[Misc] F1 2021

[Audax]

Albon announced at Williams (and Latifi retained). So the confirmed grid for next year now looks this:

Mercedes
Hamilton
Russell

Red Bull
Verstappen
Perez

Ferrari
Leclerc
Sainz

McLaren
Norris
Ricciardo

Alpine
Alonso
Ocon

Aston Martin
Vettel
Stroll

Alpha Tauri
Gasly
Tsunoda

Alfa Romeo
Bottas
[Giovinazzi] - Not confirmed as yet. Schumacher rumours.

Williams
Albon
Latifi

Haas
[Schumacher] - expected to stay, but some talk of Ferrari trying to get him into Alfa Romeo
[Mazepin] - expected to stay (money talks)

 

[Guinness Boy]

Looking at that list I know that Mazepin was mentioned perhaps as being a bit SPINNY like Maldanado but isn't there also a third (or fourth) group of drivers who, in that list, consist of Mazepin, Latifi and Stroll?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

On Ricciardo. Would be amazed if he ever won a driver's Championship, or got close. Decent midfield driver.

Vettel. I see him a bit like Stephen Hendry in snooker. Tonnes of success in a short time, but probably at a moment when the competition was relatively weak. An experienced Hamilton and a once in a generation driver like Max completely outclassed him

I don't see Alonso up with Senna, Hamilton etc. Russell perhaps, but ask me again in a decade.

Verstappen. Potential to go past whatever Hamilton gets and be the GOAT. But will face stiff challenges from Le Clerc, Russell, maybe Gasly over the coming decade

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

On that list for next year, Alfa should keep Gio over Schumacher. No evidence so far that this would be a forward step.

Mazepin. Christ, really? Shows the state the sport is in.

Every chance Albon will do well at Williams

 

[KeegansHairPiece]

Looking at that list I know that Mazepin was mentioned perhaps as being a bit SPINNY like Maldanado but isn't there also a third (or fourth) group of drivers who, in that list, consist of Mazepin, Latifi and Stroll?

To be fair to Stroll, despite being in on Daddy's bank account, he did win championships before F1. Mazepin...not so much...

 

[Audax]

On that list for next year, Alfa should keep Gio over Schumacher. No evidence so far that this would be a forward step.

Mazepin. Christ, really? Shows the state the sport is in.

Every chance Albon will do well at Williams

We've got Latifi and Mazespin as the only 2 "only there because of money" drivers (Stroll is debatable, but IMO he's shown enough to justify a mid-grid seat ahead of either of those two and I wouldn't be too concerned if he took, say, Giovinazzi's seat). I can think of plenty of seasons historically where it's been a lot worse than that. At the pointy end of the grid, I'd also argue we're in a better place now than many, many seasons historically. There's really good depth at the pointy end, with all these drivers either already race winners or capable of being race winners with the right team:

Hamilton
Verstappen
Leclerc
Ricciardo
Vettel
Bottas
Alonso
Perez
Ocon
Gasly
Russell
Norris
Sainz

Depending on how the teams sort themselves out with the new technical rules for next season, we could have a classic season ahead with multiple race winners from multiple teams. Or we could have Verstappen run away with it in a dominant RB car, or an epic 2 way Mercedes fight ala Alonso vs Hamilton.

 

[zefarelly]

We have seen cars very much tailored to Driver A and to the clear detriment of Driver B in recent years . . .not just in set up but by design. RBR being the obvious one. It's also got to the stage the size and build of a driver is an issue. Russel may struggle a little in staying lightweight as he matures, as Webber and Button both did as he's normal height. Lewis is 5'7"

https://racingnews365.com/2021-f1-drivers-height-and-weight

they must all be very hungry all the time

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari will all have really strong line ups next year. Could be really exciting. Even better than this year hopefully.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Agree that the unpredictability of next season should make things more interesting.

Agree there's not much dross in the field which is good. Even Latifi, whilst smashed by Russell, had a good CV before getting the seat.

Agree that Stroll is criticised a bit too much (not sure if that was what you were saying actually). He's generally been competitive in lower midfield cars and from memory had a podium or maybe 2. Having a rich dad doesn't necessarily make you a bad driver. It's just that's the way it usually works.

