F1 2021

[Limejuice]

I have a long-standing concern over media companies owning the sport they televise.

They have an intrinsic bias to chase paying-audience metrics. It's called surrogation bias. It ignores measures such as "product quality", customer satisfaction and loyalty, reinvestment, and so on, to chase that one extra pair of eyeballs in Kuala Lumpur.

We only have to look at the clusterfuck that is American football. The telly people didn't even control the sport, but nevertheless were able to mess around with the laws of the game to benefit their income, and turn the game into something unwatchable.

I think Netflix does interesting documentaries, but it has no petrol in its soul. Those long, lingering shots of unidentifiable celebs infesting the team garages, most of whom seem to have a new film / album / perfume being released...?

 

[spitfire]

I miss that noise.

I just dug out some fast passes I recorded on audio from the British GP (I think) around then. They're on MP4 though so U75 doesn't like them. Will try and convert and post up.

 

[Ax^]

I have a long-standing concern over media companies owning the sport they televise.

They have an intrinsic bias to chase paying-audience metrics. It's called surrogation bias. It ignores measures such as "product quality", customer satisfaction and loyalty, reinvestment, and so on, to chase that one extra pair of eyeballs in Kuala Lumpur.

We only have to look at the clusterfuck that is American football. The telly people didn't even control the sport, but nevertheless were able to mess around with the laws of the game to benefit their income, and turn the game into something unwatchable.

I think Netflix does interesting documentaries, but it has no petrol in its soul. Those long, lingering shots of unidentifiable celebs infesting the team garages, most of whom seem to have a new film / album / perfume being released...?

worrying part of the whole idea is making sure the end product is good enough

F1 is not the WWE

 

[Limejuice]

The latest forecast for Sochi says fine and sunny today, pissing down on Saturday, and mostly dry and sunny for the race.

"Comrades, open the Ecclestone sluices!"

Weather forecast for Sochi Autodrom | Motorsport | Russia

Motorsport weather forecast for Sochi Autodrom, Russia. Race track details on temperature, wind speed, rain, cloud, humidity, pressure for race track.

www.myweather2.com

 

[Limejuice]

Tsunoda Team Radio: "This car is so nervous!"

Sky's Crofty: "I'm not surprised. You've caused four red flags this season..."

Other Sky gob-man: "Harsh... but fair."

 

[1%er]

Russian Grand Prix F1 practice​

Key moments​

– Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2
– Verstappen a second off at first but closes with later run
– Norris crashes in pit entry after end of session
– Leclerc fourth with Ferrari engine upgrade

---

Mercedes has won every F1 race at Sochi since it joined the calendar in 2014, and it was the venue for Bottas’s first victory in 2017. Team orders prevented a 2018 repeat but he won again here last year after Lewis Hamilton was penalised. Bottas led the Friday morning session initially with a 1m36.412s lap on hard tyres, two tenths of a second clear of Hamilton at that point. A 1m34.427s on soft tyres just before the halfway point then cemented Bottas’s place on top until the end, with Hamilton 0.211s off him.


Verstappen who has a three-place grid penalty this weekend for his clash with Hamilton at Monza was some way off Mercedes’ pace until he did an additional soft tyre run near the end of the session. That brought him up to third, 0.227s from Bottas. Charles Leclerc will start at the back this weekend as a consequence of taking the first example of Ferrari’s upgraded engine. He was competitive throughout first practice, despite aborting an early run when he reported “something strange” on team radio, and was only pushed back to fourth by Verstappen’s late soft run.


Sebastian Vettel was fifth for Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly sixth for AlphaTauri. There was again a big gap between the Red Bulls as Sergio Perez only managed ninth, 1.5s from Verstappen. Italian GP winner Daniel Ricciardo started this weekend only 14th for McLaren. Team-mate Lando Norris was 0.9s ahead in eighth, but had a bizarre end to the session when he spun in the pit entry as he headed back to the garage after the chequered flag. After missing two races due to COVID, Kimi Raikkonen began his return to action with Alfa Romeo in 15th. The session was largely uneventful, Norris’s late odd moment aside, although there was a virtual safety car period to allow a sprinting marshal to retrieve a small piece of debris from the inside kerb at the first corner.

