Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 346. (Read 144208 times)

If im Red Bull i send Perez to crash L.W. So they come back the Silverstone crash and give Verstappen the championship and also Mercedes wins the constructor. WIN - WIN. 

With good teamwork from Redbull, Hamilton could nothing against the strategy
Tomorrow will be a hell of GP.

As always Bottas is useless was better for Mercedes to swap him with Bottas 3 races ago.

It was a superb qualifying lap from Verstappen. He was aided a bit by that Perez slipstream, but apparently that only gained him about 0.2s, so he would have beaten Hamilton to pole quite comfortably anyway.
I don't know what's happening with the softs, with Perez doing it too, it's almost like Red Bull were always planning both of them to start on the softs to get an advantage off the line at the start of the race to try to gain control of position on the track, and then try to hold it as long as they can.

If Lewis can beat Max off the line, then it's definitely advantage Mercedes.
But if Max gets away quickest, which you would expect as he's on softs and on pole anyway, then maybe Perez comes into play, and they can use him to control when Hamilton has to pit. But you'd expect Hamilton to go longer than the other two anyway as he's on mediums. Maybe the plan is stop Perez early, run Max as long as possible so long as he can keep Lewis behind, so they are both slowing as Max's tyres wear down, and then they both come out behind Perez, who let's Max through but holds up Lewis? I don't know. There are a few options I suppose, and it all depends how the first couple of laps play out.

It’s close between the driver you expect and the driver you would never expect because of the stigma that he ‘just had the best car’. Lol.  

Anyway, nice qualifying for Verstappen as expected.  But I wonder what’s Red Bull’s strategy tomorrow since Verstappen ruined his mediums in Q2 and was forced to take his fastest lap with the softs...  Prolly run the softs for as long as he can and slap on the mediums?

2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying Results

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   1m23.322s   1m22.800s   1m22.109s
2   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m22.845s   1m23.145s   1m22.480s
3   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m23.553s   1m23.256s   1m22.931s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   1m23.350s   1m23.135s   1m22.947s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m23.624s   1m23.174s   1m22.992s
6   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m23.117s   1m23.246s   1m23.036s
7   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m23.467s   1m23.202s   1m23.122s
8   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m23.428s   1m23.404s   1m23.220s
9   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   1m23.764s   1m23.420s   1m23.389s
10   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m23.829s   1m23.448s   1m23.409s
11   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Alpine F1 Team   1m23.846s   1m23.460s   
12   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m23.489s   1m24.043s   
13   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m24.061s   1m24.066s   
14   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m24.118s   1m24.251s   
15   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m24.225s   1m24.305s   
16   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m24.338s       
17   George Russell   GBR   Williams Racing   1m24.423s       
18   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m24.779s       
19   Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m24.906s       
20   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m25.685s

Max will be starting on Softs that going to give him advantage over Hamilton who will be on Mediums different strategies will make the difference as RDB bailed on starting with Medium strategies in Q2 after Verstappen had a lock and flatten his Medium tire and he had no spare Mediums to race on case the tires he had will make disadvantages for him in Race I think that Mercedes still didn't show their best in Qualifications and the 1 stop Strategy could work for them.

Max will start last race of season from pole, Lewis 2nd. Gap between them isn't small, 0.371 second. In fast lap Perez helped to Max a lot by giving slipstream on the straight..
Norris 3rd, Perez 4th, Bottas just 6th, it may be big factor tomorrow.

I also think that this was more of a bluff. But we will know soon, the qualifying has just started.

Regarding a possible penalty for Hamilton for repeatedly obstructing a fast lap, when will there be a decision?

Practice 3 done.

Max got some problems with his back wing.

Qualify will start now.


1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m23.274s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   1m23.488s
3   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m24.025s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   1m24.047s
5   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m24.106s
6   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m24.223s
7   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m24.251s
8   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m24.595s
9   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m24.733s
10   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m24.758s
11   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m24.821s
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   1m24.834s
13   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m25.037s
14   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m25.048s
15   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Alpine F1 Team   1m25.094s
16   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m25.115s
17   George Russell   GBR   Williams Racing   1m25.220s
18   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m25.322s
19   Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m25.340s
20   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m26.332s


Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/994522/1/f1-2021-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-3

I would go with Hamilton because i think that he simply has a significantly stronger car at the moment, basically since the last 3 races or so. Verstappen always has to risk absolutetly everything in the qualifying in order to be at the same level as Hamilton and last week in Saudi Arabia he had to pay for that. So i would guess Verstappen will not go all out today because if he crashes again or is not able to produce a valid round then the championship could already be lost today if he has to start from position 5 or so. So i think he plays it rather safe to day and would also be satisfied with a 2nd place in the qualifying today.

