2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, June 04 - 06

[Mogster]

Wow 3 places grid drop for lando. Stewards are having a laugh aren’t they. They are consistently inconsistent. I’m impressed

Red flag incidents always get the hammer. FWIW watching it again it does look like he could have entered the pits, but he faffed around talking on the radio, then he decided to carry on with the lap but increased speed.. It was unfortunate timing like the Hamilton incident at Monza last year, but it was always a penalty, the team knew it by their radio calls.

[codetower]

Yeah, I was following those seasons very closely, and I remember a lot of moaning even back then every time Ferrari looked marginally quicker. It was boring then and it’s boring now.

There are some fans who just don’t know how to handle not winning every race. I do not consider them to be fans of the sport, they are just fans of one specific driver. Hopefully, when their favourite driver retires, they leave with him.

Happens in every sport. N.E patriots in the NFL, Real Madrid, any team Lebron James is playing for… You get the bandwagon fans who make us long time fans look bad.

With that being said, I’m excited about the upcoming race, season and following seasons. I think Charles, Max, and Lewis are the top 3 drivers on the grid. Russel and Norris look promising also. I think we’re going to dee some good battles over the next couple of seasons.

[pantherxxx]

Realistically speaking can Ferrari win this race? Are their long term stints similar to their short term pace?

[214270]

Has anyone ever taken a safety car restart at this track all the way down by the finish line minimising the straight?

This has to be one of the best tracks on the calendar to do this.

[Morteza]

[JPower]

Realistically speaking can Ferrari win this race? Are their long term stints similar to their short term pace?

It's possible. Both Leclerc and Lewis are running low wings though. Will be interesting to see if they can keep their tires alive. Red Bulls long runs looked great.

[Mchamilton]

Has anyone ever taken a safety car restart at this track all the way down by the finish line minimising the straight?

This has to be one of the best tracks on the calendar to do this.

Not in F1 that I can remember, they did it in F2 earlier though. No doubt they will in F1 this year as its been a bit of a theme on any track with a remotely long straight

[max_speed]

if i were bottas , will shame toto in public. mercedes has made a joke of him.without his tow lewis will be where bottas is. i hope ves will overtake him . i will not mind if they both crash as long as they both retire from race.

How?

If you’re the only team utilising a 2-lap warmup, how do you position the lead car to get a tow?

here is an explaination by our own bluffmaster Sir Toto : http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/7763 ... by_Bottas/

i hope bottas comes out and calls his bluff. in monaco he blamed bottas for wheel gun failure. he was off by 2-3 cm only. amazing man he is

[Tizz]

Is anyone watching F2?

I worry about tomorrow at this rate. So many crashes today and then loads more here.

Two SCs and one VSC in just 8 laps

24h Nürburgring is also on right now

The VSC crashed too ?

[Tizz]

I think many people white wash 2014-2020 as complete Mercedes dominance and forget what actually happened in 2017,2018 and 2019

I do not think people have forgotten. We remember that in 2019 Mercedes won 71% of the races.
Their worst performance in the hybrid era is 52% of the races in a season. These are not competitive season.

They asked for competition now they have it, so they must compete.

The point is, they were competitive seasons, statistics without any form of context are useless.

No, there were som competitive races. I think that at no point the DWC or CWC was at risk for Mercedes

[zibby43]

Shout out to our "Bottas is not a wingman" - crew.

Exciting grid for tomorrow! It will be heated at the front. But Mercedes not only sacrificed Bottas' qualy but also limited their strategic options for the race with Bottas starting in P10 now.

Good move for keeping Hamilton in the championship. And Bottas is used to it anyways.

Mercedes alternate their drivers going first on track. Next race, Hamilton will be ahead and give Bottas the tow opportunity on the straights of Paul Ricard.

Strange you're not moaning about Perez being used to give Max a tow too...

Yeah sure, man. And conveniently it was Hamilton who got the benefit first and the water boy delivering the water first.

I'm not moaning either. I admire teams doing these kinds of litte tricks to get the last drop of performance out. This is what F1 should be all about. Ferrari used to do it in the past and I think Red Bull were trying it a few times also.

The other teams were not brave enough. Mercedes ahead with their game again. Leclerc... Maybe a great strategy by the team to get him capitalize on the Mercs slip stream. But knowing Ferrari it could have also been blind luck. Anyways, great lap from Leclerc. Hope he can spice things up at the front tomorrow.

Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen. It's time!

It’s true. Merc alternate who gets the tow. It’s been known for a few years now. And it was confirmed by the team today.

Easy way to verify is to see who goes out first in Q3 at Ricard.

[siskue2005]

Mercedes alternate their drivers going first on track. Next race, Hamilton will be ahead and give Bottas the tow opportunity on the straights of Paul Ricard.

Strange you're not moaning about Perez being used to give Max a tow too...

Yeah sure, man. And conveniently it was Hamilton who got the benefit first and the water boy delivering the water first.

I'm not moaning either. I admire teams doing these kinds of litte tricks to get the last drop of performance out. This is what F1 should be all about. Ferrari used to do it in the past and I think Red Bull were trying it a few times also.

The other teams were not brave enough. Mercedes ahead with their game again. Leclerc... Maybe a great strategy by the team to get him capitalize on the Mercs slip stream. But knowing Ferrari it could have also been blind luck. Anyways, great lap from Leclerc. Hope he can spice things up at the front tomorrow.

Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen. It's time!

It’s true. Merc alternate who gets the tow. It’s been known for a few years now. And it was confirmed by the team today.

Easy way to verify is to see who goes out first in Q3 at Ricard.

It's not that they alternate who goes out first, but they alternate "who gets the choice to". Come France bottas can decide if he wants to go first or second. It's been the same since 2012, 2013.

At Monaco bottas decided to go first, as its not good to be the last person their due to yellow and red flags.

[F1NAC]

Has anyone ever taken a safety car restart at this track all the way down by the finish line minimising the straight?

This has to be one of the best tracks on the calendar to do this.

You can go all the way down the SC line, after that you can overtake and that is way before finish line

[siskue2005]

Has anyone ever taken a safety car restart at this track all the way down by the finish line minimising the straight?

This has to be one of the best tracks on the calendar to do this.

You can go all the way down the SC line, after that you can overtake and that is way before finish line

That rule has been changed since 2019, now u can only overtake after finish line

[PlatinumZealot]

https://twitter.com/SomersF1/status/140 ... 87650?s=19

Hamilton again chooses a slippery car over Bottas. He definitely seems to have a better control of preventing too much tyre slipping. It should yield dividends on passing on the straights.