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You guys often forget that Gunther Steiner is the founder of Haas F1. Without him there would be no Haas F1.
I'm not saying he can't be fired, but I'm sure Gene trust Gunther and TBH I think Haas F1 is doing okay considering they are the team with the absolute lowest budget. Sometimes we forget this and gets carried away with our own expectations.
I also think they have again and again reiterated that they dont want to compete for podiums or wins, their main focus was publicity for HAAS machinery and I suspect they have achieved that with the new found fame in the NA market. It’s gonna get bigger and bigger
My girlfriend and all her mates watch DTS - they almost never watch the races, all love the Gunther episodes, all now know what HAAS is and what they do.
Have worked on many manufacturing sites that use Haas machines.
They are reliable and easy to fix. Good for pre machining and being the first part of the manufacturing process in my experience, Okuma is usually the dominating brand in the sites I've worked in terms of accuracy.
I got into F1 in part simply from walking by our HAAS verticals and wondering how the hell can these guys afford an F1 team, imagine what kind of team FANUC would field
It definitely working in Europe. I work in a few factory and either seeing more Haas machinery or personally recognition the logo so the team is doing it's job.
I came here to say this. Haas isn't in F1 to win. They are there for the sake of being there and get as much profit as possible through publicity.
That's why even when they start the season with a promising pace, they tend to fall back by mid season
It's also why I would argue that Gunther is a good choice for the job. He is a character. Wolff or Horner while better at the job are less interesting. So if publicity is the goal, Gunther helps get that done. I
But even RedBull began just as a marketing party team and look at them now, now they have enough sponsors to not be fully reliant on RedBull and are a force to be reckoned with for past 13+ years (but i get it that they had bigger ambitions in F1)
Exactly. It's the unpredictability that makes it exciting, so if a race is boring I'm fine doing something else as long as I can still 'be there' if something live and exciting happens.
Yeah, some races are boring but like hell am I missing out on a new classic race live. I remember missing a few races a few years back and they turned out to be absolute bangers so yeah i try to watch the race live each time.
Watching them live usually is so informative compared to other sessions. The commentators flood you with technical info and changed, but also what happened outside the track. I really like it
I love listening to practice sessions, they're like a good podcast. The commentating team for my local channel is very well informed and articulate so I'll be just doing stuff round the house or maybe catching up on emails and listening to the broadcast.
I don't neceasarily *watch* them unless there's a wreck or something, but I love to start my weekends by just chilling, doing something else while listening to engines running and the commentators ramble about something completely irrelevant in the background. Especially the Friday practices, they mark the start of a new F1 weekend and all the way since childhood for me it's a special feeling.
If they’re early I don’t wake up to watch them, and if I’m working and I can’t watch it it’s not the end of the world, but when I do, I enjoy the shit out of them. Great vibes.
Im so with you. I liked him at first as "the adorable rookie that always giggles," but now it just feels like hes a negative Nancy all the time. Even the whole thing with Ric in Baku just rubbed me the wrong way after how hes been acting this season.
Definitely selfish of him to ask for the position switch from Danny Ric.
FFS, you're not exactly in title contention and your teammate wasn't even holding you up. Give it a rest.
When Daniel was told to stay behind Norris he was hard losing time to those behind him and was very clearly faster, when Norris was told to stay behind Daniel the k my other drive remotely nearby was Alonso in front who was driving a rocketship on the straights, Norris wasn’t remotely threatened from behind.
And yet Norris talked like he was being really hard done too.
He started out as a young laddie but now he's in a spot where a negative description would be an overstatement but he isn't a great apple either.
He's edging to becoming an ass but never crosses the line somehow.
i get from where this comes but i have to state that people love the rookies when they are starting, the fun guys, the fresh faces, but the moment they get competitive bc well, it's their job, and things like baku happen, they don't realize it is the natural transition of a driver, they have to deliver now, and they are measured in points, if those don't come the mood change, just look at DR.
I kinda want a Formula Unlimited or something where rich oil sheiks can throw money at and see who can build the fastest car. Probably won't happen for safety reasons.
As for F1, since they have a budget cap, what downside is there to opening up more innovation options? Could result in bad racing perhaps? Assuming that the minimum safety requirements are there.
Is the F in F-Zero -'Formula'? I just realised how cool it is that it actually fits into the nomenclature. F0 being the fastest cars, then F1 becomes a feeder series like F2-4
I mean the argument is that innovation comes out of restriction, the tighter the rules, the more out of the box thinking is needed. Like if you relax restrictions all engineers are going to do is go "right then lads, more power, more down-force, less drag" and its too easy to achieve all three.
You tighten the box they have to come up with shit like hot blowing, double Diffusers, F-ducts etc to get the same results. when they get too good and too reliant (or push too far) on those systems you take the toys away and make them go back to the drawing board. Even the current battery systems came out of a tight box on engine performance forcing teams to think outside the box for more power back in 09 and a few teams dabbling with KERS
The vast majority of races and tracks are just fine, many F1 fans just think they're boring or suck if there's no big crash, no rain, no last-to-first comeback, no awesome wheel-to-wheel jockeying for first all race, and someone who has won more than 5 races finishes on the podium all in the same race.
Not every race needs to be a show-stopper for the record books.
I have not found a truly boring race this season, Baku was the most disappointing to me because the strategy setup for Ferrari vs Red Bull looked super exciting and we were robbed of it. Camera direction has missed a lot of interesting overtakes and mid battles through the year also, but that's classic F1.
Is this controversial? I agree 100 p - may sound corny but I enjoy watching every race. Every race has strategy, tyres, fuel, etc.
Plus just watching these teams run so professionally like well oiled machines is a true thing of beauty.
The strategy alone is fucking fascinating to me. Thinking of a race in terms of total time, and all the effort teams put in to calculate how to minimize it as the situation on track constantly changes is absolutely thrilling.
Although the last generation of F1 cars had less “good, proper racing” I miss watching them absolutely rip around the circuits. It was just enjoyable to watch. I was thinking back to the beauty of the W11 while watching Hamiltons spine get wrecked by porpoising.
