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Helped somewhat by the heated battles between Verstappen and Hamilton seen throughout the 2021 Formula One championship, criticism on race director Michael Masi has mounted. But what next after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
Don't they have to notify how much fuel is in the car? Surely there would be absolute raised eyebrows at a car which must finish the race not being fuelled enough to do so. Also I really don't think RBR would for a moment do that.Shrieker wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 19:51If he's third again in quali and it looks like it's going to be a hopeless case chasing after Lewis, do you think they might like half fuel him, so he can get close to Lewis ?
AFAIK, deliberately underfueling the car is perfectly legal. You only need to adhere to the minimum weight limit, right ?
Just a difference of 10 kg makes up for the difference between the team leaders and support drivers. Add no fuel saving, softer tires and you have two half distance rockets.El Scorchio wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 19:56Don't they have to notify how much fuel is in the car? Surely there would be absolute raised eyebrows at a car which must finish the race not being fuelled enough to do so. Also I really don't think RBR would for a moment do that.Shrieker wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 19:51If he's third again in quali and it looks like it's going to be a hopeless case chasing after Lewis, do you think they might like half fuel him, so he can get close to Lewis and punt him out ?
AFAIK, deliberately underfueling the car is perfectly legal. You only need to adhere to the minimum weight limit, right ?
MV’ PU has actually ran 4 or 5 races and that is the whole PU. LH’s has a fresher ICE but with higher wear per race and his other components have already ran 7 races. And I bet the TC and MGU-H ran at a high level also in Brasil.atanatizante wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 16:13VER has more drawbacks than HAM at this race:
- a 7th race old PU
- a wrecked gearbox, presumably
- the main tyre in this one-stop race - namely the hard C3 tyre - is mighty on the W12 car
- the new track changes, both for nullifying the traction zones and S3 twisty sections where RB16B`s downforce superiority should have prevailed. Thus this track is transformed from a rear limited track to a front limited track working against them
- his only chance of winning is to set up his car more towards qualy, as he did in Saudi but this would slow him in the race as we could see that last Sunday ... had he will do the other way around he could end up 3rd in qualy and then it`s a very good chance that HAM win could be a walk in the parc starting from the first row
- W12`s squat trick will be reinforced again here and there are big chances to have a big impact as it did in Turkey
- last but not least, the morale of being 2nd in the last 3 races and knowing they have a slightly slower car adds up big time!
...
Just feel free to add had I missed something ...
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You completely missed the point on integration.El Scorchio wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 15:40Very true. Engine power on it's own means nothing without good aero or downforce. I believe Mazepin has been top in some speed traps so it goes to show that good straightline speed can be pretty meaningless without a complimentary package. Look at where AM and Williams 'languish' even though they have the Mercedes engine. Hamilton was only fastest in the speed trap at Brazil in sprint qualifying. 4th in real qualifying and 5th in the race with Renault, Ferrari and Honda powered cars all faster.Big Tea wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 15:21But 3 other teams run Merc engines, and are not leadingbasti313 wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 14:50Regarding who can win the championship:
Many engine specialists say that only Merc can win under the current engine regulations. One of them is the Fritz Indra, who is teaching racing engines at the University of Vienna. He said that he exactly told this to Marco and is making fun with betting against other specialists who claim different. The engine actions of RedBull are in the wake of what Indra tells Marco.
This is what we see this season. Ferrari and Renault are far away, RedBull came super close with the copy of the split turbo and a super close collaboration with Honda. This is also what they will follow next year with getting the engine "home" to get an integration system like at Merc.
But the standing issue is, that Merc has at least 5 years more experience with this engine given the huge set of data with their customer teams. This is why they could pull the engine trick this year and say goodbye to RedBull.
If I have to bet...Hamilton WDC and Merc WCC next year as well.
This brings us to turn 5 this weekend:
More ICE power means more top speed. As they enter the straight with higher speed the power needed is higher and you simply need to be more competitive in ICE power to get along the straight without substantial time loss.
This means RedBull has to compromise more on downforce.
RedBull in general:
We saw a season where Merc tried to find out how far they can get away without development as they want to concentrate on next season. I also think Ham is still compromised with Covid and the team was not operating at highest levels at the beginning. Now they get their things together and are operating better with the car, still without a good strategy and a compromised driver.
