F1 - 2023

[Brit_in_TX]

It was awesome, but F1 still has its perennial issue that overtaking is just impossible.  It seems ridiculous that you need a 2 second per lap advantage to overtake.

Carlos tactic of giving Lando DRS was awesome and really showed how much capacity the drivers have to think whilst driving the car. 

See if it is back to regular scheduled programming in Japan with Red Bull at the front.

[MiniDave]

Yep, Singapore has proven to be an aberration, just as we all thought.....Max on pole by a significant amount, most everyone else bunched up tightly behind him, the two Big Macs the best of the rest and if they get the strategy just right, might be able to pull off an upset?

They're suggesting that this could be as much as a 3 stop race due to the aggressive race surface and high tire wear.....so that could give rise to mistakes or under/over cuts.

Or Red Bull (at least Max, since Checo was .7 sec/lap slower in qually) will drive off into the distance and they'll win the constructor's this weekend.

Is this LeClerc's weekend to run in front and Sainz to run support and interference?

Too bad about little Liam Lawson losing his ride later this year in favor of DannyRickyBobby, but it was to be expected I guess. With Honda paying his way, I always expected Yuki to get another season or two, and it's nice to see he pulled up into Q3 in response, now if he can avoid a 1st lap incident and finish ahead of Lawson, their support will look somewhat justified.

All in all, the end of the season is looking better at least for competition, despite the Hamster's doom and gloom prognostications, there they are in 7th and 8th and poised to jump up if someone (Ferrari) messes up.

Rumors getting stronger that Mick the Younger will be taking the Sarge's ride away next season. Although Vowles still gives him strong verbal support, I have a feeling Mercedes is pushing buttons offstage.

I know in every race someone has to be last, and it's been encouraging seeing the occasional Williams, Alpha Tauri or even HAAS in the top 10, it would be nice if the order got shook up more often. Maybe Bernies idea of putting the sprinklers on wasn't so crazy after all?   

(yes, it was!)

[MiniDave]

Honda wins in Hondaland!

Max did exactly as he has all season and simply drove off into the sunset, but the real story to me is the resurgence of McLaren who finished 2nd and 3rd.....although they were 19 seconds back, so they still have some work to do to catch the Red Bulls.

Checo had a miserable day, getting banged around and doing plenty of banging back (replacing 2 front wings!) till the car had to be retired. One interesting note, they repaired Checo's car just enough that he could go back on track for one lap......he had a 5 sec penalty and by doing that lap he's served the penalty and it won't carry over into the next race!

McLaren's improved performance means they could overtake Aston in the championship, especially since Stroll hasn't posted any points in many races, and doesn't look like he will the rest of the year based on his current performance. Aston certainly has fallen off from their strong start at the beginning of the season.

Ferrari also has a shot of passing Mercedes in the championship too, based on both cars finishing every race ahead of the Mercs, but it's going to be close with only 4 (5?) races left. Something I wouldn't have expected earlier in the season when they surged so far ahead....

Logan Sargeant didn't do anything to help further his career, retiring yet again, although his teammate did as well.

Lots of rumors that Norris will wind up driving a Red Bull at some point, and everyone thinks he will be able to give Max a real run for the money. Won't happen till the 25 season as Checo has a contract for next year - tho we all know just how much F1 contracts mean.....

[Brit_in_TX]

Christian Horner basically said that Checo, DannyRic and Yuki are all auditioning for the second Red Bull seat for 2025. If Checo continues they way he is going, in the first part of next season, he will get demoted or even fired from Red Bull.  If the constructors championship had been closer I suspect he would have lost his drive some time ago. 

He may even be at risk for next year if he does not finish second in the drivers championship this year.  Checo is only 43 points ahead of 3rd place, with 6 races remaining - Red Bull has never finished 1st and 2nd in the championship, given how dominant they have been, this must be a target this year.

There is only one seat remaining on the grid for next season.  Right now, I cannot see Logan Sargeant retaining the seat at Williams - he really seems out of depth in an F1 car. Mercedes/Toto Wolff has made some comments about getting Mick Schumacher in an F1 seat, but recent there has been reports about him driving for Alpine in WEC. Williams are not under pressure to make an announcement as it is the final seat, likely it will be after the season has ended.

Is Logan Sargeant being money to Williams - as that could influence things?

[MiniDave]

Lawson is making a strong case for winding up in a seat somewhere, he finished ahead of Yuki this weekend too......I'm sure the Honda connection is helping Yuki's case as I know he's bringing lots of under the table money, and DannyRickyBobby has the marquee appeal as well as being a "seasoned" driver. Funny how the Sarge just isn't cutting it in F1 while Lawson is flying.....and they're both in back-marker cars.

If I were Red Bull and I could get him now, I'd get Norris signed up for 24 and send Checo to the showers.....maybe Red Bull and McLaren could do a dealer trade? 

I sure hope HAAS brings some new stuff as they have been pretty woeful the last couple of seasons.

