2021 Formula One - The Bollox Continues

Formula nOne.

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Interesting move by Renault-now-called-Alpine - following their crowbarring of the warmed-up corpse of tiny grandpa Fernando Alonso into a seat, they’re parachuting Davide Brivio from Suzuki’s comet-like moto-GP team. He’s led Suzuki from a stone-cold bootstrapped re-entry in 2015, with an all-new bike after a 4 year absence, to win the championship in 2020. Their success last year doesn’t look like some kind of Marc Marquez-is-missing fluke given their very first season fielded a pair of superb-handling (if underpowered) bikes - they started-out being able to out-turn anything else on the field, and maintain grip in the trickiest of situations - and they just added power to that. Doesn’t sound like much, but such is the nature of ~250bhp motorbikes that most teams constantly struggle to reconcile required characteristics. Their success has coincided with aerodynamic aids becoming an additional significant factor in optimising performance too.

The villain 'stache on the 2020 bike amuses me…

What it all means in the context of F1 remains to be seen - will a lack of experience with the specifics of the sport (he’s been in moto GP for at least 30 years) matter at CEO level, where what’s need is simply to find the best people and resources and enable them to work optimally?

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Could lead to amusing pit stops where only two tyres are changed :grinning:

insert Mercedes joke here

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Nice to have Imola on the cards again :+1:

Assuming any of it actually happens, of course…

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I love F1 nerds, in response to the new Alpine F1 video…

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Meh! Where is the blue? I has the disappoint.

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Apparently, that’s the Winter testing livery. The black is a tribute to the 1975 A500 F1 prototype.

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn’t do reading :man_facepalming:.

Still shit though!

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Not sure I understand this?

Yeah, I’ve been trying to get my head around this.
It seems that the new team owners see value in getting an experienced former driver to support the young drivers, mechanics and technical team, as some form of figurehead.
I’m not sure that’s where I would be investing. Surely technical talent would give more bang for your buck ?

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Yup, my view too, aero!

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I hope Williams have not added another layer of the type of ‘expertise’ that has them where they currently are - at the back of the grid with the most powerful engine.
I agree that proper technical expertise is what is needed. I hope Jenson is a conduit to get that … We shall see.

About the only tangible benefit I can see, is in Media Comms. The Western (and Japanese) press love him. He’s a former World Champion, who knows the team and it’s history, and he can be warm/erudite/likeable enough to soften the blow of poor performance for the sponsors.

I recall similar comments concerning Niki Lauda’s involvement in the then nascent Mercedes F1 team a decade ago. Like Lauda, JB was noted as a useful man to feedback on car developments, as he’s intelligent and an excellent communicator, but perhaps more importantly provided focus as a quasi parental authority figure. I suspect the #1 reason is the PR benefit, but however you slice it and dice it, I can’t see this as a negative move.

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I can only learn from your teachings master.