All-purpose open-wheel (F1, IRL) racing thread

So that makes him perfect for one of the Foyt IndyCar rides, as per the rumors. Great. I'm glad he's already good at wrecking because Foyt's cars aren't going to wreck themselves.

 

Oh, Romain has never caused any of those crashes.

 

In what is something of a surprise, George Russell does apparently get the Mercedes seat for Bahrain II.

Russell Will Be Replacing Hamilton At Mercedes For Sakhir Grand Prix

Something named Jack Aitken will drive the Williams this weekend.

 

This has to put some heat on Bottas this weekend to bring the Merc home, no? He's not chasing Hamilton this weekend, as good as Russell has been on Saturdays with the Williams he has been a back marker on race day.

 

Can someone explain to me how a driver on a team suddenly ends up in the seat of a competitor’s car? I don’t follow F1 close enough to have knowledge of the driver’s contracts.

 

Williams is a Mercedes team.

 

Oh yeah, duh.
I denounce myself.

 

Most definitely, I would think. And he certainly can’t afford to finish behind Russell. Hamilton was defending Bottas the other day (“It’s not easy being my teammate ...” ), which tells you Bottas was already probably feeling some heat before the Russell announcement.

Verstappen has to be the favorite this weekend, right? I like Max, but I’d love see Ricciardo or Sainz pull it off with Hamilton out of the race.

 

As @wicked said, they have Mercedes engines, but beyond that Russell came up through the Mercedes program and has contractual ties to Mercedes. He's sort of on loan to Williams because Mercedes didn't want to lose him but didn't have a spot for him. (Giovinazzi at Alfa is in a similar position -- he's a Ferrari driver.)

My guess is Bottas wins it comfortably. Dark horse for a podium: Gasly in the Alpha Tauri. He won at Monza and this will be a similar high speed, low downforce setup.

 

Within the past couple of days both BMW and Audi have announced they’re bailing on Formula E after the 2021 season.

 

Bottas has a slight edge, finishing ahead of Verstappen in 8 of 15 races this season, but he raced pretty poorly last week and finished behind Verstappen on the same circuit.

I didn’t do a deep look at the finishes to see time gaps or DNFs, etc.

 

Not quite the same circuit -- this weekend they're only using the outer ring of the circuit and bypassing the wiggly bits in the middle. It figures to be a full-on power circuit which should theoretically favor Mercedes more than the regular layout.