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

Lots of reports that Audi have bought McLaren. The VW group have been gaining interest in F1 so it will be interesting to see what this means for the F1 team. Of course they already own and operate many brands independently so McLaren may continue to function as McLaren, time will tell.

When McLaren sold their factory a couple of years ago so they could rent it back that was probably their death knell as an independent sadly. The final casualty of the stupidly expensive 2014 hybrid formula, after Williams, Force India, Sauber, Lotus, Caterham and Marussia have all folded or been sold. That makes Haas the only privateer left standing, thanks in no small part to Mazepin's family of course.

On the plus side, we're finally putting that awful chapter of F1 behind us and the sport is looking like it could be attractive again to other constructors like VW as the cost cap comes in next year and the sport looks to bring in more sensible engines for 2025.

I miss going to the Phoenix Park races back in the 90s when it wasn't unusual for F1 cars to do demo runs, alongside all the local events. Closest thing we had to Goodwood.

Yes the modern Phoenix Park races are badly missed. I was fortunate to see Stirling Moss race (and win!) there in a classic race. The UK (or Euro?) BOSS championship visited Mondelo at least once, fantastic to get up so close and personal to the old F1 cars in the paddock.

I wonder with these new cars that run better in dirty air we’ll see DRS dialled back in favour of more pure racing

I'm not sure why ICE rules are so set in stone until the end of the season when they freely changed the pitstop rules midseason because they didn't like that Red Bull were faster than Mercedes and they changed the rules on rear wing flexing midseason after Mercedes complained about that too. The 5-place rule was a reaction to the likes of McLaren Honda getting 40 place penalties every race when their reliability was atrocious. It was only ever meant to be for exceptional circumstances of poor reliability.

Mercedes are deliberately exploiting it first by putting tons of engines in Bottas' car so they can use him as a test mule, and then using that data to put a fresh engine turned up to max in Lewis' car for a far smaller penalty than the benefit conferred. When a team starts exploiting a loophole like that, you close the loophole. It's not hard, just increase the number of grid places every extra engine after the second one above allocation is a 20 place penalty, effective immediately for all teams.

That's a no then.

I wouldn't read too much into it. Toto is almost certainly failing to hit his KPIs for this year. In years past he had KPIs of winning both championships, winning x races and gettign y pole positions and z 1-2 finishes and so on. I'd say he's miles off meeting those demands for the first time in years. I'd say he's under pressure personally and all these balls-ups are causing more reaction than hey should.

The "always involved ongoing discussions and collaboration with relevant partners and suppliers" part of that statement sounds more like a "this wasn't supposed to be reported until our PR team was ready to spin it" than an absolute refusal but we will see. They say McLaren hasn't been sold but that doesn't mean they aren't negotiating and finalising the sale, time will tell.

This weekend was the most unhinged I have seen him.

It is uncharted territory for Merc though, usually they have ti all wrapped up by now, or at worst the driers title was between both of their drivers.

Why should we expect any consistency out of Masi?

He is twenty-nine years of age now so a bit long in the tooth to be still regarded as an academy driver. Ferrari decided he was never going to be good enough for the first team but that he might do the business at Sauber where he has never been better than mediocre. He will probably go the way of Kubica, to endurance racing.

BMW also rumoured to be interested in McLaren for the roadcar business, but can't see them run the F1 team with another manufacturer's engine.

If Audi go with McLaren as a works team, it would surely end the possibility of a Red Bull / VW deal also.

Audi have owned Ducati for a decade and you wouldnt know it at all from the MotoGP side of things. Its still a Ducati factory team running its own bikes and producing sattelite Ducati bikes.