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
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About author
Mike Smith
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

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Comments

blekenbleu
Premium
paracletus said:
he was always one of the best in the rain
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Hamilton has won 15 of 36 wet races (42%), compared with 99/280 overall (35%),
which might encourage one to suppose that he is a rainmeister..
except that all but 3 of those wins have been in the turbo hybrid era,
with aerodynamics that famously make visibility in the wet highly problematic
for all but a leading few, an advantage for qualifying up front.

Before that (2007-13), Louis was 3/20 (15%), with 2 of those rain wins in his 2008 championship year.
Without 2008, he was 1/15 before Mercedes.
 
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McGherkin
Premium
You're right, before the turbo hybrid era nobody had wings etc, you had perfect visibility in the rain. In fact, it's hard to imagine why Schumacher piled into the back of Coulthard in 1998 because of course, it was pre turbo hybrid era and therefore the huge visibility disadvantage for following cars didn't exist...

Your argument seems more focused on finding an excuse to discount all the years Lewis has been successful and concentrating on his early days in F1 where he was obviously less successful. That's like saying that Max Verstappen isn't a good driver because he only scored 3 wins from the whole of 2015, 2016 and 2017, we can't look after that because the halo was there after that and we all know that limits visibility.
 
MattGTX
ZuneGuy said:
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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Not exactly sketchy but rather expected, considering that the FIA's interventions to help bring a more competitive scenario to Formula One usually results in the best team (at that moment) losing their performance. Take a look at Williams in '94, for instance.
 
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Richard Wilks
Since the conversation is now dipping into what is a "rainmaster", i would say someone to be on that category has to punch a lot above the weight of the car in a wet race. That means winning the race or being close to it with a car that in the dry is nowhere near wins usually.

In that sense, Hamilton never proved this, since i dont remember any race he has won in the wet, with a car that wasn't capable of doing it at least more than once a year in the dry. That said, he is a competent enough driver in the wet, with Fuji 2007 as maybe his best achievement

Mind you, i mean proper wins, not fluke wins like Panis 96.

So by this criteria, Vettel 2008 in a toro rosso springs to mind, Schumacher spain 96 too, since the car was a dog in the dry by that stage of the champ. The performances of Senna and Belof at Monaco 84 are examples of it too.
 
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ZuneGuy
MattGTX said:
Not exactly sketchy but rather expected, considering that the FIA's interventions to help bring a more competitive scenario to Formula One usually results in the best team (at that moment) losing their performance. Take a look at Williams in '94, for instance
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Everyone knows this about the sport, but it's clearly different than back then. They weren't trying to stop Williams from being a dominant team, because they were never this dominant. If I remember correctly the changes were made to reduce the dependence on electronic aids in the cars. Since the introduction of wings in the late sixties and early seventies striking downforce has been like striking oil, all of a sudden in 2021 downforce is shunned.

No car in history has had the road hugging dowforce that the mercs have employed, but in 2021 the aero rule changes have favored cars with less downforce. It has clearly been the - do anything - mission to take away performance from Mercedes, and it has made a great car unstable with deliberate intent. I just thought that the 2022 cars were supposed to introduce a more level playing field through sweeping technical changes, not a few changes to stop one team's dominance.
 
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Richard Wilks
ZuneGuy said:
Everyone knows this about the sport, but it's clearly different than back then. They weren't trying to stop Williams from being a dominant team, because they were never this dominant. If I remember correctly the changes were made to reduce the dependence on electronic aids in the cars. Since the introduction of wings in the late sixties and early seventies striking downforce has been like striking oil, all of a sudden in 2021 downforce is shunned.

No car in history has had the road hugging dowforce that the mercs have employed, but in 2021 the aero rule changes have favored cars with less downforce. It has clearly been the - do anything - mission to take away performance from Mercedes, and it has made a great car unstable with deliberate intent. I just thought that the 2022 cars were supposed to introduce a more level playing field through sweeping technical changes, not a few changes to stop one team's dominance.
Click to expand...
Oh, so now it was all about the car regarding Hamilton's numbers? Well thats a refreshing change of pace...

