What a great race! I could not be happier for Checo and more disappointed for Russell. I was also happy Ocon as I like him a lot. Lance Stool needs to go fck himself with his I am so disappointed because I should have won the race. Perez has out driven him in the #2 car all year. He has been beaten by a substitute driver and he thinks he is all that...GTFO!

The young guns still race like they're in formula 2. Pretty is a savvy veteran and is solid in that six inches between his ears. It is unbelievable to think he may not have a seat for next year. RB is stupid if they don't pick him up as they have no one close to his potential in their stable right now and he has all that Mexican money.

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:iagree::iagree: Just want to add that in all my years of watching and attending races, I have NEVER seen a blunder of a pit stop strategy as I saw yesterday with the Mercedes Team. :shakes head:

LMAO, I was like here we go again with Bottas getting screwed and then they doubled up on Russell! I pretty sure if there was an issue with the communication system that person is good as gone and the pit boss even with the communication failure should have been able to manage the situation without as much of a cluster fck!

I hope Hamilton gives Russell a chance to run this weekend. He can just say he is not 100% and give the kid another go. Hamilton has time to break more records.

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Might not be the best negotiating strategy for Lewis, though!
His value to the team just went down by tens of millions of dollars. :icon17:

LMAO, not really Hamilton is golden as he is making records for MB and Mr. Russell is a wet dream. Once there is a dominate figure everyone starts talking about next!;)

They say that the measure of a man is in how he accepts defeat.

Russell drove like a winner, should have won, deserved to win, and didn't pout about it. Sure, he was gutted, but didn't tell the world that he would have won. Besides, anyone who watched, already knew that!

Lance could have won ... if Perez and Ocon took each other out in the final lap! :rofl2:
The only way he has ever made it on to the podium is when most of the competition DNF. And that is not likely to change in the future. This is a Canadian saying so. For him to say that the race was his to win ... what an idiot. Disrespect for the much superior drivers on the grid, and the misfortunes that took many of them out of contention. Luck is a part of racing, but it cannot be on the top shelf of a driver's toolbox!

AGREED!!! The response from Russell was done with respect and grace while Stoll sounded like a pouty, spoiled and entitled rich kid!

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A blast from the past -- like oct 1997

little Max

Attachment 145652

:tiphat:

Damn I'm old.



Meanwhile back in Bahrain

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0d198917_z.jpgWilliams Racing Downforce by Raf, on Flickr[/IMG]

I am not a Max fan. He can be such a jerk and a crybaby at the same time.

This is actually the rear wing - the rest of the car got pushed down into the asphalt and you cannot see it anymore!

Williams must have really been on its last legs before being sold - for Claire to not make any changes to the 2019 car for this season, when last weekend made it abundantly apparent that the car truly is a POS.

Qualy Day Yas Marina!! Its on!

Max got the pole, now this might be an interesting race
Bottas
Hamiliton
Norris
Albon - a bit closer to Max only off .325, really wish that RB says yes or no to him.....

Fun qualifying. I wonder if RB turned up their engine. Now let's see if it will be reliable for the whole race.

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s

Good question!

They really don't have anything to lose!

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Good Morning F1 Fans. It's the last Race of the Year. :crying: Let's hope it a good and exciting one. :xmastup:

Charles with this design today honor Seb

Ferrari F1 this year -

Congratulations to Max and RB. I guess I got it all wrong RB didn't turn up their engine but MB went the other way.

Boring race no matter who wins by more than 10 seconds!

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BORING -- that is all I can say.......

Funniest thing was seeing the MB doing donuts and how they lined up at the end on the track....

The B word best describe the last race between RB and MB and a much better race for the rest. Such a large gap and hope it's momentum for RB into 2021. I heard a slip from Horner. I'm convinced it'll be Niko Hulkenberg and will be shocked if either Albon stays or if they picked Perez (who I'd prefer to see over Hulkenberg) and will be announced within a week. My inner Zoltar at work.

THe word is out from SKY F1 and Ted the pit reporter that announced soon will be Perez to RedBull. On his post race video. Albon would be reserve driver.

I don’t think Kvyat is signed - would not be surprised to see Alex sent back to the B team and show against Gasley which one deserves a promotion should the opportunity present itself. Meanwhile, Chico or Hulk for RBR.

I hope I am wrong about Niko Hulkenberg to RB. I was picking up on a slip by Horner and it might as well just be that, a slip. Can't wait for the real scoop to come out.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...-covid-cluster

Formula 1 boss Ross Brawn has revealed a translator triggered the most significant COVID-19 outbreak that the series had to deal with this year.

