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

[boltz]

That was a very close one. I hope we will see many more races like this to come!
What a sensational victory for Mercedes.. again.

ya.ya.yo!

Sensational because once again the strategic guy from Mercedes figured out how can they win this race without having the necessary pace and in the end it payed out but to be honest RedBull engineer should have kept Max on the track and let him do his best and if the penalty will come that would be another story but even that I think he could've managed to put at least 4 seconds in front of Lewis but meh they were extra fair play and they have my respects.

Great race for Perez and awesome job by Norris who kept his calm and his position even if he had some struggle at some point with his tyres.

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[coinlocket$]

That was a very close one. I hope we will see many more races like this to come!
What a sensational victory for Mercedes.. again.

ya.ya.yo!

This is one of the best victories in years for Mercedes and I think Hamilton enjoyed this one.
He won probably for a mistake of Verstappen but he won with an inferior car.

If this will the level for the rest of the year we will have a fun year ahead.
Bottas is so bad and I hope they will replace him at the end of this year, or maybe before with the next star Russell.

Redbull was the better car here look at the Perez timings too, they will have a big shot this year.

[LTU_btc]

I'm not sure how many of you noticed, but there is advertisement of Bitcoin exchange Bitci.com on Mclaren mirror:

Seems that they signed partnership deal just few days ago and they are planning to release token together:
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/partners/bitci-technology/mclaren-racing-announces-new-long-term-partnership-bitcicom/

[Luzin]

Qatar Moto GP results.

Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics/2021/QAT/MotoGP/RAC/Classification

It seems that Rossi must understand that he is old. His great will is not supported by his physique. He was only able to finish in 12th position. It was a good start for Vinales, he won in Qatar. Vinales without a rival after Lap 15 until the finish. An exciting duel was in 2nd and 3rd position between Zarco and Mir, unfortunately at the last corner of Mir Widen and  Bagnaia overtake her took the 3rd position

[aesma]

I'm not sure how many of you noticed, but there is advertisement of Bitcoin exchange Bitci.com on Mclaren mirror:

Seems that they signed partnership deal just few days ago and they are planning to release token together:
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/partners/bitci-technology/mclaren-racing-announces-new-long-term-partnership-bitcicom/

Ah ah no I definitely didn't see it. Don't know that exchange, in fact.

I saw that Vettel without hair is not better than with hair.

Too bad Alonso's brakes failed him.

[Cnut237]

he won with an inferior car.

Yes. This is more evidence against those who say that Hamilton only wins because he has the best car.

Sensational because once again the strategic guy from Mercedes figured out how can they win this race without having the necessary pace and in the end it payed out but to be honest RedBull engineer should have kept Max on the track and let him do his best and if the penalty will come that would be another story

Red Bull were told by the officials that he had to give the place back, and they passed the message on to Max. It wasn't Red Bull's decision.
Weirdly though, it might not have been an issue were it not for Red Bull earlier in the race complaining that the Mercedes cars were gaining an advantage by going beyond track limits at that exact same corner. Hamilton complained, but then changed his route to remain on the track... so when Max went off at the same point and gained a place, the officials didn't really have a difficult decision to make, they had to apply the same rule to Red Bull that they did to Mercedes.

I saw that Vettel without hair is not better than with hair.

This deserves a merit

[Koal-84]

^  The overcut turned out to have worked in Hamilton’s favor.  Brilliant performance from him and it really showed how Hamilton is really good at managing his tires towards the end.  Can’t wait for the next one.

This season’s gonna be close between RBR and Merc. 

I don't think between RedBull and Mercedes, rather between Verstappen and Hamilton. Bottas have only a very little Chance for the championship, the second drivers by RedBull and Mercedes not strong enought.

[ILuckyGuyI]

I'm not sure how many of you noticed, but there is advertisement of Bitcoin exchange Bitci.com on Mclaren mirror:

Seems that they signed partnership deal just few days ago and they are planning to release token together:
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/partners/bitci-technology/mclaren-racing-announces-new-long-term-partnership-bitcicom/

Yeah, I already knew before the race that McLaren signed a deal with them. As I know, Bitci is a Turkish crypto exchange which was founded in 2018. I must admit that I didn't know anything about them until this deal.  

[Koal-84]

Qatar Moto GP results.

Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics/2021/QAT/MotoGP/RAC/Classification

It seems that Rossi must understand that he is old. His great will is not supported by his physique. He was only able to finish in 12th position. It was a good start for Vinales, he won in Qatar. Vinales without a rival after Lap 15 until the finish. An exciting duel was in 2nd and 3rd position between Zarco and Mir, unfortunately at the last corner of Mir Widen and  Bagnaia overtake her took the 3rd position

I don't know what was going on with Rossi either, but Morbidelli also drive behind. Perhaps Petronas had a problem with the vote or went in the wrong direction? Wait for this weekend to see if you can find a more competitive match at Petronas, I wouldn't write off Rossi yet. KTM was also very disappointing for me.

[Jackl87]

^  The overcut turned out to have worked in Hamilton’s favor.  Brilliant performance from him and it really showed how Hamilton is really good at managing his tires towards the end.  Can’t wait for the next one.

This season’s gonna be close between RBR and Merc. 

I don't think between RedBull and Mercedes, rather between Verstappen and Hamilton. Bottas have only a very little Chance for the championship, the second drivers by RedBull and Mercedes not strong enought.

Like most of us in here i would also wish for a much more closer season this year with RB and Mercedes being equally strong, but to be honest i don't see it yet. Even in sundays race Mercedes seemed to have more reserves than RB as verstappen had to race at the absolute maximum to be competitive and in the end it wasn't enough again.
Also Hamilton does not get competition from his team mate as bottas is a good driver but he seems to be happy with being the clear no. 2 in his team, which i don't blame him for.
So i think we are still going to experience a F1 season that is dominated by Mercedes again. 
Or maybe i am just to negative because all of the last F1 seasons were so boring so i can't imagine it being any other way anymore 

[Cnut237]

in sundays race Mercedes seemed to have more reserves than RB as verstappen had to race at the absolute maximum to be competitive and in the end it wasn't enough again.

I understand that on paper it just looks like yet another boring Mercedes win. But this is not how it happened. Red Bull clearly have the faster car, Max's last qualifying run for example he went purple in all three sectors to qualify in pole by nearly half a second from Hamilton. Race pace may be different to qualifying, but at no point before the first pit stops did it look like Hamilton had any chance of getting close enough to Max to try to overtake. Later in the race was a bit different, which I'll explain below. But Red Bull at the moment (and in potentially unrepresentative Bahrain) have the quicker car.

Also Hamilton does not get competition from his team mate as bottas is a good driver

A team mate's role is primarily as competition only when there is a single clearly dominant team. If we have two teams that are quite evenly matched, then the second driver is absolutely vital in terms of strategy for each team. In fact, I would go as far to say, and this may be controversial, but if things continue as they did in the first race, then the 2021 champion could in large part be determined by the performances of Bottas and Perez. This is apparent in how the race unfolded. Red Bull had one car at the front, Mercedes had two. This meant that Mercedes could split their strategy. Hamilton pitted first... this left Verstappen, the leader, with a choice of a) pit immediately to prevent Hamilton getting the undercut... which leaves Bottas in the lead, and Verstappen potentially needing to pass him out on track to regain the lead, or b) don't pit, and go longer, let Hamilton take the lead, and try to come back at him later with fresher tyres. The point here being that because Mercedes had two cars at the front, they could put one of their cars into the lead whenever they wanted simply because they had an extra driver and Max couldn't cover both of them by himself. If Perez had been up there with Bottas, particularly if he had been in front of Bottas, then the situation would have been very different.

[panjul07]

Qatar Moto GP results.
-snip-

Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics/2021/QAT/MotoGP/RAC/Classification

It seems that Rossi must understand that he is old. His great will is not supported by his physique. He was only able to finish in 12th position. It was a good start for Vinales, he won in Qatar. Vinales without a rival after Lap 15 until the finish. An exciting duel was in 2nd and 3rd position between Zarco and Mir, unfortunately at the last corner of Mir Widen and  Bagnaia overtake her took the 3rd position

I don't know what was going on with Rossi either, but Morbidelli also drive behind. Perhaps Petronas had a problem with the vote or went in the wrong direction? Wait for this weekend to see if you can find a more competitive match at Petronas, I wouldn't write off Rossi yet. KTM was also very disappointing for me.

As I heard from the news, Rossi blames the Petronas Team in choosing the tires especially the rear one that makes him hard to compete after few laps.
He and team should learn from the first race as the next race will be on the same circuit, otherwise we can expect that he and team wont get better result.
I also think that he is too old already to be competitive, so I think he need to consider to retire.
He has big name already with many achievements in his carrier, I do not think he should force himself to get another World Champion Title.

[tokeweed]

So I’ve been hearing that the drivers were briefed before the race and were told that going out of the track at turn 4 was allowed.  Guess who took advantage of it to cut his time per lap..?  Hamilton.  He went off track 29 times at turn 4.  He found his edge and won.  Such as brilliant driver.

[swogerino]

I'm not sure how many of you noticed, but there is advertisement of Bitcoin exchange Bitci.com on Mclaren mirror:

Seems that they signed partnership deal just few days ago and they are planning to release token together:
https://www.mclaren.com/racing/partners/bitci-technology/mclaren-racing-announces-new-long-term-partnership-bitcicom/

Yeah, I already knew before the race that McLaren signed a deal with them. As I know, Bitci is a Turkish crypto exchange which was founded in 2018. I must admit that I didn't know anything about them until this deal.  

I didn't know this either until now.However every new deal for McLaren means more money to develop further their car and it is good for the team.I really liked that P4 from Lando in this very cast track of Bahrain.It shows good improvement for McLaren and I hope to see it even better in the upcoming races.

[aesma]

^  The overcut turned out to have worked in Hamilton’s favor.  Brilliant performance from him and it really showed how Hamilton is really good at managing his tires towards the end.  Can’t wait for the next one.

This season’s gonna be close between RBR and Merc. 

I don't think between RedBull and Mercedes, rather between Verstappen and Hamilton. Bottas have only a very little Chance for the championship, the second drivers by RedBull and Mercedes not strong enought.

It's a bit early to say for Perez at RedBull I would say.

[Cnut237]

So I’ve been hearing that the drivers were briefed before the race and were told that going out of the track at turn 4 was allowed.  Guess who took advantage of it to cut his time per lap..?  Hamilton.  He went off track 29 times at turn 4.  He found his edge and won.  Such as brilliant driver.

Yes. During the race, Red Bull complained that Hamilton was going outside track limits at turn 4, and was gaining an advantage... so the officials said he had to stop doing it.
And then, at the end, as we all know... Verstappen overtook Hamilton... by running outside track limits at turn 4... and so, because officials had already said Hamilton couldn't do it, they had to say Verstappen couldn't do it either and had to hand the place back.
Kind of weird that if Red Bull hadn't made the initial complaint, they'd have had a decent chance of winning the race... they could have claimed that Hamilton had been running wide there with no action taken, so Max could do the same.

[masulum]

In the last few years, Rossi's performance going down. IMO, it is time for Rossi to retire from racing. His age, which is no longer young, seems to have affected to his performance. It is time for him to focus on the team he started and provide the racing techniques he have for his riders. Indeed, for some people, MotoGP without Rossi look like losing a legend. However, this will be temporary, a new legends will emerge with a younger age.

So what do you think? are you agree?

[Juggy777]

^  The overcut turned out to have worked in Hamilton’s favor.  Brilliant performance from him and it really showed how Hamilton is really good at managing his tires towards the end.  Can’t wait for the next one.

This season’s gonna be close between RBR and Merc.  

I don't think between RedBull and Mercedes, rather between Verstappen and Hamilton. Bottas have only a very little Chance for the championship, the second drivers by RedBull and Mercedes not strong enought.

@tokeweed like I said last week Mercedes will be winning it, and even though they did not win like they normally do yet another victory for them. However I feel that Verstappen can drive Hamilton all the way, and in the long run even beat him for the title too by driving a Ferrari .

[aesma]

So I’ve been hearing that the drivers were briefed before the race and were told that going out of the track at turn 4 was allowed.  Guess who took advantage of it to cut his time per lap..?  Hamilton.  He went off track 29 times at turn 4.  He found his edge and won.  Such as brilliant driver.

Yes. During the race, Red Bull complained that Hamilton was going outside track limits at turn 4, and was gaining an advantage... so the officials said he had to stop doing it.
And then, at the end, as we all know... Verstappen overtook Hamilton... by running outside track limits at turn 4... and so, because officials had already said Hamilton couldn't do it, they had to say Verstappen couldn't do it either and had to hand the place back.
Kind of weird that if Red Bull hadn't made the initial complaint, they'd have had a decent chance of winning the race... they could have claimed that Hamilton had been running wide there with no action taken, so Max could do the same.

Not really because the rule was that you could run wide if you didn't gain an advantage. Passing someone by going wide is definitely getting an advantage. The only thing that could happen would be to penalize Hamilton, because if he ran wide at every turn it must be because he got an advantage, however in practice the marshalls should have done what they finally threatened to do, show him a flag (yellow and black ?) then penalize hime next time he did it, they couldn't retroactively penalise him for all the laps before.

[Luzin]

So what do you think? are you agree?

You're right, age has forbidden him to return to being the best. His will does not keep up with age. I think for retirement, maybe this year is the right year. Maybe at this time Dorna still considers Rossi as an attraction, so Dorna has changed the regulations regarding the age of the riders. Just look at this year he is still special with a new motorbike engine, different from Morbidelli. If you know, last year's Morbidelli performed better than Rossi. For a new star, maybe if there is a new racer like Marquez who is able to appear dominant this season, that name will become the new favorite racer.