F1 2021 Season

Dr. Funkenstein said:
This is the career defining season, finally he can show it wasn't all about the Mercedes, and he's only got a bit more than half a season left.
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This just simply isn't true. The 2 previous seasons were all about the Mercedes, but Hamilton's career defining season was a couple before, going toe to toe with Vettel, the other 4 time champion, who was in a Ferrari that was superior for most of the season, and coming out on top.

This season he's in a car that simply can't keep up, it's been Max's title since the rule change to neuter the Merc.

It's beyond obvious you don't like Hamilton, and that's your perogative, but the way you downplay his achievements is unfortunately just laughable. Rate him or not, you don't win all those titles by accident.
 
Zlaatan said:
Mercedes have taken pole and won almost every race for 7 years straight, just because it's only one year until the big rule change doesn't make these changes unnecessary, it only makes them late imo.

As for robbing us of a title fight, there's no way FIA can know how much the teams will gain/lose with rules X or Y, it's only a coincidence that RB made such a big leap the same year FIA introduced rules to slow down the Merc. You could argue however that FIA has robbed us of a proper title fight for the past 4-5 years since it took them forever to do anything about Merc's dominance, but I'm guessing that one is a bit easier to look past if you want Lewis to win. :p
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What is it with the rewriting history in this thread?

Mercedes have had the best car for the previous 2 seasons, but before that they were behind Ferrari and won thanks to Hamilton handling pressure better than Vettel.

The rule change to neuter the Merc is a strange one, as after the 2 previous seasons it seemed necessary, but in hindsight it does look like a poor decision, as RB have improved their car much more than expected, so rather than seeing 2 heavyweight cars fight it out, it's a formality but just with RB instead of Merc.
 
The Hilton said:
This just simply isn't true. The 2 previous seasons were all about the Mercedes, but Hamilton's career defining season was a couple before, going toe to toe with Vettel, the other 4 time champion, who was in a Ferrari that was superior for most of the season, and coming out on top.

This season he's in a car that simply can't keep up, it's been Max's title since the rule change to neuter the Merc.

It's beyond obvious you don't like Hamilton, and that's your perogative, but the way you downplay his achievements is unfortunately just laughable. Rate him or not, you don't win all those titles by accident.
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I agree to downplay his achievements and all his records is just daft.
I make no secret of the fact I am a Lewis fan, but I hold Max in very high regard and he will win multiple WC.
It is some of his fans I have a problem with, when it was Lewis winning it was all the car, now it is Lewis not performing to the the max, something I disagree with, he is getting 100% out of his car.
I used to find Max very arrogant , but I see a lot of the early years Lewis in Max, wanting to win and win at all costs, it has cost both drivers points over the years.
 
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The Hilton said:
What is it with the rewriting history in this thread?

Mercedes have had the best car for the previous 2 seasons, but before that they were behind Ferrari and won thanks to Hamilton handling pressure better than Vettel.

The rule change to neuter the Merc is a strange one, as after the 2 previous seasons it seemed necessary, but in hindsight it does look like a poor decision, as RB have improved their car much more than expected, so rather than seeing 2 heavyweight cars fight it out, it's a formality but just with RB instead of Merc.
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Nice post, I agree with all of it.
 
I totally forgot about the Fantasy F1. Haven't looked since week 1. Are you able to make weekly changes?
 
mariachi-19 said:
Aye, you'd think they'd be a bit more humble given the free ride Mercedes got for 7-8 years while they had one of the biggest advantages i've ever seen an F1 team be allowed to keep in that engine.

Meanwhile Williams of 92, Ferrari of 2004, Brawn of 2009, all get punished for unbridled success with bullshit reg changes as soon as they look too dominant...

If anything, cracks are starting to show in the whole Mercedes operation that when they dont have a huge car advantage, they're not quite as good as they made out.
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Imagine how many titles Schumacher would of had, had the 2004 rules pretty much stayed the same for 8 years, you could at vettels RB to the list, they used to change the rules when a dominant team becomes unbeatable to the detriment of that team see Ferrari, RB, Williams takes years to recover and with the current rules and next years changes you either get it right straight away or spend years playing catch up because of the token system.
 
