Formula 1 Heineken Grande Prémio De Portugal 2021Formula 1

[Liquid]

Mazepin being a full minute behind Schumacher and ignoring blue flag bodes well for Monaco, a place renowned for its passing opportunities...

Enrique Bernoldi, step aside. There's a new contender in town.

 

[PeterJB]

At some point this year he's gonna do a Karthikeyan on Hamilton or Verstappen.

 

[EngieDiesel]

I think it's highly likely that Mazepin will pass several cars on the first lap. I also think he won't complete that lap.

I'm fully expecting some "heroics" going into Sainte Devote, intentional or otherwise.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

“I didn’t really get a warning from the team, but no excuses on this. It is just my fault. I apologised to Checo already.” - Mazepin

Sounds like an excuse.

 

[Abyss1]

I bet mazepins dad is happy his name is on the car that is in epic last place and the willams garage is stoked that haas is now the joke on the paddock

 

[TenEightyOne]

“I didn’t really get a warning from the team, but no excuses on this. It is just my fault. I apologised to Checo already.” - Mazepin

Sounds like an excuse.

I don't know, it sounds better than it could have. He didn't really get a warning and this statement takes the blame that is ultimately his.

Here's the thing about F1 and many sports, if somebody comes into the sport and they're young, get-rich-quick*, all the privilege and no responsibility, they're dicks. If Mazepin actually improves as a driver and as a person** then good for him.

* Obviously he became a proxy billionaire at conception
** I know, not going to happen, but everybody deserves a chance to crawl out of their own ****

 

[PorscheFan91]

It will be fun hearing Steiner try and make yet more excuses for him next weekend when the media do the rounds. I guess in some respects it's a funny one with Mazepin and Haas. On the one hand, it feels like the final nail in the Haas coffin. On the other, were it not for his father's money then would Haas even be a thing anymore? It is crazy though. I mean, it's not only his apparent lack of ability (spins, being a minute behind Mick etc.) but his conduct as well. He's a PR disaster for the team and he knows his seat is safe whatever he does (short of a ban of course!) because his dad is bankrolling the team and will probably be the new owner before long.

In some respects it's probably a good thing the Haas car is so awful, he'd probably be dangerous in a faster car! Hopefully he'll mature and change for Haas' sake if nothing else.

 

[McLaren]

I wonder how committed Mazepin's father is to the sport. Surely, if this keeps up of owning a F1 team just so Jr. can have a seat only for him to be way behind in last (even to his teammate), dad will just cut his losses and sell/dismantle the team?

I hope the upside is that this is doing wonders for Mick to be in the same car & actually being competitive with the other bottom-tier teams. I didn't catch the race today, but the results show he split the Williams.

 

[chromatic9]

Really disliked what happened to Perez. Putting a traffic cone on the track would've been more disrupting to Lewis than passing Perez on incredibly old tyres. Lewis made up a 14 second gap, if one does that he'll sail past. Perez had a window to pit and put pressure on Bottas and have a chance of finishing third on the podium but Red Bull thought it best to leave him out as some slowly moving half arsed blockade.

I find it insulting to Perez, there's being a wingman and then taking the piss.

Other than that it was a good race, great driving from Lewis, I think that sub 1:18 lap in Q2 really told the true pace of Lewis and I expected him to get past Bottas in the race.

 

[PorscheFan91]

I wonder how committed Mazepin's father is to the sport. Surely, if this keeps up of owning a F1 team just so Jr. can have a seat only for him to be way behind in last (even to his teammate), dad will just cut his losses and sell/dismantle the team?

I've been wondering this as well. If Mazepin keeps on annoying drivers on the grid then he'll quickly become a pariah and no other team will sign him in future. Poor performance for a rookie is nothing new but coupled with everything else he hasn't made the best first impression. The fact that his teammate is also a fellow rookie doesn't help his cause as it's not like his lack of performance could be put down to a lack of experience compared to his teammate. Thus, you have to wonder how much his father is willing to fund his son's F1 fantasy if it won't go anywhere. It's also bad PR for the team as there are two more competent drivers in reserve roles who could easily fill his seat (Fittipaldi and Ilott) so it's blatantly obvious he's only been signed for financial reasons.

