2021 Formula One Russian Grand Prix

Russian Grand Prix.jpg
Formula One is back in action this weekend for the Russian Grand Prix, with the drivers and constructors championships still very much in contention.

The epic drivers championship battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton continues this weekend in Russia. One of the tightest F1 points battles in memory ended in a collision last time out, with the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers colliding at Monza and ending the race for both.

Fan opinions were predictably mixed on who was at fault in the incident, but the stewards sided with Hamilton and handed Verstappen a 3-place grid penalty for the upcoming Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. This is a site the Mercedes could hold a slight advantage in versus Red Bull, so the three grid places could prove significant.

The Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago proved to be an exciting race on a number of fronts, and no one was more happy with the outcome than McLaren team and their supporters. Daniel Ricciardo silenced many of his critics who had accused him of being past his prime and claimed victory at Monza. He was joined on the podium by his teammate Lando Norris, who solidified the 1-2 finish for McLaren. Ricciardo also claimed the fastest lap late in the race, showing that the team had more speed in their car on tap if needed. This was a big statement for the team.

Valtteri Bottas is in his final season at Mercedes, but he’s performing well. He claimed the final podium spot in Italy behind the McLarens, and importantly for his current team he was two positions ahead of Sergio Perez. This has opened up the hotly contested constructors championship to an 18-point Mercedes lead.

The excellent constructors battle between McLaren and Ferrari this season has cooled slightly after the dominant McLaren outing at Monza. But, a strong showing from Ferrari at Sochi could take a significant chunk out of the 13.5-point advantage McLaren currently holds.

Near the back of the field, Nikita Mazepin will be looking to perform well to his home crowd, and has some good news to carry into this race with the recent announcement of the renewal of his Haas contract through 2022. He and teammate Mick Schumacher are the only two drivers who have yet to score a point this season, so don’t hold your breath for Mazepin to emulate Hamilton and Verstappen’s home win results this season.

Who do you think will take victory at Sochi this weekend? Will the 3-place grid penalty have a significant impact on the end result of the race? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo credits: Haas F1 Team
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

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I love the idea of Lando, Carlos and George looking at themselves in the front of the pack tomorrow and realising that they’re the future of F1 and their time is coming…
 
Looks like the only saving grace for Hamilton's competition this season is rain. It's just too bad that he's in such an awful car this season.
 
Looks like the only saving grace for Hamilton's competition this season is rain. It's just too bad that he's in such an awful car this season.
that I think I also feel sorry for him. the car is even worse than the Williams and Mc Laren .... they also have a mercedes engine.
 
Big up Norris, this was great once again.

LH has had a few mistakes in the rain in recent times - that is quite uncharacteric throughout his career previously.

It is quite possible to see Red Bull on the podium, despite starting last.
That car is leagues above everything other than mercedes, so watch out for ridiculous overtaking from last to at least 3rd. Hopefully that won't occur next year, and Norris et all will get a fighting chance :thumbsup:
 
Big up Norris, this was great once again.

LH has had a few mistakes in the rain in recent times - that is quite uncharacteric throughout his career previously.

It is quite possible to see Red Bull on the podium, despite starting last.
That car is leagues above everything other than mercedes, so watch out for ridiculous overtaking from last to at least 3rd. Hopefully that won't occur next year, and Norris et all will get a fighting chance :thumbsup:
i hope it would be nice! honda was a gp2 engine for mc Laren.. they have developed Max and Redbull the Honda
 
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Big up Norris, this was great once again.

LH has had a few mistakes in the rain in recent times - that is quite uncharacteric throughout his career previously.

It is quite possible to see Red Bull on the podium, despite starting last.
That car is leagues above everything other than mercedes, so watch out for ridiculous overtaking from last to at least 3rd. Hopefully that won't occur next year, and Norris et all will get a fighting chance :thumbsup:
Maybe you would think that if you didnt follow his whole career.

He made plenty of mistakes in 2007-2012. But since 2014 specially, the mistakes were less, because of course, having the best car on the grid usually helps on that, since you always have some pace on tap.

Now that he is being seriously challenged on that front, even much more than on the Vettel Ferrari years, the old error prone Lewis is showing up once again.
 
Maybe you would think that if you didnt follow his whole career.

He made plenty of mistakes in 2007-2012. But since 2014 specially, the mistakes were less, because of course, having the best car on the grid usually helps on that, since you always have some pace on tap.

Now that he is being seriously challenged on that front, even much more than on the Vettel Ferrari years, the old error prone Lewis is showing up once again.
Lol there's always one - I have followed F1 for probably much longer than you have, decades before LH career, and he was always one of the best in the rain - until recently.
The previous performances speak for themselves.
 
As I said before, Hamilton has lost it. He ain't all dat no more. Max's championship to lose.
 
As I said before, Hamilton has lost it. He ain't all dat no more. Max's championship to lose.
no the merc is no longer one and a half seconds faster and with the young talents who may be better than LH..... And LH makes mistakes under pressure even now he has been helped a lot by the FIA this year otherwise his backlog in points would be very big
 
Lol there's always one - I have followed F1 for probably much longer than you have, decades before LH career, and he was always one of the best in the rain - until recently.
The previous performances speak for themselves.
So since you have been watching for as long as Murray Walker aparently ,maybe its too long, since you are forgetting for example how he bottled it on the pit entry at China 2007, very much like he did today, but during the race when it counted the most.

Or how he almost lost a tittle in a error ridden race at Brazil 2008. Other examples are there for the taking, like trying to overtake his teammate in a closing gap in Canada 2011 and loads more.

Indeed previous performances speak for themselves...
 
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Last year we still would had a mercedes front row, even with the crash and the sbinalla. But no longer mercedes has a car half a second faster on paper with another half a second to spare hidden. The same happens with their strategic calls and pit stops this season, no longer they can make work a stupid strategy blunder by virtue of the aditional half a second of pace they only deployed when they screwed up, that was making them seem genious and the gods of consistency, strategy and execution.

They no longer can afford the luxury of keeping making errors without those getting punished unlike in the past 7 year because now the title fight is so close that even small mistakes matter and can't be hidden with 2 clicks on a rotary on the steering wheel, and now they have to really compete with other teams and push real hard to win. That has put them way out of their comfort zone, so much that it is pressuring them and multiplying the number of the mistakes from both the team and their drivers.

The media and Hamilton's fans have drilled on our head to no end for 7 years how superior he was to anybody else on equal machinery, how his experience and mature approach were making him almost mistake free, how well he was capable to deal with pressure, how he was so consistent, how relentless he was always after the summer break and that he was the GOAT and that we should be gratefull because we were witnessing greatness. Now that has come back to bite them on their asses, now Hamilton has a huge pressure because now he has to live up to that irrealistic image.

Now in this season, when he has true title fight and a rival that by what the media and his fans have hinted for years that it is inferior to him (they told us that Lewis is the GOAT to no end, so in consecuence everybody else in the sport history have to be inferior to him), also the rival has a car that isn't clearly better, if anything it's about as good as Hamilton's, but then I don't see him making Max seem the worse driver.

Untill now we have witnessed this mistakes from him:

-About 30 track limits infringements unpunished at Bahrain, and a brake lock up that send him out of the track with Max glued to his gearbox that could have costed Lewis the victory, but that mistake flew under the radar for media and fans
-A spin with a crash in Imola for rushing an overtake on backmarkers, and after that reversing into the racing line without any regard for comming drivers, unpunished
-Underperforming in Monaco with his team mate in podium position, and him having a slight touch with the gardrail in qualy included
-A win thrown to the toilet at Baku because he pushed the wrong button in a very key moment (it seemed an homage to the first lap in the title decider at Brazil 2007)
-A silly mistake in qualifying that almost costed him a sure pole that was already set on stone when he had a split time close to half a second faster comming into the second to last corner, a miserable start in the qualifying race, a crash against his title contender in the race (if it was intentional or not I'm not going to discuss it, but he has precedents of this same kind of maneuver with examples as recent as Austria 2020 and Brazil 2019)
-A williams outqualifying him at Belgium
-A miserable start at Italy qualifying race
-A crash against his own mechanic, 1 crash in the pitlane and a sbinalla, getting outqualified by a williams again

Every time he makes any of this "uncaracteristical" mistakes the pressure keeps building up and making additional mistakes more probable, the reason of this pressure is because he has to protect his hype as the GOAT that media, fans and his team built around him. Ironically his own fans and people are setting him out to fail, had he been any less incredibly lucky Max would have the title almost in his pocket by now.

All that said, he should win tomorrow and get the championship leadership, if Mercedes can keep the same level of competitiveness that they have now, they should win both championships if they can stop making mistakes. I have the feeling that this year is going to be like the 1997 season, ending with the driver less desserving of the title winning it by no merit of his own.
 
that I think I also feel sorry for him. the car is even worse than the Williams and Mc Laren .... they also have a mercedes engine.
Yes, but people such as yourself only sees the engine and speed. I'm talking about the cars lack of balance and stability this season. The car is clearly undriveable in 2021 compared to past years. Let's keep up now...
 
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HAHHAHAHAAHHAAHAHHAA.

Ok this was hilarious.
Oh please, get a clue. The car just went from ending a dominating 7 title win less than a year ago. The aero changes from less than a year ago have changed things with that car greatly. It has nothing to do with the engine because it is still the best on the grid.
 
Yes, but people such as yourself only sees the engine and speed. I'm talking about the cars lack of balance and stability this season. The car is clearly undriveable in 2021 compared to past years. Let's keep up now...
redbull has always had a more balanced car. Only Merc could easily solve it by more engine power ++ the party mode in qualy
 
redbull has always had a more balanced car. Only Merc could easily solve it by more engine power ++ the party mode in qualy
Oh yes, and that is why so many drivers have had such success at Red Bull. There have been more drivers swinging in, and out of those doors than a Dodge City saloon. The merc was the most perfect of balanced machinery until the FIA intervened to help other teams, and I have no problem with helping lesser teams, but at the cost of the best team's performance and reliability is sketchy.
 
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