2021 São Paulo Grand Prix - Interlagos, Nov 12-14

[langedweil]

These comments are so childish and cringy. Why can’t you guys just enjoy the fact that the sport is seeing a real fight for the first time in god knows how many seasons.

Real fight Random regulation changes just to make Merc slower.

Yeah, that really never happened in the opposite direction. Oh wait ...

[ringo]

Brazil is like music chairs anything can happen when the music stops.
Max is not out of the woods. Back markers and pitstop errors.. safety cars. Many factors.

[search]

According to Mariana Becker from Bandsports, the team made a choice but the Mexico engine is still alive, it's in the car as we speak, they are changing to ensure reliability to the end of the year.

Don't they have to leave the pits with the new engine to "register" it in the pool? Given that the info came already it's very likely the new one in the car now (?)

Thats for sure the case, not to mention no team would not want to swap a brand new engine into the car right before qualifying and have no time to run checks on it!

Mercedes did exactly that in Monza, changing Bottas engine between FP1 and Qualifying. But yeah, today Hamilton was running the new ICE in FP1 already

[Dee]

Not exactly, teams where limited by the token system, so some teams where more hindered by the rule changes than others.

And did some teams get more tokens than others? Exactly. So same rules for everyone right?

You seemed to have missed the point. every team was limited to 2 tokens. Thus if your car was more hindered by the changes nothing you could do about it.

And that' not even taking into account some of the finger points of the homogenization rules.

2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020 Mercedes have stopped development halfway through the season and focused on the next years regulations, Merc having six more months to develop and research their car for 2021 and turning up an unbalanced chassis and a faulty engine is on them.

[dans79]

And did some teams get more tokens than others? Exactly. So same rules for everyone right?

You seemed to have missed the point. every team was limited to 2 tokens. Thus if your car was more hindered by the changes nothing you could do about it.

And that' not even taking into account some of the finger points of the homogenization rules.

2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020 Mercedes have stopped development halfway through the season and focused on the next years regulations, Merc having six more months to develop and research their car for 2021 and turning up an unbalanced chassis and a faulty engine is on them.

The key aero changes (brake ducts, diffuser fencing) were not finalized until august of last year. A large number of the cars components where frozen after round 1. Thus it doesn't matter how much development you did 2 months or 2 years, you can't fix everything because you are limited by the token system.

Basically the way the token system, and the homogenization system worked, and the time of the rules got finalized ensured some teams were hindered more than others.

[Dee]

Explain why Merc were ahead of RB in qualy and race pace in most tracks from Silverstone until Sochi

RB didn't get on top of the new rear tire specification fast enough.

and Toto believes Merc wins in the final three races if rule changes would not allow them to be better due to inherent drawbacks with the tokens?

Do you really believe that any team principal is always telling the truth?

And Mercs upgrades in Silverstone did nothing?

I believe that with the long straights and Mercedes engine advantage, there is nothing to say the last three tracks will not be Merc territory.

[aral]

Any chance of getting back on topic, rather then regurgitating previous races?

[atanatizante]

Is it me or it seems that all drivers could do the sprint race on soft tyres, isn`t it? Unless it would rain ...

[west52keep64]

Brazil is like music chairs anything can happen when the music stops.
Max is not out of the woods. Back markers and pitstop errors.. safety cars. Many factors.

Isn't that the case at pretty much any race though?

[Artur Craft]

I think Mick´s last lap was deleted because it was at the same pace as Russel and Latifi(like thousandths away from both).

Great effort to be that close to the Williamses

[godlameroso]

Tsunoda matching Gasly, very well done!

[JPower]

Ferrari looks like they have some pace. Let's see how it carries through the rest of the session.

[Tvetovnato]

Merc are using strat 2 in Q1 already. Will be a lot closer soon.

[Hammerfist]

Hamiltons new power unit running strat 100 or something like that. He is so much faster than anyone else right now.

[dans79]

Hamiltons new power unit running strat 100 or something like that. He is so much faster than anyone else right now.

Yep, fast lap, and fastest in all 3 sectors. 17.465, 34.571, 16.032!