Formula 1 2024 Season

I don't....especially with the same two drivers they have - no shade on Alonso. But I will expect great things come 2026! Unless Junior is still driving for the team - cause them they might as well be a one car team.

Although.......even Pastor Maldonado won a race.....once.

This weeks Brembo update:

According to Brembo engineers, the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, which is 6.201 kilometers long, is categorized as a medium-level challenge for brakes. On a scale from 1 to 5, it has a difficulty rating of 3 because there are 6 braking zones per lap, but only half of them require a significant effort from the braking system. During one lap, F1 drivers use the brakes for 13.5 seconds, applying nearly 720 kg of force on the brake pedal.

•          Brembo Identity Card, in PDF:  Brembo - F1 2024

•          Video Hardest Braking Point, in .mp4: https://we.tl/t-1zXG5W0Ali

•          Link YT Hardest Braking Point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP3o7aP48Ek

•          Link web news: 5 Interesting Facts About the Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix | Brembo - Official Website

​No Gambling Here  

Las Vegas is considered the world capital of gambling, although Macau boasts a significantly higher turnover. The type of entertainment based purely on chance is the opposite of Brembo's focus, which is on safety and the reliability of braking performance.

To ensure the safety of braking components, Brembo Racing uses static benches that apply an increased force on the calipers compared to what is seen in the most critical track conditions. Dynamic benches simulate the conditions experienced in a car to assess performance. If the simulation is successful, the braking system is validated and passes the tests, making it available for Formula 1 teams.

The Toughest Turn 

The most challenging corner for the brakes on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit is Turn 14. The cars go from 329 km/h to 95 km/h in just 2.59 seconds over a distance of 130 meters. The load on the drivers is 4.4 g, and the force applied on the brake pedal is 140 kg. The braking power is 2,468 kW.

One Away from the Record 

The first edition of the Las Vegas GP, held a year ago, was marked by a Ferrari 1-2 in qualifying. However, Carlos Sainz, who set the second-fastest time, was relegated 10 positions for replacing the battery after hitting a manhole cover that damaged his car during practice. In total, Ferrari has monopolized the front row in 83 GPs, 56 of which with Brembo brakes. The record is held by Mercedes, with 84. 

The dust.  Holy cow.  Makes it look foggy, there's so much dust.

In reply to alfadriver :

The Mojave Desert deposits a fine layer. The stuff is like talcum powder.

Our roads are slippery as hell.

In reply to Tom1200 :

It seems worse than the other desert races.

Andretti F1 is back! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXfQLEbDcI

But not with Mike, and not with the name Andretti.....

In reply to alfadriver :

I was reading that earlier and while I could maybe see why they didn't want Michael at the helm not wanting the Andretti name in F1 seems very odd.

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

Again, I can see the commercial appeal to the name of "Andretti" but at the same time, the total lack of success of the team for the last decade does kind of stand out.  To the point that I still don't understand why Herta think he can get enough points with Andretti to get to F1.

alfadriver said:

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

To the point that I still don't understand why Herta think he can get enough points with Andretti to get to F1.

I mean, he did just finish second in the championship...

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

When was the last time Andretti did that twice in a row, let alone twice in a 3 year period?  Last time they won a championship, Colton was 12.  By the time he can get 40 points over 3 seasons, he'll have to retire.

Sorry, Tom, I still don't think Andretti can be anything other than last place in F1, given his team's success in a series that hasn't changed for a decade or so.  So many cars, so little winning.  As far as I'm concerned, he's stretched way, way, way too thin.

Mind you, since the F1 field doesn't want to see the word "Andretti" anywhere near the grid, I have a feeling that he's rubbed them the wrong way.  

Well.  Woke up in time to absorb Q3.  Go, George, Lewis will be sad.  On Thursday night, weekend warmup, Hinchcliff said "the Mercs don't like heat, and there's none of that here"  True.

Gasley?  What a job, dude.

Red Bulls slowest on the straight.  Boy, is that a change.

I feel for Williams.  They hardly have budget to improve the car given the times they have to just rebuild the cars.

Didn't see Q, but how did Lewis mess that up?  He was fastest for all of the practices and at the top for Q1 and 2.  Like just over doing it some.

Another tough day for the Aston Martin fans as both of their drivers couldn't even make the Q2.

In reply to alfadriver :

He got on the throttle and it stepped out and he had to chase it and his push lap was toast. 

alfadriver said:

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

When was the last time Andretti did that twice in a row, let alone twice in a 3 year period?  Last time they won a championship, Colton was 12.  By the time he can get 40 points over 3 seasons, he'll have to retire.

