Yeah they look super sleek. Thought the Haas looked pretty sexy too. Shame RBR had a fake launch to hide their tech, defeats the purpose of a car launch imho. But excited to see what they have under wraps.
Hopefully the rule changes will allow closer following and overtakes as planned, they've tried to change the rules before to do this and it hasn't always worked out.
I'm a little concerned the middle of the field might all separating again. Last year it was quite close in the middle with lots of little rivalries: Ferrari v Mclaren, Alpine v Alphatauri etc. and on different tracks these teams were all in the mix. Typically after a rule change there's a wider distance between them all which slowly lessens over a few years. Hopefully not this time.
Also concerned with the FIA not doing a proper investigation into Abu Dhabi and glossing over all the BS.
But probably a bit bias as I like the team and drivers. They all good, certainly better than the last few years. Just hoping there might be 3 or 4 teams fighting for race wins to really mix things up.
@themightyant Yeah Red Bull's was pretty much just a Livery reveal but a pretty cool one at that.
@BearsEatBeets Yes! That's the winner so far for me as well. My favourite two drivers too! Hopefully the car can give Danny & Lando a better platform to display their undoubtable skill this year and we can get a few more shoeys on the podium Especially if the cars can follow closely then Daniel, with his trademarked late breaking overtakes, could be a joy to watch.
RBR looked sexy AF but bit of a damp squib as it's not their actual car, wonder if Merc will pull a similar stunt.
It's weird why they are doing that when it's a little over a week until first testing. Alpha Tauri just unveiled another digital render of their car instead of the actual car. Mercedes is scheduled even closer so I would hope there would be less need to hide actual designs.
Having had a quick look it's strange that Alfa Romeo aren't doing a reveal until after first testing! Unless maybe they are going to run a blank car and hold off the livery which I suppose these launches seem to have become the main focus about.
@BearsEatBeets@themightyant They've been honing this McLaren livery since they reintroduced the papaya and this has to be the best iteration of it so far. I think it's the shape of the rear wing and the rear of the bodywork / suspension but this years cars also have a racier look to them. I'm still not a great fan of these massive front wings but at least they've beefed them up a bit so that they might withstand a bit more impact and hopefully lead to less punctures.
Really looking forward to seeing these things on track and finding out if they allow for closer racing and how close the field all are relative to each other.
@render@BearsEatBeets Yep! all the cars look racier this year. More curves, less boxy, contoured front and rear wings help with that too.
Interesting to see that there are already different approaches e.g. McClaren going pull-rod suspension at the front, push-rod at the back. As their chief designer said: "if we're the only one that's done it we've either got it really really right, or..."
There's also the completely different shape of the sidepods compared to some other cars. Good video on all this technical stuff linked below.
My concern with all the cars being so different is that there will be a larger gap between them all. This is what has often happened in the past with rule changes until they all start to see what each other has done, what works best and become more similar in future years. Hopefully not. The upside is there is a chance of a surprise for someone like McClaren to suddenly be #1 for a bit.
Also shame FIA is continuing to facepalm by still not releasing anything on Abu Dhabi. Yesterday was meant to be the day the presented to teams... but they delayed again. It shouldn't take this long, it's a joke frankly.
Truly awful governance.
There's going to be a cloud over F1 until they sort this, the sooner they come to a decision one way or another the sooner people can move on, or vent or whatever they are going to do and it will have time to die down. It should have been done before Christmas.
Personally i'm still excited for next season and hopefully seeing McClaren come to the fore, but pretty disillusioned by the sport too right now.
@themightyant There’s a strong vibe of the FIA waiting to make their final announcement once the season starts and hoping people aren’t thinking about it anymore by then.
@Thrillho It's too big. It will leak as soon as they speak to teams. Which is what we were expecting yesterday. 10,000+ people work in and around F1 far too many lips to keep such a big thing quiet.
