Formula1 Talk

[MadManCK]

Damon Hill made an interesting tweet. I tend to agree to a certain level. Dominance is bad for a sport. And with the ridiculous amount of 1.500 employees, Mercedes will continue to do so, as they can literally try out every idea and test every possible variation of these ideas.
Where is the time a small talented team could have a miracle season, like Jordan, Sauber, Tyrell and Williams had in the past.

However, i think Ferrari and Mercedes should stay in F1. But the FIA has to enforce a new set of rules, that will benefit the sport in general and not only large manufacturers.

[MadManCK]

Ferrari was alert with a brilliant strategy, during the virtual safety car. Mercedes has a lot of engineers, but little common sense. They lost the race there. Now they try to blame the analytics software, but this was a human error.

It became clear that overtaking is not possible in Albert Park, despite the 3 DRS zones. Only Ricciardo made a cool move on Hulkenberg, who was not fiercely defending either.

HAAS Team had a very good start with Magnussen moving to 4th. But a double pitstop mistake took both drivers out of the race.

Max ruined his own race with a spin, due to overheating tires. He recovered nicely but was forced to let Alonso pass after the pit exit and the following yellow zone. Old fox Alonso never let him pass afterwards.
Bottas was not able to capitalize on the speed of the Mercedes. Ricciardo finished just outside the podium. Hamilton tried to attack Vettel in the closing stages of the race, but was also not able to come closer than 0.5 sec. It must have been very frustrating for drivers like Ricciardo, Hamilton and Verstappen, knowing they were faster than the car in front of them, but never really getting a chance to overtake.

McLaren had a nice result with both cars in the points, so did Renault.

They (FIA/FOM) need to find a way to force teams to reduce air disturbance behind a car. That and the massive heath, make it impossible for drivers to get really close and to race the cars in front of them.

Race result Australian GP 2018;

1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 58
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 58
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 58
4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 58
5 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 58
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 58
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 58
8 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 58
9 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 58
10 Carlos Sainz Renault 58
11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 58
12 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 58
13 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 58
14 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 58
15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 57
- Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 24
- Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 22
- Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 13
- Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 5
- Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 4

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13502 ... -melbourne

[Beardroid91]

So heart breaking to lose both Haas racers due to crosstreaded wheel nuts, i litterally to just quit watching after i saw that happen to them, as they where running very good, and Deadbull could match them at all.

So Deadbull needs to step it up as they got lucky to get so many points today, but their car has shitty race pace.

[MadManCK]

they where running very good, and Deadbull could match them at all.

So Deadbull needs to step it up as they got lucky to get so many points today, but their car has shitty race pace.

This is not true. Thanks to the layout of this circuit, the air disturbance and heath behind the F1 cars, it is almost impossible to get close racing and to overtake.
Max was held up by Magnussen, after the HAAS moved to 4th after the start. Ricciardo could not get past Kimi's Ferrari and Hamilton could not get past Vettel's Ferrari. Not to mention Bottas who got stuck the whole race.
The RBR probably had the best race pace of them all. Mercedes is only on top when they are front runners.
Ferrari grabbed a well deserved win due to a clever pit stop strategy, something they lacked last year.

HAAS runs a modified Ferrari 2017 chassis and are clearly the 4th team on the grid now. McLaren and Renault come next. But both are slower. Speed differences are still significant. On a track where you can overtake more easily, this will become more clear.

There were more reasons to switch off your TV. Despite all kinds of initiatives to make the sport more interesting to watch, the stupid FIA rules are killing it. Add to that the removal of Grid girls and the view blocking HALO and you can see that F1 is losing its appeal quickly.

There are rumors, that Mercedes and Ferrari want to start their own championship. It would lead to a similar situation as has happened in the US with the Champ Cars and IndyCars series. Not good for F1.

But all teams received less revenues last year, due to Liberty Global spending tons of money on promotional activities that not everybody is waiting for. Teams need that money. And FIA needs to come up with a new set of rules, everybody can live with. Starting with the new engine rules for 2021.

[Beardroid91]

Lol if Max where so much faster then why did he make a noob mistake and spin 360*, the Deadbull's clearly didn't have any more pace otherwise they would have been able to pass as Verstappen is know for his overtaking so yea... the Deadbulls are not fast enough on racepace once their super advanced aero is running in dirty air.

I think this season could be the best yet, with 4 even 5 or 6 teams being very competitive.