Sorry, Tom, I still don't think Andretti can be anything other than last place in F1, given his team's success in a series that hasn't changed for a decade or so.  So many cars, so little winning.  As far as I'm concerned, he's stretched way, way, way too thin.

Yeah, probably the last time they were consistent contenders was 2018-19 with Rossi. I agree that he's stretched too thin, have been saying that for a while. But I do think they improved this year. Colton beat all the Penskes, and Kirkwood was 7th, ahead of Newgarden. It was the best year they've had in a while. And honestly, does Colton have any better options? Penske and Ganassi seem pretty set with their drivers.

alfadriver said:

In reply to Tom1200 :

It seems worse than the other desert races.

The soil here is silty as hell.

You should see the cloud the street sweepers make here.

In reply to alfadriver :

I don't expect them to jump ahead of established teams....but with the clean slate coming for '26 I don't see it as an impossibility either.

 Hell even the Mercs have had zero consistency track to track the entire 3 yrs of the this new ruleset and the engines remained the same.

 I think the F1 powers that be have made many mistake including giving the teams a voice in too many things.

 If a new group can buy the way in and have the backing of major manufactures then let them have a go imho.

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

But if they can't really consistently grasp a car that was designed by someone else and has not changed for something near a decade, how can they understand how to make the entire car?  I get the whole reset thinking, but I don't see that mattering much, since they will struggle with getting the details right- which is really what separates the front-mid-back fights.  

At least Haas had shown some technical ability with the results in NASCAR.  Mike hasn't figured out how to hire talent in an almost identical situation as a Cup car that Haas fields.  (spec cars with details that matter)

I'm not saying it's impossible, but seeing their success, or lack thereof....  Penske and Ganassi's programs both are successful on multiple series, too.  It's almost as if the F1 teams are protecting the "Andretti" brand after seeing the "Prost" name get obliterated in F1. 

In reply to alfadriver :

Are their Indy car people are also going to be heading up the F1 effort?.

 History has proven putting the right people in the right places counts far more then who's writing the cheques.

 They seem to be generating the kind of investment to buy those people....

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

The owners and management will be the same.  And they have not shown the ability to hire the right people OR they have no idea how to actually manage them to success.  Which has been my point all along.  Andretti has to be one of the top funded teams in Indycar along with Ganassi and Penske.  But they can't find the right people to compete regularly with those teams.  Even when Ganassi goes out and gets some new driver and wins a championship.

Money isn't everything- just look at Haas.  

alfadriver said:

In reply to kevlarcorolla :

The owners and management will be the same.  And they have not shown the ability to hire the right people OR they have no idea how to actually manage them to success.  Which has been my point all along.  Andretti has to be one of the top funded teams in Indycar along with Ganassi and Penske.  But they can't find the right people to compete regularly with those teams.  Even when Ganassi goes out and gets some new driver and wins a championship.

Money isn't everything- just look at Haas.  

Well, Michael is out now, so maybe things will get better? I wouldn't just write them off because they are the #3 team in Indycar. F1 is a whole different beast, and with GM's backing, they should at least have a shot.

They already hired pat symonds who was the F1 chief technical officer.  

The f1 team people are not the same people as the indycar people.  

Most of the f1 people are in England at their new facility.

I do agree that Andretti hasn't had much success in the big leagues recently.  Hopefully it will be better in f1?

Also, indycar gets WAY less superlicense points than a lot of other series.  Iirc, it's somewhere between f2 and f3 for how they give out points.  However, for like 3,4,5 it's even less than f3 iirc.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Once again, it's not that there will certainly be different people on the F1 team.  It's that it *was* the same management team that was hiring and managing those people.  The same management team that can't really compete in far simpler cars.

Maybe without Mike the management style will change enough to make them competitive.  Maybe.  We have seen how Mike ran all of those teams and their relative success.  

Maybe Symonds will be good, maybe he'll live in a past that wasn't great with Williams a decade ago.  Who knows.

Sorry to be so harsh to the Andretti fans, but there has to be a dose of reality of how successful they have been.  I hope I'm wrong, but I have zero faith in Mike to be capable of running basically the sum of all of his teams in an F1 team in addition to all the teams he already runs.

In reply to alfadriver :

I'm not an Andretti fan,but I'd like to see the historic Andretti name back in F1 along with more teams.

alfadriver said:

Sorry to be so harsh to the Andretti fans, but there has to be a dose of reality of how successful they have been.  I hope I'm wrong, but I have zero faith in Mike to be capable of running basically the sum of all of his teams in an F1 team in addition to all the teams he already runs.

Dude. Mike is out. He's not running E36 M3 anymore.