advertisement


The 2021 F1 Season.

tiggers said:
Anyway despite the race being somewhat dull the result is good for the championship. If Lewis can win in Saudi then Abu Dhabi becomes a winner takes all contest. For me Max is still the favourite as I think Yas Marina will better suit the Red Bull, but if there is one team/driver who can pull this out of the hat it's Merc/Lewis. Even as a Lewis fan I find myself strangely conflicted... I am not sure I want the domination to continue, but more to the point I think Max has been marginally the better driver across the season and has suffered some points losses not of his own making. However you have to take your hat off to Lewis, still massively motivated after all these wins and championships. A cliche, but may the best team/driver win.
Click to expand...

Agree with the Max v Lewis form this season. I’m a big Lewis fan but think Max really has been more solid with his form this season. Lewis has really come good late on (Toto says RB have ‘woken the lion in Lewis’) but I still look back on that accident with the brake button early in the season where he threw away 25 points and think that it’s going decide the title in Max’s favour. It was a mistake you just couldn’t see Max making this year.
Whoever finishes runner up doesn’t make one a lesser driver overall IMO. Both are on a level above the rest at the moment. Absolutely World Class the pair of them.
 
JensenHealey said:
My thinking is that Lewis has been a little debilitated this season with his early Covid infection and is only now looking to be fully recovered.
Click to expand...

If Lewis continues in his current form them you may have a point. That brake button mistake I mentioned above seemed really out of character and his driving just didn’t really seem like Lewis overall. I really hope he’s back to his very best.
 
JensenHealey said:
My thinking is that Lewis has been a little debilitated this season with his early Covid infection and is only now looking to be fully recovered.
Click to expand...

Yep, you could even see it in his eyes for months after. Yesterday, post-win, he had the look of someone who’s very much doing their very best in every area and the wins make it worthwhile.

This is great, isn’t it!
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Yep, you could even see it in his eyes for months after. Yesterday, post-win, he had the look of someone who’s very much doing their very best in every area and the wins make it worthwhile.

This is great, isn’t it!
Click to expand...

It really is, we are getting to see two greats slug it out. We should savour this as we will miss Lewis when he’s gone!
 
tiggers said:
It really is, we are getting to see two greats slug it out. We should savour this as we will miss Lewis when he’s gone!
Click to expand...
Yes, everything has come together to make this a great season, not least because of having broadly stable rules for a period of time...

We may get lucky and get some great racing in 2022 and beyond.

But I am expecting Merc to run away with it for a few years. Whilst Merc still have some significant morale problems in parts of the team, they have adapted to the rules of the budget cap very effectively and have a very good system in place now to exploit the rules (as will RBR and Ferrari, both of whom broke the 2009 budget cap system!). They also started on the 2022 rules car earlier than anyone else with more resource as they had such a performance advantage in recent championships.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
To even out the regular criticism that Schumacher receives, this is 14 minutes of joy. Partly because it shows two of the greats battling hard and close, and partly because there’s NO BLOODY INANE COMMENTARY!

Click to expand...


I love it if we could choose who's car to follow from the cockpit camera at a race..so you can flick from normal commentated viewing and then when there is some action happen, to flick inside to follow like that video.

The technology is there to do that..
 
@IanW Do you dare comment about whether you suspect Merc were using a bendy wing or do you think their straight line speed in Brazil was down to the suspension & wing stalling? In Qatar is it the case that the Brazil suspension setup couldn’t used as there are a lot of medium to high speed corners which need downforce?
 
clivem2 said:
@IanW Do you dare comment about whether you suspect Merc were using a bendy wing or do you think their straight line speed in Brazil was down to the suspension & wing stalling? In Qatar is it the case that the Brazil suspension setup couldn’t used as there are a lot of medium to high speed corners which need downforce?
Click to expand...
If Merc are using a bendy wing then it passes all the tests and so is legal. There is no evidence on the video that the main plane or flap are bending (it is as all wings do, but by such small amounts that it doesn't matter).

Lewis' very high speed in Brazil was, as I said at the time, due to the rear suspension collapsing out of the corner and reducing the drag dramatically by stalling the diffuser and the rear wing. This has a far bigger effect on drag than a bendy wing would have.

And yes the setup that Lewis was able to make work in Brazil, could not be made to work in Quatar, due to the corner speeds around most of the lap.
 
It’s strange that RB are so focused on the wing…which they now suggest Merc changed once the new tests were announced. My gut feel is that it’s the suspension so why are Newey et al discussing the wing all the time? Some form of politics and causing hassle?
 
Last edited:
clivem2 said:
It’s strange that RB are so focused on the wing…which they now suggest Merc changed once the new tests were announced. My gut feel is that it’s the suspension so why are Newey eg al discussing the wing all the time? Some form of politics and causing hassle?
Click to expand...

It's all about building a narrative that Merc have an unfair advantage in someway. Trying to point the finger at something that deflects from their car in case the FIA start looking at the RB for something or another. If Merc are answering questions or redesigning for a new test then it is less time and money spent on improving the car. Maybe they will get lucky and stumble on something that Merc do have, it's all gamesmanship really and RB are not the first or last to use it. Ferrari were past masters of it in particular with Renault and the mass damper and Michelin tyre profiles back when ALO was kicking their arses.
 
IanW said:
If Merc are using a bendy wing then it passes all the tests and so is legal. There is no evidence on the video that the main plane or flap are bending (it is as all wings do, but by such small amounts that it doesn't matter).

Lewis' very high speed in Brazil was, as I said at the time, due to the rear suspension collapsing out of the corner and reducing the drag dramatically by stalling the diffuser and the rear wing. This has a far bigger effect on drag than a bendy wing would have.

And yes the setup that Lewis was able to make work in Brazil, could not be made to work in Quatar, due to the corner speeds around most of the lap.
Click to expand...

With Lewis taking a new engine (and the resulting penalty) in Brazil, so close to the end of the season, is there any possibility that with less concern for longevity they're able to turn up the wick?
 
Yank said:
With Lewis taking a new engine (and the resulting penalty) in Brazil, so close to the end of the season, is there any possibility that with less concern for longevity they're able to turn up the wick?
Click to expand...
I thought it was the engine used in Brazil. Does that count as "new"?
 
Yank said:
With Lewis taking a new engine (and the resulting penalty) in Brazil, so close to the end of the season, is there any possibility that with less concern for longevity they're able to turn up the wick?
Click to expand...
What happens is that you have a certain amount of time available in the high power modes. So when you are using the engine over fewer races, each race can have more use of these high power modes.
 
Begs the question, whether Max/RB plump will for a newer engine before the season ends. Indeed, if it goes down to the wire and it's winner takes at the last race then a 5-place grid penalty might be worth a gamble. In fact, it might be the no-brainer option for both teams as both drivers/cars seem to be able to make up positions with relative ease.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top