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Formula One

The cars are looking a lot harder to drive this year, lots of locking up of tyres, little mistakes.

These little mistakes are going to be really interesting, as that should help overtaking, and also mean we are going to see more incidents where the driver makes a mistake when overtaking.

Listening to the Mercedes discussion about the side pods, the thing in their favour is that it does not cause any unexpected airflow out the back, so it does not disrupt the cars following behind. I think if that had been the case, they would of been in more trouble.

Ferrari seem to be making a noise about the Mercedes mirrors been illegal. Again, it sounds like a spirt of the law thing, with mirrors only being used for seeing behind.

Watched the first episode of Drive to Survive and it was great, roll on 8pm when the kids are in bed and I can watch some more :)
 
The Ferrari is certainly looking very handy to say the least, and has done all the way through both tests. Looks to be somewhat easier to drive than some of the other cars. Too early to say right now, but they are looking like possible favourites heading in to next weekend.

I don't think either of Red Bull or Mercedes have really shown their hand yet, although it appears Mercedes have issues to resolve with it being a bit of a handful to drive.
 
I actually think Merc are looking kkke the fourth best team atm.
I feel Red Bull and McLaren have more to offer but right now Ferrari look like the team to beat
 
Binged the entirety of DTS in three sittings yesterday. Quite sad to see Chrstian Horner's wife featuring more than Vettel and Raikonnen combined. Also just highlights how much of a bell end Mazepin was. Good riddance to the clown.
 
Well, Red Bull’s upgrades have certainly caught they eye and they clearly look like the fastest team at the moment, followed by Ferrari. Not looking forward to seeing how smug Horner, Markon and Verstapppen are going to be next weekend.

Tough test for McLaren, really hard to know where they really are after a good Barcelona test.

Mercedes appear to have a lot of issues to resolve. Can’t see them challenging for a win/podium next weekend.
 
Danny said:
Binged the entirety of DTS in three sittings yesterday. Quite sad to see Chrstian Horner's wife featuring more than Vettel and Raikonnen combined. Also just highlights how much of a bell end Mazepin was. Good riddance to the clown.
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I enjoyed DTS, it was fairly balanced, with maybe a slight hint in favour of Mercedes. Although it looks like Mercedes gave them a lot more access than Red Bull did, and with Max snubbing the show, I guess that makes sense. One other thing I noticed, was a couple of times, after Toto said something to Bottas, you would see Bottas give the camera a quick glance, made me wonder if Bottas was thinking is he just doing this for the Cameras but maybe that is just my dislike of Mercedes creeping in :)

There did seem to be a big focus on Mercedes and Red Bull throughout, which I was not keen on.

The Williams episode was very good, and I felt so sorry for Claire, she clearly still misses the job. The team seems to be on the up, and the idea of the walk of shame to the bottom garage is not something that had occurred to me before, so was interesting to see that being used as motivation for the team.

The second episode of the McLaren/Ricardo struggles just felt like it was missing the ending where Ricardo picked up the win at Monza, but the next McLaren Vs Ferrari did touch on that but it just made the ending of episode two feel flat.

I enjoyed the rookie episode, although Ocon is not really a rookie. Great to see Yuki, I like him even more, and glad to see the RedBull program identify an issue, and take actions to support and improve him. Once he moved to Italy, Yuki took a step in the right direction, and I really hope that continues. If Gasly delivers this season, he has to have the second Red Bull seat next season, and hopefully Yuki can then stay at Alpha and in his third season take more of a leading role. One of the reasons why I like Red Bull, they have this great, tough, but great academy of developing and funding youngsters in motorsport.

I don't think binge watching them works, but at the same time, its so hard not to binge watch them, knowing you want to get to the end when they are all released at the same time, some of the Barcelona bits felt very repetitive . I guess drivers like Vettel and Raikonnen feature less because they don't want to be in it. In an ideal world, I would like one episode per team, and this would of allowed two episodes on the Mercedes/Red Bull battle.

As for testing, I think its clear that Mercedes have not turned up their engine yet, at least on day one their top speed was down compared to all the teams: LINK
I remember last season Mercedes saying RedBull had the faster car, but Mercedes actually being about even in the race. If the car is down compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, it could put the team in big trouble as all the other teams are looking good, so it could get really scrappy in the midfield.

