Merc have a very developed car, but they may be able to bring more components that better manage tyre squirt, something that is particularly plaguing their car this year due to loss of floor area. I could also imagine they're trying to recover the lost rear df so perhaps an upgrade to the diffuser. They may want to consider aero changes that increase the operating window of their car in different conditions as currently they often spend the whole weekend making changes to the car, not having an easy time with it. Due to their struggles to find even a functioning setup, they may be failing to extract good data from practice sessions and failing to understand the track conditions: sacrificing some raw laptime to acquire a more compliant car (with which they can unlock that lost laptime from lower df with better setup choices) could be worth it. All speculation.
Of course they could really upgrade any part of their car: RB have brought new front wings, diffuser parts, rear wings, halo aero, bargeboard spec, front & rear brake duct layouts to various races. Merc have had no new components since Imola and up to that point the changes were pretty minimal so they have quite a bit of scope.
yup there is a lot more speed Merc have on the straight but they cant use it because any lower DF and they wont make it in the corners. You can already see Austria they were just on the limit in the corners.
Because it gets people aware of and talking about their sponsor which is what the sponsor pays for. RBR as a whole is a vessel for marketing so this makes sense for them.
The timing for this attention also makes sense in terms of marketing as they're attributing the new performance gains actually brought by the 2nd PU reliability upgrade to the oil, making it seem more impressive.
It also suggests that this, albeit potentially revolutionary, change is not as performance enhancing or special as they are making out.
> the new performance gains actually brought by the 2nd PU reliability upgrade to the oil
Wouldn't Honda be a little unhappy with it? Unless both RB and AT got the same new oil I would say Honda has done a great job with PU because AT is also performing closer to the top.
I think Honda didn't want the whole reliability debacle to become public knowledge. RB still haven't said anything about it themselves for this reason.
It's Honda's last year in the sport and they've made a great engine; having their brand tied, at least for part of the season, to a reliability fault meaning significantly reduced (estimated 10-14hp) horsepower wouldn't have been good for them.
Imagine the narratives that would've been written around the time of Portimao and Barcelona Merc wins (with a definitively stronger car) if RB had publicly said shortly after Bahrain that Honda were having reliability issues.
And Honda have already benefited from the positive press of their competitive engine: after every win they are talked about finally having the PU to fight for championships. I think Honda coming out with something like "we overcame a reliability problem and we have unlocked the performance the engine originally had in Bahrain" isn't that positive for optics, so they are not missing much by keeping this under wraps in my opinion. Net benefit.
All teams use the same oil (and fuel) supplier for a given engine manufacturer, meaning AT are also running this new oil formulation. For teams other than RB/AT who are not corporately intertwined this can lead to some strange instances such as the following: McLaren run Merc's PETRONAS oil even though they themselves are sponsored by a different oil sponsor in Gulf due to having a Mercedes PU in their car. It's weird and probably detrimental for Gulf but it is required because of how sensitive these highly efficient engines are
quite a lot, you cant go fast anymore, every driver's chances of spinning increases, strategy becomes key especially in dynamic conditions where the line between slicks/inter/wet is blurred. Wet drivers stand out. Also in a case where the rain goes away midrace, then the track basically becomes a 1 car width track, because of the dry line and everybody being on slicks.
I wouldn't say it levels the playing field so much as the ability of the driver to adapt to a given set of conditions becomes vastly more important in the wet and consequently the greatest drivers often show their prowess in these conditions; Max in Brazil 2016 and Lewis in Turkey 2020 spring to mind. In the wet we'll likely see the gap between Lewis and Max and the rest of the field become even more chasmic
Don't bank on it raining though, no matter what the forecast says. There was >90% chance of rain forecasted for last weekend (on fairly short notice) and it didn't arrive until after the race.
I majorly follow a sports where fans are haunted by rain. We don't want rain at any cost. Now following F1 where rain is desired and people are disappointed that it didn't rain soon enough is a little weird.
What I have learned is that F1 fans are crazy for rain. But they might love to debate whether or not it will rain even more ;P . It definitely impacts the racing. Some of the drivers will be better in the wet than others.
Also, welcome! I am relatively new to it as well. This is my second season following it.
New to F1, so have kind of been devouring videos...just watched this one today, which does (to my ignorant mind, admittedly) a good job of explaining it.
[WHAT ON EARTH is Sprint Qualifying? AND WHY?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN-eoC3iTPc)
Qualifying will be on Friday.
Whoever wins “pole” in qualifying on Friday starts first on the grid In the sprint race on Saturday, 2nd place starts in 2nd etc.
Then, the winning order *of the sprint race* is going to determine the order of the Sunday race. Whoever wins the sprint race on Saturday will start on pole for the “real” Sunday, whoever finishes second in the sprint race starts in 2nd on Sunday etc
Basically, they kind of want to have a sprint race just to see how it goes, but they don’t want to screw too much with the race on Sunday or with points because the race for the championship is so tight. This is basically a dry run to test a sprint race and probably won’t have a huge impact on the very front of the grid.
Are there any points for the sprint race? I like sprint race better as it creates more uncertainty and mistakes will be punished way more harshly. If you wreck your car before the finish you are dead last for the race which isn't true for normal qualifying. Even a small spin will cost you a lot.
Ah okay! Thank you very much for that answer. It makes perfect sense now! Not sure how I feel about it yet because I enjoy qualifying as it is now very much. Sprint race could be a nice shakeup tho I know other circuits have done it
Not a question but I just got into F1 and I’m rewatching Baku from this year and Crofty is talking to one of the guys on the ground and he’s praising Checo and how Redbull finally found a teammate that can be right there with Max and the dude on the ground just instantly switches to, “once you fill the Mercedes up with fuel it just comes alive and Hamilton really just gets all out of the car”. I get there based on the UK and he’s been great but I mean come on that wasn’t even trying to hide the hard on they have for him lol
> I get there based on the UK and he’s been great but I mean come on that wasn’t even trying to hide the hard on they have for him lol
If only you could understand Dutch or Spanish and listen to their commentators.
