F1 2023 Season

Well done Lewis!

9 Poles at this track. Amazing effort.
 
I was quietly questioning people putting Max in the "greatest of all time" talk in this era of dominance. I rate his race craft but in equal machinery he isn't the best qualifier and there are a number of others on his equal over one lap pace.
Guy makes one subpar lap -> he cant be the best qualifier...
 
Perez is 9th, depressing stuff from him once again.

Ferrari slow as feck, bit saved by Leclerc's good lap again, I seriously don't expect them to finish in top8 tomorrow. Maybe if Hamilton and Max bin each other.
 
What a life. Yesterday Danica was on a yacht on the Mediterranean. Today interviewing F1 drivers in Hungary. The gap between the top percent of income and the rest keeps growing while they hop from country to country on private jets and yachts with the occasional job in between.
 
I'm beginning to wonder if Merc have picked the wrong young UK driver to follow Hamilton. Norris seems to make the most of what he's got whether that be the conditions or at last a decent car. Russell just seems like someone who will do well generally, but not necessarily great.
 
I was quietly questioning people putting Max in the "greatest of all time" talk in this era of dominance. I rate his race craft but in equal machinery he isn't the best qualifier and there are a number of others on his equal over one lap pace.

Charles is the best qualifier on the grid but is nowhere near as complete a driver.
 
I liked this interviewer whoever she is.
 
What happened then, is it just a track that suits the merc? I thought their race pace was better than qually this year, although I’ve not really been following as much as usual.
 
What happened then, is it just a track that suits the merc? I thought their race pace was better than qually this year, although I’ve not really been following as much as usual.
Its pretty much like Monaco where we had qualifying this close as well. Strange AM have fallen so far off, thought this would have suited them
 
What happened then, is it just a track that suits the merc? I thought their race pace was better than qually this year, although I’ve not really been following as much as usual.

Yes, same as last season. Probably merc’s strongest track on the calendar now
 
I think Max was onto something with the setup with regards to the corners because none of his laps looked clean at all and the car looked oddly erratic going through the turn, especially on the front end.
 
You were saying? ;)

Great lap by Hamilton to take pole!
Hmmmm......news comes out (unoffically) that two teams have breached the cost cap and one of the potential candidates suddenly slows down and is catchable after being utterly dominate all season?

Hmmmm.....
 
What happened then, is it just a track that suits the merc? I thought their race pace was better than qually this year, although I’ve not really been following as much as usual.

The Merc has been very draggy, but there aren’t any long straights here so should suit them more.
 
Guy makes one subpar lap -> he cant be the best qualifier...
Verstappen has had so many amazing qualifying laps to get pole it's ridiculous to say something like that

Hmmmm......news comes out (unoffically) that two teams have breached the cost cap and one of the potential candidates suddenly slows down and is catchable after being utterly dominate all season?

Hmmmm.....
:lol:
 
Hmmmm......news comes out (unoffically) that two teams have breached the cost cap and one of the potential candidates suddenly slows down and is catchable after being utterly dominate all season?

Hmmmm.....

Go on, expand on your theory
 
Weird interview with Russell, starts by blaming cars overtaking him at the end of his out lap "including Gasly" then changed his mind mid interview and end it's by saying it's not the other cars fault.

This is a very weird take.

He said the reason he lost the time was due to the other drivers, but he’d do the same in their position and was critical of Mercs tactics for putting him in that position.

I’m guessing you’re not a George fan, and seeing what you want to see.
 
Weird interview with Russell, starts by blaming cars overtaking him at the end of his out lap "including Gasly" then changed his mind mid interview and end it's by saying it's not the other cars fault.
It's down to this track and conditions, where you need to hold the tyres in specific range of warmth to not over do them in the fast lap and end up losing the grip on last sector.
 
This is a very weird take.

He said the reason he lost the time was due to the other drivers, but he’d do the same in their position and was critical of Mercs tactics for putting him in that position.

I’m guessing you’re not a George fan, and seeing what you want to see.

Nobody's a George fan, let's be honest here.
 
I'm beginning to wonder if Merc have picked the wrong young UK driver to follow Hamilton. Norris seems to make the most of what he's got whether that be the conditions or at last a decent car. Russell just seems like someone who will do well generally, but not necessarily great.

Russell beat Hamilton just last year, I feel it's just not his year tbf. He'll definitely need to improve until end of the season though.
 