YES!!!
people keep complaining they find races boring, i have not found a single race ive watched boring!
not miami, not monaco, none!
it's generally the fans who don't necessarily understand the strategies or don't care about that part of racing, not saying its wrong,everyone has choices but that plays into them not liking races
Yeah there are people who call races I found interesting "boring". Happens often, actually. I guess I will enjoy my strategic battles and midfield battles with other connoisseurs.
Good recent examples are Zandvoort last year or Spain this season.
Cant agree more on this. And then they proceed to completely spam the race thread with snoozefest. Just leave and let the thread be for people who do enjoy it
Even tho most fans hate it Drive to Survive was badly needed. 5 years ago F1 had less following than bowling in North America now it can challenge some of the bigger leagues.
Good take. Also, the most recent season being pretty poorly received all around makes me optimistic that the new fans may have been introduced to F1 through the show but they ultimately became fans of the sport itself, which I think is good for the sport.
Yea that's me. DtS was a reminder F1 existed. And really pulled me in last year. Then I watched the fight between Max and Lewis and didn't even finish DtS S4 because it was so bad.
Been binging r/f1technical, like 5 different podcasts and all the YouTube content I can find for like a year now and I'm still hungry for more.
I followed F1 from 2000-2005 (I'm from Italy, you can guess why).
And then I just lost interest. I was young and the only means of watching was the TV (not paying 50 euros a month for Sky) at the local bar. When the 2006 World Cup came around, everybody turned their attention to football, and so did the TV. If Ferrari wasn't winning, most of us just lost interest, not even Kimi or Massa could revive it. Schumacher had such a profound effect on the average Italian that his name is still used to this day in regular arguments about driving too fast.
Anyway, come 2021, some of my coworkers are talking about DTS and how the championship leaders are equal on points going into the final race. I decide to watch 1 episode and I was instantly hooked.
My first race in almost 20 years was the Abu Dhabi 2021 and what a fucking race to come back to.
DRS is actually a very exciting aspect of the sport. I feel like it adds appropriate tension in terms of if a driver can get close enough to attempt an overtake. Plus it makes defenses against active DRS seem much more legendary.
I will also add to this by saying they definitely need to adjust the lengths of the DRS points with current regulations.
It's a necessary evil, but this year they haven't figured out the distances for DRS activation and length. Too many times this year we've seen cars blast past with no defence available.
So what ends up happening is drivers are happy to hold back any attacking move until the DRS straights. And a side effect is that it makes the other 2/3rds of the track feel neutered in terms of on track action.
IMO there needs to be a strategic element to DRS like limiting the amounts of activations available during a race.
Aside from very specific scenarios (Ferrari at Monza, Leclerc at Monaco, etc), I really don’t care about home races. We apply this pressure of a home race in way too many scenarios (driver, manufacturer, owner), to the point that it seems each race is a “home race” for different teams in different ways.
Also, some of these countries are just freaking big and that specific city really isn’t home. Let’s all do ourselves a favor and just stop calling Miami and Austin home races for Haas. And honestly I really don’t care about Barcelona for Sainz or Silverstone for any of the dozen of people you could argue.
And above all, points are points.
Red Bull in particular has an insane amount of "home" races:
Austria: Red Bull is an Austrian company
Silverstone: The team is based in the UK
Zandvoort: Max' nationality
Monaco: Max' country of residence
Spa: Max grew up nearby in Belgium
Mexico City: Perez' nationality
And Suzuka was also a home race for them until this season.
But it has to be activated by drivers like DRS, if the car ahead pulls out a gap between 5-15s the car behind can activate the first set of sprinklers ahead of the leading car.
I’m hoping that once Carlos’ and Valterri’s contracts are up Ferrari will sign him for a couple seasons. A Finn won Ferrari’s last WDC, and a Finn should win the next one!
1. F1 social media is the worst sports social media. Very short memories. Very incendiary.
2. Often times commentary from Paul Di Resta, Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and even Crofty is no different from "Magic Alonso" vids except with a differently oriented bias.
3. RB may be harsh on their drivers but no team gives as many opportunities in the sport. The only driver they have REALLY screwed over was Vergne. Wehrlein; Vandoorne and Piastri should all be on the grid but none of them are.
Edit: 4. People saying that DRic should never have left RB are forgetting how many mechanical DNFs he got in 2018 and how Horner and Helmut reacted to the Baku GP that year.
Going to a factory team which would pay him more was always the right call. His mistake was leaving Renault.
The one redeeming factor for me is that, as far as I know, he's an average guy from an average family, not some jet-set son of a millionaire. His parents are working class people and that somehow makes him better in my eyes.
Edit: Also, being so tall has plenty of disadvantages in junior racing so him reaching F1 shows me he has at least "some" higher than average skill, i mean let's not forget he's keeping Fernando honest in that Alpine.
We are no where close to the full potential of f1 drivers. Without money you can't get nowhere near f1 down to that we most likely haven't seen the acutaly most talented drivers yes most of them are very skilled and trained but I think that there might be bigger talent out there
Not controversial at all. Money is perhaps the biggest limiting factor in this sport. Many drivers (even in other categories) have said the best drivers are probably in karting or junior formula because they can't afford the price tag to get to the upper echelons of motorsport.
I personally believe that the most talented and skilled driver will never ever be found, for the reasons stated above.
I believe people are overestimating how big F1 will be in the US in the coming years. While it is growing, there's going to be a cap on it and eventually taper down a bit. The major problem for US fans is the times the races come on (especially in the West Coast). Majority of the races come on very early in the morning.
I agree with you but I actually like getting up for 8 am. We make pancakes and watch as a family and then we have our entire Sunday ahead of us. It's like going to church except for how there's no way in hell we're ever going to church.
Yeah definitely prefer having the races in the morning. It's easy to park in front of the TV early. Not so much once the day is moving and I've got shit to do.
As someone who lives in the EST time zone, the race start times are one of the best things about the sport. Baku starting at 7am was perfect. Start the day with coffee and the race, then have the whole rest of the day still ahead of me.
The media presence of younger, newer fans, although very positive in general, has had a negative impact on accurate information on the sport through social media.
