Any Formula 1 fans in the house?
 

So both of my roommates are into racing (like actually being in the car while it is racing). They're also fans of the pros. We just watched the Bahrain Grand Prix, and it was phenomenal. Watching some of the skill on display is pretty awesome, even for someone like me who doesn't know much about the sport.

If you're at all a fan, I'd highly recommend catching the Bahrain GP, the race was incredible.

Became a big fan when I lived in the UK in the late 90s. It's hard to catch, nevermind catch up on, but it's a very enjoyable sport.

I think I like Rally even better, however, but talk about a sport that's hard to catch on TV in the states....

NBC Sports channel has been showing the F1 the last couple of weeks. I wish my kids liked it and understood the science and sport behind it.

I fell in love with open wheel racing back when I went to the Skip Barber racing school for a company event and we drove open wheel on the Laguna Seca track.

"team Orders" ruins a lot of the enjoyment I have with F1, which meant it was good to see the "Let em Race" mentality at the last event.

Love F1. I was ecstatic when they opened the track here in Austin. That was something I'd never thought I see.

All of the races this year have been quite good. It was brilliant watching Hamilton with worse tires fend off Rosberg who had the benefit of DRS. There was plenty of action all through the pack, which is a far cry from the Schumi days where you'd get 20 or 30 passes in a season.

There were lots of complaints about the lack of noise this season, but I actually like it and so does my wife because it no longer sounds like a swarm of killer bees in our living room sunday mornings.

If you've never been to a race it's well worth going. I went to the Canadian GP 12 years ago and it was so much fun.

I would be, I plan on hitting our local track a few times this summer with my kids.

I'm a half-way F1 fan, I've always paid attention without being a huge fan. Last few years I've fallen away a bit, dont watch regularly due to it clashing with soccer and it being a bit of a foregone conclusion that Vettel would win (until this year).

Looks like it'll be a good season this year so long as the pack catch up with Mercedes, dont like the idea of Hamilton winning by a mile.

I began to follow it when Alonso started and kept watching all the races every year.

My wife and I attended 6 or 7 Long Beach Grand Prixs back in LA and just saw our first St. Petersburg GP. I like the US version better... probably for the same reason some like college better than pros. I do watch F1 whenever I remember....watched bits of the Bahrain GP... but I miss Michael Schumaker....he was a great racer.

Gonna necro this because what I just watched a few minutes ago, would, I believe, a majority of the time would have ended in tragedy. That's one of the most terrifying racing incidents I've ever seen in real time.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...fireball-crash

Don’t get to watch the races but I greatly enjoy watching the netflix series f1 drive to survive. Though I can’t let the boys watch it due to language. Glad Romain is safe, that was a scary crash.

That was crazy with the fire and seeing him jump out of that.

The Ryan Newman crash at Daytona this year was another one where I thought I had watched somebody die in real time.

I've been watching some F1 this year after watching the Netflix series. Something to roll over in bed on Sunday morning and turn on. I don't set an alarm for it though. DVRd a few raises but now the ESPN app figured out I'm watching F1 and pushes notifications to my phone telling me who won the race, somewhat ruining it for me, since Lewis Hamilton probably won anyway.

Is Mercedes still head-and-shoulders above the rest when it comes to the Constructors side of things? Since I moved in with my wife a few years back I stopped watching, but back then it felt like Hamilton was very good, but it was really the car's superiority that led to him winning all the time.

It’s even worse this year as Ferrari have taken a major step back. If it wasn’t for the super talented Verstappen there would be nobody challenging them at all

Ugh. I always liked Alonso, and had as much fun following how far he could push his crappy car as I did watching the results of the race.

Hamilton has a great car, but he's had to make a couple drives that proved his mettle. He's a champion's champion. It's easy to cheer against him, but he is a total class act.

As for Alonso, it will be interesting when he comes back next year. He's really thrown a wrench into the works of the driver seats.

I was convinced he was dead when I watched it live. That fire ball, and the way they didn't show any replays or shots of the crash for like five minutes after it happened.

I kind of grumbled about the halo's when they were first added, but it clearly saved a life today.

That was an insane crash. And even more insane that Romain only has burns on his hands/feet and a few cracked ribs. The halo saved his life big-time. Of course the other question is why the fuck is that sort of barrier so close to an exit of a turn?

