The F1 thread

Fretwired

And here we go. Possible Covid induced changes to the calendar.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/australian-gp-2021-calendar-report/

stickyfiddle

Hardly a surprise re the calendar - it was always stupid to think they could have a full global calendar again. 

I’d be perfect happy with something very similar to 2020 tbh - even using any other guest circuits they can find - but if they could not wait till June to start that’s be fab

dazzajl

Boromedic said:

dazzajl said:

Boromedic said:

..........

I'll put it simply, Lewis is the greatest of all time, he would beat any driver from the last 45 years or so in the same car all else being equal, more than they would beat him.............

Prove it.

Prove he wouldn't.... 

I can’t, that’s kinda the point. We can sit around this virtual pub table and chat about it forever and we’ll never past perception and opinion. Which is all good with me.

Although just for the record, the best is Jim Clark  

Boromedic

Close second for me with Clark, different era too that's why I only went back to the 70s regarding Lewis. Definitely the best of the rest for me though!

Cols

Along with the reduced prize money Merc would have been receiving anyway under the revised deal, Liberty Media have announced that the teams will only be receiving 50% prize money in 2021, on account of the massive financial losses during 2020.

Bad time to be asking for a pay rise in any team.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/neue-geldverteilung-f1-concorde-abkommen/

Heartfeltdawn

Brio said:

Funny how everyone is saying get Russell in the Merc and nobody is saying get Latifi. Almost like a good river in a poor car gets picked up asked to join a better team after showing his worth. Like Lewis was asked by teams to move up.
Like Alonso was, like Schumacher was.
Yes Hamilton is in the dominant car. But he earned his drive by showing he is a great driver.

I had an amusing Twitter spat with a guy the other day who said that anyone could drive a Mercedes and do well. He tried to illustrate this point by calling Russell an 'amateur'. 

Two seasons of GP, three different formula championship wins... some fucking amateur.

Lewis is the best driver right now and that's all that matters. Just as Virat Kohli is the best batsman right now despite Bradman, Lara, Richards, and Darren Maddy. Comparing over eras and technologies and rule changes and safety differences is smply pointless. 




. 

stickyfiddle

Abiteboul out. Doesn't say why but doesn't seem particularly acrimonious. Possibly just giving someone else a chance before they decide to pull the plug. 

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/cyril-abiteboul-leaves-renault-alpine/4961628/ ;

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

Abiteboul out. Doesn't say why but doesn't seem particularly acrimonious. Possibly just giving someone else a chance before they decide to pull the plug. 

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/cyril-abiteboul-leaves-renault-alpine/4961628/ ;

He was going to be moving out of the F1 team principal role anyway, but was widely expected to move upwards to a broader role as Alpine motorsport head.  Looks like he might have upset someone senior.

stickyfiddle

And they've confirmed another return to Imola in April, and Oz shifted to November (for now at least..)

I still think it's madness to try and run a 23-race season, mostly with teams based in the UK which is COVID-central right now, but it's not my money on the line, I guess.

sweepy

Quite a drastic move to avoid getting a tattoo

dazzajl

sweepy said:

Quite a drastic move to avoid getting a tattoo

You say that but do you know what Daniel chose? 

Emiel

I don't think Renault/Cyril delivered since they/he came (back) into the sport in 2016... they always had this arrogance that didn't always play in their favour.

I'm not too keen about the 2021 calender. It all sounds too much like 2020 to me. Pretty much the same cars and tracks. I'm pretty sure most of the European ones will be cancelled as I can't imagine races taking place in Spain, Monaco, Canada, France, Hungary, Belgium, The Netherlands... it will take to Q4 for most countries to get most of the population vaccinated, and most tracks will need the thousands of spectators to even break even.

stickyfiddle

Emiel said:

I don't think Renault/Cyril delivered since they/he came (back) into the sport in 2016... they always had this arrogance that didn't always play in their favour.

I'm not too keen about the 2021 calender. It all sounds too much like 2020 to me. Pretty much the same cars and tracks. I'm pretty sure most of the European ones will be cancelled as I can't imagine races taking place in Spain, Monaco, Canada, France, Hungary, Belgium, The Netherlands... it will take to Q4 for most countries to get most of the population vaccinated, and most tracks will need the thousands of spectators to even break even.

I'm fine with a repeat of most of 2020 - it was a great season, aside from knowing that Lewis would win. 

As for Cyril, I saw suggestion that it's at least partly to help them negotiate with Red Bull for 2022+ engines - with Cyril it would've been a non-starter

stickyfiddle

Alpine "interim livery"

i.e. we always test with a black car. I'm willing to bet the final car will be the same but blue-er

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Fresh from signing up as an official 'advisor' with his old team Williams, Jenson Button has now become the third former F1 champ to enter a team into the new Extreme E championship. Difference with this team vs Lewis and Nico's is that he's actually gonna be driving the car himself!

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/24180/12198105/jenson-button-joins-extreme-e-as-driver-and-team-owner-for-2021-season

Livery of his new car looks strikingly reminiscent of his Braun GP car!

 

Anyone else gonna be tuning into this series? In truth it's not something I would ever normally watch, but with more big names signing up my interest has been officially piqued! 

not_the_dj

I’m certainly looking forward to the Extreme E, I like the pro/am line-up, and the cars look awesome. 

Plenty of familiar names from WRC and WRX etc so hopefully it’s a good competition and not just an exhibition event. 

sinbaadi

It needs to actually deliver entertainment in a way that other off-road time-trial racing hasn't been able to, otherwise it will be an expensive flash in a well intentioned but ultimately mundane pan.

not_the_dj

sinbaadi said:

It needs to actually deliver entertainment in a way that other off-road time-trial racing hasn't been able to, otherwise it will be an expensive flash in a well intentioned but ultimately mundane pan.

It’s not time trail though. More like WRX with multiple races over the weekend and multiple cars on track. 

stickyfiddle

Yeah, looks a great concept tbh - plenty of successful drivers involved and the format should take the best of WRX and make something entertaining. 

And I’ll be supporting JB as usual

sinbaadi

Really??!
It's across a long lap with a driver swap after lap one, in the Arctic, and they're promoting wheel-to-wheel racing?

I expected it to be a staggered start like the IOM TT if not even further spaced out like WRC or Dakar type stuff.  The logistics of marshalling a long lap with that sort of dangerous door banging competition are ridiculous.