Formula 1

[charlierc]

1 minute ago, DareToDibble said:

Yeah I agree. Although I did thoroughly enjoy Button winning every race 😅

Tbf that story in 2009 was incredible in so many ways that you could excuse the early domination. Team that had been a backmarker in 2008 and nearly went out of business after Honda pulled out suddenly winning all the early races with a driver who'd only won one career race.

Somehow I don't think we're going to get one of Williams, Alfa Romeo and Haas being miles ahead of everyone else in the opening few rounds. I'd like a situation like 2012 with several unique winners in a row to start the season though.

[DareToDibble]

3 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Tbf that story in 2009 was incredible in so many ways that you could excuse the early domination. Team that had been a backmarker in 2008 and nearly went out of business after Honda pulled out suddenly winning all the early races with a driver who'd only won one career race.

Somehow I don't think we're going to get one of Williams, Alfa Romeo and Haas being miles ahead of everyone else in the opening few rounds. I'd like a situation like 2012 with several unique winners in a row to start the season though.

Completely forgot about that. Wasn’t it something like 8 winners in the opening 8 races? Great season that was. Vettel won that year but at least it was closer than some of the other season where he walked it. 

I’m very excited for this new season. Fingers crossed the new regulations work and brings closer racing. 

[charlierc]

17 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

Completely forgot about that. Wasn’t it something like 8 winners in the opening 8 races? Great season that was. Vettel won that year but at least it was closer than some of the other season where he walked it. 

I’m very excited for this new season. Fingers crossed the new regulations work and brings closer racing. 

7 in 7, with an 8th winning a race much later in the year. According to the scorecards another 5 unique drivers on top of the 8 winners also scored podiums. So, yeah, something like that would be awesome (even if tbf 2020 and 2021 had a decent spread of podium placers).

[Copperface]

FIA fudged it again:

Motorsport's governing body the FIA is to allow Russian competitors to take part in international events despite the country's invasion of Ukraine.

 Russian and Belarusian drivers and officials could compete in a neutral capacity.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/motorsport/60581292

[Copperface]

12 hours ago, Barry Fish said:

I think while I can understand why sporting governing bodies would move to ban national teams I think moving to stop individuals competing is where I would draw a line unless it can be shown they have clear links to Putins shit show.  You could end up with a situation where someone has been living in the USA for their entire life but be banned just because they where born Russian.  Would be a crazy position to be in.

I would let Russians compete under the Olympic flag for example.

Nice.

 

Russian drivers banned from competing in UK

Mazepin's father Dmitry provides financial backing to Haas and is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Haas are expected to sever their links with Mazepin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60586914

[charlierc]

8 hours ago, Copperface said:

Nice.

 

Russian drivers banned from competing in UK

Mazepin's father Dmitry provides financial backing to Haas and is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Haas are expected to sever their links with Mazepin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60586914

I was going to say that I think the bigger loss might be F2 junior Robert Schwartzman, who is a Russian affiliated with the Ferrari junior academy that many think as F1 material. However it turns out he left F2 after finishing 2nd to Piastri to take up a Ferrari test/reserve gig, so there's no guarantee he might come along in 2022.

Mazepin's time has just been super weird, given it started with controversy over his personal behaviour, saw him annoy multiple drivers early on, and saw him finish last almost every race. That and the whole Uralkali mess is a bit of a sign that Haas clearly didn't learn from the Rich Energy nightmare when picking their sponsors.

[Copperface]

17 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I was going to say that I think the bigger loss might be F2 junior Robert Schwartzman, who is a Russian affiliated with the Ferrari junior academy that many think as F1 material. However it turns out he left F2 after finishing 2nd to Piastri to take up a Ferrari test/reserve gig, so there's no guarantee he might come along in 2022.

Mazepin's time has just been super weird, given it started with controversy over his personal behaviour, saw him annoy multiple drivers early on, and saw him finish last almost every race. That and the whole Uralkali mess is a bit of a sign that Haas clearly didn't learn from the Rich Energy nightmare when picking their sponsors.

