F1 2022 Season

Don’t think he’s being honest. Max lost power through a corner.

Possibly a sensor issue like what Perez had in Miami.
Fair enough, he was being interviewed by sky f1. Maybe he got it wrong.
Merc will be closer on race pace but they are still too far off to compete, it will come too late now.

Max will win tomorrow.
Think it will be close again between leclerc and max. Reliability in that heat might decide it.
 
Leclerc needs to beat Max or it’s going to start to become inevitable, I reckon elbows out at T1.
 
I think they’ll see the result as a positive though. They are now clearly the third fastest team which wasn’t given so far and they are much closer. Not close enough yet for sure. But rare in F1 to make huge steps.
They have a chance to win at Monaco as Merc is the best car on the grid in low speed corners. I think both russell and Hamilton will both win a gp each this season as a minimum. Theres still alot of races to go.
 
Leclerc needs to beat Max or it’s going to start to become inevitable, I reckon elbows out at T1.
Would help if sainz wasnt so shite and useless. Just not in that elite level of driver that max, lewis, fernando are. Leclerc will be there if he can hold off max this season to win the WDC.
 
Would help if sainz wasnt so shite and useless. Just not in that elite level of driver that max, lewis, fernando are. Leclerc will be there if he can hold off max this season to win the WDC.

It's the same for all the top teams though - Perez, Russell and Sainz are all so so drivers...over-the-hill, everything to prove and average respectfully.
 
Decent from Haas considering they didn't bring any updates. Hopefully Red Bull can sort out their issues so we don't see another DNF for Max tomorrow. And fair play to George Russell again. Having an impressive season so far.
 
It's the same for all the top teams though - Perez, Russell and Sainz are all so so drivers...over-the-hill, everything to prove and average respectfully.

How is Russel a so so driver? He’s done better than anyone could ever ask of him in every single F1 car he’s ever driven and is now outperforming a 7-time world champion in pretty much every race.
 
It's the same for all the top teams though - Perez, Russell and Sainz are all so so drivers...over-the-hill, everything to prove and average respectfully.

Tell me you know nothing about F1, without telling me you know nothing about F1.
 
Mercedes did what Red Bull did in the second test and brought an update that resolved the bouncing on the straights so they are basically a few months behind in development it seems. I expect them to be challenging in the race.

Red Bull have had some excellent races and poor races whereas Ferrari are super consistent. The hot weather could play into the tyre management and reliability issues for Red Bull otherwise I do fancy Max if he has a good start.

I don’t think there will be much over taking tomorrow and not many drivers are out of place.
 
Russell is right up there with Max and Leclerc on raw qualifying pace.

Wheel to wheel though he's still very untested. And of course he's never had the pressure of actually being a title contender. He's had the most low pressure introduction to Merc he could possibly have fighting it out for 5th with the 3rd fastest car and a team mate off his game.
 
Russell is right up there with Max and Leclerc on raw qualifying pace.

Wheel to wheel though he's still very untested. And of course he's never had the pressure of actually being a title contender. He's had the most low pressure introduction to Merc he could possibly have fighting it out for 5th with the 3rd fastest car and a team mate off his game.
Agree with all this.
 
Great driving from Russell, monster lap from LeClerc and again Sainz has a shocker. Hamilton struggling with the new car. Max for race pace but tire management will be the deciding factor tomorrow. What a lap from Ferrari.
 
Ouch!

This year we see that the driver is very important in F1 but not crucial. Lewis is driving as good as he has been the last eight years. He was dominating the sport and breaking all the records and 100-and-something pole positions. And now he is doing a mega lap - as he said in Australia or somewhere like that - and he is one second behind. So, yeah - welcome,'' Alonso is clear about the sport to the BBC. According to the Spaniard, this is not an accusation against Hamilton, but shows a problem in the sport.

''This is F1. It is not going to be a fair sport in terms of numbers. It happened to me when I won the two championships [in 2005 and 2006 with Renault]. I was beating Michael Schumacher, but my car was more reliable at that time and had very good performance and you cannot praise enough that package because the headlines will still be the driver. And with Lewis it's the same. To have more than 100 pole positions in F1 is something unthinkable. You need to have the best car and package for many, many years.''

Also fair enough for being honest about his time as a champion too.
 
It is stating the obvious as well, though. Are there any champions in recent years who have ever won without the best overall car? Most of them aren’t even debatable.
 
It is stating the obvious as well, though. Are there any champions in recent years who have ever won without the best overall car? Most of them aren’t even debatable.

