Formula 1

[PepeLePew]

22 hours ago, bangna said:

I always assumed that as Leclerc had the yellow painted camera on top of the roll hoop that he was number two, that seems to be typical.

Just read on tinternet (so must be true 555) in December 2019 Mattia Binotto was quoted as saying "there will be no more number one" drivers at Ferrari in 2020.

For the coming season Charles Leclerc played down suggestions he would become Ferrari's number one driver when Carlos Sainz Jr arrives next year.

Can we agree he was definitely the better driver? in 2020 

Yep, he was also the better driver in 2019 
Mattia had dug himself into a hole by stating the Vettel was #1 when he hired Leclerc who then went on to beat Vettel. 'No more #1s' was an attempt to dig himself out. They then realised the best way was to boot out the expensive underperforming Vettel and hire a cheaper prospect. 
Ferrari have traditionally had a #1 and a #2 and stated that fact. Other teams also do it but don't publicly announce it and some teams just leave it down to track performance.  

[PepeLePew]

23 hours ago, butterfly bob said:

I'm looking forward to the change in driver pairings next year. Mixing it up will help show where people stand.

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Verstappen v Perez : This is the rumour. Perez wasn't known for his qualifying but did a decent job this year. Some experts reckon Max is the fastest on the grid now. I think Max would give him a beating in qualifying but not as bad as he did to Albon/Gasly.

....

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Perez said he had an offer for 2022. If he doesn't go to Red Bull after all it will be interesting to see who it is from. Williams is an obvious one. I wonder if he can do better and whether Renault or Mclaren would drop a young gun for him?

Alpha Tauri have just announced Yuki Tsonda to replace Kvyat. Although the writing was on the wall it would have been nicer if Kvyat had been officially told it was his last race to allow him to celebrate traditionally with his crew etc, oh well. 
Red Bull have said they will confirm the 2nd seat before xmas. Does this mean that they will keep Albon as they clearly like him and he has potential so I'd guess they'd have stuck him in the Alpha if he wasn't staying in the RB???? It's interesting as if they really want to present a title challenge they need a #2 that can rob points off the Merc. That said is Perez the one that can do that. It seems the RB is a difficult beast to drive. Also RB has never recruited from outside their young driver program. Interesting times for them. 

[butterfly bob]

On 16/12/2020 at 17:38, PepeLePew said:

Alpha Tauri have just announced Yuki Tsonda to replace Kvyat. Although the writing was on the wall it would have been nicer if Kvyat had been officially told it was his last race to allow him to celebrate traditionally with his crew etc, oh well. 
Red Bull have said they will confirm the 2nd seat before xmas. Does this mean that they will keep Albon as they clearly like him and he has potential so I'd guess they'd have stuck him in the Alpha if he wasn't staying in the RB???? It's interesting as if they really want to present a title challenge they need a #2 that can rob points off the Merc. That said is Perez the one that can do that. It seems the RB is a difficult beast to drive. Also RB has never recruited from outside their young driver program. Interesting times for them. 

I'm glad Tsunoda got the drive. Promoting new talent has always been the purpose of the B-team. The car this year was amazingly strong for a B-team so Tsunoda has a big opportunity.

I thought they had improved the handling of the Red Bull. It is still pointy but I thought it was less than before. It may still be difficult to drive if they won't consider Gasly. He would probably struggle again if it was.

The Red Bull line up is supposed to be announced tomorrow. Sky have been rumour mongering that Marko/Horner both want Albon out but have to convince the owner. They also reckon Perez will only be on a 1 year contract where he has to prove himself. Too many F1 rumours are pure fiction though. We should see how good Sky's are tomorrow. Perez has been talking like he has no sign from Red Bull at all. If they were considering him I thought they would have approached him to keep him available. Given the chance I still think Perez will get a lot more points than Albon did, no matter what the car is like.

Edited December 17, 2020 by butterfly bob

[PepeLePew]

2 hours ago, butterfly bob said:

I'm glad Tsunoda got the drive. Promoting new talent has always been the purpose of the B-team. The car this year was amazingly strong for a B-team so Tsunoda has a big opportunity.

I thought they had improved the handling of the Red Bull. It is still pointy but I thought it was less than before. It may still be difficult to drive if they won't consider Gasly. He would probably struggle again if it was.

The Red Bull line up is supposed to be announced tomorrow. Sky have been rumour mongering that Marko/Horner both want Albon out but have to convince the owner. They also reckon Perez will only be on a 1 year contract where he has to prove himself. Too many F1 rumours are pure fiction though. We should see how good Sky's are tomorrow. Perez has been talking like he has no sign from Red Bull at all. If they were considering him I thought they would have approached him to keep him available. Given the chance I still think Perez will get a lot more points than Albon did, no matter what the car is like.

Whoever they chose it will be interesting. Do they stick with policy and keep the RB junior or throw principle to the wind and hire an established peddler who may or may not get a handle on the car.......... 
If I was forced to bet I'd put it on Albon but I'd not be surprised if they took Perez, or even a different driver all together.

[PepeLePew]

Strong rumours all over the place today that Perez will be announced and Alex will be reserve

[PepeLePew]

And confirmed

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/154289/perez-replaces-albon-at-red-bull-for-2021

[gmingot]

An interesting decision, I can't see Verstappen and Perez being the best of buddies as team-mates. We could be seeing the Multi-21 situation, like Vettel/Webber, a few times next year

[jerry]

12 hours ago, gmingot said:

An interesting decision, I can't see Verstappen and Perez being the best of buddies as team-mates. We could be seeing the Multi-21 situation, like Vettel/Webber, a few times next year

Pretty sure Perez is there to give Max a better chance to beat the Mercs . Don't think they want another Max/Ricci scenario . 

