F1 2021 Season

If you’re into podcasts, there’s a good few around. Beyond the grid is excellent. I like For Formula 1s Sake (FF1S) for a bit of a laugh, F1: The Checkered Flag (BBC) & F1 Nation is good too.

Also listen to some smaller podcasts like 3 Legs 4 Wheels & WTF1 now and again too.
+1 for 3 Legs 4 Wheels
 
On the recommendation of this thread I’ve been watching Drive to Survive, it’s excellent! A few thoughts:

1. Ferrari look almost amateurish compared to the other big teams. A real shame.

2. Red Bull make compelling viewing. Horner is very charismatic. But they don’t know how to manage their drivers at all. Team management is great, man management is awful. They burn through number 2 drivers by creating a toxic pressure cooker environment but under the guise of being charming and supportive, which they aren’t. Ricciardo, Gasly, Albon....when the young drivers struggle, which is no surprise....they crush their confidence. Makes you wonder why they invested in a young driver in the first place. Like they are just trying to get a Verstappen mk.2.

3. Verstappen is pretty damn unlikable.

4. Ricciardo is charming but very insecure. Overcompensates with his excessive confidence, but keeps jumping ship when faced with a challenge.

5. Mercedes are just a cut above in everything they do. Love their rejection of a blame culture and just general lack of drama within the team. Can see why they repeatedly win.

6. loving watching McLaren develop.

7. Norris and Perez are very impressive.

8. The Renault team principal is a bit of a whiny baby.

9. Lawrence Stroll is extremely charmless and seems like generally to lack self awareness and be quite awful.

10. Haas is a circus. Their team principal Gunter what’s his face is entertaining but comes across as a bit of a clown to me. They don’t seem to have much integrity or strategy as a team. First the Rich Energy fiasco, then the way they dumped both drivers to bring in two rookies; one of whom has no business with an F1 seat.

11. I fecking loved Perez winning his first GP after coming back from 18th, not long after being unceremoniously dumped by Racing Point. Especially after a year when he drove the tits off their car.

12. Generally enjoyed watching both McLaren and Renault pass Racing Point in the constructors on the last race of the season, especially after their “pink Mercedes” shenanigans, and treatment of Perez.

13. Loved seeing Gasly win after being dumped for Albon.

14. Hamilton and Bottas both come across well.

15. Toto Wolf is the man.

16. Sainz is clearly a great driver but I am looking forward to Norris beating him this season.

17. Horner loves himself a little bit too much, loves amping up the drama around his own drivers in a reality TV type of way. Loves shit talking his own drivers too much. Not the sort of leadership I particularly approve of. Talks about high standards etc, but comes across as a bit of a snake.
 
Red Bull make compelling viewing. Horner is very charismatic. But they don’t know how to manage their drivers at all. Team management is great, man management is awful. They burn through number 2 drivers by creating a toxic pressure cooker environment but under the guise of being charming and supportive, which they aren’t. Ricciardo, Gasly, Albon....when the young drivers struggle, which is no surprise....they crush their confidence. Makes you wonder why they invested in a young driver in the first place. Like they are just trying to get a Verstappen mk.2.

I think Helmut Marko’s influence is the main issue here, if you read Mark Webber’s book you get a good idea of how the whole Red Bull team works. Once they move on from him I think Red Bull will become a bit more likeable, Horner is marmite.
 
Just watched the end of the F2 race, exciting stuff.
Must admit dont watch much if any F2, that will have to change.
You really should, it's just as exciting as F1, even more at times on some circuits due to the cars being lower downforce and able to stick together closer.

Not to mention the drivers generally are racing to impress, so usually take more gambles + mistakes.

The field right now is a great mixture of experience + great young talents with no clear favourite for the title
 
Surely when you get to the point that you have a seat at the second best F1 team then you shouldn't need hand-holding from the boss. At that level you are being paid a lot to perform. Maybe Horner is fecking up by putting too much reliance on young drivers who don't have it yet.

That being said I do think he's quite a smug little prick which is why him and Verstappen seem to get on so well.
 