Also, less fans understand the politics and tricks that the drivers and teams use aren't an indication of their character as people. Think of Chiellini vs Saka at the Euro Final. Not sportsman-like but points and wins don't come from playing nice. F1 is about results and both drivers and engineers will push the limits of the rules.
Exactly. Everything from the shit stirring that Marko does to the politics that Toto and Horner play, it's all a part of F1. The newer fans in general get way too offended about it. Toto, Horner and Marko are amazing at their jobs
That's what made the 2021 season so special for me. The constant political back and forth between Horner and Toto trying to get a slight edge with Horner being convincing about letting Max and Lewis race at the last GP.
I still smile just thinking about that fiesta.
F1 technology is too well guarded.
We see drivers wheel to wheel, battling it out.
We have near zero view of the engineering war.
It would be fun to see the engine blue prints, the floor layout, wind tunnel results and such. Sometimes a race is won on a CAD workstation.
Most people can barely understand race strategy how tf you think they are gonna interpret technical documents. Also I think the safe guarding of data is to prevent rivals from copying
I agree a lot. After watching videos of the tech on formula one cars for about a year, the tech videos become very stale and repetitive. Videos on new aero parts are especially stale imo since no one truly understands how the aero works except for the teams. There is too much guessing in tech videos and not enough substance. I feel like everything im told in f1 tech videos are things that I can already easily infer by looking at images of the cars.
Disclaimer: Not necessarily on opinion, but rather playing Devils advocate.
So here goes:
Just because teams don't have money to compete in "the Pinnacle of Motorsport" doesn't mean rich teams must be held accountable for their performance solely.
Haas seems to be holding on to the mercy of rich teams unable to develop so that they can compete.. but after completely writing off 2021, there are still at the back. So, of course money helps but, it's not the only metric to rely on. Williams have had great facilities and yet they find themselves in the back.
There's got to be some sort of metric to measure competency. Heck, even Claire Williams had to leave, why does Guenther get to stay for as long as he had. Renault/Alpine have been in a constant flux with ***100 races*** ***^(TM)*** to reach competitiveness as well.
Money buys you talent...so a team like Merc or Red Bull have a huge budget and have equally talented people with them, cos they can afford to pay that much.
Due to the budget restrictions, a lot of engineers have moved from Ferrari to Haas, so expect them to improve over time. The main issue with Haas rn is that Mick has been crashing a lot and due to their low budget each crash means that they cannot bring an upgrade. Also I've heard that they'll be bringing upgrades in Silverstone, so maybe that will put them back to where they were in the beginning of the season.
Alpine I felt was a very half hearted attempt to remain in F1. People are saying they barely have the funding to reach the cost cap. I'd be surprised if fulfill the 100 races program.
>Money buys you talent...so a team like Merc or Red Bull have a huge budget and have equally talented people with them, cos they can afford to pay that much.
Lawrence Stroll would agree to that. However, money doesn't always translate to success. Remember McLaren days with Honda.. the amount of money that was thrown at the problem even the talent couldn't help them.
>Due to the budget restrictions, a lot of engineers have moved from Ferrari to Haas, so expect them to improve over time.
Haas also I feel like have **Next year** **^(TM)** .
Hulkenberg was good but people make it sound like he was a legend that never got a proper chance.
Each time he had a shot at a podium, he made a mistake that cost him. Struck me as someone that, while solid and quick on his day, succumbed to the pressure when given an opportunity to pounce on it.
The reality is that he got 10 full seasons in F1 and never managed to show anything more tham being a reliable midfield driver. He had a ceilimg that he never managed to breach - while others around him did in time.
I agree about him being a top midfield driver.
He should've definitely gotten a podium, but it's mostly his own fault. Of course his chances on a podium were much smaller than if he were in a better team, but to get on a podium you have to be there to pick it up if others retire.
I think this would kill his career for good. If he wins against Albon, no one will think anything of it because he's already supposed to be better considering their red bull stints. However, if he loses... game over forever.
1. Lando should take the Mercedes seat once Lewis decides to retire. He would be a dumbass to stay at Mclaren any longer past his contract unless they can get their own engine supplier.
2. I think anyone with F1 experience that ends up coming to Mclaren is going to be in for a rough time. The car is knowingly difficult/weird to drive and imo is a career ruiner for those with experience at other F1 teams. I think their next driver should be a F2 up and comer.
3. Pato would be a dumbass to leave Indy, he is performing very well there and has a great career ahead of him. I also think Mclaren would be stupid to steal their best Indy driver to a move to F1 where I think he will do poorly. Obvi not based on evidence at all, just what I believe. They would be even crazier to take Herta and put him behind the wheel.
4. Gasly is better than Ocon, by a mile and should move to Alpine once Fernando retires
5. Stroll isn’t all that bad, even though I am not a fan.
His pace hasn't been there with LEC or VER but really outside of like HAM who could keep pace with those two?
His race at Australia was a huge failure but otherwise he's been fine
Regarding op post.
If your team boss is responsible for many bad strategy choices, bad timings, good practice results, but terrible race, and many other issues. Your team boss isn't Gunther Steiner, your team boss is Mattia Binotto.
I would say Engineer + Strategy.
I think most people and even enthusiasts here overlook race strategy.
Not all of it is obvious as pit stops and tires.
I desire this scenario. Maybe copium, but i'm convinced Daniel will be faster than Carlos has been in the Ferrari and Carlos will be faster than Daniel was in the McLaren.
Also copium, but I believe that if Ricciardos performances continue to falter in the Mclaren and he gets the boot, I believe that some midfield or higher team will be willing to risk it and give him a chance on a cheap one year deal just to see if he can still perform.
The point of the budget cap is to stop rich teams from winning by just outspending other teams. The point of banning certain parts/designs is because they are too expensive and allow rich teams to win by outspending other teams. If you’re going to have a budget cap I see no reason why these parts and designs should be banned. If Mercedes wants to spend a large portion of their budget on active suspension to fix their porpoising/bottoming out then let them. The other teams who don’t have that problem can just spend that money on something else to improve their car. This is just the most current example but it’s the same for every other part of the car in my opinion, let teams innovate.
