Formula One 2020

[Werthead]

F1 will either go full electric or they will go down the direction of hydrogen. Or they'll decouple from road-relevance and go back to V10 or V12 petrol engines (on the basis that if the rest of humanity is driving electric or hydrogen vehicles, a negligible amount of petrol use for sport is fine). 

The manufacturers have made it clear that the road-relevance is important to them though, so they'll continue pursuing whatever achieves that for them.

Formula E has made titanic strides in just a few years, especially on battery capacity which is now enough to do many laps of a circuit without needing to swap batteries or cars. They're up to a third of an F1 race distance and that's going up all the time.

[Loge]

12 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

With the world changing to eco-friendly electric vehicles and pressure from environmental groups, it is inevitable. Just a matter of when.

Global warming. Climate change. Greenhouse effects. Apocalypse. Armageddon. Blah blah blah. The usual stuff. These stuff must not be usual, but they have become so. But fossil fuels need to be stopped. It already depleting rapidly. 

Watch F1 while it's still there then. If internal combustion engines get banned, motorsport ist toast.

[TheLastWolf]

1 minute ago, Loge said:

Watch F1 while it's still there then

I thought that's what everyone was doing!

1 minute ago, Loge said:

If internal combustion engines get banned, motorsport ist toast.

That's not going to happen very soon, but certainly around 2040-50. If we are still on this planet by then. 

[polishgenius]

12 minutes ago, Loge said:

If internal combustion engines get banned, motorsport ist toast.

 

 

Or, you know, not.

[Toth]

2 hours ago, Loge said:

Watch F1 while it's still there then. If internal combustion engines get banned, motorsport ist toast.

Oh, given the current trend of hiding F1 on pay TV channels I would be more worried that till then there aren't enough fans left to give a shit.

Also motorsport will be fine:

 

[Winterfell is Burning]

Even if combustion engines are banned in most places, which they won't, it would still be possible to have F1 races with them, it's not like the damage to the planet would be that big with just them.

[Loge]

3 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Even if combustion engines are banned in most places, which they won't, it would still be possible to have F1 races with them, it's not like the damage to the planet would be that big with just them.

As far as the races themselves are concerned, it's very easy to make them C02-free. Just use biofuels. If you are worried about Formula One's CO2 emissions, they're the same as any big sports event's, namely what the spectators cause getting there. The fuel burned by the race cars is negligible by comparison.  

[polishgenius]

That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen on a track.

[Werthead]

22 hours ago, polishgenius said:

That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen on a track.

Yup. Guy had a promising career and completely threw it away for no logical reason.

The person in charge of the event was Felipe Massa, who confirmed he'd have done everything in his power to stop the guy racing ever again even if he hadn't voluntarily withdrawn his licence. He'll certainly never get anywhere near F1 now.

[TheLastWolf]

On 9/27/2020 at 12:25 PM, TheLastWolf said:

Hamilton rules!!!

Lewis Hamilton equals Michael Schumacher's record of 91 wins in the most fabulous way possible! 

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, TheLastWolf said:

Lewis Hamilton equals Michael Schumacher's record of 91 wins in the most fabulous way possible! 

It was a nice touch getting Mick Schumacher to give that presentation to Hamilton, although it's sad that Michael himself can't be there to do that. I liked Hamilton's anecdote about playing Schumacher in Grand Prix 2 when he was a child, a game I remember playing a lot at the time as well.

The battle for the lead started off as a good contest with Bottas doing well to fight off Hamilton on the first lap but it fizzled out later on after Bottas' problems. It was a good contest for 3rd and nice to see Ricciardo back on the podium again. I was also impressed with Hulkenberg scoring points from 20th on the grid after his last-minute substitution.

Next up could be interesting with another new track that I don't know anything about in Portugal.

[lmanion]

Portimao looks like a really cool track, it will be interesting to see what it's like with F1 cars running around it. There is barely a flat piece of road on the whole track.

[Werthead]

The fact that Hamilton could pass 100 poles this season and 100 wins next season is quite insane when you think about. Both records seemed insurmountable for a very long time.

Interesting seeing people talk about how to catch up with Hamilton and it seems very difficult. To get 100 wins is equal to winning every single race for five years straight. If you're in F1 even for 20 years (as Verstappen and Leclerc might end up being in total) it'd require a 25% win conversion for your entire time in F1, and in Max's case he's already five years down on that.

[lmanion]

Yeah its a big record Hamilton is putting up. He has had 7 years now and probably 8 after next year in the absolute best car on the grid. Occasionally red bull and Ferrari have gotten close but for the most part the Merc has been .5-1 second a lap clear to the next best car. By the end of next season that will equate to 150-160 races with teammates that everyone expects him to beat even though Rosberg took a championship win during that time I don't think anyone would argue that that was a big surprise.

Even before Merc he was in a team that was expected to win races regularly. It's going to take a long time before we see someone challenges Hamilton's records and it's probably going to need 25 races a season or something.

[williamjm]

I thought this video was amusing as Kimi and Giovanazzi drive around the Nordschliffe in the rain, supposedly doing a Q&A session but Giovanazzi spends most of the time being rather nervous about the speed Kimi is going at. I think it's fair to say Giovanazzi doesn't have a career as a rally co-driver ahead of him.

 

[Werthead]

Silly season is starting to get really silly this season.

