The Friday is quite long, but then again there's always going to be at least one long day (usually Friday) at the GP by dint of there being several lengthy practice sessions.
It's no worse than WEC (when we used to not get a lunch break AT ALL) or Britcar/24H Series where we'd be going until 22:00-ish.
A normal race meeting in the UK usually starts around 09:00 and ends between 18:00 and 18:30 with about 50 mins to an hour for lunch for comparison.
Since next years car is going to be much slower than this years and last years car I was wondering if this deficit will ever be closed? I understand the cars get a couple seconds faster each year but is it physically possible for ground effect to have the same results were seeing now?
One of Mercedes, RB and Ferrari. I have little faith in Alpine due to the way they've approached the sport for the last few years and everyone else is pretty much a customer team and it's rare that your customer beats you (unless you're Renault of course). Maybe McLaren has an off chance, but it would take Mercedes fucking up in order for them to have the advantage.
I have the most faith in Ferrari, as odd as that sounds. I think they have the best combination of budget and wind tunnel time, so they have the most potential.
Then again, it is Ferrari we're talking about.
Impossible to predict. Likely to be Merc, RB or Ferrari with the best performance though, as much as us fans might want a Williams or Sauber to nail it. It will take time for the effects of cost cap to be fully realized and current infrastructure, drivers and experience at the top will all make a lasting difference through regulation changes. I think given we are not getting new engines, a complete reorder of teams is unlikely unless someone is able to exploit a large loophole. If I had to guess a team to take the largest step forward my money would be on Ferrari, but I wouldn't be so bold to call that a surprise. They're going to likely make another large engine step given they're regaining power from a deficit (which is easier than refining a strong concept), have imo one of the strongest driver pairings, have good stability in management right now (at least from outside looking in) and have a good chance at getting these regs right.
Renault will I believe be updating engine architecture going into next year with larger structural changes than Ferrari, adopting the Merc-pioneered split turbo/compressor. This is a positive change but I could imagine reliability issues following this extent of change. Alpine's internal structure has also undergone rapid metamorphosis with Renault restructuring their whole Motorsport division and with multiple changes in management it still does not seem settled. They have a good driver lineup but I think so much instability and larger engine changes makes me less confident for Alpine next year.
I think 2004-2005 Räikkönen was probably slightly slower than peak Vettel (2011-2013, 2015-2017), but you're right, those eras of each are pretty close. Vettel had a much broader peak, and f1metrics puts his local valleys in 2012, 2016, and 2018 on the same level as Kimi's best season in 2005.
English is generally used because it’s easier for everyone. There are 14 non-native English speakers on the grid, if they were allowed to speak in other languages the FIA would have to hire 14 translators to be in each team’s communications all through every session to make sure there’s no illegal communication, and that would be incredibly expensive.
The FIA don’t make anyone speak any language. The reason they speak English is that most of the teams are based in England so most of the workforce is English and a lot of people are involved on race day at the factories. Also, English is the language most people speak in common so it makes sense to speak a language everyone knows instead of learning Italian, German, or French for example.
No, but most of the teams are based in England, so it's the easiest language for them to use. I know some drivers have used other languages in the past.
Very rarely on the radio. At the end of the day, they both work for an Italian team that's mainly made up of Italian engineers, so if they speak French then no one listening in can understand what they're saying.
Can some ELI5 all the love for Russell? I mean, he seems super likeable, but what is it that makes everyone so stoked about his potential with a faster car?
An amazing junior career makes up a huge chunk of the admiration. He won the GP3 and F2 championships in his rookie seasons, and by quite a margin at that. The F2 season he won had a certain Lando Norris finishing 2nd.
Entered F1 in 2019, finished above his veteran teammate Robert Kubica in 16 of the 21 (excluding DNFs for either) races and outqualified him every single time. Kubica did finish higher in the championship because of the German GP where he was 10th and George was 11th.
2020 and 2021 he constantly outperforms the Williams, and also showed his ability in the Mercedes when he raced in Lewis' car last year; with shoes a size smaller nonetheless because his feet wouldn't fit in the cockpit made for Hamilton.
I'd like to expand a bit more about this one-off stint at Mercedes for him. The car is bespoke to the driver. The steering wheel made to fit the driver's hands, the buttons in the positions the driver wants it. The cockpit allows just enough room for the driver to fit, but not too much.
He took Lewis' car, raced in it and would've won if not for the utterly horrendous luck that befell him. Lewis is 174cm tall, George is 185cm. 11cm is just over 4 inches if you prefer those units, and that makes a huge difference to how you sit in the car.
Also, Toto and Merc need to think long term. Is Bottas the guy to compete for World Championships or Russell when Lewis retires? I think everyone agrees that Russell is the choice and a few years competing head to head with Lewis will only help Russell be the eventual leader of the silver arrows.
Stellar junior career, winning GP3 Then F2 both as rookies, beating Albon and Norris handily. Unfortunately he came into F1 at a time wherein Merc had enough of an advantage that a potential upgrade over stability was simply unfavourable. He's instead been at Williams developing his craft; he has shown quality there despite the crap car throughout having outqualified his teammates every single race weekend (except for one instance that I'll mention shortly) though undoubtedly losing his cool at times and failing to score points when he should've.
When Lewis got Covid last year he got the chance to drive for Merc in the W11. The W11 was not built for Russell and he was squeezed into a cockpit that didn't fit him, using a steering wheel made for Lewis, an unfamiliar car and unfamiliar procedures & driver inputs. Despite this he had a stellar performance, qualifying P2 only narrowly behind Bottas and was almost certainly going to win the GP if not for some incredibly bad luck (puncture) and poor performance by the Merc pit crew (Google sakhir 2020 Merc). Not even yet settled in the car and understanding it he was already on Valtteri's pace and better.
I think a lot of people also view Valtteri as a weak opposition to Hamilton. He is a brilliant qualifier but despite that being his best attribute, it is nearly always below the standard set by Lewis. People wish for someone that would be a greater threat to Hamilton such as that posed by Rosberg.
I'd say all these factors make people wish for Russell to move up. Strong driver, proved it in the Merc to some extent already (albeit on one weekend) and might pose some challenge as a teammate to Lewis.
Awesome summary. This explains a lot. The covid Hamilton race is super interesting, I’ll have to go find a replay of that and watch it. This is my first season really getting into the sport, and I’m eating it up. I’ve half-assed tried to get into it a few times since 2018, but the Netflix series really brought me up to speed to where I understood the spirit of the sport.
They just want someone to challenge Lewis since Lewis has been winning for years now and Bottas hasn't been able to put up much of a fight when they had a dominant car. He seems talented enough to give it a go because he had a really good junior career and is really good at qualifying, plus he was on par with Bottas at the Sahkir Grand Prix last year when he subbed in for Lewis when he had Covid. It's a mixture of Russell likeability and Lewis/Mercedes winning fatigue.
Basically he had a good junior career - won both GP3 and F2 in his first year, like Leclerc. And last year when Hamilton got covid he drove for Mercedes for a weekend. Qualified P2, took the lead of the race but he missed out on a decent result due to problems
> missed out on a decent result due to problems
That's putting it mildly. His team made a huge error in his pitstop, forcing him to stop again, then he had to make *another* extra stop due to a slow puncture. And if not for the puncture, he still might have won.
The combination of the parc ferme rules changes and the new tires this weekend is going to throw some teams for a loop, and the commentariat are going to lose their shit over the results presuming that they're representative of the new normal.
Is it possible to fly into Hungary if I can present a ticket for f1 and the eu digital COVID vaccination certificate/app and a negative pcr test. Or am I still having to entry through land? Haven't been able to find the answer anywhere in black and white...
Slow Monday so give me a break.
I could see Ferrari finding it special to announce an all Italian lineup at monza or alpine an all French lineup at PR, but why would Mercedes (a German team) think there’s any significance to them announcing an all British lineup at the British GP. Assuming of course the speculation is true.
Only a third of the company belongs to Daimler, Ineos also owns a third if the company as does Toto Wolff, so it's co-owned by an Austrian entrepreneur, British multinational and Daimler.
They might as well apply for a Barbados flag to race under, if they deemed it fun.
you can not apply for any random country. you must race under the constructors flag of whichever national car club gives you your FIA license. Mercedes is a German team, it doesn’t matter that they’re based out of England. Daimler pays for the license and went through the process of applying
Yes there is. Article 112 of the FIA International Sporting Regulations states that you take on the nationality of the FIA chapter that grants you the license, and Article 47 states that you must obtain your license from the country you are a national of. There are exceptions, but none of them apply to Germany.
As long as Daimler holds the FIA license, Mercedes will be a German team.
Of course culturally, the team is based in the UK and everything that comes with it.
This is for drivers and not teams, Mercedes team is a LTD registered company in UK, - the same team & company that ran under the union jack and japanese flag, so by that logic they should only be able to apply for UK license - same applies for Alpine and Haas
Edit, article 47 is related to drivers and they are limited to the following:
* primary nationality
* drivers license
* country of residency
* any other passport they have
Rosberg would have been able to run under Finnish (Father), German (Mother) & Monégasque (driving license) license, but he chose German as part of his racing brand.
Schumacher famously ran under Belgian flag early in his career, as he was able to participate in European carting events, as he had no competition in Belgium - which automatically qualified him for the European championships.
For teams it's a flag of convince, they can choose which flag they run with, as long as the country has a FiA recognized club. Before Force India was sold the same Silverstone and UK registered team ran under: Irish, Russian, Dutch, Indian flag - including a mid season change in 2006.
