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The 2021 F1 Season.

Fernando and Alpine seem fairly upbeat - according to one report a car turned left in front of him, i.e. he hit the car rather than t'other way round. So, a broken jaw - painful but not life-threatening. Looking forward to seeing him back in F1.
 
It could take a while for the jaw to fully heal so fingers crossed , surprising how many sportsmen come to grief riding a bike !
 
Red Bull to take over the Honda Power Unit operation from 2022.

I think this is a good thing for F1 and definitely moves Red Bull to the top table. I really hope they commit to this phase and build the new engines for 2025 and beyond. Another engine manufacturer is critical for diverse supply.

I can honestly say they have surprised me, I did not expect RB to have this amount of commitment to F1 ultimately I always felt F1 was a bit of a plaything to Mateschitz but since his early investments in Sauber he has grown massively. Not sure I will ever be a RB fan but my respect for them has grown for sure.
 
I really hope that F1 doesn’t disappear into the mess that F2 will be this year. From Autosport:


F2 drivers will contest two 120km (45 minutes) sprint races on Saturday followed by a Sunday feature race of 170km in distance within a one-hour timeframe. F3 will adopt a three identical 40 minute races.

The grid for the opening sprint race will see the top 10 in Friday's qualifying session inverted seeing the pole position winner starting from 10th.

The pole winner will however claim a bonus four points as per last year's regulations.

A reversed top 10 of the results from the first sprint race set the grid for the second sprint race, while the results of Friday's qualifying session forms the grid for Sunday's feature race.

The top eight in the sprint races will be awarded points using the (15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1) sliding scale, while the Formula 1 points system will be in use for the feature race.
 
I know how to work a calculator and I know how to work a keyboard. But still, I've no idea how to work out what all that means at the end of a race day. As you say, let's hope F1 doesn't follow suit!
 
windhoek said:
I know how to work a calculator and I know how to work a keyboard. But still, I've no idea how to work out what all that means at the end of a race day. As you say, let's hope F1 doesn't follow suit!
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Drivers aren’t even sure if it’s worth trying hard in qualifying.
 
Sounds way too complicated and pointless most race fans are happy with a normal format . The biggest improvement in the past has been the 3 stage qualifier as before there was only action in the last 15 minutes with the track empty most of the time
 
It looks like the commercial and social requirements of the owners of F1 are becoming the prime driving force with F1.

I suspect that the actual racing of cars driving around a track will soon become a secondary part of F1.

I wonder how long before F1 as it has been will become more a commercial show to make huge amounts of money with the racing of minor importance.
 
I think we need to give new ideas a chance as we do want the sport to survive don't we? We are probably all relatively senior in our ages and have grown up with the sport so we're bound to be more 'purist' than younger generations, but the sport needs the younger generations to buy in to it so it has a future. I remember a lot of people being critical of the 3 stage qualifying format before it started and it really works. Let's also remember that GP weekends have been whittled away action wise due to cost constraints and the need to preserve engines, gearboxes, tyre availability etc. so that now anyone attending could be forgiven for being a bit miffed at the lack of action compared to say 25 years ago. If this new format hits the sweet spot between still making the sport 'authentic' yet providing some more action for the fans, particularly those attending the events then I'm prepared to give it a chance.
 
It's a worthy endeavour to work to preserve the sport, but the danger is that at some point you innovate yourself out of the sport your were trying to preserve altogether. Sports which are simple for the public to understand and follow tend to endure. Repeated and radical changes tend to be the preserve of those sports already heading for the exit.
 
I also think that the F2 format is just too complicated. It needs to be simple for people to really follow it and to reduce the scope for teams to use operational analysis to optimise it in unintended ways.

For example what will happen with the F2 proposal is that operational analysts will model the rules and come up with the best way for their drivers to achieve the maximum number of points over the season. Some teams will be better at this than others but gradually all teams will end up with a similar solution, which is likely to result in unintended consequences.

What really needs to happen is that there is a top down analysis of the sport (technical, sporting and media) to try and determine what could provide a more engaging show.

The move to knockout qualifying rounds was a good step. I cannot remember being positive or negative about it at the time, but it has definitely worked. Nowadays we can model these changes very effectively and so F1 should be able to make changes with more confidence then in the past.
 
Eyebroughty said:
It looks like the commercial and social requirements of the owners of F1 are becoming the prime driving force with F1.

I suspect that the actual racing of cars driving around a track will soon become a secondary part of F1.

I wonder how long before F1 as it has been will become more a commercial show to make huge amounts of money with the racing of minor importance.
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The equivalent of WWE wrestling on wheels.
 
Not F1, but good news for sports car racing fans:

https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/m...ines-ferrari-returns-le-mans-elusive-10th-win

Last few seasons have been a walk in the park for Toyota, regardless of penalties to try to make LMP2 cars competitive with them, but these coming seasons look promising. As the article says, Ferrari last won Le Mans in 1965, and that wasn't even a factory car (they all fell in a heap). The glorious P3/P4 and 312P cars failed to win, before Ferrari pulled out to concentrate on F1 (Enzo was said not to be particularly keen on sports car racing, despite Ferrari's 1950s and early 1960s domination).
 
So do F1 engines now have air filters ? Seems like running in those conditions would cause a huge amount or wear.
 
Interesting that RB lost part of their engine cover when in the turbulence passing the Williams. If you look at the RB cover it's very open at the bottom rear, and that section of the cover looks attached by camlocks to the upper part. Easy to see the possibility of the turbulence causing uplift on that part of the cover and ripping it off.

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