Max has a few tenths on Perez at most tracks, this isn't Baku or Monaco. Perez last year was getting beat by Mercs and Ferraris. With Red Bull so strong it should keep Perez in a good second but Max will still be way ahead. Like Horner said a few races ago, Perez is free to try, knowing he can't.
F1 2023 Season
- Thread starter pauldyson1uk
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
13 points in the prediction, urgh
As a die hard Dolphins fan it is fecking cool to see the podium above the Dan Marino statue. I just wish they built a better track.
Yeah, I'd love to see him win any race! Been ten years since he won a race! Crazy. I know he had a bit of a break, but that's mad
While that is true it still doesn't mean that hards first was the superior strategy. Even though even if he had lost the first 6 places he could have drsed right back into first within 3 laps of it being activated.
Lewis should just end the pain and get out of F1.
feck me, talk about a bad Fantasy League, bottom this race, fecking wooden spoon 
Where do you even begin to try to start to claw back some of the RB advantage? Car has anti-lift so the rears dig in when they accelerate. It has anti-dive so they can go deep into corners before having to brake and carry more speed. The suspension work is a masterpiece.
Its great on its tyres and has minimum degredation compared to the rest of the grid. When DRS is open its 16kph quicker than the rest of the grid with DRS open. Its still the quickest car on the track without DRS open.
One of the greatest F1 cars of all time, up there with the FW14B Williams that Mansell drove. Or the F2002 of Schmacher or the MP4/4 of Senna or the W07 of Hamilton. Just a astonishing piece of machinery from a energy drinks company. Not Mclaren, not Ferrari or Mercedes but a energy drinks company. Mental.
Its great on its tyres and has minimum degredation compared to the rest of the grid. When DRS is open its 16kph quicker than the rest of the grid with DRS open. Its still the quickest car on the track without DRS open.
One of the greatest F1 cars of all time, up there with the FW14B Williams that Mansell drove. Or the F2002 of Schmacher or the MP4/4 of Senna or the W07 of Hamilton. Just a astonishing piece of machinery from a energy drinks company. Not Mclaren, not Ferrari or Mercedes but a energy drinks company. Mental.
I find myself paying less and less attention to the races, and I think I'm pulling the plug on this season. Midfield battles are fun and all, but the ultimate thrill is for the first place. And there's no battle for that. Verstappen and his car are in a completely different dimension to everyone else. He is completely untouchable. Hasn't been anything like this in 20 years.
Vegas will be amazing. Iconic hotels and all the other sights in the background plus must be a huge straight down the strip. Balcony room at the Cosmopolitan must cost a feckload that weekend.
Forgot the boredom of the mercedes turbo hybrid era?
It’ll be the shit show it was in the 80’s with a bit more makeup.
That was as action packed as a Michael Bay film compared to this, at least Merc allowed their drivers to race each other and had a genuine challenge from Ferrari.
The only thing the FIA has done right for a while was to introduce rule changes specifically designed to clip the Merc's wings for the final season of that era, as it allowed RB to get ahead for half/two thirds of a season. They need to do the same to Red Bull here or it'll be procession after procession.
Definitely feels like the title is decided. I was hoping for Mercedes to improve more compared to last season. Ferrari was always hopeless so I knew they'd fall off.
Fernando smelling the flowers in the background during Max's Sky interview was the funniest thing all weekend
https://twitter.com/...MNzMwcaJzJSzEsg
https://twitter.com/...MNzMwcaJzJSzEsg
https://twitter.com/...MNzMwcaJzJSzEsg
https://twitter.com/...MNzMwcaJzJSzEsg
His consistency isn’t there.
He definitely came back into it after my post.
And why do they keep going on about the 1-2 in FP1? They only got that because they did fast runs on softs at the end of the session while other teams were doing long runs.
Because they have made a car worse than last years car (so far) and its confusing the hell of out them. Yes the had softs on at the end, but they were also running the car lower to the ground and porposing returned as Sky Italia and Anthony Davidson both mentioned. So they had to lift the car for fp2 onwards and lost downforce as a result. The car is a dog.
Mike Elliot who was responsible for last year and this years car has been moved on internally.
Only hope is James Allison still has his midas touch and can help mercedes get back onto the right path. Fingers crossed that the new sidepods, front wing, front suspension and floor get them closer to RB, as ferrari are doing sweet feck all at the moment (and confusing the hell out of me).
Unfortuntely for us all (apart from diehard max fans), we have the longest season ever in a F1 calender and the most boring. We dont even have a RB version of Nico Rosberg to challenge Max. Ferrari and Merc hace to try to close the gap (which is almost impossible under a cost cap).
We might have to wait for next season now for someone to truly challenge RedBull.
Agree with what @The Hilton said. It was boring, but even then you had at least some competition within and outside the team from time to time. Ferrari sometimes popped here and there to provide some intrigue. Right now, you have Verstappen pulling half a second per lap, and then cruising until the end. Like, what even is this? One team completely locking up 1-2, if there are no problems.
Don't know about that. Mercedes have had seasons where their car was even more dominant than the RB is now. For me, those were even more boring. But I can imagine that'd be different if you're a Merc fan. I do agree however it would be nice if Merc/Ferrari/Aston Martin upped their game and properly challenged Red Bull. Hopefully the Merc B-spec they're introducing next race helps.