Honestly, if my friends or Twitter feed is anything to go by, it's not going anywhere, and rightly so imo. I'm a Daniel Ricciardo & McClaren fan, but before that primarily a fan of the sport in general and I was absolutely disgusted by that ending. You can see my thoughts in post #89 above which, while a little vitriolic in the heat of the moment, I still stand by.
If I still feel passionately about it 2 months later and don't even support one side or another you can see why it's still boiling blood of others with more skin in the game. Needs to be resolved asap. Some people are going to be unhappy whatever the findings, but we need to know where we stand.
I just hope they don't fudge it again, that would be disastrous for the sport.
@themightyant Yeah it's going to be really interesting to see if that works out for McLaren and they can obviously see it themselves that it's a bit of a 50/50 which way it goes.
I want to see the cars all closer together, which unfortunately I don't think we are going to get for a few years now until everyone has got to grips with these regs. I'm happy to be wrong though as it would make for some great races. I would also love to see one team lower down the order pull a Brawn and come up with something that puts them at the front and other teams have to copy. They said that was less likely to happen now that they've got a technical team within F1/FIA that tries to find loopholes in the regs but you never know, this move by on the suspension front might just be it.
@Thrillho I'd agree, I really believe they don't think this is as bigger an issue as everyone else does. It's about the integrity of the sport and if you can't trust those people running it then who can you trust?!
@render Yes a Brawn double diffuser type advance could make for a really surprising season. Though as you said they cut this off as much as possible now, either through their own technical team or by quickly banning those innovations like Mercedes DAS.
I always wondered whether they would have been so quick with the banhammer had it been AlphaTauri, McLaren or Williams suddenly competing with an innovative solution.
"It's about the integrity of the sport and if you can't trust those people running it then who can you trust?!" That is precisely my issue. I've watched F1 for over 30 years, we know exactly how the safety car procedure works, and to see the rules tossed out and made up on the fly was more than disheartening, and for that to decide a world title was disgraceful.
However what has concerned me even more is the FIA's handling of it since. Everybody knows procedure wasn't followed, even their initial statement rebuffing Mercedes initial appeal said as much, but they dug themselves into a corner by not correcting what was clearly a mistake when they had the chance, as hard as that would have been.
Well Masi is out. An interesting decision to replace him with 2 people sharing the role, taking turns for different races. Although bringing in Charlie Whiting's old deputy is probably a good move. It's good to see they are removing the ability for the Teams to talk to the Racing Director and they will only be able to communicate with lower assistants. I think Horner and Toto's badgering of Masi in that final race (and some earlier ones) certainly played into the final mess. Time will tell if it leads to more consistent refereeing of the races.
I think it will be enough for Hamilton to finally commit to racing this season at the Merc reveal tomorrow. The Ferrari revealed today is going with some bold aero choices, it looks pretty cool.
@themightyant I'm subscribed to The Race on YouTube too. They have some good videos.
@BearsEatBeets yes his position was untenable at this point. Not just for Abu Dhabi but so many questionable calls over the year. Though I feel for Masi, yes he made a mistake in the heat of the moment but haven’t we all? The trouble was really how the FIA handled it afterwards. They had a chance to correct the error, which I think would have happened at any other race, but instead doubled down and then blamed teams, media and fans for “misunderstanding”. Absolute BS. Now he’s their fall guy, even if he had to go anyway.
Glad to hear the position is getting support and less lobbying, all good calls, but we really need to hear what they are doing to stop the same sort of error happening again. And, though I don’t think it will happen, an apology.
The Race is good as is WTF1 for bants and Driver61 for technical and a racers view
@themightyant@Fragile@BearsEatBeets Well at least they finally made some form of changes but only time will tell if they are the right ones. Having the position shared could go either way as it might also lead to greater inconsistencies but I’m hopeful. It’s totally right to stop the teams from having radio contact and I can’t imagine anyone not supporting that.
@Fragile I think anyone that knows anything about F1, and doesn't' hold a large bias by being a Max/RB/anti-lewis fan knows the 2021 championship has a huge question mark over it. Which is a shame for Max really. He was mostly outstanding last season and over the course of the season could have been a worthy champion... but not like that. He simply didn't win it fair and square, but that's not his fault. A shame for everyone really. Max, Lewis, other drivers, teams, fans etc.
