F1 2021 Round 6: Azerbaijan GP

Darwin wrote: »

Overall not the most exciting race, but the two tyre incidents and the restart livened it up towards the end. It was very refreshing to see three drivers on the podium who were delighted with their respective positions and not somebody standing on the second or third spot with a rain cloud over them.

I enjoyed all of it to be honest, less barrier shunting than I expected but it was still interesting watching the different strategies play out. Once the tire blowouts happened it got very interesting, 2 lap sprint races might be worth a look as a form of qualifying or something? :pac:

Also what's the latest on the tires? Was it debris or failure?

They're basically saying nothing which isn't that surprising I suppose.

Funny video of Toto on the restart, the headset almost got it :pac:

I wonder will yesterday mean we won't see the softest sets for another bit while they're investigating what happened?


Obviously the podium yesterday was refreshing to see, can't help but smile seeing vettel there, looks like he's getting the feel for the car and happy with it, gasly really is mustard too. There was plenty talk that checo likes Baku and he walked the walk and talked the talk.

Season certainly shaping up nicely, looks like red bull will be favourites for the constructors seeing as bottas looks a bit of a lost soul at the moment, hopeuflly max can keep up his performance too, the Mercedes situation is fascinating really seeing how it pans out.

Spudman_20000 wrote: »

Gotta say I enjoyed Paul "mee-jum tyre" Di Riesta in the comms box yesterday.

Brundle has become very stale of late, same old clichés. Sounds bored most of the time.

Jesus no!

Felt sorry for the drivers trying to understand a muffled scottish accent asking them questions afterwards too

I think I made a similar noise myself :pac:

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Yup I like him, he used to be so stiff and rehearsed before but he has grown into the commentating gig.

Ya i think when doing the general pundit stuff, he is not watchable but not bad at all in commentary - its abit more free. I think he got the hang of it doing some friday practice slots which really is very relaxed and they general say everything and anything.
Its hard to beat brundle though. He is just generally on the ball.

mickdw wrote: »

Billy Monger wont be in favour with Hamilton anymore after that. It looks like Billy is quite happy to see Lewis going straight on.

Meh wouldnt read too much into his reaction. It was an excited reaction to an exciting development in the race more than anything.

mickdw wrote: »

Billy Monger wont be in favour with Hamilton anymore after that. It looks like Billy is quite happy to see Lewis going straight on.

From a championship battle perspective, Hamilton missing that corner has probably saved the season. If Hamilton had won then he would be back in strong command of the championship and we're heading back to the traditional tracks where Mercedes will probably resume being the best race car, easier on tyres and RB having a slight advantage on quali pace. Hamilton will probably score more points from here on and if he was already 15 points in the lead, then the championship would be over already.

If it's ok for commentators to support Hamilton then surely it's ok for Monger to not support Hamilton and favour a good championship battle.

The gap between Latifi and Russell looks to have narrowed this season. Russell has much better quali pace though. Leclerc is the new Mr Saturday too!

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

From a championship battle perspective, Hamilton missing that corner has probably saved the season. If Hamilton had won then he would be back in strong command of the championship and we're heading back to the traditional tracks where Mercedes will probably resume being the best race car, easier on tyres and RB having a slight advantage on quali pace. Hamilton will probably score more points from here on and if he was already 15 points in the lead, then the championship would be over already.

If it's ok for commentators to support Hamilton then surely it's ok for Monger to not support Hamilton and favour a good championship battle.

Yes it is ok for monger to not support hamilton - i was just commenting from the point of view where hamilton was (outwardly at least) pretty good to him after his accident.

Pirelli reveal results of investigation into Baku tyre failures

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No problem with the tyre, no cuts to the tyre, tyres run in accordance with Pirelli's directives.
Jokeshop stuff tbh. I've been something of a defender of Pirelli at times over the last decade or so but blowouts around Vmax with no warning across different teams should be having the drivers up in arms considering some of the nonsense they get pissy about.

Why's it a joke shop? Teams do all they can to run the tyres at low pressure and Perelli keeps telling them not to run them below the recommended pressures. If the teams ran them below the recommended pressure and the tyres broke, then why should pirelli take the blame?

This article here talks about how the teams are constantly trying to get around rules to run the tyres at lower pressures

Motorsport.com: Tyre presssures in the spotlight as F1 awaits Pirelli Baku report.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/tyre-presssures-in-the-spotlight-as-f1-awaits-pirelli-baku-report/6570930/amp/

The article suggests that they will solve the problem by increasing the minimum allowed tyre pressure knowing the teams will do everything they can to test at a legal level and race at a lower level.

That's interesting. The team is to share the blame for Lewis turning on brake magic?! Mistakes happen, and very rarely by Hamilton, and Merc doing the German thing of removing any likely possibilities of errors happening is really something to be said for the team. Their endeavour to change all the time to better themselves.

Charlie-Bravo wrote: »

Wow, yes...that's some contrast. Completely polar opposite situations. Everyone is to blame, that now seems to be the Merc motto.

Not quite - it's Hamilton's crew's motto, but not Bottas'.

johnnysmack wrote: »

I think it's more Mercedes than Lewis. Lewis seemed very apologetic to the team in the pit radio after the incident, knew it was his mistake and accepted it. It was only afterwards that Toto the clown started rolling out the 'team was to blame' line in stark contrast to the Bottas was to blame line from Monaco. Both Wolff and Horner come across as completely unlikeable people, it's easy not to like Mercedes or red bull because of them.

What has you disliking Horner?
Genuinely wondering if there's some dodgy story I havent seen about him

johnnysmack wrote: »

. Both Wolff and Horner come across as completely unlikeable people, it's easy not to like Mercedes or red bull because of them.

Horner? You sure you didn't mean Marko?

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

So wait, he's finally now come out and said Bottas actually did stop in the right place? So why did he say the opposite after the race? He was watching it along with everyone else, yet at the time he saw something different, something that never happened. You have to ask why that is, why someone sees something that everyone else at the time could see didn't happen.

Toto is a becoming a bigger tosser every week that passes.

I think it's indicative of the increased pressure they're under this year. Since 2014, they could balls up on a weekend and it didn't matter to the championship. they would still hit their targets of both championships and x number of 1-2 race finishes. They could afford to give the lines about nobody being to blame and finding the solution. This year, none of those three metrics are certain and Toto will have to face the board and someone will have to take the blame - and it isn't going to be Toto if he can help it, so why not blame the driver who will have been fired by the time Toto faces the board?

Pretty standard stuff given they haven't faced this pressure before.