Surely when you get to the point that you have a seat at the second best F1 team then you shouldn't need hand-holding from the boss. At that level you are being paid a lot to perform. Maybe Horner is fecking up by putting too much reliance on young drivers who don't have it yet.

That being said I do think he's quite a smug little prick which is why him and Verstappen seem to get on so well.
It's also funny as he can't push his personality on Verstappen too much. Can't risk making the golden child unhappy!
 
It's also funny as he can't push his personality on Verstappen too much. Can't risk making the golden child unhappy!

Yes it seems Max can do no wrong but it's not like he's got anywhere other than RB to jump to so CH doesn't have to be an arse-licker.
 
Surely when you get to the point that you have a seat at the second best F1 team then you shouldn't need hand-holding from the boss. At that level you are being paid a lot to perform. Maybe Horner is fecking up by putting too much reliance on young drivers who don't have it yet.

That being said I do think he's quite a smug little prick which is why him and Verstappen seem to get on so well.
Think the issue is they're struggling to balance;

A: Using drivers that are from their Red Bull program to warrant it's worth

B: Getting a driver that's happy to be a clear 2nd fiddle to Verstappen.

Both Albon/Gasly were good drivers but clearly weren't mentally ready for the pressure, and didn't have the experience to help setup the car in a way that might help.

Perez is the perfect mixture of both. He's got experience and is a very calm driver, and clearly very happy to drive the fastest car on the grid after potentially not driving anything. A chance for him to get more podiums and potentially more race wins towards the end of his career is a godsend.
 
Surely when you get to the point that you have a seat at the second best F1 team then you shouldn't need hand-holding from the boss. At that level you are being paid a lot to perform. Maybe Horner is fecking up by putting too much reliance on young drivers who don't have it yet.

That being said I do think he's quite a smug little prick which is why him and Verstappen seem to get on so well.
I mean you could say the same for football? But in reality talented people react to pressure differently, some need shielding from it whereas others rise to it. You can’t expect every player driver to be Verstappen/Haaland. They most definitely made mistakes putting young drivers in the seat too early. That being said I think they really tried to shield Albon the best they could and there isn’t really much else that could be done. They kept him in the seat well past he deserved and always publicly supported him.

Gasly on the other hand, I think they made a big mistake with. They dropped him when he couldn’t perform, which is fair enough, but they seem to have set in stone that he won’t be returning when he’s well on the way to proving himself again. His performances since being dropped have been very good on the whole and show a real resilience.
 
Yes it seems Max can do no wrong but it's not like he's got anywhere other than RB to jump to so CH doesn't have to be an arse-licker.
Mercedes maybe, or maybe McLaren if they maintaint their upward push. I imagine pressure will be mounting on Verstappen this season though. He now does have a truly competitive car (based on the first race, anyway), so now he'll need to deliver - and not have too many overtakes with four wheels off the track. (Although the team can also be blamed for the pit strategy I suppose.)
 
Melbourne's Albert Park is undergoing its first major upgrade since first hosting the Australian GP in 1996, and the event's organisers believe the transformations will reward "brave racing" come November.

Formula 1 will return to Melbourne later this season after an absence of two and a half years, a hiatus due to the cancellation of the 2020 race following the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic and a postponement of this year's event for reason also linked to COVID-19.

But teams and drivers will return in November to a new and improved venue, where a total of five corners are currently being modified while two others will disappear altogether from the street circuit's 5.3km layout.

The most distinctive change to Albert Park's profile will be the removal of the existing chicane at Turn 9 and 10 and its replacement by a fast right hand curve leading to a left-hand sweep that will be followed by a challenging Turn 11-12 complex.

Furthermore, Turns 1, 3, 6, 13 and 15 will be widened and reprofiled, while the entire circuit will be resurfaced immediately after this year's race.

The changes are expected to shave five full seconds off the track's lap times and increase average speeds by around 15km/h.

Australian GP boss Andrew Westacott says the transformations were long overdue.

"Albert Park was first used in the 1950's, but in terms of the modern era it was designed and built in 1995, and it hasn't been resurfaced or adjusted in any major way since then," he told Wide World of Sports.

"What was put down was high quality but it's now reached the end of its life and from the first time it was used in 1996 through until now, Formula 1 cars have evolved.