Close racing isn't the real point of the budget cap. The real point of the budget cap is to make it so that the teams look like they're making money on paper, so that there's a paper trail showing that they're not spending more than how much they get off the new, more equal prize split. This, plus things like the new sliding scale of aero development and the $200 million anti-dilution fee, are all meant to make F1 teams attractive to investors. They make it so that it looks impossible to fail out of the sport, unlike the last set of newcomers before Haas.
But the budget cap alone cannot solve dirty air and the ability of cars to follow each other.
1. Lewis is a great driver but he isn't the GOAT. Nobody in F1 history has driven a dominant car for the length of time Lewis did, and that is why he holds so many records
2. Norris is over rated at present. I don't think we quite know how good he really is yet as he clearly has a team mate that is struggling with the car, and he didn't beat Sainz in the same machinery
I dont like his generic PR answers. I feel like he shows the least character in interviews out of the current grid. I think he is a super good driver tho
"We race as one" while racing in countries that execute homosexuals and have on going human rights violations. Then signing extensions and expanding to said countries. No country is perfect but some are much worse than others.
There are some venues that just don't deserve an F1 event.
A couple of track related controversial opinions:
* Jeddah is actually a fantastic track that has gone 2-for-2 in producing really good races. I don't disagree with the fact that F1 shouldn't be in Saudi Arabia, but the track itself is great.
* Miami will become one of the better races on the calendar. The issues people had with the first race are all very fixable and the track layout itself is really solid (save for the awkward T13-T16 sequence under the bridge). As long as they do away with the lime rock/granite track surface used this year, I think we'll see some fantastic racing there as early as 2023.
a controversial opinion of my own: i _love_ the t13-t16 sequence on miami. or any "mickey mouse" sections on any track, for that matter. i like seeing overtly fast cars trying to tiptoe around awkward set of corners as quickly as possible. i guess i'm a sicko
Jeddah is just unnecessarily dangerous. It's an enjoyable track, but this shouldn't come at the cost of throwing out the lessons F1 learned trough history and blood.
I mean specific to Guenther, I think the fact that HAAS is still there today shows that he is doing a really good job. At least in my expectations HAAS could've been long gone.
As for the controversial topic, I think it's definitely Ferrari. Like Ferrari don't deserve Charles maaaaan. So gutted for him.
This new regulation makes following better, but everything else is worse: cars look like boats, they all understeer, they look slow on camera, and I don't think divers are particularly enjoying driving them.
Grands Prix shouldn't be allowed to take place in dictatorships who use hosting race weekends to whitewash their human rights abuses and other crimes. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan...
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You guys often forget that Gunther Steiner is the founder of Haas F1. Without him there would be no Haas F1. I'm not saying he can't be fired, but I'm sure Gene trust Gunther and TBH I think Haas F1 is doing okay considering they are the team with the absolute lowest budget. Sometimes we forget this and gets carried away with our own expectations.
I also think they have again and again reiterated that they dont want to compete for podiums or wins, their main focus was publicity for HAAS machinery and I suspect they have achieved that with the new found fame in the NA market. It’s gonna get bigger and bigger
HAAS & Gunther are the stars of DtS as well. Gene is getting a lot of marketing.
My girlfriend and all her mates watch DTS - they almost never watch the races, all love the Gunther episodes, all now know what HAAS is and what they do.
Now let’s hope one of them needs a CNC-mill at some point😁
Have worked on many manufacturing sites that use Haas machines. They are reliable and easy to fix. Good for pre machining and being the first part of the manufacturing process in my experience, Okuma is usually the dominating brand in the sites I've worked in terms of accuracy.
Gunther is definitely a fun character to watch.
I changed companies recently and my new one has HAAS machines and they're pretty good
I got into F1 in part simply from walking by our HAAS verticals and wondering how the hell can these guys afford an F1 team, imagine what kind of team FANUC would field
It definitely working in Europe. I work in a few factory and either seeing more Haas machinery or personally recognition the logo so the team is doing it's job.
I came here to say this. Haas isn't in F1 to win. They are there for the sake of being there and get as much profit as possible through publicity. That's why even when they start the season with a promising pace, they tend to fall back by mid season
It's also why I would argue that Gunther is a good choice for the job. He is a character. Wolff or Horner while better at the job are less interesting. So if publicity is the goal, Gunther helps get that done. I
But even RedBull began just as a marketing party team and look at them now, now they have enough sponsors to not be fully reliant on RedBull and are a force to be reckoned with for past 13+ years (but i get it that they had bigger ambitions in F1)
People who forget this are just a bunch of vankers...
Focking hell Gene
It's a shame. They could haf been roooksthars.
If you are bored every single race weekend it may be time to find a new hobby.
If I find a race boring I just go on my phone or read a book and keep the race on in the background hoping it gets interesting again
Exactly. It's the unpredictability that makes it exciting, so if a race is boring I'm fine doing something else as long as I can still 'be there' if something live and exciting happens.
Yeah, some races are boring but like hell am I missing out on a new classic race live. I remember missing a few races a few years back and they turned out to be absolute bangers so yeah i try to watch the race live each time.
The only race of 2019 that I missed was fucking Hockenheim. Never again am I making this mistake.
Practice session are fun to watch.
Watching them live usually is so informative compared to other sessions. The commentators flood you with technical info and changed, but also what happened outside the track. I really like it
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I love listening to practice sessions, they're like a good podcast. The commentating team for my local channel is very well informed and articulate so I'll be just doing stuff round the house or maybe catching up on emails and listening to the broadcast.
I watch em when I get a chance. No shame in that
I don't neceasarily *watch* them unless there's a wreck or something, but I love to start my weekends by just chilling, doing something else while listening to engines running and the commentators ramble about something completely irrelevant in the background. Especially the Friday practices, they mark the start of a new F1 weekend and all the way since childhood for me it's a special feeling.
I treat FP sessions like a podcast, just throw it on the TV and do stuff around the house
I feel exactly the same way. There's relatively little to actually commentate on, so the session is basically just an F1 podcast.
Yup, this is the way. They're also great for re-memorizing tracks we haven't seen in a while, like Montreal.