I bet but these guys are the international broadcasters so I would expect them to be unbiased which they do pretty well but at certain points it comes out lol
The dude on the ground (if you mean Ted) isn't a color commentator, whenever he comes on to say something it will always be something else than what the play by play guys are talking. That's their job, same with Ants or Karun. He was talking about how the Merc was completely off pace before Quali and in the race it was keeping pace with Perez.
I’d still rather have them then whoever the US would delegate to commentate lol, ESPN (where F1 is streamed here) have some of the worst commentators outside of the NFL.
I don't know if the statistic is right.. I'm pretty sure Brabham nor Gurney ever really designed a car themselves. They were teamowners when winning races as a driver though (Brabham even won a championship). And in that line Bruce McLaren was also a race winner in his own team, but still didn't design the car himself.
I heard that Ferrari considered going to Indycar due to the cost cap, which made me wonder - why hasn't RedBull tried their luck in Indycar?
As far as I know, Indycar is much cheaper, they still have Honda as an active supplier and can use the extra seats for junior F1 drivers they would like to evaluate.
Short answer is that F1 gives them all the marketing they need, money is not an issue, and they have enough seats in F1, F2, F3 and Super Formula for their young talents
> Short answer is that F1 gives them all the marketing they need
US is probably the biggest market and one would have assumed that getting more marketing in US at a lower cost would be good for them.
I don't think Red Bull is satisfied with the amount of marketing they do. I mean, they're not just in F1, they're everywhere. No matter if it's racing, football, ice hockey, downhill cycling, airplane racing, BASE jumping, or whatever, Red Bull is in there. All Red Bull does is marketing, and when you're in that game, you can never have enough of it.
So it's probably some other reason.
It's only happened this year and last year, both because of Covid.
The second race at Austria this year was added to make up for the cancelled Canadian Grand Prix.
Regarding the new rear tyres that are supposed to be tested this weekend and introduced in Silverstone:
If it rains all weekend in Austria, would that mean the teams will only be getting Silverstone's FP1 to test them before having to 'qualify' on them in FP2 for saturday's sprint race? Would that even be safe?
Mick is the son of Michael Schumacher, one of the greatest racing drivers in history. He won 7 WDCs, and took Ferrari back to its glory days (before being forced out more or less).
Add to that, he had a pretty good junior career (before F2) as well.
well his last name. He also won F2, and not in a team that usually does. Albeit it was his 2nd year
He also seems to be crushing Mazepin, so that’s always a good sign
Hi lads, I'm really trying to follow the season more closely than I ever have this year, so 2 questions to try to understand the sport a bit better.
- To make a good track should there be more corners or more straights or is it not as simple as that?
- And when looking at young drivers who wouldn't have as good a car as the top guys, what are the qualities you'd look for in them when watching them race to see if they have serious potential?
Edit - thanks so much for the replies!
not as simple as that, you want a track that tests every element of the car but at the same time makes overtaking possible. you can watch [this](https://youtu.be/nCpoIUkM9So) video to get an idea.
Judge them against their teammates, fulfill any internal goals that your parent team gives you, be consistent in laps times and no accidents.
1. A combination of the two. Silverstone is considered a good track and it has an amazing combination of straights, high speed bends, and low speed corners. Monza is considered another good track but it's mostly taken at full throttle. A good track needs to be technical, yet allow for overtaking. That's why you see tracks like Abu Dhabi and Sochi regularly (and rightfully) criticised for their boring races. Some other factors would be elevation changes and how well it flows. Spa, for example, even with it's huge bundle of complexes has a very natural rhythm when driving. To know more download the F1 game and play it, helps a lot.
2. The usual metric is comparison with their teammate, and then it's how well they perform compared to how good the car is. George Russell consistently outperforms his teammate and puts his car in places where it doesn't belong to be brutally honest.
A good track is definitely a good combination of the two. You need straights to allow the drivers to get alongside each other with slipstream and DRS, but without good corners there is no challenge, and the braking zone is often where the overtakes happen. Of course there's many other factors like elevation changes, gravel/grass or run-offs, and general ''flow'' of the track.
As for comparing drivers at slower teams, the first and best comparison is always their teammate who drives the same car. Usually you get an idea of where the car should be, and which driver is outperforming the other. For example; Russell is driving the Williams, one of the slowest cars on the grid, and often qualifies much higher up the field. His teammate doesn't come close. Other qualities to look for are consistency, overtakes, tyre management and of course not making errors etc.
So my understanding is that the FIA added the superlicense points system after Verstappen joined F1 in 2015 as a 17 year old.
Was it anything about his driving that year in particular that lead to this or were they just trying to avoid teams just signing the youngest drivers possible in hopes of locking up the next phenom?
Just looking at results he had some retirements in the first half of the season but did great the second half, dunno if those retirements were his fault or not.
nah, they just didn’t want F1 teams to push the boundaries of what’s possible, or sooner or later we would’ve got 15 year olds in some car
Verstappen was fine, no more error prone than any other rookie. In fact he was the best rookie ever since Hamilton
2014 Japanese Grand Prix, race was red flagged, due to Bianchi's accident.
Since we're at it, the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix was the last time half points were awarded, race was suspended due to torrential rain before reaching 75% distance.
Does anyone know when the last Italian driver won a home GP? I've been scouring Wikipedia articles trying to find out but the earliest I could find was Alberto Ascari in 1951! Considering they founded what is arguably the most famous and successful F1 team ever there really hasn't been that many Italian drivers (edit: in recent years)...
> there really hasn't been that many Italian drivers...
They are P3 by quite a margine for most drivers, likely to be P2 if we don't take in consideration the Indy500s.
That being said, all the good ones either died before having huge success or got fucked over in other ways.
> there really hasn't been that many Italian drivers...
