Formula 1 2020 - General Discussion Thread (See MOD warning on first post)

GarIT

Hamilton has said he needs to slowly start thinking about his future as it won't be long before he retires. He still has not begun talking to Mercedes about 2021.

Burkie1203

No fans at imola

afatbollix

quokula wrote: »

Did FOM shut Lando's channel down? That's a ridiculous decision if so. I hadn't checked on it in a while, but it was brilliant entertainment during the delay to the start of the season when they were doing sim racing.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lando-norris-end-twitch-stream/

Yup, Completely stupid by FOM it was in the motor home ffs.

*I should have said they shut down a stream, not his channel.

quokula

GarIT wrote: »

Hamilton has said he needs to slowly start thinking about his future as it won't be long before he retires. He still has not begun talking to Mercedes about 2021.

If he wants to prove himself worthy of his records he should talk to Red Bull about lining up alongside Verstappen in equal machinery.

Imagine if that happened, would be interesting to see who Mercedes decide to crown champion for 2021, would they bring Russell in or could Hulkenberg finally take his first podium and first championship in the same year

flazio

If Hamilton turned tail (which he won't) Russell is the No.1 choice at the moment unquestionably. They did well to get rid of Ocon. Lovely guy but has faded into a bit of obscurity alongside Ricciardo and I can't see things improving alongside Alonso.

Frank Bullitt

Deleted User wrote: »

Because testing bans. Because car complexity. Because budget.

Schumacher started in Jordan for one race, outqualified his teammate by 3/4 of a second.
Joined Benetton and took them to titles.
Joined a long-time floundering Ferrari took them to titles. And there was one more straight after he left.
Joins Mercedes just before a period of undreamt of domination.


Schumacher, Brawn and Byrne were the trifecta. Ferrari were a joke before they joined and went back to being a joke not very long after they left because too many people involved cared more about politics than success.

Drivers now don't get into the car until testing before the season and do what, a thousand kilometres before the season starts? On prescribed tyres and all the rest. Testing now is really a case of "does the car do what we think it will do once the parts are actually bolted on?".
Testing used to be pushing the envelope. Would run experimental parts that may not be legal but could be used to check other parts. Now it's more a formality as the cars are designed off-line as it were.

You'd get your head chopped off in the Autosport forum for saying such a thing

I do agree though with a lot of what you have said. I think it was one of the Silverstone races this year where Hamilton was "struggling" on the Friday, Merc took the data and ran computer simulations before the Saturday qualy, something to the degree of 500 races worth of laps. Once they did that, they apply the changes and off you go.

The human element of F1 is totally gone now. We do not have drivers making the difference as much as they did before, and me saying this in some forums (the Autosport one) just gets "Oh you are a hater, just saying he has the best car blah blah blah". Crazy that even saying that puts a bullseye on you.

AMKC

So Totto Wolf has said George Russel will be on the grid next year but where? Would love to see Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen as teammates some day.
Delighted for Pierre Gasly.
I wonder how long Haas will take to decide there new driver line up?

Man with broke phone

Do we know for sure Bottas will get a seat next year.

elperello

Man with broke phone wrote: »

Do we know for sure Bottas will get a seat next year.

He has a contract to drive for Mercedes in 2021.

This is it

What are the chances of Hamilton leaving? I'd say it's very slim?

Man with broke phone

This is it wrote: »

What are the chances of Hamilton leaving? I'd say it's very slim?

Not a hope he has a free championship next year and merc know it. He would probably take the drive for free if merc strong arm him.

GarIT

quokula wrote: »

If he wants to prove himself worthy of his records he should talk to Red Bull about lining up alongside Verstappen in equal machinery.

Imagine if that happened, would be interesting to see who Mercedes decide to crown champion for 2021, would they bring Russell in or could Hulkenberg finally take his first podium and first championship in the same year

I can't see him retiring this year, but we didn't see Rosberg retiring either.