But if you think these aero rules changes were draconian, you don't remember the massive technical and even sporting rules the FIA employed to stop Schumacher and Ferrari. From changes to the cars, to the qualy format, to the race format rules even.

Besides, the FIA justified this change with the purppose of stopping the Pirelli tires from blowing up, since they wouldnt have time to develop a whole new safer tire, and even now we had the problems of Baku.

But anyways, the mercedes is probably still the fastest car out there. They are now leading confortably the WCC.

Oh and a correction, no F1 car, maybe, had as much downforce as the Merc, but old group C or GTP cars had more.
 
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Badwheels
muzikant said:
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
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No mon, him shaky. It ain't the car. Next year it will be Russell trying to politely avoid questions on why he is quicker than Hamilton in the same car. It is going to be ugly.
 
ZuneGuy
Richard Wilks said:
Oh, so now it was all about the car regarding Hamilton's numbers? Well thats a refreshing change of pace...

But if you think these aero rules changes were draconian, you don't remember the massive technical and even sporting rules the FIA employed to stop Schumacher and Ferrari. From changes to the cars, to the qualy format, to the race format rules even.

Besides, the FIA justified this change with the purppose of stopping the Pirelli tires from blowing up, since they wouldnt have time to develop a whole new safer tire, and even now we had the problems of Baku.

But anyways, the mercedes is probably still the fastest car out there. They are now leading confortably the WCC.

Oh and a correction, no F1 car, maybe, had as much downforce as the Merc, but old group C or GTP cars had more.
Click to expand...
Here we go with "it's the car" regarding Lewis's success. Well let me tell you this, Mercedes could have tried to grab any driver that they wanted in, or out of F1 before the 2012 season, but they knew that only one driver could put them where they have been for the past 7 years - Lewis Hamilton. They wanted Lewis so bad that sent Niki Lauda to talk him into joining them as a fail safe. They didn't want anyone else driving their car - face the facts man.

Every winning driver has needed a good balanced car to win. Formula One and the FIA have been trying WITH PURPOSE to limit the Mercedes on performance for the past 3-4 years. All that I am saying is that everyone knows whether you like or hate him, Lewis is a master in the wet, and for two races with wet conditions he has had little to no performance in that car.

In wet or dry conditions we know what that car can do with Lewis behind the wheel, and we haven't seen what we have seen in previous seasons - that's because his car has been rendered undriveable with the deliberate aero changes, that's all that I'm saying.

Oh, and I wasn't talking about cars from any other race discipline, just F1 cars.
 
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D
ZuneGuy said:
Here we go with "it's the car" regarding Lewis's success. Well let me tell you this, Mercedes could have tried to grab any driver that they wanted in, or out of F1 before the 2012 season, but they knew that only one driver could put them where they have been for the past 7 years - Lewis Hamilton. They wanted Lewis so bad that sent Niki Lauda to talk him into joining them as a fail safe. They didn't want anyone else driving their car - face the facts man.

Every winning driver has needed a good balanced car to win. Formula One and the FIA have been trying WITH PURPOSE to limit the Mercedes on performance for the past 3-4 years. All that I am saying is that everyone knows whether you like or hate him, Lewis is a master in the wet, and for two races with wet conditions he has had little to no performance in that car.

