Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021Formula 1

[Jimlaad43]

Three rounds to go and Formula One heads to Melbo... Oh. The Qataris have taken another sporting event off the Aussie's. Ah well, Qatar makes its Formula 1 debut at the Losail International Circuit, somewhere that will be familiar to anyone who watches MotoGP. The circuit is another Tilkedrome, but one that's been around for a while, so expect it to actually feel like it's been used and has some history. The title battle is still super close, helped by Hamilton's masterful drive at Interlagos and a controversial bit of driving by Verstappen to keep him behind. This is going to boil over at some point. Mercedes and Red Bull seem to have properly fallen out after Rear Wing gate, so the gloves are fully off. Three/Two rounds to go and no titles decided. This is going to be fun. Get ready for the Ooredoo (I wanna be like you-oo-oo) QATAR GRAND PRIX!

First Grand Prix
2021

Number of Laps
57

Circuit Length
5.38km

Race Distance
306.66 km

Lap Record
1:38.699 Davide Rigon (GP2 Asia 2009)​

 

[PeterJB]

Similar characteristics to Bahrain but without the hard braking zones. Not gonna be friendly on tyres.

 

[Famine]

Ooredoo

Did you fall asleep on your keyboard, or mean to type something else but had your hands in the wrong starting place and transposed everything?


I did the latter the other week, when my hands were just a little to the left and I typed "London" as "Kibdib".

 

[Jimlaad43]

Did you fall asleep on your keyboard, or mean to type something else but had your hands in the wrong starting place and transposed everything?


I did the latter the other week, when my hands were just a little to the left and I typed "London" as "Kibdib".

I think it's Arabic for "Australian"

 

[AshenGraey]

Is this going to be a night race?

Also anyone taken a guess as far as which team will this track be better suited to...Mercedes or Red Bull?

I hope we'll get to see some more good and exciting racing as the season comes to a close. (I won't hold my breath for Abu Dhabi but hopefully with the layout changes things will be a bit different)

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Based on the last thread, Mercedes were running the party mode for the engine in Brazil. I would assume they can't run that for all of the remaining tracks. Will it only be used for Brazil?

 

[Dennisch]

Will we see the human rights shenanigans F1 has been using here too?

 

[PeterJB]

The pre-race ceremony should be a hoot. The only thing diverse about Qatar is their slave labour force.

 

[shoemaker]

Mercedes to fit a new engine in each of the last 3 races, take the grid penalty knowing how much more power they have and probably win comfortably? Theres nothing in the regulations saying they can’t....

 

[PeterJB]

Mercedes to fit a new engine in each of the last 3 races, take the grid penalty knowing how much more power they have and probably win comfortably? Theres nothing in the regulations saying they can’t....

Kinda flies in the face of the whole sustainability message F1 are trying to push, but then again, it's the age of #WeRaceAsOne and look where we are this weekend...

 

[ScottPuss20]

Mercedes' decision to change Hamilton's engine at Interlagos was a strategic call that worked brilliantly. However I don't know if they'll risk changing an engine on a new track that won't have as many passing opportunities. It would be harder to overcome a grid penalty on a track that's sure to favour Red Bull.

 

[Samus]

They won't. They've already insinuated as much saying that the performance gains won't be as much in the next races.

 

[AshenGraey]

I was listening to the F1 Nation podcast and the Merc engineer said that Lewis' new engine has been optimized to complete just those 4 races so them changing it in Brazil was definitely a strategic move which kinda confirmed my theory that this engine will likely be running at full power for the remaining races. He also said that his 4th PU could have lasted the rest of the season but they are finding out that after a certain distance travelled the power output of the engine drops considerably compared to the Honda engine and that 4th PU was way past that and that's why they were nowhere in Mexico. So I don't know if we will still see that same level of performance from the Merc again but I'm almost certain that unless something happens it is unlikely that they will take another penalty for changing the power unit again.

 

[andrea]

 

[Jimlaad43]

I hope that boring a featureless wasteland behind the barriers is just laziness from the virtual circuit builder and not accurate to real life...

 

[GingerBredMan]

Losail looks like a bad knockoff of Bahrain.

 

[David]

Will we see the human rights shenanigans F1 has been using here too?

The pre-race ceremony should be a hoot. The only thing diverse about Qatar is their slave labour force.

F1 never met a country it couldn't help with some sportswashing for the right price!

 

[Jimlaad43]

The pit entry was moved because it was dangerous. Now the pitwall extends all the way from before the final corner, with a sharp edge not too far away from the exit of the previous corner. Lose it on the exit kerb and spear right and it could be messy....

 

[05XR8]

They've got to change the name of these sponsors. Each time these titles rise to the top of the forum, first glance is throwing me off.

The other race title, I kept reading as the Armco grand prix. Now, this one as the Orido(of Super GT and Best Motoring fame) grand prix.

 

[Samus]

The pit entry was moved because it was dangerous. Now the pitwall extends all the way from before the final corner, with a sharp edge not too far away from the exit of the previous corner. Lose it on the exit kerb and spear right and it could be messy....

Coulthard probably glad he's not still racing.

I hope that boring a featureless wasteland behind the barriers is just laziness from the virtual circuit builder and not accurate to real life...

Losail looks like a bad knockoff of Bahrain.

Well it originated in the same manner, they picked a bit of desert with nothing around it and built a race track. So yeah, that's literally it for both of them.

 

[GingerBredMan]

Turns out they have a lot in common:

Both opened in 2004.

Turns: Losail 16, Bahrain 15.

Length: Losail 5.38, Bahrain 5.412.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Whoever is writing the Autosport live comments for practice has just pointed out that the track looks like Ditto.

And I can't unsee that anymore. It just does.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Lewis' new lid for the weekend

 

[AshenGraey]

Looks like Mercedes did not get their way for that Brazil incident. Right to review has been rejected.

Edit: That being said, we are going to see a lot more of that now considering this basically tells all the drivers that it's OK for them to push someone off the track while defending and even go off themselves and it's just fine.... Not sure how I feel about that but let's see who's going to keep pushing the envelope with that kind of move.

 

[Rossell2]

I think that gives drivers license to push the envelope until the envelope crashes into a wall at high speed.

 

[GingerBredMan]

So F1 is just gonna bend the rules however they need to get Max a championship. No point watching now

 

[Veinz]

Edit: That being said, we are going to see a lot more of that now considering this basically tells all the drivers that it's OK for them to push someone off the track while defending and even go off themselves and it's just fine.... Not sure how I feel about that but let's see who's going to keep pushing the envelope with that kind of move.

They have all been doing it for years.

 

[Blitz24]

This is good right?

 

[Jimlaad43]

This is an excellent photo!

 

[PeterJB]

This is good right?

Hopefully next year the stewards will put this to rest and enforce a simple rule saying, "Track limits will be enforced at every part of every circuit."