This is it

Ah he'll have to get an 8th title, can't see him retiring before that unless something goes drastically wrong and he doesn't win it in the next few years

chicorytip

Man with broke phone wrote: »

Not a hope he has a free championship next year and merc know it. He would probably take the drive for free if merc strong arm him.

I think he would like to drive for Ferrari at some stage. There might not be a vacancy there for a couple of years at least. Leclerc and Sainz seem a strong pairing. Can you imagine if either of those two had Bottas' job right now. It could be no pushover for ol' Lewis.

Frank Bullitt

This is it wrote: »

What are the chances of Hamilton leaving? I'd say it's very slim?

Slim enough.

You can imagine he will want to keep it comfy and stick with Mercedes. Only thing that might be holding up talks is Mercedes long term commitment at a works team, they are already bringing in the AMG mark more for next year, so there might be something behind that overall.

bennyx_o

Didn't Hamilton say in an interview with Mike Wedderburn that he'd be on the grid next season? Not that I think it was in doubt, but, from the snippet of the interview shown in the buildup to the race last weekend, I get the feeling next season could be his last from the things he was saying

GarIT

Hulk has admitted that he is waiting on a call from Helmut Marko to know if he has the drive next year. Seems like an unusual thing to say to the media.

mickdw

GarIT wrote: »

Hulk has admitted that he is waiting on a call from Helmut Marko to know if he has the drive next year. Seems like an unusual thing to say to the media.

Applying abit of pressure onto Helmut.
Cant see thst ending well for the Hulk.

Whoever runs the F1 YouTube channel has a sense of humour anyway :pac: One of Hamilton's best 5 wins is apparently starting on pole in a dry Monaco GP and moaning about tyres for the race. :pac:

Gintonious

Gintonious wrote: »

You'd get your head chopped off in the Autosport forum for saying such a thing

I do agree though with a lot of what you have said. I think it was one of the Silverstone races this year where Hamilton was "struggling" on the Friday, Merc took the data and ran computer simulations before the Saturday qualy, something to the degree of 500 races worth of laps. Once they did that, they apply the changes and off you go.

The human element of F1 is totally gone now. We do not have drivers making the difference as much as they did before, and me saying this in some forums (the Autosport one) just gets "Oh you are a hater, just saying he has the best car blah blah blah". Crazy that even saying that puts a bullseye on you.

Yeah and at the end of the day for me Hamilton is in the top 10 of all time, probably top 5, maybe not top 3. But he's one of the greats, there's no two ways about it.
But ya see Schumacher in '99 coming back after the legbreak in Malaysia, new circuit for everyone and he sticks on pole a second ahead of the field. Would we ever see that today?

Infoanon

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah and at the end of the day for me Hamilton is in the top 10 of all time, probably top 5, maybe not top 3. But he's one of the greats, there's no two ways about it.
But ya see Schumacher in '99 coming back after the legbreak in Malaysia, new circuit for everyone and he sticks on pole a second ahead of the field. Would we ever see that today?

In a car that later failed scruttineering , it is impossible to compare drivers across eras - Tuvoli or Fangio would be named by older generations , Clarke or Stewart,Senna or Prost etc depending on your age and view.
Hamilton and Schumacher are among the greatest of all time ,trying to rank them against other greats is subjective.

Hijpo

Did anyone pick up info on the HAAS issue with the suspension?

Seemingly the rear suspension is heating up and causing aero imbalances. Its adjusted in FP3, then it cools before qualifying which again throws out the setup.

Hints also that given it's a Ferrari engine, they are wondering if Ferrari have the same issue, the rear stepping out and Ferrari have said they are focusing on the rear for next year....

Apparently...

El_Duderino 09

pjohnson wrote: »

And absolute truckloads of recency bias.

I call it analysing recent form and you can write it off as recency bias if you like, but isn’t that precisely what recent form is?