This thread really is garbage sometimes. The anti Lewis crap that gets pedalled without foundation is worrying.
It pisses me off that city and Liverpool won’t the league, but I’m not going to make shit up to try and say they didn’t deserve it.

Lewis is a generational driver. That’s why he’s been in the fastest and best car for so long.

Max looks like he has the potential to be the next generational driver. It’s working for him this year certainly.

These are not mutually exclusive statements. Stop embarrassing yourselves.
 
muller said:
This thread really is garbage sometimes. The anti Lewis crap that gets pedalled without foundation is worrying.
It pisses me off that city and Liverpool won’t the league, but I’m not going to make shit up to try and say they didn’t deserve it.

Lewis is a generational driver. That’s why he’s been in the fastest and best car for so long.

Max looks like he has the potential to be the next generational driver. It’s working for him this year certainly.

These are not mutually exclusive statements. Stop embarrassing yourselves.
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Could not have said it any better.
 
hobbers said:
Better raw talent maybe.

But right now Lando is more consistent, better wheel to wheel and makes far fewer mistakes and rash decisions.
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That’s because he’s in a better car not trying to extract everything from a dog.

like, you think McLaren had any hope of winning yesterday? Lando would have been told in no uncertain terms by McLaren to not feck up by trying to race the Mercedes and red bulls if they are faster.

Everybody wants to win, but he wouldn’t have taken risks yesterday because after turn 1, he didn’t have a hope in hell.
 
mariachi-19 said:
That’s because he’s in a better car not trying to extract everything from a dog.

like, you think McLaren had any hope of winning yesterday? Lando would have been told in no uncertain terms by McLaren to not feck up by trying to race the Mercedes and red bulls if they are faster.

Everybody wants to win, but he wouldn’t have taken risks yesterday because after turn 1, he didn’t have a hope in hell.
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Leclerc has some moment of madness when he just sees an opening that's just not there and take himself out of the race.
 
The Hilton said:
This just simply isn't true. The 2 previous seasons were all about the Mercedes, but Hamilton's career defining season was a couple before, going toe to toe with Vettel, the other 4 time champion, who was in a Ferrari that was superior for most of the season, and coming out on top.
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If the Ferrari was superior, how did WC Raikkonen not even stand a chance against Bottas? Vettel took the fight to Mercedes by beeing 0.3 or even half a second quicker than Raikkonenen. He made the car in a contender, the Mercedes would have been a contender without Hamilton too. That's what I mean, why can't Hamilton do the same now? That was Vettel vs Mercedes, just like it had been Alonso vs Ferrari before, Schumacher vs McLaren or Vettel and Alonso vs McLaren. That's what makes great drivers stand out, they're in a fight with the two drivers of a faster car without a regular teammate standing a chance.

This season he's in a car that simply can't keep up, it's been Max's title since the rule change to neuter the Merc.
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Bottas can keep up with Perez, all Hamilton has to do to keep up with Verstappen is show he's significantly quicker than Bottas which we know he can be. But the extra special Hamilton doesn't show up.

It's beyond obvious you don't like Hamilton, and that's your perogative, but the way you downplay his achievements is unfortunately just laughable. Rate him or not, you don't win all those titles by accident.
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There are things I don't like so much about Hamilton, but this is not so much about him as about the false narrative that it's about Hamilton when he wins and about the car when he loses, contradictory to facts and logic. We've watched the most supreme car and team in the history of F1, also thanks to the FIA rulemakers, and we were being told Hamilton was brilliant for beating Bottas. I don't believe it requires brilliance to beat Bottas, it does require Brilliance to bring the fight to Verstappen now so let's have his brilliance rather than his moaning and whining.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Hamilton Academical still top with reduced lead of 23 points down from 31 points last week.
Good week for Toyoda jumps from 4th to 2nd .

