Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

Dave wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 10:47 pm
GB_Simo wrote:
Mon May 31, 2021 4:01 pm
Graham was a lucky boy. Had his stop lasted a couple of seconds longer, that spin would have had him coming up the track right in the firing line, instead of clearing up the racetrack before the leaders got there
I'm not the only one that got Zanardi vibes from that crash, right? A damaged nose cone as the only collateral damage is a lucky, lucky outcome.
No, you're not. Between that and the rear wheel making its own way to the infield, a number of bullets were dodged in very quick succession. I also suspect that a less skilled group of drivers would have led themselves into a gigantic shunt at the start of the race - it's not really for me to tell a legend of the sport how to manage a rolling start, but I wish Dixie would bring them to the line a bit faster.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by F308GTB »

Azerbaijan this weekend. Any bets on where Mazepin will crash? Seems like the left into the old city is perfectly set up for him to lose it. And daddy Mazepin says Mother Russia wants Lil Niki to do his mandatory one year of military service. F1 should be so lucky.

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

F308GTB wrote:
Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:21 pm
Azerbaijan this weekend. Any bets on where Mazepin will crash? Seems like the left into the old city is perfectly set up for him to lose it.
At least he's had half the grid keeping him company this weekend. It's been a long time since I've seen quite so many top-line racing drivers recreate one of our rFactor poker nights.

Tell you what, though: it's been a very long time since I've awaited the start of an F1 race without having the first notion of who was going to win it.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Rodster »

Formula 1 needs more Azerbaijan's on the calendar. Great layout !

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

Quick thoughts on a weekend of racing:

- Even with one good arm, Marc Marquez is still unbeatable at Sachsenring. A deserved reward for incredible persistence, resilience and good old guts.

- If I was Valtteri Bottas reflecting on my weekend, I'd probably think that doing well in free practice didn't quite compensate for qualifying behind my team mate, compromising the strategy of both team cars by flat-spotting my tyres so badly I couldn't complete my opening stint, then having the second Red Bull come past me when I couldn't get my next set of tyres to the end. "Not what I needed...and why have my mechanics started to call me George?" I would ponder. Mr Saturday had the best Sunday of his Williams career, just what he needs if Toto is still thinking about who to employ next year. He isn't, though, surely?

- If I was Yuki Tsunoda, I'd be trying to work out why Helmut keeps making that throat-slashing gesture at me. The lad is clearly a talent but equally clearly needs to calm down and learn a bit of patience, since it's no secret that his paymasters have none they could let him borrow and they're not as short of potential replacements as they were a year ago.

- It's slowly coming back to Fernando Alonso. It's already come back to Sebastian Vettel, less impressive this time than in Monaco and Baku but looking a lot more like himself all the same.

- Rumours that Nikita Mazepin has contributed the foreword to an updated version of How To Win Friends and Influence People appear to be unfounded.

- I really have to catch up on the IndyCar race.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by pk500 »

GB_Simo wrote:
Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:05 pm
- I really have to catch up on the IndyCar race.
Indeed, you do. Best race of the weekend, as it often is.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Dave »

Mazepin is driving like his dad is going to own the team soon...

Road America is always one I look forward to, but this year was on a whole 'nother level. They might need to name the little run-off at turn 5 after Grosjean for the number of times he ended up out there, I was really impressed with his racecraft throughout the race. I expected him to have days with blistering speed, but didn't think he would adapt to the "elbows out" style as well as he has.

Palou's on-board through the kink 8O He had that thing dancing on the edge, quite the signing for Ganassi and an easy-to-root-for kid. The series is not lacking young talent these days.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

So there it went. The first F1 sprint, and it was certainly a group of cars driving around a track together, wasn't it?

I don't understand what it added. Yesterday demonstrated that there's not an awful lot wrong with the current qualifying format, while today demonstrated that no matter how much you will it to be different, cars that aren't great at racing each other will not magically become better just because the race is a bit shorter.

I'm being invited to believe by a number of notable F1 folk, Brundle, Buxton and Brawn among them, that what I watched today was wonderful. What overtaking there was took place because Sainz was gently punted across Northamptonshire on lap one and Alonso's wizardry couldn't keep two much faster McLarens behind him, while everyone else is lined up in broadly the order of their race pace and the most exciting part of the weekend has been relegated to a Friday sideshow. If tomorrow's race is an absolute thriller and we can trace the reasons back directly to this sprint format, I'll have a little rethink, but for now, colour me thoroughly unconvinced.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by F308GTB »

It was at least entertaining, and it kept me from fast forwarding the usual mid-race procession. But hey, it got Max a little more of a lead. Personally I would like to really see the weekend mixed up. Have the "real" race followed by a sprint race in reverse finish order. Make the top drivers work their way through the field.