Max was the only one since Lewis winning ahead of Ferrari in 2008.

Before that, Hakkinen winning ahead of Ferrari in 99.
 
Max was the only one since Lewis winning ahead of Ferrari in 2008.

Before that, Hakkinen winning ahead of Ferrari in 99.
Except I think it’s debatable that the Red Bull wasn’t the best car last year. But I know you won’t agree on that so let’s not get into it :lol:
 
Except I think it’s debatable that the Red Bull wasn’t the best car last year. But I know you won’t agree on that so let’s not get into it :lol:

Haha last years thread definitely proved it's a dangerous topic for some. I do think it's an interesting debate though, and almost the exact same thing is happening again this season.

Ferrari have had the fastest car in qualy trim, with no fuel and softs bolted on they're close to untouchable. But Red Bull have the fastest car in the races with high fuel, straight line speed and slightly better tyre deg.

Which is exactly the same as last season, where Red Bull had the better qualifying pace but Mercedes had the fastest race car at the majority of tracks.
 
The Sky reporters were talking about Leclerc and Sainz having a big advantage on Max and Russell for the start because the racing line on the straights is very much on the left side of the track meaning the right side will be dirty. I thought this was the case for most tracks but they felt the need to mention it specifically so maybe it's worse here?
 
The Sky reporters were talking about Leclerc and Sainz having a big advantage on Max and Russell for the start because the racing line on the straights is very much on the left side of the track meaning the right side will be dirty. I thought this was the case for most tracks but they felt the need to mention it specifically so maybe it's worse here?

I dont think it is, Max got a pretty good start in the same position last year after all.
 
It's the same for all the top teams though - Perez, Russell and Sainz are all so so drivers...over-the-hill, everything to prove and average respectfully.
Thats quite a harsh assessment. I may give sainz some stick, but it could be that the porposing in the ferrari (the sainz onboard showed how bad it was for the driver) could be the difference between him and leclerc. Also leclerc had some sort of upgrade to his car that dainz didnt. This was mentioned in fp3 without going into specifics. However sainz has made too many mistakes this season, especially as each time you bin the car, the repair bill eats up some of your development budget.

Perez could and would be quicker if the car developed around his driving style i.e. understeer rather than max who prefers a car that oversteers especially in corners where he can correct a snap oversteer and gasly, albion etc struggled to do so. Unfortunately for perez he is a no2 and his goal is to back up max on track and take points off maxs competition. He has to compromise his driving style to do so.

Russell is the future of Mercedes just as leclerc, max, lando are the future of their respective teams.

For all the information F1 gives the armchair fan what we dont get to find out is how a car is reacting for a driver and his driving style around a low/med/high speed corner?
Is it stable under braking and corner entry?
Is it oversteering or understeering?
Is the driver having to wait on purpose before putting the power down so he doesnt light up the rears or tear the rubber on the tyre?
Whats the rotation of the back end of the car like?
Does that particular driver prefer a car with pull rod ot push rod suspension?
Do they have an identical car parts wise to their teammate?
Has their engineers got the setup wrong?
Have the powertrain guys got the wrong engine map on the car for engine braking?
Has the team asked the two drivers to diverge on setup to get different data sets?

There are so many factors at play its crazy, but for us armchair fans it comes down to laptime as to how we judge a driver. Thats the bit of information we see on screen and hear about most. Its a shame we dont get more information but its understandable that the teams want to keep the strengths and weaknesses of their cars a secret.
 
Ouch!



Also fair enough for being honest about his time as a champion too.
As good as fernando is as a racer i.e. amongst the very best he has a huge flaw in his character. As we all know you cant build a team around fernando because of his fiery nature and unlike schmacher and hamilton he doesnt pull a team around him and get the best out of them.

If speed, race craft and teamwork makeup the core of a driver. Then schmacher was by far the best at the teamwork aspect especially at ferrari. Alonso has the speed and racecraft but sucks at the teamwork aspect as did kimi for example. Some drivers just do, its not in their nature to do the teamwork side of things with the garage. Thats why for all his talents, he wont get back into a ferrari or a red bull or a Mercedes. The top drivers attract the best money, the best engineers and the best teams. But if they have a flaw like fernando then they wont.
 
So apparently the flexible floor was the root cause of the issues of Mercedes porposing.

Totto Wolff:

"..Wolff also explained that the German marque had been able to solve the bouncing problems through the work done back at their Brackley headquarters.

