2021 Italian Grand Prix - Monza, Sep 10 - 12

[Just_a_fan]

Red Bull sandbag with tuned down engine I reckon. Typical Friday stuff.

That's what I suspect too.

[Hoffman900]

Red Bull sandbag with tuned down engine I reckon. Typical Friday stuff.

That's what I suspect too.

The counterpoint to that is that Merc wouldn't be running all in either, why would they?

How many races does Max's current engine have on it?

That said, I suspect the gaps to narrow up, but I think Merc is a safe bet for pole, barring some qualifying calamity.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Verstappen will be very happy to be P2 @ the end of the race in Monza when Mercedes has comfortably the best PU & the best car of most of the season (except Baku, Monaco & the 2 Austrian Races), Mercedes have been roughly equal or better than RB in race pace !

So I guess P2 should be good enough. Mercedes should aim for a 1-2 which will give Hamilton some extra points vs Verstappen !

Mercedes have the best car? Not sure which season you’ve been watching.

I would say they were on par with RB at-least. Mercedes had the better race pace car in atleast 3 of the 4 races & probably tied with RB in Bahrain. And better in Silverstone, Hungary. Tied in France & Netherlands.

RB ahead in Baku, Monaco & the 2 Austrian races !

It is 50-50 at best or Mercedes ahead. They surely have the best car in Monza & Sochi with their PU which is quite ahead of everyone else.

Mercedes clearly didn't have better race pace in the last race. Silverstone Red Bull were quicker, massively so, the same in France. Bahrain they were clearly faster and just get pipped by the Merc strategy. It's a complete fallacy that the Merc is still a dominant car/PU.

Mercedes have only really looked quicker in Portugal & Spain, at most other tracks Red Bull has been faster, if only by a small amount.

[Hoffman900]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car. It's close between RB and Merc, but at the end of the day, the race results are what matter. If you want to discuss the tech behind the why's and what one can do to gain over the other, then that's a fun conversation.

We should have happy that these cars actually finish most races. Plenty of times over the decades in F1's history that the fastest car on the grid was also the least reliable.

[Shrieker]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car. It's close between RB and Merc, but at the end of the day, the race results are what matter. If you want to discuss the tech behind the why's and what one can do to gain over the other, then that's a fun conversation.

We should have happy that these cars actually finish most races. Plenty of times over the decades in F1's history that the fastest car on the grid was also the least reliable.

I mean, they've won 8 races to merc's 4, and both their drivers have won. It's pretty fair to say they've had the better car thus far. With that said, the gap's been very tight at times.

[Hoffman900]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car. It's close between RB and Merc, but at the end of the day, the race results are what matter. If you want to discuss the tech behind the why's and what one can do to gain over the other, then that's a fun conversation.

We should have happy that these cars actually finish most races. Plenty of times over the decades in F1's history that the fastest car on the grid was also the least reliable.

I mean, they've won 8 races to merc's 4, and both their drivers have won. It's pretty fair to say they've had the better car thus far. With that said, the gap's been very tight at times.

It's close because qualifying is close. A few hundredths of a second here and there, I chalk up to the driver nailing that lap. Lewis has been a little sloppier than he has in the past to Max's being dialed in. These cars can't follow each other, so the race gaps are often exaggerated in terms of that, plus strategy, etc. Regardless, fastest car is all good, but if it doesn't finish, then there is no point. Kudos to RedBull / Honda for putting together an engine that stays together and same with Merc who have been pretty bulletproof in the hybrid era.

At the end of the day, the discussion should be is RB/Honda faster, where are they faster, and what can Merc do about it? This is F1Technical...

Most of these comments are just forum filler.

[101FlyingDutchman]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car. It's close between RB and Merc, but at the end of the day, the race results are what matter. If you want to discuss the tech behind the why's and what one can do to gain over the other, then that's a fun conversation.

We should have happy that these cars actually finish most races. Plenty of times over the decades in F1's history that the fastest car on the grid was also the least reliable.

I mean, they've won 8 races to merc's 4, and both their drivers have won. It's pretty fair to say they've had the better car thus far. With that said, the gap's been very tight at times.

It’s totally pointless arguing this ad infinitum. It’s a close season. Some races the Merc was clearly ahead on race pace and some it’s been RB. Statistics can be skewed depending on which coloured spectacles you want to look through. But I can say without a doubt, it’s the closest season we’ve had for a very long time

[dans79]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car.

It's the influx of hero warship types to the forum!

[El Scorchio]

I think RBR are setting Verstappen up 100% for race pace over single lap pace here. I think he'll take an engine and Perez won't.

[i70q7m7ghw]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car. It's close between RB and Merc, but at the end of the day, the race results are what matter. If you want to discuss the tech behind the why's and what one can do to gain over the other, then that's a fun conversation.

We should have happy that these cars actually finish most races. Plenty of times over the decades in F1's history that the fastest car on the grid was also the least reliable.

For what it's worth, I reported the initial off topic posts and the reports were closed without the posts being removed, so I saw that as approval for the conversation to continue.

[NathanOlder]

I think RBR are setting Verstappen up 100% for race pace over single lap pace here. I think he'll take an engine and Perez won't.

How did he look in the speed traps ? Race pace means nothing if you have no top speed at Monza. If he can't overtake, he will be screwed.

[Hoffman900]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car.

It's the influx of hero warship types to the forum!

I don't get it. These cars are produced by international corporations and driven by millionaire wonderboys, most of whom live in Monaco.

It's fun, it's entertaining, I like certain personalities more than others, I like the tech, but their accomplishments aren't my own. People are more diehard about this than I am about myself scoring a podium in a local bicycle criterium.

[101FlyingDutchman]

I think RBR are setting Verstappen up 100% for race pace over single lap pace here. I think he'll take an engine and Perez won't.

How did he look in the speed traps ? Race pace means nothing if you have no top speed at Monza. If he can't overtake, he will be screwed.

He was on average 6-8kph down on PER during most of FP1. Hard to read into that too much

[El Scorchio]

I don't understand these endless circular arguments about who has the fastest car. It's close between RB and Merc, but at the end of the day, the race results are what matter. If you want to discuss the tech behind the why's and what one can do to gain over the other, then that's a fun conversation.

We should have happy that these cars actually finish most races. Plenty of times over the decades in F1's history that the fastest car on the grid was also the least reliable.

For what it's worth, I reported the initial off topic posts and the reports were closed without the posts being removed, so I saw that as approval for the conversation to continue.

Those are purely people looking to start an argument by posting provocative stuff they know simply isn't true. Best to just ignore.

[Hoffman900]

Well, we'll know here in about a hour.

RedBull does have the advantage of Sergio with the new PU being able to tow Max with the older PU.