F1 2023 season

First topic message reminder :

Chinese Grand Prix is officially cancelled again.

Verstappen is just different gravy...

Verstappen pole
Alonso
LeClerc
Ocon
Sainz Jr
Hamilton
Gasly
Russell
Tsunoda
Norris

Track evolution on street circuits is almost like quali on a drying track. So much time to be found at the very end.

Unfortunately the race is an exercise in going slowly enough to one stop so I don't hold out much hope of Fernando pulling it off tomorrow

Don't think LeClerc is going to lining up P3 after a very obvious block on Norris in the tunnel

And 3 places for one of the most obvious blocks in quali you'll see

Verstappen starts on mediums
Alonso on hards

Perez boxes after lap 1 and goes for the whole race on hards.

Stroll showing how rubbish he is…

Sainz runs into your back of Ocon. Sainz breaks end plate. No damage for Ocon. A bit amateur hour from Sainz.

It's chucking it down. Carnage

Alonso had to pit twice after boxing for fresh mediums just before it started absolutely started hammering it down.

This is carnage. Insane

I get what Aston tried. Stay on the dry compounds and try to pin RB deciding whether to use the wets. If it failed they have the gap to pit again. Just didn't work but nothing lost really

Was entertaining for 10 minutes which is more than you normally get here.

Max Verstappen masters Monte Carlo to win the Monaco GP. It's a historic victory for the Dutchman, his 39th for Red Bull Racing(all time record for the team) - breaking the tie with Sebastian Vettel.
Fernando Alonso a thoroughly well deserved second place and Esteban Ocon equally well deserved third place.

Mercedes luck out a bit to finish 4th and 5th.

1. Verstappen
2. Alonso
3. Ocon
4. Hamilton
5. Russell
6. LeClerc
7. Gasly
8. Sainz
9. Norris
10. Piastri

Shocking day for Sergio Perez. You don't give someone like Verstappen a free 25pts, if you really believe you can be WDC...

Max rises above the carnage as per. Alonso a comfy P2 and Ocon holding his nerve to convert his grid spot

Reminder they finally got rid of the horrible last chicane at Barcelona and set it back to the fast right hander

GSC wrote:I get what Aston tried. Stay on the dry compounds and try to pin RB deciding whether to use the wets. If it failed they have the gap to pit again. Just didn't work but nothing lost really

Feels like they should have gone the other way, gamble for Inters knowing that if it doesn't rain enough, they'd still have the gap to pit again. Seemed to be focusing on behind rather than ahead.

In hindsight yeah. Think in the moment both teams thought it wasn't gonna be wet enough for Fernando to make up 10 seconds on a lap as Max would've immediately covered

Ferrari Red Bull Racing

Logan Sargeant is pitifully bad. Probably worse than Latifi.

Charles LeClerc starts P19

Perez 11th
Russell 12th

Russell and Hamilton crashed into each at the end of Q2 as well.

Verstappen crushing Pole position by nearly 0.5 off a second
Sainz
Norris
Gasly
Hamilton
Stroll
Ocon
Hulkenberg
Alonso
Piastri

Only one run for Max in Q3 also.

A lot of drivers out of sequence could make for some fun tomorrow. But hard to see an alternative winner

LeClerc saying there's an issue with his car, probably means a pitlane start and probably a new engine to relieve the pressure.

Gasly probably not holding p4

6 place drop ( 2 penalties) for Gasly

Perez three times this season has totally flopped in qualifying - Melbourne, Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
Were the RB19 not the cream of the crop and there was a genuine fight for the WCC, I think Perez would be under pressure to buck up his ideas.
That said I would it would be a minor miracle if Red Bull didn't win both titles from 2022-2025.

Eh he's already proven he's a better bet than Bottas, and beyond that hes a fairly compliant #2 to Verstappen. As long as he's not Lance Strolling a quality car they're fine with him as the second driver

GSC wrote:A lot of drivers out of sequence could make for some fun tomorrow. But hard to see an alternative winner

I found more value in backing Max to DNF than I did backing anyone else to win

7/1 to DNF, 1/5 to win. Only a crash or a failure stops him today.

Major props to Red Bull for what they have created and achieved but F1 as a sport is currently at its peak. How long before all the casual viewers from DTS switch off due to the 'product' not really being that great with the domination?

Yes, I know we've gone through different periods of domination throughout the sport. However the sport is in a unique position now and is more popular than it has ever been. But as a consumer product, it is not good.

Max Verstappen crushes them all again to win the Spanish GP - the Dutchman’s 40th win in F1.

Verstappen + FL
Hamilton
Russell
Perez
Sainz
Stroll
Alonso
Ocon
Tsunoda
Zhou.

It promised a bit but never really did much today. Mercedes will be happy to be a clear 2 today, AM and Ferrari faded badly on Sunday

Wolff hyping up finishing 25 second off the leader…never seen anything more ridiculous. Verstappen could’ve won by over 60 seconds if he wanted to.
Mercedes made the same ridiculous claims last year after a half decent showing in Barcelona…

Tuned in for 10mins....nothing happened.

Yeah Barca isn't usually a great track tbh. Add that AM and Ferrari had poor race pace and it was a bit of a letdown

Jeff Navarro wrote:Wolff hyping up finishing 25 second off the leader…never seen anything more ridiculous. Verstappen could’ve won by over 60 seconds if he wanted to.
Mercedes made the same ridiculous claims last year after a half decent showing in Barcelona…

Merc have made a lot of progress since the start of the season. They were clearly the second fastest car today, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

Pr4wn wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Wolff hyping up finishing 25 second off the leader…never seen anything more ridiculous. Verstappen could’ve won by over 60 seconds if he wanted to.
Mercedes made the same ridiculous claims last year after a half decent showing in Barcelona…

Merc have made a lot of progress since the start of the season. They were clearly the second fastest car today, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

This is a track where Mercedes always go well. Finishing 25 seconds off the leader, whom started on the slower tyres and also used the hard tyres, isn’t exactly a noteworthy achievement.

