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Post by ant on Feb 18, 2023 10:11:13 GMT
All the cars (bar the rb19) have been revealed and preseason testing is just around the corner. What does the 23 season promise?
A quick recap, rb and max won 22 without breaking a sweat, merc looked rubbish all season, ferrari did ferrari things, alpine looked pretty good when they werent blowing up. Mclaren looked awful all season, alfa looked great then imploded, williams showed one or two glimmers of light. Haas had some ups in all the downs, alpha tauri did nothing of note and aston martin perked up a little towards the end of the season.
Fred went to AM, danny ric benched himself, mick s got benched, piastri to mclaren, nyck de vries to williams, latifi went home. Gasly to alpine, hulkenberg to haas, seb hung up his helmet.
Vasseur to ferrari, seidl to sauber, vowles to williams, stella as new mclaren tp.
Rb got done for cost cap overspend.
What does this year hold?
Can merc get back to the top?
Can ferrari organise a piss up in a brewery?
Can rb overcome the aero testing reduction?
Can alonso not piss off his team?
Answers on a post card
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Post by ant on Feb 18, 2023 12:45:13 GMT
Edit: correction, nyck de vries to alpha tauri, logan sargeant to williams
Logan sargeant and nyck de vries are both on my watch list this year, nyck looked like a veteran in the williams at monza, a class act jumping from the aston martin into the williams, and logan sargeant looks very promising to me.
I want both to do well. Also zhou. I thought he did really well last year, the number of reliability issues he had skewed the numbers and masked how well he did on debut. Tsunoda needs to step up though, he was still pretty inconsistent all year
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Post by MartinT on Feb 18, 2023 17:50:46 GMT
Rumours already building that the McLaren doesn't look up to scratch.
I'm hoping that the Mercedes is up to the Ferrari and Red Bull this year, it does look promising.
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Post by ant on Feb 21, 2023 12:27:40 GMT
The rumour mill also has it according to shed kravitz that merc has a b spec car waiting in the wings. Cant see that being so, it would cost too much
And apparently honda have been in contact with several teams for the new engine regs.
Mclaren honda would be abit daft, id love to see a williams honda works engine deal (AND LOOK AT THAT! AND COLOSSALY THATS MANSELL!)
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Post by MartinT on Feb 21, 2023 14:13:20 GMT
Mclaren honda would be abit daft, id love to see a williams honda works engine deal (AND LOOK AT THAT! AND COLOSSALY THATS MANSELL!) Too much water under the bridge with Mclaren-Honda. Williams have proven that their problems are not with the engine. I think the Honda would be wasted with either of those teams. |
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Post by orange55 on Feb 21, 2023 15:17:48 GMT
The rumour mill also has it according to shed kravitz that merc has a b spec car waiting in the wings. Cant see that being so, it would cost too much And apparently honda have been in contact with several teams for the new engine regs. Mclaren honda would be abit daft, id love to see a williams honda works engine deal (AND LOOK AT THAT! AND COLOSSALY THATS MANSELL!) I could easily see Merc doing what they did last year and have a different car for the first test than the first race. |
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Post by ant on Mar 4, 2023 19:04:48 GMT
First race qualy done, exactly as expected. rb half a second up the road, ferrari good on one lap and looking like it eats tyres from the practice long runs, merc looking abit crap again. Minus it headbutting the track. Which is nice.
Aston martin on the other hand looking very good indeed and alonso qualified in front of both mercs.
11 world titles in the first 7 places on the grid, 3 world champions, alonso finally in a good car.
Mclaren looked bloody awful to drive, nico hulkenberg in q3 in the haas was a cracking start. Would have been 8th but got his lap deleted for track limits.
Alpine looked crap given all the big talk in the off season, williams actually looked pretty reasonable. Alpha tauri did not look any better than last year, alfa romeo looked sort if fine, where you would expect.
Having alonso at the front of the field will be very interesting
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Post by MartinT on Apr 2, 2023 10:16:20 GMT
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Post by Tim on Apr 2, 2023 13:28:46 GMT
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Post by ant on May 25, 2023 11:56:33 GMT
As a measure of how utterly boring this season is, no replies for over a month...
Not much interest.
Merc has now put some side pods on its 'shitbox', altered its front suspension to increase its anti dive geometry, put a new floor on it and a few other tweaks.
Will this mean its any better? We can but hope..
In other news, honda have agreed a deal to supply aston martin with engines from 2026, and the daily heil reckons lewis hamilton has had a 40 million offer to jump ship to ferrari. Make of that what you will.
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Post by MartinT on May 25, 2023 14:42:07 GMT
The lack of any competition for Red Bull, the lack of charisma of Verstappen, and the general borefest of the racing, says it all.
I hope both Mercedes and Ferrari can take it to RB from this point on, but I have my doubts. AM are doing an excellent job and I am pleased that Honda is returning.
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Post by orange55 on May 25, 2023 18:23:11 GMT
Be nice to see Alonso win at Monaco.
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Post by MartinT on May 26, 2023 18:45:17 GMT
This is more promising. Look at how close they are.
Monaco GP FP2 classification
1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing 1:12.462
2 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +0.065
3 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +0.107
4 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.220
5 Lando NORRIS McLaren +0.444
6 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +0.498
7 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +0.529
8 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +0.588
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Post by ant on May 27, 2023 21:04:45 GMT
Cracking qualifying session today, best part of the weekend historically. Probably this one wont buck the trend.
But a really good qualy, without anyone stacking it in q3 and grabbing pole by default either
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Post by MartinT on May 27, 2023 21:10:12 GMT
Yes, it was good entertainment. Shame the track allows for hardly any overtaking in the race.
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Post by MikeMusic on May 28, 2023 10:11:50 GMT
Thought overtaking was banned in Monaco  |
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Post by ant on May 28, 2023 10:31:04 GMT
You need special fia dispensation to be allowed, they issued a new sporting regulation a few years ago when somene overtook without a pitstop and it took the fia by surprise.
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Post by ant on Jun 5, 2023 12:02:17 GMT
Whats this? A half decent race at catalunya? Well i never.
Remove the rubbish final chicaine and its not as crap as it has been for a long time.
Verstappen buggered off as always, but behind him there was some actual honest to god decent racing.
The new w14b actually looked like a good car, hamilton and russell actually being able to race and overtake, the upgraded ferrari being a rolling contradiction, the aston martin was abit disappointing, the alpine looking reasonably handy too.
What happened to leclerc im not sure, landos quali heroics went right down the pan. Tsunoda and zhou had a good race long scrap.
Will merc see some form start to appear now the car has some sidepods and a floor that matches them or will it just be a case of one good race and canada back to square one? Will the ferrari ever actually work? Will pirelli ever make tyres that are not made of chocolate?
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Post by MartinT on Jun 5, 2023 13:31:11 GMT
There was a really decent and exciting race going on behind Verstappen. The Mercedes certainly looked a lot better but we'll have to see whether it translates well from Barcelona to other circuits. The Ferrari looked weak and so did the Aston. What happened to the McLaren between Norris qualifying so well and the race itself? Although Hulkenberg didn't finish that well he made some great passes too.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 19, 2023 8:52:14 GMT
The race at Canada yesterday saw the cream rising to the top: Verstappen, Alonso and Hamilton on the podium. That's 11 world championships between them.
With improvements to both the Aston Martin and Mercedes cars, competition was closer although the Red Bull still scampers off into the distance. Leclerc continues to moan while Sainz is pulling steady points. Albon did a great job while Haas had a nightmare after a good qualy for Hulkenberg.
At least the constructor's 2nd place is still open between Aston and Mercedes with Ferrari trying not to drop away completely.
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