Not to mention the car itself would become contaminated, and that's something difficult to keep in isolation away from driver and crew.
-tg
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Not to mention the car itself would become contaminated, and that's something difficult to keep in isolation away from driver and crew.
-tg
So many things to look forward to this weekend.
How well does Russell perform in a Tier 1 F1 car?
Will he beat Bottas? (would be soul crushing for Bottas probably)
Can Max pull off a win with no Hamilton to contend with?
Can Max at least tighten up the fight for second place in the drivers championship?
Does third place in the constructor's championship tighten up again?
Can Albon have another good finish and make a case for keeping his seat?
Can Racing Point bounce back from last weekends catastrophic race?
Can Ferrari bounce back from their poor performance last weekend?
How well does the Haas perform without Grosjean in the seat?
Will tire wear be an issue?
Probably lots more.
Should be pretty exciting for a race where the driver and constructor championships have long ago been clinched.
I expect George Russell to be a bit slower than Bottas, but it is a good chance for him to show off his skills - and if he does perform better than Bottas, it could boost his career a lot (maybe even a 'better' team for next season).
Max has a good chance of a win, but it depends on how much the alternative track layout works for the team, their strategy, and of course any affect that luck has.
As a McLaren fan, I hope that third place in the constructor's championship stays in McLaren's favour :)
There is certainly potential for a good race this weekend.
I probably should be rooting against Racing Point because of the "copying" shenanigans, but I'm over it. I'm just glad there has been a tight race somewhere this year, since there certainly hasn't been one at the top.
George Russell fastest in FP1 and FP2. Looking good for him for the weekend.
Nice to see a Fittipaldi back in an F1 car.
Russell was so close to getting pole position. I hope he wins tomorrow, with Verstappen 2nd and Perez 3rd.
Albon doesn't even make Q3. They need a consistent driver in that seat for next year, and Albon isn't it.
It really shows how important the car your in is. Russell usually @ 2 seconds behind the pole and today he is basically the same speed. With minimal time in the car. Hamilton is an excellent driver but without the Mercedes car he doesn't win championships. I'm amazed that Mercedes has been able to stay so dominate for so many years. It also annoys the hell out of me.
Yeah, it bugs the heck out of me when they're sitting there, waiting for the flag, and one Mercedes driver turns to another and asks, "pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"
Left the room right after Mercedes pooched the Bottas pit stop thinking Russell now had the win in the bag, come back and Russell is behind Bottas after having pitted again, and was so bummed for him. Then was fist-pumping every overtake. Then he had the puncture. So sick.
I really hope he's in the seat again next week.
LOL @ Toto Wolff dropping an F bomb in the post-race interview. The funny thing is that his quote describing today as being "a colossal ****-up" is still a colossal understatement.
Bottas has reportedly deleted Mercedes from his Instagram profile, and George Russell has apparently deleted references to being a Williams driver from social media. Bottas is under contract for 2021, and Russell is signed for Williams next year, but as with most things in life, a pile of money can take care of all of those insignificant details.
Lewis/Russell would be epic for Mercedes in 2021. Or maybe Hamilton hangs it up and it is Russell/Bottas, in that order of course.
George had a brilliant race - shame about the team (radio fail led to the wrong tyres), and the bad luck (the puncture).
He is certainly a star of the future, and will get a good chance soon enough... probably not next year tho, as one good race isn't enough to get him a top seat (and Mercedes have already given a subtle denial), but that race might enable him to sneak into a better team than Williams for next year.
I was under the impression Botas was going to GP next year.Quote:
Bottas is under contract for 2021
Grojean is retiring, but he didn't have a seat next year anyways, so no loss there.
Mags is moving to Indy which will be interesting to say the least.
Silly season is almost upon us, and given how late this season has gone, I wonder if it'll be a short one, and things will be back in MArch, or if there will be a late start. That said, I haven't heard about a start to Formula E.
-tg
Odds that Nikita Mazepin's F1 career is over before it ever got started?
