Formula 1 2024

[wood 11790]

Oh, and imagine if Andretti showed up and embarrassed themselves and F1, because a megabucks racing team couldn’t design a working wheel nut. Oh, the shame and disrepute they would bring on the pinnacle of motorsport.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

To me, Sainz is the 2nd best driver in F1.  Having him to go Red Bull next year would be a huge get.  He and Max have already driven together and are friends. Perhaps that move would help to keep Max at RB.

Funny, I like Sainz and when you said he was second best my initial reaction was "Pffft. No way..." 

Then I started trying to think of who is better other than Max...

- I started to watch when Hamilton was dominant and he went so long without making any mistakes. Not sure if he has faded or if his car just isn't there.
- Leclerc actually scores more points/poles, but I can't shake the feeling that Sainz is just a better race day driver for some reason. I'm always on edge for Leclerc to have a mistake
- Alonso?
- Norris?

None of them I can say they are better than Sainz, but I feel like he has a lot of equals. Then Max is just on another level. It would be amazing if Australia shows that Ferrari took a step to catch up with Red Bull and we get more battles at the front.

[Goofyboy 3441]

Funny, I like Sainz and when you said he was second best my initial reaction was "Pffft. No way..." 
Then I started trying to think of who is better other than Max...
- I started to watch when Hamilton was dominant and he went so long without making any mistakes. Not sure if he has faded or if his car just isn't there.
- Leclerc actually scores more points/poles, but I can't shake the feeling that Sainz is just a better race day driver for some reason. I'm always on edge for Leclerc to have a mistake
- Alonso?
- Norris?

None of them I can say they are better than Sainz, but I feel like he has a lot of equals. Then Max is just on another level. It would be amazing if Australia shows that Ferrari took a step to catch up with Red Bull and we get more battles at the front.

Hamilton’s car hasn’t been there since the new regs. This weekend, the engine just quit.

[kevwun 16461]

6 hours ago, wood said:

Oh, and imagine if Andretti showed up and embarrassed themselves and F1, because a megabucks racing team couldn’t design a working wheel nut. Oh, the shame and disrepute they would bring on the pinnacle of motorsport.

Seriously, how did they not catch that before the season?  Did they never practice pit stops or something?

Edited March 25 by kevwun

[Anton Chigurh 3345]

Maybe Bottas just has some sort of voodoo wheelnut nurse that he brought over from Mercedes.

[NoName 17291]

7 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

To me, Sainz is the 2nd best driver in F1. 

oh man, i have a very hard time saying that about someone who has never finished better than 5th in the constructors championship, and only beaten the brakes off his teammate once since he left Toro Rosso (he smoked the hell out of Kvyat in 2017 54-5) was smoking 19 year old rookie Lando

last year, LEC had 2x as many podiums and outscored him despite SAI winning a race. the year before that LEC beat him by 62 points. the year before that he beat LEC by 5.5 points and LEC had a DNS from pole at Monaco and another retirement while SAI finished every race.

SAI is good, clearly, but at non backmarker teams he has very rarely been noticeably better than his teammate. he's consistent and that has a ton of value but at this point i think basically all of the top teams would take LEC over SAI.

2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Funny, I like Sainz and when you said he was second best my initial reaction was "Pffft. No way..." 

Then I started trying to think of who is better other than Max...

- I started to watch when Hamilton was dominant and he went so long without making any mistakes. Not sure if he has faded or if his car just isn't there.
- Leclerc actually scores more points/poles, but I can't shake the feeling that Sainz is just a better race day driver for some reason. I'm always on edge for Leclerc to have a mistake
- Alonso?
- Norris?