It will be interesting to see how all the teams develop over the coming season, the first race next weekend is going to be so interesting. Red Bull have certainly put the cat among the pigeons now, and it will be interesting to see how competitive they are this time next week.
 
IanB said:
As for testing, I think its clear that Mercedes have not turned up their engine yet, at least on day one their top speed was down compared to all the teams: LINK
I remember last season Mercedes saying RedBull had the faster car, but Mercedes actually being about even in the race. If the car is down compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, it could put the team in big trouble as all the other teams are looking good, so it could get really scrappy in the midfield.
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Sorry to double post, but as usual, something comes up to prove I am wrong :)


Max speeds from day three, and Lewis and Max were exactly the same. I trust this user on Twitter, lots of great in depth detail, and normally posts in Spanish and English so you dont need to translate it, so well worth a follow if you like F1.

I wonder if Mercedes are in genuine trouble? They have got a brilliant design, it looked great on paper, looked great in the simulator, but when its on track, there is something that makes it difficult to drive. I have no doubt, Mercedes will solve this issue, but if the midfield is as close as they think its going to be, this could be costly.
 
I'm sure Merc will empty some of the sand back into the Bahrain before the weekend ;) Limiting the running of their new design to a single weekend was always going to screw them over if they didn't get it spot on, so unless the others are incredibly far ahead I expect they'll plug something before Sunday. They do seem to be the masters at fixing issues between race events. I'm kind of hoping not because it will be good to see Lewis show some genuine race craft in a less competitive car and equally see how good Russell is too!

I watched the first episode of DtS and something irked me, I think Danny nailed it with the ever presence of Ginger Spice. Maybe they are trying to appeal to the American market more and more but the level of whinging from Horner makes him unlikable from the off. Toto knows how to play the game and albeit equally calculating doesn't appear to be the living embodiment of Randall from Recess!

As a long struggling Tifosi its great to see Ferrari looking better but this season will all be about development and upgrades. Unless we run out of Fuel by the Australian GP its a good plan to be up top at the first GP.
 
Version 5 of the F1 Sporting Regulations have been published for the year, and they made the rules around the safety car absolute, so hopefully avoid any confusion like we had last year. All cars need to be let past, and the safety car will return to the pits the following lap that message is displayed. So the safety car will not return the same lap. I know we have the F1 VAR to make sure the Race Director and Stewards don't get it wrong, but we have seen even in football, VAR get the decision wrong. And in F1, you cant stop the race for 5 minutes to check if the decision was correct or not, but lets see how it works.

There is also changes to the rules to stop the drivers removing their helmet until they have been weighed, and from wearing anything other than their team uniform during the Podium and Pen Interviews. Feel a bit sorry for the drivers at some of the hotter tracks we go to, and also means we will miss the emotion on the drivers face after they get out the cars.

This new rule sounds good, and applies after qualifying has taken place. Would love to hear Adrian Newey talk about this:

During this period one (1) car from five (5) different Competitors (as specified by the Race Director and Technical Delegate) and a senior technical or sporting representative of the Competitor must be available for a period of at least 10 minutes to describe to the media all major aerodynamic and bodywork component updates made to their car following the pre-event car display.

Its interesting how often you see this phrase is the document "unless in the opinion of the Race Director". At 101 pages there is a lot to get your head around, I would not want to be a race steward.

| Federation Internationale de l'Automobile

The FIA is the governing body of motor sport and promotes safe, sustainable and accessible mobility for all road users across the world. It works across three areas: Sport, Mobility and Campaigns.
www.fia.com www.fia.com

On to more fun news articles, and we have a gap in our F1 Calendar, and look which track has just been given the highest safety rating, allowing it to host F1 races, Nordschleife :)

I very much doubt they will race here, but it would be a real test for the drivers and I would very much enjoy watching it.
planetf1.com

Nurburgring safety approved to Formula 1 standard until 2025

The Nurburgring has retained an FIA Grade 1 safety certificate - making it eligible to host Formula 1 if needed.
planetf1.com planetf1.com
 
I've almost finished S4 of Drive to Survive. The lack of respect that Horner has for Hamilton and Mercedes is astonishing. I'd also love to know if he is capable of stringing a sentence together without the f word in it, as it would appear not.
 
