Official 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix **SPOILERS**

[LaurasOtherHalf]

parabolica said:

They were only .5 a second quicker in quali

There's no "only" in F1 when you're talking about being half a second faster or slower

[HustleRussell]

I’m not sure that there will be a Mercedes on the front row here.

[Exige77]

Mr Pointy said:

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.

I thought RB’s high rake car was the way to go and Mercedes low take car was the loser ?

[vulture1]

I'm going out on a whim here and going to say the current championship positions of the teams is where they will end up at the end of the year.

[Mr Pointy]

Exige77 said:

Mr Pointy said:

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.

I thought RB’s high rake car was the way to go and Mercedes low take car was the loser ?

Yes, I got my rakes mixed up. I think Mercedes & Aston Martin are a bit shafted this year; AM must be seething to be the collateral damage for the FIA's plan to hobble the Mercs

[PD9]

I think Max will romp this one. Red Bull pole and will run away with the race. In Bahrain, Lewis nicked >2.5 secs over race distance being creative with ‘track limits’. If he tied this in then Max would have gained P1 and not as close as we all thought. Strong Mercedes strategy kept them in the fight.

Honda have produced a whopper of an engine this season and the Red Bull package looks too strong for Mercedes overall. Will be interesting to see how Checo gets on battling with the Mercs in 8 days time.

[95 fiesta si]

Really looking forward to this one

[gshughes]

vulture1 said:

I'm going out on a whim here and going to say the current championship positions of the teams is where they will end up at the end of the year.

Limb rather than whim?! A nice malapropism though, I'm going to remember that one.

[Fundoreen]

Was expecting more from Alpine but hope the 3 weeks gap to this race enables them to get a bit closer. Alonso teams normally move up the grid as the season progresses.

[Adrian W]

Merc understand what they have now, having had three weeks to fiddle with it they will be back, only question is how far out in front will they be.

[WickerBill]

Adrian W said:

Merc understand what they have now, having had three weeks to fiddle with it they will be back, only question is how far out in front will they be.

i love the optimism but remember Max was hobbled by at least 0.3 seconds per lap in the race too....

....i expect mercedes to understand the package better but theres no silver bullet, and lets not forget that red bull will be developing too!

[C350Akra]

WickerBill said:

i love the optimism but remember Max was hobbled by at least 0.3 seconds per lap in the race too....

That is the claim, but no proof one way or the other.

[WickerBill]

C350Akra said:

WickerBill said:

i love the optimism but remember Max was hobbled by at least 0.3 seconds per lap in the race too....

That is the claim, but no proof one way or the other.

Which ever way you look at it, the Red Bull is quicker, in qualifying to the tune of almost 4/10ths, and in the race even with the diff issue he could catch hamilton...no doubt we will find out in the next couple of races...

[MontyPythonX]

I'm wondering if Mercedes have missed a trick with their engine?
Both Honda and Ferrari seem to have made a BIG step forward with their PU and Mercedes....not so much

[parabolica]

From what they’ve been saying it’s not a power issue, it’s an aero issue. The new regs favour high-rake cars such as Ferrari and RB.

[Sandpit Steve]

MontyPythonX said:

I'm wondering if Mercedes have missed a trick with their engine?
Both Honda and Ferrari seem to have made a BIG step forward with their PU and Mercedes....not so much

Possibly that’s true, but prototype racing requires the right combination of performance and reliability.

Recent history suggests that Mercedes have a lot of the latter, which can make quite the difference over the course of a 23-race season with only three engines allowed. Each one of those PUs is going to have to run in the 5000km range without a rebuild.

Towards the end of the season, an in-race failure hobbles you for two events - the first DNF and the grid penalty at the subsequent event.

[thegreenhell]

That's a good point. Honda have brought a completely new engine which is obviously a good step in performance, but it remains to be seen how reliable it will be over a season.

[SpudLink]

thegreenhell said:

That's a good point. Honda have brought a completely new engine which is obviously a good step in performance, but it remains to be seen how reliable it will be over a season.

That is what I’m interested to see as we get to the middle of the season. Will the Hondas perform at this level race after race without issues? Will Mercedes be forced to run their PU a bit harder and start to show reliability problems as a result? There’s no way we can know this as yet.

[Sandpit Steve]

thegreenhell said:

That's a good point. Honda have brought a completely new engine which is obviously a good step in performance, but it remains to be seen how reliable it will be over a season.

Toyota winning the 23 hours and 55 minutes of Le Mans a few years ago is the one that immediately springs to mind, but obviously in years past F1 engines were designed to last one race and no more, and frequently failed at that task!

The reliability of these modern F1 cars is astonishing given the performance, it’s worth remembering that LH has has only one mechanical DNF and one race off sick - in the past four seasons! The other 77 races since the start of the 2017 season all being points finishes. It’s hard to imagine that they would now push the reliability for a few extra horses.

[95 fiesta si]

Really hope Max can pull this year off he deserves it, he has tried hard enough over the last few years and now finally has potentially the machinery to do it.