[butterfly bob]

6 hours ago, jerry said:

Pretty sure Perez is there to give Max a better chance to beat the Mercs . Don't think they want another Max/Ricci scenario . 

Perez has a history of pushing team-mates into the wall when they try to overtake him. He'll have to cut that out if he wants to keep his seat. I think there will be a clear gap between these 2 in qualifying so I don't expect Max to start behind him too often.

[PepeLePew]

6 hours ago, jerry said:

Pretty sure Perez is there to give Max a better chance to beat the Mercs . Don't think they want another Max/Ricci scenario . 

 

4 minutes ago, butterfly bob said:

Perez has a history of pushing team-mates into the wall when they try to overtake him. He'll have to cut that out if he wants to keep his seat. I think there will be a clear gap between these 2 in qualifying so I don't expect Max to start behind him too often.

 

And that's the problem team bosses have. It's all very well having 2 drivers pushing each other when you are a rising team getting through the field but once at the top you want a point man and a wing man but you want them to achieve that naturally. 

It will be interesting but I expect max to show Perez a clean pair of heels once lap 1 is out of the way.

[vimto66]

I didnt watch the sports personality of the year, but congrats to Lewis Hamilton on winning the award, did his car get runner up?

[gazO]

RIP Murray Walker a legend, a great personality and commentator.

Always remember when he poked the bump on Nigel Mansel's head.

The last chequered flag Murray.

[gazO]

 

[Fire Bar Matt]

A little over a week until we kick off the new season, it should be very interesting. 
 

For Netflix subscribers, Drive to Survive S3 has just been released showcasing all of last years season. I’m just starting the binge

[Carcosa]

Have binge watched Drive to Survive 3. Not so sure that it is the best of all the series to date but given the covid restrictions for the Netflix crew etc it is nonetheless highly entertaining. 

Interesting how they have also linked a few of the stories over a multi-year time frame. 

Getting to see and hear drivers, mechanics and team managers gut reactions to things occurring on and off track is always interesting and Gunthur remains the star 

Leclerc's crash... I did not realise he had actually been knocked out for a few seconds post crash. 

But of course, the dramatic crash by Romain with some new camera angles not seen before is the over riding memory for me. What I failed to appreciate at the time is that Romain was stuck there for nearly 3 minutes in that inferno. I can't really comprehend how he survived that with minimal injuries.

The production values make for some exciting race scenes too. 

Overall I would give it 8/10 with season one and two being 9/10

[Tatanka]

9 minutes ago, Carcosa said:

. What I failed to appreciate at the time is that Romain was stuck there for nearly 3 minutes in that inferno. I can't really comprehend how he survived that with minimal injuries.

 

3 minutes ??

28 seconds

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/22/motorsport/romain-grosjean-f1-crash-spt-intl/index.html

[Carcosa]

Episode S3 Ep 9 32:50min: 2 min 45 sec from "time of crash to seeing he was alive" but yes, I accept your link of 28 seconds as being more reasonable/accurate. Remarkable event.

[eddydb]

Another F1 fan here and I started watching Season 3 last night.  

I think it's been a great series and it's helped me get a few friends interested in the sport.  I'm sure it has helped to get more Americans interested also.  I got into F1 about 7-8 years ago by watching qualifying while at a pub inn Pattaya.  Before that I didn't know anything about any racing sports, but another guy at the bar explained the qualifying process and I was hooked.  

[Fire Bar Matt]

18 hours ago, Carcosa said:

Episode S3 Ep 9 32:50min: 2 min 45 sec from "time of crash to seeing he was alive" but yes, I accept your link of 28 seconds as being more reasonable/accurate. Remarkable event.

2 min 45 sec of air time doesn’t accurately represent the actual events. They had shots of drivers sitting in pit lane with their helmets off and in distress but the cars weren’t even in pit lane before Romain was out of fire. Netflix just cut the film together to emphasis the severity, drama and emotion of the moment. 
 

That being said, some of the close up footage they had was remarkable, I watched that race live and Netflix seemed to have shots I’d never seen before. 

[Carcosa]

Grosjean's Insane Fireball Crash | Formula 1: Drive To Survive S3

[keepitfun]

Ricciado’s year....you heard if first folks.

[mikeyboy]

23 hours ago, keepitfun said:

Ricciado’s year....you heard if first folks.

Would like to think that Daniel will do well , but going by yesterdays qualification for Bahrain he will do well to get past his team mate  .  

Seemed to be fighting the car all the way round the track was how 1 pundit put it . 

Looking forward to a real season of proper races without total domination from Mercedes .  Max tipped to do really well if he doesn't get over excited ! 

Mikeyboy 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by mikeyboy
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[keepitfun]

Agreed...but....he seems to be very good at getting his team to sort the car to his requirements.  HOPE

[OKAY]

F1 will not survive another season of same old same old. Who'd watch the same horse race over and over when you know who is going to win place and show ?

If Haas doesn't do better, Americans will quit watching in droves.

[vimto66]

Another win for Hamilton who'd a thought it, to be fair at least it was a race and it wasnt an easy ride for him.