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

Delighted for Sergio Perez. I think him and Max will be a good team should keep each other on edge and competitive too.

I'm interested in seeing what insights Perez can bring to car development.

Inquitus wrote: »

Gonna be really interesting to see how Checo stacks up against Max next year, will really be a chance to gauge them both, also if Checo performs better than Albon and consistently inserts himself into the battle for the top 4 in the race as well as qualifying it will really open lots of tactical doors for RB which have all been firmly closed with a poorly performing Albon at the helm of the 2nd RB.

That's an excellent point.

It has been very difficult for Red Bull to get a shot at covering off the Mercedes' with undercuts etc when the opportunity arises, because Albon has always been so far out of contention.

It seems like almost every week now Horner is saying to the media that he hopes Albon can get himself up to around that 3rd/4th spot to give them some options, but it rarely, if ever materialises.

If Perez can consistently be in contention for that 3rd/4th place allowing Red Bull to try something different in terms of tactics from time to time, I think they will be extremely pleased.

Been a crazy year for Perez fans, first he gets dumped by Aston then he wins a Grand Prix and now he's driving a Red Bull. Absolutely delighted

I'm not a perez fan at all, but what he brings is consistent performances.
If he finishes the majority of the races in the top 4 and within a few seconds of Verstappen, that's a success and much better than albon.

Albon wouldnt have the driving ability to be a pizza delivery driver, let alone the RB. Perez has arguably a better car next year than this year, and he still managed a win this year.

Some nice driver line ups for next year now.

We've got Alonso, Vettel and Ricciardo potentially battling for best of the rest after the top two teams. We've got the Schumacher name back on the grid, which will be special even if it will be at the back. And now we've got one of the best drivers on the grid partnering Max at Red Bull.

It's a shame Bottas is still taking up the only seat on the grid that could make the championship interesting, but there will hopefully be a lot to watch going on behind that at least.

ELM327 wrote: »

I'm not a perez fan at all, but what he brings is consistent performances.
If he finishes the majority of the races in the top 4 and within a few seconds of Verstappen, that's a success and much better than albon.

Albon wouldnt have the driving ability to be a pizza delivery driver, let alone the RB. Perez has arguably a better car next year than this year, and he still managed a win this year.

Totally agree. Essentially, RB want Perez to be Max's Bottas. Will qualify 4th and be in Merc's pit stop window so they cannot split strategies on Verstappen. And also when Max is off form or DNF's, Perez will be there to take home the podium or even more depending on the day.

Anyone know what’s next for Albon? Surely won’t drop to a test or reserve driver.

Does he go to a different Motorsport? I honestly have no idea what he will do.

Mad to think nearly 200 points won over two years and potentially we may not see him anytime soon racing in F1 again.

Inquitus wrote: »

Albon sadly is shafted at this point, he is never going to get the RB seat back, so serving as their test / reserve driver is a pathway to nowhere. Perhaps he can do that for a year and hope that Kimi retires, or Alonso flops and perhaps get a chance with Alfa Romeo or less likely Renault.

If he gives it a year and no drive is forthcoming then he's going to have to go drive in a different formula and hope he gets a chance at some point in the future, he is only 24 so he does have some time on his side. It wouldn't really surprise me if we never see him on the F1 grid again, it's a ruthless sport at the end of the day!

I saw Russell posting support for him online and within the comments Martin Brundle was talking about him and the fact he’s still young.

Tagged Damon Hill mentioning that some former greats weren’t even in F1 until they were older. It’s mad how it’s changed. Hill in his 30s joining F1 would be crazy these days.

Anyone thinking Gasly getting demoted has somewhat saved his career? If Red Bull didn’t make that call we’d probably be seeing Gasly gone.

It's the right decision from red bull on the constructors side aswell as pit stratagies, albon was completely unreliable and to take a gamble on him this year could have and probably would have backfired, not nice to see him lose a seat completely but it's a cut throat business.

I dont think this is going to work out.
Perez wont compete with verstappen on outright pace so he will be relying on alternative strategy or messy races to try to bring himself into play. I could see him finishing ajead of max in maybe 2 races in a season.
I could equally see him taking out max if anywhere close off the grid.

I saw the news about Perez on twitter. I'm happy for them in that he has a seat for 2021 onwards. Both Max & Perez could become a very competitive pair of drivers when going up against the other teams on the track. They have great ability & potential to do very well with winning races within this new partnership.

For Albon though; it's very unfortunate to hear that he lost his seat to Perez. The consequences of his performance with RB has now been brought to reality.

Being a test/reserve driver for a F1 team is an unusual experience for Albon in that he could have the opportunity to be testing newer cars that could be potentially be better than what he had driven with RB last year or it could be worse than the previous year. The level of thinking being set in his head right now is that testing any new car for RB will be a big indicator in how his future will be secure with the team from now on. He really should be able to spot the big differences with how any new car works compared to previous years because winning races really is important for their new driver partnerships that will be developed with the team into the future.

The dynamics of RB's new engine for the car for the upcoming 2022 season is an interesting thing to observe at this moment. It's seen as being really critical to how their new driver partnership can continue to win any of the new races on the championship table for the whole of that year & in subsequent years afterwards. Their ability to do this as a new look team had worked brilliantly in the past because they were 4 time F1 WC's in recent years. In hindsight; this task of trying to source a new engine for the car really should not be a hard thing to do if they want to improve their impressive record in F1 with winning even more championships under their belt. Their team should have great ability & timing in themselves to find a engine that should be able to win races for the 2022 F1 season.

If they find that their new car that is not up to scratch for 2022; will questions be asked about how it could be influenced by the decision from Honda to end their partnership with them. Time will tell if that does become the case. It would be a great shame to see RB become what Ferrari were like in 2020.

No-one working for RB or their fans will like that reputation. It's RB now to get this job done right if they want to retain 2nd or better for 2022 & beyond.

Ferrari to launch the new car at testing in Barcelona.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ferrari-sf21-name-launch-test-2021/4929456/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=RSS-ALL&utm_term=News&utm_content=www

TCP/IP wrote: »

Bottas is a Williams’s/Haas level of driver who lucked into the strongest package in the history of the sport hell even George Russell made a show of him. Only reason he is there is as a rear gunner for Lewis nothing more.

I think that’s hyperbole and Bottas is a middle of the road driver but definitely not amongst the worst.

Do you really think Perez is going to challenge Max in any meaningful way?

I think max will make a show* of Perez

*beat him by more than 0.002 in quali and 8 seconds over the course of a race

The last time Max had a decent teammate in Danny Ric, Danny beat him 467 points to 392 with Danny having 2 more mechanical DNFs than Max. I think Perez is going to run a lot closer to Max than what people think.