Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 149. (Read 137782 times)

There is nothing surprising for me in the starting grid, Ferrari bluffed a bit and are faster than they said they would be, Mercedes are not as far behind as they said, same at the last year... In any case, Alonso got everything out of himself and the Aston Martin and confirmed the times from Friday.

So, guys, congratulations with a start of new season. First qualifying session didn't gave us surprises, but I wait for good race. And it's so good finally to see Alonso in a car that's really competetive and have big potential

Initially it looked strange that he didn't went for 2nd fast lap attempt when he didn't had any issues with car, but saving fresh set of tyres for the race probably makes sense.

From tests in race simulation

Redbull was the top team
Aston Martin was the second best team
Ferrari was the third team
Mercedes was a disaster.

My prediction is if Ferrari can stay with Redbull they will beat them thanks to their new top speed and this kind of track.

The most important thing now is to see the race pace of teams(beside Red Bull, cause they are at the top). If Ferrari has put some work on that field and can save tires better we can have a interesting race. I have higher hopes after the qualification then before. Can't wait for race tommorow.

I think that tomorrow race should be a crucial one despite being the first one of the calendar in the sense that we still do not know the reliability of each car.Sure we had different testing sessions but those do not simulate a race and as such tomorrow will be an important race.My bet for tomorrow will be under 16.5 cars to finish as that was a good odd at just over 2 because I am assuming in such track at least 4 cars will be out of the race,or incidents in this race have happened before.

Verstappen looks like he will have an easy race though if he and his team mate get out from the first corner 1st and second,then most likely only fortune can stop them and no other car,they are still very fast even this season.

Verstappen actually improved his lap time on his last try but still Leclerc could have had a chance to take the pole position anyway. I wonder what the problem was this time.

I hope that Ferrari won't deal with similar problems in this season also. Because Leclerc wasn't seeming very positive about the car. The car is really fast on straights but it is the opposite when it comes to corners. This can be a big problem for them to compete with Red Bull at the same level. Because even if Ferraris start ahead of Red Bulls, the Red Bull drivers can still catch up with them easily thanks to their high speed in turns. Leclerc won the first race in Bahrain last season and I wonder if he can repeat this.

Leclerc missed 1 try on the qualify.
The good news is that he will have 1 set of new tires during the race over RedBull.

The other cars are closer to the top in a comparison to the last year.

Not a bad performance from Red Bull. Verstappen is the first to start and Perez is right behind. Perez already has an important task at the start tomorrow and that is to ensure that Leclerc does not drive over Max at the start. But how realistic would that be? The first few races don't say everything, just look at last season. Then Leclerc even stood at the top for a while. I'm curious tomorrow, it will be the first race of the season and where is Mercedes at the moment?

There are a few things that we have seen so far but obviously this is just Saturday of the very first race so it doesn't mean anything for the whole season, but paints a picture a bit. First of all Ferrari looks like they got a bit worse, could be a small problem they can fix easily later on, or could be something much bigger and cause a lot of trouble for them as well, we still don't know but they are firmly in fourth spot instead of second spot like everyone imagined. Mercedes seems to be doing alright, the talk was that they got worse but apparently they didn't and they are second or third, basically tied for second right now. Obviously the biggest story is Aston Martin, definitely a big deal, can't imagine they could win anything, but much higher than they were last year. Red Bull on the other hand worked on reliability a lot, but also pace as well, corners are fine, but it could be improved, whereas speed looks like it could be as good as imagined.

Pole for RBR

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m31.295s   1m30.503s   1m29.808s
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m31.459s   1m30.746s   1m29.848s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.094s   1m30.282s   1m30.000s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m30.993s   1m30.515s   1m30.154s
5   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m31.158s   1m30.645s   1m30.336s
6   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.057s   1m30.507s   1m30.340s
7   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.543s   1m30.513s   1m30.384s
8   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m31.184s   1m31.127s   1m30.836s
9   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.508s   1m30.914s   1m30.984s
10   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.204s   1m30.809s   No Time Set
11   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m31.652s   1m31.381s   
12   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.504s   1m31.443s   
13   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.615s   1m31.473s   
14   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m31.400s   1m32.510s   
15   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m31.461s   No Time Set   
16   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m31.652s       
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.892s       
18   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m32.101s       
19   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m32.121s       
20   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m32.181s


Leclerc got a small problem otherwise he could fight for the pole, and this was unexpected.
A dominating Red Bull was expected.

https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1021549/1/f1-2023-bahrain-grand-prix-full-qualifying-results

The race will be another thing but FERRARI is superfast in straight so if they can stay with RBR it will hard for them.