"If you consider that Albert Park is our playing surface, it's our fairway, or centre court, and it's never really had an upgrade.

"The need to resurface the track was there and at the same time, we're taking the opportunity to adjust particular turns, either with some minor changes or, like around the lakeside, a rather significant change

aussie-gp.jpg
 
After finishing the Drive to Survive season it's baffling to see how badly Ferrari seem to be operating. Competing for 4th this season after after being abysmal last season can be looked at as improving. But looking into how much they are spending it's really really bad.
 
After finishing the Drive to Survive season it's baffling to see how badly Ferrari seem to be operating. Competing for 4th this season after after being abysmal last season can be looked at as improving. But looking into how much they are spending it's really really bad.

Looks horrifically toxic. Almost made me feel sorry for Vettel.

Almost.
 
After finishing the Drive to Survive season it's baffling to see how badly Ferrari seem to be operating. Competing for 4th this season after after being abysmal last season can be looked at as improving. But looking into how much they are spending it's really really bad.
Yeah, it watched the Monza episode yesterday and it just seems horrible, on and off the track. Also their boss saying that they hope Vettel won't lose motivation now, just after they announced publicly that he's not staying for 2021 - but he said it in a way suggesting that something external happened that they can't influence, while this was completely self-inflicted. That really summed them up for me. The episode actually really made me like Vettel!
 
Yeah, it watched the Monza episode yesterday and it just seems horrible, on and off the track. Also their boss saying that they hope Vettel won't lose motivation now, just after they announced publicly that he's not staying for 2021 - but he said it in a way suggesting that something external happened that they can't influence, while this was completely self-inflicted. That really summed them up for me. The episode actually really made me like Vettel!
It was unbelievably naive and badly managed. This team seems to be a shit show from top to bottom.
 
After finishing the Drive to Survive season it's baffling to see how badly Ferrari seem to be operating. Competing for 4th this season after after being abysmal last season can be looked at as improving. But looking into how much they are spending it's really really bad.
It comes from a sense of arrogance and entitlement. Ferrari have always had preferential treatment from the FIA (ferrari international assistance)

They were always the big boys until the upstarts Red Bull turned up with Adrian Newey in tow, and then Mercedes came in with a similar budget but a much more organised german efficiency.

You can tell though the arrogance still belongs, too many bosses also.

The more immediate issue though is that with the rules lately you cant fix all your problems in 1 go. the FIA let them off lightly when they should have been thrown out of the championship when cheating, but now they're paying for it as their engine development was not true performance.
 
That pretty much nails it. The Ferrari episodes were the most disappointing, simply because it was obviously appalling the way the team is being run. Mattia Binotto seems to lack self awareness to an almost laughable extent. They handled the Vettel situation so badly. You could write a whole management book on what not to do, just by what was illustrated in those episodes. Imagine if it is that bad on camera, how bad it is off camera. The human capital management failures isn't even offset by technical excellence. Everything from their pit crews, to race strategy, to the development department, seems like a shambles. Ferrari is such a big name, and it has so much romance about it, I think it slightly broke my heart to see them stoop as low as to clearly cheat - and even sadder that they got away with it through a secret deal with the FIA. It's almost pity at this point, even though they should've been expelled for the season.

If I am watching that as the person in charge of Ferrari, first thing I do is fire Binotto. It was embarrassing.

The two teams that impress me most are, obviously, Mercedes. They just exude excellence from top to bottom. Seem the most professional, the most drama free, the most balanced workplace dynamics. The other is McLaren. It just feels like a team on the up, very level headed. I really hope to see them compete for the championship soon. Again, a drama free environment

Haas and Ferrari look a total shitshow. Not a fan of Racing Point, because Daddy Stroll seems like a total bellend. He gives me Trump vibes. Renault left me unimpressed mainly because of Cyril Abiteboul. He gives off this type of energy that has him trying so hard, but you just feel the fear and acceptance of failure seeping through. He doesn't feel like a winner, and is always ready to have a right old whine about something.