None of them I can say they are better than Sainz, but I feel like he has a lot of equals. Then Max is just on another level. It would be amazing if Australia shows that Ferrari took a step to catch up with Red Bull and we get more battles at the front.

last year Leclerc, Alonso, Norris scored scored higher in WCC than Sainz. Hamilton beat Sainz by 34 points in a much worse car

in 22 Russell and Leclerc beat Sainz (LEC by 62 points)

Sainz is a very good race day driver and will do well the rest of his career. but if i am starting a team i am happy to take the higher upside of someone like LEC or RUS (british version of LEC honestly) or even ALO over Sainz.

i think h2h Sainz gets more out of the Red Bull than Perez. i think he's easily a top ~5 driver with Max, Leclerc, etc. but 2nd? not in my eyes. much closer to 5th than 2nd.

 

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, NoName said:

oh man, i have a very hard time saying that about someone who has never finished better than 5th in the constructors championship, and only beaten the brakes off his teammate once since he left Toro Rosso (he smoked the hell out of Kvyat in 2017 54-5) was smoking 19 year old rookie Lando

last year, LEC had 2x as many podiums and outscored him despite SAI winning a race. the year before that LEC beat him by 62 points. the year before that he beat LEC by 5.5 points and LEC had a DNS from pole at Monaco and another retirement while SAI finished every race.

SAI is good, clearly, but at non backmarker teams he has very rarely been noticeably better than his teammate. he's consistent and that has a ton of value but at this point i think basically all of the top teams would take LEC over SAI.

last year Leclerc, Alonso, Norris scored scored higher in WCC than Sainz. Hamilton beat Sainz by 34 points in a much worse car

in 22 Russell and Leclerc beat Sainz (LEC by 62 points)

Sainz is a very good race day driver and will do well the rest of his career. but if i am starting a team i am happy to take the higher upside of someone like LEC or RUS (british version of LEC honestly) or even ALO over Sainz.

i think h2h Sainz gets more out of the Red Bull than Perez. i think he's easily a top ~5 driver with Max, Leclerc, etc. but 2nd? not in my eyes. much closer to 5th than 2nd.

 

 

Do we put any value in that Sainz is the only person other than Max that's won a race since Perez in Race #4 of last year?

Not being sarcastic, but do we judge only on points or on the ability to win? 

[TexEx15 17972]

Screenshot in case it gets deleted. 

[NoName 17291]

11 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Do we put any value in that Sainz is the only person other than Max that's won a race since Perez in Race #4 of last year?

Not being sarcastic, but do we judge only on points or on the ability to win? 

i mean, are we going to sit here and say he would have won yesterday if Max's car didn't die under him? because that's quite a leap.

Wins matter, sure, but so does overall performance. Last year LEC had 2x as many podiums (6) as Sainz did (3) - in 2022 LEC had 11 podiums and 3 wins, SAI had 9 podiums and 1 win. LEC beat him by 62 points in the same car.

even with the win last year for SAI, LEC still had a better avg finish and out qualified him 14-8 and had 5 pole positions vs SAI's 2. in 2022 he out quali'd him 16-6. in 2021 LEC out quali'd him 14-8. Leclerc has been the better driver in the car during their time as teammates, even with his brain farts and Sainz having 2 wins - based on points at least.

re: 2023 Singapore

Singapore last year was easily the worst race for RBR since the the 2022 Bahrain double DNF. only time last year Max didn't finish on the podium and both Red Bulls were knocked out in Q2, article said this was the first time since 2018 that neither Red Bull made it to Q3.

RBR came in with subpar to bad setup, couldn't get it fixed (article said they brought a new floor and then they reverted back to the old floor for FP3, quali and the race? brough new wing changes too), made bad strategy calls during the race and got unlucky (strategy was to hope for a safety car for a cheap pit stops + tire strategy), and then paid for it by finishing 5th and 8th.

per Horner:

Quote

“Our pre-race simulations were saying about P7,” Horner explained. “But that’s in a standard race.

lap time comparison:

Spoiler

race chart: https://www.racefans.net/2023/09/17/analysis-why-red-bull-believe-verstappen-could-have-been-right-in-the-game/

Spoiler

until the last stint (Max on new Mediums, Carlos on 20 lap old Hards) Max basically never was running a faster lap time than Carlos - even then Carlos was holding the field up as part of the strategy. once again, subpar setup considering how dominate they were the rest of the season.