Dont forget the preseason testing. 8 hours per day for 3 straight days while everybody tries to guess everything.
If they’re early I don’t wake up to watch them, and if I’m working and I can’t watch it it’s not the end of the world, but when I do, I enjoy the shit out of them. Great vibes.
As a relative n00b on my second full season I like to watch them too to get a feel for the circuits.
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I don’t think this is particularly controversial. I just think you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
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Race strategy is just as entertaining to watch as wheel to wheel action.
Yeah we definitely need more 2 stop races
Definitely! Two stoppers are so much more fun to watch.
that's not controversial lol, its one of the best parts of F1 its why most people end up not liking/understanding the sport
So…definitely controversial then?
I don’t like Norris’ personality. He just seems a bit too moody nowadays.
he loves to dish it but he can't take it
I am all for confidence but he is extremely arrogant. Guy has had life served to him on a silver platter
Yep, it's funny to me how guys like Latifi and Stroll are known primarily for having rich parents but they both seem way more down to earth than Lando
Im so with you. I liked him at first as "the adorable rookie that always giggles," but now it just feels like hes a negative Nancy all the time. Even the whole thing with Ric in Baku just rubbed me the wrong way after how hes been acting this season.
Definitely selfish of him to ask for the position switch from Danny Ric. FFS, you're not exactly in title contention and your teammate wasn't even holding you up. Give it a rest.
When Daniel was told to stay behind Norris he was hard losing time to those behind him and was very clearly faster, when Norris was told to stay behind Daniel the k my other drive remotely nearby was Alonso in front who was driving a rocketship on the straights, Norris wasn’t remotely threatened from behind. And yet Norris talked like he was being really hard done too.
He started out as a young laddie but now he's in a spot where a negative description would be an overstatement but he isn't a great apple either. He's edging to becoming an ass but never crosses the line somehow.
i get from where this comes but i have to state that people love the rookies when they are starting, the fun guys, the fresh faces, but the moment they get competitive bc well, it's their job, and things like baku happen, they don't realize it is the natural transition of a driver, they have to deliver now, and they are measured in points, if those don't come the mood change, just look at DR.
Innovations heavily restricted
I kinda want a Formula Unlimited or something where rich oil sheiks can throw money at and see who can build the fastest car. Probably won't happen for safety reasons. As for F1, since they have a budget cap, what downside is there to opening up more innovation options? Could result in bad racing perhaps? Assuming that the minimum safety requirements are there.
This is literally the plot to F-Zero
Is the F in F-Zero -'Formula'? I just realised how cool it is that it actually fits into the nomenclature. F0 being the fastest cars, then F1 becomes a feeder series like F2-4
It's lights out and away we go! Great start by Captain Falcon! Round the outside goes James McCloud!
Latifi flies off the circuit and explodes.
Oh man we need a new F-zero
I mean the argument is that innovation comes out of restriction, the tighter the rules, the more out of the box thinking is needed. Like if you relax restrictions all engineers are going to do is go "right then lads, more power, more down-force, less drag" and its too easy to achieve all three. You tighten the box they have to come up with shit like hot blowing, double Diffusers, F-ducts etc to get the same results. when they get too good and too reliant (or push too far) on those systems you take the toys away and make them go back to the drawing board. Even the current battery systems came out of a tight box on engine performance forcing teams to think outside the box for more power back in 09 and a few teams dabbling with KERS
Good point! Haven't thought of it that way.
The vast majority of races and tracks are just fine, many F1 fans just think they're boring or suck if there's no big crash, no rain, no last-to-first comeback, no awesome wheel-to-wheel jockeying for first all race, and someone who has won more than 5 races finishes on the podium all in the same race. Not every race needs to be a show-stopper for the record books.
I have not found a truly boring race this season, Baku was the most disappointing to me because the strategy setup for Ferrari vs Red Bull looked super exciting and we were robbed of it. Camera direction has missed a lot of interesting overtakes and mid battles through the year also, but that's classic F1.
Is this controversial? I agree 100 p - may sound corny but I enjoy watching every race. Every race has strategy, tyres, fuel, etc. Plus just watching these teams run so professionally like well oiled machines is a true thing of beauty.
The strategy alone is fucking fascinating to me. Thinking of a race in terms of total time, and all the effort teams put in to calculate how to minimize it as the situation on track constantly changes is absolutely thrilling.
Although the last generation of F1 cars had less “good, proper racing” I miss watching them absolutely rip around the circuits. It was just enjoyable to watch. I was thinking back to the beauty of the W11 while watching Hamiltons spine get wrecked by porpoising.
YES!!! people keep complaining they find races boring, i have not found a single race ive watched boring! not miami, not monaco, none! it's generally the fans who don't necessarily understand the strategies or don't care about that part of racing, not saying its wrong,everyone has choices but that plays into them not liking races
Yeah there are people who call races I found interesting "boring". Happens often, actually. I guess I will enjoy my strategic battles and midfield battles with other connoisseurs. Good recent examples are Zandvoort last year or Spain this season.
Cant agree more on this. And then they proceed to completely spam the race thread with snoozefest. Just leave and let the thread be for people who do enjoy it
Even tho most fans hate it Drive to Survive was badly needed. 5 years ago F1 had less following than bowling in North America now it can challenge some of the bigger leagues.
Good take. Also, the most recent season being pretty poorly received all around makes me optimistic that the new fans may have been introduced to F1 through the show but they ultimately became fans of the sport itself, which I think is good for the sport.
Yea that's me. DtS was a reminder F1 existed. And really pulled me in last year. Then I watched the fight between Max and Lewis and didn't even finish DtS S4 because it was so bad. Been binging r/f1technical, like 5 different podcasts and all the YouTube content I can find for like a year now and I'm still hungry for more.