"It's simple; it's all an aerodynamic effect that creates from the floor swinging," Wolff told Sky Sports. "It was difficult to come to that conclusion in a scientific way, but the team have found it and that's great.

"We know how to unlock more performance, but we're not yet there - it's step by step.

"The other teams have continued to develop their cars when we've been in a sort of pause moment to find out about the bouncing. So, we can pick up the regular development as soon as we understand the tyres now the bouncing is gone..."
 
Ouch!



Also fair enough for being honest about his time as a champion too.
Alonso has always been bitter about being usurped by a young Hamilton. Great driver though. And it has always been that the best drivers need the car to be good enough to win. It is a standard part of F1 over decades.
 
Max was the only one since Lewis winning ahead of Ferrari in 2008.

Before that, Hakkinen winning ahead of Ferrari in 99.
Max had the best car over the majority of last season and then should've lost if not for rule breaking, so I don't think that's a good example of a "lesser" car winning.
 
The screen graphic that says "car performance ranking" during the races and quali, the one that states how much one driver is faster than the other on the straights, on slow turns etc. Anyone know where can I find this data on this seasons races? I've found some on Twitter but hoping there's a place where it's all together.
 
The screen graphic that says "car performance ranking" during the races and quali, the one that states how much one driver is faster than the other on the straights, on slow turns etc. Anyone know where can I find this data on this seasons races? I've found some on Twitter but hoping there's a place where it's all together.
here perhaps

https://aws.amazon.com/f1/
 
you cant build a team around fernando because of his fiery nature and unlike schmacher and hamilton he doesnt pull a team around him and get the best out of them.

Schumacher and Hamilton could only pull the team around them when their team mate was firmly established as their bitch.

Alonso also did a perfect job leading Renault when they had the best package. That's his entire point. The teams always elevate the driver, the driver very very rarely elevates the team.
 
Do you think Leclerc has enough fight in him to beat Max over the course of a season?
Fight? I think he’s showing he has the fight. Le Clerc has made some errors though already though, so for me the question is when the pressure is really on, can he be as consistent. It’ll be really interesting to see how it plays out but that lap today, when the pressure was really on, showed real nerve. I’m hopeful.
 
Schumacher and Hamilton could only pull the team around them when their team mate was firmly established as their bitch.

Alonso also did a perfect job leading Renault when they had the best package. That's his entire point. The teams always elevate the driver, the driver very very rarely elevates the team.

Can’t comment on Alonso but it’s well established that both Hamilton and Schumi were huge contributors behind the scene. That’s not always the case with F1 drivers I think.
 
Fight? I think he’s showing he has the fight. Le Clerc has made some errors though already though, so for me the question is when the pressure is really on, can he be as consistent. It’ll be really interesting to see how it plays out but that lap today, when the pressure was really on, showed real nerve. I’m hopeful.
I hope so. But I fear he lacks that killer instinct and ruthless streak that the likes of Max, Lewis and even Alonso have.
 
I hope so. But I fear he lacks that killer instinct and ruthless streak that the likes of Max, Lewis and even Alonso have.
For me, I haven’t seen it yet consistently to know, and that’s my worry. But in all honesty I’m quite positive he has it. Some of his wheel to wheel racing with Max this year has been very good. He doesn’t just give up the space to him. To my mind the biggest unknown with him is how he handles things when the titles on the line with only a few races left. In terms of pace, competitiveness, I really think he has already largely proven himself.
 
For me, I haven’t seen it yet consistently to know, and that’s my worry. But in all honesty I’m quite positive he has it. Some of his wheel to wheel racing with Max this year has been very good. He doesn’t just give up the space to him. To my mind the biggest unknown with him is how he handles things when the titles on the line with only a few races left. In terms of pace, competitiveness, I really think he has already largely proven himself.
Fair comments. Will be really interesting to see how the season develops.

It is only a perception, but I also wonder if the Ferrari team boss is too "soft" in comparison with the like of the narcissistic Horner who will "win at all costs ". But maybe nice guys won't always finish last! Or maybe he has a nasty streak just waiting to come out!
 
Fair comments. Will be really interesting to see how the season develops.

It is only a perception, but I also wonder if the Ferrari team boss is too "soft" in comparison with the like of the narcissistic Horner who will "win at all costs ". But maybe nice guys won't always finish last! Or maybe he has a nasty streak just waiting to come out!

Or maybe he doesn't need to play the macho, short man role on TV, unlike somebody.