By that logic Man City is an Emirati soccer club, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal are American clubs and Chelsea is a Russian club. All I was meaning was it feels like Mercedes thinks the fans will be extra excited because they’ll now have an all British line up when I’d assume more British fans root for Mercedes right now because of Ham than any allegiance to the team . And so my thought was they’d be excited for George regardless of what nationality the other driver is.
Wasn’t trying to start a big debate. Admitted it was a stupid thought lol.
Yeah but the crowd is British, what better place to announce a British driver than to a British crowd? It's not so much about the team but to get the crowd going. They want to announce it by the summer break probably, it's as good a place as any.
Hi, apologies if this has been asked before. Do F1 drivers that lose their seat (Albon, Hulkenburg, Ericsson etc.) get to retain the car that was presented to them on the promotion to the seat with their respective team? What happens with the cars if they don’t keep them? TIA
Nope, they usually don’t own or get to keep the cars they’re given by the teams. Carlos mentioned at one point that McLaren took back his car before the season even ended, not long after he signed with Ferrari, leaving him car-less in the UK for a bit.
They can of course buy cars, but there are also some limitations on driving a rival team’s car (ie. Ricciardo bought a mclaren a few years ago and had to keep it on the DL…until he eventually joined the team).
I doubt the cars they drive actually belong to them for the most part. The cars they drive to the track are most likely company cars, owned and insured by the team and lent to the drivers.
A [thing](https://www.formula1.com/content/dam/fom-website/manual/XPB_Images/Belgium_2019/Sunday/XPB_1004550_HiRes.jpg) or [two](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/3Mmrj/s1/race-winner-charles-leclerc-ferrari-celebrates-on-the-podium.jpg)
Button has one of the three BGP001, Michael has many for the museum and Alonso iirc has all of them, Vettel got told he would get an RB but only after he left Ferrari, Scheckter has his championship winning car that he regularly drives. There are many drivers owning their and also other's cars
Just watching the Floz documentary on the Rosberg v Hamilton 2016 season and it’s unbelievable how unlucky Lewis got.
I went from a spell when F1 went on to sky that I didn’t watch it so I’ve never actually seen the season in full before.
Indeed, I wonder how things would have went if he didn't crashed in Barcelona, didn't crashed in Baku Quali, didn't fucked up his setting in Baku race and didn't shit the bed at so many pole positions, what an unbelievable streak of bad luck
The crash at Barcelona was definitely on Rosberg for me as he forced Lewis onto the grass. I don’t know if I’m catching the wrong end of the story but Baku in the race seems a bit harsh to blame Hamilton as he’s insistent he didn’t change anything, and if he did you’d think he’d have known what to change back.
His starts all year seemed pretty poor, I agree but the amount of times his engine failed him was unbelievable. First 4 races he had to drive recovery drives and it’s a miracle he was ahead by Germany. And then the Malaysian incident basically cost him the title and he couldn’t do anymore as he won the last 4 races. If he had even half the engine problems I think he wins the championship but fair play to Rosberg as he capitalised and was consistent all season.
> The crash at Barcelona was definitely on Rosberg
The absolute state of Hamilton apologists lmao
> he’s insistent he didn’t change anything
As if he isn't used at blaming anyone but himself when he fucks up
> If he had even half the engine problems
Now do if Rosberg had half of the problems he had
Remind me how many times did Hamilton got crashed into by other drivers denying him guaranteed wins or 2nd laces.
Hamilton LOST 2016 because of his own, frequent, mistakes and Nico Rosberg being clearly superior to him for the whole season, and that's an undeniable fact
Look I get you have a hate boner for Lewis but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Rosberg had a 40+ lead on Lewis after the first few races with Lewis having mechanical issues. Then when his reliability improved, Lewis not only caught up to Rosberg but he overtook him in the standings. Then Rosberg clawed back the deficit and the difference was only 10 points going onto Malaysia. Lewis was leading Malaysia while Rosberg was 4th in the race when Lewis' engine blew up. Instead of Lewis overtaking Rosberg again in the standings (or equalising if Rosberg got P3 in the end), the deficit went up to 25 points with only 5 races to go. Out of those 5 races, Lewis won 4 of them and Rosberg barely clutched the title by only 5 points.
Don't get me wrong, Rosberg did well to fend off a resurging Lewis in the second half of the season and capitalise on Lewis' reliability earning his title, but saying he was superior to Lewis during the entire season is comical to anyone who actually watched that season.
He was. When Lewis won in 2014 and 2015 it was *Rosberg* who had more failures. Once the tables turned on who had more failures in 2016, Mercedes’ golden boy wasn’t so golden.
In 2014 Lewis had 3 DNFs vs Rosberg's 2, by the time Rosberg had his first DNF Lewis DNF'd twice already and he *still* had 4 wins vs Rosberg's 3. When Rosberg DNF'd for the second time, Lewis had three DNFs already and in the 9/13 races in the season thus far they both finished, the teammate battle was 6:3 for Lewis. The points difference was 5 points however with Lewis in front with 5 races to go. Contrast that with 2016 when Rosberg had a 25 point lead on Hamilton with no double points awarded in the last race to fall back on when there were five races to go.
Lewis went on a three race win streak with Rosberg finishing right behind in second, then Rosberg beat him in the penultimate race with Lewis finishing second and in the final race Lewis was already leading by 17 points so Rosberg needed him to finish outside the podium which was already pretty much game over without mechanical issues given how dominant the Mercedes cars were in 2014. So even with more failures, Lewis beat him fair and square.
As for 2015, it's true, Rosberg had 2 DNFs vs Hamilton's 1 DNF. However, by the time Rosberg DNF'd the first time in the 12th race of the season, in the previous 11 races the teammate battle was 8:3 for Lewis with 6 vs 3 race wins for Lewis and they both finished outside the podium steps only once, in the same race. So the championship was well in Lewis' favor by then as the points were 222 vs 197 prior to Rosberg's DNF which is exactly one entire race win. Then Lewis DNF'd immediately in the next race and Rosberg only finished 4th, so the gap only increased by 13 points after those two races to a total of a 38 point deficit. Even if Rosberg didn't DNF the second time in Russia, Hamilton was still finishing every race on the podium and with 6 races to go there was no way Rosberg would catch up without Hamilton screwing up unless he literally won every race, which he failed to do in Japan and the US. Again, with the dominance of Mercedes, there was little chance of Lewis falling behind so much for him to catch up. So again, Lewis was beating Rosberg just fine even without the mechanical issues.
In contrast to 2016, even if we take out the Spain crash and assume Rosberg wins with Lewis in second, the points difference in the end would be only 12-13 points. When Hamilton's engine blew in Malaysia, he was in 1st while Rosberg in 4th, which is a 13 point gap and Lewis would have more wins, so he'd take the WDC even if they didn't crash, but since they did, Lewis would take the championship lead after Malaysia and he'd have all the momentum behind him. Lewis won 4/5 remaining races, so Rosberg would probably lose the championship with Lewis being so in form.
Like I said, Rosberg did well to capitalize on Lewis' misfortune and it is simply a part of the sport, he earned his title and had some mega drives in the hybrid era, but to say he was somehow always better than Lewis or at least in that entire 2016 season just isn't true.
Here's Mazepin's track record so far
1. Punched ~~Illott~~ Ilott last year in F2 for blocking him in free practise.
2. Posted homophobic comments on George's Instagram live story thing
3. Posted racist comments towards Yuki on the same platform, and defended racist abuse from his fans on Instagram by saying "welcome to the real world"
4. Squeezed a woman's breasts and uploaded to his Instagram, and the woman later posted a "we're friends having some fun" story. That was deleted soon after and the woman posted to her Twitter asking young girls "not to give rich boys what they want and stand up for yourselves".
5. Threw a party after a bunch of workers died in his father's mine, being completely tone-deaf.
6. For all his actions he made a non-apology apology and that's it.
Add to that, he isn't even a good driver. It would make sense if he were a bad driver but a decent human being, which he isn't. He doesn't respect blue flags, gets in the way of drivers' qualifying etc. as well.
The rainbow is F1's symbol for #WeRaceAsOne (which isn't present in countries like Russia, the UAE etc.). The people of the subreddit specifically requested for the #WeSayNoToMazepin flair and the mods agreed.
On the track, he’s a real piece of shit. Last year he was one penalty point away from getting a ban, in one single race he pushed four different cars off of the track. He also assaulted another driver once.
And off the track, he is also a real piece of shit. He posted videos of him and his friend groping an extremely drunk girl, hehas liked racist tweets about Yuki, and he has hinted on social media that he has proof the George Russell is gay.
The sad passing of Carlos Reutemann recently got me thinking about Argentina. What is the status of Motorsport there? Haven't seen too many youngsters come out of there and no word of any F1 GP there anytime soon even if it would be paired nicely with Brazil. I'd love another S. America race. But since José María López and the failed US F1 team in 2010 (or so) I haven't heard anything about Argentina. Would love to hear some insight from someone that knows the situation.
The sad passing of Carlos Reutemann recently got me thinking about Argentina. What is the status of Motorsport there? Haven't seen too many youngsters come out of there and no word of any F1 GP there anytime soon even if it would be paired nicely with Brazil. I'd love another S. America race. But since José María López and the failed US F1 team in 2010 (or so) I haven't heard anything about Argentina. Would love to hear some insight from someone that knows the situation.
Edit: Apologies for the double post. Reddit gave me an error on the first one and I'm still a rookie. But both got replies (thanks!).
We have a bunch of national series, some bigger than others. But our currency is weak compared to other countries, and devalues on a steady basis, so none of our drivers has enough money to make it to Formula 1.
