Silly Season 2020/2021 (starting with silliness in 2019)

[JordanMugen]

Every team has a major headache in front of them. Should they focus on 2021 or 2022

That's easy, isn't it? It has to be maximum attack for 2022! Developing 2021-specific parts is not efficient, as it is so important to have the more developed platform for new regulations to maximise chance of success.

[Big Tea]

Every team has a major headache in front of them. Should they focus on 2021 or 2022

That's easy, isn't it? It has to be maximum attack for 2022! Developing 2021-specific parts is not efficient, as it is so important to have the more developed platform for new regulations to maximise chance of success.

Not sure. For most teams yes, but it is a long time since Red Bull has been this close to Merc, and I assume Merc will be looking forward, so it may be the best chance RB have had for a wile to sneak in. If RB win say the first 3 or 4 races, Merc would perhaps feel that it would be too far along the year to swap development back to that car.

[Jolle]

Every team has a major headache in front of them. Should they focus on 2021 or 2022

That's easy, isn't it? It has to be maximum attack for 2022! Developing 2021-specific parts is not efficient, as it is so important to have the more developed platform for new regulations to maximise chance of success.

Not sure. For most teams yes, but it is a long time since Red Bull has been this close to Merc, and I assume Merc will be looking forward, so it may be the best chance RB have had for a wile to sneak in. If RB win say the first 3 or 4 races, Merc would perhaps feel that it would be too far along the year to swap development back to that car.

In other words to 2013-Mercedes out Mercedes. I don't think they fall for that plus they would pay the penalty (again) for not just 2022 but all following years. It's well known that Mercedes stopped all development on the W11 from the start of the season to have their 2021 car ready to go before they are allowed to work on the aero of the 22 car. Basically, they are a full year ahead.

[Racer X]

Perez is the one you want on Sunday last i checked that's what RedBull is looking for a Sunday finisher a Sunday Driver who can cut the field down and push Hamilton to keep him from being able to use a different strategy against Max if he needs to change it up.

Not to spoil the fun here, but Hamilton would be untouchable even in 2021. If anyone who is going to trouble the Mercedes strategy next year, it would be Riccardo in Mercedes powered McLaren. My bet is on both McLarens beating Perez in qualifying if he is driving RB17. On occasions, Alonso would get ahead too. If anyone is going to be in big trouble, it's Bottas. IMHO, the best case is Perez fighting with Norris in races. The dark horse would be Vettel in the Aston Martin, if they come out with W10 rearend (or the whole of it). There is a lot that Perez has to deal with.

We should get a prediction thread started because this is bold.

I agree but let's not waste time making it until we know RedBulls second driver would be nice to keep track of
McLaren Vs RedBulls development compared to the current performance gap of next year's cars compared to Mercedes.

[Shrieker]

So now if RB announced Perez, Albon would drop out of F1 completely.

That means Albon will stay.. Albon replaced by Perez and then Albon going to AT was a possibility, but there's no way they'll kick Albon for good. Sadly for Perez, it appears that door is closed now :/

[ringo]

I think Perez has signed already. Albon will be test driver. Redbull would have seen enough from him to know his development curve is pretty much flat.

[Shrieker]

That'd be the tits Ringo. But he has good backing from Thailand. I still think Albon will be retained as racing driver, Perez was already talking a lot about making a return in 2022, which gives me the impression that it's highly unlikely to happen for '21 @ Red Bull.

[LHamilton]

As for Perez ..... When Hulkenberg came in for Perez, he improved the car a lot in a short time according to
Otmar Szafnauer. He had discovered "problems" that Perez could not deal with and solved them, .

He didn't say Perez could not deal with the problems you are adding to something Otmar said. Also Otmar also said a few days earlier in the F1 Nation Podcast that Perez used to help Hulkenberg understand how to drive the car so that he could balance out his tire performance better and so that he could have better race pace on Sunday because Hulkenberg would always be slower on Sunday.

The skill set you are describing for Hulkenberg makes him an ideal test driver. According to Otmars quotes.

It sounds like Hulkenberg would make a good driver to have in a simulator and as a test driver.

Perez is the one you want on Sunday last i checked that's what RedBull is looking for a Sunday finisher a Sunday Driver who can cut the field down and push Hamilton to keep him from being able to use a different strategy against Max if he needs to change it up.

And Perez learned his mastery of the tires from Kobayashi.

Source: F1 Nation 25:45 mark roughly.

Guess we need to chuck Kobayashi in that Red Bull car

[raymondu999]

And Perez learned his mastery of the tires from Kobayashi.

Source: F1 Nation 25:45 mark roughly.

Guess we need to chuck Kobayashi in that Red Bull car

Plot twist — Kobayashi learnt that from Trulli at Toyota

Or on a note thats probably closer to reality, maybe de la Rosa? Wasn’t de la Rosa a Pirelli tester just before signing with Sauber to partner Kobayashi?

