Formula 1 2021 - General Discussion Thread (Read 1st post rules)

El_Duderino 09

Although we can’t tell much from
Practice, there’s a bit of excitement around Yuki Tsunoda in the Alpha Tauri. Listening to a few practice reviews, and they’re pretty excited about him. Hopefully there will be a great battle between himself and Gasley.

If he goes well we can be sure he’ll be in line for the RB seat. Perez must be the only one hoping he’s not much good. He could be out on his ear if Yuki shows real promise this year.

Infoanon

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Although we can’t tell much from
Practice, there’s a bit of excitement around Yuki Tsunoda in the Alpha Tauri. Listening to a few practice reviews, and they’re pretty excited about him. Hopefully there will be a great battle between himself and Gasley.

If he goes well we can be sure he’ll be in line for the RB seat. Perez must be the only one hoping he’s not much good. He could be out on his ear if Yuki shows real promise this year.

This perfectly sums up why you can read nothing into pre season testing - remember when Prost F1 was topping the testing time sheets ! Or when McLaren turned up on the last day of testing in '88 and immediately went one second quicker than everybody (despite being told to sandbag).

Yukis times would not have stood in a normal practice session ,he was opening DRS long before the allocated zones ,there's pictures up on Autosport and a few drivers have also highlighted it .

ELM327

You'd wonder what the point is of running DRS outside the zones.

Pen Rua

ELM327 wrote: »

You'd wonder what the point is of running DRS outside the zones.

Someone over on reddit suggested it was to get close to quali speeds, but reduce wear on engine.

El_Duderino 09

Infoanon wrote: »

This perfectly sums up why you can read nothing into pre season testing - remember when Prost F1 was topping the testing time sheets ! Or when McLaren turned up on the last day of testing in '88 and immediately went one second quicker than everybody (despite being told to sandbag).

Yukis times would not have stood in a normal practice session ,he was opening DRS long before the allocated zones ,there's pictures up on Autosport and a few drivers have also highlighted it .

Oh no, I don't mean in terms of the speed of his best lap. I mean for a brand new driver of 20 years old, to show up and put in a solid performance over the course of a test. The feedback was that he fit in really well and drove solidly and understood the car straight away. Plus the fact that he's an aggressive driver should make him good to follow.

That's what they're saying about him anyway. We'll have to wait to see how he gets on and whether he's actually fast or not.

This is it

I know it won't last long once Mercedes smash everyone but I'm getting excited for the new season, long may it last!

Jordan 199

This is it wrote: »

I know it won't last long once Mercedes smash everyone but I'm getting excited for the new season, long may it last!

It's always nice to get excited over something

eviltimeban

I haven't seen much commentary on it, but generally how did Alonso do in the test? He put in a lot of laps and was about top of the mid table in terms of pace. Does it look like he still "has it"?

duploelabs

eviltimeban wrote: »

I haven't seen much commentary on it, but generally how did Alonso do in the test? He put in a lot of laps and was about top of the mid table in terms of pace. Does it look like he still "has it"?

https://v.redd.it/81qcj3iowzm61/DASHPlaylist.mpd?a=1618433004%2CNWRiYWE1YjJhNWQ4MjA4NDRlMDE0ZmY0NGY3YmU0YjhhN2NkZThlZDUzZTQ1ZWFmZTYxOTY5ZDVjODM0MTlmYQ%3D%3D&v=1&f=sd

Overtook Hamilton at one stage

El_Duderino 09

eviltimeban wrote: »

I haven't seen much commentary on it, but generally how did Alonso do in the test? He put in a lot of laps and was about top of the mid table in terms of pace. Does it look like he still "has it"?

No telling if he still has it but I think he got through his test program without any major problems - no crash or reliability issues.

It should put him in.a good position to hit the ground running at the first race.

mickdw

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

No telling if he still has it but I think he got through his test program without any major problems - no crash or reliability issues.

It should put him in.a good position to hit the ground running at the first race.

One of the sky commentators said he stood out in that he was mm accurate lap after lap at one of the corners they were watching from.
Id say he has lost nothing.

eviltimeban

Well I suppose the sheer amount of laps he did shows he still has the stamina.

barryribs

The Race are reporting that he has two plates in his jaw from his cycling accident. Surgery scheduled for the end of the season to remove them.

AMKC

barryribs wrote: »

The Race are reporting that he has two plates in his jaw from his cycling accident. Surgery scheduled for the end of the season to remove them.

Yes we knew that well at least some of us did. A jaw steel that Alonso lol.

Frank Bullitt

For a man who had a crash a month ago and has not been in F1 for 2 years, he seemed to do very well.

Obviously, i am very excited for him to be back in F1.

eviltimeban

How many more years driving does he have though? Two? Five? How long will he give trying to win another title?

Frank Bullitt

eviltimeban wrote: »

How many more years driving does he have though? Two? Five? How long will he give trying to win another title?

He's been pretty open about the rule change for next year being his best chance. Alpine have restructured so they might play a role in that, but only time will tell.

He'll be the top driver at whatever team he's at so if the new rules next year fall in his favour he may get another title. Renault have history of making new rules work (though it's been a while) so it's worth a shot for him I'd think.

barryribs

Its going to interesting to see how the Alpine program works it out. Getting rid of Cyril is addition by subtraction, but there are somethings that can't be corrected over the course of a couple of months. I reckon there is going to be little to no development this season in the hope of getting progress on the 21 car.


