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F1 2021

dessiato said:
Possibly, but the midfield would have a chance that they currently don't have.
Click to expand...

one of the reasons for the current format is that people could win championships not having won the most races. It can still happen but less chance.

the problem now is the drivers and especially the constructors are won well in advance of the season ending. Well, in the era of merc dominance anyway. We’ll see if that changes this season if max and Chico can keep it up.
 
Mugello and Nürburgring possibly back on the 2021 F1 calendar
Until now the Formula 1 season seems to be finished in its entirety without too many changes to the calendar. For now only the Canadian Grand Prix has been removed from the calendar. The weekend in Montreal will be replaced by a Turkish GP at Istanbul Park. Possibly there will be more changes in the coming months.

According to Motorsport.com it is unclear if the pinnacle of motor sports is able ánd willing to move to Asia and Oceania. The figures regarding the coronavirus are very uncertain and so it is uncertain whether the six races between Russia and Saudi Arabia can all go ahead as planned. Mugello and the Nürburgring are reportedly being considered as alternative locations to Singapore and Japan. When we can expect more information about the rest of the Formula 1 calendar is unknown.

Also the Grands Prix of the United States, Mexico and Brazil are not completely certain. However it will be another six months before the weekends take place there so it is to be hoped for Formula 1 that the situation in those countries will improve soon as well. The other options for Formula 1 are very limited, because due to the bad weather conditions racing in Europe in the second last month of the year seems out of the question. Then there is the Australian Grand Prix of which nobody is sure if it will take place. Possibly this GP will be replaced by the Sakhir Grand Prix on the Outer Loop of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Cooler weather in Barcelona for Spanish GP and chance of rain on race day
Last year’s Spanish Grand Prix was held in hotter conditions than usual. Of course, this was because the race was delayed due to the pandemic from its usual May slot to mid-August, when it caught the end of a warm spell. F1’s visit to the Circuit de Catalunya for the fourth round of the 2021 championship is taking place at its usual time of year. As a result, the race will be held in considerably cooler temperatures than last year, and there is even a chance of rain on Sunday.

Conditions will be fairly consistent across the opening two days of the race weekend, beginning tomorrow with two single-hour sessions. These will see air temperatures reach 23C, a good 8C down on last year’s Friday peak. The track temperatures, which topped out at 50C last year, will also be quite a bit cooler. Saturday’s qualifying session will be held in slightly warmer conditions, with the mercury reaching the mid-20s. Like Friday, it will be a largely sunny day, so expect track temperatures to continue to rise. Sunday will bring a change in the weather, the timing of which will be crucial for the grand prix, which starts at 3pm local time.

Following another sunny start to the day, the cloud will build in the afternoon, bringing with it a moderate chance of rain. This may arrive too late to interfere with the race, but is certainly a possibility the teams’ strategists will monitor carefully between now and race day. Even if the rain doesn’t arrive, maximum air temperatures of 23C will again be well shy of the 30C seen on Sunday last year. F1 cars are particularly sensitive to the wind at this exposed circuit with many high-speed direction changes. It will be a fairly consistent 10-20kph over the race weekend.
 
What happened in Spanish Grand Prix FP1
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas headed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the opening practice session of Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix weekend at Barcelona. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton led the way on hards in the early stages of the session, and reclaimed the top spot immediately as he returned to the track on fresh softs just around the half-hour mark, having been usurped by the soft-shod Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel moments earlier. Hamilton then found a couple of tenths on his next attempt, but was overhauled by team-mate Bottas before the session was red-flagged.

Alfa Romeo reserve Robert Kubica was the culprit, having spun going through the reprofiled Turn 10 and got the C41, normally driven by Kimi Raikkonen, stuck in the gravel. By the time the red flag cleared, Mercedes switched to long runs, but Red Bull only just began its own soft-tyre runs. Yet Verstappen’s first push lap on the red-walled tyre was compromised by traffic in the form of Lance Stroll, and having backed out of it and commenced another flyer on tyres that were “a little hot”, he came up 0.033s short of Bottas’s time. He tried again at the chequered flag but was more than a tenth off despite a session-best final sector, allowing Bottas who himself nearly ploughed into the back of a slowing Ferrari at the chicane in the final minutes to keep first place.