1st
senorgregster​
956​
X
2nd
venkman​
933​
X
3rd
emm​
EMM​
932​
X
4th
chaddyp​
913​
X
5th
manoucha​
909​
X
6th
mtf​
849​
X
7th
leg-end7​
847​
X
8th
coleworld​
846​
X
9th
christy87​
841​
X
10th
impulse​
829​
X
11th
pauldyson1uk​
829​
X
12th
vangagal​
827​
X
13th
jtw95​
823​
X
14th
tiber​
812​
X
15th
evan7788​
803​
X
16th
20solskjaer​
721​
X
17th
dargonk​
699​
X
18th
f-red​
686​
X
19th
dpansheth​
Rock​
447​
X
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I've somehow managed to jump to 8th overall :D
 
Fluctuation0161 said:
What a strange coincidence. Yeah right :lol:
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I know conspiracy theories are all the rage right now but can you point to anything that even mildly suggests that it wasn't just a coincidence? I doubt the FIA wanted to slow down Merc 3 years ago but RB told them to wait until Honda managed to build a good engine.



The Hilton said:
What is it with the rewriting history in this thread?

Mercedes have had the best car for the previous 2 seasons, but before that they were behind Ferrari and won thanks to Hamilton handling pressure better than Vettel.

The rule change to neuter the Merc is a strange one, as after the 2 previous seasons it seemed necessary, but in hindsight it does look like a poor decision, as RB have improved their car much more than expected, so rather than seeing 2 heavyweight cars fight it out, it's a formality but just with RB instead of Merc.
Click to expand...

And before that they were even more dominant than they've been for the last 2 seasons. 2018 was an outlier but Merc still had 13 poles and 11 wins that season and I don't really see how I'm rewriting history when I say that a team with an 80% win rate over 7 years have won almost every race. It's unprecedented in F1 history to see that kind of dominance, even with a "so-so" season in the middle, and it just feels borderline insulting for anyone who isn't a Merc/Lewis fan to hear people complain about being robbed of a proper title fight when we've had half a title fight between two different teams since 2012.

It's unfortunate that we didn't get 2 or more teams on the exact same level after the rule change, but it's not a poor decision by the FIA to try to level the field and I really don't get how it could be a strange decision, unlees as you said you're only looking at it in hindsight, but the FIA doesn't have that luxury unfortunately.

Merc is also getting new upgrades for the next race while Lewis is only 32 points behind, so I'd wait at least a couple more months before saying the new rules only swapped out Lewis for Max at the top.
 
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Dr. Funkenstein said:
If the Ferrari was superior, how did WC Raikkonen not even stand a chance against Bottas? Vettel took the fight to Mercedes by beeing 0.3 or even half a second quicker than Raikkonenen. He made the car in a contender, the Mercedes would have been a contender without Hamilton too. That's what I mean, why can't Hamilton do the same now? That was Vettel vs Mercedes, just like it had been Alonso vs Ferrari before, Schumacher vs McLaren or Vettel and Alonso vs McLaren. That's what makes great drivers stand out, they're in a fight with the two drivers of a faster car without a regular teammate standing a chance.

Bottas can keep up with Perez, all Hamilton has to do to keep up with Verstappen is show he's significantly quicker than Bottas which we know he can be. But the extra special Hamilton doesn't show up.

There are things I don't like so much about Hamilton, but this is not so much about him as about the false narrative that it's about Hamilton when he wins and about the car when he loses, contradictory to facts and logic. We've watched the most supreme car and team in the history of F1, also thanks to the FIA rulemakers, and we were being told Hamilton was brilliant for beating Bottas. I don't believe it requires brilliance to beat Bottas, it does require Brilliance to bring the fight to Verstappen now so let's have his brilliance rather than his moaning and whining.
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Honestly mate it's just tiresome. You're rewriting history to fit your anti Hamilton agenda. It wasn't Vettel against Merc, ffs in 2018 Ferrari drivers were 2nd and 3rd.

Red Bull are simply faster this year, with a car that has been built around Max for years. Perez coming in and doing as well as he has in a new unfamiliar car has been brilliant, but he's not a good barometer of the top performance of the car.

Hamilton is annoying, and moans, whines, etc. But he is a brilliant driver (as is Max), and no amount of rewriting history or pretending the Merc is faster than it is this season will change that.
 
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Zlaatan said:
I know conspiracy theories are all the rage right now but can you point to anything that even mildly suggests that it wasn't just a coincidence? I doubt the FIA wanted to slow down Merc 3 years ago but RB told them to wait until Honda managed to build a good engine.





