Formula 1 - 2021 Season

Perhaps instead of lights out they should just start each race with a Mazespin.

 

Great race, very enjoyable.

Get in there Lewis

 

I was thinking that Max drove too long on those mediums. And when he said if my pace is good just leave me out, I’m not sure his pace really was good enough. But it was a tough call for sure and too bad he couldn’t overtake without leaving the track.

All in all Mercedes gave it their all took a very aggressive strategy and together with Lewis taking every margin he could take (he should have received a warning for track limits after three times if you ask me, and admitting that he had just ignored them all race was asking for a penalty).

And there seems hope for Peres too, driving back to 5th after all that, imho will be a great improvement if at the very least there is a good battle between Hamilton and Max (which I hope Max wins of course) and also a good battle between Bottas and Peres, though if Peres ends up being up there with Max and Lewis I wouldn’t mind either.

Honda certainly took the hero’s way out though considering this is their last year and then still giving it their all, and I hope Red Bull can keep using and developing that engine with a talented third party up until F1 becomes eco friendly enough for Honda to return

 

Also RB didn't realize that they can abuse T4 during the race. Only on practice (including qualifying) that you need to respect the track limit at T4. Basically Max was trying to stay inside the track at T4 while Lewis keep abusing it (someone counted Lewis was 29 times outside the track at T4). So a bit of a miss from RB side and also highlighted how stupid F1 is. No consistency between practice and race + this kind of thing shouldn't happen in the first place if they simply always enforce the track limit and use those stewards to judge those that breach the track limit whether that driver actually faster because of it or it was a driver error (thus actually slower doing it), especially if a driver keep driving outside of the track limit.
I'm not blaming Lewis for maximizing T4, in fact, RB should be more aware of this thing. But it doesn't mean that this kind of thing is okay. I was only aware about T4 can be abused after the race ended. I was watching the practice sessions and qualifying and they delete times when someone drove wide there so as a viewer I assume it should be the same for the race.

 

It is not a miss from RB. There had been specific instructions in advance that it was not allowed to go off-track there. It was a miss from the marshals not to give Lewis a warning after the third time he gained speed by going out of bounds. Max literally said this when his team told him that Lewis was abusing this and despite the instructions wasn’t warned, so Max should start abusing this as well until the marshalls did say something.

 

thrilling race
lovely to see my man alonso getting in there at the start, annoying that he had to retire but would he have got a point? maybe idk

also vettel, you are wondering why did he changed his line? no seb, you just locked up and mugged ocon

 

I agree with Will Buxton’s take that if the cars are allowed to drive on (or out of, to be accurate) a part of the track, they should be allowed to overtake there. Don’t tell me abusing track limits at T4 dozens of times doesn’t impart a lasting advantage in both speed and tire life any less than a single pass when following is so difficult.

Still, we’re in for a good season if the racing’s so close that we’re debating track notes. Just enforce track limits already. F1 will make news for its close racing this year, not which track record Mercedes broke this time.

 

Will Buxton... Something about that guy ticks me off. Somehow he reminds me of Lazlow I'm GTA.

Anyway yeah they should just enforce tracks limits. For the last couple of seasons it's the same thing almost every weekend. I don't know why they keep coming up with different rules for different corners as well. If the track is supposed to be between the white lines than make that the track. Go over it more than 5 times or whatever and you get a time penalty. But I guess F1 likes to overcomplicate things.

 

Yeah, Will’s gushing enthusiasm and occasional giddiness can be off-putting (much like Crofty’s shouting). He writes well, though he didn’t write much back in his NBC days and hardly anything now that he’s officially with F1.

Joe’s green notebook is up, always a good read.

 

i have no problems with enthusiasm but i like to mix it with joes more level-headed stuff

but if first race is anything to go by, hype 2021

 

Excellent ~25min high-level view of the 2021 car and regulatory changes by Sky F1 with Mercedes’ James Allison.

The Mercedes debrief—also delivered by Allison—is superb, as usual, with a nice explanation of tire choice and strategy in the first half of the video.

 

Scarbs interviews Alfa Tech Director for ~10mins. Jan talks about developing within the new budget cap and token systems, including how they kept last year’s Ferrari gearbox because Ferrari released their new gearbox very late. Good stuff, though Jan’s monotone isn’t as breezy a listen as, say, Merc’s engineers. It’s also cool to associate someone with Alfa other than fleeting glimpses and mentions of Fred Vasseur [sic?] and their drivers.

 

Interesting tidbit in this ESPN piece about Tsunoda apparently copying Alonso’s driving style mid-race. Impressive.

 

There is a very interesting interview with Ron Dennis on youtube

 

Peter Windsor said (in the first four mins of that video) that (per his sources) Checo’s RB stalled because of an electrical short caused by excess condensation from the extra dry ice they were using to combat the Honda engine running about 20°C hotter than Merc’s plus Bahrain’s generally high ambient. The extra heat then helped that condensation evaporate, so he was able to start the engine again quickly. I don’t trawl for written F1 news very widely, so apologies for a YT link if there’s an article out there.

Also, three sprint races seem to have been confirmed (the first at Silverstone) with some interesting (if true) financial conditions:

 

So what will happen in a wet race? Sounds more like a booboo on the wiring insulation.

 

Thanks for pointing it out. YouTube recommended the original interview, which I’d recommend: no ads, no cheesy music, maybe better audio quality.

 

New Scarbs video about why low rake cars may be losing out more than high rake because of the new regulations that forbid holes in the floor and trim both a triangular strip of floor before the rear wheels and part of the lower rear brake duct aero winglets (inboard, aka between the wheels).

I’m out of my depth discussing aero, but here goes.

As I understand it (i.e., not well, based off one listen), Scarbs posits that the bottom of those brake duct winglets would seal or interact with the floor and rear diffuser to mitigate tire squirt (the low energy air bouncing off the rear tire and messing up the nicely accelerated and massaged air being sent to the rear diffuser). The rear brake duct aero is attached adjacent to the inner wheel rim. Low rake cars used the (now reduced) bottom of the brake duct aero to form a sort of ceiling for the tire squirt bouncing off the tire and then the road because their floor/difffuser aligned with the lower part of the wheel rim. High rake cars can still use the (unaffected by the ‘21 regs) top of the brake duct aero to seal with the floor/diffuser to combat tire squirt.

The holes in the floor and that extra strip in front of the rear wheels helped manage tire squirt.

I’m not entirely sure where the floor ends and the diffuser begins. I believe the strakes pointing down from the diffuser play a part in combining with the brake aero, so whatever McLaren’s done with their strakes while using a token to change their gearbox may help with this.

Even if I don’t fully understand it, it does help me connect with the discussion about the differing outboard/inboard Mercedes/Ferrari front wings to divert air around the front tires. I believe Ferrari went inboard because they wanted to send more air under the car because of their shorter wheelbase. I’m going to have to reread that BBC secret aerodynamicist article again.