Spare Parts (F1 odds and ends)

You'd wonder why ferrari are so poor then though? yes there's breaking the political stuff and the ardent xenophobia etc they carry on with regarding must be italian this and that... but their strategy sucks arse piles, it has for years and continues to do so.

Mercs are conservative, wait and see merchants.

Red bull have for years had to try and come up with equalising tactics to try do something different and have focuses on pit stops to the nth degree.

I honest don't know if merc have just finally been caught up on engine and the inherent weaknesses in their design have been highlighted ( the race leading car, not the catch and pass car) OR if it really was just one bad year. I think hamilton has called out the prior merc cars as performing in narrow windows before or being hard to handle.

I do wonder if the fundamentals in the merc package can be made up, have they been working on 2023 all along to catch up but have to now start 2024??

I do wonder if ferrari gave up in the summer and have been on 2024 design for that long

I do wonder how much of 2024 red bull has been baking in the oven based on knowing full well they were getting a penalty? I wonder how soon they could start knowing they had the trophies won after summer?? That new floor that came in for example seems to me to be a nod towards trying to bring forward development

I do hope mclaren can at least improve next season

hopefully it'll become closer next season esp with red bull being constrained but the last thing we need is one other team just running away with it either.

 

For sure we want close racing. Max has had it more or less his own way this season, certainly after the first few mechanical failures. The Lewis years were boring. There are some exciting drivers on the grid, Max, Le Clerc, Lewis, and now Russell and Lando. I think Sainz is improving and could be up there too, Perez a good defender of Max's back but won't be allowed to beat him.

Danny hasn't signed on the dotted line with RBR yet and indicated he wants to think about it. Guess he is wondering if Indy would be a good place for him.

 

It think the midfield battles saved it, the rule changes largely did work but it is rather drs and good night at times.

I think theres a case for trying to restrict teams again on orders and try to lessen the amount of non racing situations. I don't know how you do that mind.

We had a lot of radio whinging yesterday as the race was pretty average with a lot of tyre saving. I noted one occasion russel was straight on the blower asking in a round about way to get Hamilton to pull over but was told they are racing. a lot of we should have, don't leave me on.. that kind of stuff that had their been better racing we might have seen less of.

Ideas:

min 2 stops a race? enable teams to push more on tyres and not just think to go long. can they then think about 3 stop strategies if the tyres are not just lasting so long?

give teams max number of radio calls a race? substitute an independent safety officer into radio chatter to call red flags/yellows etc? I dunno.

derestrict drs? do we need rules where people stop it being used when there's a tiny blob of moisture?

Remove the "max is a dickhead" safety car restart rule? once a safety car peels off and in do we need to be line astern all the way to start finish line? Can we do this better?

Can we weight penalise some cars? based on whatever criteria like flat horse racing? teams want and need to win but can we hold back the most successful car artificially? (i don't like this personally)

 

I really hope we get some exciting seasons, I really don't want to replace Lewis with Max and have another 4 or 5 years of the best car winning with his teammate not allowed to challenge.

 

I don't think the Lewis Rosberg years were boring, all 3 went to the last race. The Bottas years were different, though he still had Ferrari as a challenge until the summer breaks.

 

True but somehow one always knew Lewis was going to have his hand on the WDC. Lewis wasn't adverse to backing Rosberg into the competition either.

 

yeah, but Rosberg was allowed to race him.

 

Season 1 was boring. Rosberg was too nice. It wasn't real racing

Season 2 was alright but rosberg was put in his place cos he would back out.

Season 3 rosberg came back with an attitude to kill to succeed and then promptly retired. That was an alright show up top but the race behind that was tosh.

Once bottas came in it was a procession. Vettel was not really that close imo.

This season has worked for the braun car design. We've seen plenty if action but ferrari really let us down.

They commented about redbull "only" having to focus on weight reduction while ferrari themselves were trying to develop aero still and stopping early due to budget constraints.

And then commenting they should just have smashed budget cap (which is obviously silly given the actual punishment)

I really think they gave up and went to the 2023 car early cos they ****ed up the season strategically before summer and there was no getting it back.

 

was he though. He was told to always keep a 3 second gap. I know thats because of the dirty air and tyres but thats a big gap to then be 'allowed' to close at the end of races. The important thing was to qualify 1st or be first in turn 1 in the mercedes only era. And thats where Rosberg finally got the better of in 2016 but took alot out of him to achieve

 

It did more or less burn him out, but, his legacy is he beat a 7 times WDC using the same machinery. I can see it now

Mummy, Mummy, did Daddy really beat Lewis Hamilton? Yes he did. WOW! wait till I tell my mates. I think Rosberg is happy in his life off the track. Lewis, still seems to be finding himself off the track. Maybe I am wrong.

 

He beat 2 Seven times world champions in the same machinery, he beat Michael Schmacher too.

Honestly, once he won his WDC he was happy with life and quit. He wanted to spend time with his wife and kids and enjoy his life. I can't be mad at him for that, he seems to have a really good life and he seems to be a really good place with it all.

 

I think he knew himself he had no hope of repeating the trick and jumped out as champion.

Its a classic case of doing exactly what his ambition was (to win one) and once done that's that. No thought of no 2 which lewis Hamilton was never ever letting him have.

he's a rich kid who delivered, most rich kids who come to F1 don't get near delivering so he's returned to the high life in monaco etc etc. Like to keep his face in when it suits. He is not a raikkonen type who would be willing to tool about at the back aging out.

Hamilton is far more driven and wants to be the 8th.

even the plank has said he wants to retire at 31 cos theres "more in life", now that brat no doubt thinks he can win all of the next 6 then retire as 8 time champion but **** THAT. hopefully he retires on 2.

That said the finger has just retired and he was quite annoying at times but won us over I suppose

 

Lewis Hamilton is the easier 7xWDC to beat statistically lets be honest

 

Mercedes announce arrival of Mick Schumacher in reserve role for 2023

 

True, IMO Mercedes weren't bothered by who won, just as long as they were in a Mercedes and they got the maximum points they could. Rosberg seems a nice guy, I think he retired because he didn't like who he had to be to beat Lewis, and there's no point being out there if you're not going to give your best.

 

Seems an odd one.

Like a tour of places your dad used to hang in a very morose type of guilt trip for all involved.

Whisper this; At some point young mick needs to have a reality check that he's just not that good.

Ferrari have given him his time and academy while it was beneficial to all, now its merc's to give him something?

 

Not sure it’s that odd…

The reserve drivers are hardly ever called to do anything other than log simulator miles, help develop the car and do marketing. From that perspective you’d be hard pressed to find a better candidate than Mick, and I’d think at worst it’s a sideways step from Nyck de Vries.

I don’t see Mick ever being a top 3 team driver, but with some development, stability and exposure to a top team, he might be a tradeable commodity if you need to extract Lando from McLaren for example.

 

I think de vries would be far superior no 3 but simply can't be held at that. I think he will seriously perform for where he is going.

I dont see what Schumacher will deliver to help car development or sims etc. Market ok I can see that.

 

Only thing I can see as a gain for Merc is Micks knowledge of Ferrari PU and components but that's stretching it.

 

Massively cos I really think if they want that they simply go hire an engineer.