Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 145. (Read 137764 times)

Just speaking the truth... Ferrari approached again with Charles Leclerc being a thousandths slower, but we know very well, because it's no secret to anyone that Ferrari drive much better on Saturdays than on Sundays

Anyway, apart from the truth above, if you can say something about this classification is that nothing went as expected because I had Max Verstapen being the big favorite in the grid definition... but what I saw is that the leader of the championship, despite of even letting rivals get close, ended up being the victim of a problem that can affect any driver. Lucky for Sergio Pérez... will he be able to take advantage of this pole position?

Being fast is one thing, and Max with that Red Bull car could always go super high with this car, I don't doubt that. But lets be realistic and face the fact that if Perez and Alonso takes off without crashing, and Max can't pass too many cars right on the first turn, then we are going to end up seeing him hunt cars one by one. To do that you spend a lot of laps, you don't pass 10 cars in a single lap normally, which doesn't mean its impossible, of course he could be 5th after first lap too, but usually that's not how it happens. So that means Perez and Alonso would be already gone by the time he has a chance to chase them, and that is why this race will be pretty difficult for him to win. I still think Perez will win, so Red Bull will be fine, but Max has a very hard job tomorrow.

Maybe Verstappen is going to be at the 15th position on the grid but I think there isn't any problem anyway. Red Bull is extremely fast this season as well. They are like one of the few teams that have made a big progress for this season now. Verstappen is also one of the best drivers right now as well. These combined are becoming a huge threat to the others even in this situation.

Verstappen wouldn't have big problems on climbing to the first position unless he has another engine issue. I have my doubts for now until seeing the car okay.

As you saw he did the second time, third if we consider the potential of Verstappen.
Ferrari is very strong this weak in the telemetry with low usage of tires.

The problem is RBR is too much stronger, they are in another category,

I think if the odd of Alonso to win the race is over 3 is worth trying,even if he does not win,it can greatly increase our emotions while we are watching the race.I am sure he will be giving his 101% despite his age to try and maximize on every opportunity that will be shown to him during this race.The big favorite is Perez of course to win the race tomorrow and Verstappen to be in top 3 would be a nice bet also.Judging how things are I think that with those bets,especially Perez to win which has more chances than Alonso and Verstappen to be in top three are kinda like "free money" although in motorsport an engine failure can make everything go in vain.

It looks like Alonso has another big chance ahead to finish a race on podium. He is going to start in second position already thanks to Leclerc's ten-place grid penalty. Alonso is really fast with Aston Martin's new car and he just wants to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible. We all know how competitive and ambitious Alonso is as well. Hence he would even like to fight for the championship this season. But it is better to be realistic mostly as his chance is not too much against Verstappen.

Verstappen's starting in 15th position is really unfortunate for him. But I still expect him to climb to top and win the race as well. Because his car is like a rocket now and he is an amazing driver to use this for his advantage.

They really have to make a play to not let Verstappen reach the front, else he'll be smoking the rest of the competitors when given the chance. Alonso and Leclerc's chance to get the first position is here, and they just have to widen the lead in order to take that away from Verstappen. Rooting for an Alonso win but Perez is still a tight competitor given how crazily spec'd that car is that he drives. Then again, it's a different thing when Verstappen leads forward.


Possible if his car won't fail him. He's been pretty good this weekend. The only thing scary in rooting for a Ferrari win is that most troubles occur on race day and not on qualifying or test runs :v

We're going to have a completely different race season than usual tomorrow. Verstappen has problems in qualifying and as a result he now only starts 15th, how is that possible we wonder? You would think that they would have made some adjustments to the engine and that they would have received a penalty, but that appears not to be the case. It is still early in the season, but if other teams and drivers want something, tomorrow is the time. I see Verstappen still driving forward of course, but for drivers like Ferrari's Leclerc this is the time to do something. Hamilton, who was not too enthusiastic about his new car, thinks that the gap with Red Bull has widened again.

Due to Verstappen's defect, my bet with Perez came true after all, but a bet tomorrow with Verstappen as the winner will be very difficult, he will need a lot of luck and above all a good start from position 15.

Leclerc will start 12th and probably be ahead of Verstappen, as Alonso will start 2nd he even has a chance to win, it will be an exciting race tomorrow.

Verstappen will start 15th.

His car failed him, for the pole position be aware of Alonso.

I don't think Leclerc can reach the podium, as it looks like even Aston Martin is faster than Ferrari before qualifying. What shocks me the most at the moment is that Mercedes is very very slow at the moment, I honestly didn't expect such a big gap.

