F1 2023 thread

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120342629#Comment_120342629

I think Norris would be a great fit and he is probably looking actively as well, there was some story from testing of him punching a wall after his time in the car, although you never know how true these things can be.

I think Russell has the right tools to lead, he did it at times last year (thinking the Dutch GP when he called to pit for softer tires). There was always this talk of Hamilton being so slow due to testing experimental set ups and so on, but results are results.

Norris is still only 23

I think Perez is safe at Red Bull as long as they’re winning the constructors championship. And it would take a brave man to back himself to go to Red Bull and beat Verstappen in equal machinery.

Opportunities of a Ferrari seat if he waits until 2025.

The door may be open at Mercedes depending on when Hamilton retires.

Aston Martin - 2025 at the earliest but by then it’s a case of when and not if Alonso retires. British team that have shown great improvement who may want a marquee British driver down the line.

Audi - how long will they be happy with Bottas as a team leader?

I honestly feel like the best option available to Norris right now is to get through 2023 and wait and see what McLaren produce in 2024. He’ll have a lot more options in front of him in 15 months time. There’s still a bit of value to be had by being the team leader at McLaren at his age.

The only spanner in the works would be Hamilton announcing his retirement this year. But Mercedes are almost starting to seem like a risk at the moment as they appear to be the team most hard hit by the cost cap.

Norris has the luxury of being able to wait a few years and still being in his mid 20’s.

Hamilton’s comments during the week were interesting. I think he’s entitled to criticise the team as on the flip side he has always gone out of his way to praise them when things are going well.

It is a break from the “no blame culture” line we hear from Toto and to be fair to Hamilton he was following Toto’s lead after his own comments at the weekend. I would wonder though - has Toto Wolff allowed himself and Lewis to become too closely aligned? Are Mercedes shooting themselves in the foot by taking a risky short term approach motivated by delivering an 8th WDC for an aging driver?

If Toto doesn’t have a close relationship with Hamilton do Mercedes accept now that they’re not going to overhaul Red Bull and put as much of time and resources into the 2024 car?

They won’t win the constructors title in 2023 so why put so much effort into chasing RB when they might be better off finishing behind AM and Ferrari meaning they would have more WT/CFD hours than those three teams?

Hamilton has done an amazing job for Mercedes but I think his interests are no longer aligned with what’s in the best interests of the team and the approach they should be taking right now. I actually believe they’d be better off not renewing his contract.

One thing that sets Schumacher apart for me is he never publicly criticised Ferrari - and he had cause to on a few occasions. Hamilton is a very good team player overall but Schumacher was near flawless in that regard.

recyclebin

Is Astons Martins pace going to last throughout the season or are they going to trail off as the season goes on? They've copied a lot of the Red Bull and have a good few Mercedes parts too as part but do they have the engineers to develop cars rather than copy ideas? They had the pink Mercedes a couple of years ago and that only got them so far up the grid. This time around they probably have more money and have poached a lot more engineers so they could be knocking on the door for a top 3 finish in the constructors if they can develop the car as the season goes on.

Mercedes really need to do an Aston Martin and copy Red Bulls design and try and develop it. It would be much cheaper way of getting back on the pace.

Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine look to be very disappointing so far. They've gone backwards since last year.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120343789#Comment_120343789

Red bull don't need to change perez while they're winning. He's alright without challenging Max. Same as Mercedes when they were winning with Hamilton and Bottas. A team like Mercedes now just needs the fastest drivers they can get to score maximum points. It doesn't really matter to them which driver scores the most points or which one scores most podiums or even sneaks a race win. That thinking changes when they are competing for a championship and need to concentrate their points in one driver.

Coulthard said he was offered the second Ferrari seat in 1996. He was told it was a no.2 role and he said he believed he could beat Schumacher so wouldn't take the no.2 contract. He joked that he learned since then that he wasn't as fast as Schumacher, but at the time he totally believed he was the best in the world.

