Max needs to start bending the peak on his caps
F1 2021 Season
- Thread starter pauldyson1uk
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Good effort by Perez there, but ultimately not enough. Shame about that slow pit stop as he didn't do much wrong himself to lose that 3rd place. Not that best race but oh well.
Totto has been questioning the engine. They are supposed to be homologised and only reliability updates allowed, but totto thinks the engine introduced in france had a performance improvement. Might just be sour grapes.
Exactly my view as well. Especially in the constructors.
Its all good. I just want decent racing. Fingers crossed next seasons new rules will deliver that.
Toto and Lewis are so much content when they have the dominant car. Funny how that works
I’m going to repeat it every week, Bottas CANNOT be in that seat next season.
Wonder if next week is going to be a two stop race
It's so frustrating seeing Russell bogged down at Williams, or even Norris at McLaren who need to take that next step, then Bottas who until this season has at least usually finished 3rd, get to have that Mercedes...
If Mercedes bring out a huge upgrade and the championship gets tight what may let Max down is lack of experience leading or fighting for a title
Course it rains now...
Starting to look like? It's becoming a procession, it's nailed on unless Max goes off the rails.
This year the Red Bull is a much better car this year, added on top of the better drilled pit stops and Merc's dodgy strategy, its one way traffic.
I do feel bad for Russell, he's far too for Williams and IMO he stayed too long and might have hurt development. Hopefully not and he gets a much better seat next year, even if it's not Merc, no point in just waiting for a seat at Merc, as tempting as it may be.
Boring trophy. But hey atleast it isn't a random zoo animal like last week
Totto said last month that they arent going to spend all their resources on chasing incremental improvements to this years car. The pace is in the car, they just need to unlock it. Im guessing they are having setup issues as they have had for past few weekends on a Friday and they cant unlock that ideal neutral setup that puts the tyres in the optimum operating window.
Wouldn't suprise me if Max won every race from now till end of season.
Aren't they supposed to have masks on? The team and Lewis do but none of the others?
Wonder what Lewis does with his 2nd and 3rd place trophies
Wonder what Lewis does with his 2nd and 3rd place trophies
I liked it, different at least. I think it was designed by an artist, hence the 'random zoo animal'
Hopefully he does
All the trophies go to Mercedes HQ. Lewis was asked about all his race winning trophies in a interview last year and he said he'd like to get them off Mercedes when he retired.
Oh thats interesting, I thought the constructors ones would go there but not the drivers ones, I can see why Lewis would like to have at least some of his at his home
Mercedes do have some performance in there for sure, hasn’t been a single weekend so far where they haven’t been chasing a setup into FP3 yet which indicates it’s a difficult one to figure out.
What they can’t make up is an engine/drag deficit, ironic given how much domination they had over the hybrid era. They seem adamant about not spending on this car further so it’s really Max’s to lose now.
Its a nice changing of the guard really and if he times his career nicely Max is going to be right up there in terms of all the stats. That said I can’t stand Horner, never will so I hope we don’t get any sort of Red Bull dominations again for years on end.
What they can’t make up is an engine/drag deficit, ironic given how much domination they had over the hybrid era. They seem adamant about not spending on this car further so it’s really Max’s to lose now.
Its a nice changing of the guard really and if he times his career nicely Max is going to be right up there in terms of all the stats. That said I can’t stand Horner, never will so I hope we don’t get any sort of Red Bull dominations again for years on end.
I don't understand the Ferrari, looked a bit slow at the start then both end up in good positions in the end.
I have no issue with max even though i am a lewis fan. Cant stand Horner though. We all know Max has the talent to be a multiple WDC.
If Mercedes can somehow copy RBs rear wing and make it work for themselves they might be able to claw back that 0.2 sec a lap difference and make the season interesting again. Anthony Davidson mentioned it in commentary and hes the Mercedes simulator driver, so i guess they know thats a deficit they need to correct of possible. Easier said than done.
The tyre pressure regs that were enforced last race and the "banning" of the flexible rear wing have cost them some track time. Though Ferrari were up front from start of season and said very little development would go into this seasons car.
In fairness to Mercedes they were pretty hamstrung by the rule changes for this season that were basically designed to slow them down.
It's an understandable move - they were so far ahead it probably needed to happen - but it's turned this season into yet another procession, just one for Max and RB.
It's an understandable move - they were so far ahead it probably needed to happen - but it's turned this season into yet another procession, just one for Max and RB.
