2021 Bahrain Grand Prix - Sakhir, March 26 - 28

[El Scorchio]

I have been watching F1 since 90's...yes previous century...one of the things I miss is the F1 drivers character...I mean now they are totally like soldiers...they don't take decisions. they don't defy their teams. Vettel a few times Hamilton maybe questioning a few times. Verstappen complaining. I would enjoy a Verstappen that would not give the place back. Make Hamilton win it in the stewards room... not on track. I mean I miss that tension and controversy. They look to me more like playstation gamers...no flare no heat. And that has to do with the fact that now things are so controlled and so predictable that drivers are like a piece of the machine. like a part that if does not comply it will be replaced. back then you need to have some kind of character and skills. sorry for the nostalgic tone. In the end Verstappen might have got a 5 secs penalty and lose the 1st place but anyway.

Having also watched from the 90's, I'm not sure where you've got that idea from. Drivers were still nice back then, and only a few would have been a total dick about it.

I'd add as well that F1 is far more data driven than it was in the 90s. There's far less room for instinct and hunches now when you can feed all the variables into a computer and it'll tell you the optimum way to finish a race as quickly as possible.

[astracrazy]

According to Helmut Marko, Max wasn't using full power as a precaution because of the problem with diff. So it remains to be seen if RedBull and Mercedes are actually close or does RedBull have more in hand.

At that point I lost interest.

Why? Because he's frank to often?

The majority of the time he speaks he talks nonsense.

[mika vs michael]

To avoid any misunderstandings, I did not mean that drivers back then were nasty characters and now are very nice. I mean I miss some of the controversy that those characters would create because of their competitive nature in all fields...I think Alonso Raikkonen and Vettel have something like that. They were willing to cross red lines and boundaries. I kind of liked how Vettel drove in Canada 2018...I think those attitudes and characters seem not much wanted in nowadays F1. maybe it's a change of era and paradigm on many levels. Anyway it is off topic. I think Verstappen brings back some kind of that flare and Leclerc. Of course the Mercedes domination played its role. Anyway it goes off topic so I stop here.

[mika vs michael]

I have been watching F1 since 90's...yes previous century...one of the things I miss is the F1 drivers character...I mean now they are totally like soldiers...they don't take decisions. they don't defy their teams. Vettel a few times Hamilton maybe questioning a few times. Verstappen complaining. I would enjoy a Verstappen that would not give the place back. Make Hamilton win it in the stewards room... not on track. I mean I miss that tension and controversy. They look to me more like playstation gamers...no flare no heat. And that has to do with the fact that now things are so controlled and so predictable that drivers are like a piece of the machine. like a part that if does not comply it will be replaced. back then you need to have some kind of character and skills. sorry for the nostalgic tone. In the end Verstappen might have got a 5 secs penalty and lose the 1st place but anyway.

Having also watched from the 90's, I'm not sure where you've got that idea from. Drivers were still nice back then, and only a few would have been a total dick about it.

I'd add as well that F1 is far more data driven than it was in the 90s. There's far less room for instinct and hunches now when you can feed all the variables into a computer and it'll tell you the optimum way to finish a race as quickly as possible.

Yes you are right. I mean they trust the machines more than the instinct of the drivers and what I see is a trend that shapes characters and skills. The drivers obey to the system more and more and accept what the computer say. In the end we could throw all variables into a computer and have a simulated race...they dont have to be on the circuit...we could watch the simulation. I'd like to see drivers make their own calls from time to time and defy team instructions and orders. the only recent time we had some kind of intense battles was the 2016...and most of it happened behind the scenes. I think Toto Wolff's control freak attitude and Mercedes dominance is making things less exciting. Ferrari did the same in a way during the golden 2000-2004 period.

[SiLo]

To avoid any misunderstandings, I did not mean that drivers back then were nasty characters and now are very nice. I mean I miss some of the controversy that those characters would create because of their competitive nature in all fields...I think Alonso Raikkonen and Vettel have something like that. They were willing to cross red lines and boundaries. I kind of liked how Vettel drove in Canada 2018...I think those attitudes and characters seem not much wanted in nowadays F1. maybe it's a change of era and paradigm on many levels. Anyway it is off topic. I think Verstappen brings back some kind of that flare and Leclerc. Of course the Mercedes domination played its role. Anyway it goes off topic so I stop here.