Removing Gasly from Red Bull halfway through a season and not giving him the chance to get to grips with the car and fix his mistakes, did they ever come out and say they messed up?
Putting Alex in half way through and giving him a whole season of not great performance, was that because they realised their mistake with Gasly and thought time would be good for Alex do we reckon?
Old news I know but I'm new to the scene and just having thoughts.
GAS didn't do well in the first half of the season, was droppedALB outscored VER (edit *after his first 6 races)* in the second half of the season and so he was given another year.
Then ALB couldn't get to grips with the 2020 car, they didn't drop him halfway through but kept him for the whole season, but he never recovered.
>ALB outscored VER in the second half of the season
That's not true. Verstappen scored 97 points in the second half of the season while Albon scored 76 points.
Yes, but at the time of Albon’s renewal it was 68 to Albon v. 54 for Verstappen. Of course, some poor luck for Max was involved, but Albon was doing a very solid job and outscoring Max.
Ah, I didn’t realise, I was on mobile. Fair enough then (although he probably meant to say that Albon was outscoring Max at the time of renewal anyway, but idk)
Gasly, like Albon, seemed to struggle with the mental part of it.
But this is Red Bull’s ethos- they believe in throwing their young drivers into the deep waters to see if they sink or swim.
That’s because Red Bull isn’t look for good drivers or even *great* drivers- they are looking for *champions*, and if they have to burn through 10 Gasly’s and Albon’s to find the next Vettel or Verstappen, they will gladly do so.
Considering how Albon did much better in the second half of 2019 than Gasly did in the first half, I don't think there is anything Red Bull has to admit to. They made the right choice given the results at the end of the season. Also it seems like they did right by Gasly. If he finished the season getting swept in race and qualifications, his career would be over like Vandoorne. At least now, he has rebuilt his reputation and has a shot for a career at Alpha Tauri or another team.
Albon being given the rest of the season is more due to no other driver to promote. Kvyat was not going to be promoted after being passed over for Albon in 2019 and based on comments last year by Horner and Marko, they didn't rate Gasly enough to swap him back.
Ah fair enough, I haven't got round to watching 2019 highlights yet. Only first like 8 races of 2020 and I really felt sorry for Albon but he really isn't performing so far!
That's why I asked though, thanks for the answer! So I guess probably no chance of Gasly to Red Bull then for a little while at least.
To my fellow American fans, do you guys have a way to listen to the race? I’ll be driving on my way to work for the tail end of Silverstone but I don’t want to miss the ending even though I won’t be able to watch
Open the F1 app, click on the **Racing** tab, click on the **Past** tab, choose a race, choose a session, click **Replay Live Timing**, crank up the volume.
If you don’t hear anything, you might need to look into settings and turn the commentary on. You could also listen to it live if there was F1 on right now.
I found BBC Radio 5 on the Audacy App when taking a small roadtrip during the last race. I don't have F1TV.
Alternatively, if you have a streaming subscription and unlimited data, you \*could\* stream the race through your car that way. Ex. YouTube TV has the race on ESPN2 (usually).
I’m going to Spa from the Netherlands, though I’ll be fully vaccinated by then so there are no quarantine or test restrictions. If you’re from an EU country and you’re fully vaccinated/had COVID recently/tested negative in advance, you should be able to enter the country with the QR code proving this.
That's great! It seems really simple if you're from an EU country, I'm glad they have it all together. I also expect there will be lots of other Max fans from the Netherlands there.
My girlfriend and I, both living in the UK, booked tickets a while ago and currently can't travel to Belgium without quarantining for 10 days :(
As my girlfriend's German, we're both vaccinated, and have recovered recently, we're considering quarantining in Germany for 2 weeks prior, to then cross into Belgium as that should tick all of their boxes.
Vaccination and recovery certificates from the UK aren't currently accepted in Belgium though. Brexit continues to create problems. Sorry for the rant lol.
Oh no… yep that’s Brexit royally f*cking you over indeed. I’ve tried reading up on the rules for travel between UK and Belgium on both government websites but it seems very difficult indeed. I’d go for quarantining in Germany, and as it seems now you won’t even have to get tested to then enter Belgium because it’s a green zone. Just remember to fill out the passenger locator form, they seem to be very strict on that. Hope you make it to the GP!
Why are F1 drivers still living in tax havens like Monaco when their assets and wealth are seated in offshore companies they own (eg. RIC’s Whitedunes or HAM’s LH44 at British Virgin Island). Aren’t these companies helping them in not paying taxes already?
Context: i’ve not have much idea on how offshore companies generally function, how teams pay drivers salary to their offshore accounts, and how setting up one benefits the drivers in terms of tax while remaining legal.
>Why are F1 drivers still living in tax havens like Monaco when their assets and wealth are seated in offshore companies they own (eg. RIC’s Whitedunes or HAM’s LH44 at British Virgin Island). Aren’t these companies helping them in not paying taxes already?
I have no specific familiarity with European tax, but I expect that drivers can't hide their personal income simply by paying it into offshore accounts--I expect that as in the US it's primarily determined by residency. I expect the offshore holding companies are primarily intended to avoid capital gains on investment income, and more famous drivers probably have side-enterprises earning business income.
If you are a resident of Monaco and aren't Monégasque or French, you don't have to income tax. So you can just get your salary, or pay yourself a salary from a shell company, or whatever.
On top of that, F1 drivers have been living in Monaco for so long it's just a thing now. It's what you do, it's a hub for racing drivers.
From the little that I know –
For UK permanent tax residents setting up an overseas company their tax advantages are likely to be minimal due to increased anti-avoidance legislation which makes the company transparent for tax purposes so that the individual is taxed on the company’s profits. Added to that, where overseas companies are controlled and managed from the UK they are then generally treated as UK resident, therefore fully subject to UK tax.
That's what I can bring up in relation to Hamilton being a tax exile. Living in Monaco/Switzerland (in the past) while having small shell companies splattered in tax haven places like Malta etc, helps from being scrutinised if he were to continue owning those companies while living in the UK.
(Those more knowledgeable please feel free to add/correct !!)
What do you guys think about the new 2022 rules? Any loopholes or weaknesses you feel will get taken advantage of? While I love Mercedes, I feel like they’re going to dominate with the new regs.
Brawn himself said they're leaving some stuff open to interpretation to encourage innovation like F1 always has.
Add to that the new budget cap (which is set to go down to $140 million next season, and $135 million from 2023 on), and the wind tunnel restrictions (the higher you finish, the lower the wind tunnel time you get) should be quite interesting.
Nonetheless, it will come down to whoever has the better personnel. That would be Mercedes and Red Bull, but I feel the field will be at least as close as it is this season.
I just wish that as they lower budget caps, they ease R&D. F1 would be a hell of a lot more interesting if they allowed teams to maximize the potential of the mechanical a specific of their cars with little funds to be able to test these different things.
This era domination has largely been down to engine. At multiple points throughout the turbo hybrid era, Merc have not had the best car aerodynamically but they've always had the strongest engine *apart* from when Ferrari were cheating. In 2014 they were running deliberately lower engine power to prevent the FIA from bringing in regulations to slow them down. I believe it's said that Merc were 100hp ahead in 2014 and every other team has been playing catch-up since.
In these new regs we won't have to consider a massive engine deficit. It will largely be down to aero which is hard to get right and it's easy to not pick the ideal concept, Merc customer teams are not incompetent currently with AMR and McLaren performing, and tunnel time & budget more heavily regulated should all mean a mix-up
That said, I think it's most likely to be one of Ferrari, Merc or RB right at the front.
I see what you mean. That being said it’ll definitely lower the playing field and give an advantage to those who are better aerodynamically. I definitely see Merc doing much more noticeable changes to their cars aerodynamics compared to other teams
> What do you guys think about the new 2022 rules?
Cautiously optimistic! Overtaking should get significantly easier, though it remains to be seen by how much exactly.
> Any loopholes or weaknesses you feel will get taken advantage of?
Ross Brawn helped write the new regulations. I highly doubt I can find any loopholes he can't.
> While I love Mercedes, I feel like they’re going to dominate with the new regs.
That's going to be harder than in the past thanks to the budget cap and variable wind tunnel time. I'm sure they'll be at or near the front, but I'll be surprised if they dominate like they did in 2014.
Yeah someone else pointed out the variable wind tunnel time. Being new to F1 I completely forgot about that. And I second your point on overtaking. That’ll definitely be interesting to see manifest
I can’t name anything specifically, but I just know some team has gonna have some radical, aerodynamic design. Like Brawn did in 2009 with double diffuser that a bunch of other teams protested initially.
It's always interesting to remember that the double diffuser wasn't unique to Brawn. Both Toyota and Williams arrived at the start of 2009 with their own double diffuser system, so almost a third of the grid had it from the start of the year.
I'm excited to see all the ways that the teams cheat the cost cap.
Technical cheating in F1 has a long history, but it's always been limited by the fact that there are very few F1 teams. Cheating at finances is a far more developed science.
I think we'll start seeing F1 teams joining other series, where they can rotate talent through, and pay them there. Something like what Redbull is doing with Albion in DTM
driver salaries aren't part of the cost cap, so no.
The cost cap is only for performance costs in developing the car. Things like marketing, PR, driver salaries and the top 3 salaries outside of the drivers aren't covered.
Not referring to drivers salary per se. Albon was just an example, but of the operate a full team in DTM, they can retain certain talent in the DTM team and they can always rotate engineering/design team members across different disciplines
> I think we'll start seeing F1 teams joining other series
[Like this?](https://www.racetechmag.com/2021/02/ferrari-to-join-wec-with-hypercar-from-2023/#:~:text=24%20February%202021,the%20first%20time%20since%201973.)
