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Formula 1 2023

Anton Chigurh

By Anton Chigurh
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Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Don't fly Air Canada.  Someone went last year here and had an absolute nightmare of a time with them.

I went last year and flew Air Canada. It wasn't a nightmare, but they had some real issues with flights, rescheduling times, and one time re-booking me on a flight where the connecting flight departed before the first flight arrived. 

Flight itself was fine. It was real nice going through immigration in Montreal before getting on the flight so that we were able to land at a domestic terminal in the States.

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PittsburghTiger
PittsburghTiger

So, we ran a few errands here, outside the Black Forest and got back to the house and I started thinking (usually dangerous) “I think I will look again for tickets for Sunday”, And I’ll be damned. Fuc

elfenix
elfenix

Next special livery for the Williams https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-reveal-special-gulf-livery-chosen-by-f1-fan-vote/10494807/

Mittens
Mittens

So people can see w/o clicking:  

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faps

faps 809

Posted
Posted (edited)
45 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

But spending a June weekend in Montreal? *chef's kiss*

This, so much this.

We did Air Canada last year and sounds like we got lucky.

Edited by faps
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wood

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Posted
Posted (edited)
53 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

How much is a ticket in the grandstand opposite the garage at COTA? I just assume $1K+.

No idea what the range is, but iirc they start at near $2000 for 3 days. Right now the cheapest available COTA Main GS seats are $2250 ea. + taxes + fees.

Just the taxes and fees for that ticket would be as much or more than the total cost of a ticket with taxes and fees for the new grandstand across from the pits in Montreal. That grandstand is also much closer to the pits than at COTA.

Edited by wood
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Goofyboy

Goofyboy 3305

Posted
Posted

We are going to the Canada race. Going Wednesday to Wednesday and making it a decent vacation too.

The wife and I will have our son with us. What are some fun things to catch in Montreal that an 11 year old might also like? We are staying in the quarter area, I think… Downtown?

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ConferenceRoom

ConferenceRoom 6147

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Goofyboy said:

We are going to the Canada race. Going Wednesday to Wednesday and making it a decent vacation too.

The wife and I will have our son with us. What are some fun things to catch in Montreal that an 11 year old might also like? We are staying in the quarter area, I think… Downtown?

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Posted
Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Goofyboy said:

We are going to the Canada race. Going Wednesday to Wednesday and making it a decent vacation too.

The wife and I will have our son with us. What are some fun things to catch in Montreal that an 11 year old might also like? We are staying in the quarter area, I think… Downtown?

Cirque du Soleil. Book in advance. The Jet Boats in the river. Also book in advance. There's a big, pretty park near Olympic Stadium with lots of good paved bike paths. Mont Royal is awesome, with great views of downtown and a huge park. There are lots of businesses aimed at families and kids. There's the Old Port, which is like walking into Europe. Last time we went, there were actually three huge F1 Fan Fests going on downtown, with all kinds of displays and activities.

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Posted

OK, Laurent ... if you're so close to Merc & Alpine, and by extension better than Ferrari I guess, then it should be no problem to get close to them in the WCC.

Or will it ...

The top 4 teams have scored 500 points between them. The bottom 6 have scored 47. Eight drivers have more points than Alpine has.

 
Red Bull        224
 
Aston Martin 102
Mercedes       96
Ferrari            78
 
McLaren         14
Alpine             14
Haas                 8
Alfa Romeo      6
AlphaTauri        2
Williams           1

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19095

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, wood said:

OK, Laurent ... if you're so close to Merc & Alpine, and by extension better than Ferrari I guess, then it should be no problem to get close to them in the WCC.

Or will it ...

The top 4 teams have scored 500 points between them. The bottom 6 have scored 47. Eight drivers have more points than Alpine has.

 
Red Bull        224
 
Aston Martin 102
Mercedes       96
Ferrari            78
 
McLaren         14
Alpine             14
Haas                 8
Alfa Romeo      6
AlphaTauri        2
Williams           1

When you put the WCC standings there, it looks so much more ridiculous. They’ve scored 14 points in 5 races and assume they’re ahead of Ferrari and close to Merc and AM.
 