I didn't really know anything about him until today, but he sounds like he will be a disaster for Haas next year. Hotheaded, dangerous driver. Crony billionaire father. Groping a woman on camera and posting it to social media. Haas "handling internally" - translation "daddy ponied up a few more million to make this go away." The woman in question apparently posted a video saying how it was no big deal, they are old friends, etc. Even if that is true, and she wasn't "encouraged" (pressured) to post that follow-up video, you still can't post that kind of thing on social media.
I get that money talks, but, to quote Joe Biden, "come on man!"
Yeah, I dunno... seeing how long it took them to untangle from the Big Rich fiasco... I thought Haas was better than that... I also thought Haas would be secured enough that they wouldn't need a daddy warbucks for any kind of support. The fact that they've dealt with it internally and there is no public statement regarding his release I find a bit concerning. Just as concerning is Merc's silence on it... and F1's... so much for "We race as one"...
-tg
Well, you know, there is that old saying: The family that races together disgraces together.
Get in there Max!
It would be epic if Max can hold the lead and steal 2nd place in the drivers championship from Bottas. That would still require Bottas to have issues as well, but he's proven to be very capable of that lately.
If Albon had raced the same as he did today for most of the rest of the season, there wouldn't be any discussion about his seat next year. Probably too little too late, but who knows.
Bummer for Perez, he was moving up the field well before his failure.
McLaren deserved 3rd in the constructors championship, the 15 point Racing Point penalty for Brake-Duct-Gate ended up playing a role in that, as it should have.
Glad for Max to get the sweep, but man that was a boring race.
Well, that didn't take long.
Word is Perez to sign with Red Bull, Albon to stay on as the reserve driver. If Perez doesn't work out, it is Albon's seat once again.
So I think the last question is what happens to Kvyat's seat? Still hoping it goes to Hulkenberg.
Perez officially in Red Bull seat #2. I am excite.
Alpha Tauri seat #2 still up in the air, unless I've missed something.
wow, that is a great pair of drivers.Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
I do hope that Hulkenberg will get a chance for a free seat in 2021
And I had missed something. Announced a few days ago, Yuki Tsunoda is coming up from F2 to the second Alpha Tauri seat replacing Kvyat.
All things considered, Alpha Tauri had a great season this year, and I hope that continues next year. It would be nice to see a close 5 way race for 3rd place in the constructors championship.
Haas, Alfa Romeo, and Williams are almost certainly going to be struggling to score any points each race again next year.
The drivers market seems to have settled now, and there are some potentially interesting things there, especially with the new people and the returning Alonso.
In terms of teams, things are likely to improve next year for McLaren (they are moving to Mercedes engines [after beating Renault with the same Renault engine], and have had a cash injection from a new shareholder), so they might make it a "top 3 teams" situation, with others battling for 4th place.
Williams also have a bigger budget, so they are likely to improve too - but it is debatable how much, we'll have to see.
I'm amazed how loyal HAAS has been to Steiner. There were plenty of equipment failures and brake problems persist. Why not move on and see if someone else could improve the team.
We're two months away from the season openiner in Bahrain... Lewis still has yet to secure his contract... There's conflicting stories... one moment, they're close, another, Russel is in, the next.... eeehhh... well... it keeps going back and forth. Wonder how long the drama llama will continue to go on like this until either one side or the other gives in or, or.... or something happens. Stay tuned after the break.
-tg
I hope Lewis doesn't get signed and they go with Russel. This summer Lewis was playing the angle of "with all the crap going on in the world it isn't the right time to sit down and talk about tens of millions of dollars" or something like that. Came off (to me at least) as complete hogwash, and merely a negotiating tactic. After all, in theory, the longer he waits to re-sign, the more he can probably squeeze out of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by techgnome
Then he gets Covid, misses a race, and it turns out there is a lot of success in that particular seat. And, thankfully, that seat is already under contract with Mercedes.
So now, his best bargaining chip, himself, has lost significant value.