Spoiler

Sainz led every lap of the 23 Singapore GP, Max had 6 laps total in the top 5. Checo had 3. RBR had no laps in the top five after lap 27 of a 62 lap race.

Sainz did everything he could with the car and deserved the 23 Singapore GP win and yesterday's win for sure. but acting like he outdueled Max to win either race is incorrect.

[utee94 16093]

2 hours ago, Goofyboy said:

Hamilton’s car hasn’t been there since the new regs. This weekend, the engine just quit.

Seems like the team has also basically quit on him.  Not surprising I guess, given the too-early announcement of his departure, but still, show some pride.

[TexEx15 17972]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4t44PQiTYa/?igsh=NzM0aXFscW9hdWgz
 

Amazing.

[wood 11790]

3 hours ago, kevwun said:

Seriously, how did they not catch that before the season?  Did they never practice pit stops or something?

It's pretty crazy.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, wood said:

Oh, and imagine if Andretti showed up and embarrassed themselves and F1, because a megabucks racing team couldn’t design a working wheel nut. Oh, the shame and disrepute they would bring on the pinnacle of motorsport.

Sorry, what happened? Bottas having wheel nut issues again?

[kevwun 16461]

There is something about the design of their rear axle and wheel nuts that causes the wheel nuts to cross thread almost every time they change tires.  It's so bad that they go slow on purpose during pit stops and still have issues on both cars.

Edited March 25 by kevwun

[NoName 17291]

26 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Sorry, what happened? Bottas having wheel nut issues again?

from VB:

Quote

“We have actually an issue on both cards with cross threading,” Bottas explained. The team has acquired new equipment for this year, the honorary Aussie noting that it “is faster; it’s something that the top teams are using.”

He added: “With the wheel nuts, we tried to go for a route to make them super lightweight, so the material we are using is the issue.

“In pit stop practice over the winter, there was no issues, but we’re seeing that in races when the temperature gets higher because of the brakes, then the wheel nut [has problems].”

The 10-time grand prix winner underscored that the issue is with the hardware and not the pit crew.

“It’s more about components,” he said.

“It’s nothing that the pit crew is doing wrong or nothing the pit crew needs to change.”

 

 

Edited March 25 by NoName

[Burt Macklin 19230]

3 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Do we put any value in that Sainz is the only person other than Max that's won a race since Perez in Race #4 of last year?

Not being sarcastic, but do we judge only on points or on the ability to win? 

If we’re talking about more than a couple wins over two seasons, I think it would matter, but Singapore was a pretty fluky race. Sainz did an amazing job in Australia, but he’s not even the fastest on his team most races. Leclerc had the pace to win in Las Vegas last year, but an unlucky safety car took away his chance at a win so it’s not like Sainz is the only guy who’s shown the pace to challenge Max the last couple years. 
 

I do think Sainz gets underrated a lot, and he’s a top 5 driver on the grid, but saying he’s the second best driver in the grid is quite a leap, especially for a guy that’s lost to his teammate 2 of the last 3 years and is down by 62.5 points to Leclerc over the last three seasons with Leclerc losing quite a bit more points due to bad reliability than Sainz over that time. If you equal out reliability, he’s down by over 100 points to his teammate over 3 seasons. 

[NoName 17291]

from reddit:

[deft 7109]

Alpine lol

[wood 11790]

3 hours ago, TexEx15 said:

Screenshot in case it gets deleted. 

BREAKING: Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff to miss the Japanese Grand Prix https://www.planetf1.com/news/toto-wolff-to-miss-2024-japanese-grand-prix

[wood 11790]

[Chewbacca 7840]

On 3/24/2024 at 12:41 PM, kevwun said:

I think Leclerc is generally better at qualifying, but during races Sainz has the edge on pace and isn't as prone to the brain farts that Leclerc has.  Wherever he ends up, I hope he manages to find a spot on one of the top teams.  He's good enough that he needs to be in a competitive car.