Behind Hamilton in third, Lando Norris was best of the rest for McLaren, while Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr completed the top six for Ferrari but were the only drivers in the top 10 to set their best times on mediums not softs. Pierre Gasly led AlphaTauri’s efforts in seventh, with Vettel in eighth and team-mate Lance Stroll in 10th. Between them was Sergio Perez, nine tenths down on Red Bull team-mate Verstappen but compromised by the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo on a late push lap. Ricciardo himself was eight tenths off Norris in 14th. This was one place ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, but the Spaniard inverted the usual FP1 programme being the only driver to run softs rather than hards early on and was shuffled down the order after sitting as high as second in the initial stages.

While Haas driver Mick Schumacher slotted in between the FP1-only duo of Williams driver Roy Nissany and Kubica, team-mate Nikita Mazepin was last after an eventful start to the session. Mazepin spun when getting on the throttle through the Turn 7-8 kink and had to get himself out of the gravel. He then irked Leclerc by not getting out of the way quickly enough for the Ferrari driver’s liking at Turn 3, prompting Leclerc to scathingly quip “Mazepin will never change” on team radio.

Practice 1 Results

PosNameCarBest TimeGap Leader
1Valtteri BottasMercedes1m18.504s
2Max VerstappenRed Bull-Honda1m18.537s+0.033s
3Lewis HamiltonMercedes1m18.627s+0.123s
4Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1m18.944s+0.44s
5Charles LeclercFerrari1m18.996s+0.492s
6Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1m19.02s+0.516s
7Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1m19.062s+0.558s
8Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1m19.234s+0.73s
9Sergio PérezRed Bull-Honda1m19.349s+0.845s
10Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1m19.429s+0.925s
11Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda1m19.669s+1.165s
12Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1m19.681s+1.177s
13Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1m19.694s+1.19s
14Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1m19.732s+1.228s
15Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1m19.95s+1.446s
16Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1m20.27s+1.766s
17Roy NissanyWilliams-Mercedes1m20.7s+2.196s
18Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1m20.766s+2.262s
19Robert KubicaAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1m21.887s+3.383s
20Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari1m21.976s+3.472s
 
Shame to see Kubica‘s practice session end so disappointingly, but I don’t really get what he or the team are getting from him running in free practice. Well, the team are maybe getting money from Robert’s sponsors, but what’s the point really? He wasn’t competitive in his last full season and so no surprise he was well off the pace today.
 
FP2 result

Results (Classification):

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 1:18.170
  2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes +0.139s
  3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +0.165s
  4. Esteban Ocon, Alpine +0.296s
  5. Fernando Alonso, Alpine +0.348s
  6. Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri +0.423s
  7. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri +0.449s
  8. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +0.504s
  9. Max Verstappen, Red Bull +0.615s
  10. Sergio Perez, Red Bull +0.748s
  11. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin +0.777s
  12. Lando Norris, McLaren +0.922s
  13. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo +0.952s
  14. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +0.964s
  15. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren +1.025s
  16. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo +1.043s
  17. George Russell, Williams +1.787s
  18. Nicholas Latifi, Williams +1.876s
  19. Mick Schumacher, Haas +2.156s
  20. Nikita Mazepin, Haas +2.583s
 
1%er said:
FP2 result

Results (Classification):

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes 1:18.170
  2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes +0.139s
  3. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +0.165s
  4. Esteban Ocon, Alpine +0.296s
  5. Fernando Alonso, Alpine +0.348s
  6. Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri +0.423s
  7. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri +0.449s
  8. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari +0.504s
  9. Max Verstappen, Red Bull +0.615s
  10. Sergio Perez, Red Bull +0.748s
  11. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin +0.777s
  12. Lando Norris, McLaren +0.922s
  13. Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo +0.952s
  14. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +0.964s
  15. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren +1.025s
  16. Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo +1.043s
  17. George Russell, Williams +1.787s
  18. Nicholas Latifi, Williams +1.876s
  19. Mick Schumacher, Haas +2.156s
  20. Nikita Mazepin, Haas +2.583s
Click to expand...

