Motorsports Thread

[icowden]

"Mercedes tipped to get call from FIA and face accusations their new F1 car is 'illegal'."
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-autosport/1867634/mercedes-fia-w15-lewis-hamilton

If it's in the express it must be true. Is Princess Diana involved?

This is no different to other articles stating that Merc have come up with an innovative idea for the front wing that is within the rules (so not illegal) but which other teams may be unhappy about, and therefore may need an FIA ruling. Same happened with the push pull wheel angling IIRC. The FIA went "yeah yeah very clever - but next year it's banned. Nice one.

 

[FishFright]

If it's in the express it must be true. Is Princess Diana involved?

This is no different to other articles stating that Merc have come up with an innovative idea for the front wing that is within the rules (so not illegal) but which other teams may be unhappy about, and therefore may need an FIA ruling. Same happened with the push pull wheel angling IIRC. The FIA went "yeah yeah very clever - but next year it's banned. Nice one.

Normally I'd agree with the Express thing but it's actually correctly quoting Craig Scarborough (Scarbs) and he usually really good on F1 tech rules

 

[icowden]

Normally I'd agree with the Express thing but it's actually correctly quoting Craig Scarborough (Scarbs) and he usually really good on F1 tech rules

But misstating it as a grand hoo hah when in fact it's pretty much standard and the car has not been accused of being illegal.

 

[figbat]

And all this critical analysis is of livery launch mules.

 

[Jody]

And all this critical analysis is of livery launch mules.

Only 24 hours to go

 

[Beebo]

Day 1 testing is over and red bull are over a second clear of the others.

I know it’s only testing, but it already looks ominous for a very dull season ahead.

 

[FishFright]

Day 1 testing is over and red bull are over a second clear of the others.

I know it’s only testing, but it already looks ominous for a very dull season ahead.

Not only the times but it's suspension is the incredibly stable with almost no aero bounce etc on the straights , I've never seen anything close to that since active suspension.

 

[icowden]

Day 1 testing is over and red bull are over a second clear of the others.

Hard to know how much of that is psychological tricks though. Red Bull may be playing the "look we are still fastest card" whilst some of the others will be trying not to show their hands too early while learning about the cars.

RB piled on a *lot* of mileage compared to the other teams. Haas seemed to be running notably *very* slowly compared to everyone else, but then I don't think anyone was running fast laps, just race pace simulations.

 

[rustybolts]

Day 1 testing is over and red bull are over a second clear of the others.

I know it’s only testing, but it already looks ominous for a very dull season ahead.

Another one horse race on the cards

 

[Beebo]

Hard to know how much of that is psychological tricks though. Red Bull may be playing the "look we are still fastest card" whilst some of the others will be trying not to show their hands too early while learning about the cars.

RB piled on a *lot* of mileage compared to the other teams. Haas seemed to be running notably *very* slowly compared to everyone else, but then I don't think anyone was running fast laps, just race pace simulations.

I like your optimism 😁

 

[Jody]

Another one horse race on the cards

Ominous isn't it that most of the top 10 were within a few tenths of each other but max was over a second in front.

Looks like it's his to lose unless Merc have some massive sandbags holding them down. They put in a good lap count also but were way off the pace.

 

[Drago]

Day 1 testing is over and red bull are over a second clear of the others.

I know it’s only testing, but it already looks ominous for a very dull season ahead.

But they'll still find time to waste on irrelevant rubbish that won't make their car one iota faster. If I were running a team and trying to watch the leaders I'd be laser focused on that, and wouldn't waste time - itself a valuable resource - flapping my gums to the media as Tonio Wilf has already started doing.

People serious about succeeding should adopt the habits of successful people. It just staggers me that some of the most basic rules of business performance are completely lost on the leaders of some of these multi million pound organisations as they chase track performance. If it isn't contributing towards improving the return on the business by maximising championship points then they should not be doing it. Yet...

It's a lesson McLaren have taken on board, and look how their competitiveness improved last season.

If its a dull season it's because the leaders of the teams with the resources to do something about it prefer not to do so because of their ego.

 

[rustybolts]

But they'll still find time to waste on irrelevant rubbish that won't make their car one iota faster. If I were running a team and trying to watch the leaders I'd be laser focused on that, and wouldn't waste time - itself a valuable resource - flapping my gums to the media as Tonio Wilf has already started doing.

People serious about succeeding should adopt the habits of successful people. It just staggers me that some of the most basic rules of business performance are completely lost on the leaders of some of these multi million pound organisations as they chase track performance. If it isn't contributing towards improving the return on the business by maximising championship points then they should not be doing it. Yet...

It's a lesson McLaren have taken on board, and look how their competitiveness improved last season.

If its a dull season it's because the leaders of the teams with the resources to do something about it prefer not to do so because of their ego.

The maxim of business performance and the equation of F1 is as follows

Adrian Newey + Max Verstappen = Domination

 

[FishFright]

The maxim of business performance and the equation of F1 is as follows

Adrian Newey + Max Verstappen = Domination

True, if you leave out all the years when they weren't even close .

 

[icowden]

Ominous isn't it that most of the top 10 were within a few tenths of each other but max was over a second in front.

I'm still hoping that it's just Red Bull showing off and everyone else sandbagging.

Although Max put in a 1m 31.344, that's 1.6 seconds off his qualifying time last year. On the flip side his average lap time for the whole race was 1 min 38.877 seconds but that includes pit stops, safety cars etc. Perez had the fastest time in 1st practice last year with a 1m 32.758.

What do we learn from this? Sod all. Max wasn't going as fast as he could go and neither was anyone else.

My biggest takeaway is that RB have a huge advantage in that their car is only a small step away from the 2023 car, has minimal configuration and set up difference and looks pretty assured on the track. Everyone else has tried to implement a huge version change to catch up so they are all spending practice learning about the car and seeing what the best way to set it up is - and no-one yet knows if what they have done will close the gap.