F1 - 2022

Started by Brit_in_TX, October 26, 2021, 01:45:04 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MiniDave

#225
Mexico:

What a snooze fest......unless you count the two MBZ driver's unending bitching about how the pit wall made the wrong choice on tires for their second stint......

Congrats to Max for setting yet another record in this season - 14 races won in one season and 9 in a row, and I don't think he's done yet. With 2 more races to go I think it's very possible he could run the table.

Ferrari were also-rans in this one, finishing 5th and 6th.....

The only real excitement came late in the race when somebody somehow lit a fuse under Danny Ricky Bobby and he absolutely was on fire, passing about 5 or 6 people in the course of just a few laps, and putting more than 10 seconds over 8th place coming from as low as 18th.....which was handy as he had a 10 second penalty for putting Yuki out of the race.

The Hamster finished 16 sec back of Max, so while the MBZ has clearly made progress thru this season, they aren't quite there unless somehow the track suits their car to a T or the Reds Bull have an issue. But I think there could be a real fight between the top teams next year for wins and podiums, and I really doubt anyone will ever have a year again like Max did this season.

Based solely on the failure rate of the Renault engines, I think Alonso is looking forward to next season with a Merc Motor in his Aston - he blew up after running a solid 7th almost the whole race, Ocon finished 8th. But considering that Vettel and Stroll finished 14th and 15th out of the 18 cars running at the end, I'm still not sure he's made a good move......time will tell I guess.

Albon finished 12th in the Williams and was in it hard till Danny Ricky Bobby went flying by, but he finished well ahead of Vettel, Stroll, the two woeful HAAS cars and of course, Latifi - who finished dead last - again.
Logan Sargeant HAS to be considered a breath of fresh air to the Williams team, even if he is a rookie and will make mistakes, especially early on.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

Danny Ric had the best strategy, and it is in the one that George wanted.

Hamilton's team assumed that Max and Checo would have to 2 stop as they started on the softs, and that is why the went with the hard.  This is one of the issues with the tires in F1 at the moment, in my opinion.  They need a bigger performance and durability differential between the different compounds.  So if you did have one driver do a 2 stop on softs, softs and mediums and then another 1 stop on mediums and hards, by the end of the race they should be pretty close.

The end of Latifi's F1 career cannot come soon enough, he was over 50 seconds behind the next car.  And I do not remember him having an issue during the race to cause an extra pit stop or anything like that.

MiniDave

#227
Looks like Mick's time with HAAS will end for sure this season, and they've decided to hire the Hulk instead.... I'm just happy they saw that Giovinazzi wasn't the right choice.

They've also discussed changing powerplant suppliers, but I have no idea where they might go - Renault would like another customer team but I can't see that as a good choice given Red Bull's experience with them and Alpine's current woes - Alonso has had 5 retirements this season, that has to wear on a guy. I don't know if Honda (nee Red Bull powerplants?) would take on another team or not.

Audi's entrance into the championship will bring a breath of fresh air into it, not that I think they'll be winning right out of the box, but just to bring another option for powerplants onto the grid. I do hope they come out of the gates strong tho....

Porsche's entry into the sport is not dead, but I'm not sure who they would partner with if not Red Bull, that actually seemed like a good fit to me.

BTW......how did you all like the Mariachi version of the F1 into song? I really liked it, and now I hope they do this for other countries as well!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Brit_in_TX

Haas changing power plant suppliers is one of the more complex on the grid as they actually take as many parts as possible from Ferrari.  Basically anything that is not classed as a "Listed " part they buy from Ferrari - they design the minimum themselves. 

MiniDave

#229
I know that was true when they started up, but now isn't it just down to powerunit and gearbox?

Still, major work to do that, no question.

I think that's why I think Audi buying Sauber is such a good move for them to get into F1......they have established facilities including an up to date wind tunnel and good suppliers already on board. "All" Audi have to do is build a competitive engine, and they've got basically 3 years to get that done, now that the rules have been set in stone for 2026.

That's also why Andretti coming in from scratch isn't such a good move unless they want to run in the back every race - then we'd have two American teams fighting for 20th!   ::)  50.gif

In the meantime, I assume Sauber will carry on with Ferrari power units.....Alfa branded for next season, but I wonder how they'll brand the cars in 24 and 25 after the Alfa sponsorship ends? Audi powered by Ferrari? Or Sauber/Ferrari? Or do like Aston did putting their name on a Merc engine? Or the Infinity branded Renaults?
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Brazil - qually:

1) Kmag - HAAS
2) Verstappen
3) Russell
4) Norris
5) Sainz (5 place grid penalty for engine change)
Everyone else.......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

Well, Kevin finished 8th, pretty much where he usually does. Mick had a pretty strong race too, coming from dead last to finish 12th. Of course, today was the relatively short Sprint race.....but once again they showed that the HAAS is not a last place car this year. With the Hulk coming aboard next season, maybe they'll have two cars in the points on a regular basis? I still wish they would have given Mick another season, but se la vie.

