Poll: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021, Jeddah - Race 21

Rate the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix out of ten


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Was it against the rules? There used to be a distance under safety car, and is still on restarts, but I thought the delta replaced the distance rules when generally behind the safety car?

Surely if it was against the rules Horner would be whinging and raising a right to review, wouldn't affect the WDC but could affect the WCC which is worth ~$10m...

There's nothing that suggests that Merc broke any rules. Bottas did a lap time of 2:07.440 which looks comparable to other drivers. There is a minimum time they're supposed to set, but that's all. So long as Lewis slows sufficiently, and Bottas doesn't slow in a dangerous fashion there's nothing to investigate. Max was also making comments about not being within 10 car lengths, but the drivers have to reach the lead driver first before forming up and when they did reach him they were clearly within 10 car lengths.

You are right. If Lewis was at the quick end of the delta and Bottas was at the slow end then it could well have been done within the rules. All we are told on screen is that drivers must slow by 40% or similar messages.

The issue of Bottas going slowly was raised in the commentary. I thought Horner did have moan about it during the red flag break.
 
Anywhere taking bets on Max taking Lewis out next race..

Depends whether he can get close. If bottas starts in second he can block max on the first corner allowing Hamilton to romp off into the distance as he often has done in Abu Dhabi. We’ve seen the pace switch hands multiple times, but ahead and in clean air that merc has a clear race pace advantage now.
 
You are right. If Lewis was at the quick end of the delta and Bottas was at the slow end then it could well have been done within the rules. All we are told on screen is that drivers must slow by 40% or similar messages.

The issue of Bottas going slowly was raised in the commentary. I thought Horner did have moan about it during the red flag break.

Yeah, it was raised and Max mentioned it on team radio, didn't hear anything from Horner (the RB/FIA radio isn't Horner, it's their rules guy, Jonathan Wheatley iirc?). I did hear RB raise the issue of the '10 car lengths' on the way to the first restart (to which Masi said it wasn't a formation lap, which is a really weird loophole and well done to Merc/Hamilton for exploiting that :p) but not the Bottas going slow bit, probably did happen though.

I more meant that now post-race if Bottas had done something wrong Horner/Marko would be going on and on about it in the media but it's all quiet on that point, just whining that RB are always penalised for no reason :cry:
 
I’m hoping if it’s not Lewis it’s Lando

Can anyone think of a single time when major rule changes happen with the dominant team still being the best? 1998, 2009, 2014 have all seen brand new dominance.

The fact all development is frozen now means this will only get worse. Long gone are the days of Ferrari testing 365 days a year but then it aloud them to go from a dog of a car in 1996 to championship challengers in a mere year.

Mercs dominance would have never been this long had the strings on development and testing been loosened. I understand the negative of testing is cost but the other extreme of no testing is just as bad.
 
Just noticed that Max is now the driver with most wins without a WDC. Obviously the ever increasing number of races/season plays into that, but even by %won he's only behind Moss if you ignore drivers that only took part in a small number of races.
To add to this…

He’s never won a single seater championship. He was literally a child when he got thrown in to F1 and to be honest his lack of championship contention is probably a good and bad thing.

Good because he’s ignorant to what it takes to win a championship which can be great if you are going in with no previous expectations.

Bad because he’s treating this like any other race and I fear that will cause him to be more wreckless than Alonso/Kimi/Lewis would be in the same situation i.e fighting to secure a hard fought championship.
 
Helmut Marko apologises!

Regarding saying that Verstappen hadn't braked.

https://www.formulanerds.com/news/dr-helmut-marko-apologises/ said:
At the time of the television interviews, I passed on exactly the information that I had received from the engineers beforehand. They were obviously not correct, so I’m sorry for that.

Sorry for saying it, or sorry that they engineers weren't correct? ;)
 
Helmut Marko apologises!

Regarding saying that Verstappen hadn't braked.



Sorry for saying it, or sorry that they engineers weren't correct? ;)

I'm guessing Red Bull the company weren't too happy being made to look like liars.

Waiting for proof Mercedes were cheating still. Who can forget berating marshalls for waving yellow flags with a stopped car on the straight. Moaning about Mercedes taking new engines.

Imagine how angry RBR would be if they were disqualified over one faulty section of the wing being 0.2mm off of a 85mm measurement.
 
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Helmut Marko apologises!

Regarding saying that Verstappen hadn't braked.

Sorry for saying it, or sorry that they engineers weren't correct? ;)

The F1 team's reason for existing is to advertise the drinks brand, so I wonder if Red Bull corporate is seeing the toxicity of Red Bull Racing (and their frontmen Horner and Verstappen) begin to blow back against the brand as a whole?
 
The F1 team's reason for existing is to advertise the drinks brand, so I wonder if Red Bull corporate is seeing the toxicity of Red Bull Racing (and their frontmen Horner and Verstappen) begin to blow back against the brand as a whole?

The publicity of F1 is worth far more than they pay to be there.
Especially now they are going to be building a road car, they are not going anywhere.
 
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