Alpine is F1 aggy. 

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19095

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, utee94 said:

I want them to be good. Otmar seems like a good dude and I certainly like their Leadership more than I like Lawrence Stroll.

But... no.  Just, no.

Why? Otmar’s always been full of shit, and his dragging Piastri’s reputation through the mud because of Alpine’s blatant incompetence was absolutely deplorable. And Rossi is one of the most toxic and incompetent owner/runners of a team in all of F1. 
 

Fuck Otmar and fuck Alpine. 

Edited by Burt Macklin
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wood

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Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

Why? Otmar’s always been full of shit, and his dragging Piastri’s reputation through the mud because of Aline’s massive fuck up was absolutely deplorable. And Rossi is one of the most toxic and incompetent owner/runners of a team in all of F1. 
 

Fuck Otmar and fuck Alpine. 

Yeah their loss of Piastri & Alonso was a massive double-own-goal that was all on them. And then they blamed the drivers for it and tried to spin it like they came out better in the end with Ocon and Gasly. It all started when they locked up Ocon to a long-term deal early last season, painting them inot a corner re: Alonso and Piastri. We all said then that it was a mistake, and it was. A huge one.

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utee94

utee94 15878

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

Why? Otmar’s always been full of shit, and his dragging Piastri’s reputation through the mud because of Alpine’s blatant incompetence was absolutely deplorable. And Rossi is one of the most toxic and incompetent owner/runners of a team in all of F1. 
 

Fuck Otmar and fuck Alpine. 

Eh,  that's just like, your opinion, man.

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NoName

NoName 16606

Posted
Posted

Athletic: ‘The linchpin’: How F1 strategy expert Hannah Schmitz helps keep Red Bull on top

article:

 

Spoiler

‘The linchpin’: How F1 strategy expert Hannah Schmitz helps keep Red Bull on top

Madeline Coleman
May 15, 2023

5

For all the roaring engines and on-track fury, Formula One is a sport built upon subtleties. The factors that feed into deciding who climbs the podium and who loses their seat — the novel training methods, the last-minute strategy calls, even the more nutritious food — are rarely on full display. The Athletic’s new F1 coverage is designed to throw light on all of them, and that’s what we’ll be doing in Untold Stories. Follow along as we take you beyond the headlines (and the headliners) to understand how teams and drivers climb the pinnacle of motorsports.

Hannah Schmitz sits tall at the Red Bull pit wall every other race weekend, gazing down pit lane with her hands flat on the desk in front of her. It’s a calm scene as Formula One cars zip past on track at well over 100 miles an hour.

Some may not think twice about this gesture. It’s a common resting place for one’s hands. But for Schmitz, it’s also a technique that projects authority and clarity. As the principal strategy engineer for Red Bull, Schmitz typically rests her palms face down when talking through strategy and sifting through data points — and sometimes during race-defining moments.

Race strategy is key in a sport where positions and points can boil down to the milliseconds.  Dozens of team members back at the factories and at the circuit are constantly sifting through data points and simulations, feeding gobs of information to the pit wall. When Schmitz is on the pit wall, her job is to account for those messages, the data and her own gut reaction and help produce a winning game plan. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called this pit wall position as “the linchpin.”

To put it in simplest terms, race strategy is about optimizing performance. Strategists like Schmitz take into account factors like tires, the weather forecast, track history and recent race analysis as they think about what rubber to use, when to pit, and more. Her job boils down to preparing strategies ahead of the weekend and making the optimal decisions — the race-winning, championship-caliber calls — in under 30 seconds or less.

And she’s earned her place on the pit wall. “When I started out, I think because strategy is a role where you’re on the pit wall and you’re making decisions and you’re telling people what to do, there was a little bit more resistance,” Schmitz said to The Athletic. “But ever since I’ve been there, I feel I have an equal respect of everybody I work with, and I do a good job.”

A natural fit

Seeing Schmitz in a strategy-focused role is not a surprise given her love for problem-solving.