If Perez were Red Bull's top driver - then this season would still be competitive in terms of challenging for race wins.  It is the "Verstappen - Red Bull" combination that is so far ahead of the rest this season (including his team mate) that makes F1 currently so predictable when it comes to race wins.  This season they are more dominant than last season because the reliability issues have been sorted out.  

It is difficult to know whether some teams have really gone backwards this season because "F1 Sport" is always moving forward - so a team that have gone backwards may have made a developmental mistake or the rest of the field may have moved forward.  

It seems that both Ferrari and McLaren have gone backwards this season and this seems to be connected with Ferrari firing Binotti and McLaren losing team principal Andreas Seidl.   Meanwhile Williams are a continuous source of disappointment.

I have a question: if Michael Masi hadn't have made that last lap ad hoc against the rule book decision in 2021, and Hamilton had won his 8th drivers championship - would Hamilton have retired or would he retire earlier than his current intentions?

Some say a true F1 driver doesn't retire they just get slower and when they are not as competitive as before they either retire or get forced to retire.  Vettel for instance was pushed out of Ferrari and then a few years later retired.  Alonso is someone who seemed to have lost his way but played a long game, including taking time out, to find his way back into a competitive car (although not a race winning car - there are not many around at this present time). Michael Schumacher's first retirement in 2006 was apparently because he was being forced out of a racing car seat at Ferrari. He returned in 2010 for Mercedes and retired at the end of the 2012 season - possibly pushed out because of Mercedes plans to get Hamilton into the team.

RB have improved, Ferrari and Mercedes have gone backwards and AM are the big winners relative to last year at this point. the only time someones gotten within 20 seconds of the lead RB is Australia when it finished under SC. And in reality RB aren't pushing the car on Sundays. It's a chasm to bridge rn.

At minimum Mercedes new package seems to be there or there abouts relative to the AM and Ferrari even if it may be track sensitive.

Ferrari seem to have an issue understanding how the car is going to behave on Sundays. The quali pace is fine, but it seems very variable race to race how its gonna perform on Sundays.

Jeff Navarro wrote:

Pr4wn wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Wolff hyping up finishing 25 second off the leader…never seen anything more ridiculous. Verstappen could’ve won by over 60 seconds if he wanted to.
Mercedes made the same ridiculous claims last year after a half decent showing in Barcelona…

Merc have made a lot of progress since the start of the season. They were clearly the second fastest car today, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

This is a track where Mercedes always go well. Finishing 25 seconds off the leader, whom started on the slower tyres and also used the hard tyres, isn’t exactly a noteworthy achievement.

Why are you comparing them to RB? Literally nobody has said that Merc is close to them. In fact, they're all saying that RB is still streets ahead and uncatchable.

They're happy that they have seemingly closed in on Ferrari and Aston Martin, as they should be.

Pr4wn wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:

Pr4wn wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Wolff hyping up finishing 25 second off the leader…never seen anything more ridiculous. Verstappen could’ve won by over 60 seconds if he wanted to.
Mercedes made the same ridiculous claims last year after a half decent showing in Barcelona…

Merc have made a lot of progress since the start of the season. They were clearly the second fastest car today, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

This is a track where Mercedes always go well. Finishing 25 seconds off the leader, whom started on the slower tyres and also used the hard tyres, isn’t exactly a noteworthy achievement.

Why are you comparing them to RB? Literally nobody has said that Merc is close to them. In fact, they're all saying that RB is still streets ahead and uncatchable.

They're happy that they have seemingly closed in on Ferrari and Aston Martin, as they should be.

Because the benchmark is Red Bull not Aston Martin and more definitely not Ferrari…
Mercedes over hyping a half decent result.
When they flop in Canada they’ll be crying again.

Jeff Navarro wrote:

Pr4wn wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:

Pr4wn wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Wolff hyping up finishing 25 second off the leader…never seen anything more ridiculous. Verstappen could’ve won by over 60 seconds if he wanted to.
Mercedes made the same ridiculous claims last year after a half decent showing in Barcelona…

Merc have made a lot of progress since the start of the season. They were clearly the second fastest car today, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

This is a track where Mercedes always go well. Finishing 25 seconds off the leader, whom started on the slower tyres and also used the hard tyres, isn’t exactly a noteworthy achievement.

Why are you comparing them to RB? Literally nobody has said that Merc is close to them. In fact, they're all saying that RB is still streets ahead and uncatchable.

They're happy that they have seemingly closed in on Ferrari and Aston Martin, as they should be.

Because the benchmark is Red Bull not Aston Martin and more definitely not Ferrari…
Mercedes over hyping a half decent result.
When they flop in Canada they’ll be crying again.

Rent-free. Bizarre stuff.

George Russell has signed a new long term deal with Mercedes.

The Canadian Grand Prix is under threat for forest fires. A decision will be made soon about how they will proceed.

Sainz crashes heavily in wet conditions in FP3 in Montreal

Verstappen pole in the Montreal rain.
Hulkenberg
Alonso
Hamilton
Russell
Ocon
Norris
Sainz
Piastri
Albon

Perez and LeClerc out in Q2.

Russell crashed and causes a safety car.