The F1 thread

Cols

Fretwired said:

Cols said:

Bottas’s Monaco pit stop shenanigans?  Partly his own fault for being 2cm off his marks, according to Toto.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-valtteri-bottas-wheel-nut/

Lewis accidentally setting his brake bias fully forward and going sailing off into the scenery at Baku?  No, Lewis didn’t make a mistake, according to Toto.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-lewis-hamilton-baku-restart/

#doublestandards

Toto obviously didn't listen to Lewis who admitted it was his fault - he apologised to the team for his cock-up.

And fair play to him for holding his hands up.

We’d have been laughing our tits off if it had been Mazespin, who was brick slow but confounded expectations by not reducing the Haas to its component parts during the race.

Fretwired

stickyfiddle said:

Fretwired said:

Excellent race - looks like Perez is getting to understand his car - he had great race pace. Bottas is going backwards and Mercedes scored no points. I wonder if Wolff will be forced into calling Russell?

Looks like Vestappen is getting to Hamilton - a rare mistake made under pressure.

Not this season, but if they don't sign him for '22 I'll eat something inappropriate. 

Hamilton will bounce back - he usually makes no more than 2 mistakes in a season, and he's usually at his best when in a corner. There's only 4 points in it, Max didn't score at Baku, and Singapore is cancelled and likely replaced by another COTA race, which plays to Lewis's hands. 

My money is still on Lewis, but it's looking like being the first genuinely close fight since 2012  

Toto's interested in the Constructors Championship. Red Bull has 174 points while Mercedes have 148 points.  Bottas has only scored 47 points so far this season and his last win was in Russia in 2020. Bottas only won two races in 2020.

Perez has scored 69 points and will be riding high with confidence after his win yesterday. Toto's fear is that Hamilton could win races but Red Bull could outscore Mercedes if Bottas continues with his poor run of form which started in 2020. He has performed poorly in races. Toto will be under pressure from the Mercedes board - the car giant won't want to be beaten by an energy drink manufacturer.

I could see Russell swapped for Bottas if the results don't go Mercedes way.

The last close fight was in 2016 - Rosberg won the championship .. ;-)

chillidoggy

I think Wolff is a man of integrity, and will do everything he can to keep Bottas to his contract for the year. But the Merc Board of Directors will have more of an eye on the bigger prize. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if he gets an instruction from up on high in the near future.

Marko would have already acted and instigated the change by now.

Cols

Just when I thought Mazespin had at least kept his nose clean for a slow but uneventful Baku…

He took the opportunity of the last lap restart to try and wipe both Haas cars out at top speed on the straight by squeezing Schumacher up against the wall and jinking towards him.  Watch his hands on the wheel at 0.27 for a moment of supreme arseholery.

https://youtu.be/x1TT6abmfmE 

Son of Schumi (whose overalls presumably needed changed after that episode) was unimpressed.

stickyfiddle

Yep. That’s the only way Mazepin has ever known how to defend, and the primary reason he shouldn’t be in F1 (outside of general off-track arseholery)

Cols

On the plus side, it looks like Mazepin Sr is preparing an elegant excuse for cutting this expensive indulgence short after a year - Russian military service.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/nikita-mazepin-military-service/

chillidoggy

Fuck me, he'll be back with a gun next time!

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

chillidoggy said:

Fuck me, he'll be back with a gun next time!

Daddy will have paid Jnr's way into the cockpit of a MiG-29 by this time next year!

Cols

I hear his Dad’s getting him an army surplus T-72 for his birthday.

https://youtu.be/iB7ZWNlF8DY 

skullfunkerry

I've been trying to mentally cut Mazepin a bit of slack, having taken an instant dislike to him after the video thing before the season, but that move on Sunday was stupid and dangerous, and then I saw this as well... genuinely astounded at some of these moves, and in my opinion he's bloody lucky that he hasn't killed someone... although from what it seems, I don't think he'd take it as being his fault if he did:

Cols

skullfunkerry said:

I've been trying to mentally cut Mazepin a bit of slack, having taken an instant dislike to him after the video thing before the season, but that move on Sunday was stupid and dangerous, and then I saw this as well... genuinely astounded at some of these moves, and in my opinion he's bloody lucky that he hasn't killed someone... although from what it seems, I don't think he'd take it as being his fault if he did:

Ah, those were all just terrible misunderstandings.  

