The Official F1 2021 silly season *contains speculation*

[ajprice]

Testing livery for Alpine



https://wtf1.com/post/heres-a-first-look-at-the-al...

Taking a wild guess that the race livery will be as above but blue.

[ajprice]

kiseca said:

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

SpudLink said:

For all his faults, I’ve never thought of Alonso as that big a cheat. Although obviously crashgate was pretty bad.

I was thinking about his pit lane behaviour in 2007 to block his teammate. I’d love to see how that would go down when his teammate is the boss’s son.

That and the blackmail against Ron. And crashgate, though he would I'm sure argue he knew nothing about it...

Yeah, he earned the nickname "Teflonso" for a reason... he was so often surrounded by scandal but always managed to come out of it squeaky clean. Maybe he was.

I think Alonso will behave himself with any team politics, he'll see Alpine as the Enstone team where he won his championships, i.e. home.

[ajprice]

Leclerc has tested positive for Covid and is isolating at home in Monaco. Been posted onFerrari Facebook and Leclerc's Instagram.

[ajprice]

exelero said:

Greeny said:

CoolHands said:

I don’t think we’ll ever see 2-stroke in road cars.

We already have!
Google Wartburg 2 Stoke
https://youtu.be/vYnE36opw-g

Edited by Greeny on Sunday 17th January 12:46

Trabant also ??

Suzuki Jimny https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=19...

[ajprice]

Renault has rebranded to Alpine, so if they don't want the Renault name upfront in F1, Sauber-Dacia? The Renault FE team changed to Nissan, so Sauber-Nissan?

https://group.renault.com/en/our-company/our-brand...

[ajprice]

Piginapoke said:

No idea about Hamilton, couldn't care less.

But who do we think will finish last in the constructors championship? Williams/Haas/Sauber I guess are the contenders. I think Haas most likely, with a very slight improvement from Williams.

Haas for me. I think things are coming together for (post Claire and Frank) Williams to move up, and I think Mazepin is going to make Magnussen look cuddly in terms of elbows out on track.

[ajprice]

CoolHands said:

I don’t think we’ll ever see 2-stroke in road cars.

Back to 2 stroke road cars just for this. Ferrari tested out 2 stroke on a 3 cylinder engine as a test for making a 2 stroke V6. The 3 cylinder was a 1.3 with fuel injection, a supercharger and around 130bhp https://www.carscoops.com/2020/07/did-you-know-fer...

There's a video in the link explaining some of the tech involved.

[ajprice]

Mark-C said:

So he'll start in 30th then?

It's a Williams, on 2020 form they're on the back few rows of the grid. Is it a pit lane start or back of the grid +5 seconds at the pit stop now or something? I'm sure they sorted all the 37 place accumulated penalty stuff, but I can't remember how.

[ajprice]

Mercedes on the 2021 rule changes

[ajprice]

BrettMRC said:

TheInternet said:

As a donor?

Cancer charities usually like the donations to be a bit longer than what Seb had...

[ajprice]

Surprising nobody except people who can only count on their fingers, the 2021 Mercedes will be called W12

https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/135516134...



The image might be a hint at the livery (bare carbon and more Ineos red?)

Sort of related, are we doing car launches and dates here?

[ajprice]

ajprice said:

Albon will be racing in DTM on non F1 weekends, and it's Red Bull backed https://wtf1.com/post/alexander-albon-will-race-in...

Albon's DTM car will be an Alpha Tauri livery Ferrari (DTM cars are basically GT cars now)

https://the-race.com/formula-1/red-bulls-albon-to-...

[ajprice]

All the places filled.

[ajprice]

vaud said:

mw88 said:

Alpine statement - https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/status/1359954932...

Yikes. Who is their reserve driver?

They haven't named one for this year, but it was Sergei Sirotkin last year https://www.crash.net/f1/news/950827/1/alpine-f1-d...

[ajprice]

Alonso injury was an upper jaw fracture, it's been operated on and he should be fine to drive by the time the season starts. https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/status/1360174829...

[ajprice]

Well with a fractured jaw he can get sponsorship with Campbell's soup for a couple of weeks

[ajprice]

The hybrid engines are locked now until 2025 aren't they? With new regs in 2026. By that time, the synthetic 'e-fuel' like what Porsche are developing should be available, and it's supposed to be up to an 85% reduction in CO2. I'd be fine with F1 going that way, and leaving EV and hybrid tech to Formula E and other series.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/p...

[ajprice]

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.ex-alph...

Kvyat in at Alpine as reserve driver.

[ajprice]

Portimao is in as race 3

[ajprice]

Mercedes and Aston Martin safety cars


...and the DBX medical car

Edited by ajprice on Monday 8th March 09:17