Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 122. (Read 141766 times)

1st hour has been completed, heavy rain on the track as predicted.


The second hour will be done in 1 hour and the weather should be similar.

I might put a little something for Ricciardo points finish if the price doesn't change after FP3 and before qualifying.  Some head to head bets could also be good as he'll prolly mostly be an underdog vs most of the other drivers.

And I didn't watch FP1 but judging from the results, I'm guessing it rained?  7 drivers didn't set a time, including Ricciardo.  :/  

2023 F1 Hungarian GP FP1 Results

1      George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m38.795s
2   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m39.154s
3   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m40.013s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m40.277s
5   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m40.687s
6   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m41.032s
7   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m41.142s
8   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m41.363s
9   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m41.416s
10   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m42.706s
11   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m42.906s
12   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m45.575s
13   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m47.407s
14   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Scuderia AlphaTauri   No Time Set
15   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   No Time Set
16   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   No Time Set
17   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   No Time Set
18   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   No Time Set
19   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   No Time Set
20   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   No Time Set

Edit:  Yup it rained and Perez and Sainz crashed causing a red flag.

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1031690/1/russell-tops-rainhit-fp1-perez-and-sainz-both-shunt

This practice session doesn't really say much.  

Edit:  From Formula Dank.  Lololol.

Especially in the last two races i felt pretty bad for Sainz. I think it was in Austria were he was directly behind LeClerc for many many rounds and it was obvious that he could go fast than him but still he was not allowed to go past him. I mean they could have just let him go past LeClerc and see how it works out. If he would have not been significantly fast than him, then they could have just swapped back again, but they did not even give him the chance. So it is pretty obvious that Sainz is only the number 2 for his team, which must be a shitty feeling for him.
LeClerc definitely is a little bit faster than him, but he also still makes a lot of unnecessary mistakes that have cost him a lot of potential points already.

FP1 is about to start on Hungaroring. There is no rain for now but we can see rain clouds easily. There is already rain expected here today but I doubt we can see it during FP1 and FP2 today. Aside from that there is no rain expectation for tomorrow and Sunday either. This can turn out to be a pretty boring race for us.

Verstappen is going to race with some new parts in this race and I'm wondering how much the new sidepod will affect his performance. I guess that he wouldn't lose anything from his dominance.    I decided not to bet on Perez to do nice things in qualifying session for the rest of the season. He has been disappointing for quite many weekends and I don't want to take that risk. 

I also agree that Redbull team who owns also A.Tauri should not have been so fast to judge a poor or not poor performance of a rookie as after all rookies need time and just 10-11 races are not enough to judge a driver in his first year of his F1 career,I think one full season is needed in order to judge a new driver and even just one season for me is not enough as in many races bad luck can happen to any driver including rookies.

Albon has much more experience than him so it is only natural that he most likely beats him every time,Albon even raced at Redbull for sometime so sure he is much more grown up in F1 than Sergeant is,nothing to judge here for me.

It seems that Sergeant is currently in the adjustment and learning phase as he is still very young and still has a lot to learn. It's still very early to say that Sergeant will leave F1 because even if his performances are not good enough, he is still quite competitive. I think just give him time to improve his performance and maybe he will be quite as competitive as his teammates in the coming seasons.

Hamilton will definitely chase that 8th title with Mercedes, I am not expecting him to change his team this late into his career unless Mercedes doesn't sign him and we all know they will, they owe so much to him, and they are raising a young driver meanwhile anyway so that shouldn't be an issue.

Ricciardo just got there, doubt he will leave, and Yuki looks to be good as well so I do not think he would leave neither. On that list, the only player I can see who may leave is Logan Sergeant, he is constantly beaten by his teammate Albon, and that means he may end up looking for a team that he can race and be better, not in f1 of course, he may go back to indy series, he would be much better at home and do a lot better as well.

Beacause I think Sainz was probably hoping for more changes after joining Ferrari, however... after more than two seasons he has only won one race.

Sainz is already 28 years old and needs to start worrying about those performances, and Ferrari seems clearly not to be the right place for him. The Sauber CEO has already said that Sainz is the F1 driver currently at the top of his list as a possible name for Audi, that is of course if Sauber becomes the new bearer of the name that currently is Alfa Romeo.

With the influx of German money Sauber will be looking to expand their organization, they will clearly want to compete for wins within a three years time at the latest from 2026.
And honestly, I would find it quite impressive to see the Ferrari driver leave the Italian team for Audi. Ferrari unfortunately is no longer at the same level of competitiveness.

Sainz is an A class driver but not a A+ driver , A+ driver are Leclerc, Norris, Russel talking about "new generation".

But i dont put any guilt on him despite some mistakes he made, Ferrari its a shit for the last 10 years, they always make X mistake, in engine, pit stop, etc.

Yeah he is confirmed to drive for them from now on. I expect him to be faster than Tsunoda after a short time period. But in his first race I really don't know. He has been far away from F1 for a long time despite still being one of the most earners in the sport. But his results in tyre testing session wasn't bad that much.

For his first race I won't be betting on points finish for Ricciardo. But after this race I think why not give it a try? 

I think Ricciardo can collect more points than Tsunoda despite coming here in the middle of the season. Tsunoda still has only 2 points.