I'd really like to see Sainz at RB and Alonso in Lewis' seat. Or, for maximum enjoyment for all of us, Sainz at MB and Fred at RB.

[Fastbreak 4059]

I’m going Sainz #2 from the eye test. Remember that year, Ferrari was completely jacked up as far as race day strategy, so points are kind of meaningless in my mind. Leclerc is a better qualifier, but he makes tons of mistakes over the course of a race.

Hamilton is my guy, so it’s hard to put someone above him, but the car is so bad and GR is out performing him.

[Fastbreak 4059]

Back to the Alonzo penalty. It’s been bugging me a bit. Basically they are saying the cars are so sensitive and unstable in dirty air that slowing or maneuvering at the wrong time or in a non consistent way can lead to an accident. This seems to be a huge problem with the car design itself.

Imagine driving down mopac and your car goes out of control because the guy in front of you took his foot off the gas for a moment. It would be a giant scandal and recall. Perhaps they need to go back to the drawing board with this design and return to a lighter/smaller design that isn’t so dependent on perfect downforce.

[ChickenSandwich 10003]

Hard to draw conclusions about this race. Carols overtook max on Lap 2 and then Ferrari gave team orders to hold position. 

Not saying Charles would get around Carlos, but it was only lap 2. Charles never had a chance to compete. 
 

[kevwun 16461]

15 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

Back to the Alonzo penalty. It’s been bugging me a bit. Basically they are saying the cars are so sensitive and unstable in dirty air that slowing or maneuvering at the wrong time or in a non consistent way can lead to an accident. This seems to be a huge problem with the car design itself.

Imagine driving down mopac and your car goes out of control because the guy in front of you took his foot off the gas for a moment. It would be a giant scandal and recall. Perhaps they need to go back to the drawing board with this design and return to a lighter/smaller design that isn’t so dependent on perfect downforce.

The problem there was Alonso lifted early and George was going to run in to the back of him so he swerved and ended up bouncing off the wall.  If it happened in a corner that was wider or had a run off, it wouldn't have been an issue because he would have had room to maneuver which is probably why Alonso picked that turn to do it in.

Edited March 25 by kevwun

[texas08 1599]

Prolly been said already but Checo had an aerodynamic issue that kept him from being fast, RB acknowledged this. He should’ve finished with a podium even with the grid penalty. I was told there would be no math but if he finishes in the top 3 this past week, he would’ve been leading the championship right? 
 

He’s finally getting a hold of that car, he should’ve started P3 (on him), then aerodynamics floor issue. Thanks to Max not scoring any points, he’s gonna put pressure on him again. Max is iffy with RB with all the Jos/Helmut drama. RB is taking care of Checo in case Max up and leaves next year for some weird ass reason (he has clauses in his contract that allow him to up and leave). Red Bull is not gonna kick Checo to the curb if Max leaves. Checo and Sainz with RB would be the TITS. If things stay normal, Checo STILL runs away with second this year. Vamosssss.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, texas08 said:

Prolly been said already but Checo had an aerodynamic issue that kept him from being fast, RB acknowledged this. He should’ve finished with a podium even with the grid penalty. I was told there would be no math but if he finishes in the top 3 this past week, he would’ve been leading the championship right? 
 

He’s finally getting a hold of that car, he should’ve started P3 (on him), then aerodynamics floor issue. Thanks to Max not scoring any points, he’s gonna put pressure on him again. Max is iffy with RB with all the Jos/Helmut drama. RB is taking care of Checo in case Max up and leaves next year for some weird ass reason (he has clauses in his contract that allow him to up and leave). Red Bull is not gonna kick Checo to the curb if Max leaves. Checo and Sainz with RB would be the TITS. If things stay normal, Checo STILL runs away with second this year. Vamosssss.

[Guest]

https://racingnews365.com/verstappen-explains-bizarre-red-bull-handbrake-issue

“We can see so far in the data as soon as the lights went off, the rear brake just stuck on,” Verstappen told Sky Sports.