Red Bull....it's just the Christian Horner show isn't it? So full of himself, insufferably smug. There's a toxic work culture there. He pits drivers against one another from the outset, and piles on the pressure. It's like he only sees one way to nurture talent. I think what strikes me most was a subtle difference between Wolf and Horner. Wolf made a comment about not having a blame culture, "We don't blame the person, we blame the problem". I love this philosophy in the work place. We all know whose fault something is, but finger pointing doesn't create solutions. Problem identification and brainstorming does. Blame culture leads to a poor team ethic, and low morale. Avoiding it can help some uncovered gems to shine. When you see the same people making the same mistakes, that's when you can act decisively as a boss. But it doesn't need to happen publicly. You don't have to create fear, humiliate people. Then only the ruthless c**ts excel in expressing themselves, and there are more ways to be successful than just being ruthless, or a c*nt. Horner loves him some blame game. Bit of a tosser to be honest.
 
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That pretty much nails it. The Ferrari episodes were the most disappointing, simply because it was obviously appalling the way the team is being run. Mattia Binotto seems to lack self awareness to an almost laughable extent. They handled the Vettel situation so badly. You could write a whole management book on what not to do, just by what was illustrated in those episodes. Imagine if it is that bad on camera, how bad it is off camera. The human capital management failures isn't even offset by technical excellence. Everything from their pit crews, to race strategy, to the development department, seems like a shambles. Ferrari is such a big name, and it has so much romance about it, I think it slightly broke my heart to see them stoop as low as to clearly cheat - and even sadder that they got away with it through a secret deal with the FIA. It's almost pity at this point, even though they should've been expelled for the season.

If I am watching that as the person in charge of Ferrari, first thing I do is fire Binotto. It was embarrassing.

The two teams that impress me most are, obviously, Mercedes. They just exude excellence from top to bottom. Seem the most professional, the most drama free, the most balanced workplace dynamics. The other is McLaren. It just feels like a team on the up, very level headed. I really hope to see them compete for the championship soon. Again, a drama free environment

Haas and Ferrari look a total shitshow. Not a fan of Racing Point, because Daddy Stroll seems like a total bellend. He gives me Trump vibes. Renault left me unimpressed mainly because of Cyril Abiteboul. He gives off this type of energy that has him trying so hard, but you just feel the fear and acceptance of failure seeping through. He doesn't feel like a winner, and is always ready to have a right old whine about something.

Red Bull....it's just the Christian Horner show isn't it? So full of himself, insufferably smug. There's a toxic work culture there. He pits drivers against one another from the outset, and piles on the pressure. It's like he only sees one way to nurture talent. I think what strikes me most was a subtle difference between Wolf and Horner. Wolf made a comment about not having a blame culture, "We don't blame the person, we blame the problem". I love this philosophy in the work place. We all know whose fault something is, but finger pointing doesn't create solutions. Problem identification and brainstorming does. Blame culture leads to a poor team ethic, and low morale. Avoiding it can help some uncovered gems to shine. When you see the same people making the same mistakes, that's when you can act decisively as a boss. But it doesn't need to happen publicly. You don't have to create fear, humiliate people. Then only the ruthless c**ts excel in expressing themselves, and there are more ways to be successful than just being ruthless, or a c*nt. Horner loves him some blame game. Bit of a tosser to be honest.
Yeah, agreed on Red Bull and Mercedes. I kinda enjoy watching Horner because there are games and little implied things everywhere - but this isn't a film that requires a cool bad guy, this is real life, and I wouldn't want to be around him. Of all the team bosses, I think I like Zak Brown best. He seems pretty honest and level-headed (in his own way) - and also seemed to be one of the few to take COVID-19 seriously early on in Melbourne. (As much as Netflix's representation of what happened there is likely skewed through their choice of interviewees and materials to show.)
 
It comes from a sense of arrogance and entitlement. Ferrari have always had preferential treatment from the FIA (ferrari international assistance)

They were always the big boys until the upstarts Red Bull turned up with Adrian Newey in tow, and then Mercedes came in with a similar budget but a much more organised german efficiency.

You can tell though the arrogance still belongs, too many bosses also.