In other big news, Geroge Russell gets his maiden F1 win......if a Merc had to win one I'm glad it was George. But, tomorrow will be interesting, since the finishing order in the Sprint race determines the start order for the main event tomorrow, by finishing 1st and 3rd (Sainz came 2nd, but has a 5 spot engine penalty) the Mercs are both on the front row.....so this is their best chance to finally win one in 2022. Both MBZ's looked strong but they were on a different tire strategy from the Red Bull and Ferraris.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

LarryLebel


Brit_in_TX

I enjoyed the GP.  Best part was maiden GP victory for George.

Verstappen revealed his true colors at the end by not letting Checo back through.  There was a bunch of articles straight afterwards about the number of times that Checo has compromised his race to help Verstappen.  A number state that the only reason Verstappen won the F1 title last year was for the help he got from Checo.  Verstappen also said that he knew that Hamilton was going to close the door and chose to crash into him.  He said a couple of other things that basically he knew he was not competitive so he lost nothing and it was good Hamilton lost a chance of victory.

LeClerc had a good recovery from being in the barrier after the restart to 4th.  Although his pleading to get Sainz to give up his podium for his 2nd place in the championship fight was a little pathetic.

Alonso's relationship with Ocon is over.  With Alonso saying he can't wait until he is with Aston Martin.  It will be interesting to see how Ocon gets on with Gasly. Ocon seems to have a history of irritating his team mates.

There was a weird situation where Tsunoda was not able to unlap himself under the safety car. The FIA explained this was due to him "unlapping" himself when coming into the pits and then he was lapped again so the system got confused.  Ultimately he did the right thing and pulling out of the way on the run to the green flag for the restart.

McLaren had a terrible race with Danny Ric knocking out KMag and Lando (on his birthday) having a failure.  This means that McLaren have all but lost the 4th place in the championship, they are 21 points behind Alpine.  So need a great Abu Dhabi and Alpine need a terrible one.


MiniDave

I agree on all points.....

I've been saying for a while that the Mercs were getting stronger all year and were due to win one before the end of the season.....I'm glad it was George tho!

It was an extremely emotional win for George, and I'm sure it's only the beginning....he's got the makings of a champion, but I think IF Ferrari get their act together along with Red Buls continued dominance next season will be a real bell ringer!

Sainz did great to hold onto 3rd, and LeClerc coming back from his outing was fantastic - all in all a good race for the boys in red.

Next season will be interesting with some new faces and a couple old boys changing teams.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MiniDave

#235
Abu Dabi:

A real nail biter at the end, not for the win but for second place - also for Vettel as there was $12mil on the line for Aston if he passed Ricciardo for 9th, but he came up just short, as did Perez gunning for 2nd on LeClerc.

The Hamster's Merc failed 3 laps from the end, so he went all season without a win - first time since he's been in F1. However, I think the Mercs will be winning at least a couple next season. Their reliability has been amazing as Hamsters car is the first to fail this season for them.

Max set an absolutely unattainable record of 15 wins in a season, I don't think it will ever be broken as F1 is set on making the cars more and more equal and they have taken a pretty good step towards that goal this season.....Max not withstanding.

Quite an end to the season, next year they are planning for 24 races, so power unit penalties may become part of the race strategy even more than it did this season.

Oh, before the race the Hamster got all the drivers together for dinner as a farewell to Seb, Ham picked up the tab which was rumored to be $140K!!!!!

Hell of a year for George to finish 4th in the driver's championship and ahead of Hammy in 6th. Also Alonso finished well behind his teammate....

So Red Bull drivers 1st and 3rd, Ferrari 2nd and 5th, Mercedes 4th and 6th - clearly the top three teams were well above the rest this year. I fully expect it to be the same next year tho the driver's order may change up a bit.

One last thought, you really have to hand it to Honda, they've built a competitive, reliable power unit to go with Adrian Newey's superb chassis.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

BruceK

Good points Dave.

Now comes 3.5 months of no F1.  I guess I'm going to have watch the Netflix show. I watched a little bit of it before, but really didn't warm up to it. I'll give it a second chance.
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

Brit_in_TX

Perhaps the final news from F1 for the year, is Ferrari's team boss Mattia Binotto has resigned and will leave the team at the end of the year. 

The interesting thing is that he effective filled two roles for Ferrari, leading both the technical and race team operations. 

Current Alfa Romeo boss, Fred Vassar, is slated to fill the team boss role.  The issue will be replacing the technical role as it can take months and months to a) identify the replacement and b) negotiate them out of their existing role.


MiniDave

If Fred is the answer to Ferrari's woes, why isn't Alfa further up the grid?

I liked his quip (referring to Christian Horner?) about since $2 million is "nothing", now they have 5 times "nothing"..... :grin:
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad