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

dulpit · 20-12-2021 2:26pm

I'd have Gasley higher than 7th. When you consider the car he was in, his results were excellent.

duploelabs · 20-12-2021 2:38pm

When will we see the new season cars out?

recyclebin · 20-12-2021 3:01pm

Norris and Sainz seem joined at the hip the last two seasons. Even after Sainz swapped over to Ferrari. They are also good friends off track. Would like to see them going toe to toe for a championship at some stage as both are very talented. I think they are both very honest drivers so would be clean fight. First things first though, and that's a race victory for both of them.

Jordan 199 · 20-12-2021 3:07pm

If a mod is around, can you reopen this thread? Thanks.

SureYWouldntYa · 20-12-2021 3:09pm

Does anyone else not really rate Sainz all that highly even after he finished 5th?

I think that's him at his best and Leclerc had a few races with bad luck like Monaco

I'd put him on par with Perez as someone who is good but does not have enough to be champion

thefa · 20-12-2021 3:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350833#Comment_118350833

Could put together an argument for Checo creeping into the top 10. Like Ocon for example wasn’t very consistent for large chunks of the year but took advantage of opportunities to get the win early in the season and finished strong in a middling car.

Checo hadn’t the consistency across to year for someone in a top car and his quali performances were sub-par. Not sure will he ever be a great qualifier but the decision making which cost him points can be improved on. Made some vital contributions nonetheless in what is meant to be a difficult car to adjust to so deserves the second year in my opinion where more will be expected.

Theres always going to be an element of politics with voting on things like these too I guess but we’re all biased!

El_Duderino 09 · 20-12-2021 3:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118351839#Comment_118351839

Depends if you're rating how the driver drove this season alone or the driver as a whole over their career or the average of their recent form in the last 2 or 3 seasons combined.

If it's just this season (which i think it is) then it's a fair summary of their season form.

mickdw · 20-12-2021 3:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118351839#Comment_118351839

Leclerc was the sitting hot shot team leader at Ferrari having destroyed vettel.

Sainz has come in and finished ahead. That's dream stuff and unexpected by everyone I'd imagine.

Going back over his F1 career, it would appear he is the real deal as he is capable of competing strongly with Max, Norris and le Clerc.

El_Duderino 09 · 20-12-2021 4:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118352174#Comment_118352174

Yeah Sainz has only had very good teammates and competed with them all. He's not terribly exciting and does t do stupid things or attract Stewart attention. He's just solid and fast. Very likeable too.

flazio · 20-12-2021 9:03pm

Back when it became apparent Renault didn't want a Red Bull driver anymore I thought Ferrari should have signed him then. Ferrari were a disaster in 2020 and the move away from the up and coming McLaren seemed like a stupid move. Now Sainz finished in the "Best of the Rest" position of 5th and Lando barely held onto 6th by a point after running as high as 3rd.

Many would say the fall started when he lost the win in Russia but I think the seeds were sown in Monza when he finished second behind Ricciardo. Sure he came out all "Yeah baby" when he got his highest ever F1 finish but to see the teammate he'd been owning all season get the first win for the team in 11(?) years had to hurt a lot and he had a point to prove in Sochi. He hasn't been the same since.

dulpit · 21-12-2021 7:43am

Lando had a lot of bad luck towards the end of the season and the ferrari got much better too, so you have to take the into account too.

recyclebin · 21-12-2021 10:21am

Yeah, that post above reads like a Netflix interpretation of what happened. Norris was very unlucky in second half of season. Mclaren also have eye on 2022 and couldn't keep pace with Ferrari after they upgraded their engine significantly.

duploelabs · 21-12-2021 10:27am

McLaren were the only team to score a one two finish this year right?

El_Duderino 09 · 21-12-2021 10:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118355122#Comment_118355122

They were certainly the first team to do it all year. Don't think it happened again this year. Perez and Bottas weren't always on the podium.

Max and Lewis scored 18 and 17 podiums respectively.