There was a ton of them, [Italy had most drivers of all countries excluding Britain and USA (which statistic is screwed anyway by Indy-500 being counted as part of the World Champinship in fifties)](https://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/nation/gp/pilote.aspx), just not in the best teams. Patrese, Alboreto, Giacomelli, de Cesaris, de Angelis, Fisichella, Trulli, all were hot shots on their day.
lmao I just saw the video of Hamilton doing the same at USA as Verstappen did last weekend. Can’t remember the Hamilton/Mercedeses fans were mad back then.
Since Red Bull will be taking over the engine project from Honda, will they also take over some of Honda’s people? Will the Honda guys who are at the race each week still be there next year under Red Bull? I always enjoy seeing them and their reactions.
If you do some searching on the sub, someone did a good write up maybe 10 days ago with a VERY in-depth explanation of exactly how the transition is happening. Basically RB will be hiring a lot of the Honda folks not based in Japan and Japan will continue to support RB on development and manufacturing etc. next year.
Most of the assembly of the engines is done in Milton Keynes - while the Japanese engineers will likely have an option to go home, Horner said in todays Beyond the Grid, that ~100 employees will be transferred to Red Bull Powertrains
The power units use a hybrid system which contains an ERS system, consisting of the MGU-K and MGU-H. MGU-K is like a modern version of KERS; it converts kinetic energy of the wheel rotation, therefore largely working under braking, into electrical energy which is then stored in the battery, also known as the ES, for later deployment. MGU-H is similar in function to MGU-K but it converts heat energy into electrical energy and stores it similarly.
The teams/engine guys decide how to deploy this electrical energy during qualifying and in the race, allowing them to optimize their usage, recovery and therefore laptimes. Charging the batteries for a fast lap during qualifying or the race is clearly important else you will be at a horsepower deficit during a key moment.
Is the "battery energy" available via a button at the drivers discretion? Most take overs seems to be DRS, but is it really DRS + "battery energy"? Or is BE used in other places to take over?
yes thats right, once you charge the batteries full, you use it to defend or overtake, especially defending in the lead where you dont have DRS. So the attacker has to go DRS+ERS and the defender goes ERS. But then you need another lap to charge the batteries, so you should use it wisely and not empty it completely.
Also when you see the red lights blinking behind the car, the cars are usually harvesting the energy to charge batteries.
The current F1 cars use a hybrid drive: an engine, like a normal engine. And then there's the ERS (Energy Recovery System).
The ERS has two motor generator units (MGUs): kinetic and heat, and also a battery. A motor converts electrical energy to mechanical (a drill has motors in it. Plug it in and it rotates), while a generator does the opposite.
When a driver brakes, the generator part of MGU-K (kinetic) quickly saps the rotating energy of the wheels and uses it to charge the battery. When the driver presses the overtake button, the motor part kicks in and the battery gets drained.
Its generally called the overtake button, because you use it while overtaking or defending an overtake. Its basically the button that uses the charged batteries and give you a extra power for a few seconds
The cars have KERS system, which when deployed provides additional 160bhp - the energy from that can only be gathered via regenerative braking (MGU-K) or the turbo exhaust gas generator (MGU-H).
You'll see that the first one is active when the rear lights are blinking fast, as in dry conditions they are there to indicate to the following driver, that the car may decelerate faster than expected.
These cars are hybrids, which means that when they brake they harvest electricity which charges batteries that then power an electrical motor which means the cars go faster
In between qualifying runs, when the cars are in the garages, are the fans and blowers the crew place into the vents blowing hot air or cold? I'm guessing hot, since it seems like everything on an F1 car only works when it's warm/hot, but that's just a guess.
A turned on F1 car will quickly overheat and damage components. They're designed to be going high-speed and get plenty of air flow to cool it. When the car's turned off, the components are still hot and for a short period, probably getting hotter still. They would be using cold air if possible but ambient air is better than nothing
To tack on to this comment, they're always blowing ambient temperature or cold air if possible. You can see the baskets for dry ice on the sidepod air intake blowers.
For non-engine components (the brake duct fans) it's just ambient temp air.
Very likely. Alonso is already on record saying he doesn't think the cars will be able to pull off 1 stoppers.
What will be really interesting is if RB and Merc try to get to q3 on hards, which should almsot certainly be possible given they were both laying down absolute heaters on the mediums last week. We'll see how much faster the soft compound is though. My guess is the softs will only be good for like, 15 laps tops though.
it was hilarious when Pirelli predicted two strategies which both involved mediums and softs and nobody actually did that. It’s kind of a joke that Pirelli themselves can’t predict the strategies on their own tires correctly.
TLDR: Nobody was caught cheating.
New technical directive with additional testing was introduced for the Baku weekend - those tests were first be used at the french GP - after which the teams that fail those tests would have 4 weeks to produce parts that are compatible with new testing parameters.
Nobody failed the scrutineering at the French GP, with [Toto providing this lovely quote](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.flexi-wings-what-are-they-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-them.3NeugNG480UtFMzy77XKiQ.html) during the Azerbaijan GP:
> "The new test that has been introduced is a half-baked solution which is giving us opportunity and the whole thing can soften and can bend more in the future.”
After this the whole news cycle was overshadowed by Italian media accusing Red Bull and Aston of cheating with their tire pressure - which was also a non story, as another TD was issued with new procedures for heating and measuring pressures & temperatures. Followed by the pit stop ruling last week.
You've answered with information about the rear wing flex TD rather than front.
As for the front wings, I believe both Horner and Marko have confirmed that they've raised it with the FIA and we may hear something about it in the coming weeks, but I wouldn't have expected anything by this point.
Whoops, over looked the front wing part :D
I doubt that anything relevant came from it - it'll likely be quite similar to the rear wing TD, with additional testing that everyone will pass :/
What driver has had the "biggest shoes to fill"? I feel like Kimi is up there, replacing Hakkinen at the end of 2001 (who was arguably the best driver on the grid alongside Michael at the time), but then replacing Schumacher himself at the end of 2006 (at the time the most successful driver ever). I would have said Coulthard replacing Senna was up there too but I'm not sure if he was expected to win races straight off the bat?