Yup. Absolutely no loss. The only downside for me is the potential loss of a team if it goes tits up.

[charlierc]

Confirmed this morning that Haas have sacked Nikita Mazepin: Mazepin loses Haas seat as Uralkali partnership confirmed terminated · RaceFans

Mazepin himself has said he was perfectly happy to meet the FIA's conditions for Russian drivers to race as neutral athletes, but I guess the fact his dad has been identified as a Putin ally didn't help.

[charlierc]

45 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Anyone with links to the bastard should be thrown out but otherwise I think its really unfair to be doing this to people.  Its hard to shed a tear for Mazepin - its pretty clear his family has links.

I'd think a lot of people would've been more sympathetic to someone like Kvyat or Schwartzman, who came up through an F1 team's academy ranks into the sport.

Thinking about it, Mazepin Sr did make a real attempt to buy Force India and the choice was either him or Stroll's Racing Point consortium. Can imagine we'd be seeing similar stuff to what's going on at Chelsea had the Uralkali bid to buy Team Silverstone won out.

[DareToDibble]

I've just seen they've announced an F1 Manager game. I used to have one of those like 10-15 years ago on PC. Really excited for it, could be fantastic if done properly.

[DareToDibble]

Just now, Barry Fish said:

Sounds boring as hell lol

I guess if people aren't into management games then they would think so to be fair. I'm notoriously shit at Football Manager but fingers crossed I'll be better at the F1 version. I imagine it'll be pretty in depth.

[Ozanne]

So Merc have updated their new car to have no side pods, RB have complained that it’s against the ‘spirit of the rules’. Yet they were so happy to have the rules completely thrown out to gift Verstappen the title last year. 

[charlierc]

I'm not 100% convinced the Mercedes size-zero sidepod is the way to go with it. But hey, they could be on to something and I could be the one who is barking up the wrong tree. After all there were something like 3-4 years in a row where Ferrari had the fastest time in testing then Mercedes ran away with the titles.

[charlierc]

1 minute ago, Barry Fish said:

lol - as if any of us could have an educated opinion on it 🙂  

They are either winding up Red Bull and won't be there come the start of the season or they believe its faster.

Tbf, many people were worried that the new sidepod design would be too restrictive, yet all the teams look to be doing something different with their car philosophies, which is pretty good going.

Apparently Mercedes briefed the media that they noted a marked improvement in lap time on the simulator. Seems like today they were doing long-run pace rather than qualy sims, so maybe logically we'll see improved lap times later in testing. Imo my unsure-ness on it was clips of it being twitchy, the extremely low rake and the fact they still have the bouncing problem seen in Barcelona.

But hey, it will make qualifying at the first race proper next week all the more interesting to see the first proper chance at all these different design philosophies in a racing context.

[Ozanne]

31 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I'm not 100% convinced the Mercedes size-zero sidepod is the way to go with it. But hey, they could be on to something and I could be the one who is barking up the wrong tree. After all there were something like 3-4 years in a row where Ferrari had the fastest time in testing then Mercedes ran away with the titles.

It’s a second quicker in the wind tunnels apparently and helps with the aero of the car. Most people seem to be saying it’s a master stroke which of course means the FIA will want to change the rules to help Max. 

[charlierc]

The narrative does seem to be shifting again, with Mercedes themselves saying that they don't expect to be challenging for wins early on. But we have been here before - indeed last year they were poor in testing and in truth didn't get the car's performance fully hooked up until about Monza imo - so I guess we'll have to see if that bears out. Certainly I'm not expecting a double Q1 elimination in qualy for the first race of the season next weekend.

I'm intrigued to see how it all goes. Alas I'm busy during qualifying next weekend, but I'll keep tabs as I think it could go quite a few ways.

Well unless testing was a mirage and we just get a Hamilton-Verstappen front row again.

