whatever the case, I am enjoying their struggles, but also a bit pissed because their results shouldn't be as good as they are really. I mean they have 2 podiums. You'd think with how RB and Fer are much better than them, they would/should have none. Their position has been flattered by the Max/Carlos faults and Perez getting screwed by SC. Alonso/Bott/Mag all look as good as George/Lewis too and their issues helped the two Merc drivers to more points than they should have right now. Here are the Top 10:
PositionDriverPoints
1Charles Leclerc71
2George Russell37
3Carlos Sainz Jnr33
4Sergio Perez30
5Lewis Hamilton28
6Max Verstappen25
7Esteban Ocon20
8Lando Norris16
9Kevin Magnussen12
9Valtteri Bottas12
Carlos'/Sergio's lost points would put them ahead of George and take away from his total. Max would be ahead of both Mercs even if he had 1 DNF. That would again take away from Merc drivers' totals. Alonso likely would have reduced one of the Merc's points total if he finished top 5 as he looked quite likely to do had it not been for his crash. All the above would see Merc guys with maybe 60 or 70% of the total points they each have.

They have been quite fortunate I think. Very interested to see what happens at Imola.
 
LiveFromNS said:
Very interested to see what happens at Imola.
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That's going to be the true indication of the rest of the season for me. Its the first European race on a very traditional style track that a large proportion of the season is made up of. We have seen some wide variation in car performance across the 3 races so far but who goes best at Imola will have a good half of the season to build up results and points.

As for the no/tiny sidepods well when asked about it Newey said he considered it early on but decided it wasn't a viable way to produce reliable performance. If Newey is saying that about your aero package it's time for a change.
 
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Coccxys said:
Same but AM have been terrible in 21 before thos new era even hit. I get the feeling Lawrence has torn up the old "plucky underdogs" way of working from the force India and racing point days now they're a "manufacturer team". Its been all downhill since the "pink Mercedes". This is a back to the drawing board level of shit, if they're cleaver about it they will pull a Haas and sacrifice this season for a beer car next season.
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Lawrence Stroll got so good at copying Mercedes that they made a shit car just to match them.


Coccxys said:
As for the no/tiny sidepods well when asked about it Newey said he considered it early on but decided it wasn't a viable way to produce reliable performance. If Newey is saying that about your aero package it's time for a change.
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I recall something about Ferrari saying they explored a similar concept and also decided that there was more potential in other designs.
 
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Yeah, the IndyCar race is quite good, in for a nice ending I think! Our F1 rejects are in with a chance for a win.
 
Things Better Forgotten said:
I recall something about Ferrari saying they explored a similar concept and also decided that there was more potential in other designs.
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Haas too explored it and said they found they could make a really fast car but the set up would be knife edge stuff so they went for something easier to set up and develop.

It would be just like Merc (and Hamilton) to come to the same conclusion but assume they'd be able to get it right on the sweet spot every race.

It also explains the absolute nowhere in Saudi followed by reasonably pacey in Australia, it's such a fine balance that I think their standing compared to the rest of the pack is going to change race to race.

Basically it wasn't a "great idea much wow", more a "we looked at that and decided it wasn't worth the gamble".
 
I reckon George could actually beat Lewis this season. He appears to just be getting on with the fact the car isn't the best this season (3 seasons in that Williams is probably helping), whilst Hamilton is struggling. George is also a very technical guy and Jost Capito said he was pushing the team to make a better car. If Merc can string that car together, I think they'll beat Red Bull in the constructors.
 
Hamilton has never been one to extract performance from an uncompetitive car. Button easily had the measure of him in the poorly performing McLaren and while he outscored Rossberg in the 2013 mercedes at races where they both finished Rossberg came higher more often of the two.
 
Lone Dogma said:
I reckon George could actually beat Lewis this season. He appears to just be getting on with the fact the car isn't the best this season (3 seasons in that Williams is probably helping), whilst Hamilton is struggling. George is also a very technical guy and Jost Capito said he was pushing the team to make a better car.
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tbqh that's the one thing about Hambone that shits me the most. His expectation that everyone else will just build the perfect car and all he needs to do is to rock up to the track and keep winning races. I find that disrespectful to his team and the sport in general.

Whilst George might be pushing Mercedes to make a better car, I'd like to think it's because he's putting in the hard yards, paying attention to how the car drives and then providing meaningful feedback to the engineers after testing every tweak. If George is earning the respect of the engineers by taking a keen interest, of course they're going to pay more attention to George and build a car that allows him to play to his strengths.

idk if both cars receive identical tweaks based on George's feedback, but if Mercedes' cars are slowly morphing into a tool that suits George at the expense of Hambone, then Hambone has no-one else to blame but himself. If he's serious about continuing on in F1, a bit less hob-nobbing with gangsta rappers and a bit more time spent in the pit garage would be a good start.
 
Hamilton never humbled himself like Schumacher did by going to Ferrari in 1996. The fact that Schumacher managed to win three races that year in a shit car was incredible. Hamilton meanwhile landed at McLaren at the top and expected to be world class for the rest of his career.
 
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