Same here, that was shocking. The weird thing is that on the live angle many of the insane details weren't even visible (monocoque seperating on impact and goingt through the barrier).
If Grosjean looses consciousness there on impact ... or the monocoque gets stuck before or even if it was a tyre barrier instead and he'd be stuck under that ... Suits are only able to take so much heat for so long ... The medical guy from the car was about to jump in there as well, just waiting for a sliver of an opening from the fire extinguisher.

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As far as the competition goes,bi restarted watching this year after hardly doing so the last 2 or 3. And yeah, it has gotten somewhat 'bland' , partly because of simple progress (part of why in the 90s and 00s races were full of suspense was quite frankly because parts were breaking left and right, routinely half the field got a DNF) and partly because of making a few bad calls. Current cars are a bad mix of being glued to the tarmac and producing "dirty air" slowing down the car behind. That way you can really only overtake with DRS on Long straigts.
It also means track position is vital and thus tyre management is king (aided by the fact that a car glued to the floor means tyres are strained). That the FIA and Pirelli wanted to counteract with the result the tyres can't be pushed for more than a handful of laps.

There will be a massive overhaul for 2022 (was planned for 2021, but pushed a year due to the pandemic).

Mainly because that way they created a track exit. I think Silverstone has a similar point in the track. Plus of course the barriers are even closer on city circuits and the real issue was Grosjean going on a near 90 degree trajectory on a straight. So i do think that gets revisited, but does not strike me as a singularly bad design.
It being close to a corner (though not that close) isn't that unusual, it just looks really weird because of the track optics and it getting closer and closer to the track as it goes on (many tracks have an ongoing straight barrier closer to the track in similar spots).

As an aside, Raikkönen also almost hit the opposite barrier on the other side of the track at speed if you watch the full replay. And Stroll ended up upside down later on. Overall it fells like there are some stupid risks taken, mainly partly because overtaking is so impossible. The crash on the Mugello restart was terrifying as well a few races back, as was LeClerc just loosing his car at near max speed at Monza ...

Last race will be on a semi-oval track layout (no banking though) as it is again Bahrein but without the infield part of the track.
Also, Hamilton is out due to contracting Covid19 (symptoms and positive day after the race, so might well have passed it along ...).

As an aside, in Formula 2, the current leader is Michael Schumacher's son Mick, who is also frontrunner for a seat with Haas (first one announced for fellow F2 driver Mazepin, who brings big sponsor backing ...).

Well that was thrilling stuff! Congratulations to Perez!! Viva Mexico! Tears after the win and well done! Especially as he’s fighting for a seat next year.

Terrible luck for Russell who was really good today. He definitely didn’t have Hamilton’s luck.

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That fucking race.

Mercedes fucked themselves. The only race where anyone actually wanted to see them win with George, and the team completely fucked them. Fucked both Bottas completely and George. What a drive he had.

Seeing both Max and Charles go out on lap one was rough. It was a great chance if all these guys could have stayed in it. But how do you go from guaranteed 1/2 with 25 laps to go, to 8/9 at the end of it. That was an Atlanta level collapse.

Sergio deserves a big ride. It's a total shame that he doesn't have one right now. He's a great driver.

Yeah, Perez is a headscratcher. He even has financial backing on top of his ability. Just a weird year in that Haas has Mazepin with even more money, Schuhmacher with the name on top of his talent (and wanted a 2 year commitment, likely not sth Perez wanted with a shit team), Vettel still a big name pushing Perez out and elsewhere teams either having decided very early or clinging to "philosophy" in Red Bull only wanting their own academy drivers.
No offense to Albon and the Red Bull is a beast to drive (Gasly struggled big time and now had a massive season with Alpha Tauri), but that's sth they need to look at if they want to challenge Mercedes.

So, Perez getting that RB seat afterall: https://www.redbull.com/int-en/redbu...ll-racing-2021

Kind feel for Albon, seems a good guy thrust into a difficult situation/environment. But those are the breaks, only 20 spots makes for tough calls. Older guys usually are fine going to different options (like GT racing, especially endurance) but for younger guys it's a rough deal with no real avenues for open wheel racing. There's Indycar of course, but that's a whole different world and very different economics as well. Though i would like to see some more crossover both directions. Colton Herta would be pretty interesting in F1 and some F1 drivers would also be interesting to see how they do in a (mostly) spec series.

Gasly being demoted saved his F1 career, LOL.