I do enjoy hearing Lewis and Toto complain about money and development. I dont remember that being their attitude when their dominant car kept them Infront every week
F1 shooting itself in the foot again. Should have left the rules as they were for this season. We would have got to see RB and Max bring the fight to Mercedes and Mercedes best ever F1 car, the 2020 edition. Aston Martin would have been up there. Instead we have most teams now having stopped developing this years car entirely because of the biggest rule hanges in F1 for 30 years next season.
Don't get some of the complaining. Of course, we all want to see great racing and a good battle between the top two, but it's still fairly close at the top. One feck up from Max and a non-finish and it's back on. I think Hamilton has won 3 races and Max 4? Something like that. I mean, it COULD turn into a procession, but I thought last week was a great race. Is it just because it's not Hamilton storming ahead like he has been for the past few years thanks to that car?
That's the vibe I get.
That's the vibe I get.
He's obviously on a promise that he will get a Mercedes seat in 2022 otherwise he would have jumped I think.
He was already making a lot of noise this summer, I can't see him doing ANOTHER year in the Williams next.
He shows his class every time though, today he was flying and without that reliability issue could have been top 10 no problem. Poor guy has zero luck.
It's not the engine, it's the downforce. While the engine has clearly improved it's the overall package.
Red Bull have so much more downforce they can run a much skinnier rear wing which gives you way less drag. You get a much better top speed + it reduces the effectiveness of DRS from people following you.
Mercedes engine is still strong, Perez couldn't get passed Norris even with DRS. Red bull just have the perfect mixture now of great downforce + great top speed.
Was not able to watch today, worth watching the highlights later ?
Not really. Merc never came close to Max. Bottas got ahead of Perez when Red Bull screwed up a tyre
Do we have any hold outs that think Merc is the better car?
People were just as bored when Hamilton was winning processions too, it's just that you're airbrushing history a bit - there were a few huge battles between Merc and Ferrari where the latter had the faster car for periods. The last 2 seasons were definitely a procession through, and resulted in a rule change to slow down Mercedes for this season.
This year its only close because of a couple of good tactical calls and Hamilton's tyre management, but that can only keep away the clearly faster Red Bull for so long, especially with Max behind the wheel, and it looks like the speed gap has widened too, so it's only gonna get more one sided.
Nice to see Hamilton finally getting some competition after seven years of winning because he had the superior car. Funnily, I don’t remember him bitching about this problem when he could stroll around the track and win without breaking sweat. What I miss from him is the ability to appreciate a brilliant driver, but it’s always just about the car. And of course all the other political ramblings he brings with him to the interviews.
Same here, it's an 18 point gap after 8 races and Merc has looked stronger on several tracks so I don't get where all the doom and gloom is coming from either. Merc's tactics are being wildly criticized as well after last weekend yet in Spain a few weeks ago the exact same thing happened but in Merc's favour, which everyone seems to have forgotten.
That's probably what's clouding my judgement maybe. Recency bias, because it was terrible to watch and maybe I'm wrong, but generally I think people were more accepting of it because it was Hamilton winning. Personally, I'm just happy to see soemone challenge him and having a different leader. And I'm a fan of Max.
I do agree generally, though. I obviously want it to be more competitive. Obviously that's not going to hapen next week.
Yeah, exactly. That's why i made the comment about Hamilton. Obviously most on here love him, so it's like they're saying it's over and it's a procession as some sort of jinx. Kind of like what us United fans do when Liverpool are involved in certain games. "They're never gonna lose it form here" type of thing. Becuase one mistake from Max and it's back on.
It's just nice to have a battle at the top. I mean it COULD turn into a procession, but until then I'm going to enjoy it. Obviously today was pretty straght forward, and possibly nex week. But after the last two or three seasons, it's nice to have someone else up there.
Don't forget Hamilton locking up on the restart from 2nd and 18pts to 0pts. It would be tied right now.
Yeah fair enough, I think there's a certain amount of acceptance when it's your guy leading the conga over the line, which explains a little bit why you're happier with this season's procession
.I quite like Lewis, but I don't mind Max either (in fact the only person I don't like at the top is Horner, there's just something so slimy about him), so what I want to see is some racing, which doesn't look on the cards this year.
True, but again that was a freak accident in a race that the RB was much faster in again, this season's championship is inevitable, there simply aren't going to be enough accidents for the Merc to keep in touch with the Red Bull.
I agree. That would have given Merc a small shout. But RB are now way ahead bar a Honda blow up.
What's changed the last few races? It's like Ferrari finding pace a while back.