“The temperature kept on increasing. So it was also basically [like] driving with a handbrake on and that's why already I felt that the car was really weird to drive through some corners.

“It was just very snappy while the laps of the grid, the car was really spot on, I was very happy with what we were doing. But it explains that if a brake is stuck on, that doesn’t help.”

So Max was driving with the brake engaged on one wheel. 

[texas08 1599]

Did he put pressure on him early last season?

[kevwun 16461]

For the first couple races.

[NoName 17291]

3 minutes ago, texas08 said:

Did he put pressure on him early last season?

for 5 races it was close, then Checo shit the bed worse than any driver over the last decade.

in a car that was drastically better than anything else in the field - Max clinched 1st with 7 races left. Checho didn't clinch 2nd until after the race at COTA, and only then clinched because Lewis got disqualified.

even then..."pressure" lol

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, texas08 said:

Did he put pressure on him early last season?

No. He did not any more than Oklahoma State put pressure on Texas in the Big XII championship game because it was 14-7 halfway through the first quarter.

[wood 11790]

11 hours ago, texas08 said:

Prolly been said already but Checo had an aerodynamic issue that kept him from being fast, RB acknowledged this. He should’ve finished with a podium even with the grid penalty. I was told there would be no math but if he finishes in the top 3 this past week, he would’ve been leading the championship right? 
 

He’s finally getting a hold of that car, he should’ve started P3 (on him), then aerodynamics floor issue. Thanks to Max not scoring any points, he’s gonna put pressure on him again. Max is iffy with RB with all the Jos/Helmut drama. RB is taking care of Checo in case Max up and leaves next year for some weird ass reason (he has clauses in his contract that allow him to up and leave). Red Bull is not gonna kick Checo to the curb if Max leaves. Checo and Sainz with RB would be the TITS. If things stay normal, Checo STILL runs away with second this year. Vamosssss.

One reason Max might want to leave is that with the new PU coming in 2026 and RBR having no experience building engines, he might want to jump to a works team. Rumor has it now that Horner wants Alonso and has been courting him for next year if Max leaves. Alonso would likely only go on a 1-year deal, because things are looking pretty good at Aston Martin with Honda coming onboard. If I'm Alonso, I'd either stay put or go to RBR. Mercedes would have some convincing to do imho.

[texas08 1599]

No. He did not any more than Oklahoma State put pressure on Texas in the Big XII championship game because it was 14-7 halfway through the first quarter.

Let’s check in a few weeks.

The treatment checo is receiving currently is wayyyy different from last year. It’s pretty obvious. Thanks to the preseason dumpster fire!

[NoName 17291]

15 minutes ago, texas08 said:

Let’s check in a few weeks.

The treatment checo is receiving currently is wayyyy different from last year. It’s pretty obvious. Thanks to the preseason dumpster fire!

check in a few weeks? lol i just want to point this out that he has had the literal shit kicked out of him as the second driver in the car for each of the 3 full years he has been in it

in two of the three years that they have been in the same vehicle, PER could have doubled his point total and still finished behind Max. doubled!

2021 he finished 4th in the constructors championship, almost 200 points behind 2nd (HAM) and was 36 points behind BOT for 2nd. he won 0 races. Lewis won 8, BOT won 1. BOT finished 36 points ahead of him despite having 4 retirements and MB treating him exclusively like a 2nd driver and doing a bunch of testing on his engines/engine modes to help HAM 7x vs Checo's 2

2022 he finished 3 points off of LEC for 2nd, despite LEC having an additional retirement. he won 2 races, LEC won 3. LEC had 3 retirements to Checo's 2.

