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

[nacho]

The thing in these kind of conditions is that there is the dry line and outside that it's wet. That's why overtaking is hard (+no DRS before) in these races. The DRS was very powerful this time and Russell had a lot of speed, but why would any driver in the front not take the dry line?

[JRindt]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wolf ... s/6332955/
Does Wolff realise this is a race and Russell drives for Williams and not Mercedes? What a dickwad.

Mercedes team principal Wolff said that while there was “never such a situation in life where one is 100% to blame and the other zero”, he questioned why Russell made the move that he did, particularly as a Mercedes young driver.

Just because Russell is a Mercedes young driver doesn’t mean he should not be going anywhere near the Mercs. He is racing for a direct competitor (Williams) for whom a points finish is a mighty achievement. And he should be fully focused on achieving that, instead of worrying whether the car ahead is a Mercedes or not.

In any other sport, these comments would be investigated for conflict of interest.

And besides, Russell’s move was not outrageous in any way. It’s the same move attempted and accomplished by numerous drivers during the race.

[siskue2005]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wolf ... s/6332955/
Does Wolff realise this is a race and Russell drives for Williams and not Mercedes? What a dickwad.

Mercedes team principal Wolff said that while there was “never such a situation in life where one is 100% to blame and the other zero”, he questioned why Russell made the move that he did, particularly as a Mercedes young driver.

Just because Russell is a Mercedes young driver doesn’t mean he should not be going anywhere near the Mercs. He is racing for a direct competitor (Williams) for whom a points finish is a mighty achievement. And he should be fully focused on achieving that, instead of worrying whether the car ahead is a Mercedes or not.

In any other sport, these comments would be investigated for conflict of interest.

And besides, Russell’s move was not outrageous in any way. It’s the same move attempted and accomplished by numerous drivers during the race.

What toto was implying is that as a potential future merc driver, George should have done a low risk move on the works team... its the same with all young drivers, I have seen a lot of redbull young drivers making it really easy for the works team. Same with other academy drivers.
There is no conflict of interest

[epo]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/wolf ... s/6332955/
Does Wolff realise this is a race and Russell drives for Williams and not Mercedes? What a dickwad.

Mercedes team principal Wolff said that while there was “never such a situation in life where one is 100% to blame and the other zero”, he questioned why Russell made the move that he did, particularly as a Mercedes young driver.

Just because Russell is a Mercedes young driver doesn’t mean he should not be going anywhere near the Mercs. He is racing for a direct competitor (Williams) for whom a points finish is a mighty achievement. And he should be fully focused on achieving that, instead of worrying whether the car ahead is a Mercedes or not.

In any other sport, these comments would be investigated for conflict of interest.

And besides, Russell’s move was not outrageous in any way. It’s the same move attempted and accomplished by numerous drivers during the race.

Yes under this wet condition he shouldn't have done it and only for stupid ninth position. He only wants to show he is faster then Bottas which he probably is and he should be in that second Mercedes. But they all know but he is not in that second seat for a reason as they don't want to repeat the Rosberg - Hamilton year, so patience George or find a seat elsewhere.

This comprises the whole Mercedes team in their spending because of the budget cap. I'm fine with it, orange glasses and RB fan

Toto interview with SkyF1, he is totally right https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433 ... -collision

[Datco]

For me Bottas was keeping on the dryest line. George should have known that. Really lost respect for George today with his comments.

[Jolle]

Great sportsmanship from Sainz by the way on the restart. He rightfully could of taken the lead from Verstappen when he went off for a second.

[LM10]

That was a great race.

Max deserved that one. Other than his moment right before restart he drove a clean and consistent race.
Norris was even better. Amazing performance on the Softs at the end. The McLaren really likes high speeds and high speed corners. After Bahrain it yet again was a track which suited them, but that car is not a joke regardless.
The Ferraris had a solid race as well. Leclerc would have most probably been on podium if there had not been the red flag, but good points for the team nonetheless. Sainz had his moments in the race, but he’s a fighter and showed that in the last part of the race.

Fool of the day: George Russell

[Hoffman900]

What Bottas did was dirty, but not illegal. They're both at fault, but more George for going full send.

1) Toto has every right to be pissed. It cost points, caused millions of dollars in damages, Mercedes takes a cap hit, and apparently may effect what upgrades they can do - which has implications considering how close this season might be. If I made a decision to cost my boss millions of dollars and effected the company's ability to be competitive in the marketplace, he would be pissed at me, regardless if I wasn't completely at fault. "It takes two to tango" - Toto . In most workplaces outside of racing, George would be fired for that.

2) George made the argument that Valteri should be up front fighting. He's right, but George picked the wrong time to make that argument. It also gives credence to George seeing red in trying to prove a point in passing Valteri and maybe sending it more than he would otherwise. Again, if I tried to play my boss against his other employees in the press, you bet he's going to be pissed, and might backfire big time. F1 is as much politics as it is racing. You better figure that game out too if you want some staying power.

3) The DRS is part of the problem creating closing speeds that you only see in multi class racing. Without it, you would never see a car have that much more speed than a trailing car. NASCAR does on occasion, but only in multi-car bump drafts. It also causes huge wrecks.

4) Valteri's move was late and forced George into a tight spot. With the DRS open, George was already low on downforce. Combined with the pit out paint, mixed surfaces, and probably George all in on the engine mapping, created a situation ripe for this.It was dirty, it's an old trick, but he left just enough room to make it not his fault with the stewards.

