Formula 1

[KashmireHawker]

Think I need a lie down after that...

Baku delivers again!

 

[Domh245]

Baku delivers again!

Indeed, Well Done Baku

I was beginning to worry that it'd be a 2016 again by the halfway point

 

[LOL The Irony]

CHECOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sergio almost had it taken away from him though. Good drives from Seb and Gasly, the former has turned things around.

Pirelli though... The last 4 high speed tyre failures have included Max and Lance, something needs to be looked at.
Here's a list of high speed failures over the last year:
Kvyat, Bottas & Hamilton - Silverstone 2020
Stroll - Mugello 2020
Verstappen - Imola 2020
Stroll & Verstappen - Baku 2020

 

[GB]

Think I need a lie down after that...

Baku delivers again!

I think we can also thank Pirelli for putting on a good show

 

[najaB]

Pirelli though... The last 4 high speed tyre failures have included Max and Lance, something needs to be looked at.

I agree that something needs to be looked at, but I'm not so quick to land the blame at Pirelli's door. After all, it's not like teams haven't run the tires outside the recommended spec and come a cropper as a result in the past.

 

[JamesT]

I agree that something needs to be looked at, but I'm not so quick to land the blame at Pirelli's door. After all, it's not like teams haven't run the tires outside the recommended spec and come a cropper as a result in the past.

I'd agree, don't Pirelli pretty much produce tyres to the specification the FIA want? It was deemed to be boring that a F1 car could cruise around on the same tyres for a whole race, so they were asked to produce tyres that wear out so teams are forced to work out a balance between outright performance and tyre wear.

 

[D365]

Well, fortune finally turned on Lew Lew, though that does at least resolve any championship worries. A most unexpected podium!

Combined with a poor showing from Bottas, a real weekend to forget from Mercedes

As soon as I clicked ”Post reply”, I knew that something would happen…

 

[Peregrine 4903]

What a race from Perez! Verstappen was superb and the tyre failure was so unlucky. Hamilton was also superb until the small error at then end, Hamilton and Verstappen really are in a class of their own.

Bottas though, that was embarassing, laughably terrible. Perez is winning the race and Bottas is finishing 12th on merit, with no damage or mistakes. Just not good enough for mercedes. I think Russel has to be in the Mercedes next year.

 

[najaB]

Bottas though, that was embarassing, laughably terrible... Just not good enough for mercedes. I think Russel has to be in the Mercedes next year.

Remind me, what position did Russel finish today?

 

[Darandio]

Remind me, what position did Russel finish today?

No position, he didn't finish.

 

[najaB]

No position, he didn't finish.

So it's difficult to make the case, as per @Peregrine 4903, that Russel had a better showing today than Bottas. Neither one scored any points, but one brought the car home in one piece.

 

[Darandio]

So it's difficult to make the case, as per @Peregrine 4903, that Russel had a better showing today than Bottas. Neither one scored any points, but one brought the car home in one piece.

Not sure you can attribute a gearbox failure when forming the grid for the restart as a Russell issue.

For me it's quite easy to make the case between them. Russell was consistently running around two tenths off Bottas' pace and indeed running behind him at points. One was in a Williams and one a Mercedes.

 

[LOL The Irony]

So it's difficult to make the case, as per @Peregrine 4903, that Russel had a better showing today than Bottas. Neither one scored any points, but one brought the car home in one piece.

This is actually dumb. If say Perez started on pole and Verstappen started 5th but Perez lost ERS-K during the first lap and finished 3rd, whilst Verstappen finished 2nd, would you say Perez had a bad race and Max had a better showing?

 

[Domh245]

The mitigating factor for Bottas is that the Mercedes was awful this weekend. Rather similar to Monaco where the Merc was a dog but Bottas found a way to drive around it and was a comfortable podium before the pitstop issue - granted Lewis was running 7th rather than 10th, but passing round Baku was proving to be difficult and Bottas had his typical luck during qualifying, towing Lewis the first time around and improving on the 2nd (with a tow in place) only for the red flags to come out.

That said, certainly seems like he won't be at the team next year - I feel like there's a bit of bad feeling in the team, and given the sort of season he's having I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to just call time. Baku certainly isn't the straw that broke the camels back

 

[LOL The Irony]

Pirelli are saying it was cuts the the tyres that caused the failures.

Pirelli say debris likely cause of Stroll and Verstappen crashes, as they reveal cut found in Hamilton tyre | Formula 1®

A pair of high-speed crashes for Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and race leader Max Verstappen – from which both drivers emerged unharmed – turned the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix on its head. But with both drivers appearing to have suffered left-rear punctures, Pirelli boss Mario Isola told media...

www.formula1.com

But Pirelli’s Head of F1 and Car Racing didn’t believe that tyre wear had been the issue in either incident, with Mario Isola telling the media: “I believe I can exclude that failures were due to tyre wear, because it's not a matter of tyre wear…. The rear-left tyre is not the most stressed tyre in Baku because... it's obviously the rear-right.

Meanwhile, Pirelli announced that they’d also spotted a cut in the hard tyre of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, discovered when he pitted under the red flag caused by Verstappen’s crash.

“We found a cut on the inside shoulder on the rear-left tyre used by Lewis Hamilton in the same stint [as Verstappen],” said Isola. “The cut was quite deep and big, probably 6-7cm, but not cutting the construction, so the tyre was still in one piece, just with this cut. And when there was the red flag and Lewis and came to the pit lane and changed the set of tyres, we were able to find the cut in the tyre.”

