Official 2021 Russian Grand Prix Thread **SPOILERS**
Discussion
I’m putting this up a bit early as work will be busy next week.
Round 15 and Russia. Let’s hope that we can talk about racing, rather than crashing, this time. It will be interesting to see who has the upper hand between Riccardo and Norris after the McLaren 1-2.
Traditionally this is a Mercedes circuit, but this year I’m not so sure. Max will have a 3-place grid penalty, so the smart money seems to be on Red Bull taking a 4th engine for Max and a likely back of the grid start.
Note it’s back to the usual GP schedule for this weekend.
Date(s): Friday 24 September to Sunday 26 September 2021.
UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)
All sessions are live on Sky F1 and highlights on Channel 4.
Live timing for all sessions available here:
https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html
Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:
https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...
Weather forecast:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/491422
Tyre options:
Teams have two hard, three mediums and eight soft sets available per driver for each weekend.
2020 race result:
2020 Race Highlights (Bottas‘ last win, worth watching for Sainz neatly removing the front left suspension on the wall…)
https://youtu.be/EmZtTd1YRmA
Round 15 and Russia. Let’s hope that we can talk about racing, rather than crashing, this time. It will be interesting to see who has the upper hand between Riccardo and Norris after the McLaren 1-2.
Traditionally this is a Mercedes circuit, but this year I’m not so sure. Max will have a 3-place grid penalty, so the smart money seems to be on Red Bull taking a 4th engine for Max and a likely back of the grid start.
Note it’s back to the usual GP schedule for this weekend.
Date(s): Friday 24 September to Sunday 26 September 2021.
UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)
All sessions are live on Sky F1 and highlights on Channel 4.
Live timing for all sessions available here:
https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html
Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:
https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...
Weather forecast:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/491422
Tyre options:
Teams have two hard, three mediums and eight soft sets available per driver for each weekend.
2020 race result:
2020 Race Highlights (Bottas‘ last win, worth watching for Sainz neatly removing the front left suspension on the wall…)
https://youtu.be/EmZtTd1YRmA
Edited by Piginapoke on Saturday 18th September 22:56
Those highlights from last year, almost make it seem like it was an interesting race. It really wasn’t - the highlights being Sainz hilariously misjudging the escape road chicane on the first lap, and Lewis getting an unprecedented in-race penalty, for his practice starts in the wrong place before the race had started.
I’m still not 100% sure Max will want to take his engine penalty here, Turkey would be a better bet for overtaking.
I’m still not 100% sure Max will want to take his engine penalty here, Turkey would be a better bet for overtaking.
Sandpit Steve said:
Those highlights from last year, almost make it seem like it was an interesting race. It really wasn’t - the highlights being Sainz hilariously misjudging the escape road chicane on the first lap, and Lewis getting an unprecedented in-race penalty, for his practice starts in the wrong place before the race had started.
I’m still not 100% sure Max will want to take his engine penalty here, Turkey would be a better bet for overtaking.
If he doesn't he's dropped due to his 'interesting attack' last race. Even if the RB goes well in Russia, he's going to seriously struggle to catch and pass Lewis without ruining his tyres and eventually losing out later on.I’m still not 100% sure Max will want to take his engine penalty here, Turkey would be a better bet for overtaking.
I think he pretty much has to take his engine penalty here - unless the RB boffins have concluded the Turkey benefit is so great and important that they can more or less throw this GP away. I'm sure the boffins in question have more time and data to consider that question than we ever will have!
Thanks for starting the thread, always feels like when the new thread pops up it's time for us to move on from the last one.
Still don't understand how the rules will apply to the grid penalties, so that's going to be an interesting discussion in its own right.
Do you think we may finally see the much-mentioned little-seen new Ferrari power unit here?
Still don't understand how the rules will apply to the grid penalties, so that's going to be an interesting discussion in its own right.
Do you think we may finally see the much-mentioned little-seen new Ferrari power unit here?
Flooble said:
Do you think we may finally see the much-mentioned little-seen new Ferrari power unit here?
I think they're really struggling with it. The fact they had to cheat the fuel flow limit just to remain competitive in 2019 suggests that the mighty Ferrari were actually finding themselves not able to keep up with Merc or Honda at the sharp end of PU development.With the cheat gone and the new financial restrictions, playing catch up is not going to be easy - as attested by the meagre 10bhp they're estimating..
I'm certain we'll see the new engine soon as they'll ideally want to run it as close to a third of a season as possible to prove reliability. I'm not expecting them to suddenly be at the level of their competitors in PU terms however.
thegreenhell said:
PU development is outside the cost cap, so they can still spend as much as they like on it. It may even help Ferrari as they could divert the extra $200m they can no longer spend on the rest of the car towards the engine instead. That's what old man Enzo would have done anyway.
That's why I said financial restrictions, not cost cap. The restriction in terms of PU suppliers is that they can only charge about half of what they previously did to the teams that they supply.As you say, the fact the teams are being forced to save on team budget, perhaps they can divert more to the PU development side - I'm sure some will. The problem is that further supply cost reductions are likely and PU development cost caps are already being discussed. Makes it a bit awkward to go and hire another 100 people to work on the PU now, if in a few years they all have to be paid off and sent away again.
TheDeuce said:
LaurasOtherHalf said:
thegreenhell said:
Should be an easy 1-2 for Merc after the drama of the last few races.
Isn’t that what everyone said about spa and monza?I know it’s said about Russia being the best place for an engine penalty but the best place for max to take his is the race following a mathematical inability for lewis to win the championship.
I reckon they’ll keep trying to win.
LaurasOtherHalf said:
TheDeuce said:
LaurasOtherHalf said:
thegreenhell said:
Should be an easy 1-2 for Merc after the drama of the last few races.
Isn’t that what everyone said about spa and monza?I know it’s said about Russia being the best place for an engine penalty but the best place for max to take his is the race following a mathematical inability for lewis to win the championship.
I reckon they’ll keep trying to win.
I suspect he will take the penalty here because it's a difficult place for them to get a great result - they would always be reaching here, so why not take the penalty now and have a better day at a circuit that suits them better. That's in addition to this being the best value time to take the penalty as it effectively wipes out his additional penalty for driving his F1 car on to Lewis's head...
I appreciate what your saying - but I just don't see anything trumping the fact he can take two penalties as one and as a bonus, do so at a circuit he probably wasn't very optimistic about in any case.
thegreenhell said:
Max already has a grid penalty to take here anyway, so it's more than likely Lewis be on pole with a few cars in between them.
Exactly - and with Lewis in front in clean air on a circuit that his car enjoys - it probably won't matter if Max is a few rows back or at the very back.. Either way, he's fast enough to find his way back to a podium finish but I expect his tyres won't be up to the job of challenging Lewis by the time he has fought his way back up the grid, wherever he starts from. Lewis out in front will have a significant advantage.Of course it's possible that Max could have an epic start and Lewis botch his, and/or it's possible safety cars etc could play in to Max's hands... But none of these things are known or particularly likely - based on what is likely, it's a Lewis win regardless so take the penalty.
As a side note I don't actually agree with the principal of taking two penalties at once - it shouldn't be possible to do that imo. But so long as it is, common sense says it's typically the best option.
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