5) George also needs to realize there are no guarantees in racing. He might be a Mercedes F1 driver in the waiting, but he can easily mess that up for himself. Until he has a contract to be in that car, Toto will always have leverage on him. Toto has leverage too in that other drivers certainly want that seat. He has the pick of the litter if he plays his cards right. George has more to lose than Toto, and Toto is much better at playing the political game as well.

[siskue2005]

What Bottas did was dirty, but not illegal. They're both at fault, but more George for going full send.

1) Toto has every right to be pissed. It cost points, caused millions of dollars in damages, Mercedes takes a cap hit, and apparently may effect what upgrades they can do - which has implications considering how close this season might be. If I made a decision to cost my boss millions of dollars and effected the company's ability to be competitive in the marketplace, he would be pissed at me, regardless if I wasn't completely at fault. "It takes two to tango" - Toto . In most workplaces outside of racing, George would be fired for that.

2) George made the argument that Valteri should be up front fighting. He's right, but George picked the wrong time to make that argument. It also gives credence to George seeing red in trying to prove a point in passing Valteri and maybe sending it more than he would otherwise. Again, if I tried to play my boss against his other employees in the press, you bet he's going to be pissed, and might backfire big time. F1 is as much politics as it is racing. You better figure that game out too if you want some staying power.

3) The DRS is part of the problem creating closing speeds that you only see in multi class racing. Without it, you would never see a car have that much more speed than a trailing car. NASCAR does on occasion, but only in multi-car bump drafts. It also causes huge wrecks.

4) Valteri's move was late and forced George into a tight spot. With the DRS open, George was already low on downforce. Combined with the pit out paint, mixed surfaces, and probably George all in on the engine mapping, created a situation ripe for this.It was dirty, it's an old trick, but he left just enough room to make it not his fault with the stewards.

5) George also needs to realize there are no guarantees in racing. He might be a Mercedes F1 driver in the waiting, but he can easily mess that up for himself. Until he has a contract to be in that car, Toto will always have leverage on him. Toto has leverage too in that other drivers certainly want that seat. He has the pick of the litter if he plays his cards right. George has more to lose than Toto, and Toto is much better at playing the political game as well.

Bottas didnot move right, the track has a kink to the left there, which mean that it looked like the right side of the track was disappearing...

i dont know if u could see this video, but Ant Davidson explains it here...

[Hoffman900]

His car moves right relative to the track.

There have been several incidents at Mid Ohio (US) that are the result of a kink like that. If you play it right you hold straight and it has the effect of your car crossing the track. Road America as well, approaching Canada Corner from The Kink.

It actually helps the “dirtiness” of what Valteri does as he doesn’t have to flick the wheel to get the same effect.

“I held my wheel straight, what are you talking about?” Is generally the argument the driver makes.

It can’t be under estimated how much DRS changes the closing speeds, especially since they extended it. You never see closing speeds like that within the same class. Yes, these guys are use to it, but these are the outcomes that are really only possible to this extreme because of it.

[dans79]

5) George also needs to realize there are no guarantees in racing. He might be a Mercedes F1 driver in the waiting, but he can easily mess that up for himself. Until he has a contract to be in that car, Toto will always have leverage on him. Toto has leverage too in that other drivers certainly want that seat. He has the pick of the litter if he plays his cards right. George has more to lose than Toto, and Toto is much better at playing the political game as well.

Yep, I half heartedly mentioned earlier that he could lose his future seat to lando. After doing some digging it's already been rumored that lando could replace Lewis, and that part of the engine deal that got McLaren Mercedes engines again, was that lando would be managed by Mercedes going forward.

[dans79]

Not to mention let's not forget the pep talk Lewis gave Lando via social media after his qualifying mistake.

[RZS10]

Great sportsmanship from Sainz by the way on the restart. He rightfully could of taken the lead from Verstappen when he went off for a second.

He went off for only 0.2s though - realistically there was never a real opportunity to overtake him because he was lucky enough to have his rear wheel slide along the inside curb, which helped with keeping the car "on track", even if just marginally.

Did anyone of those who are complaining about the rolling restart pay any attention to the track conditions?
Some of the places on the grid would have had a massive disadvantage, which could have resulted in another mess, so the rolling start was not only the fairer but also safer option.

The other thing some here kept complaining about was the unlapping after the red flag before the restart - if we were to check the Mugello race thread, would we find a single post by anyone criticizing the rule today criticizing it in that thread from last time it happened?
There should be a large overlap given that y'all claim you would complain irregardless of who you support or who was affected of profited from it ...

I gotta say tho, it's impressive how this thread in general is a bigger mess than the discord race chat which is just endless sh!tposting

[Hoffman900]

Not to mention let's not forget the pep talk Lewis gave Lando via social media after his qualifying mistake.

I’m sure George is frustrated because Lando is getting media attention, rubbing shoulders with the big dogs (on and off the track), etc. George’s full send I think was meant to be a “I’ll show you, Toto” and it blew up in his face big time. Toto’s not dumb, and he’s a former driver (not F1 level, but better than anyone here),
so he knows full well what George was trying to do.

He could have probably played it off if he didn’t slap Valteri in the head and all but said Valteri sucks in the media. You already wrecked the big boss’s car, no need to wade into that side of it, at least publicly.

[Unc1eM0nty]

Norris has absolutely bossed Ricciardo today.

Your not kidding, Riccardo let Norris through on lap 17, by lap 22 he's was 7 seconds ahead !