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

Yeah; maybe. But Senna died in 1994. How is he still bringing in money to the Brazilian economy? Merchandise sales wouldn't even qualify as a drop in the ocean. Fair point re Germany.

Eddie Jordan pushed for it at his pomp but its too expensive and the noise pollution is ridiculous

I am surprised that there’s so many calling it a drive for the ages. Hamilton was excellent but I’m not even sure I’d consider it his best drive this season - he had such a pace advantage he would have had to massively screw up to get anything but first.

As for the ICE replacement rules, it is what it is for this season, and Mercedes might basically have a loophole to help them in the last stint(although there’s nothing to suggest they will use any new engine for the last 3 races). But it definitely needs to be looked at in future - what’s the point of having a penalty that doesn’t actually penalise you?

I maintain that an RB win in at least the drivers championship this season would be the best outcome for the sport. They’ve stepped up massively this season and have had the best car and driver combination. To come so close but to be undone by 2 incidents caused by your rival team and a soft penalty for replacement parts seems really harsh.

Rumours Audi have bought McLaren to secure an entry into F1. Reported by Autocar.

Lots of reports that Audi have bought McLaren. The VW group have been gaining interest in F1 so it will be interesting to see what this means for the F1 team. Of course they already own and operate many brands independently so McLaren may continue to function as McLaren, time will tell.

When McLaren sold their factory a couple of years ago so they could rent it back that was probably their death knell as an independent sadly. The final casualty of the stupidly expensive 2014 hybrid formula, after Williams, Force India, Sauber, Lotus, Caterham and Marussia have all folded or been sold. That makes Haas the only privateer left standing, thanks in no small part to Mazepin's family of course.

On the plus side, we're finally putting that awful chapter of F1 behind us and the sport is looking like it could be attractive again to other constructors like VW as the cost cap comes in next year and the sport looks to bring in more sensible engines for 2025.

I miss going to the Phoenix Park races back in the 90s when it wasn't unusual for F1 cars to do demo runs, alongside all the local events. Closest thing we had to Goodwood.

Yes the modern Phoenix Park races are badly missed. I was fortunate to see Stirling Moss race (and win!) there in a classic race. The UK (or Euro?) BOSS championship visited Mondelo at least once, fantastic to get up so close and personal to the old F1 cars in the paddock.

I wonder with these new cars that run better in dirty air we’ll see DRS dialled back in favour of more pure racing

I'm not sure why ICE rules are so set in stone until the end of the season when they freely changed the pitstop rules midseason because they didn't like that Red Bull were faster than Mercedes and they changed the rules on rear wing flexing midseason after Mercedes complained about that too. The 5-place rule was a reaction to the likes of McLaren Honda getting 40 place penalties every race when their reliability was atrocious. It was only ever meant to be for exceptional circumstances of poor reliability.

Mercedes are deliberately exploiting it first by putting tons of engines in Bottas' car so they can use him as a test mule, and then using that data to put a fresh engine turned up to max in Lewis' car for a far smaller penalty than the benefit conferred. When a team starts exploiting a loophole like that, you close the loophole. It's not hard, just increase the number of grid places every extra engine after the second one above allocation is a 20 place penalty, effective immediately for all teams.

That's a no then.