[Ozanne]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

The narrative does seem to be shifting again, with Mercedes themselves saying that they don't expect to be challenging for wins early on. But we have been here before - indeed last year they were poor in testing and in truth didn't get the car's performance fully hooked up until about Monza imo - so I guess we'll have to see if that bears out. Certainly I'm not expecting a double Q1 elimination in qualy for the first race of the season next weekend.

I'm intrigued to see how it all goes. Alas I'm busy during qualifying next weekend, but I'll keep tabs as I think it could go quite a few ways.

Well unless testing was a mirage and we just get a Hamilton-Verstappen front row again.

A lot of people think that Merc have been sandbagging as they generally tend to do this type of thing and it didn’t help that in the same interview where Lewis was saying things aren’t great he had a massive grin on his face all the way through.

[charlierc]

43 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

A lot of people think that Merc have been sandbagging as they generally tend to do this type of thing and it didn’t help that in the same interview where Lewis was saying things aren’t great he had a massive grin on his face all the way through.

Yeah, and that's why I think people aren't so sure to take the comments at face value and say Mercedes have stuffed it.

We won't truly know until next week tbf.

[DareToDibble]

The real surprise from testing is Haas. Trying not to fall into the trap of reading too much into testing but they look like they have some pace in the car, will surely be competing for points this year? Although to be fair anything will be an improvement on last year.

Also wonder how hindered Danny Ric will be missing a full day testing due to Covid. "Lucky" he got it when he did and doesn't miss the opening weekend.

[DareToDibble]

If anyone fancies joining my friends and I have a fantasy league. Free to play, no money on the line for anything. More the merrier!

https://gridrival.app.link/3RC5erxnoob

[WS_Jack_III]

2 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Very surprised Merc having got on top of their problems and its not looking any better any time soon.

Red Bull and Ferrari seem to be where its at for the first few races but hopefully Merc can make it a 3 way fight at some point.

 

Is the car not bouncing about anymore?

[Harry_W01]

Looks like Merc really were telling the truth about their issues, interesting to see 2 Mercedes powered cars in the top 10 vs 4 Ferrari cars and the other Merc powered cars have had pretty rubbish Quali results.

Obviously this could all change come tomorrow but an early indication is it will be a Ferrari vs RB championship if Merc can catch-up quick enough then they could still be in it.

Haas' performance is excellent IMO, looks like they may finally move into a solid midfield team potentially fighting for 5th/6th in Constructors this year?

Edited March 19, 2022 by Harry_W01

[charlierc]

Yeah McLaren and Aston Martin were both pretty poor by the look of it, so there could be a situation where the engine has been caught up with. I wouldn't rule out Mercedes winning races if they can solve the puzzle, but there is work for them to do if they are to get closer to Ferrari and Red Bull. Even if it is just one race.

I genuinely thought it might be Red Bull who struggle to match this after they threw a lot at their 2021 challenge to try and get Verstappen ahead of Hamilton, yet their car does seem to have something good about it.

I'm excited for today's race tbf. Should be a very interesting watch, if only for the grid as is. I know they're going on about trying to make them more overtake friendly but Bahrain is usually a good track for overtaking so we'll see how it fares there.

[Ozanne]

Karma for Red Bull right there!

[Harry_W01]

Big winners today are Ferrari and Haas IMO.

masterclass drive by Charles today text book race win same for Carlos, Ferrari really have created a beast this year. the Ferrari was gaining stupid time on the Red bull throughout the race. 

Haas are no doubt extremely happy Kmag getting points after leaving F1 super upset for Mick but really shows how fast the Haas is this year.

Big losers today Mercedes/HPP and Redbull/RBPT.

Bottom 5 today (other than the dnf's) were Mercedes powered cars, seems they have seriously messed up on the engine this year and since it is frozen till 2026 I worry about their ability to catch-up on the engine game.

Redbull absolute stinker of a race, was looking like a decent 2-4 for RB until Max starting having steering issues (looks like power steering after re-watching) then it seems his engine may have died, Pierre's car on fire and Sergios losing power in the last laps. at least it is happening early doors but I seriously think Ferrari are going to runaway with this championship.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Harry_W01