Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 455. (Read 144020 times)

Certainly for a lot of the V6 period Mercedes have had the best car, and sometimes by a significant margin. However that hasn't been the case the whole time. Considering 2018 as an example, the Ferrari package was certainly equal to Mercedes and even ahead of them for some of the season. I'd agree with aesma on the Alonso angle. If Ferrari had Alonso instead of Vettel in 2018, it could well have been a Ferrari championship win.

If Hamilton has the best car, he wins. If Hamilton in a Merc is competing with Vettel in a just-as-good Ferrari, Hamilton wins. But put Alonso or maybe Verstappen in that just-as-good Ferrari, and whilst I'd still favour Hamilton, the question is certainly a lot more open.

On the year 2020, Valtteri Bottas continued being driver on the team Mercedez and it is a good thing for Mercedez since Bottas is a very skillful driver. In pre-season practice, he set the fastest time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. At the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, Bottas took pole position and led the race from start to finish. In wet conditions, Bottas qualified fourth for the Styrian Grand Prix and went on to finish second behind Hamilton in the event, cutting his championship lead to six points. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Bottas qualified second behind Hamilton, but made a false start and lost four positions in the first corner. By the end of the Grand Prix, he was able to reclaim third place, but lost the championship lead to Hamilton. And a lot of things happened between Hamilton and Bottas but Bottas left losing the series. But for this year 2021, Bottas remained loyal to Mercedez Team

At least some good news about DTM. In recent years there was so many manufacturers who decided to withdraw from competition, that in 2020 season there was only Audi and BMW remaining. And Audi also left it after previous season. Not the best times for this racing series.
BTW, correct me if I'm wrong, but Alex Albon will participate in this competition in 2021 in these weekends when there is no F1 races.

Ferrari never had the best car but more could have been done with the car they had. Imagine if Alonso had been kept instead of Vettel, I'm sure they would have more wins, maybe even a championship.

Mercedes come back to DTM with GT3 rules.

https://www.laola1.at/de/red/motorsport/dtm/mercedes-kehrt-nach-zweijaehriger-absenz-in-die-dtm-zurueck/

But no details at this moment, no teams or driver at this time...

^  He already had a couple of bad experiences with Fernando Alonso and to some extent with Nico Rosberg.  I’d like to see him pair up with Vettel tho.  I have always been curious how fast he would be inside that Merc.  Prolly beating everybody at qualifying at every event.

The clausule of his veto for the teammate is already been called the 'Verstappen clause'. So Hamilton can decides that he doesnt want to have Verstappen as his teammate.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/lewis-hamilton-verstappen-clause/

It is still a basic agreement and we are waiting for a full agreement and an official announcement. But I don't think there will be any problem from now on. I can't wait to see Hamilton getting his 8th title. 

After the Argentina and Texas Series were postponed to an undetermined date, the latest news if MotoGp Thailand canceled the temporary schedule for the Moto GP 2021. In addition, they also postponed renewing the five-year contract from 2021-2025 to 2022-2026. This was done because the Covid-19 pandemic continued. The price of the resignation license has not changed they still pay 25 million euros. But Dorna's side has not officially confirmed the delay so far.

Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/950723/1/updated-buriram-bows-out-2021-thailand-postpones-motogp-contract

Well if he wants to go for his 8th title he had to sign this contract. Now he got the best chances on winning it again.

But I think this whole circus around this contract was just for the public, everyone knew already that he would sign it anyways. Hamilton wanted for 4 years but Mercedes got here what the want, just for  2 years. I think for that Hamilton got his veto about his teammate.

And finally all this drama ends. I hardly imagined that won't sign new contract.

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In other news it was officially announced that Grosjean will race in IndyCar. He will meet old mate Marcus Eriksson there, interesting will we hear "I think Eriksson hit us" again lol. Anyway, it's great that will be able to race just few months after that horrible crash in Bahrain.

So Im pretty sure we already know the name of the next champion in season 2021 and it's going to be the 8th world championship title for him too.
Michael Schumacher's last rock is wobbling! Damn who/what comes after him?

Hamilton and Mercedes finally have an agreement. Its a contract for 2 yeats and Hamilton got a veto for who will be his teammate.

https://www.reportdoor.com/veto-power-and-2-year-contract-lewis-hamilton-and-mercedes-reportedly-reach-basic-agreement-on-f1-deal/

I think Vettel is a good driver but not a great driver. Perhaps the Red Bull car suited him better, or the specific regulations and car builds for those years suited his driving style, I don't know. But at Ferrari he's gone from great to good. I think this hit his confidence, and he's been into a downward spiral ever since. Plenty of drivers can drive well from the front, and Vettel can. But it's harder to drive near the front amongst challengers. I don't think Vettel can do that. Low confidence and not having the undisputed #1 car means he's trying too hard, which leads to mistakes, which means trying harder and having lower confidence, etc. And then for 2020, after he was told his contract wouldn't be renewed, I think he just lost motivation.

Hamilton 2021. Yes, I don't think anyone will beat him. Remember the reason that other cars were getting close to the Mercs at the end of 2020 was because Mercedes were so dominant in the first part of the season that they just stopped developing their 2020 car altogether and switched to working on the 2021 version. So Mercedes already have a significant development headstart on other teams, in what was already the best car anyway. And Hamilton is the best driver, this can't be disputed. Others (Verstappen etc) may have talent but don't have the racecraft or the maturity to eke out a result when things are going against them.

Did they?  Merc always had the best car since the switch to the V6.  I mean imagine switching Vettel and Hamilton during that time when ‘Ferrari had the package’...  I think Vettel would be winning the championship by a mile cos really Ferrari is kinda behind in F1 auto development for more than a decade now.

I have heard some news that Aston Martin F1 team will introduce its car on March 3. I have found a picture of the car but it is not confirmed whether this is real. The picture is below:



My source: https://twitter.com/Motorsport_TR/status/1356561005183193088/photo/1

If this is true, it looks really good I think.

@Cnut237 I honestly don’t understand was it’s Vettle’s over confidence, or arrogance or lack of faith, in himself which led him to give poor performances for Ferrari despite his vast talents. Lastly I don’t think that Hamilton will be beaten this year too, as I see no driver available that can beat Hamilton and win the title.

Sources:

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/ferrari/vettel-leaves-scuderia-f1-team/ (Some interesting points).

https://the-race.com/formula-1/when-will-hamiltons-title-run-finally-end-our-guesses/

I think it goes both ways, and Vettel's performance (or lack of) probably caused some baldness amongst Ferrari officials, too
It has to be said he really underperformed in the red car, and not just last season. There were a couple of years where the Ferrari package was right up there with Mercedes, but Ferrari didn't have the drivers to beat Hamilton.

LOLOLOL!  Yup!  I was laughing the first time I saw it and I’m still laughing when I’m looking at it right now.    I saw it a couple of days ago when my friend who’s a crazy mofo was looking at his phone and he goes:  ‘You wanna see Prince William in an F1 car?’.  Rofl.

Well if the FIA wants to do this they have to vaccinate the whole pitcrews and not only the drivers. If only the driver of a team is the only one who is healthy they still got a big problem.

But I don't think is necessary to vaccinate the drivers. When they are in the season they are all living in a big bubble and a lot of people outside of this bubble are getting their vaccination. So the chance they get it is also getting smaller.