The F1 Thread

[scottsdad]

Morning times.

1. George Russell (Mercedes) 1:19.233, C5 tyre– 66 laps

2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1:19.765, C3 – 59 laps

3. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) 1:19.824, C5 - 48 laps

4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1:19.831– 4 laps

5. Nicholas Latifi (Williams) 1:20.699 – five laps

6. Lando Norris (McLaren) 1:20.827 – 52 laps

7. Fernando Alonso (Alpine) 1:21.242 – 12 laps

8. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1:21.939 – 41 laps

9. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) 1:22.469 – 40 laps

10. Alexander Albon (Williams) 1:22.652 – 21 laps

11. Nikita Mazepin (Haas) 1:26.229 – nine laps

No more fastest laps as Pirelli have soaked the track for wet weather testing.

Merc and RB back at the front of the timesheets. 

[Iminavest]

[MP_MFC]

Seeing in a few different places that 1&1 are going to step up to title sponsors and that it would be Fitipaldi, Giovinazzi or Hulkenberg coming in to replace Mazespin.

Hulk would be an interesting one, a further German mentor for Mick and with 1&1 being German too they could just go for a red gold and black livery instead.

[Stu]

Have reactivated the Fantasy F1 for this season with a brand spanking new league name. You can't select drivers until after testing but you can enter/reactivate your team.

Go to www.fantasygp.com and then use the access code 618914 to join the league.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Stu

[IrishBhoy]

Mazepins father was pictured having a one to one meeting with Putin 11 days ago, which was posted on the Kremilns official Twitter page. Would be quite hard for Haas to deny any Russian state involvement after that seeing as Uralkali is their main sponsor, their car is designed in the colours of the Russian flag, and Dmitry Mazepins son is one of their drivers. 

[doulikefish]

4 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

Mazepins father was pictured having a one to one meeting with Putin 11 days ago, which was posted on the Kremilns official Twitter page. Would be quite hard for Haas to deny any Russian state involvement after that seeing as Uralkali is their main sponsor, their car is designed in the colours of the Russian flag, and Dmitry Mazepins son is one of their drivers. 

Tbf Haas have never denied that and as usual with f1 it's all with the lawyers 

And the Russian gp binned

Edited February 26, 2022 by doulikefish

[Stu]

14 hours ago, MP_MFC said:

Seeing in a few different places that 1&1 are going to step up to title sponsors and that it would be Fitipaldi, Giovinazzi or Hulkenberg coming in to replace Mazespin.

Hulk would be an interesting one, a further German mentor for Mick and with 1&1 being German too they could just go for a red gold and black livery instead.

Sure I read somewhere it would be Fittipaldi, which is the most boring of the three options. Still don't understand how he has the points for a superlicence.

[jaggyness]

That alfa looks brilliant

[scottsdad]

Guessing Clarkson isn't a fan?

[scottsdad]

Formula One bosses will hold an emergency meeting TODAY to discuss BANNING Russian driver Nikita Mazepin - who is the son of a billionaire oligarch with close links to Vladimir Putin - due to Ukraine crisis

Could they ban a driver on this basis?

[die hard doonhamer]

36 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

Formula One bosses will hold an emergency meeting TODAY to discuss BANNING Russian driver Nikita Mazepin - who is the son of a billionaire oligarch with close links to Vladimir Putin - due to Ukraine crisis

Could they ban a driver on this basis?

Most sporting bodies are doing similar, so I don’t see why not. 

[charger29]

Formula One bosses will hold an emergency meeting TODAY to discuss BANNING Russian driver Nikita Mazepin - who is the son of a billionaire oligarch with close links to Vladimir Putin - due to Ukraine crisis
Could they ban a driver on this basis?

The IOC are recommending it as long as it doesnt cause major legal issues, so probably. Not sure what happens if there's a general sport wide appeal to CAS by Russia. From what I've briefly read they're only appealing the FIFA/UEFA ban so far.

It seems like unless you have dual citizenship and can get a license under the other passport, you're out.

[scottsdad]

I can't think of any time in F1 history where an individual competitor in an international sport has been banned on the basis of his nationality. Will Russian boxers, say, be banned also?

I get teams being banned, but for individuals it seems a bit of a stretch (though in Mazepin's case not so much as his dad's money bought him his place in F1)

[Mark Connolly]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

I can't think of any time in F1 history where an individual competitor in an international sport has been banned on the basis of his nationality. Will Russian boxers, say, be banned also?

I get teams being banned, but for individuals it seems a bit of a stretch (though in Mazepin's case not so much as his dad's money bought him his place in F1)

I think your last point is the key one.

If this was Joe Blogski who was just a very good driver and had worked his way up with no political backing, I don’t think they’d be looking at it. Any ban would at the very least be based on who Mazepin’s dad (and effectively chief sponsor) is, regardless of whether Nikita himself is involved in any of that. 

The unfortunate thing for him as opposed to the tennis players and other individual athletes who have come out and distanced themselves from their country’s actions is that he doesn’t really have that option without basically calling his dad a murderous c**t in front of the whole world.

[bluearmyfaction]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

I can't think of any time in F1 history where an individual competitor in an international sport has been banned on the basis of his nationality. Will Russian boxers, say, be banned also?

German drivers were banned right after World War 2.  Hans Stuck, a Grand Prix winner pre-war, suddenly discovered he was Austrian...

To be fair, he was married to a woman who was half-Jewish, so not your archetypal Third Reich acolyte.

[scottsdad]

Russian and Belarussian drivers can stay, but drive under a neutral flag. 

For all the good that will do.

[Stu]

It's the same sort of fence sitting bullshit that FIFA originally tried to pull. We must just be one step away from Bernie popping up to say Putin is great.

At least Motorsport UK has done the right thing and banned them. Although I can't really think of any Belarusian drivers anyway that would be affected.

[flyingscot]

37 minutes ago, Stu said:

It's the same sort of fence sitting bullshit that FIFA originally tried to pull. We must just be one step away from Bernie popping up to say Putin is great.

At least Motorsport UK has done the right thing and banned them. Although I can't really think of any Belarusian drivers anyway that would be affected.

If they are racing under the FIA flag does that matter?

[Stu]

39 minutes ago, flyingscot said:

If they are racing under the FIA flag does that matter?

Yeah true, not exactly sure how that will work. Plenty of places saying Mazepin won't be allowed to race at Silverstone though.

Belarusian racing drivers - what a huge loss to the sporting world not being able to see them in action: https://www.driverdb.com/countries/belarus/

[JamesP_81]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

It's the same sort of fence sitting bullshit that FIFA originally tried to pull. We must just be one step away from Bernie popping up to say Putin is great.

At least Motorsport UK has done the right thing and banned them. Although I can't really think of any Belarusian drivers anyway that would be affected.

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/1571897/Bernie-Ecclestone-defends-honourable-Vladimir-Putin-F1-Russia-invade-Ukraine

Already had that step!