I do think though that Mazepin is probably the weakest pay driver I can remember

 

[Icy Gull]

We have seen cars very much tailored to Driver A and to the clear detriment of Driver B in recent years . . .not just in set up but by design. RBR being the obvious one. It's also got to the stage the size and build of a driver is an issue. Russel may struggle a little in staying lightweight as he matures, as Webber and Button both did as he's normal height. Lewis is 5'7"

https://racingnews365.com/2021-f1-drivers-height-and-weight

they must all be very hungry all the time

I seem to remember Mansell being so porky in his latter years that they had to make the car bigger so he could fit? Or did I just make that up?

Edit - it seems I didn’t

News
After winning the 1992 championship, Nigel Mansell left F1 and went and won the CART series in 1993, before making a few return races for Williams in 1994, even winning the Australian GP. For 1995, 41-year-old Mansell was set to make a full-time comeback alongside Mika Hakkinen at McLaren but, just over a week before the start of the season, it was announced on this day that Mark Blundell would be in the car instead.

Why? Well, during testing, Mansell found out that he didn’t actually fit properly in the new MP4/10 and could only manage a few laps before having to stop due to the pain in his hips. Blundell drove in his place while the team built a car with a wider cockpit, but they might as well have not bothered – Mansell only drove two mediocre races for the team before deciding to leave the team anyway.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I seem to remember Mansell being so porky in his latter years that they had to make the car bigger so he could fit? Or did I just make that up?

Edit - it seems I didn’t

News
After winning the 1992 championship, Nigel Mansell left F1 and went and won the CART series in 1993, before making a few return races for Williams in 1994, even winning the Australian GP. For 1995, 41-year-old Mansell was set to make a full-time comeback alongside Mika Hakkinen at McLaren but, just over a week before the start of the season, it was announced on this day that Mark Blundell would be in the car instead.

Why? Well, during testing, Mansell found out that he didn’t actually fit properly in the new MP4/10 and could only manage a few laps before having to stop due to the pain in his hips. Blundell drove in his place while the team built a car with a wider cockpit, but they might as well have not bothered – Mansell only drove two mediocre races for the team before deciding to leave the team anyway.

I remember Hick Hancock making a joke about it at the time. "Mansell can currently be found last on the grid in a renault espace" ... or something along those lines.

Russell I reckon will be fine. Sports nutrition has come a long way

 

[zefarelly]

Russell I reckon will be fine. Sports nutrition has come a long way

Indeed it has, drivers need to be be fit, but not the beef cakes of old, cars are lighter to drive and quicker so a different kind of fitness.

I doubt many of the younger F1 drivers know how to use a gear stick attached to a Hewland box!

 

[Audax]

We have seen cars very much tailored to Driver A and to the clear detriment of Driver B in recent years . . .not just in set up but by design. RBR being the obvious one. It's also got to the stage the size and build of a driver is an issue. Russel may struggle a little in staying lightweight as he matures, as Webber and Button both did as he's normal height. Lewis is 5'7"

https://racingnews365.com/2021-f1-drivers-height-and-weight

they must all be very hungry all the time

Russell struggled getting into the Mercedes when he covered for Hamilton last season - he had to wear shoes a size too small, had a lot of shoulder pain, was using Hamilton's clutch / gear change levers (which were too small for his fingers) etc - and yet he still missed out on pole to Bottas by less just 0.036 and was comfortably beating him in the race. Russell's the real deal, really keen to see what he can do vs Hamilton next season.

Agree that the unpredictability of next season should make things more interesting.

Agree there's not much dross in the field which is good. Even Latifi, whilst smashed by Russell, had a good CV before getting the seat.

Agree that Stroll is criticised a bit too much (not sure if that was what you were saying actually). He's generally been competitive in lower midfield cars and from memory had a podium or maybe 2. Having a rich dad doesn't necessarily make you a bad driver. It's just that's the way it usually works.

I do think though that Mazepin is probably the weakest pay driver I can remember

Yep - that's what I was saying re: Stroll. He's good enough to justify being on the grid. Not a world beater, but not a dead weight either.

