The Official F1 2021 silly season *contains speculation*

[Sandpit Steve]

TheDeuce said:

That is the downside of watching them progress through F3 then F2, it's a kick in the balls when their story suddenly ends. Especially if some chump like Mazepin buys one of the few seats available

Economics of F1 I know... and despite the odd seat being bought, the absolute very best in F2 do find their way through to F1 fairly reliably.

Also a shout out to the F3 grid this season, who have raced in some truly difficult conditions yet have managed to race cleanly and without incident for the most part. I think we have some very mature, young drivers headed up the ranks.

Hopefully, with the F1 cost cap now in place, we should over time see the teams much less reliant on a couple of major sponsors, and in less need of working with pay-drivers.

Thankfully, the super licence scheme has raised the level somewhat, and got rid of the mobile chicanes of the past.

[vaud]

Sandpit Steve said:

Hopefully, with the F1 cost cap now in place, we should over time see the teams much less reliant on a couple of major sponsors, and in less need of working with pay-drivers.

How many pay drivers do we really have?

Stroll can hold his own, especially in wet conditions
Marzipan is slow, but not that slow. Arguably the closest to a pay driver.
Plenty of drivers bring a funding package or personal sponsors with them, including former WDCs.

How many lower order drivers have caused big incidents this year? Some of the biggest crashes have been by the title contenders.

[TheDeuce]

vaud said:

How many pay drivers do we really have?

Stroll can hold his own, especially in wet conditions
Marzipan is slow, but not that slow. Arguably the closest to a pay driver.
Plenty of drivers bring a funding package or personal sponsors with them, including former WDCs.

How many lower order drivers have caused big incidents this year? Some of the biggest crashes have been by the title contenders.

Mazepin closest to being a pay driver? Surely he's 100% nailed on confirmed pay driver

There's no way in hell his performance ahead of F1 would ever have earned him a seat. His Dad also paid at great expense for him to spend time last season travelling with a team of Merc mechanics and engineers around the world to drive one of their old cars at multiple circuits to 'learn how to do F1'...

And to top it all off... I think he is slow. He does driver quicker (closer to Mick) sometimes but then half the time he ends up spinning/crashing which is the slowest way to drive.. The rest of the time he doesn't crash or spin but is miles off his team mates pace.

Definitely a pay driver. Definitely not up to scratch.

I agree that Stroll now holds his own though. Initially he was very publicly a pay driver, and wasn't at all great as a driver imo - but now several seasons on, and having lasted far longer than most other drivers who underperform initially, he's turned out fairly good. I wonder how many other drivers who were rudely kicked out of the sport after a first disappointing couple of seasons would ultimately have eventually got up to speed if their teams had stuck with them? It would only ever happen for a pay driver though.

[Maxdecel]

Ross Brawn said:

the avid fans have not been convinced yet - they are indifferent - but the majority of our 'normal' fans were positive about the concept".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59125551

Are you Normal or Avid ? ......Whatever that means.

[Teddy Lop]

Maxdecel said:

Ross Brawn said:

the avid fans have not been convinced yet - they are indifferent - but the majority of our 'normal' fans were positive about the concept".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59125551

Are you Normal or Avid ? ......Whatever that means.

I don't follow their media so much but an F1 podcast I listen to was calling them out on the highly stilted "polls" regarding sprint-qualifying. I guess their people mostly found the answers they were looking for. Damn those heretics avids.

[SturdyHSV]

3 days of actual action is better than 2 I suppose is a fairly easy sell, especially when all the drivers like it.

The expectation that Friday will just be proper Quali for Sunday sounds good to me.

More points (perhaps 1/3 points) for the sprint race sounds good to me, makes sense as it's 1/3 distance.

How they set the grid for the sprint is anyone's guess. Lottery?

How about:

First sprint race of the season, grid position is decided by the previous season's championship positions (or maybe reversed?). Newbies are sadly stuck at the back out the way I think.
From then on, sprint race grid is decided by finishing positions of the previous sprint race. Gives drivers even more motivation to actually push in the sprint race, and if the cars can pass better as expected, it would (hopefully) not be too much of a procession...

[thegreenhell]

It's not so very long ago that they were talking about reducing it to two-day race weekends so they could fit more race weekends into the calendar. Now it seems they've not only extended the calendar anyway, but are now trying to make them have two races every weekend. It's slowly being turned into NASCAR.

[kambites]

Despite being entirely against reverse grids for the main races, I think reverse championship positions for the sprint race would be good.

[anonymous-user]

This is supposed to be Grand Prix racing with cars designed to race over a Grand Prix distance.

Sprint races are a load of bks for these cars.

There is zero wrong with the usual qualifying system, it works well.

[spikyone]

TheDeuce said:

I agree that Stroll now holds his own though. Initially he was very publicly a pay driver, and wasn't at all great as a driver imo - but now several seasons on, and having lasted far longer than most other drivers who underperform initially, he's turned out fairly good. I wonder how many other drivers who were rudely kicked out of the sport after a first disappointing couple of seasons would ultimately have eventually got up to speed if their teams had stuck with them? It would only ever happen for a pay driver though.

Stroll looked decent before he got to F1. He won the Euro F3 title in 2016. The issue he had was his old man being impatient and then skipping him ahead to F1 instead of GP2/F2 (whatever it was called at that time). Even allowing for that he wasn't a million miles off Massa in 2017 - much of the criticism he got came from the fact that he was perceived as being an undeserving pay driver, when in reality he was mostly just a rookie being a rookie.

[MustangGT]

kambites said:

Despite being entirely against reverse grids for the main races, I think reverse championship positions for the sprint race would be good.