Why do you think Ferrari and Leclerc can deliver such a good performance?

Call me crazy but if Leclerc can do the 1st turn without damage this Sunday he can go on the podium.

Ferrari seems very solid this weekend with the tires ignore the timers of Today, they only tested full of fuel.

Climb back to second position? First of all we have Perez there fighting against Max, dude is adamant about trying to win this season after Max didn't let him through and help him be second, he could have easily done that but he didn't and that is why Perez won't be so helpful to him this year and will try to win no matter what whenever he can.

And also, in order to be at the top, you need to finish the race, and I feel like I am not too sure about Charles finishing the race lol, it's a Ferrari after all and any tifosi would know that there is a chance Charles could end up not even finishing the race, let alone be in the podium positions.

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m29.617s
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m30.100s
3   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m30.315s
4   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m30.577s
5   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m30.771s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m30.787s
7   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m30.924s
8   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m30.949s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m31.030s
10   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m31.110s
11   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.118s
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.181s
13   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m31.450s
14   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m31.491s
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.552s
16   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.566s
17   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m31.922s
18   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.970s
19   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.986s
20   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m32.149s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1022222/1/f1-2023-saudi-arabian-grand-prix-friday-practice-results


Results of the 1st hour, RBR is ahead but it is basically the only team who only tested fast laps.

Ferrari seems to be much better this week in comparison to the start of the season.

I wouldn't call it a big joke just yet as it's still the start of the season.  These technical issues are kinda expected really and pretty much normal esp with a team with a new set of staff and engineers like Ferrari.

As for Aston Martin, give Mercedes some time imho...  I'm still not convinced until we see Aston Martin has consistently good qualifying sessions and races until Monaco.  If they're doing good by then, I'd start saying we have a new contender for podium spots.

Aerodynamic development in MotoGP has accelerated since Ducati entered the 2015 season with winglets on its bikes. At last weekend's Portugal pre-season test, Aprilia unveiled a radical Formula 1-inspired aero concept on its RS-GP featuring wings on the front fork behind its main front aero fairing, strakes on the swingarms and t-wings on the seat unit wings.

On the final day, Yamaha unveiled a large F1-style rear wing on the bike that aims to assist with turning. MotoGP has moved to address the massive outlay that comes with aero development by limiting the number of permitted fairing designs to two per season per manufacturer. But aero's effect on safety and its impact on the spectacle of racing has been repeatedly debated by riders, with Marquez known to oppose developments such as aerodynamics and ride-height devices. _{Source: motorsport.com}

Ferrari are still continuing to be a big joke. This time there was a need to make a change in Leclerc's car which led to a 10-position grid penalty. It won't be easy for Leclerc to even climb to the second position. This is a big advantage for Alonso as well actually. He was very impressive in his first race with Aston Martin and I'm waiting for him to have an interesting season.

However it is still difficult for Alonso to make it to podium of course. Because there are still Verstappen, Perez and Sainz who are more likely to be on podium. Alonso's podium in the first race was also thanks to Leclerc's incident.

It's not always about the future that has to be equated with the past, because Ducati itself also sees the past as a very valuable lesson for them to improve their new motorbike from the start and from Bagnaia's own response that he is very comfortable with his new motorbike this year even though he just tried it in the pre-season test.

I see that Marquez is fully fit, but he still complains that his Honda motorbike may not be perfect this year so that the Honda factory is still a little behind compared to the factory Ducati which has brought more innovation so far.

The fact that there were bombs going off right next to the track and they still forced drivers to participate was the biggest story about it. I still can't believe that racers agreed to that, whatever the fine, whatever the punishment, whatever the deal was, they could have hired someone else, put the third driver in and find a fourth driver from juniors to fly and come down there and race that day, hell get someone from formula 2 if you have to.

That way FIA would learn their place, what are they going to do punish all 20 drivers? Of course they can't, the whole world would hate them. But, drivers accepted the fear of punishment and a penalty, so they raced even with the bomb incident, which was sad and spineless.

There are also some words swirling around that there could be a mass exit happening sooner or later this season.  I know they're just rumors getting the journos excited but if there's smoke there's also prolly fire.  

Anyway you got more access to Italian media and the Italian fans...  What are they saying and what's the sentiment around Ferrari?  Are the fans as hopeful as they were last year with Binotto?

Verstappen to win the race is at 1.45 and I was thinking Leclerc going to the podium could be a good spot with his new engine but at 2.70, no value imo.