In wet or dry conditions we know what that car can do with Lewis behind the wheel, and we haven't seen what we have seen in previous seasons - that's because his car has been rendered undriveable with the deliberate aero changes, that's all that I'm saying.
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I think we all recognize Lewis' talent.(except the Orange crowd) What I don't understand is how many of his supporters fail to recognize the Merc's superiority. Remember, for most of Schumacher's championships, the McLaren was superior to the Ferrari. When it appeared the Red car had pulled even, then Mclaren spent millions to gain another 1/4 second to beat Massa, the 2nd driver at Ferrari in the final race of the season. Schumacher and Hakkinen were nearly equal. Right now, or should I say for the past 6 years, there has been no one on Lewis' level with the exception of his teammate Rosberg. All the while they both drove the best car. All you need to examine is how many unforced errors Ferrari-Vettel created while desperately trying to hang with the Merc & Lewis. 19 of 21 in 2016 (around then) when he and Rosberg created the only serious championship rivalry.(IN THE SAME CAR)
Lewis is great. NO FREAKIN' DOUBT. Only local fans or time period enthusiasts could not place him as one of the top drivers of alllllll time. But, for some of the time at Mclaren, and ALL of the time at Mercedes, he clearly has had the fastest, bestest car. No knock against him. Vettel didn't win 4 drivers champs with a sub standard car, often a great driver, especially an experienced one can communicate to his team what he needs to win. Schumacher and Brawn took a poorly performing Ferrari team and transformed them into a super team. Lewis' contribution to Merc has probably also ensured the top car STAYED the top car.
 
ZuneGuy
davehenrie said:
I think we all recognize Lewis' talent.(except the Orange crowd) What I don't understand is how many of his supporters fail to recognize the Merc's superiority. Remember, for most of Schumacher's championships, the McLaren was superior to the Ferrari. When it appeared the Red car had pulled even, then Mclaren spent millions to gain another 1/4 second to beat Massa, the 2nd driver at Ferrari in the final race of the season. Schumacher and Hakkinen were nearly equal. Right now, or should I say for the past 6 years, there has been no one on Lewis' level with the exception of his teammate Rosberg. All the while they both drove the best car. All you need to examine is how many unforced errors Ferrari-Vettel created while desperately trying to hang with the Merc & Lewis. 19 of 21 in 2016 (around then) when he and Rosberg created the only serious championship rivalry.(IN THE SAME CAR)
Lewis is great. NO FREAKIN' DOUBT. Only local fans or time period enthusiasts could not place him as one of the top drivers of alllllll time. But, for some of the time at Mclaren, and ALL of the time at Mercedes, he clearly has had the fastest, bestest car. No knock against him. Vettel didn't win 4 drivers champs with a sub standard car, often a great driver, especially an experienced one can communicate to his team what he needs to win. Schumacher and Brawn took a poorly performing Ferrari team and transformed them into a super team. Lewis' contribution to Merc has probably also ensured the top car STAYED the top car.I
Click to expand...
I'm not saying that Lewis hasn't driven great cars, or that he hasn't been on two great teams during their times, but the best drivers are on the best teams, and drive the best cars. Lewis belonged on those teams. He was absolutely the most anticipated driver probably ever before he even stepped in to his first F1 car, and he has not disappointed any team since he has been there.

Both Dennis, and Wolff wanted the guy and knew that he was going to be the best acquisition for their teams, and he always was. When Lewis left McLaren Dennis considered it a kind of betrayal by Hamilton, but the team kept messing up really badly.
 
BrainsBush
(Finally?) this is going to be a interesting Sochi race. Not the usual 1-2-3 at the start of the race. And Lewis and Max have to battle to gain places. In comparison with the past the (new) talents fight more for their position and it won't be that easy to pass them like before. Great battles on track guaranteed.

And then the bad news (well for me personally). I cannot watch the race live :mad:. So 110% media silence all devices on silent mode or even turning them off.

Rain cannot be used as an 'excuse':

1632635667098.png



Very hard - and that makes it even more fun - to predict the outcome of this race.
My prediction is that we have a lot to discuss during and after the race with some controversial 'happenings'.

Enjoy! And may the best one win!
 
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Darth_Benobi
Turk said:
Bets on which lap Hamilton and Verstappen crash into each other on.
I'm going to go with lap 3.
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id say after a botched hamilton pitstop, verstappen will catch up and then they'll yeet each other off the track xD
 

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