Formula One 2021 - DRAMA - #Michael Messy

[LowCostMonkey]

  

51 minutes ago, ryodi said:

But Red Bull are going go to challenge Mercedes this year and finally give Max a car capable of challenging for the title. He’s the fastest driver on the grid according to Horner so surely 2021 is his year.

 

 

Almost certainly going to his best chance yet but with the cars largely carrying over from last year and considering the dominance Mercedes had with that car, I dunno, 2022 might be better. Hopefully it will be close this year though! *fingers crossed* *taps wood so as not to jinx it*

[mexos]

Tin hat time again!

 

Everyone seems to thing Merc would want a multi year deal but imagine if Ham was the one that wanted multi year but they couldn't agree... because Max is already signed for 22 and Lewis has to either put up with being his team mate or call it a day with Merc after 21. So a 1 year stop gap buys them both some time.

 

 

[McCoy]

Surprised about the one year component. 

 

Surely, it was in his own interests (financially) to tie the team down to a longer agreement. In reality, if he wants to pull a Rosberg and swan off after this year they are not going to enforce the contract. 

 

Is he keeping an option open to win the 8th and then have a swansong at Ferrari? 

[LowCostMonkey]

3 minutes ago, McCoy said:

Surprised about the one year component. 

 

Surely, it was in his own interests (financially) to tie the team down to a longer agreement. In reality, if he wants to pull a Rosberg and swan off after this year they are not going to enforce the contract. 

 

Is he keeping an option open to win the 8th and then have a swansong at Ferrari? 

 

So all of the reports leaking supposed insider info about the negotiations said that Lewis wanted a 3 year deal but Mercedes only wanted to give him a 1 year deal. Of course these "leaks" are all uncorroborated but they were at least always consistent in that regards.

 

Hopefully all will be revealed in a few years time in the inevitable auto-biography.

[McCoy]

6 minutes ago, LowCostMonkey said:

 

So all of the reports leaking supposed insider info about the negotiations said that Lewis wanted a 3 year deal but Mercedes only wanted to give him a 1 year deal. Of course these "leaks" are all uncorroborated but they were at least always consistent in that regards.

 

Hopefully all will be revealed in a few years time in the inevitable auto-biography.

 

Yes, all very eyebrow raising. Given the lateness of agreement this contract, I look forward to speculation about Lewis' next contract kicking off next month. 

 

Verstappen, Russell pairing incoming....

[layten]

12 minutes ago, LowCostMonkey said:

 

So all of the reports leaking supposed insider info about the negotiations said that Lewis wanted a 3 year deal but Mercedes only wanted to give him a 1 year deal. Of course these "leaks" are all uncorroborated but they were at least always consistent in that regards.

 

Hopefully all will be revealed in a few years time in the inevitable auto-biography.

Apparently just the other day he had signed a 2 year contract with veto rights over his team mate.

[Dudley]

Of course it's a 1 year contract because 2021 is a freebie, he's basically signing his name on the world championship since car development is all but frozen and Merc's lead locked in.

 

Then he's a year older, the car performance is something of a lottery, he's out of records to chase and George Russell IS coming.  That's going to be a fun negotiation.

[T Pot]

I think 1 year is good. Lock him in until the new regs / cars come in. Reap the bonuses of the massive advertising they will get when he becomes the most successful F1 driver of all time with them.

 

Then they can sit down and look at their options of Rus, Ham, Bot, then outside options of possibly stealing Vestappen or even Sainz coming out of contract with Ferrari.

[MrPogo]

There was talk of Hamilton wanting to have long term commitments for non-driving things included (BLM stuff, young driver programs for ethnic minorities etc), so could even be they were stuck on the details of that and went for a “we’ll do a one year deal to get you in the car for this season, then continue negotiations on the rest” arrangement as things like the car launch are now only a couple of weeks away.

[McCoy]

1 hour ago, MrPogo said:

There was talk of Hamilton wanting to have long term commitments for non-driving things included (BLM stuff, young driver programs for ethnic minorities etc), so could even be they were stuck on the details of that and went for a “we’ll do a one year deal to get you in the car for this season, then continue negotiations on the rest” arrangement as things like the car launch are now only a couple of weeks away.

 

Thats exactly what Toto is saying, whether it is true or not is a different question. 

[Dudley]

We'll see I guess.

 

But certainly it feels like they were talking about a standard longer term renewal and ran out of time.  Whether that's just because everyone is easy about the whole thing or because there are fundamental differences we'll find out.

[MrPogo]

It just seems hard to believe they’d find it so difficult if only talking about a salary, unless one side is absolutely insistent on a massive percentage change from what he was on last year and/or there’s a huge gulf in how long the contract should be.

[Dudley]

Bear in mind there was quite a big ownership change in the team during all this too.