So true. Albon is a getting raw dogged here, but really it's a smart move for Red Bull. Perez will give the legit bigger name to play #2 to Max and someone who should be able to handle the expectations to give him cover in the battles with Mercedes. That was something that Albon failed at too often. I mean, Albon still has a job at least as the reserve/testing driver, but his F1 career is likely over.

You'd have to look historically at Juan Pablo Montoya to see how F1 guys do in stock open and closed wheel racing. He didn't light the world on fire, but he was clearly an above average driver when he wasn't crashing from being too aggressive (tbf that was a big knock against him in F1 too).

Really good move for Red Bull. Like PM said, this should give Red Bull a lot more opportunities to battle with Mercedes next year. With Albon, it was always two cars vs. one and Red Bull always had to react vs. taking a proactive approach to pit strategy.

What amuses me that based on 2020, Vettel getting booted from Ferrari and ending up in Aston Martin/former RP may have had him falling into the better car which Sainz rises to the worse car from McLaren to Ferrari ;).

Granted Ferrari pays a lot better, I'm sure.

I know, that's so weird isn't it. They've already said that next year's Ferrari is going to suck too, so they likely will be below McLaren again, but you'd have to feel like long run it might be better, but then seeing how Ferrari treated Vettel this year, maybe it'll end up being an awful move. Vettel has to be thrilled about his prospects. Does anyone think that Alonso in the Renault will be fun to watch?

Alonso is always fun, but I'm looking forward to him being upset that he doesn't challenge for wins and we can all say you joined Renault, what were you expecting?

He still has to get on with the car, which in essence will be very similar and very little wiggle room to adjust it to his liking due to a mandated development freeze/limit for next year due to Covid (in 2022 there wil be very different rules, which were originally planned for 2021 but postponed due to the pandemic).
Not that Red Bull does that anyway, it's all Verstappen all the time. Friend of mine worked as a racing mechanic (up to what is now Formula 2) and will go on and one how you (well, if you know that stuff) can see how fundamentally different the Red Bull is designed and works/behaves from every other car on the grid in it's characteristics. Similar to Bottas, Albon lacks that little bit of speed without straining the tyres to overcome both car's characteristics when running behind other cars.
Not like Verstappen isn't complaining about it as well, but there is reasonable doubt that anybody else could perform near to their 100% in there.

Pretty close going in the Championship this year with some very good race but also outrageous stuff happening. Especially Hamilton and Verstappen are at a point where them not crashing when going wheel to wheel is a surprise. Hamilton vaulted Verstappen off the track at 300 kph at Silverstone, 2 races ago then Verstappen crashed into Hamilton with his car ending up on top of Hamiltons.



Last race this past weekend in Russia Verstappen started from last place (due to a grid penalty after installing a new engine, you are limited to 3 per season and one of his was wrecked in Silverstone so he ran out already on usable ones). Lando Norris looked set to win his first race, then rain related carnage came.



F1 2021 Russian Grand Prix Race FULL Highlights - YouTube


Also well worth to listen to the communication from/to the drivers:


Drivers' Radio Reaction To Chaotic Russian GP Weather - YouTube

Pretty good race this weekend. It's nice to see the battles happening up and down the grid this year.

Almost certainly going to come down to the last Race for both titles this year with Hamilton down a mere 8 points. If he wins both remaining races he'll win the title again, if they split 1/2 in both races (1 win, 25 points, and 1 runner up finish, 18 points, each) it'll come down to who wins the Bonus Point for fastest lap in either race.
Constructors only 5 points apart.

As an aside, here is a pretty brilliantly done video explaining mechanics of a F1 car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7707zEX9X4

This saudi race is fucking bananananananannananananananas (extra na's for emphasis) more twists and turns then a whole season of Surviovr.

Yeah, that was pretty wild.

If Hamilton & Verstappen end level on points, the title goes to the driver with the most wins. Right now, if I've tallied correctly, Verstappen has 9 and Hamilton has 8. If that's tied, they go to number of 2nd places (and so on). Verstappen has that too, 8 to 7.

So clearly the correct strategy for Verstappen is to crash into Hamilton in the last race of the season. :D

If everybody would race like Verstappen, there would be 5 cars finishing on average. The only reason he can do it is because others aren't willing to sacrifice their chance to prove a point here and Hamilton in particular has more to loose from both crashing.

Might bring in ratings and all, but personally it's not my cup of tea. And there needs to be 1) a concerted effort to get some sort of transparency into the rules of racing (especially since next years cars are supposed to enable significantly more close quarter battles !) and 2) make **** rules that are clear cut and don't need to be **** negotiated on a case by case basis.

