Grand Prix thread Gran Premio De La Ciudad De México 2021

I do think the Middle East tracks will see Mercedes in a stronger light, but you’d have to say I think Red Bull probably have enough to win Brazil and then it’s no room for manoeuvre after that for Mercedes.

Much talk of Hamilton taking a final engine in Brazil so he would need some drive to put it on the podium from the back of the grid.

 

It’s RBR to lose from here surely ?

 

It is- but don’t put it past Hamilton to win 3 on the spin in the Middle East.

It all depends on the gap after Brazil.

I think it will go down to Abu Dhabi

 

Most of us want him to get his 8th, then it truely is a new record. I am not entirely convinced he has it in him now. Max is the hungry young buck, as will George be and if Ferrari get their car right next season both Charles and Carlos will be in the mix. Of course that could dilute the whole dominance with multi GP winners, wouldn't that be great. It will be good for the sport to have a new champion though. I just think Max and RBR will be a force even next year, they have the skills and are more hungry.
BUT if he does get his eigth in the new era, when the field is potentially more competitive, that would be a good way to bow out.

 

A driver of the best car has won the last 14 titles, I don't think George is consistent enough to beat Hamilton and I think Mercedes were overly confident and stuck all their resources into '22's car. He's taking it to Max as well as he can, but the rule change has ****ed the car, just like the FIA hoped.
I think he's still hungry for that 8th

 

Really think it's going to take a hiccup in Brazil for RBR for Merc to have any chance... And they look pretty invincible.

 

I think Merc dropped the ball with 2021 but that could have been an intentional sacrifice. Red Bull have developed their car, as they have done for quite a few years as it's hasn't been great out of the box, but Merc have just stood still with the 2021 car while ploughing the resources into the 2022 car.

I hope Merc will have a challenger in 2022 be that Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull?

Anyone know what the possible penalties are for going over the budget cap?

 

When you look at the point drop off for both Merc and Aston Martin from last season, it shows how much those floor changes hurt those cars. Without that they'd have been well up there still.

 

Really any team could go the wrong way with new regs like ferrari did with the front wing thing.

Red bull issue is all engine.

I see merc got their little revenge whinge in against red bull. Both teams fighting over regs in the media and are as bad as each other.

Throwing muck is just plain silly unless it gets stewards looking at something.

 

I too think Merc looked at this and decided to ensure they didn’t blow 2022 completely.

That said, teams to really look out for next year are Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine- the latter especially have spent a long time looking at this reg change. Their new 2022 PU fascinates me as much as Ferraris does! They really need engine convergence because it gets locked in, so it’s a massive thing for both.

Ferrari have been on the right track this year and McLaren have of course shown some consistent improvement across 3 years, James Key leading them to a first race win this year and the occasional great qualifying, so he gets a real opportunity to test himself with the new regs.

Hopefully Mercedes aren’t dominant again and we have a whole heap of teams very closely matched.

 

I want to know if RBR are taking money from AT . If they are then it ought to be banned .

I’m not saying they are , but have read reports saying it’s a possible loop hole .

To make it clear I don’t think they are .

 

There's bound to be some I imagine, but if the loophole exists, then they're going to exploit it.

 

All along I have thought that 1 company owning 2 teams can split the development costs between the 2 teams on items that are allowed to be sold to other teams. i.e. say team A designs the front suspension and team B designs rear then 'sells' the other their parts. I believe that is 100% legal! Now will Team B's parts be designed to suit car A???? I wonder.......
I can't seem to find a list of transferable parts for 2022!

 

If one person owns two teams it is hard to see how it doesn't benefit both teams. As Marko said, AT is a junior team so he won't let it challenge but in development the opportunity for some discreet, or maybe inadvertent, cross pollination could happen. Not eaxct design copies though as was suspected with Merc and Racing Point. An owner can not untell himself.

 

I love that they went against the grain with their layout, be great to see them up the front, just before they decide to jack it all in again. A bookend WDC at Renault for Alonso would't go amiss either, but think Mercedes will be back on top.

 

I hope you are right. My comment is based on more than just track performance. Lewis hasn't mentioned long COVID lately and he is showing less exhaustion but it doesn't mean he is fully recovered. His comment, he doesn't want to be known as an F1 driver only. This indicates he is already distracted, IMHO. Max is not distracted and will get better yet. Yes, Lewis is talented but if he is not 100% he won't perform at 100%. If the baton is passed to Max this season, the emotion of not being the champion will have been experienced by Lewis, he might even like it. If differentiation in the technology is less obvious next season, what happens?
I also can see that losing the championship could motivate him for next season.

 

Honestly, I don't think they are, and supposedly they'll be more limited in what they can do with Red Bull next year: https://racingnews365.com/alphatauri-to-use-maximal-allowed-red-bull-parts-in-2022

I think the only way to achieve it would be to "reverse" the relationship, with the benefits first felt in 2023.

By that, I mean rather than Alpha Tauri buying Red Bull developed parts, Red Bull would buy Alpha Tauri developed parts.

Alpha Tauri don't spend enough currently to trouble the incoming budget cap, so there might be some "spare" budget there. I guess theoretically Alpha Tauri could suddenly have a massive expansion of their gearbox department (for example) and spend all their extra budget there, with the intention of selling a gearbox design to Red Bull for 2023.

The only other area they might have some wiggle room is driver contracts. Max, Sergio, Pierre and Yuki aren't contracted to a particular team, but to a Red Bull Driver Program who release the drivers to whichever team they are required at. But driver contracts aren't included in the budget cap, so I'm not sure how they can use that to their advantage.

 

There is something in the Transferable Parts regs that allows 3rd parties to sell teams parts. So in theory Red Bull Transmissions could sell both Red Bull and Alfa T gearboxes and split the development costs between them.
Oh hang on, the list of Transferable parts, no one says how much the parts cost and if a team can make a profit on those parts!!! So Red Bull could sell Alfa T parts at a huge markup, thereby reducing Red Bulls spend? Sort of transferring costs? Not sure on that one.

With all the teams expertise in skirting round the technical and sporting rules and bending them as much as they can get away with, I am 100% sure they will have looked at the 21/22 budget rules and worked out how to take advantage.

I do wonder about Merc and Astons relationship but then Aston seem to be spending huge on wind tunnels and new factories.
Williams are buying Mercs gearbox for next year so they will no longer be the only team using an aluminium gearbox casing. I guess that means Merc pickup points for suspension so maybe Mercs suspension will be on Williams next year. I think that 2023 the steering wheel will also be homologated so we won't see Williams dash mounted display!

It's all going to be a very interesting 2022 season.

 

tbh it doesn't surprise me at all that's just the type of person he is. Id love Ferrari & Mclaren to get it spot on next year as I like all 4 drivers.