I assume any proposals to host F1 at Nordschleife would be on the GP circuit as opposed to the full Nurburgring? Pit stop strategies would be absurd if they missed a window for boxing by seconds and then had to endure another lengthy lap before being able to come back in.
 
I like Horner, he is a racing driver, he is open, honest and tells you what he is thinking. I like that Horner is willing to talk live during a race with the Sky Team. I like Adrian Newey, fantastic designer and he is still racing his classic cars. I like the team, their pitstop work is amazing and RedBull invest in the future, and have a great academy of young talent. They are tough on the juniors, but they do care, and you can see that with RedBull helping Albon get his seat at Williams, and Yuki getting support to help him improve. And when you look at F2 and F3 it is full of upcoming drivers backed by RedBull. I know other teams have junior programs, but none are as in depth as the RedBull program, and none are willing to give young drivers a chance in F1 like RedBull is.

I dont think Horner moans any more than other teams, all the teams moan and question why their opponents are faster, and if you look at the last few seasons, I am sure it balances out. When a decision by race stewards goes against you, I don't think anyone is going to agree with it and will moan about it. That is just the nature of sport and referring decisions.

I think there is respect from Horner for Wolff, and Lewis. And I am sure the success that Wolff and Lewis have had has been a key driver in pushing Horner and RedBull to get back to the top. And other teams, no one wants to lose but only one team and driver can win.

Both Toto and Christian come across as good guys, working really hard to win, making sacrifices to achieve that success. I thought the family elements were really good at bringing that out in DTS, and I had no issues with seeing Suzie or Gerri in DTS. I think Will summed it up nicely, both men are more alike than they care to admit.

As for the Nordschleife, I think it is very much wishful thinking on my part, but I think it would certainly make for a interesting race for the drivers. I think it would be a nightmare for race control to manage due to the length of the track, but can you imagine how intense that first lap would be?
 
Rob said:
I've almost finished S4 of Drive to Survive. The lack of respect that Horner has for Hamilton and Mercedes is astonishing. I'd also love to know if he is capable of stringing a sentence together without the f word in it, as it would appear not.
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:tearsofjoy:

It'd be so good to have a year where the Merc car is off the pace.
 
I feel like some of the comments from Horner and the way he speaks about Mercedes comes from 7 years of them dominating the sport and no other team getting a look in. It must be painfully frustrating, especially for a team just coming off winning 4 titles in a row themselves.

If anyone wants more insight into last season then there's a really good documentary on Sky called Duel. It has some good analysis from former drivers/pundits, and looks over the whole season with an unbiased point of view, without the over-the-top sensationalism that DTS has. I really enjoyed it and it was just another excuse to relive an incredible season.
 
Looks like Vettel is out of the race this weekend, and his replacement will be Hulkenberg.
Another chance for him to finally get that podium, maybe, probably not.

 
NICO HUUUUUUUULKENBUUUUUURG

Will be nice to see him racing, really deserves to be on a team, maybe Andretti when they join
 
I know I mentioned Albert above, but some of these photos now the teams are now allowed the boards up are great.





 
What a fantastic qual session, really enjoyable. It has setup what looks to be a fantastic race tomorrow.

I felt stewards were a little inconsistent with the white lines, but if they are as strict as they were in F2 and F3, we could see some penalties for going off track. Hopefully not causing a similar situation to the F3 race though.



Race looks to be between Ferrari and RedBull. Mercedes are then next, with the midfield mixing it up depending on the driver.

Bottas must be really happy to have beaten Russell, but a change of approach for the final run cost Russell with a mistake at Turn 1.

Impressive from Magnussen as well in the Haas. Galsy dragged his Alpha Tauri in to the top 10, and Albon got in to Q2 as well.

Aston Martin and McLaren fans may want to find something out to do tomorrow.
 
Really enjoyed it. Surprise of the session was to see Bottas getting the Alfa in to Q3; they were much stronger than I thought they'd be.

Also didn't expect for all the Merc customers to drown in quite the way they did; Hulk outqualifying his teammate is quite eye-opening but a great result for him.
 
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