Very settled grid next year. If Mercedes have a good car they will be frightening.
LH's final year behind a F1 wheel?
I wouldn't be too comfortable if I was Yuki or Checo. The latter is safe enough for now but if the performance drops Marko is ruthless. Brendan Hartley didn’t see out his year in Torro Rosa either.
Let's hope the rest of the grid all improve so including Red Bull, Ferrari and Mclaren.
He signed a 2 year contract this year.
But I'd say when George takes over and wipes the floor of him he will leave next year.
Race thread:
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058218468/formula-1-grand-prix-round-20-qatar#latest
I think Checo and Tsunoda will be perfectly fine. The only one capable of taking Checo's place is Gasly, and Red Bull are having none of him for whatever bizarre reason.
Some of the Red Bull juniors are going well but nobody is really standing out from the crowd in the way Russell/LeClerc did in the lower formulae. Vips is probably the best of them but I can't see him having enough to oust Tsunoda mid-season.
Part of the reason I hope Hamilton wins number 8 is because I want the shackles taken off Russell. If Max wins then Russell will probably have to play the rear gunner next year whereas if Hamilton wins out then Merc can say he has nothing left to achieve and they need to see if Russell is the one for the future, which means letting them both race.
Playing the rear gunner goes out the window if Russell routinely out qualifies him or gets some early wins.
Could see Ferrari and Alpine being a bit better next year, McLaren too. I do wonder if this title battle this year will hurt RB and Merc.
No one knows whats gonna happen next year and with these new cars could be bloody Haas being the front runners, they didnt put any money into this years car.
id definitely watch that season, having all the top teams scrambling to beat haas
If Haas are still dead last again next season after publicly saying they don't give a shite about this year to focus on 2022 they should just pull out and call it a day.
You'd love to see a brawn like story next season, if it's the same story next season as this one you'd roll your eyes a bit.
you d have to question, how a team thats been pumping millions into it, and with serious racing heritage behind it, is still stuck at the back, is it the team, or is f1 just a real big boys club now!
They haven't always been stuck at the back. They were genuine midfielders when they started.
Their fortunes are directly tied to Ferrair's success. When ferrari were stronger and were the main (though distand) challenger to Mercedes, Haas were stronger.
The last couple of years they have really struggled and the Ferrari engine has been poor since the cheating setback. Now they ferrari engine had an upgrade and they have taken control of 3rd in the constructors championship over Mclaren.
This year they have decided not to develop the car at all to focus on next year. So there about a year behind everyone else. A full year of development is huge In F1and , low and behold they're a second off the nearest team in quali. A second isn't bad considering they are using last year's car.
Next year is the real test for them.
We can only hope it does.
I'd love to see Verstappen win it this year then next year have a four way fight for the drivers title between McLaren and Ferrari.
All bets are off for next year so if Hamilton is to win number 8, then this is the year to do it. He might not get another shot at it. Russell doesn't come into the equation at all if the car isn't near the front next year.
It’s why I hope he doesn’t do it this year. I’d hate for the turbo hybrid era to be completely dominated by one team, and RB stepping up have made it a brilliant season.
If Lewis is to break the WDC record, I’d love to see him doing it in a hopefully more competitive field in 2022. Would be an amazing legacy to have won titles in 3 different eras.
I would love a really close battle next year, kinda like 2010 or 2012. This year has still been great though, I still want Max to do it, he has been superb all year.
[Missed Apex F1 Podcast] Tech Time with Matt Somerfield November 17, 2021 #missedApexF1Podcast
https://podcastaddict.com/episode/131434187 via @PodcastAddict
Listening to the Missed Apex tech time podcast and they have an interesting discussion of the Mercedes wing and the penalty. It was only a fifth of a millimeter outside the regulations. So whatever max was looking at on the back of the Mercedes, that wasn't it. It was just a fluke that the FIA found it to be irregular after RB Complained about it after the race in Mexico. They randomly chose Mercedes for a rear wing check and found this tiny irregularity.
So whatever RB thought was wrong with the wing was either not wrong or is yet to be found by the FIA.
Interesting bit of trivia they just mentioned: which 2 teams are still on their 3rd engine for the season?
Yup, word on the gird is that Newey and his team presented a block of stuff to say that the bottom plane of the wing is flexing under load. That is what Max was looking at. Once the DRS failed the test, RB didn't push it too hard due to the penalty they were already going to get, so we might hear more about that soon.
For the 3rd engine, I didn't google but I will say Alpine?
Haas and alfa haven't taken any engine penalties I feel?
Correct.
Which suggests the Ferrari has the best reliability this year. It also means neither of those events is using the upgraded Ferrari engine which appears to have helped the Ferrari team in its battle for 3rd in the constructors.
The saga rolls on. If red bull think they're on to something then they'll surely press the issue. Strange thst they FIA inspected free car but didn't find the issue RB were querying. Maybe it both passes the load test and bends at loads grater than the test load.
Those static load tests are not fit for purpose.
Surely with the great minds of F1, they are building in structures into wing supports that are effected by airflow, for example wing support being twisted slightly by airflow and therefore performing slightly differently to the static case to allow deflection.
I think RB are just playing the long game in a way. The load tests also don't test the main plane of the rear wing, I believe. They just press down on the upper element where the DRS is.
If they can press the case, I would say they are waiting until the next race perhaps. Jeddah looks very fast to the benefit might be huge, if RB can disrupt it then it would make sense to protest there.
As much action off track as there is on.
There has already been a precedent about flexing wings. Teams were given loads of time to fix it and not penalised.
Surely in this day and age, the FIA can calculate the real world loads and apply these during static testing.
These are the marks that the RB team are saying shows the main plane is flexing at speed. There isn't a test for this right now...can of worms about to be opened?
Now that it’s becoming very clear from the photos how Mercedes cheated to gain that unprecedented level of top speed advantage, something has to be done to preserve the integrity of the sport surely. How can that result stand, when you look at something like Hungary where Vettel was completely disqualified for a small issue with fuel measurement that wasn’t intentional and conferred no benefit.
You were complaining previously about Merc trying to win off track by complaining about Red Bull, perfectly happy though for Red Bull to benefit from complaints.
RB weren't disqualified earlier in the season due to their flexi wings so why should Merc be now. IF it's unfair then ban it and move on, same deal RB got, but then you aren't interested in what's fair, only what benefits Max/RB