Russell beat Hamilton just last year, I feel it's just not his year tbf. He'll definitely need to improve until end of the season though.
Hamilton sacrificed car setup last year alot to get to the bottom of the porporsing issues. Also mercedes have said the car is (now james allison is back) being designed around hamilton's needs rather than george.

Also when mercedes actually have a good race car, id expext hamilton to regularly have a 0.1-0.3 gap to russell as thats pretty much par for the course for the best of their generation inb relation to their teammate i.e. verstappen, hamilton and alonso.
 
Hamilton sacrificed car setup last year alot to get to the bottom of the porporsing issues. Also mercedes have said the car is (now james allison is back) being designed around hamilton's needs rather than george.

Also when mercedes actually have a good race car, id expext hamilton to regularly have a 0.1-0.3 gap to russell as thats pretty much par for the course for the best of their generation inb relation to their teammate i.e. verstappen, hamilton and alonso.

It certainly looks that way watching these two seasons. Russel did some amazing strategy calls this season too, and had some bad luck too.

Regarding second part of the post, peak Hamilton - yes. Last two years Hamilton doesn't look very agressive and out of this world driver at all, I would compare him very much with Alonso, they make consistent lap race after race, they are very smart, but when it comes to overtaking, risky moves, they actually look their age.
 
Nobody's a George fan, let's be honest here.
As true statement as it gets. I don't know what happened but in Williams he was semi likeable and I was excited when he got Merc seat so I can see him challenge Lewis, mind I'm not biggest Lewis fan.

I don't know what happened to him but since joining Merc he became so unlikable. Dull, full of himself, cocky and full of that stereotypical British unlikeliness using words crickey etc. As a Verstappen fan I never thought I would say that but between Lewis and him I prefer Lewis much more.
 
Max not at his imperious best today, but was still only just beaten by Hamilton. He'll still win tomorrow I think. He'll take Lewis quite early, but I don't think he's going to sail off into the distance as he normally would.
 
Verstappen has had so many amazing qualifying laps to get pole it's ridiculous to say something like that

Simply a case of bias and complete refusal to acknowledge the facts. The facts being, that he's up there as one of the best of all time with Hamilton, Schumacher, etc. There's literally no point in engaging with someone like that on this forum. It's one thing not to like him(which is fine), but to deny reality is just silly and bitter.
 
Max not at his imperious best today, but was still only just beaten by Hamilton. He'll still win tomorrow I think. He'll take Lewis quite early, but I don't think he's going to sail off into the distance as he normally would.
RB normally setup their car for the race rather than than qually which is why leclerc can get close in qually but not in the race. Id expect the same tomorrow, the RB after a few laps of warming up the fronts will zoom off.
 
RB normally setup their car for the race rather than than qually which is why leclerc can get close in qually but not in the race. Id expect the same tomorrow, the RB after a few laps of warming up the fronts will zoom off.

True.

I just get the sense that others are catching up, mainly due to RB having less space to improve, so I'm not sure he's gonna speed off tomorrow. Merc looks really fast, and Lewis looks happy...perhaps Max only wins by a mere 15 seconds!

I'm just happy to see Mclaren doing well finally.
 
Max not at his imperious best today, but was still only just beaten by Hamilton. He'll still win tomorrow I think. He'll take Lewis quite early, but I don't think he's going to sail off into the distance as he normally would.

Well he does have an incredibly dominant car so hardly surprising that even when the stars align for another team it's marginal.

And yeah I expect a max win.
 
I think the gap has been reduced. If we're going by Silverstone the Red Bull under Max can pull out 2/3 tenths per lap to the McLaren. But they also have to manage tyres. Good strategy call could pip it for Lewis or the McLarens
 
No he was always blaming the strategy. He said that drivers are doing what's best for them and that's okay.

He did blame Gasly and rightly so, Russel was overtaken just as he started to accelerate out of the last corner for his final lap which made him have to lift/brake and subsequently lose 0.3sec before he even got to the first corner.

A lot of drivers don't bother with the gentleman's agreement but what Gasly did just can't happen. If I made the rules he would be dropped a few positions for tomorrow.
 
I think this result is situational. The Hungaroringhas hardly any straights, while the RB has made large parts of it time out of it DRS and Mclaren has been quick on the straights.