Formula 1 2020/2021: Shits getting crazier

[williamjm]

It does look like they may made progress on what seemed to be impossible for many years and allow cars to follow each other closely for many laps. I feel confident we'll see many more battles between Verstappen and Leclerc through this year. I agree that Perez looked the favourite for victory until he got unlucky with the safety car timing.

Thankfully we managed to get through the race without another huge accident, but I still think nobody except the people getting Saudi money would miss the race if we never went there again.

[Iskaral Pust]

In all my various streaming packages, I don’t have access to watch the races live so I’m just following highlights after the fact.  Unlucky for Perez, but a really good duel between Verstappen and Leclerc.  But DRS is a weird factor now as both drivers were jostling for the DRS counterattack.  Leclerc tried to concede the lead at a point where he would have a DRS benefit to retake quickly, while Verstappen deliberately avoided taking the lead until he would have a long stretch outside the DRS zone to establish a lead.  It’s still exciting but it makes the overtaking a lot more tactical.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

 

[Werthead]

The drivers seem excited about the Vegas race.

[Werthead]

Solid win by Verstappen and total own goal by Leclerc there which left him in a much worse situation than was really necessary. Good results for Perez, Norris and especially Russell. The car may be a dog, but it's possible to extract solid results from it and Russell is doing that whilst Hamilton cannot, for whatever reason.

Having DRS switched off for half the race was a really bizarre situation that screwed a lot of people over.

[Iskaral Pust]

Good race for Redbull but probably easier than they ever expected.  Leclerc was probably right to push hard on Perez but just needed some more patience/control.

Plenty of competition going on throughout the grid in these early races.  Lots of schadenfreude for Mercedes still.  If Verstappen and Leclerc go toe-to-toe all season without lots of crashes, does that mean Hamilton was the problem last year?

[kungtotte]

3 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

If Verstappen and Leclerc go toe-to-toe all season without lots of crashes, does that mean Hamilton was the problem last year?

No. The problem was always Verstappen vs Hamilton.

Verstappen vs other people? Fine.

Hamilton vs other people? Fine.

LeClerc is also better at taking advantage of his opponent's weaknesses. Like in the first race at Bahrain where he and Max had the back and forth battle over a couple of laps, only for Charles to wave the red flag in front of the red bull by leaving the inside completely undefended. He knew Max was going to send it fully there so he was already slowing down by the time Max was passing him, so he could get the cut back and then open the gap to get out of DRS range.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

This race is gonna slap!

ETA: 

 

[williamjm]

The race had another good battle between Verstappen and Le Clerc in the first few laps and then another burst of excitement towards the end with a long forgettable section in between. After the first three races it felt like Le Clerc was on the verge of running away with the Championship but Verstappen is definitely back in the hunt now.

[Toth]

Okay, this is some epic stuff produced by Red Bull Racing:

Gives me real life The Crew 2 vibes, somehow.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Some people are getting way too excited about this. fine looking car though. The FIA should amend the rule book to include a high gloss paint requirement.

 

[williamjm]

That race had some big swings in momentum. It looked like a comfortably victory for Le Clerc with Verstappen struggling to recover from going off track but then that all changed. Of course, Verstappen has had some reliability problems earlier this year so this cancels out some of that. Mercedes looked the most competitive they have been so far this year, Hamilton seemed to have good pace although we didn't get to see what he could do without the first lap incident. It was a shame for Perez who was ahead on merit after Verstappen's mistake that he had to move over, although given the different strategies possibly Verstappen might have been ahead at the end anyway.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On the spectrum of:

"Fundamentally good but needs to find the combination of parts and setup to unleash the fury"

and

"Total waste of time what were we thinking scrap it and start over"

I'd say the W13 is more of the former. Once they get the floor working the way they need, they should be alright. They were obviously helped by Ferrari's misfortune. Could Lewis have held on to 4th if he didn't have to save fuel in the closing laps? Who knows?  Hamilton and Russell had the 2nd and 3rd fastest laps respectively. 

It hurts to see Williams like this. 

[Werthead]

Williams isn't doing great, but then they are doing a lot better than 2-3 years ago, so it's swings and roundabouts.

I am getting the feeling that the Red Bull is just a stronger car over the Ferrari (though there's not much in it) and Red Bull's in-season development is just a lot stronger than Ferrari's. If Mercedes don't get a lot more speed out of their car, we could see Verstappen walk it this season (barring DNFs), which would be a shame after all the build up.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Williams isn't doing great, but then they are doing a lot better than 2-3 years ago, so it's swings and roundabouts.

I am getting the feeling that the Red Bull is just a stronger car over the Ferrari (though there's not much in it) and Red Bull's in-season development is just a lot stronger than Ferrari's. If Mercedes don't get a lot more speed out of their car, we could see Verstappen walk it this season (barring DNFs), which would be a shame after all the build up.

I dunno, Leclerc put the thing on pole and he was looking pretty mighty in the race before his engine failed.  He's only 6 points behind. He also commented that tire degradation is much improved with the latest round of updates. 

Lewis' performance is pretty staggering considering his starting position and unscheduled pitstop after colliding with the Haas on the opening lap. If I were to make a prediction, I'd say they'll be challenging for wins by the end of the year but too late to challenge for a championship. What they could do is swing things in favor of Verstappen or Leclerc, depending on who they can take points from on a race-to-race basis. 

[Werthead]

Several F1 teams have raised concerns about inflation versus the cost cap, and that could result in some back-running teams missing several races later in the year. Apparently the freight costs for later in the season could quadruple. Apparently F1 are keeping a close eye on the problem.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On 5/23/2022 at 12:23 PM, Werthead said:

Several F1 teams have raised concerns about inflation versus the cost cap, and that could result in some back-running teams missing several races later in the year. Apparently the freight costs for later in the season could quadruple. Apparently F1 are keeping a close eye on the problem.

That's interesting. I bet Brexit isn't helping things either; given the sheer number of teams based out of England. This has likely complicated the logistics of shipping equipment in and out of the EU. Although I can see why teams are unlikely to weight in publicly on that mess. 

[Werthead]

1 minute ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

That's interesting. I bet Brexit isn't helping things either; given the sheer number of teams based out of England. This has likely complicated the logistics of shipping equipment in and out of the EU. Although I can see why teams are unlikely to weight in publicly on that mess. 

Cue only Ferrari, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo showing up for the rest of the European leg of the season.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Very interesting to see how the weather conditions are impacting the race. Some wild swings as Red Bull takes over.

Also, dying of laughter seeing my mom watch her first F1 race on a holiday weekend. Instant fan.

[williamjm]

27 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Very interesting to see how the weather conditions are impacting the race. Some wild swings as Red Bull takes over.

Also, dying of laughter seeing my mom watch her first F1 race on a holiday weekend. Instant fan.

I'm not sure even Perez was expecting to be suddenly leading the race but he's in a great position now considering how difficult it is to overtake.

Good to see Mick Schumacher is fine after the back of his car broke off, although it wasn't a particularly high speed impact. 

I suspect this isn't the easiest race to follow as a first one but it's definitely been eventful.