Don’t feel much enthusiasm for the build up to the new season at the moment. Very unlike me, does anybody else feel the same,
While McL are getting Renault power and should be a big improvement I guess Merc are still way out in front. Renault and Horner still complaining about only 3 PUs (ok so slightly more complex). So I think Renault know they cant run on full power reliably. So unless Ferrari have managed to extract significantly more power we might just have to watch the midfield for any action. Can't see it being a great year for excitement
Have to agree with the above. Always start getting excited for the new season about this time of year but all the current indicators suggest it's just going to be another year of Mercedes leading the pack. Let's hope that's far from the case and it's a more level playing field up the front.
I do hope this is the case, but seems like Merc hobble customer engines. That said I believe Merc are the only ones using a specific brand of fuels and lubricants. So maybe that is where the hobbling is happening. It would be great to at least see Williams fighting towards the front of the middle pack.
Am i right that the teams have fudged the shark fin rules and we are going to see that continue. Add a halo. remove grid girls and add child slavery/abuse in putting rich kids i nthe 40 degree heat to bake holding a sighm Add in whining about rules 2 years away or whatever. Add in pink tyres that nobody needs or wants and a silly name but we will see the same two tyre one stop strategies as per... Yeah.... f1 really not on the radar as something to behold
I'm not exactly buzzing for the new season, but I think it's because the last few have been a bit underwhelming. Gotta be hopeful this one has a bit more in the way of competition though.
Surely Mercedes have to hit the law of diminishing returns with engine development soon, so hopefully the gap will close to everyone else. McLaren versus Red Bull versus Renault might be a sub-plot, but I'm still expecting Mercedes to be the class of the field.
Last year started with promise as it seemed both RBR and Ferrari had genuine speed to beat the Mercs, but then it all went pear shaped for them.
hmm, most of Ferrari's early season 'form' was due to Mercedes ****ing up their strategy, Bahrain is probably the best example, Hamilton was easily the fastest car on track that day but wrong pressures in the tyres and double stacking the pit-stop gave Vettel a win. Ferrari dropped away as Mercedes stopped making mistakes, then the engine regs and reliability came into play towards the end as the PU parts started giving out. As to RBR, they never had the pace, or reliability, to challenge Mercedes properly, all they could really do was take points from Ferrari. But for all that, it wasn't a bad season imo, 3 teams and 5 drivers walked away with a winners trophy, there were incidents, over-takes, gloves came off and dummy's were spat. A little bit more of a battle at the front would've been nice. I'm looking forward to it, as DH said, 'the law of diminishing returns' has meant that each year since 2014 the cars have got closer. Take the McHRT, it was closer to Mercedes in 2017 than any car was in 2014.
The other factor dampening my enthusiasm is the knowledge that this is almost certainly the last year of any significance for F1 in the UK. Sky exclusivity from 2019 onwards will reduce the fanbase enormously. Add in the Halo and daft 3 engine limit and it feels like watching a death rattle.
Much as I'd prefer that option, I can't find any examples of it hitting the same performance targets as the halo. That's why the similar solution proposed by Red Bull failed.
There is technology out there to make any surface water repellant kind of like mimickig a butterflies wing. F1 could certainly apply this as well as making it 'road relevant'