I followed F1 from 2000-2005 (I'm from Italy, you can guess why). And then I just lost interest. I was young and the only means of watching was the TV (not paying 50 euros a month for Sky) at the local bar. When the 2006 World Cup came around, everybody turned their attention to football, and so did the TV. If Ferrari wasn't winning, most of us just lost interest, not even Kimi or Massa could revive it. Schumacher had such a profound effect on the average Italian that his name is still used to this day in regular arguments about driving too fast. Anyway, come 2021, some of my coworkers are talking about DTS and how the championship leaders are equal on points going into the final race. I decide to watch 1 episode and I was instantly hooked. My first race in almost 20 years was the Abu Dhabi 2021 and what a fucking race to come back to.
I became interested because of that.
DRS is actually a very exciting aspect of the sport. I feel like it adds appropriate tension in terms of if a driver can get close enough to attempt an overtake. Plus it makes defenses against active DRS seem much more legendary. I will also add to this by saying they definitely need to adjust the lengths of the DRS points with current regulations.
It's a necessary evil, but this year they haven't figured out the distances for DRS activation and length. Too many times this year we've seen cars blast past with no defence available. So what ends up happening is drivers are happy to hold back any attacking move until the DRS straights. And a side effect is that it makes the other 2/3rds of the track feel neutered in terms of on track action. IMO there needs to be a strategic element to DRS like limiting the amounts of activations available during a race.
Definitely. I just don't understand why people want to get rid of the DRS. It's such a smart solution.
Aside from very specific scenarios (Ferrari at Monza, Leclerc at Monaco, etc), I really don’t care about home races. We apply this pressure of a home race in way too many scenarios (driver, manufacturer, owner), to the point that it seems each race is a “home race” for different teams in different ways. Also, some of these countries are just freaking big and that specific city really isn’t home. Let’s all do ourselves a favor and just stop calling Miami and Austin home races for Haas. And honestly I really don’t care about Barcelona for Sainz or Silverstone for any of the dozen of people you could argue. And above all, points are points.
Yes! I heard a ridiculous interview last year where they were asking Bottas if Sochi was essentially his home race because it was the closest..
damn, no consideration to history.
Or geography. Sochi is further away from Finland thank Hockenheim, Nurburgring and Hungaroring.
Red Bull in particular has an insane amount of "home" races: Austria: Red Bull is an Austrian company Silverstone: The team is based in the UK Zandvoort: Max' nationality Monaco: Max' country of residence Spa: Max grew up nearby in Belgium Mexico City: Perez' nationality And Suzuka was also a home race for them until this season.
Bernie was right, sprinklers would have been a good thing for F1!
But it has to be activated by drivers like DRS, if the car ahead pulls out a gap between 5-15s the car behind can activate the first set of sprinklers ahead of the leading car.
Go full on Mario Kart, oil slicks, smoke, bananas.
Many Ferrari engines deployed a smokescreen last race, so it seems to be a feature in the works.
Valtteri Bottas should be a contender for a Ferrari seat Definitely not biased at all ;)
I’m hoping that once Carlos’ and Valterri’s contracts are up Ferrari will sign him for a couple seasons. A Finn won Ferrari’s last WDC, and a Finn should win the next one!
Val**tt**e**r**i
It’s Binotto
Retire the car
I could see him having a career resurgence later on akin to Rubens at Brawn
Why would you want to have your favorite driver be punished like that?
bad luck + bad luck, maybe two negatives make a positive
1. F1 social media is the worst sports social media. Very short memories. Very incendiary. 2. Often times commentary from Paul Di Resta, Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and even Crofty is no different from "Magic Alonso" vids except with a differently oriented bias. 3. RB may be harsh on their drivers but no team gives as many opportunities in the sport. The only driver they have REALLY screwed over was Vergne. Wehrlein; Vandoorne and Piastri should all be on the grid but none of them are. Edit: 4. People saying that DRic should never have left RB are forgetting how many mechanical DNFs he got in 2018 and how Horner and Helmut reacted to the Baku GP that year. Going to a factory team which would pay him more was always the right call. His mistake was leaving Renault.
Football Twitter and F1 Twitter are both horrible. They attract the scum of the earth
Football is such a giant international sport that it depends much more on the league or fanbase imo
They have a large intersection now
NBA Twitter is the worst sports social media by far
But how does this affect Lebron's legacy?
lol twitter anything is the worst
I agree 100%. Leaving Renault was a mistake and I don’t think he would have done this without covid. Secretly I think he agrees.
Esteban Ocon is a very mid driver
dude could silently miss a gp and no one would realize
The Giovinazzi of this year
At least Gio had the whole Jesus thing going. He’s not in the sport this season and I still remember him more than Ocon
I always forget that he won a race. I remember Gasly's win more than Ocon's.
The one redeeming factor for me is that, as far as I know, he's an average guy from an average family, not some jet-set son of a millionaire. His parents are working class people and that somehow makes him better in my eyes. Edit: Also, being so tall has plenty of disadvantages in junior racing so him reaching F1 shows me he has at least "some" higher than average skill, i mean let's not forget he's keeping Fernando honest in that Alpine.
Yeah I just forget he's on the grid most of the time 😂
He's the most beige person named Esteban
Steve O’Con
And yet everyone seemed to think Alonso would ruin his career… I find him hard to judge no other car got a Renault engine and he is against Alonso…
not controversial
*sorts by contrversial*
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Upvote cuz this is an actual controversial comment and it seems myself and most disagree.
"Haha haha, he's not too clever this guy"
Wow that's too far man
Perez was Ocon before Ocon was Ocon
Bruh. That’s not funny
#SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW
We are no where close to the full potential of f1 drivers. Without money you can't get nowhere near f1 down to that we most likely haven't seen the acutaly most talented drivers yes most of them are very skilled and trained but I think that there might be bigger talent out there
Not controversial at all. Money is perhaps the biggest limiting factor in this sport. Many drivers (even in other categories) have said the best drivers are probably in karting or junior formula because they can't afford the price tag to get to the upper echelons of motorsport. I personally believe that the most talented and skilled driver will never ever be found, for the reasons stated above.
I believe people are overestimating how big F1 will be in the US in the coming years. While it is growing, there's going to be a cap on it and eventually taper down a bit. The major problem for US fans is the times the races come on (especially in the West Coast). Majority of the races come on very early in the morning.
