F1 2023 season

First topic message reminder :

Chinese Grand Prix is officially cancelled again.

I think (think) if Sainz gets a penalty, Hulkenburg might be on the podium

Going back to the order of the previous restart to complete the final lap under SC. So Alonso keeps his podium

Alonso knows all the rules lmao

It happened at Silverstone last year to him.

Seems a bit silly, the restart didn't happen, but it did to count a lap and for the cars that are now out. Needs some kind of formal rule as to what happens in the event a SC would finish the race because the wink nod arrangement between the FIA and teams still isn't working

5 seconds for Sainz so that's gonna be a lot of cars hustling up behind him

Haas has appealed the result.

I wonder whether they turned up the power on Russell's car to improve their competitiveness. Always a difficult decision. Expensive day for many teams.

Haas appeal rejected so the result stands

In hindsight, going for a standing start with two laps to go was reckless from the officials and plays into the theory that this is no longer a sport and more about entertainment.

Just because we haven't had enough of applying controversy to titles, Massa is taking legal advice on whether he can challenge the 2008 title based on Bernie admitting the FIA knew about crashgate during that season and should've voided the Singapore GP

F1 gives me brain damage…

For some reason, qualifying in Imola will mandate hards in Q1, mediums in Q2 and softs in Q3

So more amendments made to the sprint format.
Friday’s qualifying session now sets the grid for Sunday’s main race.
FP2 has been removed. A separate qualifying session replaces FP2 just for the sprint race.
So Saturdays will essentially be a standalone sprint event…

I'm good with that. Can't really complain at more racing. Less practice means more potential for upsets as teams have less time for optimization

The Hamilton-Ferrari thing seems to be stirring again.
Wolff last night stated Mercedes hasn’t got anyone lined up if Hamilton retires or joins another team. First time he’s actually acknowledged Hamilton could leave Mercedes.

Aston Martin and Honda working on a deal for 2026. Honda only willing to work with one team.

Also being reported 6 teams are struggling to meet the budget cap - Red Bull isn’t one of them.

Some have suggested Lando Norris is being lined up to go to Mercedes if McLaren don't get their act together. I suppose it depends on when LH leaves Mercedes. A while ago there was big noises regarding Pourchaire as the next potential star but I guess he is signed up by others. Maybe Mercedes would like a Germanic driver at some point - not sure how many of them are about.

James Allison returns as Mercedes technical director. Last throw of the dice to get the car right before Hamilton decides to cut his losses.

Red Bull has opted to retain AlphaTauri, no offers will be considered.
AlphaTauri has also lured Laurent Mekies from Ferrari.
Big trouble at Maranello…

The new sprint format is dumb. What next in the name of "entertainment"? Toto and Horner wrestling where the one that climbs the ladder first can open the briefcase containing the cost cap overage for this season.

FIA has amended the engine element quotas for 2023.
Effective immediately driver are now permitted 4 ICE, Turbo, MGU-K and MGU-H before receiving grid penalties.
Russell and LeClerc will break slightly more easily, but will most likely still require a 5th PU at some point.

I think Friday GP quali and then Saturday spring quali is slightly silly. Would rather see the sprint baked into one mini event with qualifying being 1 hotlap each followed by the race an hour later, with no parc ferme

I'd rather just not have a sprint tbh.

So LeClerc tried to deny he's been speaking to Mercedes about replacing Hamilton - LeClerc has an agreement should Hamilton retire or go to Ferrari.

I'd rather have more racing than less racing.

Sprint offers nothing to the sport.
They want senseless carnage.
Just remember if you have a massive incident during the sprint weekend you could end up losing 34pts on your rivals now.

As the Saturday Sprint race and qualifying is completely separated from the main Sunday Race and Friday Qualifying - why not use different cars for Saturday and not risk the super expensive F1 cars with all the associated cost limits?  

Here is my idea: for each Saturday Sprint Race the drivers qualify and sprint race in the same spec car associated with the country of the race.  So in Britain they could use Robin Reliants, in France they can use Renault Cleos and so forth.

Charles LeClerc with a mesmerising lap to take pole position. 2th clear of Verstappen and Perez.

LeClerc also takes pole for the sprint ahead of Perez and Verstappen

Azerbaijan has signed a contract extension until the end of 2026.
Slightly strange how the Azeris can host a race when they are continually bombing Armenia...and in reality Azerbaijan should be cancelled with immediate effect.

The red bull drs is insane. Perez blasts past LeClerc like the red car was a different category

Street circuit specialist Sergio Perez wins the sprint. LeClerc second and Verstappen third.

Sainz
Russell
Alonso
Hamilton
Stroll

Complete the points. Mercedes woeful despite the various new parts they added.

Red Bull + DRS…
Verstappen blasts passed LeClerc like the Ferrari wasn’t there lmao

Ferrari by all accounts blast the battery on their quali lap. No match for the RB over a race distance.

Get why max was grumpy but George was clumsy rather than malicious. Happens sometimes

de Vries bins it. Subsequent safety car costs his pal Verstappen the lead

RB probably should've cancelled that call to box with yellow flags out

Grumpy max behind his teammate because of bad fortune. Horner is Poopie it

Sainz just isn’t good enough…he’s a weak link

Sergio Perez’s love affair continues with Baku - 2 wins, 1 second and 2 third(and sprint win as well).
Verstappen second and he was most certainly no match for Perez this weekend.
LeClerc with a deserved podium at one of his most favourite tracks.

Alonso, Sainz, Hamilton, Stroll, Russell, Ocon and Norris complete the points.

The photographers in the pit lane before the race ended. Ocon nearly ran them over. Stupidity never ends in F1

Eh. Verstappen likely wins without the SC. Perez had enough pace to hold the gap today though.

They need to rethink the compounds, the hards doing nearly an entire race makes for very dull races

When Max pitted his rear tyres were cooked and the gap was 1.1secs. He subsequently cooked his rears on the hards as well.
Perez did not suffer this.
This was Perez’s race. No doubts.

While they're sorting out the pit lane nonsense that happened at the end they should probably close the loophole that you can overtake in the pit entry. Pretty scary how close George gets to the RB and Ferrari pit crews that really aren't paying attention to anything other than their own cars because he's gone side by side with Stroll

I concur with Jeff, to me Perez had Verstappen's number in both the Sprint and the Race. Verstappen was called in a bit early because his tyres were going off and Perez was within DRS of him. Credit when credit is due.

The changes to the floor to reduce the bouncing seems to be having the effect feared that teams are now having to use aero to make up for the lost downforce and we're regressing back to when cars couldn't follow. So remember the next time Toto says he's not gonna play politics.

It's funny Mercedes designed a terrible car(W13) then begged to have the rules changed to have Red Bull reigned in.
Firstly Red Bull never had any real issue with the bouncing and the flexi floor(which Russell stated as fact that 'Red Bull was cheating') again didn't effect Red Bull.
Then Mercedes got these floor changes implemented, and again they made no difference to Red Bull.
Maybe time for Wolff to look in the mirror and see Mercedes are the lame duck...

Everyone does it there's just a holier than thou attitude when it comes to Mercedes though

Adrian Newey has re-upped at Red Bull - no details are shared of the terms of the extension, but supposedly will run in parallel to Verstappen's deal.

If ever you wanted to put someone off getting into F1, get them to watch the Baku 2023 weekend. The entire thing was an absolute snoozefest.

GSC wrote:I'd rather have more racing than less racing.

Do you still think this after Baku?