2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Imola, Apr 16 - 18

[MKlaus]

in all this, the alpha tauri is a dud. they seem to run very light in practice and deceive. in races, they steadily fall back while looking a bit competitive on quali trim. it's crazy that some people put them on second place in competitive order in testing.

while mercedes looks better than red bull in race trim, probably the characteristics of the track and the cold weather have helped them immensely. need wait and see how they perform in ambient or slightly warmer than ambient weather. but the good thing is, they are chipping away and the time available is helping them optimize their package. red bull doesn't seem to have gained significantly since bahrain and that makes them appear stagnant, atleast relatively.

mclaren is really improving, especially with lando's pace. ricciardo showed a lot of maturity in accepting the team order to let lando through, which ultimately helped securing a podium. hope he would improve in the next few races.

the way lance mugged bottas at the blue flags for max was really funny and intelligent. good drive for him.

perez is the biggest loser of the race while max did exactly what was required. gain position at start and lead from there.

once again, mick outperformed mazepin in both quali and race for the second race running. once again, people put heavy bet on mazepin outshining mick. to compound mazepin's misery, latifi screwed him with a dumb move.

a very entertaining race though.

[dans79]

while mercedes looks better than red bull in race trim, probably the characteristics of the track and the cold weather have helped them immensely. need wait and see how they perform in ambient or slightly warmer than ambient weather. but the good thing is, they are chipping away and the time available is helping them optimize their package.

What I think you are seeing is them getting better and better at getting every drop of performance out of the tires. Back in 2012/13 I think the team learned a very painful lesson, and it fundamentally changed how they approach racing.

With each lap of track time they are going to get faster and faster, regardless of any aerodynamic or engine fixes/updates they make.

[grubschumi13]

As close as the cars are, perhaps Mercedes having the marginally faster race car, mistakes by Perez today could cost Max the WDC. Mercedes have been bullet proof over the years and RBR need to punish Merc while the they have the high ground as I expect Max will have more unreliability this season and these points Perez is giving up to Lewis will come back to bite and hard.

[tomazy]

2 overtakes, one successful with Hamilton on Norris, and one not so much with Russell on Bottas.
Position when the car infront goes under the bridge, apex of the kink:


Bottas is more to the left than Norris, signaling that he will protect the inside of the corner, so Russell that is much closer than Hamilton, decides to overtake from the outside.
position when the car infront is at a LIQUI MOLY billboard :


Norris stays on the left side of the track, Hamilton still behind him. Bottas moves acros the track and has the whole tire accros the pit exsit line even tho he has a car next to him on that side.
Here is the racing line from quali at the billboard and 0,1s after for comparisson:


Bottas was even more to the right than Hamilton was in Q even tho he had a car next to him, Russell had enought space but it was shrinking until a few tents of a second before the crash. I think it was a racing incident (80/20 Bttas fault) but Bottas should give him more space like Noris did.

[dans79]

As close as the cars are, perhaps Mercedes having the marginally faster race car, mistakes by Perez today could cost Max the WDC. Mercedes have been bullet proof over the years and RBR need to punish Merc while the they have the high ground as I expect Max will have more unreliability this season and these points Perez is giving up to Lewis will come back to bite and hard.

If anything I would think the Honda reliability would make Red Bull nervous. They've had several power unit related issues already in the first two races.

[langedweil]

’red flag BS’.

You did see the amount of work needed to get the track cleaned right?

Yeah and all the lapped cars got to make up their time deltas. Virtual safety car requires you to maintain deltas, why shouldn't rolling restarts or safety cars? Yeah I get it, it's entertainment, and I certainly was entertained!

No it’s literally in the rules.
I’ll tell you what was made up in the fly though. How they restarted. Now remind me who did that favour?

Funny .. the race director always has the right to overrule them rules, three weeks ago that was no issue but now it suddenly is? At least Ham gained a position by that, contrary to Ver ...

[langedweil]

Ninth to second in about 20 laps is a great recovery, whatever spin you want to put on it. Sure he got a big slice of fortune today but he still had to pass a lot of cars to regain second.

Raikkonen spun before restart got underway so he restarted in P8. Perez was another free position. So he overtook 5 drivers on his way to P2. Some of those cars were seconds per lap slower than him, and he passed almost all cars with a zero skill DRS fly-by. Not least in a car that looked insanely fast on straight, gaining up to 1s under drs.

That horrendous race start and mid-race mistake pretty much made this race one of hamilton's worst ones in ages, so how people can say it was a good drive in any kind of way is baffling.

It is pity you cannot enjoy watching GOAT. You will miss him in couple of years..

We won't as he's no goat ..

[langedweil]

But what objection could you have with the rules today? It’s just the procedure.

That something is the procedure doesnt mean it cannot be changed. It used to be the procedure that women could not vote, and years prior, that men couldnt either. We have changed that for the better. Now, thats a hyperbole of course, but f1 procedures can change just as well. They are not set in stone.

I think the question "should a driver that has been off the track for over a minute, and fell a lap behind, be able to end second due to being lucky with a naturalization?" Is a fair question, even of such occasions are rare. I actually dont have a strong preference for one of the other; there are arguments for and against the rules as they are now. But i think we should be able to discuss those issues, and hence discuss whether the procedures should change in that respect, without immediately being accussed of just being salty for seeing amother driver being advantaged.

Well spoken ..

