Formula 1 Discussion - And favourite driver?

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
LiveFromNS said:
Couple of articles of interest for your morning tea while you get ready for what is shaping up to be a great race.

Mercedes also ‘losing a bit on the engine side’ to Honda – Wolff​

Posted on
27th March 2021, 20:13 | Written by Dieter Rencken and Keith Collantine

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has admitted their deficit to Red Bull is down to more than just aerodynamics.

Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position in Bahrain by almost four tenths of a second. Changes to the technical regulations for the 2021 F1 season has left Mercedes trying to recover lost rear downforce.

However Wolff said their cars are also losing out to their Honda-powered rivals on the straights. The M12 power unit is not storing enough energy to be able to fully deploy electrical power when required.

“We’re losing a little bit on the engine side in terms of derates,” said Wolff. “We are not yet in a happy place with our energy recovery. But it’s not one single point where we could say this is a big gap.”

Honda has made gains with its power unit during the off-season, which AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost believes is now almost a match for Mercedes.

“Honda has done a great job,” said Wolff. “They have delivered a power unit that is extremely competitive – look at where AlphaTauri is – and we just have to take it as sportsmen. This is as it looks. You just have to say, well, they’ve done a really good job, full stop.

“But there’s just no other solution than to recover. And I believe that on the derates that you see just this is something we just need to get on top of. That is not easy, but we’ll get there.”
-

Analysis: F1 field closes up as Mercedes lose two seconds in four months​

Posted on27th March 2021, 22:11 | Written by Keith Collantine

The scale of the challenge Formula 1’s dominant team of the past seven season is now facing was revealed in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Just four months on from Lewis Hamilton’s11th victory of last season at the desert track, Mercedes’ latest car lapped over two seconds slower than its predecessor in qualifying.

New rules introduced by Formula 1 to reduce downforce have clearly had the intended effect. With one exception – Ferrari – every car in the field is at least a second slower than last year.

Suspicions that the changes to the rear of the car have particularly affected those teams with low-rake designs is borne out by the performance swings at Mercedes and Aston Martin. The latter adopted their power unit supplier’s low-rake aerodynamic philosophy last year, and both are over two seconds per lap slower than they were in 2020.

Only Haas, who used none of their development ‘tokens’ in producing their mildly revised car for 2021, have got slower than that. With just one update planned for the VF-21 at the next race, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin look set to spend the season on the back row.

The most encouraging performance of the day came from Ferrari, whose best lap time was half a second off what they managed last year. That was easily the best of any team and an indication they have indeed made the promised gains with their power unit.

Having been the third-quickest team in qualifying, they are one of four teams within a second of pace-setters Red Bull. This is a startlingly different picture to what we saw in November, when Red Bull was the only team within a second of Mercedes, and is an encouraging pointer towards a much more competitive season ahead.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken​
TeamDeficit (s)
Red Bull0
Mercedes0.388
Ferrari0.681
AlphaTauri0.812
McLaren0.93
Alpine1.252
Aston Martin1.604
Alfa Romeo1.711
Williams2.319
Haas3.452


TeamLap time improvement
Ferrari0.541
Alfa Romeo1.217
Red Bull1.319
AlphaTauri1.361
McLaren1.385
Alpine1.832
Williams2.022
Mercedes2.121
Aston Martin2.279
Haas2.338
Click to expand...

Mercedes gonna win by like 10 seconds again anyways just to ruin any sense of excitement in a season again regardless.
 
As much as I'd like for someone to cuck Hamilton out of his 8th title (Schumi 5ever and all), it's way too early to make that call now. For all we know, the Red Bull is great at short stints during qualifying and going to chew through tyres like a motherfucker during the race. Ferrari is doing pretty damn good, too, but maybe their new gearbox won't be able to deal with the stress of a full race/several races. And come the next few races with belated improvements and tweaks to the setup, Mercedes can still bounce back to the top once they get a hang of their new aero-setup.

Worst case scenario: Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas dominate the season, but it seems everything below that will be a tight group with a lot of overtakes and wheel-to-wheel racing.
Best case scenario: Mercedes is within striking distance of 2 or 3 other teams and we get a genuine battle for first in every race. It seems that finally, a lot of teams are now up to snuff and we get a lot more action amongst the top 10 ranks.
 
That safety car is sweet. So much better looking than the merc one.

Oh yeah Hamilton the bravest thing you've done is jumping on the blm bandwagon, that was such a risk to your career wasn’t it? It's not like that is the prevailing opinion of our time with social media and all the megacorps pushing it or anything.
 
Coccxys said:
That safety car is sweet. So much better looking than the merc one.