2021 F1 Russian Grand Prix - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (1)
Pos	Driver	Nat.	Team	Time
1	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m34.427s
2	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m34.638s
3	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1m34.654s
4	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m35.117s
5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1m35.781s
6	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m35.794s
7	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m35.811s
8	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m35.959s
9	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1m36.188s
10	Fernando Alonso	CHI	Alpine F1 Team	1m36.225s
11	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1m36.236s
12	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1m36.522s
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	GBR	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m36.795s
14	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m36.877s
15	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m36.952s
16	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m37.794s
17	George Russell	ISR	Williams Racing	1n38.013s
18	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m38.155s
19	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m38.586s
20	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m38.977s

 

[1%er]

Imola to replace Paul Ricard on 2022 calendar​

Imola looks set to nudge Paul Ricard off the Formula 1 calendar. Early this week, a leaked version of the purported 2022 race calendar emerged, and it showed that one date has been reserved either for Paul Ricard or Imola. Imola, located in Italy and the former San Marino GP host, re-emerged in Formula 1 to help fill in the calendar gaps amid the ongoing covid crisis. Singapore is reportedly also in doubt for 2022. “We are a region that for some years has been able to have high-level sporting events,” said Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia-Romagna region in which Imola is located. “We will soon be able to have the Imola circuit as a fixed round of the Formula 1 world Championship,” he added. “We have the support of government and should have positive news soon.”

Indeed, it is expected that an official announcement of a race deal through 2025 will be made as soon as Saturday. “It will be a historic agreement, thanks to the commitment of the government, who I thank,” Bonaccini added. Imola mayor Marco Panieri is also quoted by Italian sources: “The agreement is safe and will be made official on Saturday, on the occasion of the presentation of the 2022 calendar.” He said the investment in the race going forwards will be “more or less double that” of 2020 and 2021. Local Imola official Elena Penazzi added: “We have committed ourselves to ensuring that it is an event that is open to the public. There is a great desire for normality and to fill up the standards. Let’s say that in 2022 we will not be bored.”

 

[Limejuice]

I'd be happy to see Imola replace Paul Ricard, tbh.

So much blue...

 

[Lord Camomile]

I have a long-standing concern over media companies owning the sport they televise.

They have an intrinsic bias to chase paying-audience metrics. It's called surrogation bias. It ignores measures such as "product quality", customer satisfaction and loyalty, reinvestment, and so on, to chase that one extra pair of eyeballs in Kuala Lumpur.

worrying part of the whole idea is making sure the end product is good enough

F1 is not the WWE

You see it in almost all popular sports, as well as arts and beyond, where "more" is seen as the guiding mark of success and quality.

People who just want to make money, and don't care about whatever it is they 'invest' in, get into positions of power and water down the 'product' so that it appeals to as many people as possible, rather than focusing on and accentuating what makes that thing different from the things it's not, exploring the edges, making it the most of what it is.

I mean, with F1, I'm as guilty of fuelling it as anyone, with D2S getting me more interested in the sport than I was before, but I also don't think people like me are the ones who should be the priority or appealed to, just like I don't in football.

Anyway, FP2 in 50 minutes

 

[Limejuice]

Whoa, between 25 and 50 mm of rain tomorrow at Sochi.

Mr Masi is warning that qualifying might be pushed late tomorrow or postponed to Sunday morning.

There's a full calendar of F2 and F3 racing, so if they can't get any qualifying fitted in before race time, then FP2 timings will determine grid positions.

I think I've got that right.

