[Official] Driver of the Grand Prix: Made in Italy Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 2021

[S griffin]

Certainly it was a good drive by Norris and with Ricciardo up there too, McLaren have certainly got the car to continue to challenge for podiums

[Neil22]

Lando, with kudos to Lewis and Max.

[52Paddy]

Verstappen for me. He gave it his all and I really felt that he would have beaten Hamilton today even with the off-track incident that the latter had. It was one of those races where I felt that Max will put up a strong challenge to Hamilton's title defensive and maybe Lewis won't run away it so easy this year. However, Lewis' recovery drive did send out those familiar ominous signals that he is, indeed, in the pound seat again and hasn't lost much form (if any).

Lando gets an honourable mention for his cracking podium. I wonder if McLaren opted for mediums in the final stint would he have had the pace to hold of Hamilton or at least fight him a bit more for a piece of the pie.

I'd also like to give Tsunoda a nod. He had impressive race pace and was running in a tightly-packed top 10 before unfortunately spinning out. I like his racecraft. Typically Japanese in that "banzai" way of Kobayashi and Sato. I'm excited to see what he'll do during the rest of the season.

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by AndreasDavour

Great work by Lando, so he gets my vote.



I'd also suggest that I am 100% sure Lewis will win this title as well. He was one lap down and out and came second. Mercedes and Lewis will win this title. No need to go crazy about Max win, which is well deserved and well done! Congrats to Max!

He was gifted a lap thanks to the red flag. Hardly down to his driving that he regained a lap.

Even when he's unlucky he is lucky.

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by midgetman

You only have to look at how those two drove away in the early stages to realise they are head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Truly the two best at the moment.

Driver of the Day - Lando. Left his higly-rated team mate for dead. Didn't bin it anywhere along the way. Knew when to cede to a faster driver/car. I feared Lando was turning into a bit of a journeyman, but he's become fast and mature this year.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

a journeyman in his third season at one team?

Odd definition of 'journeyman'.

[52Paddy]

Originally Posted by Skam85

He was gifted a lap thanks to the red flag. Hardly down to his driving that he regained a lap.

Even when he's unlucky he is lucky.

Agreed. But the rest of the field (bar Verstappen) kinda seemed like sitting ducks as he clawed his way back to 2nd. It bodes well for him for the rest of the season unless the likes of McLaren and Ferrari can improve at a greater rate. Don't get me wrong, McLaren in particular are doing fantastic work but it might be at least another season before they're challenging for the title. Not forgetting the impact of the new regs too of course...

[2 litre Touring Car Star]

Originally Posted by midgetman

You only have to look at how those two drove away in the early stages to realise they are head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Truly the two best at the moment.

Driver of the Day - Lando. Left his higly-rated team mate for dead. Didn't bin it anywhere along the way. Knew when to cede to a faster driver/car. I feared Lando was turning into a bit of a journeyman, but he's become fast and mature this year.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

Only after his "new and still acclimatising" highly rated teammate slowed down and let him pass due to team orders.

[2 litre Touring Car Star]

Originally Posted by E.B

Lando. Only one of the leaders who did not make a mistake. Easy decision.

Not in the race at least.

[S griffin]

Considering how many made mistakes on a treacherous surface, you have to give credit to those that kept it going straight, like Leclerc, Norris and Ricciardo. Watch them, it will be quite an interesting season for those three

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Considering how many made mistakes on a treacherous surface, you have to give credit to those that kept it going straight, like Leclerc, Norris and Ricciardo. Watch them, it will be quite an interesting season for those three

I see no reason to leave Sainz out. I know most people think that Leclerc is the bees knees, but I think Carlos will give him a decent run for his money once he gets used to the car.

[Adam43]

And Leclerc wasn’t blemish free in the race. He went off when they weren’t racing. Although so did the winner!

[chunterer]

Bucking the trend and going for Sainz who made a great recovery from a qualy cock up.

Norris obviously deserves the plaudits for the best drive of his F1 career so far but I just felt Sainz had more to do to get his result.

[S griffin]

I thought Sainz's drive was not too bad, just a bit erratic, but still good result after being down in quali.

Norris had a great drive, can he keep it going? This is a big chance for him. And don't rule out Sainz yet, he's got it in him and can get results and maybe get a car to win with when Ferrari improve more next year

[gert]

Sainz' drive surely was erratic as he went off a couple of times, but still did enough to recover from it and bring home a pretty good result.

Of all those who switched teams (Ricciardo, Vettel, etc...) and have difficulties adapting to a new environment/team without the help of much testing, he seems to be the one doing the best job so far in keeping up with his teaamate and bringing in the results.

