F1 2021 Season

This is where I think you’re wrong. It’s not a separate issue, because the one is part of the reason why he didn’t have all of the information. You say correct decision based on the information he had - what you’re missing in my view is that he had a role in why he did NOT have all of the relevant information. Therefore saying he made the right call with the information he had is largely irrelevant.

He didn't though. If his engineer wants to sulk and his team don't want to give him important information, that's their own issue. Andreas could very easily have come on the radio and given him the info like it or not as we see happen at Mercedes with James and Toto and then had a conversation after the race about not being a dick on the radio. His attitude on the radio was stupid and deserves a talking to, but he's not the owner of the team his principles and engineers don't have to be quiet because he asked them to. In fact his engineer shouldn't even have said 'do you want to change tyres' because that's a stupid question based on the current situation where the answer is obviously no, they should have said 'Lando the rain is going to get way worse in the next 2 laps' and then it would have been completely different.
 
He didn't though. If his engineer wants to sulk and his team don't want to give him important information, that's their own issue. Andreas could very easily have come on the radio and given him the info like it or not as we see happen at Mercedes with James and Toto and then had a conversation after the race about not being a dick on the radio. His attitude on the radio was stupid and deserves a talking to, but he's not the owner of the team his principles and engineers don't have to be quiet because he asked them to. In fact his engineer shouldn't even have said 'do you want to change tyres' because that's a stupid question based on the current situation where the answer is obviously no, they should have said 'lando the rain is going to get way worse in the next 2 laps' and then it would have been completely different.
Again, I disagree. But neither of us have all the facts so we are just giving our perspectives, so that’s OK. Anyway, my main point is if Lando is calm, his team remain calm. If Lando sounds like he is panicking, rightly or wrongly it sets a tone for everyone to be more on edge. Which may or may not have contributed to vital information being missed. Look at Mercedes. Hamilton had the same view as Lando, but was much calmer. And in turn, he got a calm response on the radio which in one sentence said “no, you’re coming in, more rain is coming”.

As I’ve said about, this was 80 or 90% on the McLaren team. But Lando should have stayed calm. There’s 100 reasons why he didn’t and they all are fully understandable. But he will learn. And so will McLaren. Proper shitty for Lando, hopefully when he gets that race win it’ll taste all the more sweeter.
 
Whether the call is wrong or not is not decided by the end result, you can't make a call based on what happens in the future that's unknown to you, that's ludicrous. It's decided by the information you have at the time because that's what you use to make the call. At the time, in the current conditions staying out was the correct call because the current tires were the better option in 2 of the 3 sectors and the inters would have been destroyed Lando wasn't struggling, and felt he could continue. Had McLaren known the rain was going to get worse then it would have been the wrong call but it seems like they didn't. If they came in for inters thinking conditions were staying the same, that would have been the wrong call. It only went south when the weather got worse, which Lando wasn't informed about. Had he known that, he'd have used that information to make a different call.

What they need to be asking themselves, is how they didn't know it was going to get worse when Mercedes did. That was the point that Lewis decided to change his opinion on the matter. But fundamentally, calls are correct or not based on the information you had at the time, not whatever happens afterwards. The call and the result are two completely separate things.

I'm not interested in getting too deeply into this again, but Lando takes some blame for getting tunnel vision and telling his team to shut up when they were reiterating for him to box.

It's really unfortunate, and I'm gutted for him, but hopefully it's a lesson he'll have learned by now, that the team has more information than he does about outside influences.
 
He didn't though. If his engineer wants to sulk and his team don't want to give him important information, that's their own issue. Andreas could very easily have come on the radio and given him the info like it or not as we see happen at Mercedes with James and Toto and then had a conversation after the race about not being a dick on the radio. His attitude on the radio was stupid and deserves a talking to, but he's not the owner of the team his principles and engineers don't have to be quiet because he asked them to. In fact his engineer shouldn't even have said 'do you want to change tyres' because that's a stupid question based on the current situation where the answer is obviously no, they should have said 'Lando the rain is going to get way worse in the next 2 laps' and then it would have been completely different.