[El Scorchio]

So presumably everyone should be annoyed about Gasly winning the Italian Grand Prix last year then? By virtue of dumb luck, with fortunate timing of a pit stop, followed by a pit Lane closure and a red flag?

Not a bit of it. All of us love that he won that race even though he completely lucked into it by virtue of a bizarre and fortunate turn of events.

[MKlaus]

But what objection could you have with the rules today? It’s just the procedure.

That something is the procedure doesnt mean it cannot be changed. It used to be the procedure that women could not vote, and years prior, that men couldnt either. We have changed that for the better. Now, thats a hyperbole of course, but f1 procedures can change just as well. They are not set in stone.

I think the question "should a driver that has been off the track for over a minute, and fell a lap behind, be able to end second due to being lucky with a naturalization?" Is a fair question, even of such occasions are rare. I actually dont have a strong preference for one of the other; there are arguments for and against the rules as they are now. But i think we should be able to discuss those issues, and hence discuss whether the procedures should change in that respect, without immediately being accussed of just being salty for seeing amother driver being advantaged.

Well spoken ..

the problem is the hindsight. so far, no one was bothered about these rules that existed for so many years now and suddenly today, the rule need to be changed because one driver got lucky. i wonder why no one saw this coming and been proactive to have changed it. funny isn't it.
in 2019, lewis got lucky with a VSC, while he was leading after both ferrari's pitted as they were faster and ahead. the only option lewis had was to go longer and wait for VSC or SC. it happened and paul di rest was furious that, the VSC rules are not good and should be changed! after that, the VSC hasn't been an issue so far. but i bet, next time lewis gets lucky, that discussion will come back to life.
it appears as if, every occasion that lewis gets lucky, the rules around that should be changed. no one knows how he is going to be lucky next time, but i am sure people will show outrage over those rules that come in picture through which he would get lucky. we are so intelligent. last time in bahrain, it was about track limits and the run off tarmac area.
i think there has to be a committee formed to figure every possible way that lewis might get lucky next time and change rules immediately to prevent it. i am sure AWS AI and ML can help.

[Just_a_fan]

Just because it’s happened for years doesn’t make it right. Don’t care who we support. I just feel that sort of benefit is unfair from whichever angle you look at it. If you’re a lap down it’s for a reason.

Anyway, HAM still very very good in wheel to wheel combat. He maximised it after his mistake.

NOR was outstanding. Completely outclassed RIC

The unlapping of cars behind the safety car was brought in because lapped cars got in the way on restarts and ruined races.

Quite surprised this is unknown to Max fans...

[101FlyingDutchman]

Just because it’s happened for years doesn’t make it right. Don’t care who we support. I just feel that sort of benefit is unfair from whichever angle you look at it. If you’re a lap down it’s for a reason.

Anyway, HAM still very very good in wheel to wheel combat. He maximised it after his mistake.

NOR was outstanding. Completely outclassed RIC

The unlapping of cars behind the safety car was brought in because lapped cars got in the way on restarts and ruined races.

Quite surprised this is unknown to Max fans...

What is it with this “fans” nonsense. I do know it’s the rule. But that doesn’t make it right in my eyes. Can’t have an adult discussion here without it resorting to “what driver you support” and even that is totally false. C ya!

[erudite450]

Just because it’s happened for years doesn’t make it right. Don’t care who we support. I just feel that sort of benefit is unfair from whichever angle you look at it. If you’re a lap down it’s for a reason.

Anyway, HAM still very very good in wheel to wheel combat. He maximised it after his mistake.

NOR was outstanding. Completely outclassed RIC

The unlapping of cars behind the safety car was brought in because lapped cars got in the way on restarts and ruined races.

Quite surprised this is unknown to Max fans...

What is it with this “fans” nonsense. I do know it’s the rule. But that doesn’t make it right in my eyes. Can’t have an adult discussion here without it resorting to “what driver you support” and even that is totally false. C ya!

Why haven't you raised this issue before today? Or is there anything different about today?

[langedweil]

The truly sad thing I see every time something goes Lewis's way or something doesn't go Max's way is the thinly veiled racism and xenophobia that rears its ugly head in the forum.

I hope that was a typo and you meant race'ism?

But to your point .. I don't think it is an all-against-Lewis fanfare. At least, not to me ..
It's that goat blahblah that keeps coming back and ridiculing others when they make mistakes by having to overdrive/take risks to beat a car/driver combo that's insanely faster than you are. I guess that feeding is annoying a lot of people that react (I bet lurkers too).

Imho there are a good handful of drivers that are alike in overall quality and would swap places every week in the same car; lewis is absoluty one of them, but there's quite a few more next to him and Ver.
I just love it to be as close as it is, would love McL and Fer a sweet step closer; than it would be perfect.

[MKlaus]

Just because it’s happened for years doesn’t make it right. Don’t care who we support. I just feel that sort of benefit is unfair from whichever angle you look at it. If you’re a lap down it’s for a reason.

Anyway, HAM still very very good in wheel to wheel combat. He maximised it after his mistake.

NOR was outstanding. Completely outclassed RIC

The unlapping of cars behind the safety car was brought in because lapped cars got in the way on restarts and ruined races.

Quite surprised this is unknown to Max fans...

What is it with this “fans” nonsense. I do know it’s the rule. But that doesn’t make it right in my eyes. Can’t have an adult discussion here without it resorting to “what driver you support” and even that is totally false. C ya!

your position is similar to that of otmar's. he also thinks the 2021 rules are not right.