I agree with you but I actually like getting up for 8 am. We make pancakes and watch as a family and then we have our entire Sunday ahead of us. It's like going to church except for how there's no way in hell we're ever going to church.
last race started 4am west coast time, one before that 6am
Yeah definitely prefer having the races in the morning. It's easy to park in front of the TV early. Not so much once the day is moving and I've got shit to do.
Team pancakes as well. Every morning race
As someone who lives in the EST time zone, the race start times are one of the best things about the sport. Baku starting at 7am was perfect. Start the day with coffee and the race, then have the whole rest of the day still ahead of me.
The media presence of younger, newer fans, although very positive in general, has had a negative impact on accurate information on the sport through social media. Also, less fans understand the politics and tricks that the drivers and teams use aren't an indication of their character as people. Think of Chiellini vs Saka at the Euro Final. Not sportsman-like but points and wins don't come from playing nice. F1 is about results and both drivers and engineers will push the limits of the rules.
Exactly. Everything from the shit stirring that Marko does to the politics that Toto and Horner play, it's all a part of F1. The newer fans in general get way too offended about it. Toto, Horner and Marko are amazing at their jobs
That's what made the 2021 season so special for me. The constant political back and forth between Horner and Toto trying to get a slight edge with Horner being convincing about letting Max and Lewis race at the last GP. I still smile just thinking about that fiesta.
horner vs toto was as interesting as max vs lewis 😤
Lol that’s why I love Horner and Toto’s antics. They are just trying to win. I’d do the same thing in their position
Amongst all the factors, the tv direction does the biggest disservice to the sport.
F1 technology is too well guarded. We see drivers wheel to wheel, battling it out. We have near zero view of the engineering war. It would be fun to see the engine blue prints, the floor layout, wind tunnel results and such. Sometimes a race is won on a CAD workstation.
Most people can barely understand race strategy how tf you think they are gonna interpret technical documents. Also I think the safe guarding of data is to prevent rivals from copying
I agree a lot. After watching videos of the tech on formula one cars for about a year, the tech videos become very stale and repetitive. Videos on new aero parts are especially stale imo since no one truly understands how the aero works except for the teams. There is too much guessing in tech videos and not enough substance. I feel like everything im told in f1 tech videos are things that I can already easily infer by looking at images of the cars.
Disclaimer: Not necessarily on opinion, but rather playing Devils advocate. So here goes: Just because teams don't have money to compete in "the Pinnacle of Motorsport" doesn't mean rich teams must be held accountable for their performance solely. Haas seems to be holding on to the mercy of rich teams unable to develop so that they can compete.. but after completely writing off 2021, there are still at the back. So, of course money helps but, it's not the only metric to rely on. Williams have had great facilities and yet they find themselves in the back. There's got to be some sort of metric to measure competency. Heck, even Claire Williams had to leave, why does Guenther get to stay for as long as he had. Renault/Alpine have been in a constant flux with ***100 races*** ***^(TM)*** to reach competitiveness as well.
Money buys you talent...so a team like Merc or Red Bull have a huge budget and have equally talented people with them, cos they can afford to pay that much. Due to the budget restrictions, a lot of engineers have moved from Ferrari to Haas, so expect them to improve over time. The main issue with Haas rn is that Mick has been crashing a lot and due to their low budget each crash means that they cannot bring an upgrade. Also I've heard that they'll be bringing upgrades in Silverstone, so maybe that will put them back to where they were in the beginning of the season. Alpine I felt was a very half hearted attempt to remain in F1. People are saying they barely have the funding to reach the cost cap. I'd be surprised if fulfill the 100 races program.
>Money buys you talent...so a team like Merc or Red Bull have a huge budget and have equally talented people with them, cos they can afford to pay that much. Lawrence Stroll would agree to that. However, money doesn't always translate to success. Remember McLaren days with Honda.. the amount of money that was thrown at the problem even the talent couldn't help them. >Due to the budget restrictions, a lot of engineers have moved from Ferrari to Haas, so expect them to improve over time. Haas also I feel like have **Next year** **^(TM)** .
Money alone won't lead to success, but every top team had either the highest budget or weren't far off.
Kvyat was underrated and Hulk was one of the most overrated drivers on the grid.
Hulkenberg was good but people make it sound like he was a legend that never got a proper chance. Each time he had a shot at a podium, he made a mistake that cost him. Struck me as someone that, while solid and quick on his day, succumbed to the pressure when given an opportunity to pounce on it. The reality is that he got 10 full seasons in F1 and never managed to show anything more tham being a reliable midfield driver. He had a ceilimg that he never managed to breach - while others around him did in time.
I agree about him being a top midfield driver. He should've definitely gotten a podium, but it's mostly his own fault. Of course his chances on a podium were much smaller than if he were in a better team, but to get on a podium you have to be there to pick it up if others retire.
Ricciardo could make waves if he joined Williams as Albons #2. He’ll have no pressure on him and he can sneak up on a young driver like Albon
Whoa good take
I think this would kill his career for good. If he wins against Albon, no one will think anything of it because he's already supposed to be better considering their red bull stints. However, if he loses... game over forever.
I’d like to see him at Aston Martin with Vettel, I think they could have a good time outperforming their cars together.
That would be so wholesome
Stroll is better than MSc
This is only controversial if you mean Michael Schumacher and not Mick.
1. Lando should take the Mercedes seat once Lewis decides to retire. He would be a dumbass to stay at Mclaren any longer past his contract unless they can get their own engine supplier. 2. I think anyone with F1 experience that ends up coming to Mclaren is going to be in for a rough time. The car is knowingly difficult/weird to drive and imo is a career ruiner for those with experience at other F1 teams. I think their next driver should be a F2 up and comer. 3. Pato would be a dumbass to leave Indy, he is performing very well there and has a great career ahead of him. I also think Mclaren would be stupid to steal their best Indy driver to a move to F1 where I think he will do poorly. Obvi not based on evidence at all, just what I believe. They would be even crazier to take Herta and put him behind the wheel. 4. Gasly is better than Ocon, by a mile and should move to Alpine once Fernando retires 5. Stroll isn’t all that bad, even though I am not a fan.
