Formula 1 Ooredoo Qatar Grand Prix 2021Formula 1

[Jimlaad43]

I never get presents from the stewards, rues Verstappen as penalty compromises race

Max Verstappen said he was unsurprised to receive the grid penalty which dropped him to seventh on the grid for the Qatar Grand Prix.

www.racefans.net

1 race ago, your main rival got Disqualified from Pole and had to take a further 5 place grid penalty. You then got away with driving him off track because you couldn't be bothered to race fair.

Shut up.

 

[Demon Drone]

I never get presents from the stewards, rues Verstappen as penalty compromises race

Max Verstappen said he was unsurprised to receive the grid penalty which dropped him to seventh on the grid for the Qatar Grand Prix.

www.racefans.net

1 race ago, your main rival got Disqualified from Pole and had to take a further 5 place grid penalty. You then got away with driving him off track because you couldn't be bothered to race fair.

Shut up.

This kind of crap really makes me start to root against him.

 

[Liquid]

The way this season is going, if Verstappen enters the final round leading the championship I can definitely see a Prost/Senna 1990 moment.

 

[Famine]

The way this season is going, if Verstappen enters the final round leading the championship I can definitely see a Prost/Senna 1990 moment.

What, another one?

 

[Samus]

So so race. HAM and VER in another league yet again, some dicing in the rest of the field but 90% DRS overtakes. Still better than I was expecting in that regard though.

VER and Red Bull really need to stop whining about the yellows and penalty. It doesn't matter if the marshal was paid off by Merc (He obviously wasn't), mind controlled by aliens who hate Red Bull (Also reasonably sure he wasn't) or if he was simply inept and waved the flags when he shouldn't have (also not true, there was a stationary car opposite him with damage), VER could have avoided any issue by, get this, slowing for double yellows as defined in the rules.

The marshals waving the flags have the best view of any danger on track. For all VER knew there was debris on the racing line, or another car hidden by Gasly rolling across the track. There wasn't, but that is the point. It doesn't matter if you don't see any danger, if the flags are waving, you slow down. If you don't, you can have accidents like at Macau seen in the WTF topic.

 

[ScottPuss20]

My expectations for this race were pretty low so I was rather pleased to see some overtakes and strategy. I thought I'd be in for a borefest but it wasn't too bad and we got to see Alonso on the podium again. There's no reason to build another track in Qatar because this one is more than adequate.

 

[Grayfox]

Wonder if Red bull might gamble on replacing the ICE for next round and then turning the power up.

 

[OutlawQuadrnt]

The track was not a pure procession fest as I was expecting but it felt like a randomly generated track from GT5.

 

[Liquid]

DRS was too OP but if it was reduced, I think it really would become a snoozefest. Kerbs that actually punish were very welcome, mind.

 

[Jezza819]

DRS was too OP but if it was reduced, I think it really would become a snoozefest. Kerbs that actually punish were very welcome, mind.

I didn't figure that a track more designed for bikes would have kerbs that harsh.

 

[Samus]

I didn't figure that a track more designed for bikes would have kerbs that harsh.

I assume the bikes quickly worked out not to go that far off track.

 

[GingerBredMan]

I think RB taking an engine penalty in the next round might be too much of a risk. If Lewis wins and Max is 3rd or lower, Max loses the championship lead going in to the final round. Although the alternative is having an old engine for the last couple of rounds which could be worse. Will be interesting to see how this plays out

 

[Samus]

I just hope we have a clean, fair, exciting end to this battle. The worst thing will be if one of them has an engine blow, or they take each other out.

I saw someone on Reddit calculate that it's mathematically possible it could all come down to who gets fastest lap in Abu Dhabi. Just imagine the tension if one driver has it, last lap, no cushion to pit, so they both have to just go for it. One last quali lap to take the title. Then what's this, 10 seconds later, "IS THAT LECLERC GOING QUICKLY?!?! HAS HE TAKEN THE FASTEST LAP?!?"