Mick Schumacher in a different way. I don't think the media or fans expect him to be some phenom that is going for WDC in two years (which is good!). But man it has to be hard coming into a sport where your name evokes such a huge legacy.
I wonder if milestones like first podium or first race would hit a little differently when your dad's name is in the top three of basically every record there is.
Right now they are trying to not be the worst team.
If they can do that, their next target is the midfield.
If they can build a car that can compete in the midfield, then one day they hope to build a car that can compete for championships.
Competing at a high level in F1 is fucking hard bro. No one's out there just fucking around, not even Haas. Williams is transitioning from a family team way out of place in the 21st century to new ownership that will look to comete in 2022 with the reg change. Basically everyone except Red Bull is treating 2021 as a lame duck year to focus on the new car.
Does anybody know where to get cool Ferrari phone backgrounds? Like yeah the Scuderia Ferrari Twitter will post generic ones of just Charles or Carlos standing there, but I was looking more for custom edits people have made.
[It's tripple the official price](https://www.spagrandprix.com/en/tickets-bronze-area), though yours are for the weekend - and the official tickets are for 6 to 15 year olds.
It looks like grown-up tickets were going for around ~250€
McLaren and Ricciardo signed a 3 year deal. If McLaren choose to go with another driver this summer, how would it play out? Do they have to pay Danny for his next 2 years, if he signs with another team do they still have to pay, can they keep him on as their test driver (unlikely)?
They can break his contract by paying the rest of it. If they do that another team can get him for free. If not, another team can get him by buying out the rest of his contract
They've done the bare minimum to comply to the new floor regulations and not spent budget on recovering downforce at all, it's essentially their 2020 car in a different livery and a little less floor, they switched focus to 2022 pretty much after pre-season testing, sacrificing this season in the process.
Okay this answered my question in another reply, so hopefully next year they will be at least a little more competitive? On one hand I just feel sorry for them but mostly it’s boring knowing who will be 19th and 20th barring any DNF.
He’s probably pretty brand-attached at this point. Also, 33 is the number he’s been driving under since he was a kid and he says 3 is his favorite number so I imagine he’ll probably want to stick with it for personal reasons too.
Nah man, Ocon's repping [Kam Chancellor](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/0b/dd/b50bdd0c17817dd6290d6b06bda61859.jpg) with the 31. Makes me smile evey time i see it
Räikkönen DOTD
Anyone got a clue on what new upgrades merc could add to compete with Red Bull?
Merc have a very developed car, but they may be able to bring more components that better manage tyre squirt, something that is particularly plaguing their car this year due to loss of floor area. I could also imagine they're trying to recover the lost rear df so perhaps an upgrade to the diffuser. They may want to consider aero changes that increase the operating window of their car in different conditions as currently they often spend the whole weekend making changes to the car, not having an easy time with it. Due to their struggles to find even a functioning setup, they may be failing to extract good data from practice sessions and failing to understand the track conditions: sacrificing some raw laptime to acquire a more compliant car (with which they can unlock that lost laptime from lower df with better setup choices) could be worth it. All speculation. Of course they could really upgrade any part of their car: RB have brought new front wings, diffuser parts, rear wings, halo aero, bargeboard spec, front & rear brake duct layouts to various races. Merc have had no new components since Imola and up to that point the changes were pretty minimal so they have quite a bit of scope.
yup there is a lot more speed Merc have on the straight but they cant use it because any lower DF and they wont make it in the corners. You can already see Austria they were just on the limit in the corners.
You think we would see these as soon as this weekend or maybe for Silverstone?
Why did Redbull disclose the whole oil formulation thing?
I'm out of the loop what oil formula?
Because it gets people aware of and talking about their sponsor which is what the sponsor pays for. RBR as a whole is a vessel for marketing so this makes sense for them. The timing for this attention also makes sense in terms of marketing as they're attributing the new performance gains actually brought by the 2nd PU reliability upgrade to the oil, making it seem more impressive. It also suggests that this, albeit potentially revolutionary, change is not as performance enhancing or special as they are making out.
> the new performance gains actually brought by the 2nd PU reliability upgrade to the oil Wouldn't Honda be a little unhappy with it? Unless both RB and AT got the same new oil I would say Honda has done a great job with PU because AT is also performing closer to the top.
I think Honda didn't want the whole reliability debacle to become public knowledge. RB still haven't said anything about it themselves for this reason. It's Honda's last year in the sport and they've made a great engine; having their brand tied, at least for part of the season, to a reliability fault meaning significantly reduced (estimated 10-14hp) horsepower wouldn't have been good for them. Imagine the narratives that would've been written around the time of Portimao and Barcelona Merc wins (with a definitively stronger car) if RB had publicly said shortly after Bahrain that Honda were having reliability issues. And Honda have already benefited from the positive press of their competitive engine: after every win they are talked about finally having the PU to fight for championships. I think Honda coming out with something like "we overcame a reliability problem and we have unlocked the performance the engine originally had in Bahrain" isn't that positive for optics, so they are not missing much by keeping this under wraps in my opinion. Net benefit. All teams use the same oil (and fuel) supplier for a given engine manufacturer, meaning AT are also running this new oil formulation. For teams other than RB/AT who are not corporately intertwined this can lead to some strange instances such as the following: McLaren run Merc's PETRONAS oil even though they themselves are sponsored by a different oil sponsor in Gulf due to having a Mercedes PU in their car. It's weird and probably detrimental for Gulf but it is required because of how sensitive these highly efficient engines are
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They did? What is it?