The more immediate issue though is that with the rules lately you cant fix all your problems in 1 go. the FIA let them off lightly when they should have been thrown out of the championship when cheating, but now they're paying for it as their engine development was not true performance.
Agree but it was absolutely shocking to see such a state in a organisation that should be led by an run by the absolute best.
 
Ive said it once before, but the best quote I ever read was that Ferrari with Schumacher, Todt and Brawn was so successful, because there wasn't a bloody italian anywhere near running the team.

Ferrari expected Vettel to be Schumacher 2.0, but Schumacher was mentally a different beast altogether combined with a overall being a better driver. Not only that, Schumacher surrounded himself with the best people who worked for him, not for Ferrari. It ensured that their loyalty was to him and it did irk some at Ferrari, but the results spoke for themselves and so they couldn't say anything... I mean, do you really think Ferrari were happy that three non-italians were taking the credit?

The only driver I can ever see going there and getting them world titles now is Mick and thats because of his oldman. There will be alot of the senior managers that worked in the team with his oldman and I think there will be alot less pressure on him from the team then any other driver would usually face. Really, it now depends on whether he can prove he is worthy of the seat....
 
I really wish Mick was at Alfa Romeo and not that shit show. He hasn't got a chance of doing anything of note at Haas except bring the car home and fight to not finish last.
 
Ive said it once before, but the best quote I ever read was that Ferrari with Schumacher, Todt and Brawn was so successful, because there wasn't a bloody italian anywhere near running the team.

Ferrari expected Vettel to be Schumacher 2.0, but Schumacher was mentally a different beast altogether combined with a overall being a better driver. Not only that, Schumacher surrounded himself with the best people who worked for him, not for Ferrari. It ensured that their loyalty was to him and it did irk some at Ferrari, but the results spoke for themselves and so they couldn't say anything... I mean, do you really think Ferrari were happy that three non-italians were taking the credit?

The only driver I can ever see going there and getting them world titles now is Mick and thats because of his oldman. There will be alot of the senior managers that worked in the team with his oldman and I think there will be alot less pressure on him from the team then any other driver would usually face. Really, it now depends on whether he can prove he is worthy of the seat....
I don't attribute it to nationality, in some kind of "Italians can't manage/engineer, but Brits, Germans, South Africans, French, etc. all can". It's the culture at Ferrari itself that is toxic and I think has been since the days of Enzo himself. He styled himself as some sort of godfather, always a bit distant from the team and cultivating a sort of sanctity surrounding the man and the brand. So whenever things didn't work it was never Enzo's fault and never something wrong with Ferrari, it was just the fault of whoever happened to be running the race team or designing the car. It seems to have stayed that way even past Enzo's death especially with Montezemolo who was an understudy of Enzo, with the added internal politics now that the top position wasn't held by a Ferrari family member and therefore could eventually be ousted himself.

One example of this in recent years that I like pointing to is engineer Aldo Costa. He came up the ranks at Ferrari in the 90s and early 2000s, was made technical director in 2007. Then in 2011 because they had a poor start to the season (!!!) he was canned. He was picked up by Mercedes in 2013, and we know what's happened since then (he left Mercedes in 2018 finally). So Ferrari was willing to punt a talented Italian engineer that they had developed just because they needed someone to blame for a car design that hadn't exactly hit the mark, while Mercedes managed to take that engineer and integrate him in a team that had other top engineering talent all willing to share the fancy titles and credit for success.

So I don't think there's anything wrong with Italian engineers by virtue of place of birth, just Ferrari culture is unable to get the best out of them. The bad part is I don't see that culture changing anytime soon. I think Marchionne's death a couple of years ago made it even less likely. Not that anything good had happened under his management yet, but he was so highly regarded as an executive because of what he had delivered with Fiat-Chrysler and also the Ferrari road car business, that I think he could have held off pressure in the Italian media to "win now" and find scapegoats when things weren't going well.
 
I don't attribute it to nationality, in some kind of "Italians can't manage/engineer, but Brits, Germans, South Africans, French, etc. all can". It's the culture at Ferrari itself that is toxic and I think has been since the days of Enzo himself. He styled himself as some sort of godfather, always a bit distant from the team and cultivating a sort of sanctity surrounding the man and the brand. So whenever things didn't work it was never Enzo's fault and never something wrong with Ferrari, it was just the fault of whoever happened to be running the race team or designing the car. It seems to have stayed that way even past Enzo's death especially with Montezemolo who was an understudy of Enzo, with the added internal politics now that the top position wasn't held by a Ferrari family member and therefore could eventually be ousted himself.

