Quite worrying for the season ahead if the Red Bulls are gonna be that far ahead. I don’t know what Merc are doing but they’ve completely shit the bed since the new regs came in and they don’t seem clued up on how to turn it around. And I have zero confidence in Ferrari doing anything competently so it’s quite a depressing thought to think we’re going to have to suffer that smug cunt Horner every week.
Exactly. The sport is only FUCKED when it’s not going the way you want.Originally Posted by Gray Fox
That’s probably the last two pages here in fairness. Concern for F1 being a mask around what is basically “Lewis isn’t handily winning so it’s shit”.
I don’t care who wins. I just want to see close races and we don’t get enough of that there’s been one close season in the last what 10?
I don’t care who wins, I just want to see DRAMA. Max (or anyone else) winning by large margins just isn’t that entertaining.
Even dominance has a story behind it. Best driver on the grid in the best car and nobody can figure out anything close. It's been kind of the norm for modern F1. The only difference is the space between the cars.
Of course Hamilton waltzing to wins was fantastic viewing.
I’m guilty of it myself as I don’t care how good it is when Merc are losing - at least just own it.
Hamilton winning easily wasn’t fantastic viewing though. The only person with hang ups about Hamilton seems to be you. Weird.
Do you think we are all 13yr old Lewis fanboys?
I'm a 40yr old F1 fan, I want entertainment, that's it.
Keep amusing me if you like but that’s absolute bollocks. That’s the single source of all the frothing here for the last couple of years.
”Entertainment”
Yes. I like Max, I don’t mind Hamilton but I don’t find watching Max streaking off at the front entertaining.
Aside from the Red Bulls running away from it, there were some good scraps out there. Alonso's racecraft hasn't missed a beat. Leclerc offering up no resistance for 2nd place is a bit telling.
I prefer Hamilton winning by miles to Verstappen winning by miles, but consistent close racing is better than either.
That said, I don't think consistent close racing will ever happen again unless they turn it into a joke formula with wacky races rules. In the era of ultra-reliability, once somebody has the aerodynamic upper hand that's it, they should win every race pretty easily - the exceptions being if you had a particularly weak driver pair in the best car, or there were somehow loads of venues that didn't suit that car, or there was rain at the wrong times etc. To get a battle like 2021 you have to have a lot of things run in your favour, it'll only happen once every ten years or so.
In the era of unreliability it was very different as there were all sorts of things that could derail your race. Nowadays, someone like Hamilton or Verstappen or hypothetically Leclerc will just win from the front if they're in the quickest machine.
Yeah, I thought this. Proper end of days 'management'.
I'm still amazed Alonso's suspension survived Lance's tap. Alonso nicked someone's Pirelli and it didn't even budge.
In fairness, Bahrain is always a ridiculously abrasive surface, tyre management is pretty key to get to the end. You see a lot of drivers fall off a cliff particularly in F2 if they take too much out of the tyres.
It's just really dull though if no one can push. Who ended up fastest lap? Gasly on a set of hard tyres? I mean, fair enough if someone stick on some softs under the VSC late, but come on. Wait, did Zhou do that? It's just dreadful to watch.
Fastest laps, Zhou [P16], Norris [P17], Gasly [P9], all of them over a second clear of Verstappen.
Italy 98, a race that was not only introduced by the now incorrigibly casual Jim Rosenthal but was also much better than the tripe we watched on Sunday.
Yes I missed Belgium 98, probably nothing happened.
Is there a race this weekend?
Not until next weekend at the world famous Jeddah Corniche circuit. After that there's only one more until 30 April.
That’s some load of melt.
At least it gives Newey and co a bit of time to make sure the RBwhateveritis is even further ahead when more normal race scheduling returns [is this big gap due to China being China?].
Yeah. Supposedly Portimao were close to replacing it (it was so close it was being advertised locally) but in the end got canned for logistical reasons.