Re: Mazepin ... I give you Yuji Ide. I forgive you for forgetting ... he only managed 4 races before a) Aguri demoted him to test driver, and b) the FIA revoked his super licence. He wasn't a pay driver in the strictest sense, but he was only in that seat because of non-sporting reasons (Aguri wanted an all-Japanese team).

In terms of actual pay drivers I can remember who I'd rate either worse or on-a-level with Mazepin in the last decade - Karun Chandok, Narain Karthikeyan, Max Chilton, Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi, Rio Haryanto, Sergey Sirotkin, Robert Kubica (Williams season only, such a shame). Plenty more I could name if we go back to the Minardi decline years...

I'll grant you this: Mazepin is clearly worse than any driver who raced last year and a waste of a seat. Probably the worst driver we've seen in the last few years really. Despite naming him above, I thought Williams did a great thing giving Kubica an opportunity - it could have been a fairy tale. Latifi I can accept for another year, as he's shown signs of improvement over time; but once Williams establish some stability he'll be gone in favour of a better driver.

 

[Icy Gull]

Nakajima was another underwhelming Williams driver

 

[KeegansHairPiece]

Russell struggled getting into the Mercedes when he covered for Hamilton last season - he had to wear shoes a size too small, had a lot of shoulder pain, was using Hamilton's clutch / gear change levers (which were too small for his fingers) etc - and yet he still missed out on pole to Bottas by less just 0.036 and was comfortably beating him in the race. Russell's the real deal, really keen to see what he can do vs Hamilton next season.

Makes you wonder if that is the reason Russell didn't get the seat this season and perhaps this has all been a done deal for sometime. Seems they pretty much waited for Raikkonen's announcement so that it was all nice and tidy for Bottas and no uncertainty hanging in the air. Seems all very convenient how its panned out.

 

[Audax]

Makes you wonder if that is the reason Russell didn't get the seat this season and perhaps this has all been a done deal for sometime. Seems they pretty much waited for Raikkonen's announcement so that it was all nice and tidy for Bottas and no uncertainty hanging in the air. Seems all very convenient how its panned out.

Yeah, it's definitely all been very well coordinated. Bottas will have known for a long time that the writing was on the wall. What remained to be determined was a) whether he even wanted to stay in F1 post-Mercedes, and b) if he did, what seats would be available? From the outside it looks like Kimi announcing his retirement set all the dominoes tumbling, but I suspect the reality is that the first decision that was made was Russell being signed at Mercedes, followed by Bottas' decision to stay in F1. Kimi's decision may even have been influenced by his retirement opening a seat for a fellow Finnish driver.

The only thing that has surprised me over the last week really has been how quickly Williams confirmed Albon, especially with all the Wolff / Horner theatre going on about that.

I do think this has now confirmed that de Vries won't be making the jump from Formula E to Formula 1 next season, as much as Wolff might want it to happen. No seats left where Mercedes has influence. Only potential changes I can see happening would be Ferrari pulling Giovinazzi's seat out from under him, placing Schumacher at Alfa, and then Illott at Haas. Shwartzman won't get a Haas seat - firstly, because Mazepin Snr won't sign off on another Russian competing against his son, and secondly because Shwartzman's standing will have waned as a result of failing (so far) to dominate Formula 2 this season (not to mention his rookie team mate currently being ahead in the standings).

 

[Icy Gull]

Have I got this right, Sprint Qualifying for the Monza GP at 1700 this afternoon?

 

[Guinness Boy]

Have I got this right, Sprint Qualifying for the Monza GP at 1700 this afternoon?

Sort of.

Quali for position for the Sprint Race (also known as sprint qualifying) tonight at 5pm UK.

Sprint race 15.30 UK tomorrow.

Race 14.00 Sunday.

Same format as Silverstone

 

[Icy Gull]

Sort of.

Quali for position for the Sprint Race (also known as sprint qualifying) tonight at 5pm UK.

Sprint race 15.30 UK tomorrow.

Race 14.00 Sunday.

Same format as Silverstone

Thanks, I was wondering how they were going to get the grid set up

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Nakajima was another underwhelming Williams driver

The difference in qualification times between Senna and Nakajima is jaw dropping. 8 (Eight) Seconds a lap in some cases.

https://www.gptoday.net/en/news/f1/246843/ayrton-senna-special-teammates-4-satoru-nakajima