Formula 1 2021 - General Discussion Thread (Read 1st post rules)

klose

The hype and buildup to Hungary will be fairly intense after this weekend, the media gods will be praying for a Hamilton verstappen front row lockout and another nudge into T1.

All eyes on verstappen to see how he reacts.

Other than the obvious, it was another solid weekend for mclaren (ricciardo finding his feet) and Ferrari popped up too with the goods (botched pit stop from them for sainz cost him atleast a position)

Aston Martin probably should have had two drivers in the points in vettel didn't go full s🅱️inella again. And alonso showing there's life in the old dog yet. The whole debate over the sprint format will pretty much drowned out of the verstappen crash.

Jordan 199

Good to see Ocon back in the points yesterday finishing ninth. Alonso had another good result finishing seventh.

He scored points in five races in a row and scored points in seven out of ten races.

barryribs

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117630122#Comment_117630122

The battle for 3rd and 5th is going to be as good as the battle for the championship from the looks of things. As you said, great to see Ricciardo getting to grips with the car and Alonso was immense. Vettel looked good until the spin, but lost pace/interest when he dropped back, I'm not sure if the retirement was genuine, or just an opportunity to change some parts.

I'm still on the fence about the sprint race, I struggle to find the time to watch normal qualifying on a Saturday, so adding in a Friday evening session is going to difficult. I would like to see points on offer increased to encourage more risk taking.

namloc1980

One thing I didn't miss for the last year or so, but was back yesterday, is the celebrity hangers-on in the pit garages. Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford etc. Painful having them back in the garages.

mickdw

Cruise and Hamilton now big buddies. Cruise will probably sign him up to scientology.

Any PR repair underway today? It certainly didnt go down well him doing the full on celebration in the circumstances we had.

Hamilton claiming he didnt know Max was in hospital is very odd. Either he was bullshitting or the whole mercedes communications / PR machine had gone to sh1t. Not good either way.

El_Duderino 09

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631881#Comment_117631881

Why would they tell him irrelevant Information like that during the race? He had a job to do and he only needed the information relevant to doing that job. Any other information would be a distraction.

I dislike Lewis as much as anyone, but let's keep the criticism based in reality. There's no rule that says he can't celebrate after crashing with Max. He won his home race, oming from behind and in pretty dramatic circumstances. He's entitled to celebrate.

pjohnson

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631167#Comment_117631167

Tbf is Harrison Ford not known as being a bit of a petrolhead/car fanatic? I dont mind the likes of Ford (or Rowan Atkinson whos attended many races) showing up.

Its the Serena Williams and Christina Aguilera's that know fùck all that annoy me.

Frank Bullitt

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631937#Comment_117631937

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-ReqE4lkAw&ab_channel=OutofContextF1

I will never not love Coulthard with this gem.

Frank Bullitt

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631922#Comment_117631922

Seems like people fall back on rules fairly quickly when it suits them. Hamilton was fully in the wrong yesterday for the crash, sent him off in a big way. Benefitted (again) from a red flag and then was never in doubt for the win after that. I think his celebrations were OTT when you consider the size of the crash and the impact it has had on the championship now.

I am far from a Hamilton fan, quite the opposite, as you well know. If the roles were reversed Hamilton would be saying all sorts, along with Toto etc and you can bet your bottom dollar the crowd would have booked Max if he celebrated like that.

Mind you, the Dutch GP is coming up, so I hope Max does the same...for balance, of course. 😀

El_Duderino 09

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117633245#Comment_117633245

I've no doubt that you're right. If the roles were reversed then RB and Merc would be saying the exact opposite of what they're saying now.

And that's all fine. But we don't have to take sides like that do. There has never been an established limit on celebrations alert a crash until this weekend. Max going to get checked over in hospital is of no consequence to Hamilton and I doubt he even knew about it until later.

He just won his home GP in front of 140k fans and it took until the last few laps to take the lead. That's worth celebrating. Even us non-fans can surely appreciate that.

On the broader principle of imposing penalties, here's Michael Masi explaining that the consequences of a crash isn't taken into consideration when deciding the penalty. He says all the team principals agreed to that standard.

Motorsport.com: F1 penalties don't reflect consequences of incidents - Masi.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/masi-teams-agreed-that-penalties-dont-reflect-consequences-of-incidents/6633598/amp/

Frank Bullitt

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117633656#Comment_117633656

We can agree to disagree on that one. Not saying what he did was "wrong", but very much in poor taste considering the mess he caused with the accident. Again though, it spices it all up from here on out. I don't see Max taking a step back etc, probably now he will be more assertive and aggressive.

namloc1980

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631937#Comment_117631937

We don't need to cut away from the action to see them in the garage. I don't care if that's Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford or anyone else.

AMKC

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117631167#Comment_117631167

Ever think maybe they have shares in some of them car companies or even in a Formula 1 team. If them being there gets more people to watch Formula 1 then I have no problem with it and even better if they like it and have interest in it. One thing you can say about Tom Cruise he could drive that Porsche real good yesterday.

Dont be at yourself

3rd in the drivers standings is impressive from Lando. He has the pace for sure. I do wonder about his ability to force the issue -- can't think of too many big overtakes, though that's partly a reflection of his machinery too.

