Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 147. (Read 141812 times)

I am afraid you will have to wait quite a lot as the last time Ferrari was unbeatable is since the distant time of the Kaizer Michael Schumacher at the 2000-s.From 2005 and on Ferrari has just manage to win a title with Kimmi Raikkonen in 2007 and near won it in 2008 but they were far from unbeatable and they even had big Champions on board of their car like S.Vettel and F.Alonso which compared to the actual drivers that they have were much but much better and they even won races when Ferrari clearly was not the best car at the grid.

We all hope to see some car beat Redbull but most likely this season for me is already over and it will continue to be dominated by Redbull.

It's a little bit disrespectful for the other contestants, because they seem to be so self-confident that they don't care to support Verstappen anymore because they seem to think that even if one of them fail several races, the other pilot from their team will be able to win the championship anyway. They don't seem to be afraid by Alonso or Hamilton. It's a good news for bettors though because Verstappen is less likely to win all the remaining races if they don't ask Perez anymore to let him win, so odds on him will be higher at the next Grand Prix. And Sergio Perez is more likely to win few more races till the end of the season.

	1   Max Verstappen	93
	2   Sergio Perez	87
	3   Fernando Alonso	60
	4   Lewis Hamilton	48
	5   Carlos Sainz	34
	6   Charles Leclerc	28

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/drivers.html

The small break these few weeks seems to mean a lot to the Ferrari team, they managed to fix a few things, get their mental back up, and improve their performance. Lecrerc and Sainz both showed their best form and competed without hesitation. But we still admit that RBR is still at the top, they have a good car that the current Ferrari cannot beat. Hopefully Ferrari can improve the performance of their cars, because to be honest I miss the old Ferrari which was very competitive and unbeatable.

I have really missed Formula 1 after that long break. Maybe the Azerbaijan GP wasn't as fun as the Australian GP but I still enjoyed it in some parts especially. Seeing safety car in the race was nice as it made things more interesting. Because it was like safety car changed the fate of the race indeed. Perez saw a good chance and benefited from it nicely. Verstappen must be very unsatisfied with pitting right before safety car entered.

Verstappen and Perez had problems at Turn 15 quite many times. This turn is quite problematic for all the drivers on the grid actually. But these two drivers didn't crash into the wall at least. Russell's pitting before the end of the race to have the fastest lap was worth it. Verstappen was already angry at Russell due to his hitting his car from the side in the sprint race. Losing the fastest lap to him must also be annoying for Verstappen. 

Finally Leclerc was on podium and this is a start for him and Ferrari at least. Let's see if we would see consistency from now on.

Perez was undoubtedly the very best today and yesterday as well. That is something to swallow for Verstappen, who is not used to his teammate being better than him. But he could also look at it positively and think of Red Bull's team interest. The team boss of Red Bull is of course happy with it, it doesn't matter to them who is in 1st place at the end of the stage, as long as the title for Red Bull is not in danger. If Verstappen and Perez keep taking points off each other and it doesn't affect the individual world championship, I don't see the problem. Normally, Perez would not be able to become world champion. Baku is also a circuit in which there is almost no room to overtake. That has also been proven today. Few things happen today. Baku is a boring circuit, on to the next one with more spectacle.

A great victory from Perez, and it was really convincing this weekend. Let's not forget that he was also the best in qualifying. Very nice for Red Bull, but it will not feel good for Verstappen. We see this season that Perez is getting closer to Verstappen. But yes, if you get competition from someone as Verstappen in the battle for the world championship cap, then from your own teammate, right? In the battle for the constructors, no one can stop RedBull from winning the title. It could be quite exciting between Verstappen and Perez. I expected more from Russell in this race. A nice incident between these 2 yesterday, I thought Verstappen reacted very childish but that must be in his DNA.

At the MotoGP Jerez race this time, the KTM factory looked extraordinary in running the race. Be it yesterday's Sprint Race, today's Race, and even the podium in yesterday's Sprint Race and the Race that just finished are the same person. They are Pecco Bagnaia, Brad Binder and Jack Miller, only in the Sprint Race Pecco Bagnaia who took second place while for the KTM Factory in the Sprint Race the three of them can be said to have a pretty good position including KTM wildcard rider Dani Pedrosa who took 6th place in the Sprint Race and took second place 7th in Race.

Asian manufacturers like Yamaha and Honda still looked very difficult in the race this time so they couldn't do much, moreover two Yamaha riders in this race received a penalty because of the incident resulting in a red flag, both in the Sprint Race which triggered Morbidelli to get a penalty and also by Fabio Quartararo in today's Race so they couldn't do anything in this race even though they were able to finish in the top 10 like Fabio Quartararo. And because Pecco Bagnaia won this race, now he is at the top of the provisional standings.

RBR is just unbeatable this year until they discover their secret.

Nobody can compete with them, if they are lucky they are only 0.5 seconds slower per lap.

The same can be said for Verstappen,he almost beat his team mates in almost every season except a couple of ones when he was a rookie and his team mate was Daniel Ricciardo who was better.However a long time have passed and Verstappen is clearly the best driver for me in the grid,I know most of you will say that it is because of his car but he has shown that he has won races at a very young age even when Redbull was clearly not the best car and this for me says a lot.Whatever rate we give to our favorite drivers it is just what we think and in the end it is the track that decides who is the better one.

Perez is getting close to the victory by every lap we are leaving behind. That safety car was like a golden opportunity for Perez to take. Verstappen can't close in on him much right now. I don't think Red Bull would prevent a rivalry between these two drivers. Therefore this will be a completely deserved victory for Perez if he doesn't mess up things in the remaining laps.