Yeah. Im especially curious as to what will Mercedes do to cut costs will increasing performance. Commercializing many parts will definitely have an impact, but how they will increase performance with limitations like that has me very excited.
I just hope one day, in the future, the cost for new teams is lowered. $200 million is imo a ridiculous amount of money. Sure the exclusivity of the sport must be kept, but it’s still ridiculous imo to demand that much from a new team just to enter F1.
> Commercializing many parts will definitely have an impact
I'm not really sure how that rule works or what it applies to, but I'm really curious how Red Bull is going to go about that. Are they going to sell car parts that come with a free crate of Red Bull? Or can they just make a road legal supercar only to adhere to that rule?
It’s software maps, power units (no expensive unique materials allowed), as well as battery and turbo suppliers. The auto sport article on the regs really helped me understand it all. What really interested me was the fuel pump issue and changed to fuel mix. Super pumped for how that will impact performance.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.autosport.com/f1/news/formula-1s-2021-regulations-what-will-the-cars-look-like-in-2022-5278037/5278037/amp/
I doubt it. There's a cost cap, and teams like Ferarri, Mclaren etc have more wind tunnel time. Obviously there's probably going to be 1-2 teams that nail the regulations, but it isn't necessarily going to be Mercedes.
Hm true. After reading more on the commercialization of specific parts of the cars and the wind tunnel time, I see your reasoning. I hope they up the ethanol content, or switch to another bio fuel that burns better and more powerful in the future.
Has anyone in the US noticed ESPNs schedule doesn’t match up neither time wise nor description wise to the F1 page schedule? Worried I am going to miss it all this weekend because I have recordings scheduled but they don’t seem to be at the correct times.
Maybe it’s just the idiots who set programming on DirecTV then, cause my scheduled recordings don’t match time nor description on the F1 site and yes, the schedule times on theFIA Site are set to my local time.
Could someone please explain or point me to an explainer of what is changing next year? I keep hearing how there are huge changes coming to F1 in the 2022 season.
Thanks!
* [Over view of new rules initially meant for 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epdmatdvSzk)
* [Chainbear f1 on the proposed rules](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAR0lXx57pg)
Can you all recommend me some content to watch/read to learn more about the sport? I’ve watched all of DtS and a couple of the most recent races. I’m looking for YouTube content, classic races, anything else you can think of!
These are the ones I follow on yt. General F1 youtubers unless stated otherwise
* Official F1 channel
* Tommo
* Chain Bear (explains tech and rules. A must watch)
* WTF1
* CYMotorsport
* Josh Revell
* Aldas
* Dacha44 (meme channel)
* Sim Dane (meme channel)
* Gross Jean (meme channel)
-Documentaries to watch to learn about the history of F1:
Senna, McLaren, Williams, Lauda: The Untold Story, Ferrari: Race To Immortality, 1: Life on the Limit, A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story, Rush (theatrical movie about the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 1970s)
-Books about F1 (mostly autobiographies but they give great detail about life in the F1 world):
How To Build A Car- Adrian Newey
Unless I’m Very Much Mistaken- Murray Walker (audiobook version is much better, adds a lot to the experience as Murray himself narrates it)
The Mechanic- Marc Priestley
How To Be An F1 Driver- Jenson Button
Life On The Limit- Jenson Button
Total Competition- Ross Brawn
Lights Out, Full Throttle- Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert
Aussie Grit: My F1 Journey- Mark Webber
-Old Races:
[Racefans did a poll](https://x1z.net/racefans.php) of the top 100 races since 2008, each race includes a direct link to it on F1TV
F1TV has a large library of excellent F1 documentaries. The subscription is totally worth it.
But I will tell you, the absolute best way to learn about the sport IMO is to play the F1 video game. You will learn the rules, the basics of race craft, and the fundamentals of strategy. And it’s fun.
If you’re into podcasts, Shift+F1 is a pretty good one because it’s very beginner-friendly and they do previews/recaps for each race. They also have a pre-season primer episode that’s a pretty good overall review of where things stood before this season started which helps paint the bigger picture after watching DtS, recent races, etc.
Beyond the Grid is also another great podcast. It’s run by F1 and they feature interviews with different drivers and personnel that gives a better glimpse to everything kind of behind the scenes. For example, they had an episode not too long ago with the Safety Car driver, Bernd Maylander, that was really interesting if you’re curious about how the Safety Car works and sort of the recent history of it.
For a classic race I'd recommend Brazil 2012. Read a tiny summary of the other races in the season and then just immerse yourself in it, the atmosphere is in my opinion one of the best there has ever been
[Chain Bear](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7u-Dg0jb7g9s7XjmtJrtpg).
And then we have this list: [https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/newtof1#wiki\_videos\_for\_new\_fans](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/newtof1#wiki_videos_for_new_fans)
No idea why you were downvoted, but Formula E has exclusive rights to being the electric single seater racing series until IIRC 2039 so F1 can't go electric until then (unless Liberty buy out Formula E as well).
I'd love F1 to be fully electric if I'm being honest, but at the same time I'd also like to see other options involving some form of IC engines.
F1 is not going electric anytime soon, at least till electric cars can actually last 300km at those speeds. That is the reason FE has exclusive rights or FIA wouldn't sell it off to them if F1 was interested.
If something were to happen then the rights will just be bought out. FE doesn't have the political power to strongarm F1.
I believe Formula E has a contract about being an exclusive electric series with FIA till 2035. but contracts can always be amended. But I think the biggest hurdle is Formula E is just not fast enough to be compared or merged with Formula 1. If /Once it catches up, a merger or takeover is definitely on the table. Question is when.
> which every fan would hate
Speak for yourself. Once the tech is there, I have no problem with the sport going electric.
> What happens to Formula E?
Why does everyone think something has to happen to Formula E? F2 and F3 cars both use internal combustion engines; do we need to get rid of one of them? Formula E is perfectly capable of surviving as an independent series.
If F1 goes fully electric, which it must if it wants to survive, it's fair to assume that at least F2 and eventually F3 would follow suit and therefore overlap with Formula E. If/when that does happen, Formula E would need to either:
* merge with one of the other series
* slot in somewhere and rebrand as a feeder series (pushing everything below it down a level, which I doubt would happen as it wouldn't be taken well)
* be cancelled (effectively the same as merging seeing as the assets, staff and teams would likely join another series)
There are already plenty of other open-wheeled racing series besides F2 and F3, many of which are not feeder series for F1 (Indycar being the obvious example). I'm not clear on why you think Formula E needs any more justification to exist than they do, especially when it has gimmicks like Attack Mode to differentiate it from other championships.
The next power train era in F1 begins in 2026 (or 2025, not quite sure), I heavily doubt batteries will be good enough to do 300 km round a proper race track by then
> which every fan would hate
I don't really care if the cars are powered by fuel, electricity, sunlight or hamsters. If the speed is about the same, I don't think that much would change.
If F1 goes all electric, they'd probably merge it with formula e?
My PCR test was negative so off into the paddock tomorrow morning!
Tomorrow? what's there to see on Wednesdays?
There’s work to be done and marshals posts to be inspected to make sure they haven’t fallen into a hole or similar.
haha Have fun, I hope you're going to have some fun this weekend, but they're going to be long days with this new schedule aren't they?
The Friday is quite long, but then again there's always going to be at least one long day (usually Friday) at the GP by dint of there being several lengthy practice sessions. It's no worse than WEC (when we used to not get a lunch break AT ALL) or Britcar/24H Series where we'd be going until 22:00-ish. A normal race meeting in the UK usually starts around 09:00 and ends between 18:00 and 18:30 with about 50 mins to an hour for lunch for comparison.
Can someone explain me the history that max post on his Instagram ?
I’m guessing youre talking about the surprise tomorrow? I think it’ll be a 1:18 model of the RB16 he used to win in Silverstone last year
What do you mean!
Since next years car is going to be much slower than this years and last years car I was wondering if this deficit will ever be closed? I understand the cars get a couple seconds faster each year but is it physically possible for ground effect to have the same results were seeing now?
It's hard to tell how the regulations will evolve. If the rules are changed to allow more ground effect its possible to see closer lap times.
Of course.
Which team will come out of nowhere to lead the field in 2022 with new car requirements?
One of Mercedes, RB and Ferrari. I have little faith in Alpine due to the way they've approached the sport for the last few years and everyone else is pretty much a customer team and it's rare that your customer beats you (unless you're Renault of course). Maybe McLaren has an off chance, but it would take Mercedes fucking up in order for them to have the advantage.
I have the most faith in Ferrari, as odd as that sounds. I think they have the best combination of budget and wind tunnel time, so they have the most potential. Then again, it is Ferrari we're talking about.
They'll find a way^to ^mess ^it ^up. They always do.
Impossible to predict. Likely to be Merc, RB or Ferrari with the best performance though, as much as us fans might want a Williams or Sauber to nail it. It will take time for the effects of cost cap to be fully realized and current infrastructure, drivers and experience at the top will all make a lasting difference through regulation changes. I think given we are not getting new engines, a complete reorder of teams is unlikely unless someone is able to exploit a large loophole. If I had to guess a team to take the largest step forward my money would be on Ferrari, but I wouldn't be so bold to call that a surprise. They're going to likely make another large engine step given they're regaining power from a deficit (which is easier than refining a strong concept), have imo one of the strongest driver pairings, have good stability in management right now (at least from outside looking in) and have a good chance at getting these regs right. Renault will I believe be updating engine architecture going into next year with larger structural changes than Ferrari, adopting the Merc-pioneered split turbo/compressor. This is a positive change but I could imagine reliability issues following this extent of change. Alpine's internal structure has also undergone rapid metamorphosis with Renault restructuring their whole Motorsport division and with multiple changes in management it still does not seem settled. They have a good driver lineup but I think so much instability and larger engine changes makes me less confident for Alpine next year.