Rather unlikely, but yeah. Let's hope there is some excitement and tension to it.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I think RB taking an engine penalty in the next round might be too much of a risk. If Lewis wins and Max is 3rd or lower, Max loses the championship lead going in to the final round. Although the alternative is having an old engine for the last couple of rounds which could be worse. Will be interesting to see how this plays out

Considering how well he did with a 5-place grid drop to get to second, it might be worth it. Take the pain in Saudi Arabia and then dominate in Abu Dhabi. If the scenario you mention does play out with Hamilton getting the fastest lap, there will be an 11 point swing in Hamilton's favour. He will lead by 3 points. If Verstappen gets third and fastest lap, there will be a 9 point swing and he'll be 1 point behind Hamilton heading into the last round. If this is the case, Verstappen MUST WIN in Abu Dhabi to win the championship. That would be lot easier with a newer engine... The race in Saudi Arabia will be a strategic battle and I know that Red Bull can get Verstappen up to third or even second to stay in the fight DESPITE an engine change. Worth the punt I say.

 

[Samus]

Nobody will be tactically changing to a new engine in SA and taking penalties, it's too much of an unknown. Get the setup wrong for quali and you could be 5th on pure pace, 10th on the grid on a track where you've no idea how easy it is to overtake. Same reason nobody did it in Qatar.

Honda have said they're going to use a more aggressive engine map, but no planned changes.

One thing is for sure, whichever way it goes there are going to be months or years of "X driver would have won if Y didn't happen" discussions for this season from the die hard fans of the losing driver. VER and his bad luck earlier in the season, HAM losing 5 points in Spa without any racing, the Brazil incident.

 

[McLaren]

I've seen that theory brought up quite a lot on Reddit, but most people refer back to something Horner said about how the Honda engine doesn't degrade anywhere like the Merc. engine, and that a new powerplant likely wouldn't make any drastic difference over the other engines as they sit. However, there was an interesting post that Max's engines are quite used by this point, noting the 4th engine came for Russia & now has 6 races on it (wish I saved it, the user showed the use of the other engines). So, some speculation came out of whether or not Max's remaining engines would respond well to what Samus mentioned about a more aggressive mapping.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Worth the punt I say.

Depending on how Saudi plays out, this comment in a different context may become an unfortunate prediction...

 

[Rossell2]

I'm beginning to think Mercedes played a blinder with that engine penalty in Brazil. The end of the season will either validate/invalidate that.

 

[AshenGraey]

I hope it gets to the end and we get a straight up battle between the 2 fastest drivers this season with no off the track BS, no engine penalties or retirements....just a plain old race where whoever wins the race is crowned champion. Since 2016 I don't think we've had a championship battle going all the way to the final race.

 

[TheCracker]

I think there's too much bad blood between the teams now for that to be the case, unfortunately. Even if it does come down to an on-track showdown between Max and Lewis (and also between Redbull and Merc, as that battle means just as much to the teams, if not the general public) Whichever team doesn't win will surely launch some form of protest. No one's going down gracefully in the 2021 season!

 

[GingerBredMan]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the championship ends in a tie the winner is the driver with more race wins right?

 

[Jimlaad43]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the championship ends in a tie the winner is the driver with more race wins right?

Yes, Max has 9 wins, Lewis has 7, so Lewis can draw level if he wins in Saudi and Abu Dhabi. Max wins in a tie because there is no way for Lewis to win the last two races and them end tied on points. If lewis wins the last two and Max is second with fastest lap, Lewis wins by 4 points.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the championship ends in a tie the winner is the driver with more race wins right?

Correct, that's the 1st tiebreaker.

edit: at the four responses within a minute

 

[Rossell2]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the championship ends in a tie the winner is the driver with more race wins right?

Yep. And then I think it then goes to second place, third etc.

 

[Famine]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if the championship ends in a tie the winner is the driver with more race wins right?

Kinda, yes.

 

[Grayfox]

Shame they would not do a SHOOTOUT.
Lewis vs Max on grid for a sprint style race.
Duking it out.

 

[evldave333]

Shame they would not do a SHOOTOUT.
Lewis vs Max on grid for a sprint style race.
Duking it out.

Might work at Paul Ricard, plenty of run off there lol

 

[Grayfox]

Might work at Paul Ricard, plenty of run off there lol

For both drivers.
Lewis punted max off
Max tried to punt lewis off

 

[evldave333]

For both drivers.
Lewis punted max off
Max tried to punt lewis off

I get the feeling, fully endorsed by Mr Horner, there will be some win or bin it action yet... lets see what unfurls!

 

[McLaren]

Surely someone with more sense will remind Max of what happened in '97 and the how the leading championship driver lost the entire championship to a DSQ.