2023 he didn't grab 2nd place until HAM was disqualified at COTA. despite having a vehicle that was miles better than the Mercedes, he still only beat HAM by 50 total points. he had 4 second place finishes in what was very very very clearly the 2nd best car on the grid. Alonso had 3. Lando had 5 2nds. LEC had 3.

in the last ten races of the year, he had 2 podiums. NOR had 5.

i get what you are talking about, but no. he has never put any pressure on Max. even this year, even today with 3 races under his belt he is not 2nd in the WDC (1 point behind LEC, 6 points ahead of Sainz)

PER is incredibly lucky he signed his renewal in Monaco last year. i think if he had held off until the summer break i think they go a different direction.

 

[texas08 1599]

Bro it’s not that serious.

[utee94 16093]

To heck with RBR and Merc.  It is now Ferrari's time to shine!

 

[VABuckeye 2481]

Scuderia Ferrari!!

 

Tifosi!!

[deft 7109]

I want to say just wait but they really do seem like a different team than with binotto.

[Mittens 8829]

All of Ferrari's previous team principals seemed to show the pressure of performing for the monolith that is the Prancing Horse.  Fred looks like he's playing with house money.

[wood 11790]

On 3/25/2024 at 3:34 PM, kevwun said:

The problem there was Alonso lifted early and George was going to run in to the back of him so he swerved and ended up bouncing off the wall.  If it happened in a corner that was wider or had a run off, it wouldn't have been an issue because he would have had room to maneuver which is probably why Alonso picked that turn to do it in.

He didn't swerve to miss Alonso. He lifted, lost the rear of the car and tried to counter it, which took him off track. Even the stewards said Alonso didn't cause George to go off. They penalized him for 'erratic' and 'potentially unsafe' driving. Whatever that is. Seems pretty nebulous. Esp for a 20s penalty. Jolyon Palmer rightly pointed out Alonso doing the same to Lewis just 3 races ago in Abu Dhabi. Alonso slowed in front of Lewis, 'playing DRS games' as Jolyon put it. Much more obvious slowing, farther from the corner, but Lewis didn't freak out and lose the car or run into Alonso. Not even noted or investigated iirc.

Here's Palmer's analysis. Spot on imho. 

Spoiler

 

Reminded me of this. Also not noted or investigated iirc.

Spoiler

 

People are bringing up many other examples of obvious erratic driving not even being investigated, including George blocking Lewis two different times in qualifying in Spain and Belgium, once causing a collision. He blocked Lewis and then lifted on the Kemmel straight with Lewis very close behind, after he'd already locked up and ruined his own lap. In Spain he just drove right into Lewis. He got a warning. There's KMag driving crazy AF just last race and many other examples of people backing up the field to help their teammate, people tactically slowing to disadvantage following cars that were much closer than George and at higher speeds, mid-corner, Lewis slowing the grid to back Rosberg up into Vettel, Max causing a collision with a brake-check and getting 10s, countless instances of people actually causing collisions or driving wildly and getting 5s or nothing at all, etc. And these are things we know about. There's a whole lot more that goes on.

Edited March 29 by wood

[Chewbacca 7840]

 

[wood 11790]

1, x

[Anton Chigurh 3345]

The problem is that he slowed, then accelerated, and then slowed again (because he messed up and did it too early). If he had only slowed once, even if way early (which would just have been a lift and coast), they wouldn’t have given him anything.

Going to quote myself I guess since it keeps coming up. It’s all in the telemetry.

Last year at AD, Alonso only lifted very early in front of Lewis, he didn’t slow (and downshift) then accelerate and upshift then slow again. The multiple instances of slow fast slow is a very important distinction.

Backing up the pack by driving generally slowly is also not the same.

The stewards explain all of this pretty clearly in the decision document. It was erratic while also deemed potentially dangerous.

Max of course should have gotten waaay more than 10 seconds. Penalties are supposed to finally be harsher this year, though.

[VABuckeye 2481]

4 hour erection for Ferrari fans. 
 

Ferrari: summary of information from 
@formu1a__uno 
via live Twitch: 

- Ferrari was the car that presented the best on Friday which means that the preparation work carried out in Maranello before the race weekends is the benchmark of the paddock. This is not the first time this has happened. It's a real trend. In the paddock, they say that if it was a sprint weekend, no one would have caught Sainz and Leclerc. 