^  Perez's contract will end at the end of 2024 season.  So he has one more year to go after this one.


Sainz is a decent enough driver who has the experience to help a smaller team like Sauber.  Not sure why they're carrying the name Audi cos as far as I know, Audi just bought a minority in Sauber?  It's a welcome change tho.  Nice to see something new on the grid.

Here's what I want to know for the race this weekend...  Ricciardo is confirmed to drive at Alpha Tauri right?  And if so what do you guys think of Ricciardo to get a points finish at 3.40?  

I have heard that Hamilton is quite eager to race in F1 for 5 more years. He really wants that 8th title but let's see what time brings to us.    As of 2026, Mercedes will need to get ahead of Red Bull about car development to make it possible for Hamilton. Otherwise it is very likely to stay as just a dream for him. For now they say Mercedes are ahead of Red Bull on this topic.

Ricciardo has signed for AlphaTauri for the rest of the season. After that it is doubtful what he will do. I read some news like Red Bull have announced Perez for next season also but I don't know how true that is. If Perez continues to disappoint his team I think that he might not be able to stay that long.

I agree, the only one of these drivers with increased ability is Hamilton, but with Hamilton I see some problems now, his salary demands will be very high (which only Ferrari will want to pay apart from Mercedes) and secondly why would Hamilton and Ferrari do the partnership?

Hamilton is too old to clean out the dung heap at Ferrari for years and Ferrari is too weak for Hamilton to become world champion for the next two years, I rather assume Hamilton will extend his contract with Mercedes or retired?

From this list only Lewis Hamilton is an important driver,all others are relative average drivers and no one would care if they don't race anymore next year and are replaced by other rookies.I personally don't feel any empathy for any of them except for Ricciardo who I sympathize a bit,all other drivers do not spark in me and I believe in many other F1 fans that follow it from years any kind of sympathy toward them except their co nationals.

I am much more interested to see what happens in the end of 2024 where many other talented drivers except Hamilton expire their contracts and we would see lots of moves even in top running cars.

We start talking about the drivers market.
There are a lot of riders with contracts expiring at the end of this year, this is the list.

Lewis Hamilton
Yuki Tsunoda
Daniel Ricciardo
Kevin Magnussen
Nico Hülkenberg
Guanyu Zhou
Logan Sargeant

Even Leclerc is having issues with the team actually. They make him really angry with their unbelievable actions. Leclerc is trying not to reflect it to the media as much as possible but it is easy to understand his frustration even through team radio. These simple mistakes Ferrari make just make things more difficult for their drivers to work with them coherently.

When it comes to the race weekend I see some probability of rain for only Friday. For Saturday and Sunday I see it sunny. A little rain wouldn't be bad for the race especially but it looks like we won't have it. This must be another race with Verstappen's domination. I'm just curious about the other members on podium.

Maybe Norris can be a part of podium again and we can see Hamilton also. Hamilton finished in 2nd place on Hungaroring track last season.

I feel like that would be the best case for Norris, but only if he was the first driver. Why? Because he is so good at telling what should be improved on a car and how it could be better and all that, he actually made Mclaren do a car that fits him perfectly. No person that drives with him ended up getting used to it, that's why they got Piastri, a new kid that would be better for them on the long run because a new one wouldn't know how other cars feel.

Sure they know how other formula cars like f2 feels, but they think it is feeling like this when you race f1, even Ricciardio didn't race that well with Mclaren, and nobody else would. So when Piastri moves to another team, if he does, then he will be even better.

Both drivers are far behind the expectations at Ferrari (also Ferrari itself), it would not surprise me if both drivers have to go? Sainz will definitely have to go, but why should Audi take him?

---

News from MotoGP, according to Motorsport.com KTM wants to bring Marc Marquez into the KTM family. I can't imagine both, that firstly KTM wants and can pay Marquez so much and secondly the LCR team would switch to KTM after 18 years of Honda? But here is the article in German.

Knalleffekt: Red Bull und KTM wollen die 2 LCR-Plätze

And didn't Norris sign a somewhat long term contract with McLaren that would last until 2028 or something?  I think that should be put into consideration.  Lol.  F1 isn't really like football in that a team buys and sells players everytime they feel like it...   I could be wrong and there could be some seasons that it happened but it doesn't happen all the time.  Teams and drivers usually wait for their contracts to run out.

Here's the time table for the race this weekend!  I'm thinking it's not gonna be boring as the other teams are picking on car development.

2023 F1 Hungarian GP Schedule

Friday 21 July:  Practice 1  13:30 - 14:30
Friday 21 July:  Practice 2  17:00 - 18:00
Saturday 22 July:  Practice 3  12:30 - 13:30
Saturday 22 July:  Qualifying  16:00 - 17:00
Sunday 23 July:  Race  15:00

Because Norris is not a suitable candidate at this time for Ferrari, even if the performance is quite good, but that is not what Ferrari is looking for, they are looking for drivers who can work with the team and other drivers and Norris is not suitable for these criteria.
We don't know what Vasseur is thinking at the moment, but it seems that Vasseur is still confident about Sainz for now, because even though Sainz had several problems with Ferrari, until now he is still trusted to be the second driver.