That RedBull is close and now not has nothing to do with RedBull. What we saw was/is a weakness of Merc and it swings because Merc has issues to get their stuff together. We saw how the difference suddenly goes into a win from last place in Brazil once Ham is spot on and the strategy is easy...
The track this weekend is easy to drive, strategy is easy...there is no way Verstappen and RedBull can make a driving or strategic difference like in some of the last races.
Abu is unfortunately the most boring race in terms of strategy...2 stop was never really competitive unless you can not overtake a slower car, this should be no issue this year. For your stop you wait for a SC or mid race. Nothing to gamble here.
Just saying all their success is down to a 'better' engine firstly doesn't really make sense in light of the above, and secondly really does down the rest of the efforts of the car design team. In fact I think it was written the Mercedes team were thrilled with this attitude from others in the first few years of this era as their good aero package really flew under the radar of a lot of people.
I don't want to add to any theories and sincerely hope this is not on the table... however, I personally think Max has carte blanche. If any racing incident between the two might happen, the only thing he'd get (worst-case scenario and assuming any accident would be blatantly enough) would be a disqualification from this race/event. If Lewis fails to scores any points (assuming he'd DNF too), Max wins the WDC on count back of wins (even though it's ironic that one of his wins is from Spa which wasn't actually a race but is classified as one none the less).
So Hamilton had best get fastest lap in earlyPhil wrote: ↑08 Dec 2021, 20:40I don't want to add to any theories and sincerely hope this is not on the table... however, I personally think Max has carte blanche. If any racing incident between the two might happen, the only thing he'd get (worst-case scenario and assuming any accident would be blatantly enough) would be a disqualification from this race/event. If Lewis fails to scores any points (assuming he'd DNF too), Max wins the WDC on count back of wins (even though it's ironic that one of his wins is from Spa which wasn't actually a race but is classified as one none the less).
In other words, no matter how bad the offense, a disqualification of the entire championship is surely never even going to be considered. Too much happened across the entirety of the season etc. And RedBull would roll back Silverstone where Hamilton was (officially) considered by the stewards to be "predominantly" at fault and still won the race. In other words, even if Max were to drive straight into Lewis from the rear, I see absolutely no chance in hell he'd be disqualified from the championship - which is what would need to be happen to prevent Max from being the 2021 WDC.
Having that said, IMO - this puts Max in quite a comfortable situation for the race, even if he doesn't have the faster car. He can go in reasonably hot in any close situation and risk his and Lewis car and Lewis will be the one who will need to back out. He's done it on multiple occasions in Jeddah where he went for high risk maneuvers - and fair enough - he is leading the championship and by the current point standing, deserves to use that advantage I guess (though IMO there should be a line there, but the stewards obviously didn't care enough about that line in Jeddah and other races).
Sadly, even in the "brake-test" of Jeddah, are the fans and surprisingly many F1 journalists willing to give him the benefit of doubt. What's there that could be considered even worse, apart maybe swiping someone off the track? In other words - no matter what he does or will do, there will always be reasonable doubt and at worst a disqualification from this race, which again, would not alter the outcome of the championship.
The big question and the only one relevant IMO is... would Max want to be that kind of championship?
THE RACE on youtube has the telemetry from both HAM and VER on that lap as well as VER's fastest lap over lay on top of each other. I did not think it was a brake-test and I still don't. Is he at fault? Yes but 100%? Look at the telemetry and when he started to lift off throttle all the way to the part where he start to move around and brake. Also not mentioned is that HAM put throttle on almost the exact moment when VER brake down to 4th/3rd gear. He probably finally decided that he needs to pass and it created the perfect moment of that crash. Keep in mind, by that point, they are both going 200 km/h slower than what they usually would be at that point of the track. Just go check out the video or if you find the telemetry and look at it. Max lifted and dropped speed in the corner before he is on the straight right after he's told to give up the position.
They don't have to throw him out of the championship, they can just dock him championchip points (1 point specifically), it's in the sporting code!
12.4.5 For all the FIA Championships, cups, challenges,
trophies or series, the stewards may also decide to impose
the following penalties: Suspension for one or more
Competitions, withdrawal of points for the Championship,
cup, challenge, trophy, series.
Sky Rumours say merc considering one of them to take a new ICE, if they see this more of a power circuit than the simulations show.sushantasapkota1 wrote: ↑07 Dec 2021, 11:53Maybe bottas should change his engine and help the team..