F1 2023 thread

MadYaker

Antonio Giovannaci just won the 24 heures de Le Mans with Ferrari AF Corse in the 499P. I always liked him as a driver so good to see him get some proper success after driving that rubbish Alfa Romeo in F1 and then a disastrous Formula E stint.

Jordan 199

It's race week.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120703905#Comment_120703905

Any word on the fires and whether they will affect the race this week?

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120704803#Comment_120704803

Situation appears to be improving.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-moves-from-defence-to-offence-mode-to-fight-forest-fires-1.6436417

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120704803#Comment_120704803

Think they said it shouldn't have any affect.

Frank Bullitt

I don't think we have any worries about the race, looks like the weather and amazing efforts by the fire fighters over there have worked.

Andrew76

Will be interesting to see how well the Merc goes considering the track differences.

MadYaker

I think they'll give Aston more trouble this weekend.

Frank Bullitt

Am are bringing more upgrades to their car, and its usually better in the rear limited aspects of circuits. Either way, RB will be miles away.

Jordan 199

Myself, dulpit and flazio have started race threads so far this year, so it would be great if someone else could start a thread for a bit of a change.

rameire

Thread Open.

Jordan 199

I'm playing a 5 hour trial of the latest F1 game - F1 '23. Did a few laps around the Vegas circuit.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vettel-to-return-to-red-bull-f1-cockpit-for-nordschleife-run/10482750/

Vettel back to Red Bull...kinda

BikeRacer

Sky sports F1 podcast episode with James Vowles is well worth a listen. Only complaint is it was too short at only 30 minutes long.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120718097#Comment_120718097

He's very engaging, isn't he? Makes a change from the bombast of Horner or Wolff or the slight chaps of Gunther.

flazio

Another podcast I enjoyed last week was Coulthard and Jordans Formula For Success. They had the actor Liam Cunningham on and it was an entertaining conversation between EJ and Liam. Very Irish.

Lawlesz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120719882#Comment_120719882

Been listening to that on and off, didn't enjoy that one so much. I felt EJ and "Liamo" were like a pair of high school jocks relaying old stories of drinking, half of which were probably made up anyway knowing EJ 😂

The Gachot one was very good

Cookie_Monster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120684192#Comment_120684192

Given the growth of Fe and that being where the manufacturers are pursuing the electric technology F1 should probably go back to internal combustion alone, drop all the cost and hassle that comes with it for no real gain for anyone anymore.

A few more years and Fe will be the pinnacle championship anyway and F1 a secondary series. Technically they have been on equal footing since 2020 championship wise already.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721022#Comment_120721022

Assuming that electric vehicles are the future, then you're right (i hear about hydrogen powered vehiclesbut i dont know if its going to work or how far off it is). And F1 could accept that it's the pinnacle of a dying technology. Whatever the future holds, carbon power probably isn't the long term future.

Maybe the sport should just accept its not the pinnacle anymore and stop pursuing the future tech. The problem is that F1's USP has always been the fact that it was chasing the real cutting edge tech. It's probably time to move on and just become about good racing cars rather than the future technology side.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721051#Comment_120721051

The components for the Halo are getting adapted into road car frames so who can tell how many lives that's saving on the highways and by ways of, admittedly, the developed world. Innovation isn't all about the entertainment.

Schorpio

Genuinely curious - source for that?

Strengthening car chassis and bodyshells for impact/rollover protection has been a thing since at least the introduction of NCAP testing - long before the halo was around.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721101#Comment_120721101

I didn't know that. Fair enough. But that's not the sexy stuff.

Back in the day, after ww2, they were genuinely cutting edge tech. Nowadays it would be like if they were racing in space or something. It was new to the point that it blew people's minds. F1 will never be the bleeding edge of technology again. So maybe they should accept their place and focus on racing instead.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721051#Comment_120721051

I think the key for F1 is that it should be about cutting edge tech, but cutting edge tech in the pursuit of speed, not in the pursuit of road relevance. They are two entirely different things. Battery electric vehicles are absolutely the future of personal road transport. This doesn't mean they're better for racing, they simply aren't. The weight of batteries is antithetical to everything you want from a racing car. Formula E races are only 45 minutes long and they're also extremely slow compared to F1, because the weight of the battery needed for long distances or high speeds is enormous, especially if you want downforce for good cornering speeds and the drag that comes with it.

