Topic: Formula One - The 2023 Season

[Studgotelli]

Nice to see Alonso up there, looks like we’re in for a really fun season

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

McLarens way down 

As thought, Ferrari bring the real juice for quali

[jillcwhomever]

McLarens way down 

As thought, Ferrari bring the real juice for quali

McLaren are pretty much finished as a big team for now sadly.

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

McLaren are pretty much finished as a big team for now sadly.

They’re pinning all their hopes on the new infrastructure being in place this year

[voodoo ray]

not entirely too sure how mclaren seem to have got it so wrong.

[voodoo ray]

sergeant has been knocked out on goal difference. brilliant time from hulkenberg too getting 6th in Q1

[Funky_Gibbons]

0.65s between the top 15 

[jillcwhomever]

Nando through by the skin of his teeth.

[50 Pence]

1.1seconds between all 20 cars is pretty impressive

[jillcwhomever]

They’re pinning all their hopes on the new infrastructure being in place this year

Fingers crossed it’s a plus but it sounds as if they will have to struggle on for a few races, before any improvements arrive.

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

Fingers crossed it’s a plus but it sounds as if they will have to struggle on for a few races, before any improvements arrive.

Yeah. And to be fair, they have stated pretty clearly they know they’re behind but this rolling up to just participate is bullshit for a team like McLaren. Aston Martin have similar resources, have to use the same wind tunnel facilities and managed to turn things around. Even Williams have improved.

[Funky_Gibbons]

Field spread by 2.2s now

[Funky_Gibbons]

Crazy how tight this is. Going to come down to who goes out when track conditions are perfect.

[TepidT2O]

Crazy how tight this is. Going to come down to who goes out when track conditions are perfect.

Nah… Max will get pole by a quarter of a second (bold prediction here!)

[voodoo ray]

I'm still going for verstappen but I'm really not sure who's going to get pole. Which is nice

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

Crazy how tight this is. Going to come down to who goes out when track conditions are perfect.

It’s great though. What we have all been hoping for, the field closing right up.

[Funky_Gibbons]

It’s great though. What we have all been hoping for, the field closing right up.

Oh yeah it should be thrilling if it stays like this all season and in the races.

You’d still expect the bigger team to pull away with their development as the season progresses though.

[jillcwhomever]

Let’s see what the AM’s can do then, virtually a clear track.

[voodoo ray]

0.05 between 4 cars after the first runs in q3

Fuck knows what's up with leclerc's car

[Funky_Gibbons]

Hmm bit of an anticlimax after Q2 and Q3.

[jillcwhomever]

Red Bulls on top again, Alonso fifth. Ferrari saving tyres for the race.

[clinical]

This could be a walk all season for Max. Perez just there to make up the numbers.

[sminp]

Is it true Merc ran scrubbed tyres in Q3? Thought their times were much better than expected anyway but thats even more positive for them if true.

[TepidT2O]

Is it true Merc ran scrubbed tyres in Q3? Thought their times were much better than expected anyway but thats even more positive for them if true.

They only had one set of fresh tyres left and used those….didn’t they?

[sminp]

They only had one set of fresh tyres left and used those….didn’t they?

That’s what I thought but I saw a few comments on social media saying they weren’t the new softs and that they’d kept the new ones for the race like Ferrari did with Leclerc

[TepidT2O]

That’s what I thought but I saw a few comments on social media saying they weren’t the new softs and that they’d kept the new ones for the race like Ferrari did with Leclerc

Interesting….they didn’t look super shiney when they came out of the pits, so maybe … but then again they weren’t obviously used either

[TepidT2O]

Sounds like they used new ones

Today wasn’t ideal for me, I went one second slower in Q3 than I did in Q2; with only one set of fresh tyres for Q3, I tried something different on my out-lap and it didn’t work. I’m glad I tried something because we want to be fighting Ferrari and Red Bull. We had one shot, maybe it was too risky but we’re here to fight for podiums and victories, not to settle for P5 and P6. The pace of our car is definitely behind Ferrari and Red Bull, and ahead of the rest of the midfield, so my target for tomorrow is to get ahead of that group. We’re trying absolutely everything at the moment to solve our global issues with the car. We all knew with the regulation change that anything could happen, the only promising thing is we have major issues and we’re still the third-fastest team. If we were in this position and everything felt great, then we’d be a little bit puzzled. It race day tomorrow and I’ll be giving it my all.