One example of this in recent years that I like pointing to is engineer Aldo Costa. He came up the ranks at Ferrari in the 90s and early 2000s, was made technical director in 2007. Then in 2011 because they had a poor start to the season (!!!) he was canned. He was picked up by Mercedes in 2013, and we know what's happened since then (he left Mercedes in 2018 finally). So Ferrari was willing to punt a talented Italian engineer that they had developed just because they needed someone to blame for a car design that hadn't exactly hit the mark, while Mercedes managed to take that engineer and integrate him in a team that had other top engineering talent all willing to share the fancy titles and credit for success.

So I don't think there's anything wrong with Italian engineers by virtue of place of birth, just Ferrari culture is unable to get the best out of them. The bad part is I don't see that culture changing anytime soon. I think Marchionne's death a couple of years ago made it even less likely. Not that anything good had happened under his management yet, but he was so highly regarded as an executive because of what he had delivered with Fiat-Chrysler and also the Ferrari road car business, that I think he could have held off pressure in the Italian media to "win now" and find scapegoats when things weren't going well.

They definitely have a knack for shooting themselves in the foot. They wouldn’t give James Allison the time and flexible working he requested after his wife died, so he left in 2016.

He joined Mercedes as Technical Director.

His replacement at Ferrari was Binotto.

:wenger:
 
I don't attribute it to nationality, in some kind of "Italians can't manage/engineer, but Brits, Germans, South Africans, French, etc. all can". It's the culture at Ferrari itself that is toxic and I think has been since the days of Enzo himself. He styled himself as some sort of godfather, always a bit distant from the team and cultivating a sort of sanctity surrounding the man and the brand. So whenever things didn't work it was never Enzo's fault and never something wrong with Ferrari, it was just the fault of whoever happened to be running the race team or designing the car. It seems to have stayed that way even past Enzo's death especially with Montezemolo who was an understudy of Enzo, with the added internal politics now that the top position wasn't held by a Ferrari family member and therefore could eventually be ousted himself.

One example of this in recent years that I like pointing to is engineer Aldo Costa. He came up the ranks at Ferrari in the 90s and early 2000s, was made technical director in 2007. Then in 2011 because they had a poor start to the season (!!!) he was canned. He was picked up by Mercedes in 2013, and we know what's happened since then (he left Mercedes in 2018 finally). So Ferrari was willing to punt a talented Italian engineer that they had developed just because they needed someone to blame for a car design that hadn't exactly hit the mark, while Mercedes managed to take that engineer and integrate him in a team that had other top engineering talent all willing to share the fancy titles and credit for success.

So I don't think there's anything wrong with Italian engineers by virtue of place of birth, just Ferrari culture is unable to get the best out of them. The bad part is I don't see that culture changing anytime soon. I think Marchionne's death a couple of years ago made it even less likely. Not that anything good had happened under his management yet, but he was so highly regarded as an executive because of what he had delivered with Fiat-Chrysler and also the Ferrari road car business, that I think he could have held off pressure in the Italian media to "win now" and find scapegoats when things weren't going well.
Binotto is a technical guy who does his best when he's handling development of the cars and not humans.

Unfortunately his ego is too big and he wants the top job and I'm not sure how involved he is in the car development anymore.
 
The Canadian GP in Montreal is set to be canceled for public health reasons according to Radio Canada, but Formula 1 says it remains in discussions with the event's promoter.

Radio Canada alleges that the seventh round of the 2021 F1 world championship which was scheduled to take place on June 13 is currently in doubt following a disagreement between the public health departments of Montreal and Quebec, with fears the event could help spread COVID-19.

Furthermore, the race, which was canceled last year, would not take place behind closed doors to mitigate any risks of propagation of the coronavirus.
However, at Imola, a representative of Formula 1 stated: "We are continuing our discussions with the promoter in Canada and have no further comment."
Should Montreal fall off the calendar, F1 could relocate to Istanbul as it did last year, as the venue is logistically convenient for teams given its proximity to Azerbaijan, the sport's pervious round.
 