[MadManCK]

All F1 cars suffer from dirty air behind other cars, especially Mercedes.
Max' car had a damaged diffuser, causing mid corner oversteer. That spin was indeed a stupid error, but before that you could already see him fighting with the handling. Ricciardo went steady to both Ferraris, but was never able to overtake Kimi, despite being over a second faster in laptimes before. Alonso was teaching some lessons, how to keep a young and eager Verstappen behind him. But he also lost significant time on Ricciardo. McLaren is at least one second off the pace.

There will be 2 major battles this season. The first between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. The second between HAAS, McLaren and Renault. The rest is too far behind to be competitive. Including last seasons 4th team Force India.

The cool part about this, are the potential battles for the points. And the difference between the front runners is a lot smaller than during last season's start. A team to watch will be Renault. As a factory team they will have to close the gap towards Red Bull.

[Beardroid91]

True, but then they should just divebomb the corners

And yea it is a very interesting season, i just hope Haas can put on the wheel knots on correctly next race.

[MadManCK]

Ross Brawn has been working with a dedicated team for a while now to implement changes in aerodynamical design, so future F1 cars will be able to race more closely.
It is a well known "secret", that most teams' aerodynamics specialists spend just as much time on creating dirty air behind the car as generating downforce and reduce drag. This has to change. Especially if you aim for more close racing and overtake opportunities.

“One vital ingredient was missing, namely overtaking, as there were really very few passing moves in this opening round,” he said.

“It's vital that the cars are capable of getting close to one another and racing wheel to wheel.

“When there is only a small speed gap between two cars then it's almost impossible for the pursuer to get close enough to mount an attack.

“We saw that yesterday with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Sebastien] Vettel, Verstappen and [Kevin] Magnussen and again the Dutchman and [Fernando] Alonso and with [Daniel] Ricciardo and [Kimi] Raikkonen.

"Think of how much wheel-to-wheel dicing we missed out on. And, for the very first time, we even had a third DRS zone specifically to increase the chances of overtaking.”

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/braw ... e-1019316/

[MadManCK]

New proposals for engine regulations as well as a blue print for new sporting regulations will be presented next week at Bahrain. The newly appointed technical staff has done research, listened to all teams and it is expected the new proposals will be more polished and a base for the final set of rules and regulations from 2021.

New engine rules need to be finalized before May, for new engine manufacturers to get proper preparation and development time.

MHU-H will most likely have to go. Expensive, hard to get reliable and unfit for mass production in daily drivers are the most important arguments against it. Only Mercedes and Ferrari want it to stay. Figures...

Cost reduction will be another battle.

I'm looking forward to these new propositions.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13505 ... -next-week

[MadManCK]

New Formula 1 propositions

Power units (PU)

• The PU must be cheaper, simpler, louder, have more power and reduce the necessity of grid
penalties.
• It must remain road relevant, hybrid and allow manufacturers to build unique and original PU.
• New PU rules must be attractive for new entrants and Customer teams must have access to
equivalent performance.

Costs

• Liberty believes how you spend the money must be more decisive and important than how much
money you spend.
• While there will be some standardised elements, car differentiation must remain a core value.
• Implement a cost cap that maintains Formula 1 position as the pinnacle of motorsport with a
state-of-the-art technology.

Revenues

• The new revenue distribution criteria must be more balanced, based on meritocracy of the
current performance and reward success for the teams and the Commercial Rights Holder.
• F1s unique, historical franchise and value must and will still be recognised.
• Revenue support to both cars and engine suppliers.

Sporting and technical rules & regulations

• It wants to make cars more raceable to increase overtaking opportunities.
• Engineering technology must remain a cornerstone but driver’s skill must be the predominant
factor in the performance of the car.
• The cars must and will remain different from each other and maintain performance
differentiators like aerodynamics, suspensions and PU performance. However, we believe areas
not relevant to fans need to be standardised.

Governance

• A simple and streamlined structure between the teams, the FIA and Formula 1.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/libe ... ey-1022191

There has also been a meeting, discussing the overtaking, or the lack of it.

By altering the shape of the front wing, remove some of the barge boards and use a different rear wing with more DRS effect, some of the air disturbance behind the cars can be undone, allowing closer racing.
Some of the new findings will lead to changes, that will be introduced for next season already. With a more thorough and evaluated earodynamical regulation for 2021 and on.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia- ... ng-1022018

I think the right people are involved with the new regulations and overtaking propositions. Lets see how F1 teams will turn this into another political funfair.