Poll: Portugese Grand Prix 2021, Portimao - Race 3/23

Rate the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix out of ten


  • Total voters
    89
  • Poll closed .
The gravel run off areas were replaced because of safety and continuing the race. They didn't want cars skipping across the gravel into the barriers, or digging in and rolling, and then having to stop the race to clear the track and dig out cars. They also wanted cars to be able to continue racing if they made a mistake and went wide, in order to keep the spectacle going. This was why all those tarmac areas were introduced in the first place.

Drivers of course have figured out how to gain advantages from this and continue to push the limits. It's the stewards inability to consistently police and punish track limit infractions that are the problem.

Almost needs a hybrid of a narrow but significant enough strip of gravel or astro then tarmac after.
 
Weird comment? Ricciardo did end up a second back in Quali but he made up a lot of places through the race, and wasn't that far behind Norris on pace. Not really comparable to Mazepin ending up over a minute back from his teammate, is it?

Well it's 2-1 in qualifying to Dani Ric. He has admitted himself that Norris has comprehensively beat him in the first couple of races. I'd expect the gap will narrow soon enough.
 
Almost needs a hybrid of a narrow but significant enough strip of gravel or astro then tarmac after.

They hate gravel because loads of it ends up on the track if someone goes off. There are some tracks that have that sort of layout with kerbs, but drivers have been known just to go off track before the sausage kerbs, barrel along the tarmac and then rejoin the track and claim it was an accident, all while being able to carry more speed into and out of the corner by widening the car's trajectory. Then you can get issue of cars being launched or broken by any sort of significant kerbing, or spinning out by putting one wheel on grass.

TBH, I don't think changing run-off areas like that are the solution, because the drivers will still figure out how to game the changes, and then you are back at the same issue of the stewards not policing the track limits consistently.
 
Just punish any driver that puts all 4 wheels off the track (over white lines), where they gain a lap time advantage.

Go off because you’ve had a tank slapper = fine

Go off because you’re pushing for pole/overtake = off with their heads/warning :p
 
I think it's fair to say that no one will better Hamilton on track. Everyone is just playing the waiting game of his retirement day.
Really? I don't get that impression. Rather, I get the impression he's not averse to breaking the rules.

The thought of Max being laid back is rather odd, he's about as up-tight as people come.
 
I think it's fair to say that no one will better Hamilton on track. Everyone is just playing the waiting game of his retirement day.

I think its almost impossible to say really. There is no argument that Hamilton is easily one of the top drivers of this generation regardless of the car. Its F1 though. You can't really separate the car and the driver in any meaningful way. Hamilton knows the car, the team and everything surrounding it inside out and its all set up for him. The other driver is 100% the number 2.

He was beaten by Rosberg a few years ago despite all this though and I wouldn't say Rosberg was a particularly special driver. Unless Mercedes have a top quality number 2 driver we will never know how good Hamilton truly is. Lets be honest. If Bottas left Mercedes, who would take him?
 
Bring back the grass in the run-off. I know that it's a safety thing to use tarmac everywhere, but unless they're consistently penalising drivers for exploiting limits, then it's going to keep on happening.
 
I know Anderson gets a lot of stick, but he does some cracking stuff for The Race, particularly his appearances on their excellent Bring Back V10s podcasts (not actually about bringing back V10s, but talking about races and events from the V10 era - a must for anyone even remotely sentimental about that period).
 
I know Anderson gets a lot of stick, but he does some cracking stuff for The Race, particularly his appearances on their excellent Bring Back V10s podcasts (not actually about bringing back V10s, but talking about races and events from the V10 era - a must for anyone even remotely sentimental about that period).
He has offered some good insight in the past but a lot of what he writes lately (as evidenced above really) feels outdated or doesn't really utilise his understanding of the technical detail to explain things very well. Does he know his stuff? Obviously, but some of his theories feel like he's throwing ideas at a wall to find the one which will stick.

I'd much rather listen to (or read) Scarbs any day.
 
Does he know his stuff? Obviously, but some of his theories feel like he's throwing ideas at a wall to find the one which will stick.
Oh definitely, he often come across as someone who's been out of the industry for a couple of decades, and it particularly shows when he's analysing cars in pre-season, but some of his insights do still stand up and some of his historical stories are brilliant.
 
They should just give drivers one set of race tyres which will last them the whole race like they do fuel, this race was won for Hamilton by Mercedes strategists with about 40 laps to go. Red Bull were pretty much check mated with over half the race still left.
 
They should just give drivers one set of race tyres which will last them the whole race like they do fuel, this race was won for Hamilton by Mercedes strategists with about 40 laps to go. Red Bull were pretty much check mated with over half the race still left.

Is that even possible? It would end up being so hard that it would make lap times awful. Unfortunately F1 has been all about the car/strategy for a long time. The driver is that last 5% but the mechanical and tactical side has been king for a long time.
 
Is that even possible? It would end up being so hard that it would make lap times awful. Unfortunately F1 has been all about the car/strategy for a long time. The driver is that last 5% but the mechanical and tactical side has been king for a long time.

It's been done. Tyres, fuelling, they've done every combination. Perilli could easily make a tyre that has good grip and lasts a race, but no one wants it because the governing body thinks that tyres that wear and having different grips/life make for an exciting race with different strategies. It rarely works out that way because the teams all know what they optimum strategies for a given track and set of tyres are.

They only time you have options is if you have a fast car and driver. That gives you track position and all sorts of tyre strategy options not available to the slower teams, ie the fast cars end up at the front anyway.
 
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