Inquitus

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117633871#Comment_117633871

Just a reminder of how unreliable the cars used to be back in the day's when McLaren dominated and also how many crashes their used to be! Fair play to Lando, he is knocking it out of the park at the moment!

duploelabs

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117633820#Comment_117633820

He's also driven the red bull car a few times which makes him being in the merc garage odd

El_Duderino 09

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634019#Comment_117634019

He hasn't been doing massive overtakes partly because he qualifies so well. He's been defending his positions more often than really attacking the drivers in front. Fantastic start to the season and an all round very likeable guy.

Worth noting that he had a great start to last year and relatively poor second half. But that could be due to lack of experience and fatigue with the long season at the top level. Would love to see him as a title contender. I think he's shown the bottle necessary this year.

namloc1980

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117633820#Comment_117633820

Does every shareholder get to stand in the garage or is it just the Hollywood set? Cutting away from the action to show them standing around in the garage is very annoying but if that's your thing then fair enough.

I think Lewis has been a very very lucky boy so far this year. Really Max should be somewhere between 30 - 50 points ahead.

1) He was blessed at Imola to get the red flag at the exact moment that he had binned it and destroyed his own race.

2) He was fortunate that Max had a tyre blowout with no warnings at Baku.

3) And well, there is just no words to describe his fortune at Silverstone. He caused the crash and knocked Max off the track. Gets a red flag to fix his own damage and a tap on the wrist penalty. Undone 3 races of hard work by Max by simply crashing him off the track.

Max on the other hand has had all the bad luck. Tyre blowout, crashed off the track etc

skipper_G

Mick Schumacher had a spin in the Jordan 191, Sky were filming something for the Belgian GP coverage

https://twitter.com/SkySportsF1/status/1417446964938088457?s=19

Frank Bullitt

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638352#Comment_117638352

The benefiting from the red flags has to change. Imola he was fortunate, but Silverstone? For a driver to cause a red flag and then benefit from that is just not right.

That rule has to change, soon.

klose

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638352#Comment_117638352

Yeah, Hamilton surely must have a 4 leaf clover in the sock when he's racing as he does seem to get a decnet slice of luck, of course he fucked up in Baku to counter maxs crash out.

Even on Sunday, probably every other driver pits for repairs but he stays and gets a red flag, maybe he was told to do so or knew himself but still. You make your own luck they say.

El_Duderino 09

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638388#Comment_117638388

Hard to say no to any of this stuff, but I really think it frames him as a pale imitation of his father. Rather than forging his own career as a top driver, he's kinda shadowing his father's footsteps by presenting Hamilton with a helmet when he beat his father's win (or quali) record and now driving his father's first car.

In a way it nice but I also see it as Mick accepting that he's happy to be there representing his dad and he won't be a top driver.

El_Duderino 09

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638795#Comment_117638795

I disagree that rule has to change. A 10s penalty matters much more to some drivers in some cars than other drivers in other cars. Hamilton has a great car and can make up at 10s penalty, bit others can't. That fact shouldn't impact the severity of the penalty. The penalty should reflect the crime, not the difficulty in overcoming the penalty, or the consequence of the infringement.

klose

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117639803#Comment_117639803

Mick is currently driving a ball of shite for atleast this season and probably next, hard to "forge a career" in a team that's essentially a meme at the moment.

He will probably get a better drive because of the simple fact he his Michael Schumachers son so he's going to probably play on that fact for some time.

barryribs

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638795#Comment_117638795

Its the same for everyone though, except every time Hamilton benefits from the rules, there is an overwhelming commentary on here to change them. Perez has forced drivers off the track 3 times in the last two races, two of which he got penalised for, and the penalty didn't affect his final position.

Hijpo

It's a clear loophole that needs to be closed. Just like bendy wings, controlled oil leaks and performing a precisely controlled crash in Q3 while you are pole to red flag the session but not screw your gear box as was suggested by other on the forum and team bosses when it happened to Leclerc

barryribs

Calling it a loophole and comparing it to a coordinated spin in Q3 is suggesting that Hamilton deliberately caused the red flag, in the knowledge that he could repair any damage. Not a safety car, VSC or double waved yellows - but specifically a red flag - all while battling wheel to wheel at 180 mph.

Hijpo

For clarity that's not all I compared it to and not for the reason you suggested ie Hamilton deliberately causing the incident, not once since Sunday have I expressed that view or liked posts expressing it.

The potential to gain from an incident you created is surely a loophole and there's no valid reason not to do something about it right?

PopePalpatine

As galling as it is to see Lewis luck into yet another pain-free repair, you just can't send a broken and unsafe car out to restart. If red flag repairs were banned, you're going to see drivers with broken cars go back out there to salvage points rather than call it a day, and we'll all be back here complaining if someone was sent out with a hairline fracture in their suspension that becomes a full-on disintegration, especially at a high-speed corner like 130R or Eau Rouge which would pitch someone into the barrier at 300km/h+. Even if you tried coming up with some constraints like "you can only repair parts critical to car control", you'll have teams arguing that the loss of downforce from losing an endplate or bit of floor (especially from next year onwards) is just as critical as the suspension.