Oh there were many yawn-fest seasons with Mercedes, but not as long as the present one. Also lewis had nico who could be his equal in the same machinery for most of the season. We dont have that at RB which makes this season feel worse. When you have checco looking at max's data for fp1 and saying "i cant do that". Thats the mental battle lost already.
I'd love to see Lando at RB treated equally to max i.e. no a no2 driver. I think he could be the 'nico rosberg' for max.
In all of this, we seem to be glossing over what an incredible job AM are doing. They have a car with Alonso that is beating Ferrari and Mercedes on pace. But thats less to do with the new rules and more the result of lawrence stroll investment in AM and bringing the F1 team upto numbers similar to the big three i.e. 600-700 personnel combined (trackside and factory).
Only Ferrari can really get near RB on speed for some races. But their tire deg is brutal. Merc seem lost technically at the moment. They still can't figure out the root cause of their problems which is is very bizarre for such a long period. AM may come with something next season but for this one I don't see it.
The Mercedes and Hamiton domination was just as boring. If you happened to be a Hamilton fan, you wouldn't see it like that. It's how it goes. You give the best driver on the grid the best car, the rest are fecked.
Prediction League Standings after Round 5
Very close competition.Prediction League Standings after Round 5
Didn't Merc once finished 6 races straight in first two places?
Cant find 6 on the bounce.
2014 11 1+2 finishes 4 on the bounce
2015 12 1+2 finishes 4 on the bounce
2016 8 1+2 finishes 4 on the bounce
2019 9 1+2 finishes with the first 5 races on the bounce.
Midfield battle is where it’s at.Prediction League Standings after Round 5
My kids not doing bad, a lot better than me anywayPrediction League Standings after Round 5
and me , my past few races have been dreadful.My kids not doing bad, a lot better than me anyway
I could have sworn Villeneuve said it the other day, but can't find it now. But 3 seasons in a row finishing 4 races 1+2 is probably equally dominant.
It was only a very quite wiki check, I could have missed one.
I don’t for one minute think it was cheating, but this does rise a few questions .
The main one being why did they send Yuki out in an obviously damaged car.
https://formula1news.co.uk/red-bull-cheating-accusations-confirmed-after-radio-message-emerges/
The main one being why did they send Yuki out in an obviously damaged car.
https://formula1news.co.uk/red-bull-cheating-accusations-confirmed-after-radio-message-emerges/
I would argue despite dominance by one team 2014 & 2016 were good seasons, Rosberg and Hamilton battles were intense and interesting even for a neutral. Once it was Bottas, Hamilton had him covered 90% of the time so it was down to Ferrari which never goes well.
This season feels a bit like a 2015 for Max, everyone knows he's going to win it in a dominant car and Perez can huff and puff all he likes there isn't any way he's matching him over a season. Now you have a driver of that rare ability to extract that extra 2-3 tenths out of a car in a car that already has 4-5 tenths on the field (I honestly think its more, Red Bull are pacing themselves to avoid FIA poking their nose into slowing them down). Ferrari have dropped the ball hard and are lost on development, Mercedes took 18 months too long to admit their path was wrong and the rest don't have the resources/internal talent to compete at the front.
Anyone that likes Max will enjoy it, as a Hamilton fan I've had my share of winning so really can't have any complaints on watching dominations. The issue really is the sport since I began watching it has always tried to prevent dominant teams and has somehow always ended up with it anyway, Schumacher/Ferrari, Vettel/Red Bull, Hamilton/Mercedes and now Max/Red Bull. The main problem nowadays is the price cap which simply stops teams from ever catching up once you reach a point of development, in the past they could throw money and man hours at a problem and rock up at the next race with an extra 3-4 tenths, now it's gradual development and when you have a legit rocket on the grid which is probably going to go down as one of the best F1 cars ever, the field is screwed.
This season feels a bit like a 2015 for Max, everyone knows he's going to win it in a dominant car and Perez can huff and puff all he likes there isn't any way he's matching him over a season. Now you have a driver of that rare ability to extract that extra 2-3 tenths out of a car in a car that already has 4-5 tenths on the field (I honestly think its more, Red Bull are pacing themselves to avoid FIA poking their nose into slowing them down). Ferrari have dropped the ball hard and are lost on development, Mercedes took 18 months too long to admit their path was wrong and the rest don't have the resources/internal talent to compete at the front.
Anyone that likes Max will enjoy it, as a Hamilton fan I've had my share of winning so really can't have any complaints on watching dominations. The issue really is the sport since I began watching it has always tried to prevent dominant teams and has somehow always ended up with it anyway, Schumacher/Ferrari, Vettel/Red Bull, Hamilton/Mercedes and now Max/Red Bull. The main problem nowadays is the price cap which simply stops teams from ever catching up once you reach a point of development, in the past they could throw money and man hours at a problem and rock up at the next race with an extra 3-4 tenths, now it's gradual development and when you have a legit rocket on the grid which is probably going to go down as one of the best F1 cars ever, the field is screwed.
To be fair. The grid spread is much better. There isn't really any back markers now, it's just one big midfield. Red Bull just nailed the new regs.
Not having embarrassments such as Latifi , Mazespin, and to an extent Mick also took care of that.
Budget cap has definitely helped out Williams and Haas.
But obviously only hinders Ferrari and Mercedes. Meanwhile McLaren and Alpine have really dropped the ball, even before AM came along this season and made them look like fools.
But obviously only hinders Ferrari and Mercedes. Meanwhile McLaren and Alpine have really dropped the ball, even before AM came along this season and made them look like fools.