F1 2021 News/Misc.

Reck said:
Mercedes and Hamilton still haven't put pen to paper yet. How strange.
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Still no deal announced. Whats the consensus here? I have read that talks are progressing, but this seems a bit late in the off-season to be getting this done. Surely they can't be squabbling about a few dollars, but I'm wondering if the holdup is about the length of the deal.

Then again, it could all be agreed to and they are just playing us. Strange indeed.
 
Tim_Richmond_Fan said:
Still no deal announced. Whats the consensus here? I have read that talks are progressing, but this seems a bit late in the off-season to be getting this done. Surely they can't be squabbling about a few dollars, but I'm wondering if the holdup is about the length of the deal.

Then again, it could all be agreed to and they are just playing us. Strange indeed.
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I think he’ll sign eventually, but it is strange how long it’s dragging on. With the season being moved back a bit and testing now mid-March they can probably go as late as the end as February to get a deal done.

I have read a number of things that mostly seem to point to not wanting to pay Lewis’s salary demand for more than a year or two, especially when Russell would probably jump in it for close to free. I don’t think that’s a Toto sticking point but probably more a Daimler and maybe INEOS thing.
 


Possible sponsor changes for Haas, it looks like PEAK and Blue Def has left the F1 and NASCAR teams.
 
Kiante said:
This could very well be Lewis' last season, if he wins number eight I think he retires.

I'm certainly going to savor this 2021 season.
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I'm very intrigued on the length of this deal, being only for 1 year. I cannot remember where I read it, but Lewis was saying that this would be his "big" contract as it would be his last. I'm with @FLRacingFan in thinking he's still got quite a bit in the tank, so I was a bit surprised at the single year, as I thought it would be a 2yr deal with an option.

My read on this is, with Lewis signing a 1 year deal it all but guarantees Russell will be in the works team for 2022, as he is out of contract at the end of this season and I just cannot see Merc signing Bottas to another deal after watching what Russell has done lately. I've read that Lewis has a veto clause when it comes to teammates and that may be what took this deal so long to get done and why it is only for one year.

Probably way over thinking this situation, but it is fun to speculate.
 
www.motorsport.com

American F3 ace Logan Sargeant eyes sportscar switch

www.motorsport.com www.motorsport.com

Logan Sargeant might be leaving the Formula Feeder Series ladder due to a budget shortfall. He was really, really good in F3 this season and man it would be incredible to see another American driver in F1 again. If he switches to sports car racing, I'm sure he'll be able to land something solid. The young man is a really well-rounded driver.
 
Kiante said:
www.motorsport.com

American F3 ace Logan Sargeant eyes sportscar switch

www.motorsport.com www.motorsport.com

Logan Sargeant might be leaving the Formula Feeder Series ladder due to a budget shortfall. He was really, really good in F3 this season and man it would be incredible to see another American driver in F1 again. If he switches to sports car racing, I'm sure he'll be able to land something solid. The young man is a really well-rounded driver.
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Gonna keep happening with these guys that run out of budget or get stuck in a driver academy backlog. Enzo Fittipaldi is coming back to America for the RTI, Callum Ilott is being placed in a GT program by Ferrari. F1 feeder system is just brutal right now, Logan was one first-lap incident at Mugello away from an F3 title and gets this instead.

Still, European open wheel’s losses will be everyone else’s gains.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Gonna keep happening with these guys that run out of budget or get stuck in a driver academy backlog. Enzo Fittipaldi is coming back to America for the RTI, Callum Ilott is being placed in a GT program by Ferrari. F1 feeder system is just brutal right now, Logan was one first-lap incident at Mugello away from an F3 title and gets this instead.

Still, European open wheel’s losses will be everyone else’s gains.
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I wonder what Dalton is up to these days, I'd love to see them both driving together in IMSA. Dalton was a handy road racer himself, but oddly enough Logan has always been an open-wheel guy.

Maybe even the RTI because honestly RTI and even Super Formula are more cost effective than the FIA ladder. That's why the super-license system is the way it is now giving these drivers the freedom to make their own way to F1. Look at Pietro, he never had the money to get into F2 and that's why he did what he did to get his opportunity. Enzo Fittipaldi is really, really talented as well. Oh well, as you said its their loss and our gain for American Motorsports.

It's actually crazy to see the growing popularity of IMSA and IndyCar's rebound post-split.
 
Kiante said:
I wonder what Dalton is up to these days, I'd love to see them both driving together in IMSA. Dalton was a handy road racer himself, but oddly enough Logan has always been an open-wheel guy.

Maybe even the RTI because honestly RTI and even Super Formula are more cost effective than the FIA ladder. That's why the super-license system is the way it is now giving these drivers the freedom to make their own way to F1. Look at Pietro, he never had the money to get into F2 and that's why he did what he did to get his opportunity. Enzo Fittipaldi is really, really talented as well. Oh well, as you said its their loss and our gain for American Motorsports.

It's actually crazy to see the growing popularity of IMSA and IndyCar's rebound post-split.
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In the coming years I think we’ll see stuff like the Alpine and Ferrari academies used more and more to develop guys for the programs they have in the pipeline but haven’t formally announced yet too. Better to develop a guy for a few years and have somewhere else to put him if there aren’t enough seats at the top in F1.
 
$2.5-3M for a year of F2, $1.5-2M for a season of F3. And the Pirelli scholarship is only €300,000 for the F3 champ so that barely even helps if you win. Ridiculous, IMO - you’ll get a bigger scholarship winning USF2000 at the bottom of the RTI this year. Unless you get picked up by an academy you’re probably SOL, as Medland states in the replies some wealthy families weigh up and decide the investment isn’t worth it.