- Ferrari's victory in Melbourne was a signal. The first important signal was in Jeddah during the last stint where Leclerc and Verstappen had the same racing pace. There, we understood a first important piece of data on which Ferrari can build. 

- According to 
@GiulyDuchessa 
, Ferrari will still bring something new to the SF-24 in Japan. Little new things. At Imola, it will be the start of the important new package on the SF-24. The car has a healthy base to be able to push on development. The most visible changes at Imola are on the tighter sidepods but also the air intakes. There will also be a new floor. At Ferrari, they consider the Imola package a bit like a more extreme “new car”. 

- Compared to last year, there is no longer a favorable or unfavorable track for the SF-24. It's a car with a lot of aerodynamic load, somewhat similar to RB in the sense that the SF-24 has no major flaws. It's easy to take to the limit, easy to adjust and it goes well on several different turns. What is still a little lacking on the SF-24 is the peak performance in very fast corners but it is slight. It's a car with a lot of balance. Bearman also demonstrated that the SF-24 is easy. It gives a lot more confidence to the pilots. 

- Where Ferrari must unlock performance is the behavior on new rubber. In fact, the SF-24 is already a competitive car on race pace, balanced, handles the different tires well. When Ferrari uses the new rubber, it performs well but it does not yet have this performance peak like the RB which seems a little more competitive on the new rubber. 

- Problem heating the tires in Q3? In fact, the car has changed technical characteristics compared to last year, that is to say it is more difficult to put the car in the right window in Q3 with the soft compound. But on the other hand, it goes much faster on Sunday. The team still needs to work on this aspect for qualifying, but the car goes much faster on Sunday than on Saturday. It's more of a strength for the race than for qualifying. But the team still managed to maintain a decent level in qualifying.

[morehornsepower 888]

1 hour ago, VABuckeye said:

4 hour erection for Ferrari fans. 
 

Ferrari: summary of information from 
@formu1a__uno 
via live Twitch: 

- Ferrari was the car that presented the best on Friday which means that the preparation work carried out in Maranello before the race weekends is the benchmark of the paddock. This is not the first time this has happened. It's a real trend. In the paddock, they say that if it was a sprint weekend, no one would have caught Sainz and Leclerc. 

- Ferrari's victory in Melbourne was a signal. The first important signal was in Jeddah during the last stint where Leclerc and Verstappen had the same racing pace. There, we understood a first important piece of data on which Ferrari can build. 

- According to 
@GiulyDuchessa 
, Ferrari will still bring something new to the SF-24 in Japan. Little new things. At Imola, it will be the start of the important new package on the SF-24. The car has a healthy base to be able to push on development. The most visible changes at Imola are on the tighter sidepods but also the air intakes. There will also be a new floor. At Ferrari, they consider the Imola package a bit like a more extreme “new car”. 

- Compared to last year, there is no longer a favorable or unfavorable track for the SF-24. It's a car with a lot of aerodynamic load, somewhat similar to RB in the sense that the SF-24 has no major flaws. It's easy to take to the limit, easy to adjust and it goes well on several different turns. What is still a little lacking on the SF-24 is the peak performance in very fast corners but it is slight. It's a car with a lot of balance. Bearman also demonstrated that the SF-24 is easy. It gives a lot more confidence to the pilots. 

- Where Ferrari must unlock performance is the behavior on new rubber. In fact, the SF-24 is already a competitive car on race pace, balanced, handles the different tires well. When Ferrari uses the new rubber, it performs well but it does not yet have this performance peak like the RB which seems a little more competitive on the new rubber. 

- Problem heating the tires in Q3? In fact, the car has changed technical characteristics compared to last year, that is to say it is more difficult to put the car in the right window in Q3 with the soft compound. But on the other hand, it goes much faster on Sunday. The team still needs to work on this aspect for qualifying, but the car goes much faster on Sunday than on Saturday. It's more of a strength for the race than for qualifying. But the team still managed to maintain a decent level in qualifying.