Oh yeah Hamilton the bravest thing you've done is jumping on the blm bandwagon, that was such a risk to your career wasn’t it? It's not like that is the prevailing opinion of our time with social media and all the megacorps pushing it or anything.
Click to expand...
Oh come on, by joining in the chorus of literally anyone else, Hamilton proudly is fighting against "the system".
What kind of system you might ask? Hell if I know, since every corporation, pretty much every politician and the majority of organizations, universities and schools are all backing it, too.
What else could there be? Pic unrelated.

architecture-clouds-culture-532859.jpg

or is it?

As for Vettel: Yeah, shit sucks. I really hope this is just him not being familiar with a car that is going through a rather significant change from Racing Point to Aston Martin, so I am willing to give him a few races before running out of patience, but this is not starting well. Even with the penalty/yellow flag, his pace wasn't impressive in his first timed qualification lap.
I really want to see him do well in the AM... Kinda weird, I never gave much of a shit about him before, but ever since Ferrari treated him like shit, I want him to prove that he's still got it.
 
Lewis wearing "actions speak louder than words". Go on then Lewis what have you done that isn't just bitch moaning?

"More safety cars is a good thing", fuck off more racing is a good thing. If you want to watch a procession then go somewhere else and let us watch some racing.
 
Last edited:
Coccxys said:
I hope someone other than merc dominates totally, it would make for as boring a season as other merc dominant ones but with the added bonus of Hamilton losing his shit.
Click to expand...
Hamilton in first half of 2009 regularly finishing in like 15th place and moaning was hilarious.
EDIT: just checked and apparently he finished 2009 in 5th place in WDC? Huh I remembered it being significantly lower. Oh well, shit was still funny.
 
Last edited:
Oh great are we going with "well we seem to have a better car but fuck it let's let Hamilton win".
 
Sergio's going well after quali and formation stop and it'll be interesting to see if Vettel can pull off the one stop Perez special.

Apart from the gremlins eating Max's car it's pretty good so far.

EDit: Also that HAAS sucks, hopefully next year is worth the pain.
 
New Fag said:
Also that HAAS sucks, hopefully next year is worth the pain
Click to expand...
With the money daddy mazepin is throwing at them they should be able to do something decent next year (or at least I really hope so, I want Mick to get a good car).

"Lewis, stop breaking the rules"
"That's bull shit, I've been breaking the rules all race, why do they care now?"
 
Last edited:
Coccxys said:
With the money daddy mazepin is throwing at them they should be able to do something decent next year (or at least I really hope so, I want Mick to get a good car).

"Lewis, stop breaking the rules"
"That's bull shit, I've been breaking the rules all race, why do they care now?"
Click to expand...
Eh I get that he's pissy about it. Massy(?) the race director said it was fine, but that Red Bull started doing it NOW it's a problem? Either make it a hard rule or don't enforce it, it's stupid to start enforcing it in the middle of the goddamn race.
BTW Lew-lew 1st once again (so far). I love that anti-Mercedes fans' hopes get dashed once again. Although Max is catching rapidly.
 
AHHHH!!!! so refreshing to hear drivers need to keep it between the white lines at turn 4, only took a fair few laps after Redbull told Max to start doing it cause the Mercs are and of course Sir Hamilton has a winge "I thought there were no track limits".

Coccxys said:
With the money daddy mazepin is throwing at them they should be able to do something decent next year (or at least I really hope so, I want Mick to get a good car).
Click to expand...

Should do, they found out the problems last year and only update is next race, I'd give em a 50/50 they ain't really been great builders, now if it was FI/RP/AM it'd be 90%, they build well on a budget.

Hard Toothbrush said:
but that Red Bull started doing it NOW it's a problem?
Click to expand...

No it's a problem cause Redbull broadcasted it to the whole viewing audience and the TV director had a few shots of Merc overshooting, they had no other option but to do it.
 
New Fag said:
No it's a problem cause Redbull broadcasted it to the whole viewing audience and the TV director had a few shots of Merc overshooting, they had no other option but to do it.
Click to expand...
Better question should be why does F1 think it's okay to accept drivers breaking the rules as long as it's not broadcasted? If I was a more casual F1 watcher I'd start asking questions like "what else is accepted and not broadcasted?"
Vettel: locks up under breaking and hits Ocon, asks: why was he in my way? lol
 
Hard Toothbrush said:
Better question should be why does F1 think it's okay to accept drivers breaking the rules as long as it's not broadcasted? If I was a more casual F1 watcher I'd start asking questions like "what else is accepted and not broadcasted?"
Vettel: locks up under breaking and hits Ocon, asks: why was he in my way? lol
Click to expand...
I mean you're preaching to the choir here, but we all need to pay attention to MAX VS HAM now, photo finish on the cards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom