Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[savetheFORUM]

I have heard some news claiming that Jos Verstappen made a statement like Verstappen is ready for giving his best for winning the title. This could mean anything at this point.    Verstappen wouldn't be scared of pushing his luck for the title in this race. Hamilton should get ready for every kind of attack in this race. Because I believe that the last race was a sign for it.

Of course Verstappen will try everything to become the world champion. This would be his first title and with the new cars coming in the next season no one knows where they will stand then. So you can never know if you have another shot for the championship title in the near future again. Also i think the statement of Verstappens father is really nothing special and i don't think that it indicates that he would also do illegal or shady things like provoking a crash to take hamilton out of the race, not because he would not do such things but simply because everyone is watching him so closely now and i don't think he is stupid enough to do such things in the last race.

That next years cars thing is the most important part of all of this. If it was just go on as usual without much changes then we would probably see Max saying "there is always next year" and he could have gotten better for sure, it is not like Max is a bad driver that would suddenly become bad just because he is not in one of the best cars, Bottas is in Merc and that is a great car as we all know and yet Max still managed to beat him, and usually his teammates for a while now as well.

I would say that there is a good chance he would be great next year no matter what happens with cars but if Red Bull by some weird magic end up being one of the worst cars, then he may not have a chance to beat anyone for many many years, plus there is a cap now so teams can't just throw in money and try to win neither, it is going to be weird. This is why Max is very well aware that he needs to win this one for sure, don't know what is going to happen with future seasons but he needs to win this one.

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[Cnut237]

Should be a fun start of the race.  

I'm fully anticipating a championship-deciding "accidental" collision at the start. See the exact same thing in Suzuka 1990 with Senna/Prost for a taster. Or if not, maybe a Schumacher '94 or '97, "accidental" championship-deciding crash partway through the race.

The anticipation of this happening is so strong now that Horner has had to come out with a statement denying that Max is planning such a thing!

Of course with everyone expecting it to happen, Max has less chance of getting away with claiming it's an accident, so maybe this in itself is enough to stop it happening.

I have heard some news claiming that Jos Verstappen made a statement like Verstappen is ready for giving his best for winning the title. This could mean anything at this point.    Verstappen wouldn't be scared of pushing his luck for the title in this race. Hamilton should get ready for every kind of attack in this race. Because I believe that the last race was a sign for it.

Yes, coming from Jos Verstappen that's a bit ominous. Remember when he was charged with attempted murder for driving his car into his ex-girlfriend? The "win at all costs mentality" seems to span the generations.

[judas]

I'm getting excited more and more every day. There are only three days left for the big final race. This is going to be the decider for the title. And I think that Verstappen can make it to the the title for the first time. Maybe it is going to be very difficult but not impossible. I'm waiting excitedly for not only the race but also the qualifying session. I hope that we watch a great competition between Verstappen and Hamilton for the championship.

[swogerino]

I'm getting excited more and more every day. There are only three days left for the big final race. This is going to be the decider for the title. And I think that Verstappen can make it to the the title for the first time. Maybe it is going to be very difficult but not impossible. I'm waiting excitedly for not only the race but also the qualifying session. I hope that we watch a great competition between Verstappen and Hamilton for the championship.

For Verstappen to make this happen he needs at least a perfect qualifying session with pole position as a result and then he needs to be fully focused on the race as this track is not as fast as Saudi Arabia but still fast enough for a Mercedes,also a big help and key players should be his team mate Perez just like Bottas has been for Hamilton these last couple of races,only if all these conditions are met then Verstappen can be a World Champion.

[waelov]

Its going to be a difficult race for all the drivers out there with the new Kerbs design in Abu Dhabi that are closer to the one we seen in Losail Qatar GP when many drivers got punctures due the kerbs being hard on the tires despite that that they had the hardest tire compound from C1 hard to C2 soft i remember that Bottas ,Norris , Russel, and Latifi all have suffered punctures on that track on raceday and stroll in Qualification too so with Abu Dhabi having the softest tire compound types C3 Hard to C5 soft,
this going to mean that this is going to make trouble for Verstappen especially as he tends to use the limits of every corner to gain advantage but he lost this advantage and now he needs to change his aggressive style on corners,
I believe this is making L,Hamilton on his way to gain his 8th World Championship unless when he goes to get past Verstappen he pushes him to the Kerb he gets a flat tire that ruins his race.

[DatKing]

I have a big respect for both drivers. They both deserve this point now and I won't be surprised when any of them reach title. However, I want Verstappen to win this title very much. Because it will be his first title ever in this competition. In the last years, Red Bull hasn't ever been this close to Mercedes in terms of engine power especially. Verstappen has one of his biggest chances in his career now. But if Hamilton reaches the title, I'll applaud him too of course.