I know this isn't exactly a 'hot take', but it seems a bit premature to declare "Ferrari is back!" when Max was driving on 3 wheels and was out of the race in 3 laps.  I like Checo, but comparing a team result to Checo just isn't the same as comparing to Max.

(VABuckeye, not directed at you - I know you were just sharing info!)

Edited March 28 by morehornsepower

[wood 11790]

17 hours ago, Anton Chigurh said:

 

Going to quote myself I guess since it keeps coming up. It’s all in the telemetry.

Last year at AD, Alonso only lifted very early in front of Lewis, he didn’t slow (and downshift) then accelerate and upshift then slow again. The multiple instances of slow fast slow is a very important distinction.

Backing up the pack by driving generally slowly is also not the same.

The stewards explain all of this pretty clearly in the decision document. It was erratic while also deemed potentially dangerous.

Max of course should have gotten waaay more than 10 seconds. Penalties are supposed to finally be harsher this year, though.

 

In Australia, Alonso did hit the throttle again, but not enough to actually accelerate again. The speed trace shows the car decelerating all the way until Alonso accelerated hard again exiting the turn - minus a very small portion in the middle where the speed flattened for just a moment when he blipped the throttle momentarily. That merely reduced the rate of deceleration for a moment. It didn't actually accelerate the car. He wasn't speeding up and slowing down. He slowed, maintained a constant speed very briefly, then slowed again before accelerating out of the turn. 

Anyway, of course none of these instances is exactly the same, but they are all examples of erratic, 'potentially dangerous' driving (which could easily describe many things we see every session of every race weekend). Some of them were very unsporting, and some actually ended in contact between the offending driver and another. Another I forgot about was Lewis lifting in the middle of Raidillon with Vettel right on his gearbox, and the other one where Vettel drove into him, he said it was in retaliation for Lewis brake-checking him earlier. There are so many. They happen all the time. For most of these incidents, it's not really strange that they don't get investigated. What's strange is that out of all of them, this one is the only one that suddenly ticked the boxes in just such a way as to be penalized harshly - even though the stewards said themselves that he didn't cause the crash. Pretty much all of the others went without so much as an investigation, and the biggest penalty was half of what Alonso got in Oz.

Palmer said George bears at minimum a portion of the responsibility for his crash, and (when he pointed out Alonso's flashing light at the same time George was apparently changing a setting) hinted that Russell didn't realize that Alonso had scrubbed off speed, and attempted to take the corner too hot. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was trying to change direction too quickly once he was in the gravel trap. Palmer also said that Russel turned in more severely than any other lap as per his steering trace.

 

Edited March 28 by wood

[Guest]

17 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

 

Take that Max! Take that Toto! I told you my tires were dead! 

[wood 11790]

Current silly season summary in one tweet. Boy, those French! They have a different word for everything. Translation:

 

#AMuS The transfer market is at a standstill because the competition is waiting to see what happens at Red Bull.

Max Verstappen is coveted by Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Adrian Newey is coveted by Aston Martin and Ferrari, Mercedes seems less interested.

Aston Martin hopes to offer an attractive + package for Max via the Honda engine and Adrian Newey.

Flavio Briatore hopes to place Alonso at Red Bull. Sainz navigates between Mercedes, Red Bull and Aston Martin, but Audi is putting pressure. Sainz's decision should arrive around mid-April.

AMuS also says Hulkenberg is "set" for Audi and Sainz was given an ultimatum to decide by mid-April.

 

 

Edited March 28 by wood

[RPM 26699]

On 3/25/2024 at 12:41 AM, wood said:

Oh, and imagine if Andretti showed up and embarrassed themselves and F1, because a megabucks racing team couldn’t design a working wheel nut. Oh, the shame and disrepute they would bring on the pinnacle of motorsport.

It's blatantly clear that F1 is blocking Andretti from entry.