So they can save many, many millions of dollars by replacing Lewis with Russell, they still likely win the driver and constructor's championship, and Lewis broke (or tied) all the big career records, so its still a good send-off.
But they are obviously going to end up paying Lewis, and then we'll get some BS PR from him about how guilty he feels making all that money when so many people are suffering.
Wow, I almost forgot about Lewis not having signed yet.
There seems to be some activity:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKM23wNFRCw/
But nothing about signing or how the "talks"/"negotiations" are going (unless I missed something).
Honestly, at this point, I don't think I'd be put out if he didn't get signed for a year and sat this one out. But then again, once you're out, you're out, and it's difficult to get back in.
-tg
just read an article here in Germany, Lewis is asking for 40 million Euros for the new season.
WoW:eek: is all I can say, I would go with George Russel if I were Toto
Apparently that is his current contract amount, for his new contract he is asking for $40 million dollars which is around 33 million Euros plus a percentage of Mercedes F1 prize money which depending on Covid etc could be around 15 million euros at the top end, probably less this season.Quote:
just read an article here in Germany, Lewis is asking for 40 million Euros for the new season.
The article i read suggested that the deal will likely happen they are just in the negotiating phase. To those who think Hamilton is not worth that type of money, well if he keeps winning he probably is to the Mercedes bottom line.
Hamilton signed a 1 year contract for 2021. Darn. Russell in that seat would have made the entire season more exciting.
Now its going to be Hamilton winning 15+ races, locking up the driver and constructor championships with 4 races to go or so, and Bottas pledging after each race that he's about to start putting more pressure on Hamilton next time. Yawn.
How Perez does in Red Bull, and will Ferrari rebound are going to be what I'm watching for in the first few races.
I wouldn't expect to much change this year. With the new car next year, you have to wonder how much they want to invest in change this year. I'd have to agree with OB, same old stuff as last 8 years.
Sprint races should be interesting. Hopefully they don't just end up being more Mercedes point-palooza opportunities.
My biggest fear this year is that with all of the new F1 drivers there's going to be some bad wrecks due to their inexperience.
Can't wait for next weekend!
I had to get Sky in order to watch F1, since it's not on FreeTV anymore in Germany.
I just hope that Red Bull and others can make this season a little more difficult for
Mercedes.
Cautiously optimistic that Max can be battling Hamilton for the win on Sunday. He looked good in FP1 and FP2. I'm a bit disappointed in the gap from Max to Perez, but it is very early obviously.
The results from FP1 and FP2 make me think that the midfield competition will be even better than last year, and if so, that will be fantastic.
Max, with damage, still on the pole by a fairly wide margin. The midfield was super tight. Should be a really good race tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't ruined by Mazepin doing something idiotic.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
Great race. Hamilton deserved that win. Red Bull with gremlins in both cars in the first race is a bit disappointing. If only they had the rock solid stability of Mercedes...
Bottas just has to accept the fact that he's not Nico Rosberg and will never be putting Hamilton to the test. I know they had the pit stop issue, but he was never close to Lewis from the get go.
I hope the rest of the season is of similar quality racing/strategy.
I bet that is why Bottas got another Contract for this season:rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by OptionBase1
I was impressed with Perez, wonder where he would have been if he didn't have that issue (what was it ?) at the start of the Race (3rd perhaps)
Looked like everything just went out on his car, I didn't know that the car could be started again by the Driver
Seemed like a much better race than the parades we got last year.
Looks like RB & Ferrari might finally be able to take the fight to the front this year... time will tell though.
The car has always been started by the driver (or it's been that way for some time at least). That's one advantage that F1 has had over Indy. They have anti-stall tech on the engines that allows the driver to be able to restart the engine following an incident. Indy on the other hand, doesn't and requires a starter to crank the engine to get it restarted, which is why it sometimes takes longer to clear cars. I believe in the 21 or 22 season that's to change though, and Indy will add the same tech, allowing drivers to start and re-start their engines on the line, and following incidents.Quote:
I didn't know that the car could be started again by the Driver
-tg