 

[1%er]

Interesting radio message between Red Bull and the FIA. Tomorrow they expect between 25 and 50mm of rain, during the radio chat Red Bull said "we are thinking qualifying early on Sunday morning, do you agree" FIA response was "yes maybe, but also we are thinking late Saturday afternoon".

Limejuice clearly heard the same message

 

[Limejuice]

Max takes a new power thingy, so he's starting in last place on the grid.

 

[1%er]

Max takes a new power thingy, so he's starting in last place on the grid.

I think it was a dot on the card after he got a 3 place grid penalty after the last race, negates that penalty and a good chance of a wet qualifying

 

[Limejuice]

Giovinazzi hits the wall. Team radio: "Stop the car, we're losing parts..."

Red flag.

 

[MrCurry]

With all the creativity Liberty are applying to finding new sponsorship opportunities I’m surprised they haven’t printed a sponsor’s logo on the red flag! It’s being shown multiple times each weekend lately after all….

 

[1%er]

I just remembered to mention that I did contact Mercedes F1 to tell them that Christian Horner is known in social media as Whinger Spice and that if Toto were to call him that live on air for sure it would be a knock-out blow in the off track politics and gamemanship battle. I didn't get a responce yet but in an auto-reply they did say they will get back to me at some point, so I'm still hopeful

If anyone else wants to email them with the same kind of comment about Whinger Spice feel free to at equiries@mercedesamgf1.com

If you have twitter or that gram thingy maybe contact Toto, Lewis or Mercedes via that, I'm sure if Toto hears that nickname for Horner he'll use it at some point

 

[Limejuice]

With all the creativity Liberty are applying to finding new sponsorship opportunities I’m surprised they haven’t printed a sponsor’s logo on the red flag! It’s being shown multiple times each weekend lately after all….

Plus a voiceover:

"Today's red flag is brought to you by Culpepper's Haemorrhoid Cream. Culpepper's - haemorrhoid solutions for busy bottoms..."

 

[1%er]

Iirc Lewis is still waiting for his 100th win in F1, it seems an age that he has been waiting for that. Maybe this weekend he has the chance with Max starting from the back.

 

[1%er]

Russian GP FP2​

Valtteri Bottas led another Mercedes 1-2 in the second practice session ahead of Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix, while a crash for Antonio Giovinazzi caused a red flag.

Key moments:
Bottas leads Hamilton as in FP1
Gasly third ahead of Norris
Verstappen only sixth, Perez 11th
Leclerc spins, Giovinazzi shunt caused red flag
Gasly loses front wing late on

With around 25 minutes of the session remaining, Giovinazzi speared into the barriers on the exit of Turn 9, in a hefty shunt that destroyed the rear of the Alfa. Giovinazzi, fighting for his future as he currently occupies the hotly-contested last seat on the grid for next year, did emerge from the barriers but had to pull his Alfa off to the side of the circuit, causing a red flag. After a 10-minute delay, the session resumed for the final 16 minutes, but nobody could displace morning pacesetter Bottas from the top of the timesheet at the Sochi circuit where he secured his maiden F1 win in 2017. The 2022 Alfa Romeo driver set a 1m33.593s to top the session and beat his morning benchmark by nine tenths.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton was second-fastest ahead of a crucial weekend in which his F1 title rival Max Verstappen will have to start from the back of the grid after a power unit change prior to FP2. Pierre Gasly was an impressive third-quickest in what might be the final dry session before Sunday’s grand prix amid a serious rain threat for Saturday’s sessions. Gasly ended FP2 with a broken front wing after he launched his AlphaTauri over the kerbs after overshooting Turn 2.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was fourth ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Verstappen, who complained of a lack of top speed while following the Williams of Nicholas Latifi – clearly worried that it will affect his chances of charge through the field on Sunday. Carlos Sainz was seventh for Ferrari ahead of the second Alpine of Fernando Alonso, while Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top 10. Leclerc suffered a similar moment to Giovinazzi but he was able to avoid the barriers and continue in the session unscathed.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez could only manage 11th while Italian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo continued to struggle for pace at Sochi with the 17th-quickest time, over two seconds off the pace. For the second session in a row, Nikita Mazepin was ahead of his Haas team-mate Mick Schumacher, in 19th place.

