The official Formula One and General Motorsport thread for the 2021 season! Season finale live on Sky & Ch4 Dec 12th 1pm

[Victor Mildew]

Doesn't look anywhere near as extreme as we were lead to believe it would be. Aside from the daft front wing endplates and wheel shark fins, you might not notice at a glance.

Now how will the teams find a way to ruin the intent of this I wonder.

[Vermilion]

At least the cars will still look decent, before the 2017 improvements, every new set of regs made the cars look worse.

[Robbo-92]

twitter.com/breakingnewsf1/status/1407072852210327562

Seen this over Twitter today, wonder if we might be seeing some coverage of said mocked up 2022 spec car at this weekends Grand Prix. Dare say some of the 2022 cars won’t actually end up looking like these once the teams have made their interpretation of the new regulations.

Most teams will probably want to put some wheels on.

At least it may help stop Mazepin from spinning out.

I assume the only reason it has no tyres on is to stop people working out how large the car is before they confirm maximum sizes for them.

Doesn't look anywhere near as extreme as we were lead to believe it would be. Aside from the daft front wing endplates and wheel shark fins, you might not notice at a glance.

Now how will the teams find a way to ruin the intent of this I wonder.

No it doesn’t really does it? Still if the racing gets generally closer it’ll be a good rule change.

[Victor Mildew]

Bottas spun leaving his pit box

It's funny until you watch the different replay angles and see he was very close to running over the entire McLaren pit crew

[Robbo-92]

Bottas showing Mazespin how it’s done evidently

It was a surprise though, could have gone very badly (thankfully didn’t) with the McLaren pit crew, they were onto the head steward straight away understandably. He was summoned to see the stewards, not seen any outcome of it yet though.

[Robbo-92]

3 place grid penalty and 2 penalty points for Bottas’ spin in the pit lane. Ruins Mercedes race strategy before they’ve even qualified

[Victor Mildew]

3 place grid penalty and 2 penalty points for Bottas’ spin in the pit lane. Ruins Mercedes race strategy before they’ve even qualified

May as well bring the Russell announcement forward and stick the boot in.

[Neo Cortex]

What do Mercedes do now? Give Bottas an optimal setup over Hamilton? Hoping he will get pole and therefore start 3rd and hold up Perez? Ah who am I kidding. He will qualify behind Russell now.

[Robbo-92]

3 place grid penalty and 2 penalty points for Bottas’ spin in the pit lane. Ruins Mercedes race strategy before they’ve even qualified

May as well bring the Russell announcement forward and stick the boot in.

Yeah whatever message Mercedes are trying to put across, Bottas is definitely going to be out of the team by the end of the year, unless Hamilton decides to call it a day but I’d say that’s almost important with how he’s been doing this season and how much he enjoyed the fight even after the first race.

What do Mercedes do now? Give Bottas an optimal setup over Hamilton? Hoping he will get pole and therefore start 3rd and hold up Perez? Ah who am I kidding. He will qualify behind Russell now.

That would be the sensible option, Bottas is generally very good around the Red Bull Ring, certainly one of his better tracks anyway.

[Imrahil]

Not sure I understand. Surely both cars would be setup in optimal way?

I can't even envisage a situation where they would ever knowingly give Lewis a sub-obtimal setup, especially considering he's their only chance for a driver's championship...

[Robbo-92]

Both cars will have a similar set up yes, but they can do little things to help Bottas, send him out first on each run so the chances of his lap being ruined by yellow flags is minimised. To be honest with though, with Red Bull looking to have the faster car in general they need Bottas in the mix so he can play a part in the race, it’s no good for Hamilton if Bottas qualifies 3rd and starts 6th, has a mare of a start and ends up at the back end of the points on lap 1 as that’d just allow Red Bull to whatever they want with the strategy even if Hamilton is ahead of them both. Perez being able to get in the fight with Verstappen and the Mercedes duo is what’ll probably get him another year extension to his contract as while it’s not the sole reason Max is leading the championship it’s certainly an aid.

[captain red dog]

Bottas will likely finish wherever he starts.

[Vermilion]

Apparently, Istanbul Park will be replacing Singapore.

