Official 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix **SPOILERS**

[Piginapoke]

Round 2 and Imola, after an intriguing start to the season. Can Red Bull cement its car advantage? Most analysts think that the high rake cars will be at an advantage here, if so Mercedes and Aston will again be behind. Either way, it looks very unlikely to be the Mercedes 1-2 that we saw last year.

Note changes to Friday and Saturday times to accommodate Prince Phillip's funeral

Date(s): Friday 16 April - Sunday 18 April 2021.

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1; Channel 4 showing highlights of Race and Qualifying:





Live timing for all sessions available here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...

Weather forecast:
https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/today/l/44.36,11...

Tyre options:

Teams have two hard, three mediums and eight soft sets available per driver for each weekend.



2020 race result:



2020 race highlights:

https://youtu.be/RL1oFTz-NvA

Edited by Piginapoke on Tuesday 13th April 13:35

Edited by Piginapoke on Thursday 15th April 20:27

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Bugger, seen the thread and thought it was this weekend!

Edited to add;

I think Red Bull will absolutely blitz Mercedes this weekend, easily 6/10s a lap quicker and will run the race from the front. Bahrain was fun but this weekend we will see exactly what we may have in store for the season.

Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Thursday 8th April 08:16

[cowboyengineer]

I think Mercedes have had 3 week and they will be coming to win with a few new parts. I hope it is as close as Bahrain

[Man-At-Arms]

cowboyengineer said:

I think Mercedes have had 3 week and they will be coming to win with a few new parts. I hope it is as close as Bahrain

Thought the new rules/token system stops them just tinkering with parts whenever they feel like it ?

[Mr_Thyroid]

Expect a boring race. Overtaking is very difficult here. Hope for rain or safety cars to spice things up.

[Piginapoke]

Man-At-Arms said:

cowboyengineer said:

I think Mercedes have had 3 week and they will be coming to win with a few new parts. I hope it is as close as Bahrain

Thought the new rules/token system stops them just tinkering with parts whenever they feel like it ?

Aero development remains free but the teams are limited because already most resources within the budget cap will be focused on the new 2022 regulations. The big structural stuff like suspension, chassis, gearbox is fixed in place for teams so Merc's room to improve the car is much more limited that previous years..

[Piginapoke]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Bugger, seen the thread and thought it was this weekend!

Blame China!

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Man-At-Arms said:

cowboyengineer said:

I think Mercedes have had 3 week and they will be coming to win with a few new parts. I hope it is as close as Bahrain

Thought the new rules/token system stops them just tinkering with parts whenever they feel like it ?

Exactly, they have explicitly said there's nothing they can do mechanically with chassis, aero or engine power. What they can do is try and be ready for the weekend better. More simulation runs, getting a better idea on how they are going to use the tyres etc.

You'd think they are on top of that already but it's realistically their only way of driving improvements.

That isn't going to get them over half a second a lap.

If Red Bull can get Sergio qualifying in the top four (which shouldn't be too difficult) within the next couple of races I think Mercedes' season will be over.

[Sandpit Steve]

Piginapoke said:

Aero development remains free but the teams are limited because already most resources within the budget cap will be focused on the new 2022 regulations. The big structural stuff like suspension, chassis, gearbox is fixed in place for teams so Merc's room to improve the car is much more limited that previous years..

This year is going to be a very careful dance between resources spent improving this years car, and dedicated to next year’s - with strict limits on wind tunnel and CFD time, and major developments banned on the current car leaving only expensive marginal gains possible.

Possibly the best thing for next year’s championship, is to have two teams battling for the title right to the end of this year’s.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Sandpit Steve said:

Possibly the best thing for next year’s championship, is to have two teams battling for the title right to the end of this year’s.

I get where you’re coming from but no team is interested in what’s best for the championship. Red Bull, after so many years of being second or third best will and should throw everything they have at what appears to be a championship winning car this year and forget about 2022.

[Sandpit Steve]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Possibly the best thing for next year’s championship, is to have two teams battling for the title right to the end of this year’s.

I get where you’re coming from but no team is interested in what’s best for the championship. Red Bull, after so many years of being second or third best will and should throw everything they have at what appears to be a championship winning car this year and forget about 2022.

That was my point. If Mercedes and RB end up throwing everything they have at developing the ‘21 car well into the season, that makes for a great ‘22 season as the top teams will be spending much less time and money on that car.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Sandpit Steve said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Possibly the best thing for next year’s championship, is to have two teams battling for the title right to the end of this year’s.