And before that they were even more dominant than they've been for the last 2 seasons. 2018 was an outlier but Merc still had 13 poles and 11 wins that season and I don't really see how I'm rewriting history when I say that a team with an 80% win rate over 7 years have won almost every race. It's unprecedented in F1 history to see that kind of dominance, even with a "so-so" season in the middle, and it just feels borderline insulting for anyone who isn't a Merc/Lewis fan to hear people complain about being robbed of a proper title fight when we've had half a title fight between two different teams since 2012.

It's unfortunate that we didn't get 2 or more teams on the exact same level after the rule change, but it's not a poor decision by the FIA to try to level the field and I really don't get how it could be a strange decision.

Merc is also getting new upgrades for the next race while Lewis is only 32 points behind, so I'd wait at least a couple more months before saying the new rules only swapped out Lewis for Max at the top.
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We get it, you don't like Merc, but you're exaggerating to the point of hyperbole about their dominance, and aren't remotely bothered about the exact same procession this season but with a different team. You're acting exactly the same as you accuse others of, but against Merc/Hamilton instead of for.

There are those among us who want to see two top drivers duking it out, like 17 & 18 again, rather than yet another procession, no matter who leads it.
 
Zlaatan said:
I know conspiracy theories are all the rage right now but can you point to anything that even mildly suggests that it wasn't just a coincidence? I doubt the FIA wanted to slow down Merc 3 years ago but RB told them to wait until Honda managed to build a good engine.





And before that they were even more dominant than they've been for the last 2 seasons. 2018 was an outlier but Merc still had 13 poles and 11 wins that season and I don't really see how I'm rewriting history when I say that a team with an 80% win rate over 7 years have won almost every race. It's unprecedented in F1 history to see that kind of dominance, even with a "so-so" season in the middle, and it just feels borderline insulting for anyone who isn't a Merc/Lewis fan to hear people complain about being robbed of a proper title fight when we've had half a title fight between two different teams since 2012.

It's unfortunate that we didn't get 2 or more teams on the exact same level after the rule change, but it's not a poor decision by the FIA to try to level the field and I really don't get how it could be a strange decision, unlees as you said you're only looking at it in hindsight, but the FIA doesn't have that luxury unfortunately.

Merc is also getting new upgrades for the next race while Lewis is only 32 points behind, so I'd wait at least a couple more months before saying the new rules only swapped out Lewis for Max at the top.
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F1 is a product. I totally understand the change in regulation to make the racing more competitive in that context. It is a more entertaining product if *insert team here* don't win every race.
 
hobbers said:
It has nothing to do with their cars. Lando makes fewer unforced mistakes than Leclerc. And has had fewer collisions in wheel to wheel racing. This season so far as with last season. He's also comfortably ahead of his team mate, whereas Sainz has arguably looked faster than Leclerc in the races despite being new to the team and car.

Not sure what race you were watching but Lando kept Hamilton behind him for 20 odd laps, he was pushing ridiculously hard to do that. He was also pushing to catch back up with Lewis and to try to catch Bottas at the end. And Ferrari have excellent race pace when the car isn't destroying the tyres, far from a dog.
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the race where his team told him who he was racing and surprise, it wasn’t Mercedes. Anything beyond 4th/5th yesterday was a bonus for lando and so he knows that as long as he manages the race, he’s guaranteed that.

Meanwhile Leclerc has to take more risks because the Ferrari can’t turn the tyres on and they’re left further down the grid.
 
mariachi-19 said:
Aye, you'd think they'd be a bit more humble given the free ride Mercedes got for 7-8 years while they had one of the biggest advantages i've ever seen an F1 team be allowed to keep in that engine.

Meanwhile Williams of 92, Ferrari of 2004, Brawn of 2009, all get punished for unbridled success with bullshit reg changes as soon as they look too dominant...

If anything, cracks are starting to show in the whole Mercedes operation that when they dont have a huge car advantage, they're not quite as good as they made out.
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But one of the main reasons for Mercedes lack of performance is directly because of a so called bullshit regulation change. Same for Aston Martin/Racing Point.
 
muller said:
This thread really is garbage sometimes. The anti Lewis crap that gets pedalled without foundation is worrying.
It pisses me off that city and Liverpool won’t the league, but I’m not going to make shit up to try and say they didn’t deserve it.