Bingo. It's a system/process error within the McLaren team. If they knew rain was going to get worse, and Lando wasn't interested then they needed to escalate the issue and get someone more senior on the radio, just like other teams do. You don't sit there and watch someone fail and say "well, I told him".
 
All the drama letting people forget how useless Bottas was again as a team mate. At the start of the season the big benfit Bottas had was that he'd probably be a bertter wing man than a young Russell. Well I think that's put to bed now, I'm convinced Russell would be able to make Max's life a lot harder when he has to that Bottas does. Should have lost his seat this year, and Merc probably should have swapped them already.

Bottas is stealing a wage at this point.
 
Whether the call is wrong or not is not decided by the end result, you can't make a call based on what happens in the future that's unknown to you, that's ludicrous. It's decided by the information you have at the time because that's what you use to make the call. At the time, in the current conditions staying out was the correct call because the current tires were the better option in 2 of the 3 sectors and the inters would have been destroyed Lando wasn't struggling, and felt he could continue. Had McLaren known the rain was going to get worse then it would have been the wrong call but it seems like they didn't. If they came in for inters thinking conditions were staying the same, that would have been the wrong call. It only went south when the weather got worse, which Lando wasn't informed about. Had he known that, he'd have used that information to make a different call.

What they need to be asking themselves, is how they didn't know it was going to get worse when Mercedes did. That was the point that Lewis decided to change his opinion on the matter. But fundamentally, calls are correct or not based on the information you had at the time, not whatever happens afterwards. The call and the result are two completely separate things.
Somebody with their head screwed on! it makes a change.
I agree that it’s on the team who should have / could have interpreted the forecast differently and been more insistent on Lando. However, Lando takes some fault because he categorically told the team he did not want to come him. He didn’t remain calm, instead he barked back to the team on the radio. That’s Lando’s learning from this experience, might be first, might be 3 laps to go, but gotta stay calm in that situation to absorb the facts and make decisions based off of them. I can fully understand it mind. So close to his first win.
Norris was being pressured by a 7 time world champion in the fastest car this weekend, in VERY tricky conditions and aiming for his first ever win.

He was using all his concentration just to stay on the track, then you've got somebody trying to feed information into your ear? did he not say earlier on "no more comms please?"

Norris was doing his job perfectly, but the team messed up by not reading the weather correctly.

They then ignored the fact that other cars had pitted already and were going 8 seconds a lap faster (Bottas). Instead of firming and directly ordering Lando into the pits for his and the teams own good, they pussy footed around it asking if he wanted inters. Clearly he felt he didn't need them and it would be an unneccessary stop. At this point telling him other cars are 8 seconds faster would have been a good idea.

Both Norris and Hamilton said they felt happy in the conditions and didn't want to pit due to only a few laps remaining. You say he should absorb information but they didn't even tell him heavier rains was coming :lol: they said it would stay the same!

When a driver is under Duress/pressure you often get these type of radio calls, it's really nothing new.
 
All the drama letting people forget how useless Bottas was again as a team mate. At the start of the season the big benfit Bottas had was that he'd probably be a bertter wing man than a young Russell. Well I think that's put to bed now, I'm convinced Russell would be able to make Max's life a lot harder when he has to that Bottas does. Should have lost his seat this year, and Merc probably should have swapped them already.
He isn't even trying. Not 1 defensive block on Verstappen at all, look how easy he made the over take and then compare it to how Russell and Ricciardo defended faster cars.

It's been pretty obvious for a while now he has no interest in helping Hamilton get another championship. He's in it for himself now and that's it.
 
He isn't even trying. Not 1 defensive block on Verstappen at all, look how easy he made the over take and then compare it to how Russell and Ricciardo defended faster cars.

It's been pretty obvious for a while now he has no interest in helping Hamilton get another championship. He's in it for himself now and that's it.

My wife's gotten into F1 this year, doesn't follow racing or know anything really about it. Even still when Max went past Bottas she said 'shouldnt he be covering the inside' yes...yes he should.
 
