Posted January 5 (edited) Although the 2020 season finished less than a month ago it’s time to get ready for 2021. Let’s take a look at what’s planned for this year: Spoiler 12th-14th March - Bahrain International Circuit Spoiler Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team (2nd March) - [44] Lewis Hamilton - [77] Valtteri Bottas Red Bull Racing (Launch TBC) - [11] Sergio Perez - [33] Max Verstappen McLaren F1 Team (15th February) - [3] Daniel Ricciardo - [4] Lando Norris Aston Martin F1 Team (TBC) - [5] Sebastien Vettel - [18] Lance Stroll Alpine F1 Team (Launch TBC) - [14] Fernando Alonso - [31] Esteban Ocon Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow (10th March) - [16] Charles Leclerc - [55] Carlos Sainz Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda (19th February) - [10] Pierre Gasly - [22] Yuki Tsunoda Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen (Launch: February 22nd) - [7] Kimi Räikkönen - [99] Antonio Giovinazzi Haas F1 Team (Launch TBC) - [9] Nikita Mazepan - [47] Mick Schumacher Williams Racing (5th March) - [6] Nicholas Latifi - [63] George Russell Spoiler 21 March – Australia (Melbourne) 28 March – Bahrain (Sakhir) 11 April – China (Shanghai) 25 April – TBC (TBC) 9 May – Spain (Barcelona) 23 May – Monaco (Monaco) 6 June – Azerbaijan (Baku) 13 June – Canada (Montreal) 27 June – France (Le Castellet) 4 July – Austria (Spielberg) 18 July – United Kingdom (Silverstone) 1 August – Hungary (Budapest) 29 August – Belgium (Spa) 5 September – Netherlands (Zandvoort) 12 September – Italy (Monza) 26 September – Russia (Sochi) 3 October – Singapore (Singapore) 10 October – Japan (Suzuka) 24 October – USA (Austin) 31 October – Mexico (Mexico City) 14 November – Brazil (Sao Paulo) 28 November – Saudi Arabia (Jeddah) 5 December – Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi) Will keep the above updated as more is available. I really enjoyed 2020 and hope this season will be another close midfield battle. It would be great if Mercedes can be reigned in a little but given the minimal rule changes this year I think that’s very unlikely. Things I’m looking forward to: Hamilton becoming the (statistically) outright greatest of all time. I’m not a fan but glad he’s the one doing it. The return of Alonso, my all time favourite driver. With the progress of Renault/Alpine I can see him winning a race this year. McLaren continuing their good form and Ricciardo maybe getting back on the top of the podium. More random things happening due to the ongoing pandemic situation. Of course with the avoidance of any harm to people. Schumacher in F1 and hopefully doing well. Mazepan hopefully being gone soon. More great stuff from Russell and the deserved promotion to Mercedes for 2022. I enjoyed doing the predictions for 2020 and want to continue something. Not sure whether we do something similar to last year of just forum predictions or find a fantasy league to take part in? Any suggestions on that one? What are you all looking forward to this year? Edited February 17 by Will 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 11 Looks like some interesting moves on the calendar are being talked about: Australia being postponed Portugal replacing China Imola replacing Vietnam It will be a big shame if we don’t get an Australian GP again, if they don’t do it on the proposed slot I really doubt they will do it at all. The other two replacements I think I prefer to the original plans. Given things seem like they’re going to get worse before they get better I can totally see another jumbled up race calendar, at least in the first half of the year. I almost wish F1 could be like this every year. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 5 I set up a N-Europe Fantasy League for us. 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 17 (edited) A bit of old news but we have the first car for 2021: Nothing particularly unexpected but continues to look great IMO. Spoiler Edited February 17 by Will 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 23 On 2/5/2021 at 12:35 AM, Will said: I set up a N-Europe Fantasy League for us. Cool, I think that'll be more fun than predictions as forgetting to play a round won't be such a big deal. Would be interesting to see how this worked previous seasons, is picking Hamilton in your team pretty much essential to be competitive? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 24 This page seems to have some interesting info on the fantasy scoring. Basically I think you have to choose Hamilton to stand a chance of winning, and then your other drivers need to average better than their regular competitors for where you will specifically finish. Maybe if you average out the mid-field guys you could stand a chance of winning but I think more likely to yield a good result is having Hamilton in there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 13 Mercedes have been struggling so far in testing. It'll make for an interesting season if they aren't miles ahead of everyone else. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 13 (edited) 5 hours ago, Mandalore said: Mercedes have been struggling so far in testing. It'll make for an interesting season if they aren't miles ahead of everyone else. Never look too much into it until race weekends, it is testing after all. But let’s hope it does close the gap. In other sad news. Murray Walker has passed away. Quote Edited March 13 by BowserBasher 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 13 1 hour ago, BowserBasher said: In other sad news. Murray Walker has passed away. I am so sad, he made my early years of watching F1 so enjoyable with his love and enthusiasm for the sport. The commentators of today don't hold a candle to him. May he rest in peace with thoughts and prayers going to his family and friends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 25 It all officially begins tomorrow with the first practice session. Looking forward to seeing the cars back on track. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 27 (edited) Decided to follow the sports again given that there's a new German driver involved Have no clue what to look for, what constitutes good driving, which team has the best cars, etc but I enjoyed the qualifying. Looking forward to the race tomorrow. A shame to see both German drivers so far behind. It was expected for Mick, but Vettel could've done better (I think? ). He was quite unlucky, though. Edited March 27 by drahkon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 27 So far a pretty exciting start to the season. I took a gamble not putting Hamilton in my Fantasy team, maybe it'll pay off! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 28 It's strange really, considering Mercedes stopped developing the 2020 car earlier than any other team, yet here are Red Bull who developed the 2020 car almost the whole season and they are ahead (Well Max Verstappen is at least) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 28 I don't mind if mercedes win again this year, as long as red bull are able to keep a realistic prospect of mercedes losing up to the last race or two. Read an article about rake of cars and how aston martin and mercedes are most heavily affected, shifting design philosophy completely would be a big gamble, but it could be that mercedes will need to consider it for 2022. Could be time for Hamilton to start looking at his options away from mercedes, he is after all only under a 1 year extension... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 28 11 hours ago, Emerald Emblem said: It's strange really, considering Mercedes stopped developing the 2020 car earlier than any other team, yet here are Red Bull who developed the 2020 car almost the whole season and they are ahead (Well Max Verstappen is at least) With the extremely limited development for 2021 those that have been most hit by the regulation changes didn’t really have much room to get their car back to previous performance. 4 hours ago, Pestneb said: I don't mind if mercedes win again this year, as long as red bull are able to keep a realistic prospect of mercedes losing up to the last race or two. Read an article about rake of cars and how aston martin and mercedes are most heavily affected, shifting design philosophy completely would be a big gamble, but it could be that mercedes will need to consider it for 2022. Could be time for Hamilton to start looking at his options away from mercedes, he is after all only under a 1 year extension... Definitely don’t mind another Mercedes year, much preferable to having Max win it. I would imagine with the huge rule changes for next year every car will be a complete change in design philosophy. If I was Hamilton I’d put my faith in Mercedes getting it right over any of the other teams. The problem is that with these huge changes you usually get one team figure something out that no one else does and running away with it. We could end up with a super close season this year followed by dominance by one team next year. Still, will be interesting to see the new cars at least. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 28 Sooooo, can anyone explain to me why Verstappen had to let Hamilton pass at the end? The German commentators kept talking about how it's allowed to leave the tracklimit in this race, but then didn't go into why Verstappen apparently wasn't allowed to during that battle? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 28 17 minutes ago, drahkon said: Sooooo, can anyone explain to me why Verstappen had to let Hamilton pass at the end? The German commentators kept talking about how it's allowed to leave the tracklimit in this race, but then didn't go into why Verstappen apparently wasn't allowed to during that battle? So Lewis was being let off for exceeding track limits at that corner for the first half of the race, and he admitted he was doing it. Red Bull told Verstappen to push it at that corner too, but I believe they may have made a complaint to race control about it too. Then Mercedes told Lewis that it wasn't allowed anymore - orders from race control. Seeing some talk that Max wasn't let off for it when passing Lewis, but no matter what was or wasn't being allowed in terms of track limits for that corner in this race, you're never allowed to complete an overtake off track, so I think it's completely fair that Max has to give back up the place. Shame it came down to that, would've loved to see a bit more tussling between them in the last couple of laps, but was pretty decent viewing regardless. They really do need to get consistent with track limits though. It changes race to race (and seemingly now even within a race!) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 28 Bit poor of race control to tell the drivers that driving one way would be allowed and then change their mind in the middle of the race. That effectively had a major impact on the final result because of the specific corner where Max finally got to overtake Lewis. Lewis got rather lucky there in the end. Great race overall, feel sorry for Checo having his car fail on the formation lap in his Red Bull debut but he did tremendously well to get it back into the points. Hopefully he can qualify better in future races. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 29 11 hours ago, Mr-Paul said: They really do need to get consistent with track limits though. It changes race to race (and seemingly now even within a race!) Yeah they really do. The general rules have always been that you need one part of a tyre at least on one of the track limit white lines but I don’t get why in recent years we’ve slipped more and more into this custom rules per corner dependent on how people feel that weekend. It’s always seemed pretty simple to me that that should remain the rule and they have set punishments within it - leave the track during a qualifying lap and the time is deleted, leave it during the race and if you gain an advantage there is a set time penalty. Surprised by happy Hamilton managed to get the win. Max really should have had this one in the bag but he still seems to have a lot to learn about coping under pressure and making things work for him. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 29 That race was so good. I'm still thinking about it! It's a real shame Imola is three weeks away. With overtaking so hard there, I really feel like Red Bull need to qualify 1-2 and just control the race from there. The cars seemed closely matched in Bahrain but Max was consistently faster in S2; I imagine they'll maintain a small advantage in those kinds of corners throughout the early races. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 18 Vettel can't catch a break...Maybe if he was faster? 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