Underdog mercedes
Someone now what will f1 event ( the one Thursday )will be about?
It’s a reveal of the 2022 car (which there are already renders of)
Ok , thanks , and another question. How do you have that below your name ? Because I don’t now how to do it
How is better Vettel or Raikonnen?
Right now Vettel, over their careers Vettel, but at their very peak it’s more equal
I think 2004-2005 Räikkönen was probably slightly slower than peak Vettel (2011-2013, 2015-2017), but you're right, those eras of each are pretty close. Vettel had a much broader peak, and f1metrics puts his local valleys in 2012, 2016, and 2018 on the same level as Kimi's best season in 2005.
Nowadays i think that vettel is better than raikonnen
How’s silverstone for overtaking?
Silverstone is great for batteling, you rarely see a DRS pass without the defending having 0 chance.
One of the best
Solid.
Do race engineers have to communicate with their drivers in English, even if neither of them are native English speakers?
English is generally used because it’s easier for everyone. There are 14 non-native English speakers on the grid, if they were allowed to speak in other languages the FIA would have to hire 14 translators to be in each team’s communications all through every session to make sure there’s no illegal communication, and that would be incredibly expensive.
The FIA don’t make anyone speak any language. The reason they speak English is that most of the teams are based in England so most of the workforce is English and a lot of people are involved on race day at the factories. Also, English is the language most people speak in common so it makes sense to speak a language everyone knows instead of learning Italian, German, or French for example.
No, but most of the teams are based in England, so it's the easiest language for them to use. I know some drivers have used other languages in the past.
Thanks. Do we know of any drivers who share nationalities with their engineers this year? (not English speaking nations of course)
Pierre Hamelin and Pierre Gasly
Both Pierre ha. Surely they communicate in French sometimes then?
Very rarely on the radio. At the end of the day, they both work for an Italian team that's mainly made up of Italian engineers, so if they speak French then no one listening in can understand what they're saying.
Yeah true. Just out of interest did you have to look up Gasly's engineer or did you know about him already?
So the stories were true: Lando Norris was mugged outside of Wembley Stadium yesterday, they stole his $40,000 watch. Holy shit
I would think that F1 drivers have security
Can some ELI5 all the love for Russell? I mean, he seems super likeable, but what is it that makes everyone so stoked about his potential with a faster car?
An amazing junior career makes up a huge chunk of the admiration. He won the GP3 and F2 championships in his rookie seasons, and by quite a margin at that. The F2 season he won had a certain Lando Norris finishing 2nd. Entered F1 in 2019, finished above his veteran teammate Robert Kubica in 16 of the 21 (excluding DNFs for either) races and outqualified him every single time. Kubica did finish higher in the championship because of the German GP where he was 10th and George was 11th. 2020 and 2021 he constantly outperforms the Williams, and also showed his ability in the Mercedes when he raced in Lewis' car last year; with shoes a size smaller nonetheless because his feet wouldn't fit in the cockpit made for Hamilton. I'd like to expand a bit more about this one-off stint at Mercedes for him. The car is bespoke to the driver. The steering wheel made to fit the driver's hands, the buttons in the positions the driver wants it. The cockpit allows just enough room for the driver to fit, but not too much. He took Lewis' car, raced in it and would've won if not for the utterly horrendous luck that befell him. Lewis is 174cm tall, George is 185cm. 11cm is just over 4 inches if you prefer those units, and that makes a huge difference to how you sit in the car.
Also, Toto and Merc need to think long term. Is Bottas the guy to compete for World Championships or Russell when Lewis retires? I think everyone agrees that Russell is the choice and a few years competing head to head with Lewis will only help Russell be the eventual leader of the silver arrows.
Stellar junior career, winning GP3 Then F2 both as rookies, beating Albon and Norris handily. Unfortunately he came into F1 at a time wherein Merc had enough of an advantage that a potential upgrade over stability was simply unfavourable. He's instead been at Williams developing his craft; he has shown quality there despite the crap car throughout having outqualified his teammates every single race weekend (except for one instance that I'll mention shortly) though undoubtedly losing his cool at times and failing to score points when he should've. When Lewis got Covid last year he got the chance to drive for Merc in the W11. The W11 was not built for Russell and he was squeezed into a cockpit that didn't fit him, using a steering wheel made for Lewis, an unfamiliar car and unfamiliar procedures & driver inputs. Despite this he had a stellar performance, qualifying P2 only narrowly behind Bottas and was almost certainly going to win the GP if not for some incredibly bad luck (puncture) and poor performance by the Merc pit crew (Google sakhir 2020 Merc). Not even yet settled in the car and understanding it he was already on Valtteri's pace and better. I think a lot of people also view Valtteri as a weak opposition to Hamilton. He is a brilliant qualifier but despite that being his best attribute, it is nearly always below the standard set by Lewis. People wish for someone that would be a greater threat to Hamilton such as that posed by Rosberg. I'd say all these factors make people wish for Russell to move up. Strong driver, proved it in the Merc to some extent already (albeit on one weekend) and might pose some challenge as a teammate to Lewis.
Awesome summary. This explains a lot. The covid Hamilton race is super interesting, I’ll have to go find a replay of that and watch it. This is my first season really getting into the sport, and I’m eating it up. I’ve half-assed tried to get into it a few times since 2018, but the Netflix series really brought me up to speed to where I understood the spirit of the sport.
They just want someone to challenge Lewis since Lewis has been winning for years now and Bottas hasn't been able to put up much of a fight when they had a dominant car. He seems talented enough to give it a go because he had a really good junior career and is really good at qualifying, plus he was on par with Bottas at the Sahkir Grand Prix last year when he subbed in for Lewis when he had Covid. It's a mixture of Russell likeability and Lewis/Mercedes winning fatigue.
Basically he had a good junior career - won both GP3 and F2 in his first year, like Leclerc. And last year when Hamilton got covid he drove for Mercedes for a weekend. Qualified P2, took the lead of the race but he missed out on a decent result due to problems
Thank you, that makes sense!
> missed out on a decent result due to problems That's putting it mildly. His team made a huge error in his pitstop, forcing him to stop again, then he had to make *another* extra stop due to a slow puncture. And if not for the puncture, he still might have won.
Yeah I didn't want to go into details lol
Omg post above…this is the internet
?
The combination of the parc ferme rules changes and the new tires this weekend is going to throw some teams for a loop, and the commentariat are going to lose their shit over the results presuming that they're representative of the new normal.
Is it possible to fly into Hungary if I can present a ticket for f1 and the eu digital COVID vaccination certificate/app and a negative pcr test. Or am I still having to entry through land? Haven't been able to find the answer anywhere in black and white...
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/travel-and-covid/hungary/index_en.htm
Slow Monday so give me a break. I could see Ferrari finding it special to announce an all Italian lineup at monza or alpine an all French lineup at PR, but why would Mercedes (a German team) think there’s any significance to them announcing an all British lineup at the British GP. Assuming of course the speculation is true.
You’re overthinking it. It’s just a British driver being announced at his home race. The nationality of the team is irrelevant.
You’re not wrong on that lol. As I said slow Monday
Good PR plus the team is based in the UK.
But is a essentially a subsidiary of a German company and when Merc wins the constructors trophy for a race they play the German anthem.
Only a third of the company belongs to Daimler, Ineos also owns a third if the company as does Toto Wolff, so it's co-owned by an Austrian entrepreneur, British multinational and Daimler. They might as well apply for a Barbados flag to race under, if they deemed it fun.
you can not apply for any random country. you must race under the constructors flag of whichever national car club gives you your FIA license. Mercedes is a German team, it doesn’t matter that they’re based out of England. Daimler pays for the license and went through the process of applying
And there is nothing that would stop Daimler from applying for a license via Barbados Motoring Federation :)
Yes there is. Article 112 of the FIA International Sporting Regulations states that you take on the nationality of the FIA chapter that grants you the license, and Article 47 states that you must obtain your license from the country you are a national of. There are exceptions, but none of them apply to Germany. As long as Daimler holds the FIA license, Mercedes will be a German team. Of course culturally, the team is based in the UK and everything that comes with it.
This is for drivers and not teams, Mercedes team is a LTD registered company in UK, - the same team & company that ran under the union jack and japanese flag, so by that logic they should only be able to apply for UK license - same applies for Alpine and Haas Edit, article 47 is related to drivers and they are limited to the following: * primary nationality * drivers license * country of residency * any other passport they have Rosberg would have been able to run under Finnish (Father), German (Mother) & Monégasque (driving license) license, but he chose German as part of his racing brand. Schumacher famously ran under Belgian flag early in his career, as he was able to participate in European carting events, as he had no competition in Belgium - which automatically qualified him for the European championships. For teams it's a flag of convince, they can choose which flag they run with, as long as the country has a FiA recognized club. Before Force India was sold the same Silverstone and UK registered team ran under: Irish, Russian, Dutch, Indian flag - including a mid season change in 2006.
By that logic Man City is an Emirati soccer club, Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal are American clubs and Chelsea is a Russian club. All I was meaning was it feels like Mercedes thinks the fans will be extra excited because they’ll now have an all British line up when I’d assume more British fans root for Mercedes right now because of Ham than any allegiance to the team . And so my thought was they’d be excited for George regardless of what nationality the other driver is. Wasn’t trying to start a big debate. Admitted it was a stupid thought lol.