My wife's gotten into F1 this year, doesn't follow racing or know anything really about it. Even still when Max went past Bottas she said 'shouldnt he be covering the inside' yes...yes he should.
:lol: mad isn't it? there's literally only 1 way to overtake on that corner and it's a dive down the inside. All you have to do is move over a slight bit before the braking zone to put them off attempting a late lunge and you're safe.

He either didn't expect Verstappen to attempt it (lol) wasn't aware the move was being made, or simply just didn't care and was happy to let him passed.

Considering the other evidence we've seen from him this year in attempting to defend Verstappen, i'd say it's a combination of him not being good enough + not actually caring one bit.
 
Somebody with their head screwed on! it makes a change.
Norris was being pressured by a 7 time world champion in the fastest car this weekend, in VERY tricky conditions and aiming for his first ever win.

He was using all his concentration just to stay on the track, then you've got somebody trying to feed information into your ear? did he not say earlier on "no more comms please?"

Norris was doing his job perfectly, but the team messed up by not reading the weather correctly.

They then ignored the fact that other cars had pitted already and were going 8 seconds a lap faster (Bottas). Instead of firming and directly ordering Lando into the pits for his and the teams own good, they pussy footed around it asking if he wanted inters. Clearly he felt he didn't need them and it would be an unneccessary stop. At this point telling him other cars are 8 seconds faster would have been a good idea.

Both Norris and Hamilton said they felt happy in the conditions and didn't want to pit due to only a few laps remaining. You say he should absorb information but they didn't even tell him heavier rains was coming :lol: they said it would stay the same!

When a driver is under Duress/pressure you often get these type of radio calls, it's really nothing new.

I think I’ve set out my views on this pretty clearly, we can agree to disagree. It’s not that I don’t understand or appreciate where you’re coming from, it’s just that whilst I agree the team is the main culprit here, Lando didn’t help the situation. It’s egging semantics anyway so doesn’t matter.
 
I think I’ve set out my views on this pretty clearly, we can agree to disagree. It’s not that I don’t understand or appreciate where you’re coming from, it’s just that whilst I agree the team is the main culprit here, Lando didn’t help the situation. It’s egging semantics anyway so doesn’t matter.

I know what you're saying and in the grand scheme of things he could have handled the stress better - but I can only equate it to trying to keep 8 plates spinning and then somebody asking you what you'd like for lunch.

He did ask them to keep quiet while he concentrated on keeping ahead of Lewis in very tricky conditions. I don't think the engineers really helped. At that moment they need to tell Lando what he wants.

Bono didn't give Lewis any choices, he said "We're boxing for inters this lap" as they knew Bottas was going 8 seconds a lap faster.

The Mclaren boys should have said "Lando, we're losing 8 seconds a lap to others on inters, we HAVE to box this lap" and he'd have done it.

Anyway, we could argue about it for hours and hindsight is a wonderful thing. Things like this in sport is never the obvious thing until it unfolds. I'm sure Mclaren will change something / play it safer in the future.

I actually think if Ricciardo hadn't have won the week before, Lando would have been quite happy with a 2nd place. This put more pressure on him to try and be a winner rather than settle for a top result if that makes sense.
 
He isn't even trying. Not 1 defensive block on Verstappen at all, look how easy he made the over take and then compare it to how Russell and Ricciardo defended faster cars.

It's been pretty obvious for a while now he has no interest in helping Hamilton get another championship. He's in it for himself now and that's it.
They should just get Russell in now, though the counter argument would be that it might 3-4 races to get up to speed (this isnt the all conquering best ever Mercedes of last season) and that bahrain drive from last season isnt representative of this years car.

Maybe Mercedes should have officially delayed the decision on bottas until the championship was decided. Give him some bait to be a team player. Now he has nothing but bitterness so it's understandable though not professional of him not to bother.
 
They should just get Russell in now, though the counter argument would be that it might 3-4 races to get up to speed (this isnt the all conquering best ever Mercedes of last season) and that bahrain drive from last season isnt representative of this years car.

