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Open Wheel Racing 2021, anyone there to watch?

M

MichVandal

Well-known member
Crazy that we are two races into the F1 season, and the first Indycar race was yesterday.

New F1 rules had the opposite outcome than I thought it would- I figured the low rake cars are already more robust to airflow- but Mercedes and Aston Martin are both not as fast... I expect Mercedes to claw it back, assuming rebuilding Bottas' car doesn't cost too much after that accident with Russell yesterday.

But we have real racing up front- Hamilton won the first race with great driving and an aggressive strategy, and Verstappen won yesterday by just driving really well. Hamilton was looking to make it interesting when he crashed, and then he got lucky with the crash after that- getting his lap back and able to climb up to 2nd.

Indycar was fun to watch, even if passing was kind of light. Johnson needs a LOT more seat time, whereas Grojean looks pretty comfortable already. Palou looked invincible yesterday- took a chance with a 2 stop race, and had the pace to pull it off. That last stint with him, Power, and Dixon saving fuel let O'Ward to close right up to them, but nobody could do anything.

I see various channels plan to stream the feeder series. Maybe I'll watch- The Race made a pretty big deal about Indy Lights.
 
I was just waiting for someone to start the thread... :-)

So far, it certainly has been a very entertaining start to the F1 season. I still believe (eventually) Mercedes will figure it all out and start dominating again. But in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying the thrilling battle at the front. And the even closer midfield battle -- especially McLaren's near complete return to competitiveness and Lando Norris kick*ss driving.
 
Somehow Miami is back on the F1 schedule. And here's what the track will look like from the driver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQrprQNS-c&ab_channel=FORMULA1

Can't say that it's terribly interesting- it's far too much like Sochi. Other than the palm trees, it can be any metro area in the world, although the freeways kind of put it in the US.

I hope COA stays on the schedule, as the track is a whole lot more interesting.

But this new Miami track is not one I would pay any of my money to go to- flight, hotel, tickets, etc.
 
Strong weekend for open wheel racing- Portugal F1 and a double in Texas for Indy.

Whoever thought Mercedes was in trouble for this season, yea not so much. Hamilton looked really good all weekend- and if not for a bad stop for Bottas, he might have made 2nd more interesting. Then again, he kind of lit up the tires getting out, letting Max have a pretty easy pass.

Sergio is doing a good job being #2 at Red Bull, and making the Seb decisions kind of bad for Racing Point.

Lando is looking amazing in the McLaren. Holy cow was he making strong passes. Kinda feel for Ricciardo who just can't get that good of feel for the car- getting there, but Lando makes the future look great for fans.

Ferrari kind of split- in hindsight, I'm sure they would have rather had Sainz on hard tires.

Alpine- two top tens, and Ocon is finding good form.

Indycar- the first race was meh. Good timing for thing to happen let Scott McLaughlin a really awesome second behind Dixon- first one two for New Zealand. But the on track racing kinda sucked- not much passing. Second race was much better- O'Ward just got himself a test in Bahrain post season. And there were some great passes in the front. Funny how less than 24 hours later and there were more passes. Still, having just one line in the corners is not fun- while I'm not a fan of Will Power- when he was forced up into the black, it cost him at least 10 places. IMHO, there needs to be more lines available.
 
MichVandal said:
Lando is looking amazing in the McLaren. Holy cow was he making strong passes. Kinda feel for Ricciardo who just can't get that good of feel for the car- getting there, but Lando makes the future look great for fans.
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Lando is undefeated amongst the midfielders.
 
Not much going on here, but today was an epic day, adding a fourth driver to the 4 time Indy 500 winners. Helio raced a masterful 500.
 
Andretti negotiating to buy into Sauber. This is a very stupid move. There are only 4 cars that can win in F1 without mitigating circumstances and of those 4, 2 drivers are favored over their teammates and get the very best equipment.


compounding this comedy of errors is that Andretti plans to move Colton Herts then Kyle Kirkwood to the revamped Sauber.

this will effectively destroy their careers when they’re approaching the peak of their abilities.

fernando Alonso’s a great example. Raikonnen too. No-one will remember they were great because fucking around in 10th place was the majority of their careers now in F1 on shit teams.

what 18-year old driver idolizes these guys? None.

so Andretti will try, like Prost…to achieve a massive miracle out of nothing.
 
solovsfett said:
Andretti negotiating to buy into Sauber. This is a very stupid move. There are only 4 cars that can win in F1 without mitigating circumstances and of those 4, 2 drivers are favored over their teammates and get the very best equipment.


compounding this comedy of errors is that Andretti plans to move Colton Herts then Kyle Kirkwood to the revamped Sauber.

this will effectively destroy their careers when they’re approaching the peak of their abilities.

fernando Alonso’s a great example. Raikonnen too. No-one will remember they were great because fucking around in 10th place was the majority of their careers now in F1 on **** teams.

what 18-year old driver idolizes these guys? None.

so Andretti will try, like Prost…to achieve a massive miracle out of nothing.
Click to expand...

This was in the news a few months ago, and combine that with them also being in the running for Force India, it will probably happen.

F1 and Indy has been what you’ve described for decades, so I don’t see it as that much a negative. Haas had a lot of success until the Rich energy debacle, so if mike can be more bold than gene and fire a bad leader quickly, maybe it will go better.
 
MichVandal said:
This was in the news a few months ago, and combine that with them also being in the running for Force India, it will probably happen.

F1 and Indy has been what you’ve described for decades, so I don’t see it as that much a negative. Haas had a lot of success until the Rich energy debacle, so if mike can be more bold than gene and fire a bad leader quickly, maybe it will go better.
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If Andretti could hire say, Ron Dennis to consult or pull all the stops and get Adrian Newey out of retirement he could have a shot at getting 3-4th place but to achieve Mercedes and Red Bull status will take a hell of a lot of money…where would it come from?
 
solovsfett said:
If Andretti could hire say, Ron Dennis to consult or pull all the stops and get Adrian Newey out of retirement he could have a shot at getting 3-4th place but to achieve Mercedes and Red Bull status will take a hell of a lot of money…where would it come from?
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Likely Rossi Sr. Remember, he was the major backer for the Force India thing. That, and the Andretti name carries a LOT of weight, still, in F1. With the new cost caps, at least the new team would not be struggling at the same difference that Haas started out at.
 
Jimjamesak said:
So, the FIA and race stewards dun goofed and fucked up the World Championship?
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One of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen in sports. I really feel bad for both drivers. I’m sure a lot of people will look at Verstappen’s title as not legit and that isn’t fair to him.
 
Drew S. said:
One of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen in sports. I really feel bad for both drivers. I’m sure a lot of people will look at Verstappen’s title as not legit and that isn’t fair to him.
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Both drivers got "cheap" points throughout the season (Spa, Silverstone, Saudi Arabia, etc.) It's just that everybody is going to look at the final points situation and say so-and-so is not a legit champion. Bogus.

That race was in Hamilton's hands. They were clearly the best today. So, yes, the result of Abu Dhabi does leave a bit of a sour taste, especially since it decided the championship and it was completely left up to luck.

But there were 739 points before that which both drivers scored that could be analyzed to death depending on which sour taste you want.

Otherwise, it was one hell of a season. One of the best ever. And that's the takeaway I'm going to walk away with.
 
Kepler said:
That sounds... bad. Anybody like to summarize? Last I heard there were two racers going into the final vroom vroom with the title on the line.
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Going into the end of the race, Hamilton was ahead by ~11 seconds, and then there was a pretty bad accident that clearly required a safety car. The lead was not quite enough to pit under the SC and still keep the lead had Verstappen not pitted.

Normally, SC's wait until all of the workers are off the track, and then let all of the lapped cars unlap themselves. Had that completely happened, the race would have finished under yellow. They could have chosen to not allow the lapped cars get by, but that would have kept 5 cars between Lewis and Max.

What they chose was to let JUST the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen by, ignoring Carlos Sainz in 3d behind Verstappen who could have pressured for 2nd, too. As well as all of the rest of the cars down to about 7th or so.

Once the gap between 1st and 2nd was eliminated, they decided to restart the race for one lap. It was a very easy pass on fresh soft tires vs. worn hard tires. Since Verstappen won, he won the drivers championship. So a decisions to partially apply the rules ended up deciding the championship.
 
Just watched on replay and I have a feeling this whole thing is going to end up in the CAS (because Mercedes had their appeal denied).
 
Jimjamesak said:
Just watched on replay and I have a feeling this whole thing is going to end up in the CAS (because Mercedes had their appeal denied).
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You’re jumping ahead of yourself.

Mercedes had their original protest denied.

They have filed a motion to appeal to the FIA appeals court. They have 72 hours to notify the FIA whether they will go through with the appeal. If they do, a date will be set. They must present new evidence which was not available at the time the original protest was heard. I have no idea how they could possibly fulfill this requirement. If not, their appeal "will not be heard." If so, their appeal can be presented.

At that point, they could go to CAS. But I don’t think they will. The FIA has a way of "making sure" it never gets that far. Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
 
The one thing this will stop, though, is taking any Red Bull complaints about favoritism for Mercedes and Hamilton. They were just given the ultimate gift ruling.

Kep- one thing I forgot to mention- early in that next to last lap, when they were under the safety car, the officials announced that the lapped cars would not be let pass. So Horner complained about it. And then the officials suddenly changed their minds, and the procedure.

The announcers went through the procedure many times in the comments- if they let the lapped cars go by, the race would end under yellow, if they didn't, it would have had one green flag lap. What changed is they let some of the cars through on a late decision just for the top two cars. And by then, everyone on the planet knew it was not an even fight at all. Including the officials- they knew they handed the win to Verstappen.
 
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