Did we not have that with Rosberg and Hamilton? Magnussen being aggressive? The issue honestly hasn't been the drivers it's been the general lack of competition at the sharp end of the grid. There has been plenty of aggression and questionable things happening further down the grid but it just gets less attention.

[hUirEYExbN]

....
I would enjoy a Verstappen that would not give the place back. Make Hamilton win it in the stewards room... not on track.
....

Personally, I don't want races decided after the chequered flag.

[Just_a_fan]

I would enjoy a Verstappen that would not give the place back. Make Hamilton win it in the stewards room... not on track. I mean I miss that tension and controversy.

It was things like that that made F1 a laughing stock back in the day. People watch the race, everyone celebrates and then the result was quietly changed afterwards. You'd check the news on Monday to find out who had eventually won the race you watched on Sunday. It's a great way to make people stop watching F1, if that is your goal.

[Just_a_fan]

I'd like to see drivers make their own calls from time to time and defy team instructions and orders. the only recent time we had some kind of intense battles was the 2016...and most of it happened behind the scenes. I think Toto Wolff's control freak attitude and Mercedes dominance is making things less exciting. Ferrari did the same in a way during the golden 2000-2004 period.

Do you mean like Hamilton does when he decides to stay out rather than pit when his team tells him to? He's done that on a number of occasions in order to beat his team mate to the win. I think Max has done similar, and Seb famously said "tough luck" when told to let his team mate through as previously agreed. So these things do happen.

[Big Tea]

I have been watching F1 since 90's...yes previous century...one of the things I miss is the F1 drivers character...I mean now they are totally like soldiers...they don't take decisions. they don't defy their teams. Vettel a few times Hamilton maybe questioning a few times. Verstappen complaining. I would enjoy a Verstappen that would not give the place back. Make Hamilton win it in the stewards room... not on track. I mean I miss that tension and controversy. They look to me more like playstation gamers...no flare no heat. And that has to do with the fact that now things are so controlled and so predictable that drivers are like a piece of the machine. like a part that if does not comply it will be replaced. back then you need to have some kind of character and skills. sorry for the nostalgic tone. In the end Verstappen might have got a 5 secs penalty and lose the 1st place but anyway.

Having also watched from the 90's, I'm not sure where you've got that idea from. Drivers were still nice back then, and only a few would have been a total dick about it.

Also, if your team mate or opposition decided to demonstrate to you it was not a nice thing to do, even a break test in the 'wrong' place could lead to serious consequences. It really was a risk to 'take a risk', and not just for the car.

[Marble]

Hi !
On the F1 App, there is no speed data available for any of the drivers / any session.
Anyone else experiencing this problem and could help me to get the speed data ? Thanks

[michl420]

Regarding Bottas’ last pit stop to get the fastest lap: How wise was it and much of a team decision was it?
He was almost certain to collect that 1 point. But coming from a botched pit stop in the same race, there was a real risk of losing time stuck in the pits again. He’d roughly lose 3 points for every 5 seconds stuck. How many bad pit stops did he have in 2020? 2, 3, 4? Not sure of the number, but I remember it as “many”. So he had a 5% chance of losing points, potentially losing all his 15 points.
Meanwhile, looking forward, he was 10-15 seconds behind a dog fight. The chances of those two spinning, getting a flat tire or losing the front wing was relatively high, and being 10 seconds behind, you might win 3 points or even 10. He gave that away. Certainly he gave up his best chance at a not impossible win, and, were both to DNF, he created this 5% scenario where Norris would inherit that win.
Was the 1 point for fastest lap worth all the risks?
Maybe, just maybe, the fact that he took that fastest lap point from Max might have played a role.
Although he went for the point several times in the past.

All hypothetical scenarios, but interesting i my mind. What is the real risk of botching it in those last minute pit stops?

I know what you mean, and I often think the same way. But on some point you must act on things that are and not things that could be, especially when you drive for a WC. To think this further, when you don`t make a pit stop because you fear that your crew make a mistake, is that not a sign of trust to them. The next thing would be, oh we make only 1 stop races because it minimise the risk. Everyone see that this is nonsense.
Your thoughts are right, but I think mercedes must see it more like I write it. I also think Verstappen have learned that to win a championschip a crash is a no go.