When answering e question “how good is Vettel now and in the last couple of seasons” there’s absolutely no point in talking about way back in 2011.

Fact is his form in the last 2 calendar years, spanning 3 seasons, is poor overall and going from bad to worse this season.

El_Duderino 09

afatbollix wrote: »

You'd never see the old boys doing anything like this.

Imagine Hamilton, Vettel or Kimi doing this. Great to see the new generation creating their own content and not just leaving it to the track. At the end of the day they are walking sponsor boards and all PR is good PR.

Lando's Twitch got shut down recently let's hope FOM catch up with how the young generation watches media instead of leaving them behind.

Yeah they’re good advertisers for the sport. The old guard like kimi just clock in, grunt at the fans, race and leave.

Norris was streaming during a session which was being broadcast by Sky (the rained off quali session in Germany). So he was effectively putting out competing content. Can’t blame sky for making him stop. It won’t be long until Sky gives them cameras for semi-scripted, super-sanitised banter and larks.

It’s a pity but sky calls the shots.

Infoanon

Infoanon wrote: »

In a car that later failed scruttineering , it is impossible to compare drivers across eras - Tuvoli or Fangio would be named by older generations , Clarke or Stewart,Senna or Prost etc depending on your age and view.
Hamilton and Schumacher are among the greatest of all time ,trying to rank them against other greats is subjective.

Both cars failed scrutineering and it was Irvine who was second on the grid +0.947 seconds. And anyway, it was within an allowable tolerance in the end.

Ah yeah it's all subjective, just making the point that as much as I hate Hamilton he's still an all-time great but in my eyes not the greatest ever

El_Duderino 09

Man with broke phone wrote: »

Not a hope he has a free championship next year and merc know it. He would probably take the drive for free if merc strong arm him.

That’s an interesting point. Mercedes could win the championship with Bottas and Russell as a no.2 so why pay Hamilton $50m when you could get the same result for about 15-20% of the cost.

I’d say they’ll use that fact plus the global recession to drive Hamilton’s wages down and try to nail him down for a few years. That way they can guarantee he stays with them and doesn’t go to a rival.

Best thing for the show would be to have Hamilton in something other than the best car or to have the two best drivers in the same car. It’s not in Mercedes interest to slow any of that to happen though.

PukkaStukka

Hijpo wrote: »

Did anyone pick up info on the HAAS issue with the suspension?

Seemingly the rear suspension is heating up and causing aero imbalances. Its adjusted in FP3, then it cools before qualifying which again throws out the setup.

Hints also that given it's a Ferrari engine, they are wondering if Ferrari have the same issue, the rear stepping out and Ferrari have said they are focusing on the rear for next year....

Apparently...

I read about it elsewhere alright but my take is a problem particular to Haas rather to anyone running a Ferrari V6.

But...There is another article I read which theorised the whole enginegate thing is behind the aero problem as well. It explained that Ferrari may have been using fuel to cool the engine in a way that gave them more power but was a grey area in the rules and obviously they can no longer do that since the settlement. However it also meant that they needed to make additional provision for cooling which mean bigger radiators, more open bodywork, and aero disturbed massively as a consequence, but with no real opportunity to rework things with Covid and a compressed season. Could this also be behind Haas’ issue?

Frank Bullitt

https://twitter.com/_markgallagher/status/1321727604307709955

Another one to leave?

Infoanon

Gintonious wrote: »

https://twitter.com/_markgallagher/status/1321727604307709955

Another one to leave?

They (Alfa) were never there in the first place - it was merely a branding exercise allegedly put in place to keep Sauber afloat with Ferrari forgiving the significant debt that had build up.

Frank Bullitt

Infoanon wrote: »

They (Alfa) were never there in the first place - it was merely a branding exercise allegedly put in place to keep Sauber afloat with Ferrari forgiving the significant debt that had build up.

So if AF leave, and Sauber have nothing, then Sauber might leave...no?