Pirelli will now air freight the tyres back to their Milan laboratories in order to perform a full investigation, with Isola adding that he would push to have a report for the teams in time for the French Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

 

[najaB]

Not sure you can attribute a gearbox failure when forming the grid for the restart as a Russell issue

Apologies. I only caught the abbreviated highlights on YouTube and thought I saw him getting caught up in one of the accidents.

 

[wireforever]

Didn't watch the race still recovering from nearly choking on my cornflakes!Watched the rally Italy on BT at 8am a rally driver was interviewed after completing a special stage several f words were used and then the coverage was cut.At least I expected the f word at 10pm on sky arts during their Download highlights from previous years

 

[swt_passenger]

I can understand what Lewis is feeling. I accidentally turned the mirrors off on my Focus by touching a switch accidentally. I’d had the car 6 months and never realised what all these buttons were for on the door…

 

[DarloRich]

A rare mistake from Hamilton cost him after Versatppen suffered a really unfortunate tire failure. The race was won. It was his. Then it wasn't! Fantastic for Perez and also great to see Vettel perhaps getting back to his best.

Bottas was not a happy little Finn. Mercedes should bin him now and get Russell in. The last race was his best chance to buy a new contract. All he had to do was crash into Verstappen at the first corner at Monaco. Easy. New contract.

 

[Geezertronic]

I'd agree, don't Pirelli pretty much produce tyres to the specification the FIA want? It was deemed to be boring that a F1 car could cruise around on the same tyres for a whole race, so they were asked to produce tyres that wear out so teams are forced to work out a balance between outright performance and tyre wear.

Didn't Pirelli say that the Hard tyre could do 40 laps though? Stroll's failure was on Lap 31 after starting on the Hards, and I doubt Verstappen's was anywhere near 40 laps old? Both were left rear so it will be interesting to see what Pirelli say

And it was Red Bull that actually suggested a Red Flag so teams could change their tyres to the Race Director following Verstappen's failure, although I also think that was so they could check Perez's hydraulics

 

[DarloRich]

Didn't Pirelli say that the Hard tyre could do 40 laps though? Stroll's failure was on Lap 31 after starting on the Hards, and I doubt Verstappen's was anywhere near 40 laps old? Both were left rear so it will be interesting to see what Pirelli say

Pirelli say that the tires had cuts on them perhaps from debris. Hamilton apparently had a similar cut tire which was found after the red flag. The nose of Hamiltons car was also damaged by debris.

 

[LOL The Irony]

Pirelli say that the tires had cuts on them perhaps from debris. Hamilton apparently had a similar cut tire which was found after the red flag. The nose of Hamiltons car was also damaged by debris.

If you watch Checo and Lewis going past Max's accident, there's a bit of debris in front of Lewis's car and it isn't there once he passes over it.

 

[alex17595]

There was an incident earlier in the race where Lewis hit something and Max cut the corner to avoid it.

 

[swt_passenger]

What’s the general view on the grid restart after a Red Flag for effectively a 2 lap sprint?

I suspect a few years ago that race might have had a couple more safety car laps just to finish the distance, or not restarted at all, in which latter case I suppose Max would have been declared the winner on previous lap positions?

 

[kristiang85]

A rare mistake from Hamilton cost him

Not so rare this year, when we've already seen him go off and hit a wall at Imola (and lucky for him, he got a red flag).

Also he did go off in his battle with Verstappen in Bahrain at Turn 10, but obviously there there was just concrete so it had no major consequences.

 

[43172]

What’s the general view on the grid restart after a Red Flag for effectively a 2 lap sprint?

I suspect a few years ago that race might have had a couple more safety car laps just to finish the distance, or not restarted at all, in which latter case I suppose Max would have been declared the winner on previous lap positions?

Was a surprise to see a 2 lap dash at the end, had fully expected the race to not be restarted given how few laps were left. But in the end it nice to see a sprint to the end where mistake can and did occur and the result is keeping a close gap in the title hunt.

That would have been the case a few years ago to finish under the safety car or not restart, the latter meaning countback would be used but can't remember if they go 1 or 2 laps back to declare a result as its been a long time since it was last needed (Japan 2014 if my memory is correct)

 

[Geezertronic]

What’s the general view on the grid restart after a Red Flag for effectively a 2 lap sprint?

I suspect a few years ago that race might have had a couple more safety car laps just to finish the distance, or not restarted at all, in which latter case I suppose Max would have been declared the winner on previous lap positions?

Someone (I cannot remember who) said that if the race had been called off, the count back would have seen Verstappen win the race as the race would have been counted back to the last completed lap. Bit of a grey area this as the last completed lap before the red flag would have not included Verstappen as he crashed before crossing the line, but I am not sure if that rule applies to all runners completing the "last lap".

Finishing under the safety car was an option, but it was Red Bull who messaged the FIA suggesting the red flag to "check/change tyres" for all runners as a precaution (and to check Perez's hydraulics of course )

 

[greatvoyager]

It was one of the more interesting races, much needed at the moment.

 

[KashmireHawker]

Silverstone is ON FOR A CAPACITY CROWD!

The British Grand Prix was cleared to have a 140,000 capacity crowd, and the Open Championship to be three-quarters full, after being added to the Government’s list of pilot events for the return of spectators.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Silverstone will join the Wimbledon singles finals in being allowed to sell out for the entire weekend of July 16-18 before the new planned end to the UK’s coronavirus restrictions of July 19.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/formula...ed-capacity-crowd-added-pilot-event-list/amp/

 

[DarloRich]

Silverstone is ON FOR A CAPACITY CROWD!

it's coming home. It's coming home, it coming, covids coming home...................................