[el kaka22]

I believe that there is a good case to be made for Hamilton to win this race and the championship as we all know. We have seen how dominant he could be when he faces no problems or very little problems but we have seen him do AMAZING things when there is a problem. This is why we joke about how he cries about his tires being "gone" and then setting a fastest lap, if you put him at the first place then he will finish first, if you put him at 20th he may still finish first, but if you put him at 7th, things change a little bit more in that case, obviously depending on the situation of the car but that plays mindtricks on him for some reason.

I am hoping that we see Hamilton and Max at pole this afternoon, doesn't matter which one is first and which one is second, I just want to see them side by side and starting at pole so that we could see craziness during the full race and do not put anyone between them.

[LTU_btc]

I know that everyone is focused on Veestappen and Hamilton battle, but I want to mention Kimi Raikkonen. Upcoming race will be last in his long and memorable career. His debut was so long time ago back in 2001. One of last old school drivers in F1. Here is his best career moments:
https://youtu.be/2GJ9udIoGh8
I never been fan of Raikkonen, but you simply can't hate him. Amazing win in 2007 championship. Man of few words. Remember these epic team radios like "Leave me alone" or "where is my gloves and steering wheel:
 https://youtu.be/UJQzEAlZ57k
And I think this season isn't bad for him. After all, he is 3rd in standings with most overtakes with not that much competetive Alfa Romeo.

[Reosta_]

I'm excited and unhappy at the same time now. I'm excited because the final race on Abu Dhabi track is going to determine who is going to be the champion of the 2021 F1 season. And I'm unhappy because the season is coming to an end now and we aren't going to be seeing the brand new season for months. Anyway, we are going to watch a big rivalry between the top drivers who are both deserving to win the championship. I can't pick one for now but I would be happy for both of them. Because it is a special race for each of them. It would be Verstappen's 1st title and Hamilton's 8th title which would be a new record.

[AndySt]

That next years cars thing is the most important part of all of this. If it was just go on as usual without much changes then we would probably see Max saying "there is always next year" and he could have gotten better for sure, it is not like Max is a bad driver that would suddenly become bad just because he is not in one of the best cars, Bottas is in Merc and that is a great car as we all know and yet Max still managed to beat him, and usually his teammates for a while now as well.
I would say that there is a good chance he would be great next year no matter what happens with cars but if Red Bull by some weird magic end up being one of the worst cars, then he may not have a chance to beat anyone for many many years, plus there is a cap now so teams can't just throw in money and try to win neither, it is going to be weird. This is why Max is very well aware that he needs to win this one for sure, don't know what is going to happen with future seasons but he needs to win this one.

Yes, the change of technical regulations should have a very strong impact on the fight and the placement of teams next season. It should be no secret to anyone that by the middle of the season, all teams had practically stopped working to improve the technical characteristics of their cars with the transfer of all resources and efforts and resources to the development of cars for the next year. Only Red Bull and Mercedes continued to improve their cars until the very end this year, and if in the middle of the season it seemed that Red Bull did it much better, then by the end of the season we can safely say that Mercedes not only caught up with Red Bull, but also came out ahead.

[Juggy777]

That next years cars thing is the most important part of all of this. If it was just go on as usual without much changes then we would probably see Max saying "there is always next year" and he could have gotten better for sure, it is not like Max is a bad driver that would suddenly become bad just because he is not in one of the best cars, Bottas is in Merc and that is a great car as we all know and yet Max still managed to beat him, and usually his teammates for a while now as well.
I would say that there is a good chance he would be great next year no matter what happens with cars but if Red Bull by some weird magic end up being one of the worst cars, then he may not have a chance to beat anyone for many many years, plus there is a cap now so teams can't just throw in money and try to win neither, it is going to be weird. This is why Max is very well aware that he needs to win this one for sure, don't know what is going to happen with future seasons but he needs to win this one.

Yes, the change of technical regulations should have a very strong impact on the fight and the placement of teams next season. It should be no secret to anyone that by the middle of the season, all teams had practically stopped working to improve the technical characteristics of their cars with the transfer of all resources and efforts and resources to the development of cars for the next year. Only Red Bull and Mercedes continued to improve their cars until the very end this year, and if in the middle of the season it seemed that Red Bull did it much better, then by the end of the season we can safely say that Mercedes not only caught up with Red Bull, but also came out ahead.

I believe there’s a vibe among F1 followers which says Max will try and crash into Hamilton to win the title, and I too have a bad feeling about this. Furthermore I hope Red Bull don’t mess their car next year, because Max is an excellent driver and with the right car he’ll win races with ease, but then again if Mercedes further improve their car then Hamilton will have the advantage.

[Cnut237]

I believe there’s a vibe among F1 followers which says Max will try and crash into Hamilton to win the title, and I too have a bad feeling about this.

Yep. I've posted several times on here about the possibility, too. But the authorities are well aware of the situation, particularly after they had to penalise Max on two separate occasions in the last race. Masi has issued a warning that they are prepared to deduct points as a punishment for a deliberate crash... so for him to actually state this explicitly, then it's definitely something that the officials believe is a very real possibility.

The question is, even with the warnings, if Max sees Lewis going past him, will his emotions take charge anyway?

[diderdrogba]

I hope that Max Verstappen don't go for cheap tricks like crashing into Lewis Hamilton. Then, what is the meaning of this whole season. Developing a tactic doesn't mean this. You should just earn the title by racing smart. I don't expect him to race timidly of course and I'd never want such thing from him. But it would be much better if we see both of these drivers making it to the end of the race.

[Real-Duke]

I would really like to see the first practice session from the last race weekend in Abu Dhabi but unfortunately I have to work this friday at the office...
So please guys keep me informed about the session

[Expecto]

FP1 is nearly starting and I'm too excited already! We are going to have some ideas after these practice sessions about which of Verstappen and Hamilton would be closer to a victory. But even the qualifying session might be misleading for us. Because this race is going to be determining the champion. Each driver would like to save their real power for the big race.

[coinlocket$]

1st Hour gone and it is the same story, Mercedes Redbull on the top.

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Red Bull Racing   1m25.009s
2   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.205s
3   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.355s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Red Bull Racing   1m25.363s
5   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m25.378s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Alpine F1 Team   1m25.625s
7   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda   1m25.822s
8   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m25.846s
9   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow   1m25.886s
10   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.007s
11   Esteban Ocon   FRA   Alpine F1 Team   1m26.025s
12   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.123s
13   Kimi Raikkonen   FIN   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m26.189s
14   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen   1m26.409s
15   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.608s
16   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.678s
17   Jack Aitken   GBR   Williams Racing   1m27.481s
18   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m27.487s
19   Mick Schumacher   GER   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m27.698s
20   Nikita Mazepin   RUS   Uralkali Haas F1 Team   1m28.305s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/994426/1/f1-2021-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1

[1kodumtek7]

@coinlocket$  Firstly, thank you for sharing the results of FP1. Just as I expected, Verstappen had a solid start to the event by ending at the first position. And there is a significant gap with Hamilton as it seems. But we know Hamilton. He starts like this but after that he just starts performing really huge. We will most probably see this scenario as of the qualifying session.

[tokeweed]

Should be a fun start of the race.  

I'm fully anticipating a championship-deciding "accidental" collision at the start. See the exact same thing in Suzuka 1990 with Senna/Prost for a taster. Or if not, maybe a Schumacher '94 or '97, "accidental" championship-deciding crash partway through the race.

The anticipation of this happening is so strong now that Horner has had to come out with a statement denying that Max is planning such a thing!

Of course with everyone expecting it to happen, Max has less chance of getting away with claiming it's an accident, so maybe this in itself is enough to stop it happening.

If ever a collision happens I highly doubt it would be either from Verstappen or Hamilton.  And I mean this at the start of the race.  What could happen tho is something like how Bottas took out Red Bull and was it Norris?  I forgot but yeah...  Something like that.

And some action is moving the line on Verstappen to win at qualification.  It’s currently at 2.25 right now, down from 2.50 just two days ago.

Anyway some trivia...  Which driver has the most over takes this season? 

[Vdecso]

I hope that we don't see any collision between Verstappen and Hamilton in this race. It would be a big disappointment for all of us and the drivers too. I'm also aware that there may not be a very fair fight between them. They are both aggressive drivers when they want to. Actually, Verstappen is like that literally all the time.    We should be ready for very exciting incidents. But none of them should end up with a DNF for any of them.

[Jackl87]

According to rumors, Verstappen will use the same Power Unit for the last gp while Hamilton has some doubt...

It seems impossible to me but whatever...

Source https://www.formulapassion.it/motorsport/formula-1/f1-piloti/power-unit-abu-dhabi-verstappen-non-cambia-dubbio-hamilton-red-bull-mercedes-596523.html

But if Verstappen has his car's power unit changed, he'll have a 5 car grid penalty.  Would the new power unit really give much more pace that Red Bull would be willing to take that risk?  I think I'm with Hamilton.  Mercedes got RBR by the ropes and it's Hamilton's championship to lose now.

Should be a fun start of the race. 

I also think that Hamilton is the big favorite now, because the Mercedes is just a few tenth of a second faster at the moment than the Red Bull it seems. Since they have changed the engine of Hamilton's car back in Mexico Verstappen has no chance to keep up with him, especially during the race. In the qualifying it is a little bit closer but even there Verstappen has to produce absolute perfect laps to have a chance against mercedes. You just need to lock at the other drivers of Mercedes and Red Bull. Bottas has not much struggle to keep up with Hamilton, which clearly shows that Hamilton has not even to risk a lot to produce fast times, while Perez is like half a second behind Verstappen in the Qualifyings.