The fire equipment the first guy had is for putting out small fires like overheating brakes or oil spills from the engine catching fire. Useless in this case especially on the wrong side and against the wind. The second guy had the right equipment but still not that effective against a fuel fire but enough to push the fire back and allow Grosjean to get out. Nobody expects fires like this anymore with the fuel cells so interesting to see what happened there. Grosjean lucky to stay conscious in a crash like that as I am not sure how they would have gotten him out in time otherwise.

F1 is getting safer over time. It will be even safer next year when Grosjean is no longer running, because WTF was he doing going to the right like that, as if Kvyat didn't exist.

Hamilton corona positive
That means we get a more interesting race this weekend

Hope he gets well though

Mazepin signed by Haas for 2021

I don't watch F2, so I have no clue why they take him over Illot / Schumacher. He's down 30 points to them

I assume that Schumacher will be the other driver then, it would be weird to have Mazepin in F1 and not Schumacher.

He comes with his father's money. Probably with a view in mind to sell a stake in the team to him if they want to compete with Racing Point.

Hulkenberg can drive another Mercedes and prove that anyone can win in that car.

It will be stoffel vandoorne it's already announced by Mercedes

Pretty sure it hasn't been announced. This is the last tweet from Mercedes:



Stoffel is flying to Bahrain but that was already the plan before Lewis tested positive. It seem like it's probably going to be one of Vandoorne or Russell, with Hulkenberg also a possibility. Based on Russell currently being 3rd favourite to win the race there definitely seems to be a good chance that he will get the spot.

Russell a Mercedes would be great to see

Well, the news flashes are following up in rapid succession.

Unsurprisingly Mick Schumacher to Haas
Russell drives a Mercedes next race. First points in 2 years ?
Aitken takes Russell's seat in the Williams for next race.

Seems we only have two question marks left for next year. Will Kvyat and Albon keep their seats?

I said elsewhere but I believe the only reason that Red bull haven't announced Perez apart from maybe still working out the final details of the contract is that they don't want to de-motivate Albon that much by telling him he's dropped that he just loses his real drive to perform well (not that it really matters but it seems that Red bull probably feel that they are getting the absolute maximum out of him atm and anything less would be completely unacceptable for a red bull driver).

I mean let's not forget they have passed on Gasly and Gasly is often beating him or within a couple of tenths of him so the only person to beat Gasly to the red bull drive would have to be Perez and probably why we haven't heard much from Gasly about any disappointment about not getting the red bull drive next year despite how well he has gone this year.

Perez chances to get the RedBull seat are not great. There are sponsorship conflicts between Perez private sponsors and some of the current RedBull F1 sponsors and RedBull GmbH is 51% owned by the Thai Yoovidhya family who prefer Albon. Technically Horner and Marko make the decision but I would not be surprised if Albon gets another year.

Russell can now show that anyone can win in a Mercedes.

Interesting you say that. I’ve just been speaking with a friend who used to be very high up in the McLaren organisation. He fully expects Mercedes to dial down his power a bit. It would actually be quite embarrassing for F1 in general if Russell stepped into Lewis’s car and beat Bottas.

Is this really a thing ? I've been reading a lot of comments like this today.
I mean, it's like a conspiracy theory right ? If this would really happen and it would come out, it would be a scandal. Why would Mercedes risk that ?

Because Merc doesn't want to break the illusion that it's the best driver that wins instead of the best car. If Russell wins you could say that almost all of the 20 drivers would win if they drove that car.

Mercedes is not going to do that. Russell in his first outing in the Mercedes is not going to beat Bottas. Even if he did it would only be bad for Hamilton and not Mercedes. Mercedes also can't tune down the engine without everyone knowing and doing that would basically prove what tuning down the engine is trying to hide.

It would actually confirm what we already suspect

But I don't think he will beat Bottas in a normal race
Looking forward to the race just for this btw

I will be rooting for George

Russell fastest in first practice. Handy to know how much to dial him down without it looking too obvious...

Russell running fastest in P2. Obviously, it's the driver, not the car.

Great effort from Russell. He truly is the next Hamilton and if I was Mercedes I would him in the 2nd car next to Hamilton anyway because it isn't as if there is another team capable of winning the driver's championship.

Not a good week for Lewis.
Covid positive and then the illusion that you’re the best driver ever is shattered.

lolbottas

lolmercedes

Mercedes sabotaged both cars to protect the illusion that the driver matters

Perez from last to first

Amazing