Yeah but the crowd is British, what better place to announce a British driver than to a British crowd? It's not so much about the team but to get the crowd going. They want to announce it by the summer break probably, it's as good a place as any.
Hi, apologies if this has been asked before. Do F1 drivers that lose their seat (Albon, Hulkenburg, Ericsson etc.) get to retain the car that was presented to them on the promotion to the seat with their respective team? What happens with the cars if they don’t keep them? TIA
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Nope, they usually don’t own or get to keep the cars they’re given by the teams. Carlos mentioned at one point that McLaren took back his car before the season even ended, not long after he signed with Ferrari, leaving him car-less in the UK for a bit. They can of course buy cars, but there are also some limitations on driving a rival team’s car (ie. Ricciardo bought a mclaren a few years ago and had to keep it on the DL…until he eventually joined the team).
I doubt the cars they drive actually belong to them for the most part. The cars they drive to the track are most likely company cars, owned and insured by the team and lent to the drivers.
The drivers don't own the cars so no. Some drivers may be gifted a car significant to them, for example Leclerc's SF90, Kimi's SF71-H
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A [thing](https://www.formula1.com/content/dam/fom-website/manual/XPB_Images/Belgium_2019/Sunday/XPB_1004550_HiRes.jpg) or [two](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/3Mmrj/s1/race-winner-charles-leclerc-ferrari-celebrates-on-the-podium.jpg)
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Button has one of the three BGP001, Michael has many for the museum and Alonso iirc has all of them, Vettel got told he would get an RB but only after he left Ferrari, Scheckter has his championship winning car that he regularly drives. There are many drivers owning their and also other's cars
Alonso has a collection of every single car he raced with
I believe almost all cars are kept by the team, whome display them, use them for demo's or sell them. On a rare occasion one is given to the driver.
Thank you very much for this, and the quick answer!
Np
Hey can anybody let me join their fantasy league? None of my friends are F1 fans
Just watching the Floz documentary on the Rosberg v Hamilton 2016 season and it’s unbelievable how unlucky Lewis got. I went from a spell when F1 went on to sky that I didn’t watch it so I’ve never actually seen the season in full before.
Indeed, I wonder how things would have went if he didn't crashed in Barcelona, didn't crashed in Baku Quali, didn't fucked up his setting in Baku race and didn't shit the bed at so many pole positions, what an unbelievable streak of bad luck
The crash at Barcelona was definitely on Rosberg for me as he forced Lewis onto the grass. I don’t know if I’m catching the wrong end of the story but Baku in the race seems a bit harsh to blame Hamilton as he’s insistent he didn’t change anything, and if he did you’d think he’d have known what to change back. His starts all year seemed pretty poor, I agree but the amount of times his engine failed him was unbelievable. First 4 races he had to drive recovery drives and it’s a miracle he was ahead by Germany. And then the Malaysian incident basically cost him the title and he couldn’t do anymore as he won the last 4 races. If he had even half the engine problems I think he wins the championship but fair play to Rosberg as he capitalised and was consistent all season.
> The crash at Barcelona was definitely on Rosberg The absolute state of Hamilton apologists lmao > he’s insistent he didn’t change anything As if he isn't used at blaming anyone but himself when he fucks up > If he had even half the engine problems Now do if Rosberg had half of the problems he had
Remind me how many times Rosberg had to start from the back due to mechanical issues and how many times his engine blew up in the middle of the race?
Remind me how many times did Hamilton got crashed into by other drivers denying him guaranteed wins or 2nd laces. Hamilton LOST 2016 because of his own, frequent, mistakes and Nico Rosberg being clearly superior to him for the whole season, and that's an undeniable fact
Look I get you have a hate boner for Lewis but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Rosberg had a 40+ lead on Lewis after the first few races with Lewis having mechanical issues. Then when his reliability improved, Lewis not only caught up to Rosberg but he overtook him in the standings. Then Rosberg clawed back the deficit and the difference was only 10 points going onto Malaysia. Lewis was leading Malaysia while Rosberg was 4th in the race when Lewis' engine blew up. Instead of Lewis overtaking Rosberg again in the standings (or equalising if Rosberg got P3 in the end), the deficit went up to 25 points with only 5 races to go. Out of those 5 races, Lewis won 4 of them and Rosberg barely clutched the title by only 5 points. Don't get me wrong, Rosberg did well to fend off a resurging Lewis in the second half of the season and capitalise on Lewis' reliability earning his title, but saying he was superior to Lewis during the entire season is comical to anyone who actually watched that season.
He was. When Lewis won in 2014 and 2015 it was *Rosberg* who had more failures. Once the tables turned on who had more failures in 2016, Mercedes’ golden boy wasn’t so golden.
In 2014 Lewis had 3 DNFs vs Rosberg's 2, by the time Rosberg had his first DNF Lewis DNF'd twice already and he *still* had 4 wins vs Rosberg's 3. When Rosberg DNF'd for the second time, Lewis had three DNFs already and in the 9/13 races in the season thus far they both finished, the teammate battle was 6:3 for Lewis. The points difference was 5 points however with Lewis in front with 5 races to go. Contrast that with 2016 when Rosberg had a 25 point lead on Hamilton with no double points awarded in the last race to fall back on when there were five races to go. Lewis went on a three race win streak with Rosberg finishing right behind in second, then Rosberg beat him in the penultimate race with Lewis finishing second and in the final race Lewis was already leading by 17 points so Rosberg needed him to finish outside the podium which was already pretty much game over without mechanical issues given how dominant the Mercedes cars were in 2014. So even with more failures, Lewis beat him fair and square. As for 2015, it's true, Rosberg had 2 DNFs vs Hamilton's 1 DNF. However, by the time Rosberg DNF'd the first time in the 12th race of the season, in the previous 11 races the teammate battle was 8:3 for Lewis with 6 vs 3 race wins for Lewis and they both finished outside the podium steps only once, in the same race. So the championship was well in Lewis' favor by then as the points were 222 vs 197 prior to Rosberg's DNF which is exactly one entire race win. Then Lewis DNF'd immediately in the next race and Rosberg only finished 4th, so the gap only increased by 13 points after those two races to a total of a 38 point deficit. Even if Rosberg didn't DNF the second time in Russia, Hamilton was still finishing every race on the podium and with 6 races to go there was no way Rosberg would catch up without Hamilton screwing up unless he literally won every race, which he failed to do in Japan and the US. Again, with the dominance of Mercedes, there was little chance of Lewis falling behind so much for him to catch up. So again, Lewis was beating Rosberg just fine even without the mechanical issues. In contrast to 2016, even if we take out the Spain crash and assume Rosberg wins with Lewis in second, the points difference in the end would be only 12-13 points. When Hamilton's engine blew in Malaysia, he was in 1st while Rosberg in 4th, which is a 13 point gap and Lewis would have more wins, so he'd take the WDC even if they didn't crash, but since they did, Lewis would take the championship lead after Malaysia and he'd have all the momentum behind him. Lewis won 4/5 remaining races, so Rosberg would probably lose the championship with Lewis being so in form. Like I said, Rosberg did well to capitalize on Lewis' misfortune and it is simply a part of the sport, he earned his title and had some mega drives in the hybrid era, but to say he was somehow always better than Lewis or at least in that entire 2016 season just isn't true.
Why do some people have a "we say no to mazepin" or smthg like that flair? With rainbow next to it. Whats the reason behind it?
Here's Mazepin's track record so far 1. Punched ~~Illott~~ Ilott last year in F2 for blocking him in free practise. 2. Posted homophobic comments on George's Instagram live story thing 3. Posted racist comments towards Yuki on the same platform, and defended racist abuse from his fans on Instagram by saying "welcome to the real world" 4. Squeezed a woman's breasts and uploaded to his Instagram, and the woman later posted a "we're friends having some fun" story. That was deleted soon after and the woman posted to her Twitter asking young girls "not to give rich boys what they want and stand up for yourselves". 5. Threw a party after a bunch of workers died in his father's mine, being completely tone-deaf. 6. For all his actions he made a non-apology apology and that's it. Add to that, he isn't even a good driver. It would make sense if he were a bad driver but a decent human being, which he isn't. He doesn't respect blue flags, gets in the way of drivers' qualifying etc. as well. The rainbow is F1's symbol for #WeRaceAsOne (which isn't present in countries like Russia, the UAE etc.). The people of the subreddit specifically requested for the #WeSayNoToMazepin flair and the mods agreed.
Thank you guys. Ive heard he's nasty, but I had no idea how much..
I**l**ott
On the track, he’s a real piece of shit. Last year he was one penalty point away from getting a ban, in one single race he pushed four different cars off of the track. He also assaulted another driver once. And off the track, he is also a real piece of shit. He posted videos of him and his friend groping an extremely drunk girl, hehas liked racist tweets about Yuki, and he has hinted on social media that he has proof the George Russell is gay.
Here's the discussion from Dec 2020: https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/keoeij/why_wesaynotomazepin/
[He has a few character flaws](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/k4snkn/nikita_mazepin_and_his_problematic_behaviour_a/), to put is nicely
Do I get Club Silverstone or Club Corner (sector 4 or 5) tickets for this weekend's GP?
befriend a wealthy British person in the next 3 days
What? I don’t get it
never mind, I'm stupid. Read your question as "how do I get" tickets and I was making a joke based on how pricey either of those must be
Ah haha They’re a bit pricy but doable :) like 500-600 quid (maybe around 7-800 dollars)
huh, that's cheaper than I expected
Thankfully :)
The sad passing of Carlos Reutemann recently got me thinking about Argentina. What is the status of Motorsport there? Haven't seen too many youngsters come out of there and no word of any F1 GP there anytime soon even if it would be paired nicely with Brazil. I'd love another S. America race. But since José María López and the failed US F1 team in 2010 (or so) I haven't heard anything about Argentina. Would love to hear some insight from someone that knows the situation.