I'm delighted to see him back, I think he's aggressive and entertaining to watch but would like to see him to galvanize the team rather than divide it.

AMKC

barryribs wrote: »

Its going to interesting to see how the Alpine program works it out. Getting rid of Cyril is addition by subtraction, but there are somethings that can't be corrected over the course of a couple of months. I reckon there is going to be little to no development this season in the hope of getting progress on the 21 car.

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has said the firm’s newly rebranded Alpine Formula 1 team is committed to the sport for the foreseeable future and is prepared to spend the necessary money to ensure victories. “We’re in Formula 1 for the long run and we’re here to win,” he said. “We will put all required means to be at [our] best competitive level.” The team is hopeful that it will continue from its impressive finish to the 2020 season, in which Daniel Ricciardo (now at McLaren) and Esteban Ocon scored three podiums

Also,

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motorsport-news/alpine-a480-racer-revealed-wec-and-le-mans-contender

So Alpine has motor sport racing heritage it was in the LMP-2 Class before and now it is in the LMP-1 Class.

Makes more sense now why the team was rebranded from Renault to Alpine as going the opposite way might have been trickier or harder seen as Renault were never in LMP before.

eviltimeban

But are Alpine really in line to be a top tier team? Surely Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and even Aston Martin ahead of them in the line?

I suppose it does depend on who does what in 2022. Maybe it's good for Alonso to have this year to just adjust back into the life of an F1 driver, all the travelling, training, PR work etc.

mickdw

eviltimeban wrote: »

But are Alpine really in line to be a top tier team? Surely Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and even Aston Martin ahead of them in the line?

I suppose it does depend on who does what in 2022. Maybe it's good for Alonso to have this year to just adjust back into the life of an F1 driver, all the travelling, training, PR work etc.

They could be ahead of ferrari and aston martin.
Dont see them ahead of mclaren this year.

pjohnson

I'd say it'll be:

Tier 1 - Mercedes
Tier 2 - Red Bull & McLaren
Tier 3 - Alpine & Ferrari & Aston Martin
Tier 4 - AlphaTauri & Alfa Romeo
Tier 5 - Haas & Williams

Hijpo

Any of you big brain fact fanatics know who has the most podiums with different teams of all time and hybrid era?

muckwarrior

AMKC wrote: »

Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has said the firm’s newly rebranded Alpine Formula 1 team is committed to the sport for the foreseeable future and is prepared to spend the necessary money to ensure victories. “We’re in Formula 1 for the long run and we’re here to win,” he said. “We will put all required means to be at [our] best competitive level.” The team is hopeful that it will continue from its impressive finish to the 2020 season, in which Daniel Ricciardo (now at McLaren) and Esteban Ocon scored three podiums

Absolutely meaningless. It's not like he's gonna say "We're gonna spend as little as we can get away with for a couple of years, and then decide whether or not we stay".

As much as I want to see Alonso in a winning car, I don't think it's ever going to happen.

El_Duderino 09

Hijpo wrote: »

Any of you big brain fact fanatics know who has the most podiums with different teams of all time and hybrid era?

That's a good one. I can't be any of the main podium people like Hamilton or Max as they have only had one team. I know who i think it is

All time is surely Hamilton. As the number of races goes up the stats skew towards the more recent drivers.

Bottas had podiums with Williams at the beginning of the hybrid era, and has had loads of podiums with Mercedes.

pjohnson

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

That's a good one. I can't be any of the main podium people like Hamilton or Max as they have only had one team. I know who i think it is

All time is surely Hamilton. As the number of races goes up the stats skew towards the more recent drivers.

Bottas had podiums with Williams at the beginning of the hybrid era, and has had loads of podiums with Mercedes.

Hamilton made podiums with two teams McLaren and Mercedes.

Kimi, Vettel, Button and Alonso have all done it with 3 teams during the 21st century.

I dont know if its total number or total number if teams he means.

Pen Rua

Hijpo wrote: »

Any of you big brain fact fanatics know who has the most podiums with different teams of all time and hybrid era?

Wow - this is a question!

Off the top of my head...

HAM - Mercedes all the way
BOT - Merc & Williams
RIC - Red Bull & Renault
STR - Williams & Racing Point
MAX - Red Bull
GAS - Alpha Tauri/Toro Rosso only
LEC - Ferrari only
Checo - Force India and Racing Point are technically two different teams
VET - Ferrari & Red Bull
ALO - had a podiums in 2014 with Ferrari
KVY - Red Bull & Toro Rosso
Kimi - Ferrari only

El_Duderino 09

pjohnson wrote: »

Hamilton made podiums with two teams McLaren and Mercedes.

Kimi, Vettel, Button and Alonso have all done it with 3 teams during the 21st century.

I dont know if its total number or total number if teams he means.

True. I meant he couldn't have the most with different teams in the hybrid era as he has only been with Mercedes in the hybrid era - seems I misunderstood the question.

AMKC

pjohnson wrote: »

Hamilton made podiums with two teams McLaren and Mercedes.

Kimi, Vettel, Button and Alonso have all done it with 3 teams.

Yes but that was before the Hyprid era. That started in 2014. That is what he is looking for so the poster above is probably right.

I would say Alonso has been with most teams in the hyprid era having been with Ferrari in 2014 then McLaren and now Alpine but not the most podiums. Although Vettel has also been with 3 teams now too on the Hyprid era with Red Bull in 2014 then Ferrari and now Aston Martin.