Lewis is a generational driver. That’s why he’s been in the fastest and best car for so long.

Max looks like he has the potential to be the next generational driver. It’s working for him this year certainly.

These are not mutually exclusive statements. Stop embarrassing yourselves.
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Generational drivers don’t get by competitive team mates on a consistent basis.

Also, both Alonso and Vettel would have achieved the same as Hamilton in that car, of which I’d have zero doubt… considering Vettel did exactly that at the start of the decade and Alonso is a better driver than both.
 
The Hilton said:
Honestly mate it's just tiresome. You're rewriting history to fit your anti Hamilton agenda. It wasn't Vettel against Merc, ffs in 2018 Ferrari drivers were 2nd and 3rd.

Red Bull are simply faster this year, with a car that has been built around Max for years. Perez coming in and doing as well as he has in a new unfamiliar car has been brilliant, but he's not a good barometer of the top performance of the car.

Hamilton is annoying, and moans, whines, etc. But he is a brilliant driver (as is Max), and no amount of rewriting history or pretending the Merc is faster than it is this season will change that.
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Glad its not just me that is see this for what it is.
 
mariachi-19 said:
Generational drivers don’t get by competitive team mates on a consistent basis.

Also, both Alonso and Vettel would have achieved the same as Hamilton in that car, of which I’d have zero doubt… considering Vettel did exactly that at the start of the decade and Alonso is a better driver than both.
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I hate these arguments, but a prime Alonso met a young and inexperienced Hamilton in the same car and got the same points tally (109) with Hamilton edging it on poles by 6 to 2?

I really rate Alonso by the way, but there's no way you can be so definitive about that statement.
 
The Hilton said:
Honestly mate it's just tiresome. You're rewriting history to fit your anti Hamilton agenda. It wasn't Vettel against Merc, ffs in 2018 Ferrari drivers were 2nd and 3rd.

Red Bull are simply faster this year, with a car that has been built around Max for years. Perez coming in and doing as well as he has in a new unfamiliar car has been brilliant, but he's not a good barometer of the top performance of the car.

Hamilton is annoying, and moans, whines, etc. But he is a brilliant driver (as is Max), and no amount of rewriting history or pretending the Merc is faster than it is this season will change that.
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I’m not getting too deep into this argument as you seem to remember history better than me but Russel just walked into a merc and basically won the race bar a mech failure, why does it take Perez so long to get the best out of RB
 
Not sure about this for Sliverstone, just seems like an unnecessary messing with something that did not need messing with.

So what happens to qualifying?
The one-hour session, split into three segments, that has yielded plenty of drama in recent years, will still a big part of the show. However, it will move to Friday, giving the first day of track action some gravitas and a crescendo event.

The plan is to move the session later in the day, to make it easier for fans who are working to watch the session.

The tyre rules will change for this session, with only soft tyres permitted. As a result, teams and drivers will be free to start Sunday’s race on any compound, rather than having to run the tyre they qualify on in Q2.

Sprint Qualifying will be a race run over 100km and lasting around 25-30 minutes. It is designed to provide a short and fast-paced racing spectacle – similar to a Twenty20 cricket match – with drivers racing flat-out from start to finish without the need to pit.

Points will be awarded to the top three finishers, three for the winner down to one point for third. There won’t be a podium ceremony, as that honour will remain the privilege of the top three in Sunday’s Grand Prix, however the winner will get a trophy in Parc Ferme, presented in a similar manner to the tyre the pole-sitter currently from F1’s tyre supplier Pirelli after qualifying now.

The finishing order of the race will define the grid for Sunday’s showpiece event – the Grand Prix, where the traditional format will remain unchanged.

And what about practice?
There will be just two practice sessions during the weekend, each lasting one hour.

The first will take place on Friday, later in the day than usual given qualifying is likely to be pushed back in the schedule.

Here teams may use any two sets of their weekend allocation of 12, which has been reduced by one set because there is reduced running in total over the three days, aside from the sets they must put aside for qualifying (five sets of softs) and the race (two sets, free choice).