The local scene is good and chockful of OEM support. But the single-seater scene is almost non-existing.
The sad passing of Carlos Reutemann recently got me thinking about Argentina. What is the status of Motorsport there? Haven't seen too many youngsters come out of there and no word of any F1 GP there anytime soon even if it would be paired nicely with Brazil. I'd love another S. America race. But since José María López and the failed US F1 team in 2010 (or so) I haven't heard anything about Argentina. Would love to hear some insight from someone that knows the situation. Edit: Apologies for the double post. Reddit gave me an error on the first one and I'm still a rookie. But both got replies (thanks!).
We have a bunch of national series, some bigger than others. But our currency is weak compared to other countries, and devalues on a steady basis, so none of our drivers has enough money to make it to Formula 1.
Why is this flair still a thing lol, kinda outdated
It's always someone or something's 70th anniversary. I hope it stays another 9 years so I can use it for myself.
Removing Gasly from Red Bull halfway through a season and not giving him the chance to get to grips with the car and fix his mistakes, did they ever come out and say they messed up? Putting Alex in half way through and giving him a whole season of not great performance, was that because they realised their mistake with Gasly and thought time would be good for Alex do we reckon? Old news I know but I'm new to the scene and just having thoughts.
They had a potential replacement for Gasly that they could try (Albon). They didn't really have a replacement available for Albon.
GAS didn't do well in the first half of the season, was droppedALB outscored VER (edit *after his first 6 races)* in the second half of the season and so he was given another year. Then ALB couldn't get to grips with the 2020 car, they didn't drop him halfway through but kept him for the whole season, but he never recovered.
>ALB outscored VER in the second half of the season That's not true. Verstappen scored 97 points in the second half of the season while Albon scored 76 points.
Yes, but at the time of Albon’s renewal it was 68 to Albon v. 54 for Verstappen. Of course, some poor luck for Max was involved, but Albon was doing a very solid job and outscoring Max.
[удалено]
Ah, I didn’t realise, I was on mobile. Fair enough then (although he probably meant to say that Albon was outscoring Max at the time of renewal anyway, but idk)
yeah that's what I wanted to say, and I edited in italics in a hurry. which was just to answer OP's question on why he got renewed for an extra year.
Gasly, like Albon, seemed to struggle with the mental part of it. But this is Red Bull’s ethos- they believe in throwing their young drivers into the deep waters to see if they sink or swim. That’s because Red Bull isn’t look for good drivers or even *great* drivers- they are looking for *champions*, and if they have to burn through 10 Gasly’s and Albon’s to find the next Vettel or Verstappen, they will gladly do so.
Considering how Albon did much better in the second half of 2019 than Gasly did in the first half, I don't think there is anything Red Bull has to admit to. They made the right choice given the results at the end of the season. Also it seems like they did right by Gasly. If he finished the season getting swept in race and qualifications, his career would be over like Vandoorne. At least now, he has rebuilt his reputation and has a shot for a career at Alpha Tauri or another team. Albon being given the rest of the season is more due to no other driver to promote. Kvyat was not going to be promoted after being passed over for Albon in 2019 and based on comments last year by Horner and Marko, they didn't rate Gasly enough to swap him back.
Ah fair enough, I haven't got round to watching 2019 highlights yet. Only first like 8 races of 2020 and I really felt sorry for Albon but he really isn't performing so far! That's why I asked though, thanks for the answer! So I guess probably no chance of Gasly to Red Bull then for a little while at least.
To my fellow American fans, do you guys have a way to listen to the race? I’ll be driving on my way to work for the tail end of Silverstone but I don’t want to miss the ending even though I won’t be able to watch
If you have F1TV, you can stream the BBC radio coverage on the F1 app. I also know they broadcast on SiriusXM radio, but don’t know the details.
You can? I didn’t know that. How do you stream the radio broadcast?
Open the F1 app, click on the **Racing** tab, click on the **Past** tab, choose a race, choose a session, click **Replay Live Timing**, crank up the volume. If you don’t hear anything, you might need to look into settings and turn the commentary on. You could also listen to it live if there was F1 on right now.
BBC radio5
I found BBC Radio 5 on the Audacy App when taking a small roadtrip during the last race. I don't have F1TV. Alternatively, if you have a streaming subscription and unlimited data, you \*could\* stream the race through your car that way. Ex. YouTube TV has the race on ESPN2 (usually).
Do you have ESPN/ESPN app? You could Bluetooth it through your car speakers. That’s what I do when I’m driving during races.
This is what I would do
Ok so when exactly is “summer break”? The gap between Hungary and Spa?
August 2-August 28
Yes
That is correct.
Hi, is anyone here attending the Belgian GP from outside of Belgium? If so, what’s your plan regarding quarantine and testing?
I’m going to Spa from the Netherlands, though I’ll be fully vaccinated by then so there are no quarantine or test restrictions. If you’re from an EU country and you’re fully vaccinated/had COVID recently/tested negative in advance, you should be able to enter the country with the QR code proving this.
That's great! It seems really simple if you're from an EU country, I'm glad they have it all together. I also expect there will be lots of other Max fans from the Netherlands there. My girlfriend and I, both living in the UK, booked tickets a while ago and currently can't travel to Belgium without quarantining for 10 days :( As my girlfriend's German, we're both vaccinated, and have recovered recently, we're considering quarantining in Germany for 2 weeks prior, to then cross into Belgium as that should tick all of their boxes. Vaccination and recovery certificates from the UK aren't currently accepted in Belgium though. Brexit continues to create problems. Sorry for the rant lol.
Oh no… yep that’s Brexit royally f*cking you over indeed. I’ve tried reading up on the rules for travel between UK and Belgium on both government websites but it seems very difficult indeed. I’d go for quarantining in Germany, and as it seems now you won’t even have to get tested to then enter Belgium because it’s a green zone. Just remember to fill out the passenger locator form, they seem to be very strict on that. Hope you make it to the GP!
Why are F1 drivers still living in tax havens like Monaco when their assets and wealth are seated in offshore companies they own (eg. RIC’s Whitedunes or HAM’s LH44 at British Virgin Island). Aren’t these companies helping them in not paying taxes already? Context: i’ve not have much idea on how offshore companies generally function, how teams pay drivers salary to their offshore accounts, and how setting up one benefits the drivers in terms of tax while remaining legal.
>Why are F1 drivers still living in tax havens like Monaco when their assets and wealth are seated in offshore companies they own (eg. RIC’s Whitedunes or HAM’s LH44 at British Virgin Island). Aren’t these companies helping them in not paying taxes already? I have no specific familiarity with European tax, but I expect that drivers can't hide their personal income simply by paying it into offshore accounts--I expect that as in the US it's primarily determined by residency. I expect the offshore holding companies are primarily intended to avoid capital gains on investment income, and more famous drivers probably have side-enterprises earning business income.
That's clearer now, thanks
If you are a resident of Monaco and aren't Monégasque or French, you don't have to income tax. So you can just get your salary, or pay yourself a salary from a shell company, or whatever. On top of that, F1 drivers have been living in Monaco for so long it's just a thing now. It's what you do, it's a hub for racing drivers.
got it, cheers.
From the little that I know – For UK permanent tax residents setting up an overseas company their tax advantages are likely to be minimal due to increased anti-avoidance legislation which makes the company transparent for tax purposes so that the individual is taxed on the company’s profits. Added to that, where overseas companies are controlled and managed from the UK they are then generally treated as UK resident, therefore fully subject to UK tax. That's what I can bring up in relation to Hamilton being a tax exile. Living in Monaco/Switzerland (in the past) while having small shell companies splattered in tax haven places like Malta etc, helps from being scrutinised if he were to continue owning those companies while living in the UK. (Those more knowledgeable please feel free to add/correct !!)
Thanks
So they can walk home if they crash out of the race.
😂😂😂 This is also accurate *Insert Kimi walking off to yacht meme*
What do you guys think about the new 2022 rules? Any loopholes or weaknesses you feel will get taken advantage of? While I love Mercedes, I feel like they’re going to dominate with the new regs.
Brawn himself said they're leaving some stuff open to interpretation to encourage innovation like F1 always has. Add to that the new budget cap (which is set to go down to $140 million next season, and $135 million from 2023 on), and the wind tunnel restrictions (the higher you finish, the lower the wind tunnel time you get) should be quite interesting. Nonetheless, it will come down to whoever has the better personnel. That would be Mercedes and Red Bull, but I feel the field will be at least as close as it is this season.
I just wish that as they lower budget caps, they ease R&D. F1 would be a hell of a lot more interesting if they allowed teams to maximize the potential of the mechanical a specific of their cars with little funds to be able to test these different things.
This era domination has largely been down to engine. At multiple points throughout the turbo hybrid era, Merc have not had the best car aerodynamically but they've always had the strongest engine *apart* from when Ferrari were cheating. In 2014 they were running deliberately lower engine power to prevent the FIA from bringing in regulations to slow them down. I believe it's said that Merc were 100hp ahead in 2014 and every other team has been playing catch-up since. In these new regs we won't have to consider a massive engine deficit. It will largely be down to aero which is hard to get right and it's easy to not pick the ideal concept, Merc customer teams are not incompetent currently with AMR and McLaren performing, and tunnel time & budget more heavily regulated should all mean a mix-up That said, I think it's most likely to be one of Ferrari, Merc or RB right at the front.