Maybe Mercedes should have officially delayed the decision on bottas until the championship was decided. Give him some bait to be a team player. Now he has nothing but bitterness so it's understandable though not professional of him not to bother.
I presume all contracts have been signed, Bottas and Russell are going nowhere for the rest of this season.
Toto will not be happy if Bottas does not try, the constructors championship is dependent on Bottas, he has to try to keep beating Sergio.
 
I presume all contracts have been signed, Bottas and Russell are going nowhere for the rest of this season.
Toto will not be happy if Bottas does not try, the constructors championship is dependent on Bottas, he has to try to keep beating Sergio.
No doubt all the contracts are done. It was more of a pipe dream on my behalf.

Looking at the next three races which the press have said are all tracks that favour the RB (Turkey, Dallas and Mexico). If max wins all three races and gets fastest lap for them all and lewis finishes 2nd each time. We'd be going into the final four races with max having a 22 point lead over lewis. Lewis still most likely will need to take an engine penalty at somepoint.

The Mclarens are so quick in an straight line that they will be in the mix at Dallas and Mexico for sure. Theres so many variables at play this season. Personally I think lewis has to win one of the next three races and finish 2nd to max the other two otherwise it might be over (not mathematically but realistically). The unpredictable weather of turkey might be his best chance.
 
No doubt all the contracts are done. It was more of a pipe dream on my behalf.

Looking at the next three races which the press have said are all tracks that favour the RB (Turkey, Dallas and Mexico). If max wins all three races and gets fastest lap for them all and lewis finishes 2nd each time. We'd be going into the final four races with max having a 22 point lead over lewis. Lewis still most likely will need to take an engine penalty at somepoint.

The Mclarens are so quick in an straight line that they will be in the mix at Dallas and Mexico for sure. Theres so many variables at play this season. Personally I think lewis has to win one of the next three races and finish 2nd to max the other two otherwise it might be over (not mathematically but realistically). The unpredictable weather of turkey might be his best chance.
Yeah I agree McLaren stepping up their game could really make a difference to how this season unfolds. Makes it more interesting IMHO. The title race is still wide open.
 
Lewis has won 4 of the last 6 US races, Bottas 1 so you would think Merc could maybe get a win there, Lewis won Turkey last year in a wet/dry race.
Out of the last 4 Mexico races, Lewis and Max have 2 each.
So on paper you would think Lewis would have a better than even chance of getting a win in 1 maybe 2, but the rules changes s have handed RB the advantage at all 3 tracks.
McLaren joining in is what we all wanted and is mixing it up nicely.
The title race for me is still a 2 horse race, but Norris will take points.
 
If your interested, its a tad steep for 2 nights

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Bingo. It's a system/process error within the McLaren team. If they knew rain was going to get worse, and Lando wasn't interested then they needed to escalate the issue and get someone more senior on the radio, just like other teams do. You don't sit there and watch someone fail and say "well, I told him".

Exactly, that's just a stupid losing mentality.
 
Ross Brawn predicts lewis will retire with 120 grand prix victories to his name.

Personally I think thats ambitious (an average of 10 wins per season for the next two seasons), but we wont know until we see how competitive next years Mercedes is.
 
Ross Brawn predicts lewis will retire with 120 grand prix victories to his name.

Personally I think thats ambitious (an average of 10 wins per season for the next two seasons), but we wont know until we see how competitive next years Mercedes is.
Literally impossible to say right now isn't it? With the cars changing next year Mercedes could be either completely dominant again, or it might become so open that he only wins another 5-10 races in the next couple.

Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull should still be the front runners though you'd expect; but we could get a surprise out of Alpine/Aston/Mclaren maybe.
 
Literally impossible to say right now isn't it? With the cars changing next year Mercedes could be either completely dominant again, or it might become so open that he only wins another 5-10 races in the next couple.

Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull should still be the front runners though you'd expect; but we could get a surprise out of Alpine/Aston/Mclaren maybe.
Its all but guaranteed the Mercs will be at or near the front of the grid with engine regulations staying pretty much the same until 2025 and the Mercs having the best engine set up currently
 
Its all but guaranteed the Mercs will be at or near the front of the grid with engine regulations staying pretty much the same until 2025 and the Mercs having the best engine set up currently

Is this right though? I actually thought the Honda engine was probably the better at the moment, particularly because of theweight distribution of how it’s put together.
 
Is this right though? I actually thought the Honda engine was probably the better at the moment, particularly because of theweight distribution of how it’s put together.
Monza and Sochi have shown Mercedes is still the best power unit for sure.

Red Bull cars can use less aero to decrease drag which effects top speed a lot more than 20-30HP would.

The engines are certainly closer than ever though, enough to not matter too much like they did a few years ago.
 
Honda had the upper hand engine wise until Silverstone. I think Mercedes have levelled with the Honda power unit, though at Socchi Honda introduced a new ES (Energy Store). Also the Honda can deploy the stored charge (ERS) for longer down a straight than Mercedes can and have done all season so far.

Theres also the factor of how old an engine is as well. Max and Bottas both have new ICE whereas Lewis is running an older one. The setup of the car for the track and how quickly you can get the tyres into the optimum operating window plays a part. Its simplifying the arguement too much to say Mercedes have a better engine (powertrain) than honda or vice versa.
 
Its all but guaranteed the Mercs will be at or near the front of the grid with engine regulations staying pretty much the same until 2025 and the Mercs having the best engine set up currently
You do realise F1 is going through the biggest car design change in 40 years? Traditional aero as we have this season will be massively neutered as ground effect aero is coming back into f1. The changes are huge. Make no doubt about it theres a very good chance of the pecking order changing.

Ferrari are very bullish about next years engine and if their radical approach pays off, Mercedes, RB engines and Renault will be playing catchup.
 
F1's maiden Qatar Grand Prix to take place on November 21 with twilight race at Losail International Circuit; The event also has a 10-year deal from 2023, the year after the country stages the FIFA World Cup
F1 has also announced a 10-year deal with Qatar, which will see it take a permanent place on the calendar from 2023.

This year, the twilight race at Doha's Losail International Circuit is on November 19-21 and is one of seven remaining rounds of a hugely competitive campaign, as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battle for the title.

It fills the vacant slot that was left by the Australian GP's cancellation, concluding a triple header after Mexico and Brazil and is the first of three races in the Middle East to finish the season.

The Saudi Arabian and Abu Dhabi GPs are on December 3 and 10.
 
Confirmed race for rest of 2021
Formula 1 2021: Confirmed calendar for the rest of the season
DateGrand Prix
October 10Turkish GP
October 24United States GP
November 7Mexico City GP
November 14Sao Paulo GP
November 21Qatar GP
December 5Saudi Arabian GP
December 12Abu Dhabi GP
 
Formula 1's next generation power unit will reportedly no longer feature the costly and complicated MGU-H hybrid element, a change that could pave the way for Porsche and Audi to join F1's pool of engine suppliers.

Formula 1's stake holders are advancing in their efforts to define the sport's future engine regulations that are expected to be introduced in 2026.

Efforts involving F1, the teams and the FIA have been underway for some time to produce less complex and thus less expensive regulatory platform in a bid to reduce existing costs but also to attract additional engine suppliers to the current group that consists of Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda - or as of next year, Red Bull Powertrains.

According to a report from Auto Motor und Sport, all parties currently sitting at the table, including Porsche and Audi who were offered early on a seat in the talks, have agreed to the future engine's definition.

The defining point is the scrapping of the MGU-H which converts heat from an engine's turbo charger to energy and then stored.

However, stripping the hybrid element from the engine will require boosting the power generated by the MGU-K which fulfills a similar energy conversion role by tapping into the kinetic movement of the rear axle.

According to AMuS, the MGU-K's capability will be augmented to 350 kw/h (476 bhp) of power, a significant boost from the current 120 kw/h (163 bhp) threshold.