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Dave »

If you line up the fastest cars front to back on a track that's hard to pass, you're going to end up with more or less the same result. Cool event to draw more people to the track, maybe? I didn't see it adding much at all and, like NASCAR, the harder the series tries to tell me what I watched is amazing the more I think they're pissing on my leg and telling me it is raining.

So, today's race sure was interesting. I half-expected Helmut Marko to show up at the podium celebration to take a swing at Hamilton. Max is a dick on the track, full stop. Hamilton knows this and raced him accordingly and as a result those two tried to crash a few different times before the finally made contact. So relieved to see Max walk away, got really worried when the coverage immediately went away and didn't come back for a bit. Lewis was aggressive and optimistic and Max wasn't going to back out. Lewis drifted up, Max cut down. It was a racing incident and the 10 second punishment was fine, I guess.

But his "how could Lewis celebrate while I'm in the hospital" bit was more than a little extra.

Sure could be a spicy championship battle though.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

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Misjudgements on both sides, one of them probably worthy of a penalty, the other worthy of consideration.

Lewis didn't quite get the nose in, was never quite getting the nose in, was always looking like he'd drift up into Max's car. He was entitled to be there, Christian Horner's utter nonsense about Copse not being an overtaking place and this being the desperate move of an amateur deserves nothing but scorn, but from a tight angle on tyres covered in clag, his execution was a fraction off. The uproar among the mouth-breathers of social media is ludicrous, the penalty probably just about right but in honesty, I wouldn't have complained had the stewards agreed with Leclerc, Bottas and Alonso that it was a racing incident.

Max, after making his initial course correction to avoid the Mercedes he'd just spotted whistling down the inside of him, turned in with more aggression than was perhaps sensible. The space Lewis had, still in plentiful supply at the point of contact, would have disappeared somewhere just shy of the apex given the Red Bull's trajectory. A calculation based on the safe and certain knowledge that in battle, Lewis would concede the place, just as he did in Barcelona, just as he perhaps should have at Imola, just as he did at Paul Ricard. 30-odd points off the championship lead, in a car that's just a hair slower than the one he's racing against and needing to take the lead immediately if he was to stand any chance of breaking Red Bull's winning streak, Lewis Hamilton cannot afford to concede.

One assumes Max realises this, now. What's going to be very, very interesting over the next few races is to see exactly what he does with that knowledge now he's armed with it. While he's at it, he probably won't be reflecting upon what a shame it is that Marko and Horner spend so long trying so hard to be this easy to dislike.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Dave »

GB_Simo wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:34 pm
A calculation based on the safe and certain knowledge that in battle, Lewis would concede the place, just as he did in Barcelona, just as he perhaps should have at Imola, just as he did at Paul Ricard. 30-odd points off the championship lead, in a car that's just a hair slower than the one he's racing against and needing to take the lead immediately if he was to stand any chance of breaking Red Bull's winning streak, Lewis Hamilton cannot afford to concede.

One assumes Max realises this, now. What's going to be very, very interesting over the next few races is to see exactly what he does with that knowledge now he's armed with it. While he's at it, he probably won't be reflecting upon what a shame it is that Marko and Horner spend so long trying so hard to be this easy to dislike.
I keep coming back to your point here, Max drives in a way that forces other drivers to make a choice and most of the time the other driver concedes. He is a real prick out on the track, moreso than just about any other driver out there, in my opinion.

Wouldn't it be a delight to see peak Montoya battle with him?
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by pk500 »

Dave wrote:
Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:50 pm
Wouldn't it be a delight to see peak Montoya battle with him?
That would be f*cking DELICIOUS.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Rodster »

The 2022 Formula 1 prototypes don't look too bad. Well at least they look better than the current cars and that's not saying much. It was mentioned that DRS activation was not spotted on the new cars so perhaps they might not be included in 2022.

Image

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by pk500 »

I think the 2022 cars look fine. Don't understand the outrage in some corners. A definite improvement over the look of the current cars and their ridiculous Jenga stack bargeboard replacements.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

The 2022 cars remind me a bit of some of the cars from an old PS2 game, Downforce. I approve.