Although Brawn didn't specify the event, it's understood that the "worst cluster" occurred at the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi in September.

Brawn praised the way the series coped with the pandemic, and also highlighted the anomaly of three out of the small group of 20 F1 drivers testing positive.

F1's organisation and the FIA introduced strict protocols for the start of the season in Austria, including a regime that saw extensive COVID-19 testing on race weekends that involved both the travelling regulars and local officials and staff at the venues.

Over 78,000 tests were conducted under FIA jurisdiction at the 17 events, and they produced just 78 positive tests, although the numbers don't include the obligatory testing between races that took away from the venues.

Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll and Lewis Hamilton all had to miss races after testing positive, representing a much higher percentage than was seen in the overall F1 numbers.

Over 1,300 people working for the FIA, F1, the teams and the media travelled to each race, not counting the F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup teams seen at some events.

"I think it's a brilliant example of how F1 in times of crisis pulls together as a complete family," Brawn told the F1 Podcast. "We spend most of our lives, or at least I did when I was competing, in trying to destroy each other.

"And then we get faced with a situation like this, and F1 comes together and excels. I'm just really proud of what everyone was able to do this year, because it seemed an almost impossible task. When I look at how things were when we started this adventure, I'm really proud."

When asked about the test results, Brawn highlighted the relatively high percentage of drivers who were infected by COVID.

"It was slightly over one in 1,000," he said. "And it's fascinating to look at those cases, because we had three drivers, which is kind of disproportionate out of 20 drivers. That's something you've got to think about.

"Of those 78 that were positive, quite a number were track workers, or people associated with the country we were in.

"I think the worst outbreak cluster we had was when a translator caught us out in one of the countries, because he was working with a group of people, translating for them.

"Then of course he came into contact with them, and we suddenly had a fierce little cluster, but we quickly got on to that.

"So very few outbreaks, amongst the teams. The numbers within the teams of mechanics and engineers was very low. Interesting exercise to study the data, and I know some of the most diligent people in F1 got caught out. I don't know where it came from."

Brawn admitted that when the revised season was planned around the new COVID protocols there were many unknowns.

"I think the thing that none of us really understood is what would happen if we started to get an outbreak, how it would be managed, could we control it could we limit it?" he said.

"And none of us know enough about the dynamics of this disease, and how it spreads. The rudimentaries are known, but the subtleties aren't known. I mean, how long do you need to be in the company of an infected person, and what you need to do around them to become infected yourself?

"So all those things were uncertain, we simply didn't know how it would develop. And I think when we had our first positive cases, that was the anxious time to know whether they could just be limited on whether the systems and protocols we put in place would be sufficient to contain the outbreaks, which did prove to be the case.

"I think everyone was pretty diligent in F1. I think we had to be on our guard as we progressed, because it was easy to get complacent, and easy to drop your guard.

"But I think the protocols we put in place, the face masks, social distancing, bubbles, it did mean that when we had cases, they didn't escalate and become uncontrollable.

"I think that was a key barrier for us to get through, to know we could actually manage it. Because it would be unrealistic to think we wouldn't have cases. But when we got them, how are we going to deal with them? And could we contain them?"

Brawn also confirmed that the COVID protocols will be applied again in 2021.

"We're not going to go into next year with a switch turned. We're going to have to carry on, and learn from what we've learned this year, and be as diligent, because the vaccines aren't going to become effective until sometime during the year, in terms of numbers," he said.

"So we're going to need to continue testing. The testing regime may change, the methodology may change, but we're going to have another year undoubtedly of having to be super diligent, and apply the protocols again."

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...-bull-for-2021

Sergio Perez looks poised to secure a seat with Red Bull for the 2021 Formula 1 season, with an announcement set to be made on Friday.

Red Bull had vowed to make a swift decision about whether or not to stick with Alex Albon, after the Thai driver struggled to match team-mate Max Verstappen throughout the past season.

He did take podium finishes at the Tuscan and Bahrain grands prix, but he finished the campaign 109 points behind his Dutch team-mate.

Albon had faced difficulties getting on top of the tricky handling of the RB16 but had appeared to have made some progress over the final race weekend in Abu Dhabi.

But, amid growing indications that Red Bull felt its 2021 ambitions could be better served by opting for a proven more experienced driver like Perez, the team appears to have wasted little time in making its call.

its now official -- Albon is reserve driver -- Perez on one year contract


https://the-race.com/formula-1/perez...bull-for-2021/

He'll have had enough of the BS at RBR by the end of that year, to want to go into WRC!