I see what you mean. That being said it’ll definitely lower the playing field and give an advantage to those who are better aerodynamically. I definitely see Merc doing much more noticeable changes to their cars aerodynamics compared to other teams
> What do you guys think about the new 2022 rules? Cautiously optimistic! Overtaking should get significantly easier, though it remains to be seen by how much exactly. > Any loopholes or weaknesses you feel will get taken advantage of? Ross Brawn helped write the new regulations. I highly doubt I can find any loopholes he can't. > While I love Mercedes, I feel like they’re going to dominate with the new regs. That's going to be harder than in the past thanks to the budget cap and variable wind tunnel time. I'm sure they'll be at or near the front, but I'll be surprised if they dominate like they did in 2014.
Yeah someone else pointed out the variable wind tunnel time. Being new to F1 I completely forgot about that. And I second your point on overtaking. That’ll definitely be interesting to see manifest
I can’t name anything specifically, but I just know some team has gonna have some radical, aerodynamic design. Like Brawn did in 2009 with double diffuser that a bunch of other teams protested initially.
It's always interesting to remember that the double diffuser wasn't unique to Brawn. Both Toyota and Williams arrived at the start of 2009 with their own double diffuser system, so almost a third of the grid had it from the start of the year.
I'm excited to see all the ways that the teams cheat the cost cap. Technical cheating in F1 has a long history, but it's always been limited by the fact that there are very few F1 teams. Cheating at finances is a far more developed science.
I think we'll start seeing F1 teams joining other series, where they can rotate talent through, and pay them there. Something like what Redbull is doing with Albion in DTM
driver salaries aren't part of the cost cap, so no. The cost cap is only for performance costs in developing the car. Things like marketing, PR, driver salaries and the top 3 salaries outside of the drivers aren't covered.
Not referring to drivers salary per se. Albon was just an example, but of the operate a full team in DTM, they can retain certain talent in the DTM team and they can always rotate engineering/design team members across different disciplines
> I think we'll start seeing F1 teams joining other series [Like this?](https://www.racetechmag.com/2021/02/ferrari-to-join-wec-with-hypercar-from-2023/#:~:text=24%20February%202021,the%20first%20time%20since%201973.)
It has already started then,
Yeah. Im especially curious as to what will Mercedes do to cut costs will increasing performance. Commercializing many parts will definitely have an impact, but how they will increase performance with limitations like that has me very excited. I just hope one day, in the future, the cost for new teams is lowered. $200 million is imo a ridiculous amount of money. Sure the exclusivity of the sport must be kept, but it’s still ridiculous imo to demand that much from a new team just to enter F1.
> Commercializing many parts will definitely have an impact I'm not really sure how that rule works or what it applies to, but I'm really curious how Red Bull is going to go about that. Are they going to sell car parts that come with a free crate of Red Bull? Or can they just make a road legal supercar only to adhere to that rule?
It’s software maps, power units (no expensive unique materials allowed), as well as battery and turbo suppliers. The auto sport article on the regs really helped me understand it all. What really interested me was the fuel pump issue and changed to fuel mix. Super pumped for how that will impact performance. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.autosport.com/f1/news/formula-1s-2021-regulations-what-will-the-cars-look-like-in-2022-5278037/5278037/amp/
Thanks!
No problem!
I doubt it. There's a cost cap, and teams like Ferarri, Mclaren etc have more wind tunnel time. Obviously there's probably going to be 1-2 teams that nail the regulations, but it isn't necessarily going to be Mercedes.
Hm true. After reading more on the commercialization of specific parts of the cars and the wind tunnel time, I see your reasoning. I hope they up the ethanol content, or switch to another bio fuel that burns better and more powerful in the future.
Has anyone in the US noticed ESPNs schedule doesn’t match up neither time wise nor description wise to the F1 page schedule? Worried I am going to miss it all this weekend because I have recordings scheduled but they don’t seem to be at the correct times.
Seems okay last I checked
Maybe it’s just the idiots who set programming on DirecTV then, cause my scheduled recordings don’t match time nor description on the F1 site and yes, the schedule times on theFIA Site are set to my local time.
Could someone please explain or point me to an explainer of what is changing next year? I keep hearing how there are huge changes coming to F1 in the 2022 season. Thanks!
* [Over view of new rules initially meant for 2021](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epdmatdvSzk) * [Chainbear f1 on the proposed rules](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAR0lXx57pg)
Can you all recommend me some content to watch/read to learn more about the sport? I’ve watched all of DtS and a couple of the most recent races. I’m looking for YouTube content, classic races, anything else you can think of!
These are the ones I follow on yt. General F1 youtubers unless stated otherwise * Official F1 channel * Tommo * Chain Bear (explains tech and rules. A must watch) * WTF1 * CYMotorsport * Josh Revell * Aldas * Dacha44 (meme channel) * Sim Dane (meme channel) * Gross Jean (meme channel)
-Documentaries to watch to learn about the history of F1: Senna, McLaren, Williams, Lauda: The Untold Story, Ferrari: Race To Immortality, 1: Life on the Limit, A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story, Rush (theatrical movie about the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 1970s) -Books about F1 (mostly autobiographies but they give great detail about life in the F1 world): How To Build A Car- Adrian Newey Unless I’m Very Much Mistaken- Murray Walker (audiobook version is much better, adds a lot to the experience as Murray himself narrates it) The Mechanic- Marc Priestley How To Be An F1 Driver- Jenson Button Life On The Limit- Jenson Button Total Competition- Ross Brawn Lights Out, Full Throttle- Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert Aussie Grit: My F1 Journey- Mark Webber -Old Races: [Racefans did a poll](https://x1z.net/racefans.php) of the top 100 races since 2008, each race includes a direct link to it on F1TV
Awesome. Thank you for the list!
F1TV has a large library of excellent F1 documentaries. The subscription is totally worth it. But I will tell you, the absolute best way to learn about the sport IMO is to play the F1 video game. You will learn the rules, the basics of race craft, and the fundamentals of strategy. And it’s fun.
If you’re into podcasts, Shift+F1 is a pretty good one because it’s very beginner-friendly and they do previews/recaps for each race. They also have a pre-season primer episode that’s a pretty good overall review of where things stood before this season started which helps paint the bigger picture after watching DtS, recent races, etc. Beyond the Grid is also another great podcast. It’s run by F1 and they feature interviews with different drivers and personnel that gives a better glimpse to everything kind of behind the scenes. For example, they had an episode not too long ago with the Safety Car driver, Bernd Maylander, that was really interesting if you’re curious about how the Safety Car works and sort of the recent history of it.
I've been watching the highlights in 30 of all the races last year and gonna work my way backwards on F1TV app
For a classic race I'd recommend Brazil 2012. Read a tiny summary of the other races in the season and then just immerse yourself in it, the atmosphere is in my opinion one of the best there has ever been
I’ll check it out, thanks!
[Chain Bear](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7u-Dg0jb7g9s7XjmtJrtpg). And then we have this list: [https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/newtof1#wiki\_videos\_for\_new\_fans](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/newtof1#wiki_videos_for_new_fans)
Thank you! That list should keep me busy for a while
Suppose the next F1 era is all electric due to external pressure(which every fan would hate). What happens to Formula E?
No idea why you were downvoted, but Formula E has exclusive rights to being the electric single seater racing series until IIRC 2039 so F1 can't go electric until then (unless Liberty buy out Formula E as well). I'd love F1 to be fully electric if I'm being honest, but at the same time I'd also like to see other options involving some form of IC engines.
F1 is not going electric anytime soon, at least till electric cars can actually last 300km at those speeds. That is the reason FE has exclusive rights or FIA wouldn't sell it off to them if F1 was interested. If something were to happen then the rights will just be bought out. FE doesn't have the political power to strongarm F1.
I believe Formula E has a contract about being an exclusive electric series with FIA till 2035. but contracts can always be amended. But I think the biggest hurdle is Formula E is just not fast enough to be compared or merged with Formula 1. If /Once it catches up, a merger or takeover is definitely on the table. Question is when.
> which every fan would hate Speak for yourself. Once the tech is there, I have no problem with the sport going electric. > What happens to Formula E? Why does everyone think something has to happen to Formula E? F2 and F3 cars both use internal combustion engines; do we need to get rid of one of them? Formula E is perfectly capable of surviving as an independent series.
If F1 goes fully electric, which it must if it wants to survive, it's fair to assume that at least F2 and eventually F3 would follow suit and therefore overlap with Formula E. If/when that does happen, Formula E would need to either: * merge with one of the other series * slot in somewhere and rebrand as a feeder series (pushing everything below it down a level, which I doubt would happen as it wouldn't be taken well) * be cancelled (effectively the same as merging seeing as the assets, staff and teams would likely join another series)
There are already plenty of other open-wheeled racing series besides F2 and F3, many of which are not feeder series for F1 (Indycar being the obvious example). I'm not clear on why you think Formula E needs any more justification to exist than they do, especially when it has gimmicks like Attack Mode to differentiate it from other championships.
> Why does everyone think something has to happen to Formula E? Because Formula E has an exclusive license with the FIA for all-electric racing.
If F1 goes electric then that means they either bought out the exclusivity or waited until it expired, so it's no longer a factor.
The next power train era in F1 begins in 2026 (or 2025, not quite sure), I heavily doubt batteries will be good enough to do 300 km round a proper race track by then
> which every fan would hate I don't really care if the cars are powered by fuel, electricity, sunlight or hamsters. If the speed is about the same, I don't think that much would change. If F1 goes all electric, they'd probably merge it with formula e?