Bottas scored 11 and perez only scored 5. That's a very poor return.

flazio · 21-12-2021 11:11am

Absolutely, after the disaster of a season Ferrari had in 2020, the recovery to 3rd was incredible and a lot of it was down to simple quiet consistency. Anytime in a race in the second half of the season you could see the two Ferrari on the timing tower one after the other in or around the 4th to 10th places while one McLaren was in front and one a few places behind.

Part of me wonders how it would have played out if Ferrari opted for Ricciardo and Sainz and Norris stayed together at McLaren.

El_Duderino 09 · 21-12-2021 11:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118355303#Comment_118355303

Good question. Hard to know if Ricciardo will get his speed back. He certainly hasn't gotten to grips with the mclaren and it remains to be seen if he can get back to where he was. If he had moved to ferrari and was able to drive the car, then he might not have lost his speed.

Interesting to see if he gets it back or not.

quokula · 21-12-2021 11:42am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118355303#Comment_118355303

Sainz consistently had the upper hand on Norris when they were teammates for two years so it's reasonably safe to assume he'd have gotten better results than Lando, which would have been quite a boost for McLaren.

Hard to know how Ricciardo would have fared at Ferrari. There's clearly something about the McLaren that hasn't suited him as it's been inconsistent with his prior career.

Ferrari's recovery relative to McLaren in the second half of the season was far more to do with improvements to the car than the drivers though. They didn't homologate a 2021 engine at the start of the year and were still using the 2020 one. Once they finally introduced the upgraded engine it gave them a performance boost. On the other hand McLaren have had to do a lot of fund raising this year to secure their future financially behind the scenes and this probably impacted their investment into the 2021 development race.

mickdw · 21-12-2021 12:14pm

Ricciardo has to be right there with Norris straight away next season or he is finished.

Completely new car, all new tyre size. Nowhere to hide. Hopefully he will be up to speed.

Captain_Crash · 21-12-2021 12:22pm

So Audi intend to confirm their somewhat long presumed entry into the sport. There was rumour that Porsche would be entering alongside Audi but that doesn’t appear to be the case now.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/12/20/audi-tells-fia-it-intends-to-confirm-f1-entry-early-next-year/

El_Duderino 09 · 21-12-2021 12:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118355588#Comment_118355588

I wouldn't say he's finished. But his reputation will be tarnished. He might be priced out of the market though. He's a big money signing since his move to Renault and he's certainly not worth the money at the moment. He'd need a serious reduction in pay to stay in f1 if he has another reason like this.

I predict he will be much more competitive with Norris but will be beaten over the season because Norris appears to be a tip top driver at the moment.

Norris needs to sort out his second half of the season. Can't have a stellar first half and lacklustre second half every year.

Vicxas · 21-12-2021 1:04pm

Every time Audi is mentioned its met with hostility, is there a reason why? Did they ruin another type of Motorsport?

recyclebin · 21-12-2021 4:57pm

I'd say its more to do with how well liked your average Audi driver is. The same that was said about BMW drivers in the past.

afatbollix · 21-12-2021 9:39pm

VW has a habit of joining a series, Dakar or WRC is a good example, smashing it and winning everything, other manufactures leave as they can't win and then one day they wake up and say that's enough of that and leave. Leaving the series without anyone. Its taken years for WRC to recover and Dakar is still kind of dead. Kind of like Merc in F1.

To be honest, it might be good to see VW in F1, They have great engineers and so many manufactures they could Market, Audi as the main team VW or Skoda as team two

El_Duderino 09 · 21-12-2021 11:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118358248#Comment_118358248

F1 wouldn't want Skoda as a brand winning f1. Skoda beating Ferrari would be a massive blow to F1's ego as it sees itself as a classy sport.

Skoda winning Monaco... People talk so much shyte about the glitz and glamour of the parties they weren't even at in Monaco. As if proximity to affluence is a virtue. Skoda dominance would burst the F1 ego bubble and potentially kill the sport.

Porsche or Audi would be fine for the F1 ego.