:iagree: that's funny, but I heard a rumor, he has signed with williams for 2022, need to find that...

Very cool link and the other links it contains. Thank you for posting that up. I have not really spend much time on that particular site.

Ferrari building Haas facility in Maranello (and other customers - see article)

https://racer.com/2020/12/22/ferrari...-in-maranello/

just interesting

:iagree: However they will still not get the same stuff as the Ferrari Team. :twocents:

Haas can buy up to the FIA limit legal of Ferrari parts. Its a cost strategy that can work for or against you lol

Agree, but with cost limits and all that stuff maybe HAAS will get lucky

As the F1 season has closed out, here are some pics from 1983 Detroit GP, these pics were taken in the parking garage, I think it was one of the towers. Never today would common folks be able to get so close.

Ferrari
http://www.the370z.com/members/daneg...1-img-0012.png
http://www.the370z.com/members/daneg...8-img-0009.png

Williams
http://www.the370z.com/members/daneg...9-img-0010.png

Renault
http://www.the370z.com/members/daneg...0-img-0001.png

Liger (?)
http://www.the370z.com/members/daneg...3-img-0004.png

Toleman
http://www.the370z.com/members/daneg...7-img-0008.png

link to the album
Nissan 370Z Forum - danegrey's Album: 1983 Detroit GP II

Enjoy and happy hoidays

Jeremy Clarkson on Lewis Hamilton in todays Sunday Times:


"After Lewis Hamilton crossed the finishing line in Turkey and clinched a record-equalling seventh Formula One world championship, he spent the next hour vomiting dreary right-on platitudes into every microphone he could find.
Kids were told that if they stuck at it, they too could realise their dreams, which isn’t necessarily the case because not everyone can sleep with Alicia Vikander.
After a brief pause while Lewis got in touch with his feminine side by pretending to have a little weep, he was really into his stride, urging the sport to be more woke on racial issues and more sustainable too. And then off he went to play with his vegan dog.
The only slight deviation from the Twitter playbook was an admission that as well as his usual post-race tipple, meat-free minestrone soup, he would allow himself some wine. This puts him a long way from Keith Moon and caused a friend’s son to send me a text: “What an arse this man is.”

He is not the only one to think like that. When Fernando Alonso won his world championship, thousands of delighted locals ringed the house where he’d been brought up, shouting jubilantly. But when Lewis won, his home town of Stevenage didn’t react at all. It’s as if he is not loved here.

That’s a shame because when I first met Lewis, 13 years ago, he was a very engaging, very likeable and very polite young man. He was also, very obviously, an extraordinarily good driver. The best in history? The statistics say yes, and many people in and around the sport would agree. And if you argued they’d point to the race on that Turkish skating rink as further proof that superlatives are needed when discussing his abilities. “He lapped his teammate,” they’d say, forgetting perhaps that his teammate had damaged his car on the first corner, making it pretty much undriveable.

I’m not going to get involved in a debate about who’s the best F1 driver, though, so let’s move on to the fact that in Turkey the podium was occupied by Lewis, 35, Sergio Pérez, 30, and Sebastian Vettel, 33. All the twentysomething young guns were slithering hither and thither, attempting moves that were impossible and paying the price. The old boys, with their wise heads, just went about their business calmly and sensibly, and were the last men standing.

Is that what we want, though? Old men bumbling along and staying out of trouble? Or do we want Max Verstappen pirouetting down the main straight and Carlos Sainz driving like he’s in a Lancia Stratos and Charles Leclerc costing himself a podium finish on the last corner by attempting a smoky pipe-dream pass on Pérez?

Weirdly, while I enjoyed the antics of the embryos and the foetuses, and recognise that their oversteery antics and lurid lock-ups are pages they must turn until they too become rounded and complete, I did find myself rooting for Vettel.

Partly this is because I like him. He’s very funny. And it is partly because, since Ferrari told him earlier in the season that he wouldn’t be required next year, he has seemingly been on a mission to damage his car as often as possible. And he doesn’t just biff a wing that would be fairly simple and cheap to repair. Oh no, when he goes off, he makes sure that all four corners hit the barriers as hard as possible.
This makes me happy because I’m not really a fan of Ferrari any more. It seems to me to be mostly a licensing operation for hats and T-shirts. Yet the fact the F1 team is in disarray this year — as I write, it is behind not just Mercedes but Red Bull, McLaren, Racing Point and even Renault — suggests the company’s best engineers are working on the road cars."