re: Formula 1 2021 Season Thread

Merc still has been on radio silence.

Lewis was knighted today and there wasn't even one picture posted to his social media. That is usually good for a few dozen #blessed posts.

As I scrolled through my pictures to get to the next post I noticed a frame that shows how close Sainz could have been to the fight and how close the fight was for 3rd through 6th. I knew he remarked his podium was in danger but I never really knew it was this close. I didn't go back and compare Ricciardo's tire situation with the Ferrari's but it was clear with the fight between Max and Lewis the McLaren was not too far out of the fight at least at turn 9 so maybe Carlos could have been on their tail along with three other cars fighting for places. We could have seen a pile of 6 cars boimbing into the corners. At the end of the lap, Tsunoda was only a half-second behind Sainz. Of note, Gasly got around Bottas prior to the finish to take 5th place.

Kinda interesting both Mercs and only the Mercs were passed on that last lap.

I know it was Ricciardo in the McLaren in the picture. The point is he was the lapped car ahead of Sainz. Sainz arguably would have been where the McLaren was, maybe closer or maybe father away. That was the point of mentioning tires I don't know if Daniel had better tires than Carlos at that point.

As I tried to go back and remember some of Lewis' greatest drives and what makes him one of the GOATs, I came across this video, which I'd somehow never watched (YouTube algo failed me here). This is a must watch for any new F1 fan that has not been following the sport for long. It will help put Hamilton's career and legacy in perspective.

Top 10 Moments of Lewis Hamilton Brilliance

Personally I think his 2008 British Grand Prix performance in the rain on intermediate tires when the entire grid was struggling on full wets and him still finishing more than a minute ahead of 2nd place and lapping everyone up to 4th place, has to be easily one of the best single race performances in F1 history, if not the best.

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2013 was probably his closest to a sub-standard car. He ended up with 1 win and 5 poles in a car that was maybe 4th best, but two World Champions in the driver seats.

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That is a fair assessment though I honestly think the 2013 Merc was the second-best car on the grid while the RBR was just a rocketship. But I can see viewing the Ferrari, Lotus and Merc in multiple legitimate rankings.


I think his worst car relative to the grid was the 2009 McLaren. It was a season that shifted significantly as to which car was the best. Brawn during the first half was far and away the best, then RBR came on to make it a championship fight about midway. The McLaren was decent at the end of the year but overall it wasn't as good as the RBR and Brawn until the end of the year.

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In 09 I don't think I paid near amount enough attention to the intricacies of the sport to know about development.

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2009 had big rule changes and Brawn along with Williams and Toyota went with the controversial double diffusers. RBR and McLaren were caught off guard and didn't catch up until mid-year. As far as I remember both RBR and McLaren kept developing until the end because they had to get their 2009 cars into the fight to even have a chance at developing a 2010 car. RBR did a better job with it and road that initial advantage to 4 years of domination until 2014 and Merc dominating the turbo era.

As for 2013 most everyone wrote that year off due to the turbo era coming. While the cars certainly kept developing the pace was slow since nobody was going to eclipse the RBR and the car was a dead end so the amount of energy and money devoted to upgrades was fairly limited across the board.

The thing I both love and hate about large rule changes like what is coming next year it potentially shakes up the grid but if a team starts off with a poor car it is hard to catch up. Had Brawn had the money of the big boys he likely would have won 5 in a row and not sold out.

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Yeah, remember the main storyline of Brawn going broke despite being the fastest car.

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I guess there are only so many deep pocket companies in the F1 sponsor pool and Brawn was Honda before so new management of a poor team doesn't inspire. Plus Brawn was polarizing. He did do enough that Merc and Petronas gave him a nice chunk of change for the team.

I met him a couple of times in the 2000s. He was nice enough, very nice actually, but it was clear he was not the kind of entertaining/glad-handing person you need to entice sponsors. It was clear he was working out the math to shake a hand, the polar opposite of Flavio for example.

Merc statement on pulling protest

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One of the niggling bits for Ham's legacy is he never had to compete in a sub-standard car. He has never started a GP in less than a 3rd best car on the grid. Senna's Lotus and Schumacher's Benneton in the above-mentioned races were both dogs.

This isn't meant to take anything away from Lewis he is without a doubt a top 5 driver. While it is hard to compare sports over eras F1 is even harder because equipment means so much in most motorsports.

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As a newcomer to F1, the Schumacher documentary on Netflix was very revealing as to how bad Ferrari was when he got there. And he stuck with it and struggled with the team until they returned to the pinnacle. That's so impressive.

Also as a newcomer to F1, it's easy for me to root against Merc and Hamilton. As good as RB was this year, Merc is still far ahead in resources. The fact they were able to deploy new engines so late in the season that were better than anything out there by half a second is just incredible.