homepage Forums SimHQ Motorsports Sim Racing - General Formula 1

Well the even applicaion of rules didn`t happen here.
The commentators here, who are racers and not particullary Hamilton fans, claimed that Verstappen almost torpedoing Hamilton should have been penalized.
Simular situations , that really wasn`t as serious, had been penalized earlier in the season like in Austria.
There was also an incident earlier, in Texas I bekieve, where Verstappen pressed Hamilton almost out in the start. If Hamilton had kept his position there would have been another accident. You commented on that DBond.
Verstappen is a good driver , but too arrogant to my taste.
Like when he got the message that he was given the black and white flag for changing lanes in an unregular manner his message was too "Say Hi" to the referees.

Wigean, where was it that Hamilton caused Max to crash VERY hard?

Do you mean the race that Hamilton got a 10 second penalty?

Yes I did. I thought that was a bit too much, squeezing Hamilton like that. The incident in turn 4 yesterday was too, and I expected Max to get a penalty. We never did get a chance to see his steering inputs, as the broadcasters were calling for, so I can't judge properly what happened. But it seemed clear Max just ran Lewis off the track, and you can't do that.

Listen I'm a Max fan, and not a fan of Hamilton, though I respect him. But I think it's pretty clear that Max has been more aggressive this year in their battles. The start at Imola for example could have been another crash, but Hamilton backed out to avoid it.

The two main incidents, Silverstone and Monza, are the most consequential. Monza was a racing incident? Still not sure how to apportion blame for that one, but it had a net zero effect, with both cars out.

Silverstone though, I think, was clearly on Hamilton. And this is the one that had the most effect on the championship. The 10-second penalty Wigean notes was out of proportion to the transgression, and I still have a bitter taste over that one. Hungary was Bottas, not Hamilton, and while we can blame Mercedes, you can't blame Hamilton.

So on balance I'd say Max has been the more 'dangerous' driver this season when he and Hamilton are wheel to wheel. At the same time he has not caused a wreck, unless you consider Monza his fault entirely. In part that is due to Hamilton backing out smartly. Max could have caused some incidents, but you could say he didn't simply because Hamilton yielded. If it were Max, racing Max there would have been some more crashes this year

So it's now a 14 point lead with 3 races to go. This is actually starting to be a bit exciting!

Yes, quite an exciting championship still eh ?

Hamilton fought like the champ he is, red cars did a solid job, Gasly's battles were breathtaking, all the stewards' drama...

I can already sense Hollywood preying on this season in a few years.

Crashstappen has most likely bought an immunity ticket of some sort though, probably since Silverstone (quite deserved for one incident, then).

Strange that in Silverstone nobody said the same to crying Lewis.

There is a clear political agenda aroound this guy and Alonso explained very properly.

This is not F1 anymore, it is a LGBT , skin color , political show

Guanyu Zhou named to Alfa Romeo's second seat for next season, replacing Giovinazzi, who is out of F1. Tough luck for him, but he seemed a dead man walking all season, and his performances haven't done anything to compel his retention.

I thought they would go either for Zhou or Ilott. Zhou makes sense, especially from a financial point of view. Chinese companies are sure to get in line to sponsor the team (and Formula 1) now, and Zhou is a heavily-backed pay driver, so the team will benefit from the windfall. Zhou has performed well in the lower leagues, and from a sporting standpoint is as deserving as any other young driver I think. So it's the perfect storm, potential combined with gobs of cash. He'll benefit from having Bottas to mentor him too.

So with this announcement, all seats are filled for 2022.

Well, the reason to see Zhou in an Alfa Romeo is not his talent obviously. But it is good for Alpine Renault, it makes the replacement of Alonso a bit clearer, and by a far more talented driver in my opinion.

It was too early for Théo Pourchaire (Sauber academy so Alfa Romeo), I hope he will have another opportunity in the two next seasons.

Can you expand on this? Who are you speaking of?

Zhou has to be released from his Alpine contract, which the team said will happen, in order for him to run at the rookie test at Abu Dhabi.

Giovinazzi has announced he'll be in Formula E next season.

I was talking about Oscar Piastri. F3 champion last year, current leader in F2, and he just signed a contract as test pilot with Alpine.

Yes, thanks, I should have drawn that conclusion. Yeah, Piastri now has one foot in the door, and like you say, Alonso's got few seasons left in him (I guess). Ocon shouldn't fee safe too.

