Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2023Formula 1 

  • Thread starter Jimlaad43
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That AlphaTauri is looking so sad...you think McLaren was bad? I think alongside Williams, AlphaTauri is the weakest team on the grid.
 
So that's why we always have to wait for Q3
To be frank, I don't think much changed from testing. It's still Red Bull and Ferrari for top 2, with Aston Martin and Mercedes close behind. As for the rest of the teams, well...McLaren doesn't seem to be quite as bad as testing let us know, with AlphaTauri being the more disappointing one.
 
That AlphaTauri is looking so sad...you think McLaren was bad? I think alongside Williams, AlphaTauri is the weakest team on the grid.
Unfortunate but probably inevitable. Now that Max is winning championships RBR doesn't need a second team for driver development, just someone who's competent and compliant enough to be his rolling roadblock. If the rumors of them selling off AlphaTauri by 2025 are true, then the sooner it happens the better.
 
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To be frank, I don't think much changed from testing. It's still Red Bull and Ferrari for top 2, with Aston Martin and Mercedes close behind. As for the rest of the teams, well...McLaren doesn't seem to be quite as bad as testing let us know, with AlphaTauri being the more disappointing one.
Ah, that was more in reference to the UK commentators after Q1
 
Was surprised to see the Alfas not make Q3.

Hoping McLaren's race pace is decent. I have 4 boxes of Caramel deLites / Samoas to help fill the void, in case of zero points.
 
Quite disappointed with the Mercedes performance I have to say, seeing what Aston Martin have done will be a real kick in the jellies.

I’ll be rooting for Lewis nonetheless, I hope everyone enjoys their race
 
Unfortunate but probably inevitable. Now that Max is winning championships RBR doesn't need a second team for driver development, just someone who's competent and compliant enough to be his rolling roadblock. If the rumors of them selling off AlphaTauri by 2025 are true, then the sooner it happens the better.
Rumors were just that.
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Andretti seemed to back it up yesterday.
Jenna Fryer
I asked Michael Andretti if AlphaTauri is for sale. "No." Are you sure? "Positive." Carry on.

Don't want to leak the tweet as I know some people here follow Indy and the tweet shares what was labelled as spoilers for qualifying finishes for Andretti.
 
Red Bull faces a “significant handicap” for 2023 due to the aerodynamic testing restrictions imposed after winning the Formula 1 world championship and exceeding the cost cap, says team boss Christian Horner.



So significant.

Another season having to rely on Ferrari and their awful strategies and Charles bloody Leclerc to put pressure on Red Bull, at least for the majority of the year.
 
Red Bull faces a “significant handicap” for 2023 due to the aerodynamic testing restrictions imposed after winning the Formula 1 world championship and exceeding the cost cap, says team boss Christian Horner.



So significant.

Another season having to rely on Ferrari and their awful strategies and Charles bloody Leclerc to put pressure on Red Bull, at least for the majority of the year.
I recall them saying recently that the 2024 car would be more affected by the reduction than 2023.

Hopefully Vasseur can steady the Ferrari ship somewhat. I expect Red Bull to be the fastest team still but if Ferrari can keep pressure on more consistently then it won't be quite such a walk over.

Elsewhere, the F2 feature race was an absolute belter, with a thrilling 2nd half of the race. Some great individual performances, Pourchaire dominating the day, an unbelievable drive by Zane Maloney on his F2 debut weekend to go from 16th to 3rd, Boschung capping a great weekend with a solid 2nd place for his best ever F2 weekend.

Great start to the day.
 
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Hopefully Sergio (He seems more comfortable in the car and up for it this year) can put a lot of pressure on Max so they run out of tyres and Lewis can get in there and win. Red Bull seemed to lose performance from testing while Mercedes seemed to have gained so not as bad as it first looked at least for this race and Mercedes AMG HPP seemed to have done a good job so if Mercedes can add a smidge more downforce relatively, they should get more in the fight. The W14 looks to have stronger straight-line speed compared to W13 so should be able to hold off / pass cars better than last year. Ferrari seems weaker in the corners running less wing but they should be getting an upgrade in next couple of races so may become harder to beat, Mercedes seems like they are planning a bigger update around race six time.

Will be interesting to see if Aston Martin with much more wind tunnel time can close the gap to Red Bull and beat them. They seem to have fast tracked development by getting Red Bull Head of Aerodynamics and Mercedes Chief Aerodynamicist who both likely knew ins and outs of the 2022 regulation cars and decades of knowhow from championship winning teams. Other teams should not think they can pull off same miracle unless they also get key people in charge of competitive teams. Kind of saw the same effect at Haas with them signing people from Ferrari and similar kind of thing at Alfa Romeo.

Media seems harsh on teams like McLaren and Alpine (They might be down on power due to reliability upgrades of rivals too) but they are trying to do it on their own, incredible job by Williams given they were on survival mode for a number of years. We saw how far behind Aston Martin was at the start of last season with their own ideas but they managed to have a B car in the era of budget cap that copied the Red Bull philosophy so accurately before it was even shown...

It is good to see all teams reasonably competitive, all cars seem fast like expected. Majority of teams are operating at the same level of budget and the teams ahead have more development handicaps so hopefully it can converge more. Any lost time going in wrong direction can be quite costly for years so copying other people's homework seems to be the name of the game at the moment.

Looking forward to the race, a lot of cars are quite close together in terms of pace.
 
Anything can happen in a race, hopefully Lewis gets more lucky this season than last year. Also vibe from Sergio seems he is going all in so he may no longer be Mr. Nice Guy to Max as previous seasons, he was very close in qualifying. Remains to be seen how strong his tyre management will be as Helmut Marko was praising Max in this regard but Max does not seem as happy with car this race weekend as he was testing due to parts not performing how they were before.

 
Ferrari have changed the energy store on Leclercs car. Reminder that every driver has 2 for the entire season.
 
Unless Rubens is allowed to challenge for victory, gonna be a long season for anyone not named Max.
 
Ferrari have changed the energy store on Leclercs car. Reminder that every driver has 2 for the entire season.
Oh my god, that's hilarious.

The Ferraris are literally built fragile. Source, though?
 
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Ferrari have changed the energy store on Leclercs car. Reminder that every driver has 2 for the entire season.
So when they essentially rebuild the car at the mid-season throwaway race and have to whack a third one in, they'll get a 50 place grid penalty instead of a 40 place one?
 
Unless Rubens is allowed to challenge for victory, gonna be a long season for anyone not named Max.
We have El Matador right behind, let's see how well he can take on the bulls. Hopefully he can win again, approaching a decade since his last win in F1. Just need Max to have a slow start like in practice for all the races and it will be an interesting season.
 
Quite disappointed with the Mercedes performance I have to say, seeing what Aston Martin have done will be a real kick in the jellies.

I’ll be rooting for Lewis nonetheless, I hope everyone enjoys their race
Seems Mercedes is disappointed as well. They had all of last year, winter break, and testing and just now decide to flush their car after one qualifying.
 
Seems Mercedes is disappointed as well. They had all of last year, winter break, and testing and just now decide to flush their car after one qualifying.
That won't have been a decision they made after one qualifying session. Changing an entire concept of the car is one that will take time and a lot of money to do. There were hints all the way through last season that they were mulling a concept switch and I wouldn't be surprised if it's being readied as their major upgrade ahead of Europe.
 
So when they essentially rebuild the car at the mid-season throwaway race and have to whack a third one in, they'll get a 50 place grid penalty instead of a 40 place one?
They have to make it count. Start the driver somewhere in the 2nd sector on whatever track they are at.

Stroll makes it 4 corners before he makes contact with Alonso.
 
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