I'm working very hard to understand how Red Bull had one of their cars deposited at very high speed into a fence, saw the other driver involved penalised for his role while their driver was whisked to hospital, then managed to come out looking like the bad guys.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Dave »

Well, you see...Alex Albon, in a two-year old car had to brake 29 meters sooner in order to make the corner.

It's been hard not to just yell out "WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP" any time Horner's opened his mouth over the last week.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

Sorry I'm late with this:

http://player.radiolemans.co/

Your annual reminder that, despite what you might be hearing on the Motor Trend coverage, there are in fact people commentating on the Le Mans 24 Hours while sounding as though they have previous broadcast experience. The illness-related absence of Tom Gaymor from the Eurosport/Discovery booth weakens the Motor Trend coverage, but this is not the same as saying the coverage would be any good if he was there.

Tip: if your speakers are on the blink, recreate the Eurosport commentary by arranging a group Zoom call with friends and asking them to set away talking for 24 hours, stipulating in advance that at no point should they actually watch the race.

You may also be able to obtain the commentary of Martin Haven, Oliver Gavin, Allan McNish and the heaven-sent David Addison via Motor Trend's app, I've read.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by F308GTB »

George!

Hopefully Toto is paying attention.

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

F308GTB wrote:
Sat Aug 28, 2021 4:48 pm
George!

Hopefully Toto is paying attention.
It must surely be a done deal already, mustn't it? A decision is made, they're waiting for some other things to be settled before making any announcements and that would suggest they don't want to confirm George at Mercedes until they can also confirm Bottas somewhere else. That's got to be what's going on, because you'd need pickled onions for eyes to believe that leaving everything the same was the right move. With that prodigious turn of speed in a damp first sector, could a Williams be leading halfway round the first lap tomorrow?

Lando was looking incredibly good too, right up until he wasn't. That work to reprofile the run-off at the top of Raidillon can't come quickly enough but along with that, it wouldn't hurt if drivers carrying too much speed through there were faced with a greater deterrent beyond the edge of track limits than a huge expanse of Tarmac.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by GB_Simo »

Let me sum up the notes I've taken, just to make sure I'm understanding this right:

This race will last for 44 laps, unless it's a 39 lap race, which it might be because the FIA are deducting laps from the distance. They shouldn't be because the race hasn't started, unless it has, which they don't think it has, though there is a possibility that it should have done.

Sergio Perez is out of the race, unless he isn't, which he's not, even though the FIA thought he was. He'll start from the pitlane and he'll be laps behind because the other cars have already done some laps, except he won't be because those laps don't count towards the race, even though they might do.

There's a hard limit of 3 hours to get the race completed, which started at 3pm local time and is still running, except the FIA have decided that it isn't, possibly via the suspension of time itself.

Am I about right?
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Dave »

Close, but now the race is complete and the 2005 USGP is off the hook for biggest farce.

I’m not sure why they’d write a rule that says 2 laps completes a race and offers half points.

Congrats to Williams on the podium!
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by pk500 »

It took one poorly worded rulebook and zero flexibility on behalf of the FIA and Liberty for F1 to squander a healthy chunk of the fan base it has built in the U.S. over the last three years due to "Drive to Survive."

Sorry, FIA and Liberty, but Americans don't cotton to, "Sorry, it's a real race after two laps. F*ck you." That doesn't work on these shores.

It's also a total BS excuse that the paddock must have been torn down and moved to the next venue this evening. I would buy that if F1 was doing a flyaway in Malaysia or Brazil or even racing in Hungary or Russia next Sunday. But the next race is in the Netherlands.

The Spa and Zandvoort circuits are 305 km apart -- that's a whopping 190 miles for those keeping score in American homes.
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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Rodster »

The Honey Badger does it again :)

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Re: Racing Season 2021 (Spoiler Alert)

Post by Dave »

What a delightful ending and podium celebration—joy is fun in sports!

Now, I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a big Lewis fan but dislike Max more:

Max is 90%+ to blame for the incident. On lap one Max did his usual “I give you no room, so back out or crash” move to Lewis and Lewis conceded. Lewis did the same thing, and was even further ahead than Max on lap one. But Max never backs out and jumped the curb. His “he needed to give me more room” quotes are rich.

But most importantly, extremely thankful for the halo. That could have been awful without it.
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