[Brit_in_TX]

I doubt McLaren would do a deal.  They locked Norris in with a contract extension to the end of 2025, which was driven by him still being on his rookie contract and Red Bull and others sniffing around offering big bucks. He went from around a $1 million a year to $20 million a year (and a move to Monaco as a tax exile followed!).  I suspect the recent Oscar Piastri contract did something similar.

No doubt Lawson should get an opportunity in F1, mind you everyone thought that De Vries deserved one as well!

Haas need to sort out their in season development, last year they had to cut back due to Mick Schumacher's crash bill. Not got that excuse this year. Did you see that Guthner Steiner could be taking Gene Haas to court over promises to give him a percentage of team ownership?

[MiniDave]

I did, which is all the more reason why I think Andretti is on the verge of buying a team.....

[Brit_in_TX]

Andretti has been approved by the FIA to be the 11th F1 team.  Now they need to negotiate with F1/FOM.

[Brit_in_TX]

First the sprint, it was good and seemed to be more like what they wanted a sprint to be.  Lots of overtaking and drivers coming together . 

The race was different as they put limits on all the tires (max of 18 laps) so everyone was forced to do a 3 stop race.  There were some good fights up and down the field, but I did not like the amount of math that I was doing during the race working out who was fighting with who.  Ultimately, Max still won and was heavily managing the pace.  Mclaren's were on the podium, and that is a great turnaround from the beginning of the season.  Mercedes crashed into each other, Lewis took the blame for that. And Perez is doing his best to be fired by Red Bull.

Another talking point after the race was the conditions that caused a number of drivers to be severely dehydrated and have heatstroke.  Logan Sargeant (who was not feeling well before the race) retired, had to be helped out of the car and went to the medical center.  Ocon admitted to throwing up early in the race. Stroll needed medical attention after the race, getting help from a ambulance crew in parc ferme (and said he was blacking out in some of the high speed corners).  Albon ended up in the medical center with dehyrdration.  Alonso asked for water to be thrown over him in the pit stop (which they could not do as adding weight to the car during the race is illegal).  All drivers were impacted, but some of the worst impacted were from the same teams - so wonder if car design had an influence in it.  In some of the tin top racing, the drivers use cool suits to help keep them cool during the race, but that would add weight!  Anyway the FIA have announced an investigation into the circumstances and to see if there is something they can do to prevent it happening again.

[MiniDave]

I have an idea of how to fix this, don't race in the middle of the effing desert! What a miserable track, stands in only one place, sand all over the track (Sainz quipped during the Sprint race that his dad would do well on this track - a nod to his dad's desert and off road racing past) - I'm sure referencing how much sand was on the track surface.

I loved when Alonso went off and found the support road to come back on track!

The teams used this race as a setup for the Mexican GP, even tho that race won't probably be as hot it will have even less cooling for the cars because of the altitude and thinner air density.

Congrats to Max (the only driver who did not exceed track limits during the race! Not one penalty.....so clearly, it can be done.) on his third championship. Next season is shaping up to be a corker with McLaren sniffing at Red Bull's gearboxes now, Ferrari occasionally able to run with them and Mercedes making progress too.

Next up is Austin which I don't think favors any one team a lot (well maybe Red Bull) so it might turn out to be an interesting race too. Also HAAS will be bringing their new B spec car, and while KMag doesn't expect radical changes, he's hoping it will be better balanced and allow them better tire wear so they can challenge the mid pack ....

So, while the overall championship was a forgone conclusion from about race 4, it has been interesting to see the resurgence of McLaren, sad to see Aston fall off so much (or did the others just catch up and go on by?)

Stroll Sr. really has a quandry on his hands now.....some say the reason they're going ahead with the Valkyrie endurance program is to give Lance a way to gracefully leave the F1 team. If so, I wonder who they'll target to pair up with Alonso?

[Brit_in_TX]

And now Stroll Jr is under investigation for his strop of Friday!

Aston Martin could be losing out on a big chuck of prize money as they could end up dropping below McLaren in the constructors championship.  Alonso has scored more than 4x as many points as Stroll. The only other pairing that has a bigger difference is at Williams.

Also when do the sponsors start questioning the driver choice, when the difference is so great?  There must be performance clauses in the sponsorship contracts that his lack of performance is costing them 10s of millions.

[MiniDave]

Would not surprise me to see him eased out of his seat......but who will they get to replace him? Perez? DannyRic? Everyone thinks he's going to wind up back with Max.....

Would Aston go with another rookie? Would an experienced driver work well with Alonso? I hear Vettel misses F1.....

Oh.....and McLaren does a 1.8 sec pitstop!!?!?!?? how is that even possible? Freakin amazing is what that is......and I thought Red Bull was quick to change tires.....

[MiniDave]

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/38678266/patrick-mahomes-travis-kelce-rory-mcilroy-200m-alpine-f1-investment

For our members who may not know who these two guys are, they are the quarterback and tight end players of the Kansas City Chiefs football team. Why is this significant? Well - it shows just how damn much money is involved in sports - they must really pay these guys!