Yeah, I wouldn't fancy that trek to Europe and back either.
Apparently Mercedes are panicking so hard that James Alisson is back in the team.
Amazing how quickly they've gone from cautious optimism to DOOOOOOOOOOMED.
I thought Toto’s comments after Bahrain were stunning. Where you usually get the corporate spiel, he came right out and said the car is not good enough and the upgrades in the pipeline aren’t good enough. Incredible, really. Can they even design a new car this early in the season?
They could in theory but the budget cap prevents them doing anything too drastic.
When was the last time anyone closed a performance gap without a rule change? The grid will almost certainly remain largely the same through to 2026.
Yeah, I was trying to think of a major reg change ever not ending up with 1 team being mega dominant. It's a bit of a shame as for all the 'closer racing' we now have, the last season under the old regs, when everyone had had time to catch Mercedes, was the best for many a year and there's a good chance Red Bull would have been on top had everything continued under those regs the following season anyway, but it would have been more interesting to watch. What are they doing in 2026? Is that going to be another case of the field catching Red Bull this time only to have another major change reset everything to single team dominance again for a while?
If it's a budget cap thing maybe they should just suck it up and blow it out. What sort of sanction are they going to get which a vastly better car for the next however many years wouldn't easily offset?
The surprise to me is how different Mercedes are still being in terms of car design. Who else is doing those sidepods or that thin nose? They've chose the wrong direction but someone stubbornly thought "Ah, we'll get it right next year."
They can't copy Red Bull now, Christian Horner will laugh at them.
He's never laughed genuinely in his life. A smug smile is all he can muster.
Luxembourg 98, from Germany of course and it's another Mika Masterclass as the Flying Finn sticks it to the son of a bricklayer in his own backyard. One race left, 16 rounds feels like about half a season compared to today.
Leclerc hit with a grid penalty for Saudi, so kiss goodbye any chance of a race at the front.
Interestingly the Italian media are already rounding on Ferrari. They aren't short of reports of widespread discontent inside the team and apparently Leclerc himself has been to the higher ups for meetings on what they're going to do about giving him a better car.
Good going to use an entire season's allocation of something in half a race.
They shouldn't have sacked Binotto. Obviously he isn't called Adrian Newey and isn't a designer, ergo wasn't going to design a better car than Adrian Newey, but he clearly kept the team going in one direction.
They've binned/lost/reassigned everyone but the strategists recently, which is poetic.
How did Ferrari break 2 control units, when only one was on the car during the race??
Edit: one broke just prior to the start of the race.
Verstappen 1/4 to win the race
I don’t think I’ve seen odds that short in a while. Hope he wins every race and breaks the records if no one else is getting near them again.
I would like to see a 100% once in my lifetime.
I doubt it’s even near possible.
Someone would surely torpedo the cunt near the back end of the calendar if he was close to a 100%.
Also mechanical issues, which makes me wonder, how often has a driver finished a full season without any sort of mechanical issues? Can't be a very common occurrence.
Reliability always seems to sneak into it. I'm trying to think who's come closest in a modern context. Hamilton, Schumacher and Vettel had credible teammates doing enough to take the odd win.
Drivers finishing a season with no major mechanical problems? Schumacher in 2002. Finished every race on the podium.
Last edited by Shindig; 17-03-2023 at 11:31 PM.
Yeah, I meant no major mechanical issues as in no DNFs basically.
Who could have predicted that we’re only on the second race of the season and it’s Aston Martin we’re relying on to make this interesting.
Max to win by 30 seconds.
Ah, they'll get a win in Hungary.
Red Bull are so far ahead in Jeddah. The winning margin will be huge. Only Aston Martin getting within a second because Ferrari have turned their engines down for fear of them blowing up.
FP3 looked pretty bleak for everyone else, Perez absolutely stealing a living he's that far behind.
Logan Sargeant is enjoying Q1.
Well this could make things interesting tomorrow...
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