FP2 - Classification​

1. BOT 1:33.593
2. HAM +0.044
3. GAS +0.252
4. NOR +0.561
5. OCO +0.809
6. VER +1.028
7. SAI +1.085
8. ALO +1.169
9. VET +1.244
10. LEC +1.332
11. PER +1.345
12. RAI +1.459
13. RUS +1.501
14. GIO +1.585
15. STR +1.741
16. LAT +1.818
17. RIC +2.037
18. TSU +2.361
19. MAZ +2.506
20. MSC +2.637

 

[MrCurry]

Iirc Lewis is still waiting for his 100th win in F1, it seems an age that he has been waiting for that. Maybe this weekend he has the chance with Max starting from the back.

Let’s hope he doesn’t achieve win no, 100 by being handed the position by his team mate under team orders. Botty often seems to have the measure of Lewis at this track and it wouldn’t be very seemly to achieve a memorable milestone under those circumstances.

 

[Limejuice]

FP3 cancelled due to moisture.

 

[Badgers]

Chances of Quali?

I am working today so am sort of selfishly hoping I can have an F1 fest tomorrow on my sofa.

Obviously I feel bad for the thousands of fans sitting there in the rain today

 

[Limejuice]

Chances of Quali?

I am working today so am sort of selfishly hoping I can have an F1 fest tomorrow on my sofa.

Obviously I feel bad for the thousands of fans sitting there in the rain today

"...doubts remaining over the possibility of holding qualifying on Saturday afternoon."

They could push to later in the day or, more likely, hold it tomorrow morning.

Mr Masi has already primed the media to expect that possibility.

 

[1%er]

As FP3 is cancelled, Michael Masi outlines plan as heavy rain hits Sochi​

With heavy rain hitting Sochi as expected, race director, Michael Masi has laid out the proposed plan for remainder of the weekend. His comments come in the wake of the postponement of the F2 Sprint Race and the cancellation of the third practice session (FP3) for the Grand Prix. "As we can see already this morning, the weather's gone up and down like a yoyo," the Australian told the media, "and the intensity of the rain has been increasing, with some thunder also joining us. But effectively the procedure per today will be that we will aim to start all sessions, get everything ready from an operational perspective, and then judge the conditions at the time. What we're seeing from the forecast side is that we will have rain until about 1330-1430 local time, and then it decreasing in the afternoon. The priority from today's perspective is obviously Formula 1 qualifying this afternoon," he admitted. "So Formula 1 will take priority. We were fortunate in restructuring the programme to have the first Formula 3 race yesterday, pre-empting the weather that was going to happen this morning, which based on what we saw when we came out to the circuit this morning was absolutely the right decision; it was torrential at the time we would have been having the F3 race. So we did that, and now we'll just sort of look at the day ahead and just take it step by step".

However, other than the rain there is the question of fading light should qualifying be delayed. "The determining factor this afternoon will be the light," he admitted. "Sunset locally is about 18:15, but with weather conditions like this, obviously light diminishes far earlier, so that will ultimately be our cut-off point. If qualifying isn't able to happen today, as we've seen a few times before in the past, then we will re-do a programme and hold qualifying on Sunday morning."

 

[Ax^]

Wet Qualy possibly

 

[1%er]

Not looking good at the moment but the FIA thinks we will have some qualifying at some point

 

[Badgers]

Not looking good at the moment but the FIA thinks we will have loads of red flags at some point

 

[MrCurry]

I’m not even going to switch the TV on until I see on here that it’s actually happening. I’d be happy with Sunday morning quali anyhow. Makes more of a day of it on race day.

 

[spitfire]

Iz happenin.

 

[1%er]

Looking good for qualifying to start soon MrCurry