Formula 1 - 2021 Season

[pharma]

Wolff ‘surprised’ by Red Bull protest over F1 engine questions (motorsport.com)
June 26, 2021

The F1 regulations for 2021 prohibit teams from bringing any performance upgrades to their power units, with changes in specification only permitted on reliability grounds. Red Bull switched power units on its cars ahead of the France weekend, with fellow Honda partner AlphaTauri doing the same for Pierre Gasly.

Red Bull has responded to questions about its impressive straight-line speed by attributing the gains to its low-drag set-up and smaller rear wing.

After taking pole on Saturday for the Styrian Grand Prix, Verstappen hit back at questions about his Honda engine performance, saying he wanted to “print out of the rear wing difference we’re running” and that there was “no clear advantage on pure power”.

Asked by Motorsport.com if there was any scope to unlock more engine performance through reliability tweaks, Mercedes boss Wolff expressed his surprise that Red Bull had protested the suggestion so much.

“I wonder why that is such a topic, when we all know that the power units need to be homologated,” Wolff said.

“I’m really surprised that the Red Bull guys keep protesting so loudly on the power unit story. So that is a bit weird.

“The rules are very clear. It’s homologated, you can come up with reliability fixes, and that’s it.

 

[Bludd]

that was not a classic race, was hoping for some of that spicy rain but alas

 

[AlphaWolf]

It was a pretty eventful race for Leclerc.

 

[Bludd]

It was a pretty eventful race for Leclerc.

yeah but mehhhh

 

[Davros]

Thought you'd find this informative

 

[AlphaWolf]

He lost me about minute 2.

 

[Pete]

Holy cow that video was annoying (made it to 6:35, maybe it gets better), but I appreciate the intent, Dav. Probably better info (no meme-y BS, at least) at this playlist, Pro Driver Analysis of F1 Drivers by Driver61, especially the ones focusing on a specific driver’s style:

Bonus collection of crazy rally moments that are worth watching despite being a reaction video (you’ll probably want to watch the “Samir, you’re destroying the car!” clip separately ):

 

[Arwin]

Much respect to Norris!

 

[Arnold Beckenbauer]

Lando: "So many McLaren fans at Red Bull Ring this weekend!"

 

[hoom]

Were these just a few courses Merc doesn't do well at/Redbull is good at or can we say we're past peak Merc?

 

[Pete]

Were these just a few courses Merc doesn't do well at/Redbull is good at or can we say we're past peak Merc?

Red Bull have won three out of the last four years (Mercedes won both races last year), but Merc dominated the V6 hybrid era until then.

I don't understand the Lando penalty given the supposedly new "let them race" precedent set by Max on LeClerc on T3 two years ago (and subsequently letting LeClerc do whatever he felt like in Monza, IIRC). Perez's may have followed from the (new) Lando precedent, but they either involved more wheel banging or happened later in a corner.

 

[Arwin]

Were these just a few courses Merc doesn't do well at/Redbull is good at or can we say we're past peak Merc?

Yeah the race for the championship is far from over.

 

[pharma]

Lawrence Stroll says Aston Martin will have to wait for Formula 1 titles - BBC Sport

Both they and Mercedes, whose car Aston Martin copy, run a different design concept from all the other teams. This uses a shallow angle from front to rear - known as low-rake - compared to the other cars, including the championship-leading Red Bull, who pioneered the opposing 'high-rake' philosophy.

Both Mercedes and Aston Martin have lost more performance from last year to this than all other teams except backmarker Haas after a rule change that cut away part of the rear floor to keep cornering speeds under control.

Stroll objected to the rule change and initially was trying to overturn it, but has now resigned himself to it.

"This year was a very controversial year with the cut in the floor with the aero regs," Stroll said in a news conference before the British Grand Prix.

"You are all smart enough to see that the two low-rake cars lost about a second a lap. So it is no coincidence Mercedes are fighting for a championship that for many years they easily won.

"The change in regs that has severely penalised us and Mercedes is the reason for the decrease in performance from this year to last year."

 

[Arnold Beckenbauer]

Zack Brawn is tested positive.

Formula 1: Lando Norris mugged and McLaren watch stolen after Euro 2020 final - BBC Sport

 

[entity279]

So they're not reversing quali positions for the sprint race nor are they awarding some points? Missed oportunity

 

[Freemantle]

So they're not reversing quali positions for the sprint race nor are they awarding some points? Missed oportunity

Yeah that would have been good, it seems the FIA nerfing stick has hit the Mercs hard, and not much will stop Max driving off into the distance now.

 

[entity279]

I absolutely don't mind Mercs being hit, au contraire

But.. Now seems to me qualy is streched over two days basically. Diminishing the importance of both events (sprint & qualy proper).
Not sure you'd want that. Sprint race might be more interesting to watch yes; though racing for so little reward is underwhelming IMO

 

[Kaotik]

The sprint race is a joke with this grid. It just reinforces the leadership of the teams on top, only thing that could shake things up is crashes.
Reverse grid for sprint to determine race starting positions could actually make things interesting

 

[Bludd]

my boi alonso nailing the sprint lap one

 

[entity279]

Reverse grid for sprint to determine race starting positions could actually make things interesting

While I also mentioned reverse grid and I do believe this will make things far more spectacular than they are now, it does have the issue that it needs extra rules for enforcement; othewise everyone will just go as slow as possible to end up first in the reverse grid.
My ideea is to simply not make the reverse grid sprint's result decide the grid position, at least not directly. But then you'd need to award more points in the sprint

Anyway, the sprint today was 'meh' . An extra start is always interesting, and Alonso was really impressive too. The 17 laps didn't have that much point to them, imo. And skype commentary were clearly overhype-ing it for me.