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No Ver-stopping Max - F1 and Motorsport 2023

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    No Ver-stopping Max - F1 and Motorsport 2023

    Logic, and history, suggests that when a team gets it together so much better than their rivals in the way that Red Bull did in 2022, the gap isn't closed in one year.

    The Williams of the early 90s.
    The Ferrari of the 2000s.
    The Red Bull of 2010-13.
    The Merc of 2014-20.
    ​​​​
    Ferrari may improve their tyre degradation, Merc may reduce their drag, but Red Bull are refining a definitive machine. This title is already Verstappen's to lose.

    #2
    I’m really excited about Le Mans this year. It just feels right when Porsche are back and I believe a bunch of other marques are too.

    Indycar will continue to be the most frustrating series in motorsport, with many, many elements of a great product (including the most important, on track action) and very little ambition plus an absolutely ancient car.

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      #3
      Will F1 this year attract some of the 'sportswashing' criticism that football and golf got in 2022? 16% of its Grands Prix are in the Middle East, including the opening and final races.

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        #4
        F1 is a very compromised sport no doubt.

        On the track, I agree with Kevin that the gap isn't closed in a year, certainly not by Mercedes which seems to have a very narrow window of optimal operation. The Red Bull is the all round best car, and there's little sign of Ferrari bridging the gap with all the upheaval there.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
          Will F1 this year attract some of the 'sportswashing' criticism that football and golf got in 2022? 16% of its Grands Prix are in the Middle East, including the opening and final races.
          F1 STARTED sportswashing. Bernie Ecclestone's picture is in the dictionary. They've been attracting that criticism for decades.

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            #6
            Yeah, they were doing things like racing in apartheid-era South Africa ("Thank goodness we're not there" - James Hunt live on the BBC) then it went to a new level when countries with no racing heritage began to engage Hermann Tilke to design purpose-built facilities to get F1. Malaysia 1999 was probably the first example of such expansion. F1 would probably counter argue that this means the sport is now more of a true world championship, it's not all that long ago that two-thirds of the calendar was in Europe and there were two races in the whole of the southern hemisphere.

            Verstappen will probably win it again, but Mercedes showed signs towards the end of last season that they had a full understanding of their problems and were able to develop their way around them. They'll almost certainly not turn up with such a dog of a car this year. One problem they might encounter if they do challenge the Bulls is that Hamilton and Russell will potentially take points off each other while RB will firmly prioritise Verstappen over Perez.

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              #7
              Very sad to hear of the passing of Ken Block in a snowmobile accident. A genuinely inspirational figure in motorsport, engaging both new and old petrolheads with his Gymkhana videos, modified cars and rally exploits (both in WRC and at home in the ARA). He wasn't the worlds fastest driver, but he woke a lot of people up to just what you could do in terms of spectacular driving.

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                #8
                Absolutely that, and what a sad accident that is.

                Definitely a +1 to Flynnie's comment on Le Mans and the WEC/IMSA seasons ahead. There's some complication around whether cars are homologated as LMH or LMDh (Le Mans Hypercar and Le Mans Daytona Hypercar) and how they work out which ones can do which series with which adjustments/penalties. But making these things cheaper than the LMP1 ('Prototype') regs of recent years has brought the big names back. As well as Porsche, we now have WEC entries from Toyota (who have been on their lonesome for a while), Peugeot, Ferrari, Glickenhaus and Cadillac and then also some competition such as this: https://www.dailysportscar.com/2022/...t-in-2023.html

                ... although 'with Williams Advanced Engineering engaged in developing the aero package' I'm not sure they'll be causing too much trouble at the front.

                In IMSA, BMW are also coming in with a car built between them and Dallara. Their first tilt at top level sportscars since 1999 apparently. I think I remember reading they might have a go at Le Mans with it next year.

                This new generation of cars is also much, much easier on the eye than the LMP1 cars were. Here's two of them:



                Last edited by Kevin S; 07-01-2023, 17:58.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Third rate Leszno View Post
                  Very sad to hear of the passing of Ken Block in a snowmobile accident. A genuinely inspirational figure in motorsport, engaging both new and old petrolheads with his Gymkhana videos, modified cars and rally exploits (both in WRC and at home in the ARA). He wasn't the worlds fastest driver, but he woke a lot of people up to just what you could do in terms of spectacular driving.
                  I was never really a car guy, but I watched the Gymkhana video set in Los Angeles the day it came out after seeing it on Twitter.

                  The LA River sequence and then doing donuts around the Randy's giant donut won me over completely.