I didn't watch any of the free practices but was FP3 stopped short or something?  The times were around 1:32's with just 13 laps done by most of the cars as opposed to FP2's 1:30 - 1:31's for their respective fastest laps with double the number of laps done...

Anyway, good job by Alonso.  Nice to see the start of the season with a little surprise.  But I think Verstappen edges it out at quali and gets pole position with Alonso getting the second spot and Perez the third.

Good luck to all your bets.

Can Alonso fight for the Pole?

Free practice 3 timers:



Source: https://video.sky.it/diretta/sport

Hamilton is begging for a better car but he is near the top, I'm guessing these results are still with fake power.

I am sure that of all the possible bets that users here on this forum could have predicted for the 2023 F1 season, very few would say that Aston Martin would emerge with force at the beginning of this championship.
The one who was the revelation of the pre-season last week, now arrived surprising in the free practices of the GP of Bahrain.

I was also surprised with Stroll's performance so far, because even with pain in his hands due to the injuries he suffered in his wrists in an accident in a vehicle much more dangerous than an F1 car  ... he did very well in guaranteeing which is sixth fastest in two sessions.

Aston if for sure a good car but the pole position is expected to be at least 1 second faster than what they did today.

Can they compete when RedBull and Ferrari will use more horse power?

I think it's all about the team, not the driver. Drivers would race until they are 60 if given the contract with exceptions of like Vettel situation, he could have continued to race if he wanted to but he wanted to leave, which I can understand, but aside from that if you offer a contract to Alonso, he will race some more there is no doubt about that.

But at the end of the day, it is not going to be a simple thing to just watch an old racer try to go at it against kids who are nearly half his age, that is going to be a problem for him obviously. I do not remember who it was, but I think Alonso is older than a drivers father if I am not wrong, that is a pretty interesting fact if I remember correctly.

^  Yup...  And we're still just at FP2.  Lol.  Let's see how Ferrari and Mercedes react in FP3.  I'm guessing Hamilton and Leclerc could do better after a little adjustment and tweaks in their cars.  It's still too early to say where Alonso might stand in the leader board.

But if by FP3 Alonso is still up there, he could get at least fifth at quali.  Damn, it might finally be the year Aston Martin has a decent car.  Vettel should've stayed a couple more years.  I'm both laughing and crying.  

From Formuladank in Reddit.  Lmao.

Looking at Fernando Alonso top the second practice times is reassuring but what is most reassuring that Aston Martin truly have made decent upgrades to their car is the fact that also Stroll in both practices of today were also 6th something not seen before last season.

Redbull is stronger though as they were still there and most likely their drivers didn't care much to give the full power during such practice so I am assuming the pole position of tomorrow would be divided between their two drivers,it will be either Verstappen either Perez.

Second Hour,

Pos    Driver    Nat.   Team    Time
1   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m30.907s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m31.076s
3   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m31.078s
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.367s
5   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.376s
6   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m31.450s
7   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.475s
8   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.543s
9   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m31.570s
10   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.586s
11   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m31.608s
12   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.793s
13   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.882s
14   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.956s
15   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m32.024s
16   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m31.110s
17   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m32.440s
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m32.525s
19   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m32.605s
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m32.749s

https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1021403/1/f1-2023-bahrain-grand-prix-friday-practice-results

Ferrari should be hiding themself.

Hulkeberg on his lap was up with the power and did the same time of Charles.
But Charles was 2/10 slower in the top speed part of the track, this mean Ferrari is still down with the engine power.

Don't know how much they are saving, probably half second of lap.

Pole position could be 1.29/1.30, close to 1.29

It's all very difficult to assess whether Mercedes and Ferrari are really that weak, Hamilton talks about Mercedes being one second off the top.

Not sure how qualifying will go tomorrow, looks like RedBull or Aston Martin and did Mercedes and Ferrari just bluff?

If anyone want to play along, there's a betting game in the forum for the whole Formula 1 season, all can join in with little money 😉.

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That's aston martin result.

I was not expecting ~LOL seem like bringing "Alonso" for maximum their cars is a great choice. Damn, I can't believe they can on second position on the testing. I was thinking they could be on 4-5 against other teams.