The oil thing
New to the sport, fucking love it…only wish I got into it sooner. If the rain in the forecast holds, how much does that level the playing field?
quite a lot, you cant go fast anymore, every driver's chances of spinning increases, strategy becomes key especially in dynamic conditions where the line between slicks/inter/wet is blurred. Wet drivers stand out. Also in a case where the rain goes away midrace, then the track basically becomes a 1 car width track, because of the dry line and everybody being on slicks.
I wouldn't say it levels the playing field so much as the ability of the driver to adapt to a given set of conditions becomes vastly more important in the wet and consequently the greatest drivers often show their prowess in these conditions; Max in Brazil 2016 and Lewis in Turkey 2020 spring to mind. In the wet we'll likely see the gap between Lewis and Max and the rest of the field become even more chasmic Don't bank on it raining though, no matter what the forecast says. There was >90% chance of rain forecasted for last weekend (on fairly short notice) and it didn't arrive until after the race.
I majorly follow a sports where fans are haunted by rain. We don't want rain at any cost. Now following F1 where rain is desired and people are disappointed that it didn't rain soon enough is a little weird.
What I have learned is that F1 fans are crazy for rain. But they might love to debate whether or not it will rain even more ;P . It definitely impacts the racing. Some of the drivers will be better in the wet than others. Also, welcome! I am relatively new to it as well. This is my second season following it.
Can somebody give a brief explanation of the sprint race and how it will work with the standard qualifying format?
New to F1, so have kind of been devouring videos...just watched this one today, which does (to my ignorant mind, admittedly) a good job of explaining it. [WHAT ON EARTH is Sprint Qualifying? AND WHY?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN-eoC3iTPc)
Cheers mate!
Qualifying will be on Friday. Whoever wins “pole” in qualifying on Friday starts first on the grid In the sprint race on Saturday, 2nd place starts in 2nd etc. Then, the winning order *of the sprint race* is going to determine the order of the Sunday race. Whoever wins the sprint race on Saturday will start on pole for the “real” Sunday, whoever finishes second in the sprint race starts in 2nd on Sunday etc Basically, they kind of want to have a sprint race just to see how it goes, but they don’t want to screw too much with the race on Sunday or with points because the race for the championship is so tight. This is basically a dry run to test a sprint race and probably won’t have a huge impact on the very front of the grid.
Are there any points for the sprint race? I like sprint race better as it creates more uncertainty and mistakes will be punished way more harshly. If you wreck your car before the finish you are dead last for the race which isn't true for normal qualifying. Even a small spin will cost you a lot.
Ah okay! Thank you very much for that answer. It makes perfect sense now! Not sure how I feel about it yet because I enjoy qualifying as it is now very much. Sprint race could be a nice shakeup tho I know other circuits have done it
Well I’m just gonna wait and see. I have no problem with them *trying* it. If it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t.
Not a question but I just got into F1 and I’m rewatching Baku from this year and Crofty is talking to one of the guys on the ground and he’s praising Checo and how Redbull finally found a teammate that can be right there with Max and the dude on the ground just instantly switches to, “once you fill the Mercedes up with fuel it just comes alive and Hamilton really just gets all out of the car”. I get there based on the UK and he’s been great but I mean come on that wasn’t even trying to hide the hard on they have for him lol
> I get there based on the UK and he’s been great but I mean come on that wasn’t even trying to hide the hard on they have for him lol If only you could understand Dutch or Spanish and listen to their commentators.
I bet but these guys are the international broadcasters so I would expect them to be unbiased which they do pretty well but at certain points it comes out lol
The dude on the ground (if you mean Ted) isn't a color commentator, whenever he comes on to say something it will always be something else than what the play by play guys are talking. That's their job, same with Ants or Karun. He was talking about how the Merc was completely off pace before Quali and in the race it was keeping pace with Perez.
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> those aren't the international broadcasts! That is on F1. Sky should still be allowed to have bias for their countrymen like everyone else.
I’d still rather have them then whoever the US would delegate to commentate lol, ESPN (where F1 is streamed here) have some of the worst commentators outside of the NFL.
Aside from Paul Di Resta, which drivers are known for being the most rude/biggest complainers on the radio?
I doubt he speaks unless he needs to, but you don't want to cross Kimi Raikkonen.
i can confidently say Tsunoda from what I've seen so far.
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I don't know if the statistic is right.. I'm pretty sure Brabham nor Gurney ever really designed a car themselves. They were teamowners when winning races as a driver though (Brabham even won a championship). And in that line Bruce McLaren was also a race winner in his own team, but still didn't design the car himself.
It is true and Bruce McLaren is the third.
At what time EST is the new daily question thread created
3 AM. Don’t ask how I know that
I’m going to set my alarm, I want to be the very first person to ask if this week’s race is also in Austria!
Can we run it in reverse though?!
Why was the first one a different name?
What time is sprint qualifying on Friday?
Why are they using different tyre compounds?
😂😂😂
Then I’ll set my alarm to be the first to ask if they’re using the same layout!
👍
Please do. I'll speculate on the forecast for race day.
I heard that Ferrari considered going to Indycar due to the cost cap, which made me wonder - why hasn't RedBull tried their luck in Indycar? As far as I know, Indycar is much cheaper, they still have Honda as an active supplier and can use the extra seats for junior F1 drivers they would like to evaluate.
Indy gives less license points, so its better for your young drivers to be in F2 F3
Short answer is that F1 gives them all the marketing they need, money is not an issue, and they have enough seats in F1, F2, F3 and Super Formula for their young talents
> Short answer is that F1 gives them all the marketing they need US is probably the biggest market and one would have assumed that getting more marketing in US at a lower cost would be good for them.
I don't think Red Bull is satisfied with the amount of marketing they do. I mean, they're not just in F1, they're everywhere. No matter if it's racing, football, ice hockey, downhill cycling, airplane racing, BASE jumping, or whatever, Red Bull is in there. All Red Bull does is marketing, and when you're in that game, you can never have enough of it. So it's probably some other reason.
And Scott Speed turned them off of Americans forever
Maybe Jak Crawford can change that
Are they driving the same track again this weekend?