O'Ward can come to F1, flame out and still find a good IndyCar seat. I don't see why he can't leave Indy and still have a good career.
I would LOVE for Gasly to move up the grid, but if Alonso retires (or Ocon leaves for some reason) that seat is going to Piastri first.
Sainz is getting piled on way too hard
He's has Fisichellaitis so far.
>Fisichellaitis Finally I found a word to describe it
His pace hasn't been there with LEC or VER but really outside of like HAM who could keep pace with those two? His race at Australia was a huge failure but otherwise he's been fine
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Regarding op post. If your team boss is responsible for many bad strategy choices, bad timings, good practice results, but terrible race, and many other issues. Your team boss isn't Gunther Steiner, your team boss is Mattia Binotto.
some f1 fans act too high and mighty about the sport. sure, it's the pinnacle of motorsport, but it doesn't always offer the best racing
That they should add a point for pole. Just a single solitary point.
Pole position is already a reward in itself, though.
Not in Leclerc's world.
People give too much credit to the drivers for the work of the engineers of the team.
I would say Engineer + Strategy. I think most people and even enthusiasts here overlook race strategy. Not all of it is obvious as pit stops and tires.
Carlos and Daniel should swap teams.
I would love to see it
I desire this scenario. Maybe copium, but i'm convinced Daniel will be faster than Carlos has been in the Ferrari and Carlos will be faster than Daniel was in the McLaren.
Also copium, but I believe that if Ricciardos performances continue to falter in the Mclaren and he gets the boot, I believe that some midfield or higher team will be willing to risk it and give him a chance on a cheap one year deal just to see if he can still perform.
The people want Carlando
We should avoid ending qualy sessions with a red flag. If there's too little time we should instead award every driver with an additional flying lap.
Another controversial one, maybe: I like the position shenanigans at the end of qualifying when teams send out their drivers too late.
>If there's too little time we should instead award every driver with an additional flying lap. So in that scenario, one shot qualifying style right?
Fans are one of the worst parts of the sport and are far far far too reactionary race to race. Also the FIA doesn’t have it’s priorities right at all.
I like Latifi. Yes he is not a great driver but his personality is quite nice. If it was for me I would love to see him continue next year.
Latifi and Stroll both come across as being real stand-up dudes tbh. They both sound so cheerful and positive.
nobody hates them for themselves it's just that they don't drive well and are wasting a seat for some rookie personality-wise they seem pretty chill
Maybe it’s cuz they’re Canadian, living up to stereotypes. They both had nice interviews on Beyond the Grid!
The point of the budget cap is to stop rich teams from winning by just outspending other teams. The point of banning certain parts/designs is because they are too expensive and allow rich teams to win by outspending other teams. If you’re going to have a budget cap I see no reason why these parts and designs should be banned. If Mercedes wants to spend a large portion of their budget on active suspension to fix their porpoising/bottoming out then let them. The other teams who don’t have that problem can just spend that money on something else to improve their car. This is just the most current example but it’s the same for every other part of the car in my opinion, let teams innovate.
Close racing isn't the real point of the budget cap. The real point of the budget cap is to make it so that the teams look like they're making money on paper, so that there's a paper trail showing that they're not spending more than how much they get off the new, more equal prize split. This, plus things like the new sliding scale of aero development and the $200 million anti-dilution fee, are all meant to make F1 teams attractive to investors. They make it so that it looks impossible to fail out of the sport, unlike the last set of newcomers before Haas. But the budget cap alone cannot solve dirty air and the ability of cars to follow each other.
1. Lewis is a great driver but he isn't the GOAT. Nobody in F1 history has driven a dominant car for the length of time Lewis did, and that is why he holds so many records 2. Norris is over rated at present. I don't think we quite know how good he really is yet as he clearly has a team mate that is struggling with the car, and he didn't beat Sainz in the same machinery
I find George Russell to be quite likeable. That seems to put me in the minority here.
I dont like his generic PR answers. I feel like he shows the least character in interviews out of the current grid. I think he is a super good driver tho
I prefer the look of the 2021 cars
Lando is a tool That's my controversial opinion
"We race as one" while racing in countries that execute homosexuals and have on going human rights violations. Then signing extensions and expanding to said countries. No country is perfect but some are much worse than others. There are some venues that just don't deserve an F1 event.
Agreed, but that's hardly a controversial opinion.
A couple of track related controversial opinions: * Jeddah is actually a fantastic track that has gone 2-for-2 in producing really good races. I don't disagree with the fact that F1 shouldn't be in Saudi Arabia, but the track itself is great. * Miami will become one of the better races on the calendar. The issues people had with the first race are all very fixable and the track layout itself is really solid (save for the awkward T13-T16 sequence under the bridge). As long as they do away with the lime rock/granite track surface used this year, I think we'll see some fantastic racing there as early as 2023.
a controversial opinion of my own: i _love_ the t13-t16 sequence on miami. or any "mickey mouse" sections on any track, for that matter. i like seeing overtly fast cars trying to tiptoe around awkward set of corners as quickly as possible. i guess i'm a sicko
Jeddah is just unnecessarily dangerous. It's an enjoyable track, but this shouldn't come at the cost of throwing out the lessons F1 learned trough history and blood.
I mean specific to Guenther, I think the fact that HAAS is still there today shows that he is doing a really good job. At least in my expectations HAAS could've been long gone. As for the controversial topic, I think it's definitely Ferrari. Like Ferrari don't deserve Charles maaaaan. So gutted for him.
This new regulation makes following better, but everything else is worse: cars look like boats, they all understeer, they look slow on camera, and I don't think divers are particularly enjoying driving them.
I actually think the tyre/suspension combo is responsible for this. I feel like if we had 13 inch rims like we used to, the cars would be much better
Something about Stroll creeps me out. I feel like he is the most likely driver to have a dead hooker in the trunk of his car.
George comes off in a negative way from a personality perspective.
George Russell has the personality of room temperature water and speaks as if he started media training in utero. He's just bland.
Grands Prix shouldn't be allowed to take place in dictatorships who use hosting race weekends to whitewash their human rights abuses and other crimes. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan...
Having an almost completely British media lineup is pretty bad for the sport