Leclerc is even 16 seconds behind Verstappen and this look is really terrible for Ferrari. They still can't give Leclerc a fast car which makes it very difficult for Leclerc to fight with Red Bull drivers. He is under threat by Alonso for podium as well.

I agree that Hamilton had the best car in the league for a very long time and he benefited from that without a doubt. However, we should also not forget that he beat his teammates almost every season, dude has 100+ pole positions so far, a feat that nobody else achieved I think.

Charles is great, but I think he is not the best, I would even put George Russel ahead, we may have seen him do terrible at Baku this weekend, but so far he has beaten even Hamilton all season and back when he was at Williams he was called "mr.saturday" for a reason, worst car or second worst car, and he would go to Q2 very frequently, that is not easy to achieve. This is why I believe that Charles is probably either 3rd or 4th best one, I would put Max ahead of him as well, but that could be argued that's true.

Regarding MotoGP, I can't really get to grips with the new format yet, unfortunately I have missed almost every sprint race so far, and when I have seen it I have had rather less desire for the race on Sunday, a sprint race at every race weekend is somehow too much, what do you think?


In Formula 1, Ferrari is very fast on a fast lap in the race, but it looks like RedBull is faster on several laps, so my favorit formthe race are also a RedBull.

True. He really had a great session and Ferrari is looking way better than 3 weeks ago and I'm expecting more developments before Barcelona.

At this point that RedBull cars really looks unbeatable no matter what right ?  so yea tomorrow I do expect Max to win , followed by Perez and Leclerc will secure that 3rd position.

Not bad sprint race. Honestly, didn't expected that Perez will win it. Leclerc was doing everything that he can, but it was only matter of time until he will lose 1st position. That accident with Verstappen and Russell - I can understand that Max is angry, but for me it's difficult to blame Russell. It's racing accident that happens often when there is little space, cold tyres and it's difficult to avoid it.
And that moment with Tsunoda - i reallly can't understand how they released him to track after pit stop with broken suspension.

Leclerc did his best but he can't compete with RBR.

The only reason why he is second and not 3rd his because Verstappen got a damaged car.

Expecting nothing more for tomorrow.

Well it looks like the guy who is now the master of city circuits won it again,I think tomorrow we will see the same scenario in the race as long as we are racing in normal conditions and drivers do not go and crash against the wall like they did in yesterday qualifying.I am happy for Ferrari,their comeback is greatly appreciated and the fact that Leclerc kept Verstappen behind during this small sprint race means a lot,means Ferrari has returned,also Mercedes has returned but not at that rate that they have been claiming in interviews given to different sources.

^  It's prolly just one of those days when no matter how hard they try, the team just can't find the right settings for the car, for the driver and for a specific track and its conditions.  And it looks like the break was more beneficial for Ferrari than it was for Mercedes.  Could make for an interesting race.  

Anyway, here are the results for sprint race at the Azerbaijan GP.  Enjoy the weekend  and good luck to everybody's bets.

2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP  Sprint Race Results
1   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   17 laps
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   +4.463s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   +5.065s
4   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   +8.532s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   +10.388s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   +11.613s
7   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   +16.503s
8   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   +18.417s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   +21.757s
10   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   +22.851s
11   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   +27.990s
12   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   +34.602s
13   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   +36.918s
14   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   +41.626s
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   +48.587s
16   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   +49.917s
17   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   +51.104s
18   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   +60.621s
DNF   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1 lap

Leclerc started as the leader to the sprint race maybe but he still couldn't keep the lead I'm afraid. Perez waited for the right time and it didn't take him a very long time to overtake Leclerc later on. Verstappen seemed slower than my expectations. I don't know why he has been in the background for a while at this weekend. Of course his performance hasn't been bad.

But still people expect more from Verstappen in the end. I thought that maybe it was limited to the qualifying session only but the sprint race also didn't change anything. The big race is still a much longer one so I'm still waiting for him to do better than this. But honestly I wouldn't say no to seeing a different winner just to make the season more fun.

It really wasn't that weird to see Perez at the top, Max probably had some damage from the Russel tossel, and that is why he didn't really do that well. He was so close to Charles all sprint long but couldn't reach to him for some reason. I am guessing that if there wasn't any issues with the car (and team radio said he had some damage to the car as well) he would have caught up to Charles as well. It reached to DRS range quite a few times but that ended up with nothing and he couldn't pass him. This track has a great straight where anyone can catch up to anyone, even worse cars can pass better cars, but unfortunately Max didn't had the car to do that, must be the damage. Shows that tomorrow will be even harder for Charles without a doubt.

HE did it again.

Pos.   Driver   Nat.   Team   Q1   Q2   Q3
1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.820s   1m42.500s   1m41.697s
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m43.858s   1m42.925s   1m41.844s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m43.288s   1m42.417s   1m41.987s
4   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.763s   1m43.112s   1m42.252s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m43.622s   1m42.909s   1m42.287s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.561s   1m43.061s   1m42.502s
7   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m43.987s   1m43.376s   1m42.846s
8   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m43.789s   1m42.976s   1m43.010s
9   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m43.879s   1m43.375s   1m43.064s
10   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m43.938s    1m43.395s   No time set
11   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m44.179s   1m43.427s   
12   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m44.843s   1m43.806s   
13   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m44.433s   1m44.088s   
14   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m44.101s   1m44.332s   
15   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m44.042s   No time set   
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m45.17ss       
17   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m45.352s       
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m45.436s       
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m46.951s       
20   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m48.180s


Leclerc set the pole position for the Sprint race once again.

Starting in 1 hour, source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1024996/1/f1-2023-azerbaijan-grand-prix-sprint-shootout-results