You see, he expected those drivers to try and pass him on the other side, and was sportingly trying to give them as much room as possible.

chillidoggy

Surprised he hasn’t annexed the pit garages either side of him yet.

fretmeister

chillidoggy said:

Surprised he hasn’t annexed the pit garages either side of him yet.

ha ha hahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Fretwired

Seems to be in the MSN and social media .. Russell to replace Bottas for 2022. No official comment, yet but after the Fin's cockup in Baku (he overruled his engineers regarding the car setup) his time seems to be up.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/george-russell-valtteri-bottas-futures/

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Fretwired said:

Seems to be in the MSN and social media .. Russell to replace Bottas for 2022. No official comment, yet but after the Fin's cockup in Baku (he overruled his engineers regarding the car setup) his time seems to be up.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/george-russell-valtteri-bottas-futures/

I take a lot of Planet F1 articles with a grain of salt, but i definitely wouldn't bet against this one. Seems the obvious thing to do. Bottas is having a bit of a stinker of a season thus far.

Bit of fun:

QUIZ: Can you name the F1 circuit from a single bird's-eye view shot? | Formula 1®

I got 15/16, albeit with a few educated guesses!

And speaking of quizzes, anyone seen the recent "Grill The Grid" video on the F1 Youtube feed? Pretty funny. I think Lando spent far too much time on his racing sims as a kid, and probably zero time on his school studies!

stickyfiddle

Wouldn't surprise me at all if they confirm Russell before the break. They may not announce it that soon, but I reckon they'll want to make a decision and let Valteri know asap. They can't be considering retaining him.

11/16 on that bird's eye quiz. A couple of unlucky guesses and a couple of complete no-clues

Fretwired

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Fretwired said:

Seems to be in the MSN and social media .. Russell to replace Bottas for 2022. No official comment, yet but after the Fin's cockup in Baku (he overruled his engineers regarding the car setup) his time seems to be up.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/george-russell-valtteri-bottas-futures/

I take a lot of Planet F1 articles with a grain of salt, but i definitely wouldn't bet against this one. Seems the obvious thing to do. Bottas is having a bit of a stinker of a season thus far.

It didn't come from Planet F1 though - they are merely reporting it. The story comes from two sources - F1 Insider and Sky Italia, and both have been right in the past.

I still think Bottas could be dumped before the end of the season if his poor form continues. Don't teams have a performance-related break clause in their contracts?

thumpingrug

13/16 but I think I got very lucky on a couple

fretmeister

Fretwired said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Fretwired said:

Seems to be in the MSN and social media .. Russell to replace Bottas for 2022. No official comment, yet but after the Fin's cockup in Baku (he overruled his engineers regarding the car setup) his time seems to be up.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/george-russell-valtteri-bottas-futures/

I take a lot of Planet F1 articles with a grain of salt, but i definitely wouldn't bet against this one. Seems the obvious thing to do. Bottas is having a bit of a stinker of a season thus far.

It didn't come from Planet F1 though - they are merely reporting it. The story comes from two sources - F1 Insider and Sky Italia, and both have been right in the past.

I still think Bottas could be dumped before the end of the season if his poor form continues. Don't teams have a performance-related break clause in their contracts?

Yes and no.

They will have to pay him until the end of the season no matter what. But they don't have to let him drive the car. No team ever says "you get to drive all the races this year"

There have been several court attempts over the years to force a team to let a driver actually race and the driver has always lost - the driver is an employee and must comply with reasonable instructions. And getting paid a cool 500,000 ish for not risking your life for a particular race is reasonable.

Cols

Wasn’t there an incident a few years ago at Melbourne, when Sauber got their cars impounded after reneging on a promise to give the unloved Giedo Van Der Garde a race seat?