Travis Kelce has also been in the news lately for his choice of female companionship - or is it her choice? Well, at any rate the world seems to think they're an item (for those who don't know he's been dating Taylor Swift, and she's been to at least three Chiefs game s in recent weeks.)

[Brit_in_TX]

Just more links between F1 and the NFL.  Hamilton is part of the Broncos ownership group and Danny Ric is a big Buffalo Bills fan (not sure if is part of the ownership group).

I am going to a Chiefs game in December with a friend from Austin who is KC native and a big fan.

[MiniDave]

Well, both Ferrari and Mercedes have to be sick about having Lewis and Charles disqualified from the race in Austin after they found the wear plank below minimum thickness......Ferrari still came out better than Mercedes tho, after all the scores were re-tallied up they outscored the Mercs 24 to 18, Sainz is on the podium and they move to within 22 points of them overall with 4 races left. Looks like there could be a real scrap for 2nd place in the championship yet!

Aston has lost 4th place to McLaren, and Alonso having to retire the car when both he and Lance were in the points has to hurt too. Their form has really dropped off in the second half of the season after a terrific start - or else other teams have just caught up and passed them by.....I don't know the real answer.......but McLaren has 4th locked up as long as they continue they way they have. With lameduck Lance driving I don't expect Aston to charge back, but who knows?

HAAS didn't see much benefit from their updated car, but in a Sprint weekend they really don't get a chance to set the car up properly - they're just guessing with only one short 1 hour practice session. I don't know if the next race will really help them either, since it's in the rarified air of Mexico City.

Did anyone find out what Max was bitching about on his brakes all weekend?

[Brit_in_TX]

Did anyone find out what Max was bitching about on his brakes all weekend?

Red Bull changed the brakes after the sprint (which is within the rules) and during the whole race the brakes "gave no feeling".  So at the big stops Max did not have confidence.

[MiniDave]

And Logan Sargeant was gifted his first F1 point! I guess gifted is a little strong, he drove hard to finish 12th......either way he's in the club now! 

[Brit_in_TX]

And Logan Sargeant was gifted his first F1 point! I guess gifted is a little strong, he drove hard to finish 12th......either way he's in the club now! 

I was surprised by that stat that he was the first american to score F1 points since Michael Andretti!  I thought Scott Speed or Alexander Rossi had nicked a point somewhere.

[MiniDave]

Someone speculated that they hadn't gotten the cooling right, but they'll have a regular 3 practice sessions in Mexico, so I expect more Max-imum effort! 

I did see an interesting graphic of Lewis, Charls and Max's cars all at the exact same spot in the same corner during the race, the other two were dragging, you could see daylight under Max's.....I wonder if things like this drove their choice of which cars to check?

Lando thinks the next 4 tracks are good tracks for their cars.....I think he's thinking there might be a possible win at one of them. I think possible is probably more like wishful, but who knows?

[MiniDave]

Posted without comment.....   

[MPlayle]

Not sure what I am looking at, but something seems off about the composition - almost photoshpped.

[MiniDave]

It may be, but it's a humorous take on using the wood planks from under the cars as surfboards.....note Charles and Lewis are in wetsuits with bare feet.....

[MPlayle]

The planks in the picture also have exactly the same wear/staining patterns.

[Brit_in_TX]

I think it either photoshopped or GenAI created. The original plank picture is taken from this article.

https://www.wtf1.com/post/why-is-f1-becoming-obsessed-with-wooden-planks/

[MiniDave]

Mexico qually....

Wow! what a surprise finish! All day the Ferraris had looked mediocre, then in Q3 it all came together...LeClerc on pole, Sainz right beside him in P2 as they both pulled out monstrous laps out of nowhere.

Verstappen came P3, but the next shocker is Ricky Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso....erm Alpha Tauri in 4th! I think Verstappen will probably win because the Red Bull is easier on its tires, but as he said in the interview "we'll see how it goes".

The rest of the top 10 are Checo, Hammy, Oscar, George, Valterri and Zhou.

All thru practice the Williams of Albon was punching way above its weight, but when it came to qually it was nowhere. He did manage to get thru Q2 but 14th was the best he could do.

Norris had an absolute nightmare of qually, and will start 19th, so it will be fun to see him working his way thru the field. The Astons and HAAS were miserable all weekend, and since both brought new major updates recently I'm a bit surprised at their lack of pace.

There may be some readjusting of the grid before tomorrow's race as there were shenanigans going on during a yellow and with cars bunched up behind Russell at pit out....we'll see if anything comes of that.....but neither of the Ferrari drivers were involved in any of it, so I think their grid spots are solid.

Since it's a looonnnnggggg way down to the first corner, Max thinks he'll get a tow and might wind up P1 by turn 2. Or it could all end in tears. Should be a fun race no matter what happens as tire wear and strategies will be important......