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

El_Duderino 09 · 07-09-2021 9:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117860501#Comment_117860501

Apparently that's his number from previous formula and he is no. 9 now. Accident? Who knows.

He would have to wait 2 years after Gio leaves to get the no. 99

Captain_Crash · 07-09-2021 9:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117860590#Comment_117860590

Would he! Didn’t realise there were limits on when a number can be used again! Makes mazapins post even odd’er so!!

Captain_Crash · 07-09-2021 9:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117860550#Comment_117860550

Yeah dunno what the deal with it is! He posted it tho, I saw it myself! I don’t follow him but it appeared on that suggestion page if your familiar with Instagram I’m sure you know what I’m on about haha

08-09-2021 11:26am

Would be silly of Mercedes to have a set 1-2 from too early in the season. We don't know how the cars are going to behave next year at all and especially with the big teams a mis-step early could leave them chasing. With completely new cars there could be (particularly the big teams) massive improvements to be made over the season. We saw in 09 with Ferrari and McLaren making massive gains over the season even aside from the double diffuser. The cars were still flawed and they had to change direction but it was possible. A big team could end up with a consistently 3rd fastest car or start 6th/7th and make it people with a couple of wins by mid-season.

quokula · 08-09-2021 11:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117859343#Comment_117859343

It's amazing how different a perspective people can get to what the hard numbers show.

Schumacher's average qualifying gap to Mazepin this year is 0.464s while, for comparison with someone who's qualifying is highly rated, George Russell's average gap to Latifi is 0.37s. That's based on the data here which only goes as far as Hungary, but if you look at Spa Schumacher was a full second ahead and at Zandvoort he was 0.5 ahead of Mazepin so he's stretched that average gap even further. The numbers place him as the clear third best performer on the grid behind only Verstappen and Gasly.

Yet, based almost entirely on the fact that we get all our information from the brazenly partisan British coverage, George is "Mr Saturday" and Mick isn't performing that well. Reality is he's doing as much as anyone could ask given how bad the Haas is, and no matter how much faster he is than Mazepin he can't avoid starting on the back row next to him, where anything can happen on the first lap. If Mick was in a Williams he'd likely be in with a good shout of getting into Q2 and Q3 regularly.

In race conditions he's only finished behind his teammate twice in 13 races, in both cases I believe he had been involved in incidents that put him behind.

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 11:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117862574#Comment_117862574

Yeah it's all in the retelling. I think there was a period before the summer break where Schumacher made some mistakes and spun a few times which narrowed the gap in some ways. But, as you point out, he is trouncing him in Quali and races.

But people use stats to suit their preferred narrative. For example you site the stat that Mazepin has only been beaten by a bigger margin by Gasley and Max has beaten Perex by the same difference, but would you site that as evidence that Perez is being hammered by his teammate? I think lots more posters would mount a defence of Perez loosing margin than Mazepin, in spite of the actual margin being about the same.

Cool_CM · 08-09-2021 1:03pm

Just confirmed - Albon to Williams and Latifi keeps his seat

https://www.williamsf1.com/news/2021/drivers/williams-racing-confirms-latifi-albon-for-2022

MadYaker · 08-09-2021 1:09pm

I didn’t realise Daniel had a seat at McLaren until 2023. The team boss still says they are committed to him but if his form doesn’t improve he’s probably going to cost them third place in the constructors this year.

No idea what that post from mazepin means but I’d like to see Schumacher out of that Haas so we can see what he’s actually like.

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 1:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863003#Comment_117863003

Happy for him. Hope he can do what Gasley has done and rebuild his reputation

flazio · 08-09-2021 2:45pm

This is quite telling. Source - BBC

A Red Bull spokesperson said: 'We have released Alex to become a Williams Racing driver in 2022 but retain a relationship with him that includes future options."

I suspect that Alex will be treated like a driver who's just announced he's leaving the team throughout his time at Williams until such a time that he does move on or Red Bull say they have nothing further to do with him.

AMKC · 08-09-2021 2:54pm

Delighted for Alex and that has to be the surprise if the season. Everyone was expecting De Vries to get that seat. I would say Mercedes must be raging but at the same time the ultimate choice of who got that seat was down to Williams management and not Mercedes. But of course this might mean no more free engines from Mercedes for Williams so they will have to start paying for them now but maybe they think they can afford it now or are they planning to change engines to say a Ferrari or Renault engine again. Williams Ferrari can you imagine lol.

AMKC · 08-09-2021 2:57pm

It would be great if someone started a thread for this weekends Italian GP.

afatbollix · 08-09-2021 3:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863762#Comment_117863762

Maybe turning to the Redbull engines? Which come online next year.......

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 4:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863693#Comment_117863693

RB might retain an interest in him beyond using him as a driver. He'll be getting to use a Mercedes engine next year and RB will be building its own engines from next year too. So they might be very interested in Alex, but for his knowledge rather than his driving services.

Toto wanted to make sure he had severed ties and probably lock him into all sorts of confidentiality agreements before he could sign to drive a Mercedes engine.

I don't know ow how these things work. Bit I'm sure Alex is still interested in a future RB drive and there's nothing to stop the head of the RB engine department from calling in on his old pal Alex for a cuppa. I wonder what will happen there.

flazio · 08-09-2021 5:23pm

Kubica staying on for Monza

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTkQ5unoF0m/?utm_medium=copy_link

muckwarrior · 08-09-2021 6:13pm

I didn't look too closely at the stats, but Kubica seemed to do ok for someone parachuted in on Saturday?

AMKC · 08-09-2021 6:23pm

I think

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864745#Comment_117864745

I think he should do better this weekend. He missed out on FP1 and 2 last weekend so that was never going to be easy for him to get upto speed especially in a car he had not driven much if ever before then.

Poor Kimi do missing out again.

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 6:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864781#Comment_117864781

He had only done 3 fp1 this season so far plus pre season testing. So not nothing but jumping in at fp3 was a tough ask. He did well. Didn't make a balls of it or anything (he spun on his first lap in one of the practice outings earlier in the season so expectations were low).

Quali was poor compared to Gio (who started a shocking 7th) but the race was surprisingly solid. Fair play to him.

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 6:39pm

The race podcast made a good point to about how all the top teams have their driver of tomorrow on the car already. RB has max, ferrari has Leclerc, Mercedes has Russell and mclaren has Lando.

They're all under 23 and all academy men. They could be there fighting each other for the next decade.

MadYaker · 08-09-2021 6:42pm

I think Kubica put in a respectable performance considering the circumstances, that track seemed like a proper workout for the drivers, he’ll probably be a bit better at Monza.

I’ve no idea who De Vries is really but I’m happy to see Albon back in anF1 seat.

kksaints · 08-09-2021 6:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864861#Comment_117864861

Could do with the 3 cars per team coming in with the amount of academy drivers coming to the fore in the next few years.

pjohnson · 08-09-2021 6:59pm

I'd imagine Williams will loose the Merc perks now. I know Albon was backed by a very big Thai oil company at one stage so he may be bringing that with him again.

Frank Bullitt · 08-09-2021 8:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864935#Comment_117864935

Their engine deal runs to 2025 or so, if they cut it, they could get the new RB Powertrain, or Renault.

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 8:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865157#Comment_117865157

I remember hearing they only got money off (not free, somethinglike 50%) the merc engines in Russell's car. So it's not an amazing deal. I'd say they really needed the money for the last few years but Russell himself was probably a sweetener. Now the team might not need the discount so much since they have some new investors.

klose · 08-09-2021 8:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864868#Comment_117864868

He won F2 in 2019 in what seems to be regarded as a poor year for it, he did beat latifi in second however if that's to be used as some sort of reference?

Interestingly he finished 4th in 2018 behind a trio of Russell, norris and albon. He also won Formula E this year too, again for what that's worth I'm not really sure.

I mean on paper he certainlly warrents a F1 drive I guess?

AMKC · 08-09-2021 9:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865378#Comment_117865378

Not only did he win Formula E but he became Formula E's first WDC although why any of the drivers who won the series before that were not WDC drivers is beyond me. I thought they were.

Harika · 08-09-2021 9:47pm

Nyck de Vries was no Mercedes academy driver so no offense taken by Mercedes. Nyck won the f2 title in his third season among the weakest field in years.

He seems to have money and might end up at Sauber anyway as the rest of the prediction came true.

Btw with Albon back, eight of the F1 field right now are Red Bull academy drivers.

What brings us to the massive problem of a lack of seats for academy driver in general. We won't see new teams anytime soon, so Alpine would need to pay Alfa to seat One of their drivers.

Interesting thought here: https://the-race.com/formula-1/mark-hughes-albon-deal-hints-at-mercedes-red-bull-f1-power-shift/

Idea is that red bull engines will become vw/Audi in the next year's. Instead of developing an engine from scratch take over a competitive engine.

El_Duderino 09 · 08-09-2021 10:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865535#Comment_117865535

Bbc said he was the first Dutch WDC in an FIA competition. Beat Max to a WDC. .

flazio · 08-09-2021 10:45pm

Sorry, but just clarify what "WDC" means in this context and why Mr Freeze is considered one this year but JEV isn't a two time WDC?

quokula · 08-09-2021 11:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117865873#Comment_117865873

It’s a silly technicality, as Formula E wasn’t designated a world championship by the FIA before so the champion wasn’t the world champion in the eyes of the FIA. In reality nothing about the series has changed, it’s just as international as before.

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

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