[Moore77]

No offense, but are we talking about card trick here that one learnt from another? In the years since Pirelli came in the sport, which was in 2011, every year they changed their compound construction. 2019 and 2020 are the only years they haven't changed it. In that duration, the cars have gone through 4 different spec changes. That's enormous combination of thousands of parameters that affect a driver's understanding of tyre behavior. Nothing that one would have learnt in one particular year, would have allowed to help understand the changing compounds every year. If that was any true, Vettel, who won 3 consecutive championships on those changing Pirellis, should have been the master of working those compounds every year, yet he didn't. Pirellis are a black art, which brings a new trick every year. The CAR, is the first critical element that should have been designed to work the tyre better and then comes the driver who can extract a tenth of two more compared to his team mate.

My inference (an arm chair expert's judgement) is, Perez's lack of qualifying pace, is probably the secret to his tyre management abilities (besides the car being the primary element). By that I mean, because he doesn't attack every single corner on a track to the last possible thousandth, is why he gives up time in qualifying, which is a good thing in races. Whereas a driver that really attacks every corner by instinct in quali, is going to repeat it in races and hurts the tyres that much.

One example is 2017 US GP, where Vettel got by Hamilton on start, but he killed his tyres in trying to keep Hamilton at bay. Hamilton pointed out on radio that, Vettel is attacking Turn 9 and killing his tyres, whereas Hamilton wasn't attacking that corner, but making it up elsewhere. Hamilton knows how to go about each corner in quali and races, which is something that he has learnt over the years (other than the fact that, he is comfortable and faster on degrading tyres than any other driver). He gives away time in certain corners to make it elsewhere, which is not what most other drivers do when under pressure. The point is, Hamilton is instinctively a quali driver, but has learnt tyre management in races via the experience, whereas for Perez, not being that quali driver is just a good thing for races. The other driver who is similar is Sainz. On the opposite side are drivers like Vettel (erstwhile ?), Bottas and Norris, who does well in quali than in races. Hamilton is an exception.

[Manoah2u]

post

good point about the tires and attacking,
@ the AbuDhabi final race, Albon mentioned that Norris, in front of him, was 'overdriving' the car, indicating that he's gonna burn through his tires and that there's no way he is on a one-stop strategy.

[Manoah2u]

Anyway, its clear as day that Perez is getting that RBR seat. Albon is out. Perez might even take a paycheck cut of his 'own' sponsorship money if 'backing' is something to think about.
I can't imagine Albon brings like what, 100 million? Also, i'm sure that Carlos Slim will hand out more money to RedBull than to a team like, let's say Williams.

RBR will be without Aston's money for 2021, so there's place on the car for Slim's companies.

[oT v1]

Is there a 2021 calendar thread? Gutted that some of the reserve tracks won’t be seen in 21, for me that was one of the more excited aspects of the season.

Edit: Alonso’s overtaking craft at Portimao would have been something!

[Big Tea]

Cant help but get the feeling Perez is there to 'sort the car out' rather than score points. He has always said he has plans for the following year, so unless those plans were with Red Bull, which I very much doubt, he will be on a one year contract.

Red Bull know they thought they had two very good drivers, until they put them in 'that car' when they turned to turds.
If it had been one driver fair call, it could be the driver, but two, one of which has been very good since going to another car is suspicious to say the least.

My original thoughts were Perez driving whit Albon doing the 'face of the driver' thing to please the co-owners and fly the flag for them.
I now think the reverse. Albon will continue as he was and Perez will be in the sim and in the car for a free session each event to coordinate the sim and provide feedback, and to get the best setup and ensure the sim is actually mirroring the car, not just following a flawed model.

Perez has driven several different cars and I assume several different sims so his judgement and experience for a year could be very valuable to them, as well as his sales at home, where he will no doubt fill a role in front of the camera.

[LHamilton]

Is there a 2021 calendar thread? Gutted that some of the reserve tracks won’t be seen in 21, for me that was one of the more excited aspects of the season.

Edit: Alonso’s overtaking craft at Portimao would have been something!

If I'm not mistaken, Crofty mentioned a rumour that Portimao MIGHT return next year instead of Vietnam, who got cancelled. However, if Portimao is to return is yet to be seen. But there is a chance.

But I hear you, some of the races in 21' should be replaced. I'm looking primarily at Barcelona (Should only be a testing track imo), Russia, Netherlands (Not a good track for overtaking, and expecting quite a boring race, á la Abu Dhabi) & perhaps Abu Dhabi. Although, the latter one might have some possibilities to do good if track layout is changed to promote a bit more exciting races. Don't know if that will happen though. I suppose Monaco has a niche due to history and what have you, but with these large cars, the race tends to be often quite static.