Shock result there for Marzipan. :(
 
Red Bull "approached 100 people" says Wolff
Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff has revealed that as it builds its powertrains division, Red Bull approached 100 members of his staff. The revelation comes at the end of a week in which Red Bull Powertrains announced the addition of five senior members to its team, all of them from Mercedes, some of them having worked at Brixworth since the 1980s. Talking to Sky Sports}, Christian Horner admitted that it was inevitable that some Mercedes employees might seek fresh pastures.

"I think there is an inevitability that obviously we're based in the UK, we're only 30 miles up the road from Brixworth where Mercedes have chosen to build their engines in the UK," he said. "And they've done that for a reason because the talent is within the UK. I think for us bringing the engines on site within the campus, fully integrating it with the chassis is tremendously appealing," he added. "At the end of the day, you can't force someone to work where they don't want to be, and if we're an attractive place to be and people see that racing spirit and they want to be part of it, they're going to come on the journey. We've been very flattered by the amount of approaches that we've had," he admitted. "Of course, we're starting with a clean sheet of paper and it's important to get the right people in the right positions. Obviously, we've had quite a bit of success in attracting some fantastic talent on top of the talent that we will inherit from Honda when they depart at the end of the year."

At Mercedes, Toto Wolff played down the significance of what can only be described as defections. "If you want to set up an engine factory in the UK, there is only one, and that is us," he said. "We have 900 or so employees there, and if we are fishing out 15 of these or so, that's pretty normal." Claiming that Red Bull approached 100 people or so, and they got 15 maybe", he added: "They went mainly after manufacturing staff, so it's not really performance. I guess they want to build up the company. But credit to the project, it's a Mount Everest to climb. I'd like to have a fight with Red Bull power units."

Asked about Helmut Marko's claim that Mercedes is doubling the salaries of staff who reject Red Bull's advances, Wolff replied: "Doubling the salaries is one thing, but if you triple them, at a certain stage, you're not going to compete any more, even for loyal people. It is what it is," he added. "I respect everybody that wants to defend his business or build his business, and the retaliation time has not yet come."
 
Ferrari looking very competitive so far in FP3, but I assume Merc will open a gap to them in quali with everything turned up to Max. Speaking of Max, are Red Bull struggling this weekend or just hiding their light under a bushell?

EDIT: well, Max just went quickest, so I’m clearly talking shit! 😂
 
Last edited:
FP3 result


Cla​
Driver​
Chassis​
Laps​
Time​
Gap​
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 11 1'17.835
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 14 1'18.070 0.235
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 17 1'18.308 0.473
4 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 18 1'18.410 0.575
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 15 1'18.423 0.588
6 Lando Norris McLaren 14 1'18.494 0.659
7 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 17 1'18.535 0.700
8 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 21 1'18.582 0.747
9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 18 1'18.597 0.762
10 Sergio Perez Red Bull 16 1'18.606 0.771
11 Fernando Alonso Alpine 18 1'18.662 0.827
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 21 1'18.673 0.838
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine 15 1'18.700 0.865
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 18 1'18.877 1.042
15 George Russell Williams 17 1'19.005 1.170
16 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 19 1'19.214 1.379
17 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 18 1'19.363 1.528
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams 16 1'19.392 1.557
19 Mick Schumacher Haas 17 1'19.999 2.164
20 Nikita Mazepin Haas 15 1'20.237 2.402
 
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