She is a board game fan, a competitive activity that mirrors the pressures and focus of her everyday job, which she said “is almost like playing a game, but the stakes are kind of high.” Prior to her university days, she had a teacher who encouraged her as she navigated math and physics, and helped her see the opportunities those skills made possible. Her parents were just as supportive of her doing what she loved. “That’s why I wasn’t particularly put off, maybe. That is quite a male-dominated environment.”

At the University of Cambridge, Schmitz got a masters degree in mechanical engineering, and helped lead the school’s eco-racing team in its first try at the World Solar Challenge in Australia. She gravitates towards problem-solving and has always aimed to understand how things work, which is why Schmitz wanted her career to include engineering. “That’s really what it’s all about: getting to the root of the problem and then trying to find a solution.”

 

Working in an automotive-related field became a given because of Schmitz’s love for cars, and as she progressed through her mechanical engineering studies at Cambridge, she honed in on Formula One. Her interest in this sport extends beyond being in the top series.

“It’s also the fact that every couple of weekends, you’ve got that competition,” Schmitz said. “There’s something to drive you. It’s immediate deadlines, it’s a very fast paced environment.”

Schmitz graduated during one of the more difficult times in global history: during the financial crisis in 2009. Nearly every company in the F1 world had a staff hiring freeze, but she landed a placement year at Red Bull, which is similar to a yearlong internship we see in the U.S. That turned into a full-time job when another employee left the company, and Schmitz began working her way up through the ranks. She started as a modeling and simulation engineer before transitioning into a strategy-focused role a few years later.

For nearly 13 years now, Schmitz has worked as a strategy engineer, influencing the formulation of race strategies. In her current job as principal strategy engineer, she looks at the larger picture and how Red Bull can win, she says. The 10,000-foot view sounds simple, but “how you do it is up to you.”

The data Schmitz and her teammates consider when creating race strategy previews include historic track information and recent race analysis so they can better evaluate both car and tire performances. And you can’t forget about the weather forecast, like in Miami this month, when rain the night before the race made the track less grippy. The F1 team generates vast numbers of Monte Carlo simulations that account for all known variables, such as how long a tire will last in specific conditions or likelihood of a safety car, to predict different outcomes and identify the best strategy options.

“It’s not about always running the race in the fastest possible way,” Schmitz said. “It’s about beating your competitors and finishing ahead of them on track. And that’s not always doing what’s fastest.”

Chase what you love

Schmitz has become a recognizable figure around Formula One in recent years as she guided Red Bull through bold strategy calls.

During the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, she called for Verstappen to pit a third time. The Dutchman had to give up the race lead but later regained it — and she stood on the podium with him to gather the constructors’ trophy that his win secured. Then there’s the bold pit stop plan that shaped Sergio Pérez’s 2022 Monaco Grand Prix victory. Pre-race predictions indicated that a single stop would be Monaco’s quickest strategy, but Pérez went for three. After the race, Red Bull’s team advisor Helmut Marko said, “We were all exceptional, but if we won it was mainly due to Hannah.”

But the Schmitz moment most fans remember is the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix. One pivotal moment, Schmitz said, was changing the starting tire. Originally, Verstappen was going to start on the hard compound, but at the last minute, driver information revealed the “grip was really low” because there had been rain. Red Bull opted to swap the hards for the soft tires and then use mediums for later in the race. In the end, Verstappen navigated his way from a P10 start to what seemed to be an unlikely victory.

“It involved, obviously, having a great driver and a fast car,” Schmitz said. “But also, there were quite a lot of strategic decisions that were made throughout that helped.” Afterward, Verstappen praised Schmitz for being “insanely calm” and “very good.”

She and head of race strategy Will Courtenay alternate who works trackside and who works from Milton Keynes each race weekend. And there’s an entire team around them who “know what information you need to know and to pass it on. So the information I receive when I’m on the pit wall will just be the higher end information that’s really going to impact that decision,” such as tire degradation.

“The most important thing about doing the job, though, is staying calm under pressure,” Schmitz said. “When you’ve got all those voices, there’s always opinions as well as data.” One needs to take into account other’s views, but “it doesn’t mean they’re right over you. So I think you’ve also got to have strength and your own conviction.”

Debrief meetings, which also happen throughout the weekend, are helpful to “get to the bottom of why they think that and why that’s different to what you think.” That’s where varying points of view can come in handy.

