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Open Wheel Racing 2021, anyone there to watch?

Quite the race today at Spa. Mercedes kind of came out of nowhere to almost dominate the race (almost since Piastri was faster at the end, but could not do anything about it). Brilliant mid race call by George, and great driving to not let Lewis to get close enough to drive by him in the DRS zones.
 
Incredible performance by Russell. Seemed a forgone conclusion Hamilton would pass him. That start by Hamilton was great as well, getting past and then blocking an attempt by Perez. Hindsight says maybe Hamilton could have stayed out longer on other tires, but with the way he struggled in dirty air at the end the math may not have worked trying to pass others in the field.
 
MichVandal said:
So much for all that hard work by George- he gets a DQ for underweight. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...for-underweight-car-as.2NIuo4cHgOl1LgplIkGG5D
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Mercedes has a LOT or explaining to do.

But that doesn't take away from an extremely entertaining race and a brilliant drive by Russell. What makes the later even more impressive is Russell was the first to pit amongst the front runners. So, to change the strategy midstream, he had to do that on tires that were a 1,000 years old. Amazing.
 
Just saw an interesting theory that the one stop change might be a factor- since they could be lighter than expected at the end. Nobody figured that was possible, so they may have run less weight figuring that they wouldn’t have tires that worn.

Unless it’s all of the weight difference, maybe. If it was a contributor, then the car was just less underweight.

Sucks bad for Mercedes and George. Brave move that nobody had winning the race.
 
Russell Jaslow said:
That's one heck of a screwup then. And why wasn't Hamilton's car equally affected (did they have different upgrades, which is possible)?
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Are there two different mechanic teams that work on each car? Maybe they forgot on George’s?

Looking back I think Toto knew. At first I thought he was disappointed Hamilton couldn’t get another win after essentially leading the “net race” post to post, but if he realized they were screwed it makes sense at his subdued reaction.
 
MichVandal said:
Just saw an interesting theory that the one stop change might be a factor- since they could be lighter than expected at the end. Nobody figured that was possible, so they may have run less weight figuring that they wouldn’t have tires that worn.

Unless it’s all of the weight difference, maybe. If it was a contributor, then the car was just less underweight.

Sucks bad for Mercedes and George. Brave move that nobody had winning the race.
Click to expand...

I've been reading more about this, too. And the math does work out that the extra tire wear can cause the underweight numbers. Fascinating. Every variable in F1 is cut so close, it doesn't take much of a change to mess the calculations all up.

What I find odd, though, is the practice of taking up tire klag on the cool off lap (which some speculated was a culprit since they don't run a cool off lap at Spa) is a useless practice. The scrutineers have the right to ask teams to swap out the wheels/tires with the klag for another set and weigh them again. If this is true, why aren't teams allowed to do that for their well used tire/wheel sets?
 
Is Williams on the rise? I wonder why Sainz would sign with them?

since I haven’t seen enough races this year I have numerous questions.

what’s happening at RBR? Did Mercedes and McLaren do their homework and catch-up or has RBR fallen backwards a bit?

that team radio transmission to versteppen was very telling. I wonder about the team chemistry.

I also wonder if Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is going to pan out considering Mercedes is better at this time and Hamilton doesn’t have time for a rebuild if he wants an 8th title.
 
solovsfett said:
Is Williams on the rise? I wonder why Sainz would sign with them?

since I haven’t seen enough races this year I have numerous questions.

what’s happening at RBR? Did Mercedes and McLaren do their homework and catch-up or has RBR fallen backwards a bit?

that team radio transmission to versteppen was very telling. I wonder about the team chemistry.

I also wonder if Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is going to pan out considering Mercedes is better at this time and Hamilton doesn’t have time for a rebuild if he wants an 8th title.
Click to expand...

Williams is on the rise. It's not nearly as visible on the results, but the team is far more consistent and Albon raves over how they have fixed some key problems on the previous car. And the admitted real problem is that the car is overweight. Let alone, Vowles has publicized that the team was way behind in process and procedure to build the car- which should be fixed this off season. I'd wager that the weight is related to the process issues. Seargant has really let the team down on his performance, I think, too.

Red Bull is really having problems- and as far as I can tell, it's rooted in the team principle vs. Jos. And Horner v the team. The idea that max is interested in leaving is pretty telling. But as a fan who really dislikes RBR and Horner, I'm totally ok with this. Hopefully, McLaren and Mercedes can make it a real fight at the end.

When Lewis made his decision, I'm sure he saw Mercedes figuring things out. But pretty much all of the greats do some seasons at Ferrari. Prost, Mansell, Schumi, Alonso, Kimi, Vettel are the recent ones. So it's as much legacy teams as it is hope they can do something great in 2026. IMHO.
 
MichVandal said:
Williams is on the rise. It's not nearly as visible on the results, but the team is far more consistent and Albon raves over how they have fixed some key problems on the previous car. And the admitted real problem is that the car is overweight. Let alone, Vowles has publicized that the team was way behind in process and procedure to build the car- which should be fixed this off season. I'd wager that the weight is related to the process issues. Seargant has really let the team down on his performance, I think, too.

Red Bull is really having problems- and as far as I can tell, it's rooted in the team principle vs. Jos. And Horner v the team. The idea that max is interested in leaving is pretty telling. But as a fan who really dislikes RBR and Horner, I'm totally ok with this. Hopefully, McLaren and Mercedes can make it a real fight at the end.

When Lewis made his decision, I'm sure he saw Mercedes figuring things out. But pretty much all of the greats do some seasons at Ferrari. Prost, Mansell, Schumi, Alonso, Kimi, Vettel are the recent ones. So it's as much legacy teams as it is hope they can do something great in 2026. IMHO.
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Thanks!

it would be cool to see Williams fighting for podiums with Ferrari and McLaren like old times.

i think RBR may be screwed for a couple of years. Losing Newey is the biggest issue IMO followed quickly by changing to Ford engines next year which… I don’t see how they can step in and maintain the speed and consistency RBR has had over the past 4 years. It will take time to acclimate. Ford has been out of F1 for what, 28 years?
 
solovsfett said:
i think RBR may be screwed for a couple of years. Losing Newey is the biggest issue IMO followed quickly by changing to Ford engines next year which… I don’t see how they can step in and maintain the speed and consistency RBR has had over the past 4 years. It will take time to acclimate. Ford has been out of F1 for what, 28 years?
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It's more of a branding exercise than anything else. When Honda pulled out, RBR took over the engine program, but the infrastructure was already there. Then, they put a bunch of money into it to get ready for the 2026 engine design and hired a bunch of Mercedes engine engineers. At that point, Ford stepped in to "help" with technical expertise. But how much are they really going to contribute? That's the key question. But they do get their name on the engine.

In summary, how much is the new RBR engine merely an evolution of the Honda engine vs. how much the new RBR engine is really a Ford engine is a mystery. But it definitely is not a "brand new" Ford engine.
 
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