[Neo Cortex]

George Russell is trending on Twitter atm

[Imrahil]

Both cars will have a similar set up yes, but they can do little things to help Bottas, send him out first on each run so the chances of his lap being ruined by yellow flags is minimised. To be honest with though, with Red Bull looking to have the faster car in general they need Bottas in the mix so he can play a part in the race, it’s no good for Hamilton if Bottas qualifies 3rd and starts 6th, has a mare of a start and ends up at the back end of the points on lap 1 as that’d just allow Red Bull to whatever they want with the strategy even if Hamilton is ahead of them both.

It would be even worse for Hamilton if they both end up behind Verstappen regardless of race strategies, so I doubt very much they would even entertain the idea of trying to somehow favour Bottas in qualifying. It would introduce way too much risk of giving Verstappen an easier chance of getting pole.

[Neo Cortex]

Both cars will have a similar set up yes, but they can do little things to help Bottas, send him out first on each run so the chances of his lap being ruined by yellow flags is minimised. To be honest with though, with Red Bull looking to have the faster car in general they need Bottas in the mix so he can play a part in the race, it’s no good for Hamilton if Bottas qualifies 3rd and starts 6th, has a mare of a start and ends up at the back end of the points on lap 1 as that’d just allow Red Bull to whatever they want with the strategy even if Hamilton is ahead of them both.

It would be even worse for Hamilton if they both end up behind Verstappen regardless of race strategies, so I doubt very much they would even entertain the idea of trying to somehow favour Bottas in qualifying. It would introduce way too much risk of giving Verstappen an easier chance of getting pole.

It's a concern though that without Bottas to protect him, whatever happens Hamilton will be a sitting duck to whatever strategy hijinks RB want to pull. So it must play on their minds to at least give him a leg up. Or just leave him to go backwards and dump him for Russell. Atm I can't see Bottas making the mid season break.

[Robbo-92]

Apparently, Istanbul Park will be replacing Singapore.

Glad to see Turkey back, will Codemasters still refuse to put it into the F1 2021 game though?

Both cars will have a similar set up yes, but they can do little things to help Bottas, send him out first on each run so the chances of his lap being ruined by yellow flags is minimised. To be honest with though, with Red Bull looking to have the faster car in general they need Bottas in the mix so he can play a part in the race, it’s no good for Hamilton if Bottas qualifies 3rd and starts 6th, has a mare of a start and ends up at the back end of the points on lap 1 as that’d just allow Red Bull to whatever they want with the strategy even if Hamilton is ahead of them both.

It would be even worse for Hamilton if they both end up behind Verstappen regardless of race strategies, so I doubt very much they would even entertain the idea of trying to somehow favour Bottas in qualifying. It would introduce way too much risk of giving Verstappen an easier chance of getting pole.

Typically Mercedes do alternate who gets first dibs on who goes out first in qualifying, I have no idea if they still do this and if they do which driver it is this weekend so Bottas might just naturally go out first anyway. I very much doubt they will favour Bottas in any way in qualifying with his penalty but just saying they could do if they really wanted.

[Robbo-92]

George Russell is trending on Twitter atm

While I reckon he’ll get the seat for 2022 (as frankly if he didn’t Russell should do similar to Ocon, get a seat outside the Mercedes teams and show what he can do in a proper midfield car), I can’t see Mercedes replacing Bottas mid season and doing a Red Bull/Alpha Tauri type swap as realistically Bottas knows the car better than Russell and the last thing Hamilton wants is someone jumping in mid season who doesn’t care about taking points away from him in the tight fight for the WDC.

[Neo Cortex]

George Russell is trending on Twitter atm

While I reckon he’ll get the seat for 2022 (as frankly if he didn’t Russell should do similar to Ocon, get a seat outside the Mercedes teams and show what he can do in a proper midfield car), I can’t see Mercedes replacing Bottas mid season and doing a Red Bull/Alpha Tauri type swap as realistically Bottas knows the car better than Russell and the last thing Hamilton wants is someone jumping in mid season who doesn’t care about taking points away from him in the tight fight for the WDC.

I genuinely think Mercedes have already had the conversation with Bottas about his future, it's no coincidence how badly his form has dropped. And at the very least are in early negotiations with Russell for 2022

[Vermilion]

I can see Bottas driving for Williams next season, having been moved as part of a Merc driver swap (much like how Kimi ended up at Alfa).