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Formula 1 2024


williamjm
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7 hours ago, williamjm said:

Sauber's only win (and 1-2) came during the BMW ownership when Kubica won in Canada with Heidfeld second, Kubica would briefly lead the world championship after that. I think that was definitely the peak of Sauber's long F1 history.

I listened to an interview with Beat Zehnder recently, and he is convinced that BMW Sauber was on track to win a championship when BMW pulled the plug. He blames it on change of leadership. The new CEO didn't like motor racing. I heard a similar story about Toyota. Apparently the car they built for 2010 was a huge improvement over their 2009 car. I guess we'll never know how good it really was, but we do know that Honda pulled the plug just when they finally had a good car, as Brawn's success shows. (Of course it's possible that they had a good car before and the engine sucked.)

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A pity to finish a race under a safety car like that.  Considering the lead Verstappen had over Leclerc until Ricciardo’s engine failure, I don’t think Charles can really complain that it didn’t break perfectly for him to both close up a large gap and give him a very short sprint window to possibly win.  He was already benefiting from a large slice of luck and cannot really complain if that unearned benefit wasn’t quite enough to gift him a win.  But does it matter either way?  The WDC is all but confirmed and a victory for Charles while Max is on the podium wouldn’t delay that by much now.

Good racing by Sainz through the field.  And DeVries did well considering that was his first F1 GP and in a Williams.

Despite some surprises early in the season as the new regs were adopted, the big three teams have settled into their advantage over the others and are dominating the top finishes, even if they take grid penalties to continue using additional parts.

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I don't think there was much Leclerc could do about Verstappen today. I think to beat them they would either have needed a lot of luck or for Verstappen/Red Bull to make a mistake.

I agree DeVries looked good for his first race, particularly given the extremely short notice that he was going to be driving.

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1 hour ago, williamjm said:

I don't think there was much Leclerc could do about Verstappen today. I think to beat them they would either have needed a lot of luck or for Verstappen/Red Bull to make a mistake.

I agree DeVries looked good for his first race, particularly given the extremely short notice that he was going to be driving.

LeClerc may have had a better opportunity if Ferrari did not jump to an opportunistic early pit stop under the VSC.  I think Verstappen had enough race speed advantage to win regardless but it certainly didn’t help Charles to just concede the first position like that and allow Max to drive at the front.

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17 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

LeClerc may have had a better opportunity if Ferrari did not jump to an opportunistic early pit stop under the VSC.  I think Verstappen had enough race speed advantage to win regardless but it certainly didn’t help Charles to just concede the first position like that and allow Max to drive at the front.

 

Nah, I think the commentators (on Sky anyway) had it right that they were never gonna compete with Max matching him for strategy and trying this was worth a go. 

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7 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

Nah, I think the commentators (on Sky anyway) had it right that they were never gonna compete with Max matching him for strategy and trying this was worth a go. 

Except this is Ferrari, not a team currently at the top of the "race strategy" game.

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I think RB have decisions ahead about Perez.  When Mercedes had a truly dominant car, Bottas was comfortably second in qualifying and racing, which provided an advantage to Hamilton in races.  But Verstappen is mostly winning solo this season with very little impact from Perez.  Partly that means the RB car is not really as dominant as Verstappen makes it look — because Perez is a very capable driver — and partly it means they don’t really have a second driver who can help secure a championship if next season is a closer competition.

Perez does have plenty of points this year so far, but mostly accumulated when Mercedes were bouncing well off the pace and Ferrari were DNFs.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some reports gaining traction that Red Bull and Aston Martin may have both breached the 2021 budget cap. Interesting to see what happens if that is the case. Potential punishments would include deduction of constructors and/or drivers points for the championship in question, race suspensions or a reduction of the cost cap for the next applicable year (presumably 2023 since 2022 is basically over).

Edited by Werthead
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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

:angry: what is this bullshit

That's one of the downsides of the safety car. It's supposed to slow down the pack. But drivers will pit, then push to catch up again. Not ideal for safety.

 

Max Verstappen has cinched his second title as the drivers were awarded full points despite the short race distance.

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It needs to be said that Formula 1 is being run poorly in every aspect of the sport. From race control getting themselves in situations such as a recovery vehicle on track with race yellow flagged or having possible penalties delayed well after victory ceremony, to this whole fiasco with investigation regarding Red Bull's budget. The driver's championship title for this season has been handed out before last season has been cleared beyond shadow of doubt.

Also, the rulebook specifies such a broad spectrum of punishments, ranging from "oh, you're a naughty team, don't do that again" over points deduction for team and/or driver's competition to the team being suspended for a season or several seasons. Whatever the powers that be decide in the end, there will be those who could say "they're against team A and working for team B".

It is just insane to watch the sport being run this poorly. Any sport! 

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First, congrats to Verstappen for a well-deserved and pretty dominant WDC.  After a few mistakes at Singapore, he bounced back and raced pretty flawlessly in wet conditions.  That was a pretty incredible lead he built up over just half a race.  But it’s a pity and an anti-climax that the WDC was awarded today because of an overlooked and probably unintentional rule change to award full points for a partial race.

Second, F1 needs to be much better run.  Rules, race direction (TV feed), whether and when to race in adverse conditions, decisions week to week by stewards and marshals especially around safety cars and restarts, … the whole thing should be tightened up.

Could the race calendar be rebalanced to better reflect climate and season for the various locations?  I know there are lots of other considerations, and wet races are generally fun anyway, but it’s unfortunate that we have a higher risk of weather-disrupted races as we enter the decisive phase of the season.

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So FIA found that Aston Martin and Red Bull have violated the cost cap rules for 2021. Aston Martin hasn't exceeded the cost cap itself. Red Bull has, according to FIA, but denies it. Seems the amount is rather minor, though. Nothing about the consequences yet.

I have always wondered how they are going to enforce the cost cap. Surely there a lot of accounting tricks the teams can play. 

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If they don't enforce the cap strongly right now then there is no incentive for the other teams to stick to it. If it's a monetary fine then the likes of Ferrari and Merc will just go back to spending more than everyone else and pay the fine because they can afford it. There needs to be a removal of constructors points or something that will have consequences down the road.

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What are they going to do, take away last year's championship a year after the fact? This year's? That would massively damage the sport. It would have to be a budget reduction for next year, or something like that (e.g. less testing). That always leaves the teams with the choice to sacrifice next next year for an advantage in the current season.

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Removal of constructors points in the current season on some sort of scale, 10-20 points per million over the cap. If they don't take some serious action it will end up like financial fair play in football where certain clubs just scam the system because they can and have gotten away with it.

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1 hour ago, lmanion said:

Removal of constructors points in the current season on some sort of scale, 10-20 points per million over the cap. If they don't take some serious action it will end up like financial fair play in football where certain clubs just scam the system because they can and have gotten away with it.

Exactly.

And also that is probably exactly what will happen in Formula 1.

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  • williamjm changed the title to Formula 1 2024

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