I'd say Perez believed he would beat Max when given the chance. We all knew he wasn't as fast as Max but he was probably the only person who didn't know. He mmustbe realising now that he's just not as fast as Max. But he's safe unless he falls out with the team

Jordan 199

It's race week.

A few notes:

Will Aston Martin continue to have a great start to the season, and have Ferrari sorted out their reliability?

Race thread coming soon.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120354454#Comment_120354454

Yay for another race. I think yes to Aston Martin, and unfortunately for the tiffosi no to ferrari.

I reckon Aston will be up there for the first 3/4 races at least, it'll be very interesting to see how they compete as upgrades start to be introduced. Fingers crossed they keep it going (I'm viewing them as continuity Jordan)

mickdw

I think Aston might be a different animal now. We have seen in the past where they arrive with a copy car and could go nowhere with it.

This year, while it takes alot from redbull, you would have to assume it's done with the skill and knowledge of part of the original design team and surely there will now be more understanding of the concept and ability to go forward.

The fact that they have been able to make the concept work out of the box is a good sign that there is abit more going on this year than others.

I fully believed that daddy stroll was a disaster after hearing reports of him sitting in on design meetings and throwing his weight around but I guess there is a reason he is super rich and I'm not.

flazio

I'm just not warming to Aston Martin at the moment. Continuity Jordan has a Union Jack on the nose. Now I'm not one of these hardline "Butcher's apron" kind of nationalists, couldn't care less if the north swears loyalty to the King of England or the Queen of Sheba, but Alonso has a habit of alienating teams and the Stroll daddy and son pairing is just so unlikeable.

Now I have some respect for Lance, he's a proven winner in junior categories and can really show up to a race weekend when he wants to. Turkey 2020 springs to mind, and did really well to recover to the point he did last weekend, but listening to the story of how he managed his treatment, well let's just say there's no way any travel insurance company is going to pay for that kind of treatment for plebs like us. Then there's the arse kissing that Alonso is doing. "Oh Lance is great, world champion material etc etc", it's not a good look on Fernando.

Killinator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120355443#Comment_120355443

Just remember that 'British Racing Green' is actually a tribute to Ireland and it'll make it easier 😊

MadYaker

I fancy Alonso to be quick in qualifying this weekend. Ferrari seem to be undergoing a lot of personnel changes. It’s hard to know it’s just Vasseur moving people around or people jumping ship because they’re unhappy, infighting is the last thing Ferrari need now.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356320#Comment_120356320

This is a real opportunity for Ferrari. Whatever ways they were doing things, it didn't work. They have a bad culture. Blaming and back-stabbing seems to be the MO. Short term pain for long term gain.

BBC talked about the Mercedes 'no blame' culture and Ferrari's 'no fault' culture. Mercedes ruthlessly try to understand any mistakes so they can make sure they never happen again, not to blame the person responsible. Ferrari pretend problems don't exist because if they identify a problem then they person responsible is blamed and put on the shortlist for redundancy. Ferrari didn't even acknowledge their pit strategy problems last year, if you can imagine that.

Vasseur is taking risks by moving and firing people but he has a chance to change the culture. The ones who aren't performing and have been getting away with it are bound to be unhappy b

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356320#Comment_120356320

From everything I've read this was in motion before Vasseur was brought on board, and comes from discord between staff and upper Ferrari management (above Vasseur), something that Binotto apparently became increasingly ineffective at shielding the team from as he had one foot out the door towards the end of last year.

Not sure if Vasseur will be the man to steady the ship or if he'll end up serving as the fall guy while upper management remould the team, as Marco Mattiacci did previously.

MadYaker

Ferrari F1 team is structured differently to others as well. The corporate guys who run the road car business obviously get a say in what happens with the F1 team as well. It might be better if they were two completely separate entities like Mercedes but I can’t see Ferrari ever doing that.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120356771#Comment_120356771

Yeah it mostly worked back in the day when it was Enzo, or a racing guy like Di Montezemolo at the helm. Now they're a publicly traded company and the people calling the shots have no background in the sport yet still seem intent on meddling. Marchionne, albeit not a racing guy himself, was probably the last CEO who was moving the team in the right direction. Very few good decisions have been made at Ferrari regarding the F1 team since he passed away.

They do still have a very competitive car which they've carried over from what was the fastest car at the start of last year, but that was really the minimum expectation given that they were 100% focused on the new regs while the only other teams with anything close to similar resources were fighting tooth and nail for the 2021 championship, which in itself was thanks to their continuous failings over the prior seasons. But even with a strong car, their repeated mistakes and poor quality assurance keep costing them.

Jordan 199

There's going to be a documentary about Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi on the 18th of March on Sky Documentaries.

El_Duderino 09

This is a nice little hint at Red Bull's new aero work for 2023 while others are copying their 2022 concept

https://youtube.com/shorts/3tHoF9hLv9Q?feature=share

Jordan 199

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120293428#Comment_120293428

I drove around the circuit without the chicane in Gran Turismo 7 yesterday. It was great not having to negotiate that last sh1tty chicane.

MadYaker

Hass Automation, the company Gene Haas owns, are in hot water for allegedly supplying equipment to sanctioned Russian companies. Poor old Gunther can't catch a break.

Hijpo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120362789#Comment_120362789

Throw back to Gunther after Mazepin in DTS

"F**King Russians, I have enough of f**King russians. No more Russians after this..."

El_Duderino 09

Leclerc to get a 10 place grid penalty this weekend. He used 2 electronic control boxes in the weekend and needs a 3rd this week. The first failed on Sunday morning and the second failed causing the retirement in the race. They're only allowed 2 per season.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-set-for-saudi-arabian-gp-grid-penalty-after-bahrain-f1-engine-trouble/10443710/

PsychoPete

I honestly thought Ferrari would at least get to Canada before making a balls of the season

quokula

Yeah this looked likely after Bahrain, the only question was whether either of the two failed parts could be recovered or were completely lost.

We've seen this kind of thing happen a lot over the years, a team gets a DNF then they get doubly punished with a grid penalty next race. They should consider a change to the rules so that if a part fails and causes a DNF while running in the points during a race, you get +1 to your allocation.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120366545#Comment_120366545

No more complicated rules. The first time a backmarker retires in the points when everyone else has pitted but before their own pitstop, then they get a new part without penalty, the usual ones would be here saying the rules are too complicated.

But why only reward frontrunners who spend all race in the points? Just leave it as it is. It's complicated enough without more rules

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120366545#Comment_120366545

Hear where you are coming from but at the end of the day, the limits are set out well in advance so up to teams to ensure they strike a balance between performance and reliability. It’s not all bad luck.

Hijpo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120367248#Comment_120367248

How could it be that sainz wasn't effected by the failures but LeClerc was done twice.

tigerboon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120364615#Comment_120364615

Maybe the focus and resources is on the WEC hypercar program this year. There's a huge budget gone into that as well and the LeMans centenary is this year, so a once off opportunity. Sebring tomorrow by the way.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120366545#Comment_120366545

I'd favour a rule that does not hurt a team if they lose a part due to an accident caused by somebody else. But anything else, even if it causes dnf, tough luck - build a better part..

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120367713#Comment_120367713

Can you imagine the controversial end of that? Who was at fault and was it 50:50 or 60:40 and then who gets to use new parts? And then when a driver gets a touch and is stuck in the barrier but isn't badly damaged and claims a new power unit because of the damage.

Complicating the rules is a very short term plan because the teams are not interested in the spirit of the rules, only what they can get away with.

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120367382#Comment_120367382

Sure you could argue LeClerc got unlucky relative to Sainz but I was discussing the component penalties as one poster was mentioning adjusting these rules for component caused DNFs if you were in the points.

Think the fact that the two of the same component failed in the first weekend says enough on reliability and the majority of the penalties taken by teams are down to more than bad luck from what I can tell.