[crmalcolm]

An interesting observation:

Mercedes picked up the fastest pit stop award for Bottas' Lap 28 tyre change - which was completed in 2.24s.
However, the fastest overall pit stop (least time spend in pit lane) was carried out by Alfa Romeo for the Lap 40 stop, which took 29.742s. Second was Verstappen on Lap 27 (29.809s) and third was Russell on Lap 26 (29.983s). Bottas' stop was an overall 30.167s - so it seems there is still a bit of time that could be gained in the pit lane for Mercedes.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by gert

Sainz' drive surely was erratic as he went off a couple of times, but still did enough to recover from it and bring home a pretty good result.

Of all those who switched teams (Ricciardo, Vettel, etc...) and have difficulties adapting to a new environment/team without the help of much testing, he seems to be the one doing the best job so far in keeping up with his teaamate and bringing in the results.

The struggles of these drivers to get on pace makes Russell's efforts in Sakhir look even better.

[52Paddy]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

An interesting observation:

Mercedes picked up the fastest pit stop award for Bottas' Lap 28 tyre change - which was completed in 2.24s.
However, the fastest overall pit stop (least time spend in pit lane) was carried out by Alfa Romeo for the Lap 40 stop, which took 29.742s. Second was Verstappen on Lap 27 (29.809s) and third was Russell on Lap 26 (29.983s). Bottas' stop was an overall 30.167s - so it seems there is still a bit of time that could be gained in the pit lane for Mercedes.

Very interesting. Is that time gained/lost in how a driver gets the car down to the speed limit and back on the power again?

[S griffin]

It’s a good point. Personally I would like to see an end to the two compound per race rule and just let people choose which compound they want to use whenever they want. We’d still get pistops, but it would be down to the driver and team rather than the rules

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by 52Paddy

Very interesting. Is that time gained/lost in how a driver gets the car down to the speed limit and back on the power again?

I don’t think we know. It’ll depend were the timing line is set up.

If it is from the speed limit line then there will only be a little of this. The difference will be if a driver has slowed to below the limit and needs to get back, how they stop and react to get going from stationary. Putting the power on at the end would be outside the line.

If it is from much early and later you might be getting how they attack the pitlane on entry, how they get down to the speed limit, and get the power on when exiting. With these being in this order of importance.

Anyone know where it is measured?

[52Paddy]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I don’t think we know. It’ll depend were the timing line is set up.

Anyone know where it is measured?

True. I suppose, in either case, the escape from the pitbox itself after the jack is released will also factor in.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I don’t think we know. It’ll depend were the timing line is set up.

If it is from the speed limit line then there will only be a little of this. The difference will be if a driver has slowed to below the limit and needs to get back, how they stop and react to get going from stationary. Putting the power on at the end would be outside the line.

If it is from much early and later you might be getting how they attack the pitlane on entry, how they get down to the speed limit, and get the power on when exiting. With these being in this order of importance.

Anyone know where it is measured?

Just checking back on last week's footage - and the times correlate with Pit Entry and Exit lanes as well as the pit lane itself. At Imola, this does not make much difference, with Pit Entry being a short curve and the Exit lane being straight.

On the map of Sochi - the lines between which Pit Stop time are calculated are indicated as the Safety Car Lines:



So you can see, at places like Spa and Interlagos there may be a big difference in Pit Lane times even if the tyre changes are identical in time.

[crmalcolm]

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/fi...ersion%203.pdf - Page 10 gives the pit lane map for Imola.

Pit stop times were measured between SAFETY CAR Line 1 and SAFETY CAR Line 2.

[52Paddy]

Ah, so quite a few lengths are considered before the pit-lane speed limit and after you can put the power down again.

[2 litre Touring Car Star]

Originally Posted by wnut

The struggles of these drivers to get on pace makes Russell's efforts in Sakhir look even better.

Not really.

Didn't beat Bottas (A diminished driver) or outqualify him (an easier task) having raced all season, driving a car he's familiar with, on possibly the easiest circuit in F1 history (If not, decades).

His failings will continue to be overlooked til he succeeds though.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

Just checking back on last week's footage - and the times correlate with Pit Entry and Exit lanes as well as the pit lane itself. At Imola, this does not make much difference, with Pit Entry being a short curve and the Exit lane being straight.

On the map of Sochi - the lines between which Pit Stop time are calculated are indicated as the Safety Car Lines:

https://i.imgur.com/NeqTKr5.png

So you can see, at places like Spa and Interlagos there may be a big difference in Pit Lane times even if the tyre changes are identical in time.

So the SC lines are where it is measured. That would be a good choice for ease and to tell us stuff. Never really paid attention to the exact location of these lines in normal course of events.

Have you read it is SC line to SC line? Or was it purely from a measurement of how long it took? Fair play for making the effort either way