It is thought the teams will use the harder compound to get their basic set-up and potentially one soft as they start to look at performance.

What if it's wet?
If FP1 or Qualifying is held in wet conditions, teams will be given an additional set of intermediates tyres, but must then return a used set of those before Sprint Qualifying.

If Sprint Qualifying is wet, the teams may return one set of used or intermediate tyres afterwards, to be replaced with a new set.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Not sure about this for Sliverstone, just seems like an unnecessary messing with something that did not need messing with.

So what happens to qualifying?
The one-hour session, split into three segments, that has yielded plenty of drama in recent years, will still a big part of the show. However, it will move to Friday, giving the first day of track action some gravitas and a crescendo event.

The plan is to move the session later in the day, to make it easier for fans who are working to watch the session.

The tyre rules will change for this session, with only soft tyres permitted. As a result, teams and drivers will be free to start Sunday’s race on any compound, rather than having to run the tyre they qualify on in Q2.

Sprint Qualifying will be a race run over 100km and lasting around 25-30 minutes. It is designed to provide a short and fast-paced racing spectacle – similar to a Twenty20 cricket match – with drivers racing flat-out from start to finish without the need to pit.

Points will be awarded to the top three finishers, three for the winner down to one point for third. There won’t be a podium ceremony, as that honour will remain the privilege of the top three in Sunday’s Grand Prix, however the winner will get a trophy in Parc Ferme, presented in a similar manner to the tyre the pole-sitter currently from F1’s tyre supplier Pirelli after qualifying now.

The finishing order of the race will define the grid for Sunday’s showpiece event – the Grand Prix, where the traditional format will remain unchanged.

And what about practice?
There will be just two practice sessions during the weekend, each lasting one hour.

The first will take place on Friday, later in the day than usual given qualifying is likely to be pushed back in the schedule.

Here teams may use any two sets of their weekend allocation of 12, which has been reduced by one set because there is reduced running in total over the three days, aside from the sets they must put aside for qualifying (five sets of softs) and the race (two sets, free choice).

It is thought the teams will use the harder compound to get their basic set-up and potentially one soft as they start to look at performance.

What if it's wet?
If FP1 or Qualifying is held in wet conditions, teams will be given an additional set of intermediates tyres, but must then return a used set of those before Sprint Qualifying.

If Sprint Qualifying is wet, the teams may return one set of used or intermediate tyres afterwards, to be replaced with a new set.
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Have you got a link to that please?
 
The Hilton said:
We get it, you don't like Merc, but you're exaggerating to the point of hyperbole about their dominance, and aren't remotely bothered about the exact same procession this season but with a different team. You're acting exactly the same as you accuse others of, but against Merc/Hamilton instead of for.

There are those among us who want to see two top drivers duking it out, like 17 & 18 again, rather than yet another procession, no matter who leads it.
Click to expand...


1. I have no problem with Merc, I'm tired of them winning but it's not their fault they've been the best. What I did have a problem with was the FIA letting Merc go basically unchallenged for so long without doing anything about it as they've been quicker in the past of cutting the legs off teams who haven't been nearly as dominant.

2. I haven't exaggerated anything, I did round up Merc's winning % because I don't know the exact number, but it was in the high 70's last I heard. If rounding up a high 70 to 80% and defining that as almost every race is considered "exaggerating to the point of hyperbole" then sure, I'm guilty..

3. It isn't "the exact same procession" this season as I pointed out in my last post, we're halfway into the first and only season with these rules and there's a 32 point gap between Lewis and Max. That's not even remotely comparable to Merc winning more than any other team in history during a 7 year span and you're having a complete mare when you say that I'm not bothered with RB doing the same as Merc since I haven't even accepted that's a fact yet. Again I said as much in the post you quoted.

4. I am among those people who wants to see a proper title fight, if you actually read the post you quoted you would see me saying that it's unfortunate that the new rules didn't give us 2 or more teams on the same level. That's not me saying I hate Merc and I don't care if RB wins every race by 3min, that's me saying I wish Merc and RB were equally matched.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Not sure about this for Sliverstone, just seems like an unnecessary messing with something that did not need messing with.