I suppose the question then is what happens to Haas if Mazepin Sr. isn't interested? Will Gene come back and take a more direct role and see if they can do anything new in 2022 in a last ditch attempt to improve or is this it? I suppose another way to increase funds would be to attract a manufacturer sponsor but it could be a hard sell considering the team's performance.

 

[ScottPuss20]

So Hamilton returns serve in this championship battle. It wasn't worth staying up to watch the race but anyway, there's still a long way to go and I'm sure we'll have some more action at the front. Hopefully.

 

[-Fred-]

I'm still not sold on Red Bull putting up a fight to the end of the season, I can't help but feel their reliability issues will bite them at exactly the wrong moment, at which point Hamilton will just sail away, like in 2018 after Hockenheim when Vettel cracked under pressure... Perez's car shutting down on the formation lap in Bahrain, Max's diff problem during the race, broken driveshaft in Imola for Max during practice, brake issues in practice this weekend and apparently a gearbox issue during the race for Max again... it's worrying.

He's not finishing that race let's be honest.

Most likely not. I'm just worried about the potential collateral damage. But then we've got to suffer through Barcelona first, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Enrique Bernoldi, step aside. There's a new contender in town.

I'm foreshadowing his weekend to be more along the lines of Ricardo Rosset 1998. Or Eddie Irvine 1996, without the running in the front half of the field part.

 

[PeterJB]

I hope the upside is that this is doing wonders for Mick to be in the same car & actually being competitive with the other bottom-tier teams. I didn't catch the race today, but the results show he split the Williams.

Made a very nice on-track pass midway through. Seems to think he could've caught Russell as well if he'd done it sooner.

I find it insulting to Perez, there's being a wingman and then taking the piss.

Pérez himself didn't complain. He knows this is Max's team. After he'd got back past Norris his pace was there or thereabouts with the top 3 but he was too far behind to have any realistic chance of getting on the podium. He's guaranteed 4th place either way so you may as well get him to try and rain on Hamilton's parade a bit.

I'm still not sold on Red Bull putting up a fight to the end of the season, I can't help but feel their reliability issues will bite them at exactly the wrong moment, at which point Hamilton will just sail away, like in 2018 after Hockenheim when Vettel cracked under pressure... Perez's car shutting down on the formation lap in Bahrain, Max's diff problem during the race, broken driveshaft in Imola for Max during practice, brake issues in practice this weekend and apparently a gearbox issue during the race for Max again... it's worrying.

I think this is what it will come down to, unfortunately. Red Bull have never had good reliability. It's usually gone under the radar because they've either been so far ahead in the championship that it makes no difference or so far out of contention that no one cares. Eventually this year there will be a race where Verstappen retires from the lead and Hamilton goes on to win. You can't possibly beat Hamilton/Mercedes without bulletproof reliability because their reliability is equally bulletproof, mistakes from Hamilton are rare, mistakes that he's actually punished for are even rarer and luck always works in his favour in one way or another.

 

[Simmpa]

I predict Hamilton will take his 8th championship at the end of the season and retire while Verstappen will take his place in Mercedes.

 

[PaMu1337]

I predict Hamilton will take his 8th championship at the end of the season and retire while Verstappen will take his place in Mercedes.

Verstappen has a contract at RB until 2023 if I'm not mistaken. There apparently is a clause in there which allows him to leave early if the car is not performing at race winning pace, but so far we've seen that they are really close to Mercedes and definitely competitive, so I doubt that will come into play.
I do agree on the Hamilton retirement prediction. But I think he will be replaced by Russell. Bottas will also be removed, and I guess be replaced by Ocon.

 

[Samus]

I don't see HAM retiring next year, not with the allure of totally new cars. He'll want at least one year in those and if he's still on top of his game, as he evidently is, why not?

 

[McLaren]

Hamilton has evidently said he plans on being around next year. It was linked to him being seen testing the new 18" tires at Imola.

Edit*
Yep, came around last week.

His revelation about his wish to continue in F1 came in answer to a question about his participation in a tyre development test last week.

"I plan to be here next year and I want to help Pirelli in helping them towards having a better product," he said.

"The drivers have wished for a more [high] performance tyre. So it was important to see where the starting point is and what differences I can help so we have more mechanical grip, less degradation."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/56932825