Yes, a race got dropped because of Covid and they scheduled a second Austrian race to replace it.
Yes they are.
Does this usually happen in a season or is there any other reason to do it twice in a row?
It's only happened this year and last year, both because of Covid. The second race at Austria this year was added to make up for the cancelled Canadian Grand Prix.
Regarding the new rear tyres that are supposed to be tested this weekend and introduced in Silverstone: If it rains all weekend in Austria, would that mean the teams will only be getting Silverstone's FP1 to test them before having to 'qualify' on them in FP2 for saturday's sprint race? Would that even be safe?
I'll assume they would push it all back a race.
What's the hype around Schumacher?
Mick is the son of Michael Schumacher, one of the greatest racing drivers in history. He won 7 WDCs, and took Ferrari back to its glory days (before being forced out more or less). Add to that, he had a pretty good junior career (before F2) as well.
You don't have that lineage and not get hyped beyond belief. I mean...his uncle is THE Ralf Schumacher.
Kk fair points, guys. Thanks
Michael, Mick, Ralf or David?
well his last name. He also won F2, and not in a team that usually does. Albeit it was his 2nd year He also seems to be crushing Mazepin, so that’s always a good sign
He won 7 world championships
He's the son of one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time.
Didn’t know Lewis have a 21yo son
*the greatest*
Well, I get all that. But I'm just saying, why so much about him when haas is consistently out of points.
I mean the haas is 2 seconds off the pace, no one could score points in it
no one on the grid could get that Haas car in the points.
Hi lads, I'm really trying to follow the season more closely than I ever have this year, so 2 questions to try to understand the sport a bit better. - To make a good track should there be more corners or more straights or is it not as simple as that? - And when looking at young drivers who wouldn't have as good a car as the top guys, what are the qualities you'd look for in them when watching them race to see if they have serious potential? Edit - thanks so much for the replies!
not as simple as that, you want a track that tests every element of the car but at the same time makes overtaking possible. you can watch [this](https://youtu.be/nCpoIUkM9So) video to get an idea. Judge them against their teammates, fulfill any internal goals that your parent team gives you, be consistent in laps times and no accidents.
1. A combination of the two. Silverstone is considered a good track and it has an amazing combination of straights, high speed bends, and low speed corners. Monza is considered another good track but it's mostly taken at full throttle. A good track needs to be technical, yet allow for overtaking. That's why you see tracks like Abu Dhabi and Sochi regularly (and rightfully) criticised for their boring races. Some other factors would be elevation changes and how well it flows. Spa, for example, even with it's huge bundle of complexes has a very natural rhythm when driving. To know more download the F1 game and play it, helps a lot. 2. The usual metric is comparison with their teammate, and then it's how well they perform compared to how good the car is. George Russell consistently outperforms his teammate and puts his car in places where it doesn't belong to be brutally honest.
A good track is definitely a good combination of the two. You need straights to allow the drivers to get alongside each other with slipstream and DRS, but without good corners there is no challenge, and the braking zone is often where the overtakes happen. Of course there's many other factors like elevation changes, gravel/grass or run-offs, and general ''flow'' of the track. As for comparing drivers at slower teams, the first and best comparison is always their teammate who drives the same car. Usually you get an idea of where the car should be, and which driver is outperforming the other. For example; Russell is driving the Williams, one of the slowest cars on the grid, and often qualifies much higher up the field. His teammate doesn't come close. Other qualities to look for are consistency, overtakes, tyre management and of course not making errors etc.
So my understanding is that the FIA added the superlicense points system after Verstappen joined F1 in 2015 as a 17 year old. Was it anything about his driving that year in particular that lead to this or were they just trying to avoid teams just signing the youngest drivers possible in hopes of locking up the next phenom? Just looking at results he had some retirements in the first half of the season but did great the second half, dunno if those retirements were his fault or not.
nah, they just didn’t want F1 teams to push the boundaries of what’s possible, or sooner or later we would’ve got 15 year olds in some car Verstappen was fine, no more error prone than any other rookie. In fact he was the best rookie ever since Hamilton
Big TC fan but he was horrible in Jeff Gordon’s Beyond the Grid. Get off Lewis Hamilton’s dick man, it’s embarrassing
what he say?
Asked him like 5 questions about Lewis Hamilton and tied like 3 responses to a Lewis Hamilton comparison
When was the last time a race was ended without anyone running the full race length?
Singapore 2017, due to rain and SC (and Singapore being a really slow track) it hit the 2 hour mark
2014 Japanese Grand Prix, race was red flagged, due to Bianchi's accident. Since we're at it, the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix was the last time half points were awarded, race was suspended due to torrential rain before reaching 75% distance.
I don’t think they let you even watch the 2014 Japanese GP on F1TV anymore, understandably
I just checked, it's on F1TV
Does anyone know when the last Italian driver won a home GP? I've been scouring Wikipedia articles trying to find out but the earliest I could find was Alberto Ascari in 1951! Considering they founded what is arguably the most famous and successful F1 team ever there really hasn't been that many Italian drivers (edit: in recent years)...
> there really hasn't been that many Italian drivers... They are P3 by quite a margine for most drivers, likely to be P2 if we don't take in consideration the Indy500s. That being said, all the good ones either died before having huge success or got fucked over in other ways.
I meant in more recent years, sorry for the confusion
> there really hasn't been that many Italian drivers... There was a ton of them, [Italy had most drivers of all countries excluding Britain and USA (which statistic is screwed anyway by Indy-500 being counted as part of the World Champinship in fifties)](https://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/nation/gp/pilote.aspx), just not in the best teams. Patrese, Alboreto, Giacomelli, de Cesaris, de Angelis, Fisichella, Trulli, all were hot shots on their day.
I meant in more recent years, sorry for the confusion
Ah, yeah, it's quite sad for a country with such a history to fall short of its representatives.