Third race of the tripleheader this weekend, Qatar. Normally I'd be offering my track analysis at this point. But I have zero experience there, have not turned a lap around the place. Kind of exciting to have a new circuit, which should mean some teams struggle with set up, with little data to work with. Need Red Bull to turn it around with a good team result here.

A lot of medium speed corners to the right. The front left tyre gonna suffer.

I have some concerns for Losail as a F1 track. Some are saying it should be full of overtaking, but I'm not so sure.

Here's a virtual tour of the lap

https://motorsport.tv/embed/WoxFs3y1-virtual-onboard-losail-international-circuit

Like Roudou pointed out there are a lot of medium and high speed corners, few tight ones, few real braking zones. Acceleration factor therefore is minimized. They've been racing bikes here for years, but it feels to me like F1 cars will be processional. We'll see.

The main straight is very long, looks like Bahrain, and I would expect turn 1 to be the main spot to get past. Where else on that track will there be a DRS zone? Not much in the way of straights around the rest of the circuit. Horsepower and low drag will be critical here, but they'll still need plenty of downforce, so it could be a tricky track to set up for.

With that long run to turn 1 I think it will be yet another track where starting second or third on the grid could be an advantage.

Sand could be a factor too, and it seems the surface is fairly abrasive, meaning getting the tires in the right window and keeping them there will be challenging.

Weather, unsurprisingly, will be dry throughout. Winds are expected, which could affect car balance and put sand across the surface.

FIA to police F1 track limits in five corners at Qatar
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/autos/new...tar/ar-AAQRbUO?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

Owing to the nature of the Losail circuit, which features sizeable run-off areas around its faster corners, along with flat kerbs around the perimeter of the track, the FIA has elected to enforce limits at Turns 4, 12, 13, 14 and 16.

Given that the start-finish straight is the sole DRS zone on the track, it is expected that the high-downforce packages will create a large advantage for a car with DRS activated. The DRS detection zone sits before Turn 16.

Seeing the track layout, I expect a procession, even with DRS.

Hope to be wrong.

Better qualify well there.

The track seems very generic to me. I tried to watch the safety car going round but lost interest after half-a-lap.

Verstappen fastest over Gasly in FP1. Still early doors.

One of the problems here, for overtaking, is the first turn is a bit of a high speed bender. There isn't much braking required, at least compared to turn 1 at most circuits. We'll still see some overtakes here, but it's not a case of being the last of the late brakers like most tracks. DRS will help, and that extra speed combined with the inside line should be enough to get by. But yeah, overtaking is going to be difficult here I think.

I agree with Jens that the track is sort of vanilla, nothing iconic in it. No signature turns. Like a slalom in a sense. Flick it left, flick it right. If you're clipping apexes no one can get past.

On the other hand, the high speed makes mistakes more costly. The track conditions may play a role, the sand, the surface and the track temp, which was 45C in FP1! That's super hot, and as a result of all this Pirelli has gone with the hardest compounds this week, first time since Zandvoort. It will cool for FP2 a bit and for the race you'd expect as well. Hot tracks have tended to favor Red Bull, but there's plenty of time to dial it in still. I expect Merc to close the early gap.

Weather: dry 26.9°C
Tarmac: dry 31.3°C
Humidity: 49.0%
Wind: 0.6 m/s NW
Pressure: 1010.2 bar

FP2 Times Table 2021 Qatar GP

P No Driver Team Time 1st Gap Laps Tyres
1 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:23,148 27 🔴S
2 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:23,537 +0,389s 27 🔴S
3 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:23,498 +0,350s 20 🔴S
4 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:23,570 +0,422s 25 🔴S
5 4 Lando Norris McLaren 1:23,632 +0,484s 24 🔴S
6 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:23,705 +0,557s 26 🔴S
7 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:23,735 +0,587s 28 🔴S
8 11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1:23,787 +0,639s 20 🔴S
9 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:24,020 +0,872s 27 🔴S
10 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:24,033 +0,885s 28 🔴S
11 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:24,041 +0,893s 29 🔴S
12 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:24,056 +0,908s 25 🔴S
13 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:24,095 +0,947s 23 🔴S
14 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1:24,135 +0,987s 24 🔴S
15 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo 1:24,631 +1,483s 26 🔴S
16 63 George Russell Williams 1:24,954 +1,806s 27 🔴S
17 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:25,072 +1,924s 23 🔴S
18 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:25,209 +2,061s 28 🔴S
19 47 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:25,575 +2,427s 27 🔴S
20 9 Nikita Mazepin Haas no time - 0 -