So what happens to qualifying?
The one-hour session, split into three segments, that has yielded plenty of drama in recent years, will still a big part of the show. However, it will move to Friday, giving the first day of track action some gravitas and a crescendo event.

The plan is to move the session later in the day, to make it easier for fans who are working to watch the session.

The tyre rules will change for this session, with only soft tyres permitted. As a result, teams and drivers will be free to start Sunday’s race on any compound, rather than having to run the tyre they qualify on in Q2.

Sprint Qualifying will be a race run over 100km and lasting around 25-30 minutes. It is designed to provide a short and fast-paced racing spectacle – similar to a Twenty20 cricket match – with drivers racing flat-out from start to finish without the need to pit.

Points will be awarded to the top three finishers, three for the winner down to one point for third. There won’t be a podium ceremony, as that honour will remain the privilege of the top three in Sunday’s Grand Prix, however the winner will get a trophy in Parc Ferme, presented in a similar manner to the tyre the pole-sitter currently from F1’s tyre supplier Pirelli after qualifying now.

The finishing order of the race will define the grid for Sunday’s showpiece event – the Grand Prix, where the traditional format will remain unchanged.

And what about practice?
There will be just two practice sessions during the weekend, each lasting one hour.

The first will take place on Friday, later in the day than usual given qualifying is likely to be pushed back in the schedule.

Here teams may use any two sets of their weekend allocation of 12, which has been reduced by one set because there is reduced running in total over the three days, aside from the sets they must put aside for qualifying (five sets of softs) and the race (two sets, free choice).

It is thought the teams will use the harder compound to get their basic set-up and potentially one soft as they start to look at performance.

What if it's wet?
If FP1 or Qualifying is held in wet conditions, teams will be given an additional set of intermediates tyres, but must then return a used set of those before Sprint Qualifying.

If Sprint Qualifying is wet, the teams may return one set of used or intermediate tyres afterwards, to be replaced with a new set.
Click to expand...

Something I've just thought with the sprint qualifying. That's an extra 30 minutes racing flat-out on the engines. I'm sure the teams are happy about that :lol:

Also, there's bound to be a crash which takes somebody out of Sunday's race at some stage followed by the idea being scrapped....
 
Zlatan 7 said:
I’m not getting too deep into this argument as you seem to remember history better than me but Russel just walked into a merc and basically won the race bar a mech failure, why does it take Perez so long to get the best out of RB
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The Merc is Verstappen's personal car basically, and is notorious for being a bit difficult for drivers not used to it. Perez has done a fantastic job considering how awful Max's previous teammates have been!

Plus last season the Merc was so far ahead of the field that most people on this forum would have finished in the points driving it!
 
I'm semi-open to changing qualifying if done correctly. But this is just a mess.
 
The anti Hamilton/Mercedes hate here is mind blowing. People get so angry they just seem to ignore facts.
Let's get this clear I am Hamilton fan as a driver only, personally he dodges tax and for that I will never respect him outside of driving.
But this guy has broken all the records and he did it fairly unlike Schumacher who had such ruthless he would crash I to drivers to win, aka Hill.
Hamilton has got lucky he joined Mercedes benz and I understand people are fed up of his and Mercedes dominance.
But the guy has had equal partnerships against 3 former F1 champions. Who the hell has Verstappan had as a team mate that comes close to any of these?
And in addition, Verstappan has had a car designed for him. Let's face it he has always been number 1 in the red bull team. Throughout Mercedes dominance the car wasn't built for Hamilton, they build the fastest car they can. That's why people can jump in and produce aka Russell.
Verstappen may go on to beat Hamiltons records and he is bloody fast and is getting better, he is the closest to Hamilton. However, he does not have a teammate who can challenge him, and he has a car designed for him. So my respect for him is a little tarnished.
Red Bull this year are miles ahead in a car where only one driver will win. At least in the past Rosberg and Bottas could win and did win a number of races.
You can't criticise Mercedes domination and then are super excited that Verstappan is miles ahead of everyone. Yesterday he could have lapped everyone if he wanted, that is a ridiculous advantage.
Hamilton is ringing the balls from that Mercedes and that leads to more mistakes, verstappan has been ringing the balls from his red bull for years and I respect and admire him for that. That is also why he made mistakes the last few years.
I want multiple teams fighting at the front, this season for me is worse than others as only one driver can really win. At least in the past the 2nd driver could win races. Unless it rains or Verstappan has damage or failure he may win all the remaining races. If that makes you fans who seem to be so angry at one teams dominance then I am.sorry you have lost me.
 
