F1 Testing 2021: Bahrain (12th - 14th)

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this_is_gav said:
Alpha Tauri looked initially looked good, especially so Sunday, but then Peke_Formula1 saw that Tsunoda had been opening DRS 200m earlier than anyone else! They still look good and appear to have a car that gives their drivers good confidence and might even head the midfield or come in just behind McLaren.
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While the early activation clearly flattered Tsunoda's time, that Alpha looked smooth AF, especially with Yuki driving. It's clearly a well balanced car, and I think they'll be battling in the second group of cars.
 
I think this may be Hamilton's toughest year, with the expectation of the fastest car and to be an 8 times WDC. Personally, Hamilton has nothing to prove, Turkey 2020 said it all.

Verstappen and Red Bull on the rise, if the Mercedes is behind the RB on performance. If Hamilton is driving a sub-par car but has a chance to fight; it could be quite something.
 
Ninco! said:
I think this may be Hamilton's toughest year, with the expectation of the fastest car and to be an 8 times WDC. Personally, Hamilton has nothing to prove, Turkey 2020 said it all.

Verstappen and Red Bull on the rise, if the Mercedes is behind the RB on performance. If Hamilton is driving a sub-par car but has a chance to fight; it could be quite something.
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If it turns out Hamilton has got a "sub-par" car and still ends up with an 8th WDC, maybe that will silence the Hamilton hatters once and for all.
 
UTmaniac said:
It would be nice to have a truly competitive season, decided on the track, without acts of god such as DNFs and rain that starts just after a contender has passed the pit entry.
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and practice starts deemed not to be within the correct area. Hopefully we don't have another cringe message from Bottas to his critics :p

kitfit1 said:
If it turns out Hamilton has got a "sub-par" car and still ends up with an 8th WDC, maybe that will silence the Hamilton hatters once and for all.
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We all know it wouldn't. There isn't a logical argument behind the hate.

Locky said:
This is absolutely true...

Side note I think Max will be champion this season..
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Even if Mercedes are on the back foot, and I'm not convinced, we've seen how they can out develop everyone in a season.
 
Agreed, Merc aren't suddenly going to be rubbish but they do seem to have some genuine problems with their floor design. So it's a question of given the restrictions on development and the wind tunnel this year, how long until Merc get on top of their problem.

As I think once they do, they'll be comfortably at the front again but until that point it could be an interesting season. But will they fix it fast enough for another consecutive WDC and WCC.
 
Locky said:
I think Merc are in trouble, I don't think they are sanbanging as such but we will see come race day.
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I've heard this come out of F1 start-of-season testing pretty much ever since Mercedes started dominating. It might be worth considering that Mercedes stopped development on last year's car and switched their attention to this year's car half way through last season. That's a lot of extra time and resources put into this years car, likely far more than any of the other big teams.
 
Steampunk said:
I've heard this come out of F1 start-of-season testing pretty much ever since Mercedes started dominating. It might be worth considering that Mercedes stopped development on last year's car and switched their attention to this year's car half way through last season. That's a lot of extra time and resources put into this years car, likely far more than any of the other big teams.
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I think the difference is that in previous years, Merc were pretty bullet proof and while they rarely topped the time sheets but their long run pace was very good and the car looked stable and great at every stage of the corner. This year though they lost a significant amount of time to problems and when they were on track it rarely looked stable.

As above, I think Merc will sort it out but this is the first time in the hybrid era that I think they have genuinely looked a bit on the back foot.
 
I think it worth adding a few more thoughts into this discussion. We all know Merc started development of this years car early on last year, well before everybody else. Let's assume they were happy with the result of that development early as well.
If you accept they were happy with it, if you were Merc, wouldn't you start looking towards next years car at that point ? I know i would. Looking back at pre season testing who's to know how many bit's of next years car were bolted to that Merc ? It could easily explain what we all saw in testing.................or maybe i'm just an old sceptic with a very simple mind lol.
 
Greboth said:
I think the difference is that in previous years, Merc were pretty bullet proof and while they rarely topped the time sheets but their long run pace was very good and the car looked stable and great at every stage of the corner. This year though they lost a significant amount of time to problems and when they were on track it rarely looked stable.

As above, I think Merc will sort it out but this is the first time in the hybrid era that I think they have genuinely looked a bit on the back foot.
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Long run pace still looked good, balance should be easy to resolve by such a strong team. Look at their ‘diva car’ a number of years ago.

kitfit1 said:
I think it worth adding a few more thoughts into this discussion. We all know Merc started development of this years car early on last year, well before everybody else. Let's assume they were happy with the result of that development early as well.
If you accept they were happy with it, if you were Merc, wouldn't you start looking towards next years car at that point ? I know i would. Looking back at pre season testing who's to know how many bit's of next years car were bolted to that Merc ? It could easily explain what we all saw in testing.................or maybe i'm just an old sceptic with a very simple mind lol.
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Also possible, although not sure what the e rules are there? They can’t stop you testing proof of concept surely?

I guess we’ll find out, although Bahrain perhaps won’t be the best indicator unless red bull are miles ahead.
 
Having a team as dominant as Mercedes is awful for F1. Lets hope they aren't a country mile above the competition for another year. They might even have to think about putting a top driver in their second seat if RB puts up more of a fight than they have been.
 
fez said:
Having a team as dominant as Mercedes is awful for F1. Lets hope they aren't a country mile above the competition for another year. They might even have to think about putting a top driver in their second seat if RB puts up more of a fight than they have been.
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It’s been like this for a long time. Ferrari, red bull and then Mercedes dominance with little in between. Mercedes dominance is just a small part of the problem for F1. I’m struggling to get excited about this season, we’ll see how it goes.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
It’s been like this for a long time. Ferrari, red bull and then Mercedes dominance with little in between. Mercedes dominance is just a small part of the problem for F1. I’m struggling to get excited about this season, we’ll see how it goes.
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Yeah, I was going to say that its always been an issue but I guess I have only taken more of an interest in F1 since the Mercedes era. Any sport that is 95% mechanical/equipment and 5% sportsperson is going to have the same issue.
 
I hope Mercedes get caught out keeping bottas. They should be under pressure to need two good drivers. If they truly have slipped back keeping bottas could easily cost them. I hope it does.

Ferrari, rbr, mclaren have all upgraded (sainz was good so I'll call that a side-grade)
 
413x said:
I hope Mercedes get caught out keeping bottas. They should be under pressure to need two good drivers. If they truly have slipped back keeping bottas could easily cost them. I hope it does.

Ferrari, rbr, mclaren have all upgraded (sainz was good so I'll call that a side-grade)
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Agreed. It would have been great experience for Russell to get him in that car this year. Bottas is just so average.
 
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