[ryodi]

A vote on having sprint races this season is happening on Thursday

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/55992727

 

 

[Dudley]

So basically we're improving the show by making sure if Hamilton does start last, he does the majority of the storming through the field on Saturday when no-one is watching leaving Sunday to be even more a parade.

 

Bravo.

[MrPogo]

Yeah. Sounds like it would make Saturday a must watch (I rarely bother any more), but with a high chance of diminishing the quality of the race on Sunday. I suppose the risk of Saturday crashes would probably shake up the grid on Sunday more  often than you’d get qualifying anomalies though.

[mexos]

To do it at a number of test events is a no brainer IMO.

 

Not sure I'd like to see this at every event. But as a 'special here and there throughout the calendar - well it mixes it up. Sign me up!

 

 

[Dudley]

17 hours ago, MrPogo said:

Yeah. Sounds like it would make Saturday a must watch (I rarely bother any more), but with a high chance of diminishing the quality of the race on Sunday. I suppose the risk of Saturday crashes would probably shake up the grid on Sunday more  often than you’d get qualifying anomalies though.

 

This is my other worry, no-one is trying a risky pass on Saturday because of this very fact.

 

So you'll get people cruise through from bad positions as far as DRS will take them and that's it.  No point fighting a wheel to wheel when what it gains you can be wiped out in 30m from the start of the race that pays points.

 

Factor in that a side of the grid might be better and people might actively try to lose a place on occaision.

 

For Karts, for touring cars even it can make sense, when the cars are hardier and racing is easier but for current F1, not so much.

[Blue]

2 hours ago, Dudley said:

 

This is my other worry, no-one is trying a risky pass on Saturday because of this very fact.

 

So you'll get people cruise through from bad positions as far as DRS will take them and that's it.  No point fighting a wheel to wheel when what it gains you can be wiped out in 30m from the start of the race that pays points.

 

Factor in that a side of the grid might be better and people might actively try to lose a place on occaision.

 

Although "The top eight drivers in the 'sprint' race would earn approximately half the points awarded for the grand prix" might mitigate that somewhat.

 

 

[Dudley]

That's the points records blown out of the water again then.

 

The danger with any system like that is, a title can be won on Saturday.  And with the best will in the world that's in front of many fewer people....

[mexos]

13 minutes ago, Dudley said:

That's the points records blown out of the water again then.

 

The danger with any system like that is, a title can be won on Saturday.  And with the best will in the world that's in front of many fewer people....

 

On the contrary you might actually see more people over time watching the sprint race - it could be, depending on how they do it more hectic and action packed + it's less of a time commitment. Sat is the new Sun.

[Blue]

Could be quite good as practice 2 now becomes qualifying for the sprint race, so only one practice session then straight into qualifying for the sprint race. So we get one practice session, a qualifying, a sprint race and a main race. Potentially more intense and exciting than 3 practice sessions.

[John0]

Quote

Ok so in total we have the original:

 

Max beats Perez in 3/4 of all qualifying

= I give £10 to a charity of your choice.

and vice versa

 

Max beats Perez by 100 points or more

= I give £10 to a charity 

and vice versa

 

@mexos these bets are crazy!  I'd actually love to be wrong and for Perez to surprise everyone but surely the sensible money is on him getting destroyed by Max. This is pretty much the same Perez who beat Ocon by *checks* 13 points in 2018. Little more checking and Ocon actually outqualified him 16-5 that year! Think the RP flattered both him and Stroll a bit last year.

[mexos]

I'm all in on SP. TEAM MEX (OS)

 

Do I think Max will dominate Perez? I do not. Do I think he'll be ahead in the end? Yes but not by much. Certainly not by 100 points or more! I think that one is in the bag. Ker-ching.

 

3/4 in qually? Yeah @Blue  might have me on that one. Worst case as I see it we both give £10 to charity. Everybody wins!

[JohnC]

I’m rarely home to see the Saturday stuff so if they start having half the season on Saturdays, it’ll probably be the beginning of the end of me watching it. 

[Dudley]

8 hours ago, mexos said:

 

On the contrary you might actually see more people over time watching the sprint race - it could be, depending on how they do it more hectic and action packed + it's less of a time commitment. Sat is the new Sun.

 

I don't think so.  Us maybe (although the sheer number of rounds now is already intimidating) but I think you'll really struggle to get the casual fan to put aside time for 46 F1 races in a year.

[ryodi]

Good news for Red Bull. It’s a shame the sprint race idea hasn’t been rejected and will reappear at some point.

[Blue]

Why have Ferrari agreed to the engine freeze, I wonder. 

[kiroquai]

Few rumours appearing on sone relatively well-known Spanish and Italian sites (Marca and Gazetta Dello Sport) that Alonso got hit by a car whilst cycling, had some fractures and is unlikely to be fit for the start of the season.

[Nick_L]

oops