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

Also, Stroll going to a team not owned by his dad? Seems like Jacque is just trying to shoehorn Bottas into a seat that doesn’t exist.

Lawrence might be a rich man but his vault isn't a bottomless pit. If it's clear that Lance is costing the team money either prize or repairs, he's getting the shove.

Jacque is as reliable as The Sun, best to ignore

Yeah where is Alonso’s penalty for his lock up that let Lewis past him? It was extremely dangerous!

It might be a consideration on some level, but it depends on where they want to market their cars. There's probably not a lot of room left to grow the Renault brand in france or the Mercedes brand in Germany. Alpine might have more use of a French driver as its a brand innthe relaunch phase. If they want to grow their brand in China, then a Chinese driver would be ideal, likewise America.

Mercedes having 2 German drivers in Schumacher and Rosbers seemed like the most pointless exercise in the world from a purely marketing perspective. An international driver like Hamilton probably brings much greater marketing opportunities.

I think that was more to show they're a german team, when in truth they're actually a british team

I thin they just make a big noise about it when they happen to have drivers that match the nationality of the team. I doubt it's a huge consideration at all - unless for some strategic purpose. Tsunoda was appointed while RB were still negotiating the engine deal with Honda. It can't be coincidence that they promoted a total rookie who was likely well underprepared (and has proven to be underprepared) while negotiating with Honda. It must have been to sweeten the pot for Honda.

Given Gasley's resurgence after being demoted to AT, I think it's safe to say Albon would be doing a better job than Tsunoda (not that they would have known that at the time they signed Tsunoda). But I think that signing him might be a necessary evil to help with the engine negotiations.

Yeah but do you think it's pure coincidence that he's also Japanese and just happened to be promoted unusually early during the RB Honda negotiations?

Wasn't there a piece when HAAS was looking for sponsors and the potential German sponsor pretty much told them they can have their money of they had a German driver?

Who knows if it actually played out like that.

I don't know how to quote multiple posts with the new format, oops.

Born in Germany, dad is Finnish, mum is German. He raced under a Finnish flag for many years.

Curiously, his Wiki states he switched to a German license for better sponsorship opportunities.

Perfect example of how, outside the top teams at least, points are a poor metric for judging a driver's ability.

Absolutely.

It made a fan of F1 out of my wife (and many others).

As an avid F1 follower, I did spot some errors (e.g., using audio from one race on a totally different one, or clips from other races slotted in). They do craft story lines (e.g., Lando and Carlos hate each other) so that would be the only drawback of them for me.

Williams have let Dan Ticktum go from their development programme.

As many of us know, Dan infamously crashed into another driver by way of overtaking several others cars whilst under a safety car. He was banned for two years. He returned to single seater driving and managed to score 2 Macau wins (2017 & 2018).

He was later picked up by the Red Bull junior programme and placed in Super Formula. He was dropped by Red Bull part way into the 2019 season. I can't find the video now, but there was one post race interview where he whinged about his competitors & car.

He returned to European racing with F2 in 2020, in DAMS. At the end of the season, he snidely commented he'll move to a team where he can win races for 2021 and duly joined Carlin.

He was picked up by Williams in 2019, and now dropped.

No F2 weekend was complete without a radio outburst from Dan. Whilst he did mature over the last number of years, it's very hard to look past his 2015 antics and then his constant lashing out in interviews and on team radio.

His F2 car is pretty bare besides Williams sponsorship and a luxury property rental company, so I wonder if we'll see him back after the summer break.

All his own doing.

He was mouthing off about Lattifi on a live stream, someone made a comment about Lattifi being in F1 and him being in F2 and he kicked them off and went on a rant.

He would make Pastor Maldonado look like Senna.