To be honest, I have no prediction for the result of the Qualifying. Hamilton and Verstappen are so close together after the 3rd practice Session.
What are your thoughts?

I've always suspected that those Alpine boys were planning something. And Alonso wouldn't have comeback if they didn't have a few tricks up their sleeves. Also, I’m really interested to see if teams like Alpine and McLaren can be competitive with the Mercedes and Red Bull with the new regulations, or if we’re gonna see the same few teams dominate.

P2 happened later yesterday, results for the top drivers were:

1   Hamilton     1:23.691
2   Ocon           1:24.034
3   Bottas         1:24.083
4   Verstappen  1:24.332
5   Perez          1:24.400
6   Alonso        1:24.495

Always difficult to tell who is sand-bagging, who is running a high fuel load, etc... but it's noticeable that both Alpines are right up there, as Ocon was last time around.
Is there really the possibility that the Alpines could get in amongst Lewis and Max during qualifying?

That can happen for sure but can also happen without any team orders,Max Verstappen crashes Lewis Hamilton in the first corner if they start side by side which will be the most likely scenario here and wins the Championship.I know this is not sportsmanship but both Senna and Prost have done the same against each other many many years ago and they won a Championship this way respectively.I surely hope to not see such an event but here at Abu Dhabi is all to be played for so expect anything from the drivers here,it is a declared war.

Max seems fast enough here, and he won it last year if I remember correctly, that should be more than enough to give him some confidence boost. Hamilton didn't seem all that well and lost a lot of lap times, normally he is not someone who pushes the boundaries all that much, I would have expected that from Max but not Lewis.

I am 100% sure that Lewis will get used to the new lap (yas marina changed this year) and he will be doing better at FP2, lets see what happens on FP2 and we could have some discussions after that, one practice run means nothing. Plus, most teams uses this as settings adjustment and not really a race practice at all, they check the car and see how it responds and make some changes on wings and tires that they are allowed to change in order to get the best results. I am guessing both teams will try their best outside of drivers as well, engineers must be 100x more excited then we are.

Is it not very surprising to you that Verstappen shows quite comparable speed with Hamilton, which is absolutely impossible to say about Perez? Personally, this surprises me, and I am absolutely not sure that it is solely a matter of Max's piloting skills. By the way, Bottas' car looked quite good in the previous race, but due to restarts, he was cut off from the leading group and could not participate in the fight for leadership because of it. Although of course we understand perfectly well that because of team tactics Bottas would not fight for the lead with Hamilton, but he could compete with Verstappen in the fight for second place, and that was exactly what happened at the very beginning of the race, before these accidents, which were followed by restarts.

It's not difficult question at all, they show this thing every race. And this year they are going to give special award for most overtakes. But I'm a bit surprised to see Kimi 3rd there because Alfa Romeo isn't that competetive comparing with Alpine or Aston Martin.

I also don't wantto see such thing. It would be shame if champion title would be won in such dirty way. But considering things which already happned this season, such thing is fully possible. And I think it's possible that back wings of both teams, Bottas and Perez may get involved into it andasked to make banzai move.
But if something similar would happen, 2021 championship would be remembered forever as one of the most contraversial.

I don't think it's a Mercedes upgrade, I think it's more that Red Bull were forced to ditch their illegal flexing wing for the later part of the season, which has dropped their performance. Mercedes have improved a bit, but Red Bull have dropped back. There is also Hamilton's new engine for Brazil, which obviously helped in Brazil and maybe a bit in Saudi. As for Abu Dhabi, we don't know how much sand-bagging is happening. Best thing in these situations is look at bookmakers odds, they generally have a very good understanding of what is most likely to happen.

I think is a bluff.
They did the same as the last GP on the practices sessions where they were hiding their real potential.

Anyway with the new layout should be easier to overtake so the fastest car, in the end, should win.

The whole thing seems like Mercedes idk how have upgrade so much their car so much, in the last races Hamilton its literally flying i think MV dont how much chance in the proper race.

Do you realice LW make the lap record in Jeddah with the endplate damaged, and i really cant belive how all the media say no, its because he have low fuel bla bla, come on man , all know that car its flying and its really strange how in the last races he have so much power than his partner and MV.

I dont wanna to put the finger over anything but its the same sensation i have in the 2019 with the Ferrari PU.(and all we know how it ended).

After all i dont wanna nobody to win because the two seems a really bad losers and persons, they didnt respect one rule, allways pushing to the limit and saying the fault was in the otherside. I know a champions its that but the two past by far the aceptable.

Sorry for my bad english as allways.

If you interpret it that way and continue to believe the current results, RedBull is not bluffing, it currently looks very good for Hamilton to win his next world title. But maybe RedBull is just bluffing and they can go one better tomorrow in qualifying. But we'll see, tomorrow, I think RedBull and Verstappen will be able to add something in there performance.