Formula 1 2024

[Werthead]

Piastri is doing very well at the moment. I'm still waiting for him to win a race whilst Norris screams in frustration in the background. Best rookie since Hamilton might be extreme - Verstappen, Leclerc and Russell all had phenomenal runs in unspectacular machinery - but definitely one of the best we've had for a while.

[Wilbur]

Formula E has had an exciting series of races this year.

It is a pity that finding a live feed of such races is so very difficult.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Max needs to drive a Ford Pinto after the break. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Red Bull will be saving their development budget and wind tunnel time for the 2024 car, so I’d expect the other teams to close some of the gap in the second half.  They’ve just had a huge advantage last year and this year in how they perceived the aerodynamics of the new regs, which will eventually erode, plus they have a great driver to take advantage.  As much as it gets called a rocketship, the car doesn’t look dominant for Perez.

Unlucky for Piastri today after doing so well yesterday, although the car was less competitive in today’s conditions regardless of that early collision.

[Werthead]

Good job by Carlos Sainz to keep Verstappen behind him for a dozen laps. Really good, tactical driving and you could see Max just starting to get frustrated there, which is when he makes mistakes. Unfortunately in a Red Bull vs. Ferrari tyre wear conflict, Ferrari was always going to lose. Ferrari's tactical decision-making was also a bit shit, they nearly binned 3rd and 4th by letting Leclerc and Sainz fight so hard at the end.

Outstanding drive from Albon, who I'd rate driver of the season at the moment. He's doing a Fernando by dragging that Williams into outrageously good finishing positions.

[Iskaral Pust]

Yes, good drive by Albon.  Piastri was having a good drive again until Hamilton took him out.  A 5sec penalty seems insufficient for sabotaging another driver’s race.  The RB car seems to perform much better in clean air because Verstappen quickly built a comfortable gap once he passed Sainz.  LeClerc should have been able to put more pressure on Verstappen while he was behind Sainz.

Once again, outside of P1 there was some good competitive driving and variation in fortunes throughout the grid, albeit far fewer overtakes than last race.

[TheLastWolf]

Lawson is very good for such a greenhorn

[Werthead]

17 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Yes, good drive by Albon.  Piastri was having a good drive again until Hamilton took him out.  A 5sec penalty seems insufficient for sabotaging another driver’s race.  The RB car seems to perform much better in clean air because Verstappen quickly built a comfortable gap once he passed Sainz.  LeClerc should have been able to put more pressure on Verstappen while he was behind Sainz.

Once again, outside of P1 there was some good competitive driving and variation in fortunes throughout the grid, albeit far fewer overtakes than last race.

Leclerc's problem was getting the double dirty air effect from the cars ahead in the corners, which helped neutralise the slipstream effect on the straights, and the Red Bull's DRS is so powerful that whilst it was open (activated by following Sainz), it could not only neutralise the Ferrari DRS but even pull away from it a bit.

Still, the strongest non-Red Bull performance of the season, and Sain set a record for the number of laps led this season not by a Red Bull.

[Raja]

I wish someone would fire Helmut Marko for his remarks regarding Perez, but of course something like that will never happen

[Werthead]

19 hours ago, Raja said:

I wish someone would fire Helmut Marko for his remarks regarding Perez, but of course something like that will never happen

I'm not sure on that. Marko is apparently on bad terms with the new Red Bull board, and he was given cover and kept around before by Dietrich Mateschitz but obviously that is no longer possible. I don't think Marko's position is really tenable beyond the short term, not to mention he's recently turned 80, so might be looking for retirement anyway.

[Werthead]

George Russell, Lizard King.

 

[Werthead]

What the hell was that? 

[williamjm]

Could we finally end up having a winner this year who isn't driving a Red Bull? Is that even allowed?

I think one of the more surprising things is having both Red Bulls out-qualified by an Alpha Tauri driven by someone in their third race. Liam Lawson must be making a good argument for a permanent race seat next year.

 

[Werthead]

That was the best qualifying of the season. Sainz is on fire at the moment, and surprising explosion of form from Russell.

Literally any other race bar Monaco, you'd be expecting Verstappen to find a way through but Singapore is hard AF to overtake and last year Verstappen could only manage a net gain of one place from a much more favourable starting position.

I don't rule out him staging a comeback and smashing it, but it does feel like this is the best chance for someone else to win a race. Sainz has to be favourite, but Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell and Norris all have to be in the mix. The performance of the Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren all seemed pretty strong (and the Haas, for some reason).

[Iskaral Pust]

35 minutes ago, Werthead said:

That was the best qualifying of the season. Sainz is on fire at the moment, and surprising explosion of form from Russell.

Literally any other race bar Monaco, you'd be expecting Verstappen to find a way through but Singapore is hard AF to overtake and last year Verstappen could only manage a net gain of one place from a much more favourable starting position.

I don't rule out him staging a comeback and smashing it, but it does feel like this is the best chance for someone else to win a race. Sainz has to be favourite, but Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell and Norris all have to be in the mix. The performance of the Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren all seemed pretty strong (and the Haas, for some reason).

It’s pretty clear that RB’s streak ends tomorrow.  Just like Monaco: qualifying basically is the race, so long as you avoid any big errors on Sunday.

[TheLastWolf]

Much as I'd like, no, love Soober Max to not be on the podium, he's gonna eat up the grid in no time. 

[TheLastWolf]

Glad af to be wrong af oh happy af racing is back af lit af

[Iskaral Pust]

Good to have some variety on the podium but I don’t think Monaco or Singapore are races really (same for any other really tight street circuit).  They’re pretty much processions in the starting order.

Sainz was smart to keep Norris as a DRS wing man for a buffer to the Mercs — good strategy, and takes advantage of the McLaren lacking an overtake threat even with DRS.

[Werthead]

Singapore you can overtake, there's just limited opportunities and you have to make them stick. But the number of overtakes in a given Singapore race is always higher than at Monaco (where it's sometimes effective 0, barring pit stop overcuts/undercuts). Singapore also always has safety cars (I believe it's a 100% record), sometimes two, occasionally three, which immediately makes the strategy more interesting. I'd cut Monaco tomorrow but I'd probably keep Singapore for the way it keeps throwing up interesting results (Mercedes collapsing in 2016, Verstappen getting hit about three times in five seconds a couple of years later, Sainz this year).

Probably drive of the season for Carlos Sainz, whose tactical skills inside the cockpit are outrageously good. Also full tribute to both Ferrari and Leclerc for realising that Sainz was vulnerable to the Mercs and needed Leclerc to act as a tailgunner to keep them behind. Then Sainz pushing Norris into DRS range to run interference and then figuring that Hamilton and Russell would trip over one another. Incredible racecraft.

Also great drive from Lawson and solid performance from Alonso again making the most out of fading machinery. Really bad luck from Russell, given that Norris also hit the wall but was able to avoid major damage but it was a heavier hit for Russell.

Also an impressive stall-out from Tsunoda where the managed to park the car in such a way they were able to clear it off the track in about 5 seconds flat.

[Wouter]

Sainz often shows that he can 'read' a race from within the cockpit, and his call to manage the distance to Norris so that the latter could remain within DRS range without being able to seriously threaten an overtake, was brilliant and won him the race.

While the Red Bull was shocking in qualifying, the impression is that it was already much better in race trim. I wonder if their problems will persist in Suzuka, or not.