By the same token, when F1 switched from V8s to hybrids in 2014 the cars got much, much slower. The all conquering Mercedes was slower around most circuits than a Minardi was a decade earlier. At some tracks most of the field was even slower than GP2, which was still using a traditional engine. Part of the reason the cars got so big is that they tried to make up the lost performance in weight by adding downforce and bigger tyres, which required a bigger car to give them enough surface area to do that. And all of that snowballed into yet heavier cars, which meant forces were much higher in impacts, which required more safety equipment, which upped the weight again.

Meanwhile last year at Austria Ralf Schumacher turned up for a demo run in a 2003 Williams, put modern Pirelli tyres on it, and in a short demonstration set a lap time that would have put him on the second row of the grid for that race. So imagine those cars with a little development, on modern rubber, with practice time and a proper set up for the conditions, and without a middle aged retired driver in the cockpit - they'd completely blitz the current cars and do so while being much smaller and much lighter.

So yes, going back to V10s would make for faster and lighter cars. And updating those cars to modern standards would make them even faster. Which wouldn't be less technologically advanced, technology is supposed to be in service of something and whatever is fastest is most advanced when your goal is speed, regardless of whether it's road relevant. Most aspects of F1 would be completely useless on the road but that doesn't make them any less technically advanced. As long as you've got the talent and money that the F1 teams have, they will always use the most cutting edge technology they can to make the fastest cars possible under the given rules.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721729#Comment_120721729

Sure. But the F1 technology back when f1 became cool, overlapped hugely with the road car industry compared to today. Back then, internal combustion engines took a huge leap forward during the war. Engines were getting bigger and faster which was true for f1 cars and road vehicles.

Now the technology is old and they're working on making them smaller and more efficient. My grandad talked about having a 3L rover back in the day and an 80 year old I got chatting to last week talked about having a 3.5L Triumph Stag.

F1 was just doing it's thing which happened to be the cutting edge of the same thing the motoring industry was doing. Motor racing was actually novel back then. That's not the case now.

Given that FE has taken over working on the bleeding edge future technology, I don't mind if F1 changes to just working on entertaining racing technology. It wouldn't be the big beast of future technology that it used to be but that's OK. It could settle into a role as simply and entertainment business. It's bound to decline in the long term as its technology becomes less and less relevant, but that's just how things progress.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120721022#Comment_120721022

FE may technically be a world championship but to say its on any kind of an equal footing to F! is crazy talk. The cars are slow, the circuits basic and slow,

the drivers either didnt make F1 or are on the downward slope after F1.

Its a pretty crap category in my opinion with fake boost zones and all that nonsense.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120723060#Comment_120723060

Ah I think that is a tad unfair on FE.

It is in its infancy as a Formula, but you get cracking racing all the time. I think the cars look great also.

When you compare where it started, to where it is now, it has made leaps and bounds.

flazio

Between the Monaco E-prix and the Monaco Grand Prix, I know which I'd prefer to watch.

PsychoPete

I really tried to get into FE and I honestly can't watch it, I find it so dull! I'd watch F2 over FE everytime

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120723060#Comment_120723060

As @Frank Bullitt says, FE is in it's infancy.

F1 by comparison has 70 years of history and reputation and brand recognition. A lot of that reputation was built on being the pinnacle of motorsport which used and pushed the boundaries of the technology of the future. That's not the case anymore. Internal combustion engines aren't the future anymore. FE is pushing the tech of the future now.

When you look around in the present, the vast majority of vehicles are ICE. jut that's not the future. The rate of change is pretty impressive and as EVs become more popular, affordable and practice, it will drive the EV infrastructure.

Nothing changes overnight. But the future is coming. F1 doesn't have as much to offer the future as it did 70 years ago.

The rate of improvement in FE is impressive. Ita rich seam of research for relevant, real world technology.

Andrew76

Have never watched a full FE race but the couple of times I had a look a few years back it was bloody awful. Boost zones? Viewer voting giving drivers extra boost or something like that was it? Not to mention it sounds rubbish.

I’m curious though, current FE cars - can they lap as fast as an F1 car or do they even race on proper circuits? How long does a race last as I’m guessing they can’t go full pelt for 2hrs or can they?

I’m all for F1 pushing for more sustainability but jesus I hope I’m long gone by the time FE is considered the pinnacle of motorsport.