Excellent idea, would make for entertainment on the Saturday but should have no input to grid positions for the Sunday race, nor should any points be awarded.

[ettore]

spikyone said:

TheDeuce said:

I agree that Stroll now holds his own though. Initially he was very publicly a pay driver, and wasn't at all great as a driver imo - but now several seasons on, and having lasted far longer than most other drivers who underperform initially, he's turned out fairly good. I wonder how many other drivers who were rudely kicked out of the sport after a first disappointing couple of seasons would ultimately have eventually got up to speed if their teams had stuck with them? It would only ever happen for a pay driver though.

Stroll looked decent before he got to F1. He won the Euro F3 title in 2016. The issue he had was his old man being impatient and then skipping him ahead to F1 instead of GP2/F2 (whatever it was called at that time). Even allowing for that he wasn't a million miles off Massa in 2017 - much of the criticism he got came from the fact that he was perceived as being an undeserving pay driver, when in reality he was mostly just a rookie being a rookie.

I’d agree with this, I think he’s perfectly capable and showed proper pace in his early career. I suspect the problem is more the quantum of the family wallet!

[MontyPythonX]

MustangGT said:

Excellent idea, would make for entertainment on the Saturday but should have no input to grid positions for the Sunday race, nor should any points be awarded.

If no points are awarded though, then nobody would do it. They'd all pootle round for one lap at half speed and then retire to the pits.

[HustleRussell]

spikyone said:

TheDeuce said:

I agree that Stroll now holds his own though. Initially he was very publicly a pay driver, and wasn't at all great as a driver imo - but now several seasons on, and having lasted far longer than most other drivers who underperform initially, he's turned out fairly good. I wonder how many other drivers who were rudely kicked out of the sport after a first disappointing couple of seasons would ultimately have eventually got up to speed if their teams had stuck with them? It would only ever happen for a pay driver though.

Stroll looked decent before he got to F1. He won the Euro F3 title in 2016. The issue he had was his old man being impatient and then skipping him ahead to F1 instead of GP2/F2 (whatever it was called at that time). Even allowing for that he wasn't a million miles off Massa in 2017 - much of the criticism he got came from the fact that he was perceived as being an undeserving pay driver, when in reality he was mostly just a rookie being a rookie.

Stroll was half baked and his blushes were spared by being paired with late Massa and then Sirotkin.

[n3il123]

SturdyHSV said:

3 days of actual action is better than 2 I suppose is a fairly easy sell, especially when all the drivers like it.

The expectation that Friday will just be proper Quali for Sunday sounds good to me.
:

I can see it getting to the point next year with the extended calendar and having three days of required viewing (qualifying, sprint and GP) where there is just an overload and it is saturated (for me).

Getting management buy in becomes increasingly tricky what with the double and triple headers, throw in the races that are on at prime time I foresee me watching less next year rather than more.

I guess that makes me a normal fan rather than an avid fan despite my 35 year support of the support.

[SturdyHSV]

n3il123 said:

SturdyHSV said:

3 days of actual action is better than 2 I suppose is a fairly easy sell, especially when all the drivers like it.

The expectation that Friday will just be proper Quali for Sunday sounds good to me.
:

I can see it getting to the point next year with the extended calendar and having three days of required viewing (qualifying, sprint and GP) where there is just an overload and it is saturated (for me).

Getting management buy in becomes increasingly tricky what with the double and triple headers, throw in the races that are on at prime time I foresee me watching less next year rather than more.

I guess that makes me a normal fan rather than an avid fan despite my 35 year support of the support.

The only nuisance for me if it becomes Friday afternoon quali is I finish at 17:30 and thus if quali starts at 17:00 I end up staying at work watching it (as it's on various TVs) instead of going home to watch the highlights later. Otherwise, I'm happy for more viewing opportunities, will be interesting how that works with Ch4 highlights...

[Stan the Bat]

jsf said:

This is supposed to be Grand Prix racing with cars designed to race over a Grand Prix distance.

Sprint races are a load of bks for these cars.

There is zero wrong with the usual qualifying system, it works well.

[Muzzer79]

jsf said:

This is supposed to be Grand Prix racing with cars designed to race over a Grand Prix distance.

Sprint races are a load of bks for these cars.

There is zero wrong with the usual qualifying system, it works well.

This

I’m yet to see a sprint race that didn’t come across as a…..gimmick.

[DaveE87]

SturdyHSV said:

3 days of actual action is better than 2 I suppose is a fairly easy sell, especially when all the drivers like it.

The expectation that Friday will just be proper Quali for Sunday sounds good to me.

More points (perhaps 1/3 points) for the sprint race sounds good to me, makes sense as it's 1/3 distance.

How they set the grid for the sprint is anyone's guess. Lottery?

How about:

First sprint race of the season, grid position is decided by the previous season's championship positions (or maybe reversed?). Newbies are sadly stuck at the back out the way I think.
From then on, sprint race grid is decided by finishing positions of the previous sprint race. Gives drivers even more motivation to actually push in the sprint race, and if the cars can pass better as expected, it would (hopefully) not be too much of a procession...

I can understand those who would prefer we see no changes, however, I agree that qualifying should set the grid for the GP. I think sprint races are coming whether we like them or not, and reverse grids in some shape or form too. F1 might lose some fans due to it, but if it's a net gain overall with the new fans then that will be that.

[DanielSan]

jsf said:

This is supposed to be Grand Prix racing with cars designed to race over a Grand Prix distance.

Sprint races are a load of bks for these cars.

There is zero wrong with the usual qualifying system, it works well.

100% this.