The F1 thread

stickyfiddle

In shocking news, the 39 year-old, 2-time champion and 32-time race winning "young driver" Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets at the ironically-titled young driver test. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to his debut next year - I think he shows promise... 

dazzajl

stickyfiddle said:

In shocking news, the 39 year-old, 2-time champion and 32-time race winning "young driver" Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets at the ironically-titled young driver test. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to his debut next year - I think he shows promise... 

They could have put him in his Minardi. That would have been brilliant. 

fretmeister

stickyfiddle said:

In shocking news, the 39 year-old, 2-time champion and 32-time race winning "young driver" Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets at the ironically-titled young driver test. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to his debut next year - I think he shows promise... 

Somewhat embarrassing for Vandoorne. There he was moaning about not getting LH seat for the one race and now he gets beaten in a Renault.

Cols

Sir Frank is in hospital in a stable condition.  Fingers crossed for him.

Sir Frank Williams 'stable' after going in hospital, says family in statement https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/55325530

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

stickyfiddle said:

In shocking news, the 39 year-old, 2-time champion and 32-time race winning "young driver" Fernando Alonso topped the timesheets at the ironically-titled young driver test. I'm not sure about anyone else, but I'm looking forward to his debut next year - I think he shows promise... 

Somewhat embarrassing for Vandoorne. There he was moaning about not getting LH seat for the one race and now he gets beaten in a Renault.

Well it’s not like it’s new info that Fernando is dramatically better than Stoffel... you can bet ‘Nando was on a low fuel glory run for headlines too

fretmeister

Ilott's got the Ferrari test driver gig for next year.
Nice.

stickyfiddle

Good stuff for Ilott. I can still see him taking Mazepin's seat - he must be first in line. 

I see McLaren have put out a rather lovely "We love having you guys as rivals, please look after Carlos" message to Ferrari, all in Italian. It's quite charming. I'm absolutely loving the current McLaren team and attitude - Zak Brown has worked wonders

stickyfiddle

And Tsunoda confirmed for AT. Won't be long before an RB announcement, one assumes..

chillidoggy

Wolff has confirmed Bottas will be driving for Merc next year. Still no announcement about Hamster, though.

FastEddie

Whilst I am a fan of Lewis, all of this talk to get him recognised in the New Years Honours list falls short of the mark. 
I get it that he's great but as a resident of Monaco why should he get such an Honour from the UK? 
He is a citizen in name only. 

I do feel that if you don't pay UK tax then you shouldn't get within a mile of such honours. 

Just sayin'. 

BINO - British in name only. Harsh but fair I think. 

I can't wait for next season however the demise of Williams and Sir Frank being poorly isn't good reading. Am a huge fan of theirs.

fretmeister

FastEddie said:

Whilst I am a fan of Lewis, all of this talk to get him recognised in the New Years Honours list falls short of the mark. 
I get it that he's great but as a resident of Monaco why should he get such an Honour from the UK? 
He is a citizen in name only. 

I do feel that if you don't pay UK tax then you shouldn't get within a mile of such honours. 

Just sayin'. 

BINO - British in name only. Harsh but fair I think. 

I can't wait for next season however the demise of Williams and Sir Frank being poorly isn't good reading. Am a huge fan of theirs.

He pays tax all over the world in the places he races in. Some of them take it at the source.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/54965544


Sean Connery got his KH even when he was avoiding the UK like the plague.

He deserves it. 

goldtop

Toto signs for another three years at Mercedes:

https://twitter.com/F1/status/1339884075646148608

stickyfiddle

Good move - stability through getting the new car out of the 2022 regs and 2 seasons to get it fixed if they're not still at the front. Interesting that Toto and Ineos have both bought some of Merc's shares though - all parties now equal shareholders with 1/3 each. 

I'm guessing synthetic & sustainable fuels will become the big push for the next set of regs. Seems a good idea to me - use renewable energy to create sustainable fuels, then use those fuels to make batshit noisy racing cars. Hopefully...

skullfunkerry

Perez at Red Bull next year:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/red-bull-confirm-sergio-perez/

stickyfiddle

Good for Checo. Pressure is on now..!!

But as I said earlier, it's a great move for everyone involved except maybe Albon:

• Checo gets a properly good car to fight for podiums and wins if he can get on top of it, and keep up with Max.
• Max (probably) gets a better rear gunner. 
• Albon stays on the payroll for COVID duties and will likely go back to AT if/when Gasly jumps ship - he's been linked to Renault for 2022. Or if Checo flounders his stock actually might go up as it will show the car is definitely tricky, and/or Max is definitely just that quick.
• RB get to have their cake and eat it, and again understand exactly where Max sits on raw speed, while getting great feedback from one of the most experienced guys on the grid who has driven plenty of cars good & bad. 

thumpingrug

Great news for Perez.  Far too good a driver to have been out fo F1.  Next year is looking interesting.

prowla

A couple of the most blatantly obvious secrets revealed there, then!

TimmyO

stickyfiddle said:

Good for Checo. Pressure is on now..!!

But as I said earlier, it's a great move for everyone involved except maybe Albon:

• Checo gets a properly good car to fight for podiums and wins if he can get on top of it, and keep up with Max.
• Max (probably) gets a better rear gunner. 
• Albon stays on the payroll for COVID duties and will likely go back to AT if/when Gasly jumps ship - he's been linked to Renault for 2022. Or if Checo flounders his stock actually might go up as it will show the car is definitely tricky, and/or Max is definitely just that quick.
• RB get to have their cake and eat it, and again understand exactly where Max sits on raw speed, while getting great feedback from one of the most experienced guys on the grid who has driven plenty of cars good & bad. 

What'll be REALLY interesting is if Perez finds it hard to put in consistent results in that car. Like Gasly and Albon. 

Teetonetal

TimmyO said:

stickyfiddle said:

Good for Checo. Pressure is on now..!!

But as I said earlier, it's a great move for everyone involved except maybe Albon:

• Checo gets a properly good car to fight for podiums and wins if he can get on top of it, and keep up with Max.
• Max (probably) gets a better rear gunner. 
• Albon stays on the payroll for COVID duties and will likely go back to AT if/when Gasly jumps ship - he's been linked to Renault for 2022. Or if Checo flounders his stock actually might go up as it will show the car is definitely tricky, and/or Max is definitely just that quick.
• RB get to have their cake and eat it, and again understand exactly where Max sits on raw speed, while getting great feedback from one of the most experienced guys on the grid who has driven plenty of cars good & bad. 

What'll be REALLY interesting is if Perez finds it hard to put in consistent results in that car. Like Gasly and Albon. 

Which will show that the car is engineered to enable max to get the most out of it, won't it?

If so, the 2nd RB driver is just a poisoned chalice unless you happen to have a similar style to max.

Fretwired

F1 talking to Amazon about streaming live races.

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/950475/1/f1-talks-amazon-over-deal-stream-races-report