I think yesterdays announcements were a good FIRST step but there still needs to be several larger ones especially:
1) Transparency. Release the FULL report. No Ferrari-dodgy-engine cover ups again. Trust needs to return, starting with that.
2) Clarity and consistency of rules - e.g.
Safety Car procedure.
Race Director limitations. No get out of jail free "they can do what they like" when rules already exist.
When is a divebomb and forcing opponents off the track allowed/not allowed? They changed this on a race by race basis last year.
Clarity & consistency is key so everyone knows where they stand. Drivers, teams and fans.
3) An apology to teams, media and fans from the FIA for "misunderstanding" their own rules and then worse blaming us for it.
First two a must, last one unlikely but would go a long way to repairing their tarnished image.
@Fragile@BearsEatBeets@render Looking forward the more I see of the new cars the more i'm getting worried that all the pack will be separated again this year.
McClaren, Aston Martin, Ferrari all have wildly different set ups this year and it seems unlikely to me they will all perform similarly. Some will have got it 'right' others won't. While there's a chance for an unexpected team to rise towards the top, I am concerned that the constructors battle may not be as good/exciting as last year where at least 2 teams were competing at every tier. Hoping my armchair analysis is wrong.
@themightyant You've hit the nail on the head with so many of your points there. From the clarification of rules point of view the last few years have just been all over the shop. In fact with regards to overtaking specifically it felt like the rule card said does driver == Max Verstappen, if yes then no penalty as it's "hard racing" else penalty awarded.
Also the Ferrari engine debacle just felt like it was the best example of one team having quite a bit of sway over the FIA but also the FIA not wanting to admit their own failures with regards to policing the championship and stepping up and dishing out punishments.
Like everything else where politics are concerned there's always the chance that those people in power will influence things so that it works in their favour and that's definitely what happens at lot at the FIA and with F1.
With regards to the cars though, I can only imagine that these gaps are going to be big to start with and I think with the budget cap in place it's really going to be tough for a team that's behind to catch up. I'm hoping that enough teams will have got it right so that we've at least got some good racing to look forward to and that with these regs they are generally a step in the right direction that even if it doesn't work out this year subsequent years might be better.
@Fragile I mostly agree. But I think there's the difference between "removing his opposition the opportunity of a good exit" and "giving them no room/forcing them off the track". This season, for me at least, Max has been over that line a few too many times. It's not acceptable to just keep your car within the lines if you also force your opponent off track. Additionally too often it's been up to the other driver to take evasive action or there will be a crash. That isn't "hard racing", which i'm all for, that is OTT and dangerous.
Talking of which I'm convinced that that's the only thing Lewis could have done to win the title on that last lap considering the mismatch of tyres deg. Let Max hit him rather that taking evasive action, as he did, and pray to the racing gods that he comes out of it better OR the race director/stewards/FIA judge in his favour, which they might have done as Max had been warned about the divebomb several times. Certainly would have given himself better odds. But Lewis' instincts kicked in and he steered away to avoid the crash. In hindsight likely the wrong call.
@render I think Max is already singled out a bit, but right so imo, he puts himself in those situations far more than other drivers due to his aggressive attacking style so of course there are going to be more penalties heading his way than others who drive more defensively and take lower percentage risks. That said I disagreed with some of the penalties he got and other that he didn't. That brake test was highly dangerous and deserved a larger penalty for example but FIA didn't want to upset the 2 drivers level on points going into the final race - Entertainment over sporting integrity again. Regardless all the drivers and FANS need to know where they stand. What is allowed, and what isn't? and not have this inconsistent flip-flopping of the rules we had last year.
Not 100% convinced by the VAR suggestion. Seems there isn't much info about how it will work. I Need more info to have a fair take tbh. But my initial thought is how is this different to the Race Director and stewards who already have the cameras and angles up in race control. We already have two rounds of judging here, do we need a third?
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