But boosting the MGU-K's capacity to harvest and deploy the required energy will imply a battery size and weight increase.

T
 
I randomly saw the Ineos boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain's richest man, in a restaurant this morning ahead of them the announcement on Mercedes F1 entering the America's Cup. He must've have dashed down to the south coast where the announcement is taking place, so I'm told.
 
Formula 1's next generation power unit will reportedly no longer feature the costly and complicated MGU-H hybrid element, a change that could pave the way for Porsche and Audi to join F1's pool of engine suppliers.

Formula 1's stake holders are advancing in their efforts to define the sport's future engine regulations that are expected to be introduced in 2026.

Efforts involving F1, the teams and the FIA have been underway for some time to produce less complex and thus less expensive regulatory platform in a bid to reduce existing costs but also to attract additional engine suppliers to the current group that consists of Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda - or as of next year, Red Bull Powertrains.

According to a report from Auto Motor und Sport, all parties currently sitting at the table, including Porsche and Audi who were offered early on a seat in the talks, have agreed to the future engine's definition.

The defining point is the scrapping of the MGU-H which converts heat from an engine's turbo charger to energy and then stored.

However, stripping the hybrid element from the engine will require boosting the power generated by the MGU-K which fulfills a similar energy conversion role by tapping into the kinetic movement of the rear axle.

According to AMuS, the MGU-K's capability will be augmented to 350 kw/h (476 bhp) of power, a significant boost from the current 120 kw/h (163 bhp) threshold.

But boosting the MGU-K's capacity to harvest and deploy the required energy will imply a battery size and weight increase.

T
The Mercs have dominated the MGU-H era and it has taken the other teams almost 7 years to close that gap. It's very expensive piece of kit and has no development possibilities to the consumer markets for automakers so they have had no interest entering. The news of the VW group entering isn't a coincidence both the regulation change and Abu Dhabi now being mentioned as a new 10% owner in the group comes at the same time as the 10 year contract with the F1. It has been time to change but I fear the change has been bought.
 
Formula 1's next generation power unit will reportedly no longer feature the costly and complicated MGU-H hybrid element, a change that could pave the way for Porsche and Audi to join F1's pool of engine suppliers.

Formula 1's stake holders are advancing in their efforts to define the sport's future engine regulations that are expected to be introduced in 2026.

Efforts involving F1, the teams and the FIA have been underway for some time to produce less complex and thus less expensive regulatory platform in a bid to reduce existing costs but also to attract additional engine suppliers to the current group that consists of Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda - or as of next year, Red Bull Powertrains.

According to a report from Auto Motor und Sport, all parties currently sitting at the table, including Porsche and Audi who were offered early on a seat in the talks, have agreed to the future engine's definition.

The defining point is the scrapping of the MGU-H which converts heat from an engine's turbo charger to energy and then stored.

However, stripping the hybrid element from the engine will require boosting the power generated by the MGU-K which fulfills a similar energy conversion role by tapping into the kinetic movement of the rear axle.

According to AMuS, the MGU-K's capability will be augmented to 350 kw/h (476 bhp) of power, a significant boost from the current 120 kw/h (163 bhp) threshold.

But boosting the MGU-K's capacity to harvest and deploy the required energy will imply a battery size and weight increase.

T

Probably a good move overall - that said I do wonder how long the 2026 engines will remain relevant because by 2030 perhaps hydrogen etc will be more cutting edge? but I guess teams need a long enough vision to enable them to plan properly and at the moment a petrol hybrid is the safest option.

Will be interesting to see how VW group approach things if they are to enter the sport though - will they just be an engine supplier or will they look to have a team (or two) and if so under what badge (audi, porsche or both)

If they are to enter as a team then how they do that will be interesting - do they buy out an established team or a back marker and keep the existing branding till 2026?... Williams would seem the obvious choice if they went down the route of buying an existing team - personally I would love to see more cars on the grid so introducing a couple of new teams would be great but I guess the expertise to design an F1 car from scratch really is niche and there probably isn't lots of people who would leave the sport for a few years to prepare a new team