Just a couple weeks now. I am just fascinated that so many jumped on the redbull design bandwagon again. The last Gen car domination of MB could scratch the chasing of redbull style copying.
Curious if the sidepod concept of RBR is solidly THE way to go. This season will be interesting in that regard.
In reply to Advan046 :
I find it more interesting that Mecedes chose to stay with its design.
Other teams copy and pasting the winning teams designs is to be expected :)
I thought the Mercedes problems were suspension related more than aero. I think their design has some real potential for drag reduction if they can get a chassis under it.
In reply to kevlarcorolla :
I think that's partially why so many teams don't win. Not sure if they don't fully trust themselves or if they are understaffed.
Even with the last cars, Mercedes was different with the low rake design.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Perhaps but the pogo stick ride height changes were caused by areo,reducing raised ride heights which I'm sure would've taken the suspension out of design parameters
In reply to kevlarcorolla :
That's what we all assumed at first because it's a characteristic of ground effects, but there were comments later in the season about how the problem was actually in the suspension.
I won't hide my desire for Lewis Hamilton to win this year. I want him to have broken that tie of WDCs.
That said I want Albon to have a standout year and HAAS to get a win.
Well, speaking of practice - this Fri, Sat and Sunday the 2023 season gets underway with pre-season testing in Bahrain
Lots of rumors going around, including some about Aston Martin. First is that Jr will not be there for the test as he fell off his bike, but he may make it to the first race. All expect Alonso to clean his clock regularly thruout the season, and more than a couple of drivers from other teams have said the 2023 Aston looks fast. Considering none of the cars have turned a wheel in anger yet, I'm taking this with the proverbial grain of salt. Their back up driver who will fill in for Jr is Drugovich.
Mercedes has stuck with their no sidepods look, no one knows what to expect from them but they were going good at the end of last season, so we'll see.
A couple of teams have claimed improvements in their powerpacks "for reliability" wink wink, nudge nudge - the biggest gains are supposed to be at Ferrari. Vaseur has played it down saying they haven't done anything but go after the things that broke last season.....but Gunther says the new motor is "da bomb", whatever he may mean by that.
McLaren is rumored to be in talks with Honda for a motor in 2026, along with several other "un-named" teams. I'm not surprised at this as once they got their partnership with Red Bull up and running it was clear they had a competitive package. No idea how the intellectual properties situation will get resolved when Ford shows up later on, should be interesting. But Ford does have co-operative agreements with Honda on electric cars and such, so maybe there's a backroom deal going on. I do think Honda is a bit miffed with Red Bull right now tho.....
Sure would like to see Andretti buy Williams or maybe even Alpha Tauri and bring Cadillac with them onto the grid.
There is also a South Korean billionaire talking about bringing a team in with Hyundai sponsorship. I think the time is right for some new blood on the grid, well, new faces anyway if not exactly blood - don't want that!
Merc had no porpoising today. That seems like a good way to start the season.
Long time F1 thread readers will no I am not a Max fan. I suspect it is mostly because he acts like a petulant kid and he will likely out grow that phase and grow on me.
I do have to say he is at the top of his game. He has destroyed every team mate. All the time, pre season testing, practice, qualifying, points, races. He is a monster driver. I hope LH gets number 8 but if he does he is gonna have to knock the beast off the top of the hill.
In reply to NY Nick :
I'm of the same mindset,hard to fault his skills for sure.
He clearly races Lewis differently then anyone else as well.
In reply to MiniDave :
Wouldn't it be funny if McLaren moved to Honda in 2026 and Alonso cameback as well 
. I don't understand why Honda wouldn't just leap back with RB, given the success, as long as Adrian Newey is a part of the team it's a guaranteed top 3 car.
In reply to trigun7469 :
Maybe because RB also comes with Horner and Marko?? :)
In reply to kevlarcorolla :
I agree and so does Alonso. But to quote Christian Horner "the fastest way to be unliked in this sport is to win" I'd argue some short circuit that and are shiny happy people on the way but who knows.
NY Nick said:In reply to kevlarcorolla :
I agree and so does Alonso. But to quote Christian Horner "the fastest way to be unliked in this sport is to win" I'd argue some short circuit that and are shiny happy people on the way but who knows.
Did he say that? If it was basically true, Toto Wolf would be the most despised person on the grid, since his team has had considerably more success than Horner. But it seems to me Horner is more disliked. So it must be more than just winning.
alfadriver said:NY Nick said:In reply to kevlarcorolla :
I agree and so does Alonso. But to quote Christian Horner "the fastest way to be unliked in this sport is to win" I'd argue some short circuit that and are shiny happy people on the way but who knows.
Did he say that? If it was basically true, Toto Wolf would be the most despised person on the grid, since his team has had considerably more success than Horner. But it seems to me Horner is more disliked. So it must be more than just winning.
There also wasn't any particular hatred for Jean Todt and Ross Brawn 20 years ago when Ferrari were winning everything. Schumacher yes, but not the team principal/etc the way that we see now.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
Eh, I remember some hate directed at Todt in particular about some of the team orders stuff they pulled with Barrichello. But also, team principals weren't as well-known in those days since there was no DTS.
alfadriver said:NY Nick said:In reply to kevlarcorolla :
I agree and so does Alonso. But to quote Christian Horner "the fastest way to be unliked in this sport is to win" I'd argue some short circuit that and are shiny happy people on the way but who knows.
Did he say that? If it was basically true, Toto Wolf would be the most despised person on the grid, since his team has had considerably more success than Horner. But it seems to me Horner is more disliked. So it must be more than just winning.
Also, we didn't like Horner when he was losing either :)
Since we are talking about unlikeable characters in Formula 1, I find Gunther Steiners accent to be painful to listen to during interviews but is fine when all he's doing is swearing. And Max and Christian are both dickheads in different ways and I fast forward any time either of those two start talking. Max is a dickhead in the way he drives and Christian is a troll and behavior that he whines about in other drivers, he completely defends when his own driver does it. He has no integrity at all in this area
I think Max is coming around. He's finally maturing, but until he gets out of the RB culture he's always going to have bad influences. I think winning* that first WDC made a huge difference - but we'll see what happens if someone starts taking the fight to him again. He really didn't have much competition last year.
Christian definitely is a massive hypocrite when it comes to defending driver behavior.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Agreed,his father in his ear constantly isn't helping the cause either.
I don't have very strong feelings towards any driver or team, but I'd sorta like to see McLaren nose dive and Alpine exceed expectations after the whole Piastri fiasco. Not saying Alpine had no fault in all of that, but Piastri just strikes me as even more entitled than most of the grid (which is an already high bar).
I am sure that Zhou is a little worried. He has so many rookies his year that can now throw shade on him.
After this week of testing I actually feel that Lewis has to crush Russell if the MB can't run at the front; he has to not just beat Russell he has to destroy him to keep his fandom excited.
Finishing S5E4 of DTS and it is interesting to how hung out to dry they are showing Mick. I know they can manipulate footage to show what they want but hard to grow in that environment.
How is everyone watching the coverage for the upcoming season? I don't have cable, so I did the trial for Fubu TV last year then cut off because of the expense, and switched to F1TV. The Pro for F1TV is that I live the coverage and commentating, I can jump in on the coverage and replay anytime, but it always glitched on my Roku TV and worked fine on fire stick. Annoying because I can't use my primary TV, however I haven't found a paid service cheaper.
You'll need to log in to post.
