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

Because the Mercedes is quite different to the Aston Martin, and the Alpine is quite different to the Alfa - though we saw from their Ferrari days that Alonso was always a cut above Kimi, just as he was always a cut above the entire grid.

When there's a championship to fight for Seb is on a different level, and he was comfortably better than Hamilton and close to Alonso's level back when they had evenly matched cars. He hasn't lost it so much as circumstances have left him with little to fight for, and he doesn't have that killer instinct of an Alonso to fight tooth and nail whether it's for 1st or 11th. He also has a family life and interests outside of F1 so he doesn't need to take unnecessary risks with little reward.

Hypothetically if Vettel joined Merc ahead of 2014 he'd currently be fighting for his 12th title (as there's no chance in hell he'd have lost one to Rosberg), but instead he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kimi leaves F1 with the helmet he started with. Nice touch.

Looking ominous in FP2 unless the Red Bull is carrying a lot of sandbags.

So Merc have a large gap on one lap pace, but RB have a huge gap in race pace.

They both must have gotten a deal on sandbags.

It goes without saying that they are in different cars, everybody knows this. We've seen what George has managed with that williams. I don't recall any similar heroics from seb or kimi. Having children seems to be the common denominator though.

I'd disagree - I would not be a fan of Hamilton's media trained persona and much preferred him in the earlier days but cannot deny his talent.

It seems to be a typical Irish AND British trait that we turn on people when they become "too" successful.

Personally I think we can't fully appreciate his achievements because they have happened within our generation but records are made to be broken so good luck to him! I certainly think he has a cleaner driving attitude but if Max prevails, credit where it is due. It has certainly been an interesting season ... Alpine providing a notable contribution too!

Hope Max can do it, been the best driver this season and him being dangerous is completely overblown imo. Over on Reddit today there was a tweet digging up an old Hamilton quote when he was questioned on his own aggressive driving style, and he said he needed to drive that way because he didn’t have the fastest car, which is pretty much spot on for what Max is doing now.

And I don’t hate Hamilton, I’m just tired of seeing the same team with the best resources win over and over again. This season has been generally brilliant, but the last few races have ultimately been a procession.

The difference in this case is that RB have arguably had the best car this season and mercedes have been on the backfoot (due to their own fault in stopping development too early last year), although they seem to have caught up in the last few races.

I think Max has had a great season... you only have to compare him to his team mates the last few seasons to note his ability. (Although RB and their second driver is a whole other topic). But, I am not a fan of his driving style. I think for me, it is on the wrong side of aggressive.

I do enjoy Hamilton as a racer and I think he has had an interesting career - and he probably wasn't unlike Max at that age back in the day.... "is that Glock going slow" might just be the F1 quote of the millennium lol!!

I understand completely that it has gotten boring for a lot of people with Hamilton always winning and the mercedes dominance.

But I have so much respect for Hamilton maintaining his level of performance for over 14 years! (and do think there is more to him than just having a fast car).

Yup he really is a fantastic driver and a very talented driver in rain conditions.

I was hoping Schumacher's record would remain for a long time but I wouldnt begrudge Hamilton he's been solid throughout his career and deserves it.

Croft and Kravitz wreck my head fawning over him but its the usual English BS over their own.

If Max remains calm he could become champion on Sunday. Last week he was too stressed and his driving was ragged. I think his father Jos, who seems to be a gung-ho, aggressive type of character, might be a negative influence in that regard. He would be better off listening to the wise heads on his pit wall. He has time on his side, unlike Lewis, and could potentially win ten World championships though not all with Red Bull.

String of bad cars, and a string of incredibly fast teammates who made for very difficult benchmarks he needed to match up to.

He was very impressive at Lotus and of course he was supremely fast before his sabbatical, before his WDC obviously but also after - the way Fisichella struggled so badly in that Ferrari when Massa was injured says a lot about how both Kimi and Felipe were performing - it was worlds apart from, say, George Russell or Nico Hulkenberg jumping a car last year and immediately being as fast as the regular drivers.

In his second Ferrari stint he just wasn’t quite at the level of an Alonso or a Vettel as both those drivers were dragging some pretty poor Ferraris to heights where they didn’t belong, even fighting for championships against vastly superior equipment, which was a task Kimi just wasn’t up to.

And of course he’s in his forties now so his performances were always going to dull. You could say he stayed too long but as long as he enjoyed it and Sauber felt he was a benefit to the team then I don’t think he cares in the slightest how it might change people’s perceptions of his legacy.

This notion of dragging a car to where it doesn't belong or out driving a car or getting more speed out of the car than the car has, is absolutely fairytale nonsense. Its fine for media to use this kind of guff to hype a story. That's their job. But we fans shouldn't be caught repeating it because its not real.

Kimi was very good, maybe even excellent once upon a time. Then he went off the boil and was exposed by faster teammates and he's been barely able to beat journeyman in Gio this year. In 5 years time nobody will remember gio because he was crap. And kimi has slid to that level. Kimi is crap now. He was once great, now he's crap and not worth a drive next year. He hung around too long and his career in totality is very much a mixed bag of reaching great heights and sliding all the way to being crap and coasting on reputation alone and eventually losing his seat.

Yeah I think Max's biggest downfall is Jos Verstappen.

He comes across awfully (aggressive and negative).

I get its his son and he wants the best for him and wants to defend him etc but he should perhaps be a wall between Max and the media instead of constantly talking to them and creating more non existent stories and in fact adding more pressure/hype instead of detracting from it.

I have a smart Sony TV and was able to download All4 app for it so it's possible but may depend on the model of your TV.