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[Misc] F1 2021



crodonilson

He/Him
Jan 17, 2005
14,062
Lyme Regis
So dissapointing, it's really sad but Max just has a quicker car, we all know Lewis is a better and quicker driver but when his car lets him down there is nothing he can do.
 




Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
So dissapointing, it's really sad but Max just has a quicker car, we all know Lewis is a better and quicker driver but when his car lets him down there is nothing he can do.

Not sure it is even vaguely reasonable to complain that Max has the faster car, Lewis has had the faster car in most of his Championship seasons. Encouraging that he is running Max so close, in what is clearly the better car at most tracks. I think Lewis is loving this season and if he pulls it off will almost certainly say it was the most satisfying.

Long way to go and if Max does win, well good on him
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,346
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Not sure it is even vaguely reasonable to complain that Max has the faster car, Lewis has had the faster car in most of his Championship seasons. Encouraging that he is running Max so close, in what is clearly the better car at most tracks. I think Lewis is loving this season and if he pulls it off will almost certainly say it was the most satisfying.

Long way to go and if Max does win, well good on him

That was Crodo so I wouldn't take the post that seriously. Perhaps he's filling in for Mouldy in his own special way. Anyone seen Mouldy recently, BTW?
 


KeegansHairPiece

New member
Jan 28, 2016
1,829
Max had much too much for Lewis today. Predictable today but next race will be a different ball game. Well driven Max. Of course Lewis will moan, he doesn't like losing just like Max doesn't, its what makes them great drivers.

The 2 best drivers end up in the 2 fastest cars because they are the 2 most likely to go the fastest with no mistakes driving. And so it proved, neither made a mistake, LH’s slow first pit stop cost him a proper challenge, that extra second was the difference between him getting on his tail or not.

Max did what LH has done so often when you have the faster car - consistent lap times hitting a delta that beat protects the tyres at the optimal speed. He didn’t put a foot wrong.
 


Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
62,424
Location Location
The 2 best drivers end up in the 2 fastest cars because they are the 2 most likely to go the fastest with no mistakes driving. And so it proved, neither made a mistake, LH’s slow first pit stop cost him a proper challenge, that extra second was the difference between him getting on his tail or not.

Max did what LH has done so often when you have the faster car - consistent lap times hitting a delta that beat protects the tyres at the optimal speed. He didn’t put a foot wrong.

Indeed. Thats only part of the story though. The best drivers have the ability in testing to feed back to the team exactly what needs fine-tuning on the car. They don't just jump into the best car on race day, they've been an intrinsic part of the technical development of that machine. Their feedback and input over the long, long hours in R&D and testing is massive. The best of the best know what needs adjusting to get the maximum out of what they are driving.

Thats what irritates me when people say "he's only winning because of the car" - its bollocks. He's part of the PROCESS of that car. He's part of the team that makes them the best.
 




Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,960
I didn't watch the whole thing as was busy yesterday afternoon but it did strike me as one of those GPs that could be prescribed for insomnia when I watched the highlights. It wasn't much better than the Belgium GP.

Max was the quickest by a margin and Merc couldn't do a lot to counter it, Bottas had to do a better job as a mobile chicane which was the crunch point, he is driving like someone who has lost his seat. Monza is normally a decent watch though.
 








Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
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Jul 23, 2003
37,346
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/58457384

Bottas to Alfa Romeo next year (to replace Kimi, who's retiring), with George Russell expected to replace him in the Merc.

I went to the woods at lunchtime and there was a bear defecating in them :)

Bottas has never quite been good enough for Merc. In order for George to be he's going to have to take that Mr Saturday qualifying form and turn it into consistency on a Sunday.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
I went to the woods at lunchtime and there was a bear defecating in them :)

Bottas has never quite been good enough for Merc. In order for George to be he's going to have to take that Mr Saturday qualifying form and turn it into consistency on a Sunday.

IMO he's already shown that he's got the Sunday skills to go with the Saturday pace. A few high profile errors have occurred, sure, but he's also had plenty of high quality race drives that have gone unnoticed and unrewarded because the Williams has been incapable of delivering on race day. Russell will do better vs Hamilton than Bottas has, no doubt in my mind there.

The real question to be answered (for the entire grid!) will be which drivers take to the new cars next year and which ones struggle. You've got a complete change in how the downforce is generated with the return of venturi tunnels, you've got the change in wheel diameter (and accompanying change in tyre profiles and thus how they'll behave), and quite significant changes to the front wings as well. We could see Perez, for example, suddenly look like a handful for Verstappen (especially if Red Bull produce a car that's less designed around Verstappen - something they finally admitted they'd taken too far). We could see the Norris / Ricciardo battle swing the other way. Russell could join Mercedes and make Hamilton look ordinary.

There's not many drivers on the grid for next year with recent experience of ground effect cars running low profile tyres. Alonso - thanks to his Indy 500 attempts - is the only one I can think of right now.
 






Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
8,628
I don't think Lewis will much like the idea of having a driver in his team again, who might actually beat him
 










KeegansHairPiece

New member
Jan 28, 2016
1,829
It wouldn’t have happened without an OK from him

Will be interesting to see if Russell can apply pressure by being as quick or quicker consistently track after track. At the moment, Verstappen is doing it and Hamilton seems on very good terms with Max still, lot of respect there and was quick to congratulate him both after qually and the race. They seem okay despite the collision and Horner talk etc.

While this Verstappen / Hamilton battle is great, it is a shame the other 2 cars in these 2 teams are unable to get in on the action. A 4 horse race would have been even more interesting. As it is, Perez and Bottas just seem nowhere compared to the 2 front runners.
 


KeegansHairPiece

New member
Jan 28, 2016
1,829
Probably you're right. Bottas recent failures to keep Max at bay and slow him up may have tipped the balance in Lewis mind

He just looks a bit of a beaten man Bottas, you have to feel for him as a driver that just cannot get close with any consistency to his team mate. He got the 2nd best seat in F1 for 5 years; just 9 wins in 92 races in that Merc...ouch.
 


Nobby Cybergoat

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2021
8,628
He just looks a bit of a beaten man Bottas, you have to feel for him as a driver that just cannot get close with any consistency to his team mate. He got the 2nd best seat in F1 for 5 years; just 9 wins in 92 races in that Merc...ouch.

His car as good as Lewis of course.

I just wondered about the practicalities of swapping them straight away.

With the title in the balance, you'd have thought it tempting to make the move to try to disrupt Max. Will Bottas listen to any more team orders?
 




KeegansHairPiece

New member
Jan 28, 2016
1,829
His car as good as Lewis of course.

I just wondered about the practicalities of swapping them straight away.

With the title in the balance, you'd have thought it tempting to make the move to try to disrupt Max. Will Bottas listen to any more team orders?

I think they’d be at that point anyway without a new contract on the table for him, he’d know he was likely going but be left a bit in limbo. At least this way he’s got a drive for next year secured. Let’s face it, he’s not exactly been that helpful of late.
 


A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
20,556
Deepest, darkest Sussex
I reckon George is rookie enough that Lewis knows that it'll likely take him two seasons to turn into a WDC contender in his own right, which could well be the timeframe he's looking at before taking a bow himself. Bottas has been around a lot longer and was clearly going to start getting angsty about being denied a shot at the WDC himself.
 


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