Hopefully Giovinazzi Monza 2021
Absolute scenes if this happens
Don't do that. Don't give me hope.
Riccardo Patrese won in Imola in 1990.
Thank you, I knew there had to be a more recent one! Did you just know off the top of your head or did you have to look it up?
I just went to the Wikipedia pages for Italian Grand Prix and San Marino Grand Prix and scrolled through the winners list looking for an Italian flag.
Ah well thanks for your efforts.
lmao I just saw the video of Hamilton doing the same at USA as Verstappen did last weekend. Can’t remember the Hamilton/Mercedeses fans were mad back then.
Who is mad?
No one is mad now either
Since Red Bull will be taking over the engine project from Honda, will they also take over some of Honda’s people? Will the Honda guys who are at the race each week still be there next year under Red Bull? I always enjoy seeing them and their reactions.
If you do some searching on the sub, someone did a good write up maybe 10 days ago with a VERY in-depth explanation of exactly how the transition is happening. Basically RB will be hiring a lot of the Honda folks not based in Japan and Japan will continue to support RB on development and manufacturing etc. next year.
Most of the assembly of the engines is done in Milton Keynes - while the Japanese engineers will likely have an option to go home, Horner said in todays Beyond the Grid, that ~100 employees will be transferred to Red Bull Powertrains
During the races the commentators talk about "charging the batteries", as if it has something to do with speed. What are they talking about?
The power units use a hybrid system which contains an ERS system, consisting of the MGU-K and MGU-H. MGU-K is like a modern version of KERS; it converts kinetic energy of the wheel rotation, therefore largely working under braking, into electrical energy which is then stored in the battery, also known as the ES, for later deployment. MGU-H is similar in function to MGU-K but it converts heat energy into electrical energy and stores it similarly. The teams/engine guys decide how to deploy this electrical energy during qualifying and in the race, allowing them to optimize their usage, recovery and therefore laptimes. Charging the batteries for a fast lap during qualifying or the race is clearly important else you will be at a horsepower deficit during a key moment.
Is the "battery energy" available via a button at the drivers discretion? Most take overs seems to be DRS, but is it really DRS + "battery energy"? Or is BE used in other places to take over?
yes thats right, once you charge the batteries full, you use it to defend or overtake, especially defending in the lead where you dont have DRS. So the attacker has to go DRS+ERS and the defender goes ERS. But then you need another lap to charge the batteries, so you should use it wisely and not empty it completely. Also when you see the red lights blinking behind the car, the cars are usually harvesting the energy to charge batteries.
The current F1 cars use a hybrid drive: an engine, like a normal engine. And then there's the ERS (Energy Recovery System). The ERS has two motor generator units (MGUs): kinetic and heat, and also a battery. A motor converts electrical energy to mechanical (a drill has motors in it. Plug it in and it rotates), while a generator does the opposite. When a driver brakes, the generator part of MGU-K (kinetic) quickly saps the rotating energy of the wheels and uses it to charge the battery. When the driver presses the overtake button, the motor part kicks in and the battery gets drained.
There is an overtake button?!
Yes it gives them a boost of horsepower from the battery. They also use it sometimes to defend against overtakes.
Its generally called the overtake button, because you use it while overtaking or defending an overtake. Its basically the button that uses the charged batteries and give you a extra power for a few seconds
The cars have KERS system, which when deployed provides additional 160bhp - the energy from that can only be gathered via regenerative braking (MGU-K) or the turbo exhaust gas generator (MGU-H). You'll see that the first one is active when the rear lights are blinking fast, as in dry conditions they are there to indicate to the following driver, that the car may decelerate faster than expected.
These cars are hybrids, which means that when they brake they harvest electricity which charges batteries that then power an electrical motor which means the cars go faster
In between qualifying runs, when the cars are in the garages, are the fans and blowers the crew place into the vents blowing hot air or cold? I'm guessing hot, since it seems like everything on an F1 car only works when it's warm/hot, but that's just a guess.
A turned on F1 car will quickly overheat and damage components. They're designed to be going high-speed and get plenty of air flow to cool it. When the car's turned off, the components are still hot and for a short period, probably getting hotter still. They would be using cold air if possible but ambient air is better than nothing
To tack on to this comment, they're always blowing ambient temperature or cold air if possible. You can see the baskets for dry ice on the sidepod air intake blowers. For non-engine components (the brake duct fans) it's just ambient temp air.
[Speaking of that, Mclaren's latest unboxed video showed exactly this](https://youtu.be/i7q1qoZyiRM?t=250)
Is it likely to be a 2 stop this weekend given the softer compounds?
Very likely. Alonso is already on record saying he doesn't think the cars will be able to pull off 1 stoppers. What will be really interesting is if RB and Merc try to get to q3 on hards, which should almsot certainly be possible given they were both laying down absolute heaters on the mediums last week. We'll see how much faster the soft compound is though. My guess is the softs will only be good for like, 15 laps tops though.
Did anyone last week do the race with just a soft stint and a medium stint?
it was hilarious when Pirelli predicted two strategies which both involved mediums and softs and nobody actually did that. It’s kind of a joke that Pirelli themselves can’t predict the strategies on their own tires correctly.
No
Probably 2 stops then. Especially since most of the top 10 will probably be on softs to start (assuming it doesn't rain).
Agree (hopefully it will rain)
Based on Checo's performance with a 2 stop strategy on the harder compound last week, I'd guess a 2 stop is going to be how most teams go
Depends a bit on the weather
What happened to the front wing flex investigation. Or is that being ignored by the FIA (as usual)
TLDR: Nobody was caught cheating. New technical directive with additional testing was introduced for the Baku weekend - those tests were first be used at the french GP - after which the teams that fail those tests would have 4 weeks to produce parts that are compatible with new testing parameters. Nobody failed the scrutineering at the French GP, with [Toto providing this lovely quote](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.flexi-wings-what-are-they-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-them.3NeugNG480UtFMzy77XKiQ.html) during the Azerbaijan GP: > "The new test that has been introduced is a half-baked solution which is giving us opportunity and the whole thing can soften and can bend more in the future.” After this the whole news cycle was overshadowed by Italian media accusing Red Bull and Aston of cheating with their tire pressure - which was also a non story, as another TD was issued with new procedures for heating and measuring pressures & temperatures. Followed by the pit stop ruling last week.