Example: an underrated aspect of the 'half-crash' between Verstappen and Hamilton: Verstappen got orders to let Hamilton pass (because he drove him off track prior to that), but to "do it strategically". Meaning directly before the DRS detection point, so that he lets Hamilton pass but then is almost guaranteed to re-pass him on the same straight due to the DRS advantage. As a response Hamilton, who isn't an idiot, obviously tried to delay overtaking until after the DRS, Verstappen slows down more and more. Voila, **** ...

The easy solution is right there: If a place has to be given back, the punished driver isn't allowed to re-overtake for X anmount of time (even 15 seconds or 3 corners or sth. would be enough).

The track itself also obviously was on the very edge of what is feasible for these cars.

At this point I'm feeling that both Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen should get a severe punishment. They're risking both their lives week in week out, is that really worth it? The FIA won't do much though, Formula 1 isn't as dull as it used to be for the last decade. But they should also know very well that the last race now has the 1994 Michael Schumacher vs Damon Hill scenario written all over.

I'm not going to do the "but Lewis Hamilton is the good guy !" routine, but rather say that this season due to the circumstances (mostly being behind on points when they clashed) he has definitely been much less agressive/a safety risk than Max ;)

That being said the FIA caught a few breaks in that they surprisingly rarely actually had to go into these situation due to how qualifying (+ grid penalties) and other stuff sorted itself out. For an extremely close 1-2 they had surprisingly few 'encounters'. But those they had were almost all not 'clean'. So yeah, nobody will be surprised should they crash. The Red Bull upper hierarchy being utterly drunk on their own Kool Aid and the "but Mercedes !" complex doesn't help, i very much doubt there is anybody around Verstappen (doubt his father would from how invested he is emotionally) that will sit him down and explain that unless you are Michael Schumacher and win a bunch more titles one might consider if one really wants a title this bad and if it'd be really worth it. The lad is still only 24 and he will even get at least another shot at Hamilton next years. Of course you never know with the new regulations, but there is no way a guy with his talent* doesn't waltz into any seat he wants to win a title or three eventually.

*And nobody disputes that. His Q3 lap the other day was one of those "holy shit, there's no way this is real" moments. Of course, then he crashed when he only needed to cruise through one more corner instead. Which is kinda telling in itself, as well. Can't access YT right now for some reason, but anybody interested look up Alonso's reaction watching the lap. There's a World Champion watching and knowing Verstappen is doing some reality-bending shit on that lap.

It's been a fantastic season. I have nothing but maximum appreciation for what these drivers and teams are doing on the track. SA was a great track and exciting race. The season is amped. I really can't fault either of the teams for nitpicking every chance they get, or either driver pushing for whatever advantage they might gain. It's going to be bending the edges of the rules for sure, but as long as it's just bending it's going to be alright.

But don't think for a second that Toto and Mercedes doesn't already know that if both drivers end up going out that Max wins the title and that they will be ready to protest before the race is even over.

Max ultimately gets a further 10 second penalty for being the primary reason for causing the accident. It doesn't change the grid finish however.

Where is everyone?

If you aren't an F1 fan after that, you missed out!

If you want to be, go watch F1 Drive to Survive, and anxiously await the release of Season 3 before the next season starts, because that ending was something for the history books.

That was nuts... feel like Hamilton got screwed, but that's racing I guess. If you let lapped traffic through how do you not let all through? Nothing Mercedes could have done there at the end.

I think the biggest controversy is that one, because if they do that, the safety car can't get in on that lap and the race ends under yellow. This was way, way better than to see it under caution.

I loved Michael Massey's response to Toto, when he told him over the radio "Toto....Toto.....It's called a motor race."

But the immediate call to bring Max in and pulling off the pit stop right away was ballsy too. Nothing to lose there, and they nailed the decision.

Perez drove an absolutely professional race and helped bring Max back into the race. That was one of the very best parts.

And Hamilton is just pure class. So much respect for him. So much.

If they had to let it finish under green it should have been red flagged with 2 or 3 laps tp go. Both cars on fresh reds and let the drivers decide it.

Yeah, but that also wouldn't have followed with previous decisions either. So it would have been an outlier as well.

Isn't that exactly what they did at Baku? I was pulling for Hamilton though, so maybe I'm just being biased.