                  But really, the SF one is the peak. The sight of that little Fiesta jumping over the hill in slo-mo is art.
                  Last edited by Incandenza; 03-01-2023, 15:43.

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                    #10
                    Andretti is now partnered with Cadillac (GM) in his attempt to become the 11th team in F1, with a facility in Indiana and another in Europe (though GM would not be their engine supplier). Ben Sulayem seems to support it, and having a new manufacturer behind him might make this seem like a more serious prospect for the other F1 teams to approve. He would have Colton Herta as a driver, making it an all-American team. I'm sure that FOM is fully on board.
                    Last edited by Incandenza; 06-01-2023, 15:15.

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                      #11
                      Cyril Abiteboul is now Hyundai WRC team principal.

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                        #12
                        https://twitter.com/JennieGow/status/1613863619422289922

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                          #13
                          I was going to post about this, this is awful news. Jenny Gow is brilliant. The Chequered Flag podcast is excellent listening with more critical opinion than you might expect from a BBC piece. Get well soon, I hope.

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                            #14
                            Yeah, that's an absolute shocker, she's a very good broadcaster so I hope she recovers quickly and fully.

                            I'm a bit behind on F1 news so it's only this week that I read about the change to the FIA sporting code which has made the following an offence: "the general making and display of political, religious and personal statements or comments notably in violation of the general principle of neutrality promoted by the FIA under its Statutes, unless previously approved in writing by the FIA for International Competitions, or by the relevant ASN for National Competitions within their jurisdiction."

                            Which, given that Vettel has retired, feels like it's targeting Hamilton in particular. What an absolute crock of shit it is, too.

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                              #15
                              Monte Carlo rally starts this evening, BT Sport have got an hour of live coverage from 7pm UK time.,

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                                #16
                                Enjoyable one, that. Generally quite incident-free for a Monte, though. Not sure if anyone else will be waiting to see the highlights so I'll avoid discussing the result for now!

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                                  #17
                                  Unusual to have a completely dry Monte. I was paying particular attention as it's one of my bucket list events as a spectator and I'm tentatively planning to go there next January. I guess it's something I'm only likely to do once so I'm torn between playing it safe and just going to main spectator areas (even if the view and photo ops are crap) or doing it "properly" with a bit more adventure and exploration to find some really good places to watch. The latter can rebound on you if you happen to come across some jobsworth gendarmerie or the weather closes in and you're stuck atop a tiny alpine goat track in your hire car....

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                                    #18
                                    https://twitter.com/ESPNF1/status/1623375987600723969

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                                      #19
                                      Jack Nicholls hosted the BBC's Chequered Flag podcast's preview episode. They had a voice note from Gow--she sounded good, but she said she was still having difficulty getting back to full speaking condition.

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                                        #20
                                        I’ll definitely listen to that. I hope she’s back soon. Or anytime really.

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                                          #21
                                          Hopefully later this season. I can imagine that all of the preparation and quick thinking to host a panel discussion that's being recorded would be an additional level of stress that would be best to avoid for her at this point, however.

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                                            #22
                                            Move over FORMULA 1 ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2022, and make way for...FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2023!!!

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                                              #23
                                              Can't wait

                                              I think the reading of the runes so far is:

                                              - Cakewalk for Max; he has the best car and it's tailor-made to suit his nose-happy driving style
                                              - Ferrari to be chasing their coat-tails, along with Perez. Leclerc looking better than Sainz so far, but the latter is a smooth operator.
                                              - Mercedes still haven't got to the bottom of their issues and will take some time to get themselves into contention for wins
                                              - Aston Martin are the midfield team to have made the biggest leap forward. Talk of an outside chance of an Alonso podium early in the season. Stroll of course missed testing so is behind schedule.
                                              - Alpine were thought to be sandbagging and could be as good as the two above, but no-one knows yet.
                                              - Sauber (currently Alfa Romeo) and Haas look reasonable, no major worries at the moment. Both of these teams tail off over a season though.
                                              - McLaren have fucked their car up massively.
                                              - Alpha Tauri appear to be sinking a bit and talk of Red Bull letting them go won't help the team's morale.
                                              - Williams might have closed the gap a bit.

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                                                #24
                                                One of Formula 1's dumbest experiments has finally ended: the final two corners at Barcelona -- the best turns on the circuit -- are back.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Will be interesting to see if Vasseur and the new head of race strategy make a difference for Ferrari....and if not, if Leclerc starts making his own decisions like Sainz did at points last season. Leclerc seemed to trust the team too much when there were was a lot of evidence to show that was a bad idea, then being angry after the race, whereas Sainz also knew what they were saying wasn't a good decision, and he lobbied for himself and overrode those calls.

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