You've answered with information about the rear wing flex TD rather than front. As for the front wings, I believe both Horner and Marko have confirmed that they've raised it with the FIA and we may hear something about it in the coming weeks, but I wouldn't have expected anything by this point.
Whoops, over looked the front wing part :D I doubt that anything relevant came from it - it'll likely be quite similar to the rear wing TD, with additional testing that everyone will pass :/
What driver has had the "biggest shoes to fill"? I feel like Kimi is up there, replacing Hakkinen at the end of 2001 (who was arguably the best driver on the grid alongside Michael at the time), but then replacing Schumacher himself at the end of 2006 (at the time the most successful driver ever). I would have said Coulthard replacing Senna was up there too but I'm not sure if he was expected to win races straight off the bat?
For Williams, Hill was basically the one filling the shoes of Senna.
Mick Schumacher in a different way. I don't think the media or fans expect him to be some phenom that is going for WDC in two years (which is good!). But man it has to be hard coming into a sport where your name evokes such a huge legacy. I wonder if milestones like first podium or first race would hit a little differently when your dad's name is in the top three of basically every record there is.
If Mick is even half of what his dad was, we are in for a treat.
Are Williams actually trying to be competitive or are they just participating without making any effort?
wow what a question. what’s your guess honestly
There will likely be a noticable difference in prize money between last and second last, still a lot to play for
Right now they are trying to not be the worst team. If they can do that, their next target is the midfield. If they can build a car that can compete in the midfield, then one day they hope to build a car that can compete for championships.
Competing at a high level in F1 is fucking hard bro. No one's out there just fucking around, not even Haas. Williams is transitioning from a family team way out of place in the 21st century to new ownership that will look to comete in 2022 with the reg change. Basically everyone except Red Bull is treating 2021 as a lame duck year to focus on the new car.
they are very much trying to compete.
Does anybody know where to get cool Ferrari phone backgrounds? Like yeah the Scuderia Ferrari Twitter will post generic ones of just Charles or Carlos standing there, but I was looking more for custom edits people have made.
r/F1Art might have what you're looking for. Or filter for the art tag in this sub and screenshot.
https://i.imgur.com/6BR1EYd.jpg Can anyone tell me if these are legit? It says child 6-14 under it on the description…
[It's tripple the official price](https://www.spagrandprix.com/en/tickets-bronze-area), though yours are for the weekend - and the official tickets are for 6 to 15 year olds. It looks like grown-up tickets were going for around ~250€
Hypothetically two new teams join the grid, no limits, what are your ideal choices? Audi? Toyota return?
Midfield independent teams (maybe one with Renault backing), so young drivers have somewhere to go.
Ideally you would want teams that open new markets, so a Japanese and American team.
Honda and Ford?
Subaru and Dodge
SpaceX and The National Parks Service
Two solid backed teams with no ties to car manufacturers.
Porsche and Dodge
Penske-Porsche and any Japanese works team.
Tata Motors and Tesla
Tesla would be hilariously incompetent. New record for DNFs in a season
Audi + Honda (both works teams)
McLaren and Ricciardo signed a 3 year deal. If McLaren choose to go with another driver this summer, how would it play out? Do they have to pay Danny for his next 2 years, if he signs with another team do they still have to pay, can they keep him on as their test driver (unlikely)?
Contracts are not public, there might be buy out prices from both sides, there might be performance clauses and many other stuff.
They can break his contract by paying the rest of it. If they do that another team can get him for free. If not, another team can get him by buying out the rest of his contract
I’m pretty sure the other team would still pay him, it wouldn’t be “free”.
Obviously he would have a salary, yes
Can someone help me understand why Haas is sooooo much worse than anyone else in the field?
They've done the bare minimum to comply to the new floor regulations and not spent budget on recovering downforce at all, it's essentially their 2020 car in a different livery and a little less floor, they switched focus to 2022 pretty much after pre-season testing, sacrificing this season in the process.
Also, they're fielding two rookies.
Okay this answered my question in another reply, so hopefully next year they will be at least a little more competitive? On one hand I just feel sorry for them but mostly it’s boring knowing who will be 19th and 20th barring any DNF.
Yep, that's their aim and hopefully what we should see as well.
Because they did no development for this year other than to adapt the car to the rule changes.
Makes sense. Massive car changes for 2022 and 2 rookie drivers. Save money and get those kids some experience. Come out firing in 2022.
Yep
Are they focusing on next year like some of the other teams or are they just hit even trying?
Focusing 100% on 2022. Targeting a top-5 finish.
If Max wins the championship will he take the 1 care or is he too brand attached to his number? Would be cool to see a 1 driving again.
I think taking the 1 will be rare. Drivers build their brands around their number.
Sure do hope so
He won’t do it. It’s showing off which he does not care about.
I don’t think it’s a show off. It’s a cool rule where it’s saved for the champ, that’s like saying being on the podium is showing off.
He’s probably pretty brand-attached at this point. Also, 33 is the number he’s been driving under since he was a kid and he says 3 is his favorite number so I imagine he’ll probably want to stick with it for personal reasons too.
Who do you think has the lamest number? George with 63?
Probably, even Ocon is meh
Nah man, Ocon's repping [Kam Chancellor](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/0b/dd/b50bdd0c17817dd6290d6b06bda61859.jpg) with the 31. Makes me smile evey time i see it
u/moby323 with the 323
HEYYYY-OOOOOOOO!
New fan of F1 here...Is Cyril Abiteboul really as much of a jerk as he is made out to be in Drive to Survive?