 
FLRacingFan said:
$2.5-3M for a year of F2, $1.5-2M for a season of F3. And the Pirelli scholarship is only €300,000 for the F3 champ so that barely even helps if you win. Ridiculous, IMO - you’ll get a bigger scholarship winning USF2000 at the bottom of the RTI this year. Unless you get picked up by an academy you’re probably SOL, as Medland states in the replies some wealthy families weigh up and decide the investment isn’t worth it.

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The Road to Indy seems to work pretty well looking at how the amount of young North American drivers increased over the last decade.
The last American who scored points in F1 was Michael Andretti in 1993. There has to be another one at some point.
Kiante said:
I wonder what Dalton is up to these days, I'd love to see them both driving together in IMSA. Dalton was a handy road racer himself, but oddly enough Logan has always been an open-wheel guy.
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He just disappeared after losing that truck ride. Dalton has been inactive on twitter since 2018 and website actually still has GMS merch. I would've liked to see him stick around in NASCAR. He wasn't bad at all.
 
Sprint races to set the grid sound like a way to make the main event more straightforward and less interesting.

Portimao should be excellent again.

Engine freeze means Red Bull/AlphaTauri should be able to keep running rebadged Honda engines.

 
Red Bull just announced they have bought the Honda engine program and will run the engines until 2024 then develop their own engines for 25.
www.bbc.com

Red Bull teams to take over Honda's engines from 2022 season

Red Bull's Formula 1 teams will still use Honda's engines after the Japanese company leaves the sport later this year.
www.bbc.com
 
Dwayne said:
Red Bull just announced they have bought the Honda engine program and will run the engines until 2024 then develop their own engines for 25.
www.bbc.com

Red Bull teams to take over Honda's engines from 2022 season

Red Bull's Formula 1 teams will still use Honda's engines after the Japanese company leaves the sport later this year.
www.bbc.com
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Engine development will be a massive undertaking if that’s really what they do from 2025 onwards, and can’t find a manufacturer to partner with - I don’t buy into the constant Porsche/Audi tease. I think the engine freeze between 2022-2024 should be good, I’m interested to see what their “engine parity” plan for that time period looks like.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Engine development will be a massive undertaking if that’s really what they do from 2025 onwards, and can’t find a manufacturer to partner with - I don’t buy into the constant Porsche/Audi tease. I think the engine freeze between 2022-2024 should be good, I’m interested to see what their “engine parity” plan for that time period looks like.
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Red Bull is really starting to dive into engineering. The Valkyrie project, the development of the Hydrogen project with Oreca, so this almost like progression for Red Bull. They still have a ton of engineers from Honda still helping out, so this will be an interesting development over time.

Red Bull might build everything themselves come 2025 onwards, I think that's the plan at this point to have everything built in-house.
 
According to DecalSpotters, BWT did talk to Haas about being their title sponsor after leaving Aston Martin:


Gene still wants to sell his CNC machines, however why not integrate the Haas name like Sport Pesa did with Racing Point back in 2018? Kind of confusing tbh.

Now, Williams is the front runner for BWT.
 
Kiante said:
According to DecalSpotters, BWT did talk to Haas about being their title sponsor after leaving Aston Martin:


Gene still wants to sell his CNC machines, however why not integrate the Haas name like Sport Pesa did with Racing Point back in 2018? Kind of confusing tbh.

Now, Williams is the front runner for BWT.
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After getting burned by Rich Energy and having to take a highly-funded driver in Mazepin, Haas need all the external help they can get, IMO. This isn’t a bad year to do it since they have no expectations anyways, along with the new regulations to focus on. Otherwise I don’t wanna hear about how poor they are and how Gene is spending so much out of pocket to stay in the sport.
 
For example:

31I9861_CP_WHITE_BG-1500x500.jpg

Just put the Haas CNC branding in red/white and boom.

I'd prefer Williams because they need the funding badly even with the new investors.
 
New F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says they’re working on a renewal with COTA and there’s still mutual interest between the series and IMS. However, the most advanced discussions for a second U.S. GP are still with the group proposing the Miami street course.

 
Checo's sponsor breakdown:


He's going to need an extra fire suit with all of these sponsors...lol.

Also, the C41 for Alfa Romeo shows off. Alfa spent tokens on the front wing and changing around the front suspension on the car.
 
Kiante said:
VW/Porsche rumors swirling again:


Holding judgement until it actually comes to fruition.
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The only thing that makes this seem somewhat more realistic this time around is that Porsche are already working on their own synthetic fuel. If F1 heads down that direction with the fuels and engine regulations maybe only can happen.

Still, I’d set the likelihood pretty low if I had to. The Porsche and Audi stuff has been on and off for years.
 


No lie, it is nice, but would have preferred the black and chrome like the F2 team was running last year.

The FIA cleared this, which is weird.
 
Kiante said:


No lie, it is nice, but would have preferred the black and chrome like the F2 team was running last year.

The FIA cleared this, which is weird.
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America’s F1 Team™ running a Russian-flagged livery that technically isn’t Russian and circumvents the Russian sporting ban. This team is practically begging not to have fans.
 
FLRacingFan said:
America’s F1 Team™ running a Russian-flagged livery that technically isn’t Russian and circumvents the Russian sporting ban. This team is practically begging not to have fans.
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If it wasn't for Mick, I would not be considering anything of this team.

Gunther I feels need to go, but at the same time I feel as if Gene is going to sell this team to the Mazepin family. This is the first step of the process, this team has gotten run-down quick.

Not to mention, they are going to be horrible still. They are not going to develop the car that much this season.
 
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