[TepidT2O]

Mercedes have essentially said they are throwing inthe towel with this car concept and going back to the drawing board….

Errr… isn’t it a bit late for that??  Being beaten by Aston who have the same engine, gearbox and rear suspension as them seems to be the final straw

[voodoo ray]

Mercedes have essentially said they are throwing inthe towel with this car concept and going back to the drawing board….

Errr… isn’t it a bit late for that??  Being beaten by Aston who have the same engine, gearbox and rear suspension as them seems to be the final straw

Out comes the b spec car. They'll get around the budget cap by saying it was a concept car developed by the road car department of the company that they've "borrowed"

[clinical]

Is the cost cap making the sport worse? The idea behind it was so smaller teams could challenge. Smaller teams are unlikely to really challenge whatever the budget. All it does is stop anyone catching up with Redbull.

[Funky_Gibbons]

Is the cost cap making the sport worse? The idea behind it was so smaller teams could challenge. Smaller teams are unlikely to really challenge whatever the budget. All it does is stop anyone catching up with Redbull.

The entire field was split but about 1.2s in Q1, the cost cap and new regulations seem to have compacted the field nicely. Hopefully tomorrow should see some close racing throughout the field.

Red Bull being so far ahead of everyone is more down to the poor job being done by Ferrari and Mercedes. Aston Martin have taken the head aerodynamicists from Red Bull and Mercedes and shown what can be achieved.

[50 Pence]

Red Bull were always going to be the dominant force under these regulations when they have Adrian Newey

[voodoo ray]

wolff was really pretty damning about the merc. a proper fuck up, but I guess it's better to admit it early than continue to double down on the error.



"I don't think this package is going to be competitive eventually," Wolff said. "We gave it our best go and now we need to regroup and sit down with the engineers, and be totally not dogmatic - there are no holy cows - and decide what is the development direction we want to pursue in order to be competitive to win races.

"We hit our [development] targets and that showed us that it is simply not good enough. We haven't got enough downforce. We need to find solutions to fix that.

"We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to this concept of car and it didn't work out. So we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe can be the right direction.

"We got the physics wrong and now we need to correct it because there are another three years of these [technical] regulations."

[sminp]

I’m a little surprised by those comments from Wolff, the Merc looked a lot better than I expected it to.

[TepidT2O]

I’m a little surprised by those comments from Wolff, the Merc looked a lot better than I expected it to.

Yeah, but still 0.6 seconds off the pace…. Basically they did everything they could had that’s still the gap.

Underneath it all, there’s mechanically a really good car, but it’s draggy and also not using ground effects well…

[IgorBobbins]

So they’ve basically wasted another year sticking to this concept?  They’ve had all winter to assess and re-group, but now they’ve decided to do it at the first race, after all the wind tunnel & winter testing time has passed? 

[sminp]

So they’ve basically wasted another year sticking to this concept?  They’ve had all winter to assess and re-group, but now they’ve decided to do it at the first race, after all the wind tunnel & winter testing time has passed? 

They’ve got a new bodywork upgrade coming soon but Wolff said that it was evolution rather than revolution, will be interesting to see if that really is the case.

[voodoo ray]

If they haven't had some of their cfd people experimenting with another concept they're mugs. Especially considering they are the only team going out on a limb with their concept.

[TepidT2O]

Mechanically, they’ve managed to remove the need for side pods.  Quite an incredible achievement.

But you can say the same for all Mercedes engine teams, and yet they run side pods…

It’s a shame such a radical solution hasn’t worked as it’s such an interesting one…

[voodoo ray]

It's interesting but just aesthetically I'm quite glad it's not really worked because I wouldn't want all cars looking like that