“A diverse team is the best kind of team, and it makes things stronger because then you have more different opinions or points of view coming from different places,” Schmitz said. “And I think that really helps make sure you don’t miss anything and that you can really be the best.

“The pinnacle team in the pinnacle of motorsport.”

Schmitz recognizes that when diversity is often mentioned, people often say they want to hire the best individual for the role. “I think the point is yes, we do want the best people for the job, and that’s not always a man. So you need to open up the opportunities so that you get to meet those people that will be the best people for the job.” Her advice is to chase what you love and study things because they interest you, rather than “because you want to get to x, y or z place.”

“Don’t be deterred just because there aren’t many women. That’s changed all the time, and to be honest, it doesn’t really matter,” Schmitz said. “It’s not like my job is any different to me being here than anyone else.”

 

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utee94

utee94 15878

Posted
Posted
On 5/13/2023 at 11:14 AM, wood said:

OK, Laurent ... if you're so close to Merc & Alpine, and by extension better than Ferrari I guess, then it should be no problem to get close to them in the WCC.

Or will it ...

The top 4 teams have scored 500 points between them. The bottom 6 have scored 47. Eight drivers have more points than Alpine has.

 
Red Bull        224
 
Aston Martin 102
Mercedes       96
Ferrari            78
 
McLaren         14
Alpine             14
Haas                 8
Alfa Romeo      6
AlphaTauri        2
Williams           1

May be an image of text that says 'CONSTRUCTORS' STANDINGS AFTER 5 RACES RED BULL MERCEDES MCLAREN MERCEDES 2023 2241 ASTON MARTIN 102 96 78 14 14 ALFA ROMEO 2022 3 FERRARI 157 RED BULL 151 95 46 31 26 16 15 6 3 CC FERRARI ALPINE MCLAREN ALPHATAURI HAAS ALPINE HD HAAS ALFA ROMEO ANONATN 1A ASTON MARTIN W WILLIAMS ALPHATAURI 2 WILLIAMS zant aramce'

 

Just now, Burt Macklin said:

Wow. utee94: Otmar>>>>Fernando. 

Ha!  Anyone in MANAGEMENT at Aston.  I knew some clown was going to catch that. :)

 

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VABuckeye

VABuckeye 2472

Posted
Posted

It's not looking good for this weekend.

Chris Medland
@ChrisMedlandF1
Personnel told to evacuate the circuit at Imola due to risk of flooding. Fingers crossed it proves only precautionary and everyone is given the all-clear to resume prep at some stage, but safety has to come first #F1

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NoName

NoName 16606

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

It's not looking good for this weekend.

Chris Medland
@ChrisMedlandF1
Personnel told to evacuate the circuit at Imola due to risk of flooding. Fingers crossed it proves only precautionary and everyone is given the all-clear to resume prep at some stage, but safety has to come first #F1

 

watch this video of how close the river is to the track:

yikes

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NoName

NoName 16606

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, BigDHornfan said:

Cancelled.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12040/12882749/emilia-romagna-gp-imola-race-will-not-proceed-amid-heavy-flooding-in-northern-italy

not sure where it "fits" at this point in the back half of the calendar? maybe in early october between Qatar (10/8) and USGP at COTA (10/22)?

i don't see a world where they drop it in the middle of the USGP > Mexico GP > Brazil > Vegas GP

 

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ChickenSandwich

ChickenSandwich 9856

Posted
Posted

"I just said to the guys, take it easy in these three weeks, don't do anything I wouldn't be doing," said Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, whose outfit are one of the smallest in the paddock.

"For the race team, there's an opportunity to have a little bit of rest because the rest of the season will be tough."

 

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/long-april-break-gives-f1-time-take-stock-2023-04-03/

 

 

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wood

wood 11574

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

COTA is $475 + $275 for parking. 

Yep. + about $150 in taxes and TM fees. So about $900 all in, for 1 GA vs $250 all in. And yeah, GA in Montreal isn't great unless you get there very early at the hairpin, but they also have multiple grandstands that are much cheaper than COTA's GA.

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