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

muckwarrior wrote: »

LOL

It was a joke, wasn’t it? Lance is the most extravagant pay driver of all time so far.

Wouldn’t have gotten into the sport on merit and certainly wouldn’t have gotten a second season, let alone the rest.

OSI wrote: »

How many podiums does Hulkenberg have again?

What's that got to do with anything?

pjohnson wrote: »

Ah yes. Hes no where near the quality of Alex Yoong, Delétraz Sr., Taki Inoue, and the American lad who got disqualified for literally being too slow and a danger to be on track :pac:


I forgot meme beats reality for some.

Good. As long as you were joking then it’s fine. You were hardly going to make the case that Stroll would have gotten into f1 on merit, let alone stayed there on merit of if wasn’t a special category of pay driver.

Who would people say out of current F2 drivers can feel most hard done by being out of an F1 seat due to "pay drivers"?

Or, who was the the most prestigious F2 driver to not get an F1 seat ever? Still very much a newbie to the sport so I'd be interested to hear.

klose wrote: »

Who would people say out of current F2 drivers can feel most hard done by being out of an F1 seat due to "pay drivers"?

Or, who was the the most prestigious F2 driver to not get an F1 seat ever? Still very much a newbie to the sport so I'd be interested to hear.

You never quite know how a rookie will step up, but rather than look at F2 you can look at a pretty long list of F1 drivers who performed well but were cast aside even though they had been showing they belonged on the grid.

As mentioned, Hulkenberg turned up at a moments notice to replace Perez when he had covid and surprised nobody by outperforming Stroll in the same car despite a complete lack of preparation time. Then you've got someone like Ocon who ended up sitting out for a season when Stroll replaced him, effectively killing his career momentum which had been looking very decent at that point as he was in prime position for a Mercedes seat, but a year away from the sport left him getting rusty while Russell became the new heir to that particular throne and Ocon ultimately got dropped and had to start building himself up again in a very tough environment alongside Ricciardo (and soon Alonso) at Renault.

Then you've guys like Grosjean and Magnussen, both off the grid this year, both have previously shown themselves to be very good drivers when given a decent cars, which the Haas very much isn't. Even Fernando Alonso, the greatest driver in the world for the past decade or two, has ended up sitting out the last couple of seasons because he chose retirement over trundling around at the back in one of the few seats that were available.

Then there's the drivers who got their foot in the door but never had a chance to even begin to realise their potential. In the last decade or so there's been guys like Vandoorne, Vergne, Bourdais and others who have proven themselves to be absolutely world class in other forms of motorsport but got booted out of F1 after one or two seasons in a mid field team where they performed well but never got a real chance to show what they're capable of. If someone like Stroll had similar treatment to many drivers like that he'd have been out the door a few years ago. Instead he has had the chance to continue to gain experience without any pressure that his career might be on the line, and he has gotten to the point where he is pretty competent now, but others could have done so much more had they been afforded the same opportunities.

The 2021 safety cars announced

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.check-out-the-new-mercedes-and-aston-martin-f1-safety-cars-2021.6oPIsF0xEkmJXmwkvrp3Tu.html

Jordan 199 wrote: »

Pre-season testing will be shown live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday to Sunday.

My basic Sky Digital package seems to have lost Sky F1. Anyone else experience this?

Looks like I'll have to upgrade to get the Sky Sports package this week as the only option? €20 extra for the first six months and then €40 thereafter. That seem right to you guys?

When do Ferrari unveil there new car?

seamusk84 wrote: »

My basic Sky Digital package seems to have lost Sky F1. Anyone else experience this?

Looks like I'll have to upgrade to get the Sky Sports package this week as the only option? €20 extra for the first six months and then €40 thereafter. That seem right to you guys?

I have sky sports f1 since sky got the f1 and i have it via the hd pack.
I still have it and have not heard anything about losing it.

mickdw wrote: »

I have sky sports f1 since sky got the f1 and i have it via the hd pack.
I still have it and have not heard anything about losing it.

Ah maybe because I don't have HD is why I have lost it.

Hmm looks like I'm going to have to upgrade to Sky Sports it seems before testing starts.

I'm at work while testing is on. (Medical device factory) and I want to wait and see that they don't stick the early races on Sky One like they did a couple of years ago before I fork out for a Now TV pass.

The irony of it all is that they could have just written Russia on the cars and clothes, instead of the flag, and it would have been ok by WADA's rules. Maybe they just want the publicity

Maybe a conversation for another thread/forum - Banning a whole country does seem a bit unfair to an individual, but most countries give sports grants towards development of people, so that's where it comes down to...punish the whole country.

Anyway, back to F1 related topics...this is not the first time that a Livery on a Haas car has caused some controversy...I remember Whyte Bikes inadvertently sponsoring them :pac:.