The Canadian GP in Montreal is set to be canceled for public health reasons according to Radio Canada, but Formula 1 says it remains in discussions with the event's promoter.

Radio Canada alleges that the seventh round of the 2021 F1 world championship which was scheduled to take place on June 13 is currently in doubt following a disagreement between the public health departments of Montreal and Quebec, with fears the event could help spread COVID-19.

Furthermore, the race, which was canceled last year, would not take place behind closed doors to mitigate any risks of propagation of the coronavirus.
However, at Imola, a representative of Formula 1 stated: "We are continuing our discussions with the promoter in Canada and have no further comment."
Should Montreal fall off the calendar, F1 could relocate to Istanbul as it did last year, as the venue is logistically convenient for teams given its proximity to Azerbaijan, the sport's pervious round.
This is fun, as there are three levels of government involved. Public Health of the City of Montreal thinks the race should be cancelled, but Public Health of the Province of Quebec would approve the social bubbles proposal put forward by the F1 organization. So those two are currently in talks to figure out what's possible - or who gets to have the final say if they can't agree. But there is also still the federal government, which sets Canada's quarantine rules, and would have to exempt the F1 circus from them in one way or another. There is no news on that at all so far.

Full article (in French): https://ici.radio-canada.ca/sports/1785146/grand-prix-formule-1-annulation-sante-publique-covid
 
Ferrari looking very quick in FP1.

Gasly had another great session, think they and Ferrari will be a close tie for 3rd.

Hard to tell with Mclaren's pace - I hope they're sand bagging but they weren't great here last time out either, so that's a bit worrying.

Mazespin keeping up his record so far :D
 
Emilia-Romagna GP Practice One Timesheet
DriverTeamTime
1) Valtteri BottasMercedes1:16.564
2) Lewis HamiltonMercedes+0.041
3) Max VerstappenRed Bull+0.058
4) Charles LeclercFerrari+0.232
5) Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri+0.324
6) Carlos SainzFerrari+0.324
7) Fernando AlonsoAlpine+0.893
8) Lance StrollAston Martin+0.925
9) Nicholas LatifiWilliams+1.175
10) Daniel RicciardoMcLaren+1.205
11) George RussellWilliams+1.302
12) Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo+1.319
13) Lando NorrisMcLaren+1.371
14) Sebastian VettelAston Martin+1.420
15) Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo+1.494
16) Sergio PerezRed Bull+1.664
17) Esteban OconAlpine+1.796
18) Nikita MazepinHaas+2.259
19) Mick SchumacherHaas+2.916
20) Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri+3.217

Emilia-Romagna GP Practice Two Timesheet
DriverTeamTime
1) Valtteri BottasMercedes1:15.551
2) Lewis HamiltonMercedes+0.010
3) Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri+0.078
4) Carlos SainzFerrari+0.283
5) Charles LeclercFerrari+0.820
6) Sergio PerezRed Bull+0.860
7) Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri+0.868
8) Lando NorrisMcLaren+0.934
9) Antonio GiovinazziAlfa Romeo+0.962
10) Lance StrollAston Martin+1.186
11) Esteban OconAlpine+1.266
12) Nicholas LatifiWilliams+1.272
13) Fernando AlonsoAlpine+1.284
14) Max VerstappenRed Bull+1.448
15) Sebastian VettelAston Martin+1.541
16) George RussellWilliams+1.628
17) Kimi RaikkonenAlfa Romeo+1.722
18) Daniel RicciardoMcLaren+1.730
19) Mick SchumacherHaas+1.799
20) Nikita MazepinHaas+2.306
 
Mazepin has more spins then completed laps at this point.

If he carries on at the same level as he’s shown so far, he’ll be up there with the worst/most dangerous drivers in F1 history.

He’s a complete liability, already caused issues for the most of the grid with his spins/crashes and it’s only a matter of time before he does something crazy that hurts someone.
 
He’s so universally hated too, by everyone. Really brings the sport together.