I get where you’re coming from but no team is interested in what’s best for the championship. Red Bull, after so many years of being second or third best will and should throw everything they have at what appears to be a championship winning car this year and forget about 2022.

That was my point. If Mercedes and RB end up throwing everything they have at developing the ‘21 car well into the season, that makes for a great ‘22 season as the top teams will be spending much less time and money on that car.

Sorry yes re-reading that I get what you mean now

[Ferruccio Fan]

Mr_Thyroid said:

Expect a boring race. Overtaking is very difficult here. Hope for rain or safety cars to spice things up.

Yep , last year everybody was excited about returning to an old favourite , then afterwards moaned about how crap it actually all was .

[angrymoby]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Bugger, seen the thread and thought it was this weekend!

Edited to add;

I think Red Bull will absolutely blitz Mercedes this weekend, easily 6/10s a lap quicker and will run the race from the front. Bahrain was fun but this weekend we will see exactly what we may have in store for the season.

Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Thursday 8th April 08:16

I reckon it'll much closer than people think ...Merc were 6/10ths faster here last time around, so can't see that they'll have dropped the ball by a whopping 1.2s

[Mr Pointy]

Sandpit Steve said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Possibly the best thing for next year’s championship, is to have two teams battling for the title right to the end of this year’s.

I get where you’re coming from but no team is interested in what’s best for the championship. Red Bull, after so many years of being second or third best will and should throw everything they have at what appears to be a championship winning car this year and forget about 2022.

That was my point. If Mercedes and RB end up throwing everything they have at developing the ‘21 car well into the season, that makes for a great ‘22 season as the top teams will be spending much less time and money on that car.

But they might not. If Mercedes see they are way behind after three or four races the pragmatic thing for Toto to do is stop all 2021 development & just accept the high rake car is stuffed. They could then focus even more on 2022 & just let RB have 2021; there's no point spending valuable development time on something you can't win & the most sensible thing to do is finish as low down in the rankings as you can so you get more wind tunnel & CFD time next year.

[SpudLink]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

If Red Bull can get Sergio qualifying in the top four (which shouldn't be too difficult) within the next couple of races I think Mercedes' season will be over.

That’s a big statement. I agree that Red Bull are ahead at the moment, and the rules restrict Mercedes ability to close the gap. But you’re brave to be declaring ‘season over’ so early.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

SpudLink said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

If Red Bull can get Sergio qualifying in the top four (which shouldn't be too difficult) within the next couple of races I think Mercedes' season will be over.

That’s a big statement. I agree that Red Bull are ahead at the moment, and the rules restrict Mercedes ability to close the gap. But you’re brave to be declaring ‘season over’ so early.

Mercedes can't pull back over half a second a lap from Red Bull this season with the limited development they have, that's not a bold statement it's just a fact.

There was enough data on the types of corners there are at Bahrain, Mercedes were losing out on every type of corner and in the speed traps on the straights. You can get lucky against someone so much quicker, you can outsmart them sometimes and you can just plain operate a weekend better, but over the course of an entire season that sort of advantage is impossible to squander without extreme reliability problems.

[parabolica]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

SpudLink said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

If Red Bull can get Sergio qualifying in the top four (which shouldn't be too difficult) within the next couple of races I think Mercedes' season will be over.

That’s a big statement. I agree that Red Bull are ahead at the moment, and the rules restrict Mercedes ability to close the gap. But you’re brave to be declaring ‘season over’ so early.

Mercedes can't pull back over half a second a lap from Red Bull this season with the limited development they have, that's not a bold statement it's just a fact.

There was enough data on the types of corners there are at Bahrain, Mercedes were losing out on every type of corner and in the speed traps on the straights. You can get lucky against someone so much quicker, you can outsmart them sometimes and you can just plain operate a weekend better, but over the course of an entire season that sort of advantage is impossible to squander without extreme reliability problems.

They were only .5 a second quicker in quali trim and they've only been to one track so far. There's no saying who is going to be stronger at each track this year; I reckon it'll be neck and neck (hopefully).

[Piginapoke]

parabolica said:

They were only .5 a second quicker in quali trim and they've only been to one track so far. There's no saying who is going to be stronger at each track this year; I reckon it'll be neck and neck (hopefully).

Agree with this, it's a bit early to draw many conclusions after 1 race (particularly after so little testing) but it will certainly be a lot closer, which is fantastic news after the last few years.

[BrettMRC]

Redbull will smash the qually with a 1-2, but then a discreet conversation with the stewards, led by Mercedes will reveal some massive and obvious cheat.

Horner will explode.

Bottas will inexplicably win by 40 seconds from a grumpy Hamilton.