Grand Prix thread GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2023

Max barely had to lift a finger today. With his speed and that car, the rest have a monumental mountain to climb. They're a million miles off. I don't see anybody getting close to max for some time.

 

Tbf Mercedes dominated from 2014 to 2020, have to get used to Red Bull again dominating lol

 

Don't want anyone dominating, doesn't matter which team it is. Merc walking it was as dull as dish water too. But we're moved from one era of domination to another for many years now, and when we get some semblance of parity, the regs change, and we rinse and repeat.

I will literally take any team to taking the fight to RBR right now, but it's not happening. They are miles ahead of the field.

 

F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport... But God it's been boring as hell for so long now. I take so much more pleasure watching Indycar than I do F1. It's a lottery, it's on sketchy tracks where circumstance can turn the whole thing on its head, then it's on a super speedway that is frightening as hell. You literally have no clue who's going to win, and the on track battles are just pure racing. It's wonderful.

 

It's a pretty disappointing start to the year, but teams dominating sometimes is inevitable unless we make it a spec series. Pre-Mercedes that dominance would normally only last a year or two before competitiveness was restored. Red Bull's dominance is only about 6 months old, so the jury is out on whether the new rules have achieved that or not. They will have a fair bit less wind tunnel time, so here's hoping that hinders their upgrades

On the impact of regulation changes it's difficult to say. The minor rule change to the floors harming Mercedes was the only reason 2021 was close, whilst the big rule change for actually produced an evenly matched Ferrari and Red Bull, until the Spa technical directive ruined it.

Recently the "minor" changes have the bigger impact to how competitive the sport is, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse

 

Dunno about anyone else but I suspect Newey has got a trick that no one has spotted- likely to be under the car as opposed to any of the aero flow we can see on the bodywork.

Dan Fallows might be into it given how the Aston has handled so far.

The one hope is that Alonso - and this could be a translation issue so take with pinch of salt for now- said the car is a base car for future Aston cars, and I had read that there is opportunity to add complexity to the floor once the team were confident that the base worked exactly as scheduled, so there might be more to come still from Aston which would be wonderful news for this season.

 

Max was out front and cruising, the gulf in performance is enormous. If the following field can't catch them the season is going to be boring. I don't think AM have expectation of doing so this year, podium finishes is a win for them.

SgtBhaji is right about Indy car being more entertaining and Liberty are banking on the US audience sticking with F1.

Toto is showing signs of aging recently, he going to age some more this year, no doubt. I just hope Ferrari can step up to the challenge.

 

We all wanted the Merc dominance to end but not for it to be replaced by another dominance.

But this raises another question about the skill set of the rest of the field, particularly in the aero stakes. Adrian Newey can't be the only one with the capability.

Merc, I think, wanted to be different in the belief they could dominate again. As such they went a different route which has not been a good outcome. Ferrari, have a change of leader who is going to take time to get to grips with the team capability. Changing the leader will take time to reap benefits. Imagine taking Horner out of Red Bull and bringing someone in from....Mclaren? Would not bring instant success.

 

There is a gulf in Aero runs between Aston and the RedBull - I’ve not given up hope that the gap can close through the season.

 

Yeah, it's tough without being a spec series fully, but the budget caps and testing restrictions don't help matters when one team comes out of the gates first. Hopefully things improve as the season progresses.

 

I think the trick is Newey himself. The man is a genius.

 

Max be taking all the records Hamilton soon, imagine he has best car for as long as Hamilton has had, he smash over 100 wins in no time.

 

If RBR keep up this kind of performance and Max stays at this level, then there is a very real chance he could challenge Hamiltons records. They have the perfect combination atm.

 

At the end of the 2028 season there will finally be celebrations for a record breaking 8th world championship…..

 

I do wonder how much of his experience in the 80's of ground effect has helped the Red Bull? I think he is the only one from that era that is still so involved in the aero.

 

I suspect it's helped a lot!

 

Nah, we won't have to wait that long. Scott Dixon can easily rack up two more titles between now and then.

 

I think it's a bit over reactionary in the media and drivers.

verstappen and perez will not have a clean sweep.

I just think they have a locked in design that drives more air under the car and out the back and just get a better ground effect at all speeds and go round the corners better. their ride height isn't slammed down and the car is not as stiff as others that frankly look like they've no suspension.

the car is on rails.
the engine is not clearly better
it's more forgiving

teams are not copying their front suspension geometry yet but I think they will start to.

the rear suspension is also different

 

Controversially I will say the true WDC score 8 to Lewis, 1 to Max. History will never say that but it is the truth. I would be happy if that was the score.

Instead Max is on his way to his official third, at age 25. He wanted 4 by the age of thirty, reckon it will be more than 4.
Probably he will hold the all time record. If RBR faltered in performance, many others will take him.

Guess I/we will just have to live with it, it would help if he was likeable, but he ain't.

 

I don't think we should assume anything about future years. The regs to 2026 is a huge issue yes for playing catch up but theres moe than enough scope of a team wants to do it as the redbull has a very limited scope to keep getting faster.

its what 0.8 seconds faster than bahrain last year in quali. I am willing to bet that the increment next year will be less just pure because its hard to wring the last out of anything. year 0. 1:30.6. Year 1: 1:29.8? Year 2???

23,24 and 25 is up for grabs and maybe verstappen will take all of them but the second next eg changes go in all bets are off again.

Same as if no regs went and changed last year the merc would have won again for no 8.