So the latest is that Grosjean and Magnussen are out - probably way past time for both of them - but that Haas urgently need two pay drivers, so the obvious pairing of Hulkenberg and Perez are out. At the max, they may take Perez alongside a junior, maybe Mick Schumacher, but reportedly they are strongly considering pairing Schumacher with either Nikita Mazepin or Callum Ilott, all three of them out of F2. That seems like a colossal gamble to me, but Haas's days in F1 may be numbered beyond 2022 or 2023 anyway, so why the hell not. The F1 BBC podcast suggested that Haas could be a really bad idea for Schumacher and he'd even be better staying in F2 for another year instead, but he's apparently hungry to move up to the big league.

Alfa Romeo looked like they were losing both their drivers, but Raikkonen has agreed to stay on for one more year (possibly to put the "most race starts in F1 history" trophy more firmly out of reach of younger drivers for a few years). Ferrari have surprisingly started leaning towards keeping Giovinazzi on. Apparently they've been more impressed by his showing versus Kimi and are really keen to get an Italian driver in the big team if possible, so they want another season to check his progress. Everyone else seems a bit bemused by this, his results have not really been good enough across two seasons. If Schumacher doesn't go to Haas, Alfa is his most likely destination alongside Raikkonen.

Red Bull have apparently informally decided not to re-promote Gasly, apparently feeling it would be far too damaging to the brand if he under-performed again. It appears that Gasly has been told he has a seat at Toro Rosso for at least the next couple of seasons because his results there have been outstanding, but he's also free to shop around. He's reportedly approached Renault with an eye to 2022 and they are interested, simply because putting a solid, French, multi-podium and race-winner in the French team as they are coming good is far too mouthwatering a prospect for the team. Ocon needs to pull his shit together because, obviously, he's in that position now but his results versus Ricciardo have not been strong enough and I strongly suspect he's going to get outperformed by Alonso next year (unless Alonso's skills suddenly fall off a cliff).

Red Bull are also unhappy with Albon's performance. The podium was okay but they feel that one out of a year and a half's performance isn't good enough (which seems a bit harsh; it could have been three if it hadn't been for Hamilton and the Red Bull car slipped backwards between seasons and has only recently pulled convincingly clear of the midfield) and they need a more consistent second driver who's going to be mopping up constructor points and can be relied on to get on the podium or even win every time Max is in that position but has a problem. Apparently the current plan, barring a huge upswing, is to demote Albon back to AlphaTauri, promote Yuki Tsunoda if he gets his superlicence points or bring in Perez or Hulkenberg if not (and keep Kvyat as an absolute last-ditch preference, but his absolute nowhere performances this season versus Gasly driving the wheels off the same car have been pretty disastrous for him; he's single-handedly kept AlphaTauri out of the proper midfield battle).

Williams looked a lock for next year, but apparently they're now considering resting George Russell via a break clause and bringing in a pay driver, and may have already had exploratory talks with Perez. Both Russell and Mercedes seem furious with these reports (the sort of faux pas an F1 rookie owner might make, whilst Claire and Frank Williams would have been far more diplomatic about it). Annoying your engine supplier, who could easily drop you and force to trundle around in a Renault instead (not that that is necessarily as bad as it would have been a year or two back), is not a good idea.

The winner out of this is Sergio Perez, who is apparently being courted by three different teams (Red Bull, Haas and Williams). I think we can guess where his preference to go would be though.

[TheLastWolf]

Move over Schumacher. Hamilton is King. Sweet 92. And so many years left on the clock still

[red snow]

On 10/26/2020 at 5:40 AM, TheLastWolf said:

Move over Schumacher. Hamilton is King. Sweet 92. And so many years left on the clock still

It's interesting to see how much he can extend the race wins by over the next couple of years. Barring some major improvements from competitors (hard given the cars are essentially remaining the same) or some bad luck on hamilton's part the 8 championships looks like a lock in. I also doubt Hamilton will make the mistake of leaving at the top and returning (like schumacher did) to an inferior car. Hamilton knows he pretty much has a choice of drives on his current form.

I'm still hoping that we'll see Hamilton, Alonso, ricciardo, Vettel, leclerc and Verstappen in competitive cars in the next 1-2 years. That's a pedigree line-up of drivers - possibly the strongest the sport has had in a long time. Renault is improving, mclaren should have extra power with the merc engine. It's just ferrari and red bull (without an engine) that seem dubious in terms of giving their driver a competitive car in 2022. Red bull should be ok for 2021 at least but I question Honda's enthusiasm for next season given they are leaving

I quite liked the portugal track. I think they maybe need to tweak the DRS on the finishing straight thought as it was a bit too easy to overtake using that and meant drivers weren't as likely to try more interesting moves elsewhere on the track. Although it was very windy on race day which seemed to make the DRS more effective on that part of the track

[Werthead]

Ferrari do seem to be heading in the right direction. Raw power is still down, but the aero package on the car has improved markedly and they're heading in the same design direction as Red Bull. If they can get a stronger aero package in place for 2021 they could do reasonably well, but they're unlikely to give Mercedes or Red Bull any headaches.

I think 2021 will be a rinse repeat of this year, hopefully with Red Bull a bit closer, but it should be a lock for Hamilton to get another 7-10 wins (to get to around 100) and an eighth championship next year. 2022 will be the big reset and we'll see what happens then.

[williamjm]

13 hours ago, red snow said:

I quite liked the portugal track. I think they maybe need to tweak the DRS on the finishing straight thought as it was a bit too easy to overtake using that and meant drivers weren't as likely to try more interesting moves elsewhere on the track. Although it was very windy on race day which seemed to make the DRS more effective on that part of the track

I have liked the new tracks this year. I do agree about the DRS, it's a pity because when drivers didn't breeze past easily there were a few scraps that went on for several corners after the first one which were a lot more fun to watch than an overtake on the straight.