Zlaatan said:
1. I have no problem with Merc, I'm tired of them winning but it's not their fault they've been the best. What I did have a problem with was the FIA letting Merc go basically unchallenged for so long without doing anything about it as they've been quicker in the past of cutting the legs off teams who haven't been nearly as dominant.

2. I haven't exaggerated anything, I did round up Merc's winning % because I don't know the exact number, but it was in the high 70's last I heard. If rounding up a high 70 to 80% and defining that as almost every race is considered "exaggerating to the point of hyperbole" then sure, I'm guilty..

3. It isn't "the exact same procession" this season as I pointed out in my last post, we're halfway into the first and only season with these rules and there's a 32 point gap between Lewis and Max. That's not even remotely comparable to Merc winning more than any other team in history during a 7 year span and you're having a complete mare when you say that I'm not bothered with RB doing the same as Merc since I haven't even accepted that's a fact yet. Again I said as much in the post you quoted.

4. I am among those people who wants to see a proper title fight, if you actually read the post you quoted you would see me saying that it's unfortunate that the new rules didn't give us 2 or more teams on the same level. That's not me saying I hate Merc and I don't care if RB wins every race by 3min, that's me saying I wish Merc and RB were equally matched.
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You've gone from Merc having "almost every" win and pole, to 80%, to less than that in the space of 3 posts, have been pretending 17 & 18 seasons didn't happen, understating the importance of Hamilton in the Merc success, and have the audacity to say I'm having a mare when you're accusing anyone of disagreeing with the FIA neutering the Merc of being biased. Pot kettle black.

It is indeed the exact same procession, Red Bull are so far ahead and Mercedes are focusing mostly on next year, unless their upgrades include a warp drive it won't get them any closer. Fair play to RB and Max though, they're relentlessly pressing their advantage now.
 
Balljy said:
I hate these arguments, but a prime Alonso met a young and inexperienced Hamilton in the same car and got the same points tally (109) with Hamilton edging it on poles by 6 to 2?

I really rate Alonso by the way, but there's no way you can be so definitive about that statement.
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Iv been in these F1 threads since Lewis debut i already can tell what reply you’ll get, some crap about McLaren favoured Lewis so that’s why that particular season happened.

Lewis could come back in a slower car with no updates form now on, beat a prime Max and those posters would still find away to not give him credit.
 
Rooney1987 said:
Iv been in these F1 threads since Lewis debut i already can tell what reply you’ll get, some crap about McLaren favoured Lewis so that’s why that particular season happened.

Lewis could come back in a slower car with no updates form now on, beat a prime Max and those posters would still find away to not give him credit.
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Exactly my thoughts. And Hamilton lost because ferrari manufactured a swap between kimi and massa. If Mclaren would have done the same with Alonso Hamilton would have won. But, the team always favours Hamilton, am I getting this right.
 
Rooney1987 said:
Iv been in these F1 threads since Lewis debut i already can tell what reply you’ll get, some crap about McLaren favoured Lewis so that’s why that particular season happened.

Lewis could come back in a slower car with no updates form now on, beat a prime Max and those posters would still find away to not give him credit.
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It's usually the same characters spouting the same diatribe tbf.
 
There’s no denying what a great driver Hamilton is but let’s also not deny there was a very clear favouritism from McLaren in 2007.
 
Balljy said:
Something I've just thought with the sprint qualifying. That's an extra 30 minutes racing flat-out on the engines. I'm sure the teams are happy about that :lol:

Also, there's bound to be a crash which takes somebody out of Sunday's race at some stage followed by the idea being scrapped....
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What If crashes, is a good question.
Never thought about the extra wear on the engine, but your right 30 mins flat out with no pits, will take its toll.
 
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