Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 150. (Read 137782 times)

Alonso impressed me with good results in both practice sessions today. Can Aston Martin really do something this year? 

But of course it is very early to talk about such things. Because we will find out the real power of all cars as of the qualifying session tomorrow. The race is going to be the most important about this also when we think about possible durability problems for teams. But if Aston Martin really manage to keep a good balance between these sessions then we might see really interesting results from them. Alonso would be ready to be competitive again for sure. I'm not sure about Stroll. He is a good driver but not consistent in my opinion.

Wow, 2 Ferraris are 2 second behind. I wonder if Sainz encountered some problems during the first hour that gave him this result? Meanwhile, Alonso also looks good in Aston Martin, just behind against Perez by a quarter of a second. Looks like the rumors are true about Aston Martin, and they finally figured out the formula for their cars to be competitive in the F1 scene. Hopefully this is not just during practice and they can translate this to the actual race as well.

Meanwhile, two of the Mercedes are on the lower half of the lap times. Not really used to seeing them that behind even during practice. Plus the fact that they have mentioned that there were some improvements already in the cars that they are using yet they're still far behind.

1   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m32.758s
2   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m33.196s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m33.375s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m34.165s
5   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m34.257s
6   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m34.298s
7   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m34.402s
8   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m34.575s
9   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m36.689s
10   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m34.917s
11   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m34.966s
12   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m34.997s
13   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m35.015s
14   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m35.043s
15   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m35.105s
16   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m35.402s
17   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m34.455s
18   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m34.749s
19   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m36.018s
20   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m36.072s

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

1st hour has been complete, this is deceiving some teams like Ferrari just tested long runs.

The next hour will be more interesting

Oh wow, Aston Martin IS actually that good. I thought it was just an exaggeration and not actually what will happen. Like they would be 5th or something at best, but because they looked a lot better than previous years, that would make people overestimate their situation. But no, from the tests as well, it seems like they are doing pretty fine, which is a great thing to see. Sad to see Vettel leave on such a season, if he stayed with this car that would have been pretty cool. Let's see how they will be tomorrow during qualifying, that would be a lot better to see, and then, of course, Sunday grand prix, that should pretty much settle the whole debate.

You are right about it.Many people from the old drivers like Hakkinen retired when he become a father,the same with Nico Rosberg and the same with Vettel.You can't really compare Federer just hitting a ball in a tennis court against one of the sports which gives much higher adrenaline than tennis which is F1 as one of the most beautiful sports in the world.

I applause Alonso for continuing here and I think Hakkinen should have not retired back then,the same for Rosberg which came as a really big surprise as he quit immediately after he became World Champion in 2016,so well done to Alonos for continuing as F1 is a super safe sport and the number of deaths during history can be counted with less than the fingers of both hands.

Today FP1 and FP2 WSBK at the Mandalika Indonesia Circuit are over and in the two FPs, Michael Ruben Rinaldi from the Ducati manufacturer succeeded in being the fastest and in the second and third place there was Alvaro Bautista and Toprak from the Yamaha manufacturer who took turns occupying the position in two in two FP that takes place today. And for tomorrow it will be continued with FP3, Superpole and Race1 at the Indonesian Mandalika Circuit. _infoworldsbk

I have a neutral position on that after all. It his choice and the choice of a professional Formula 1 team to actually sign him as a main driver. I can understand when a sportsman can't let go and perhaps they even shouldn't if that is what their heart feels like. But I also think from the perspective of health and safety it is a difference when Roger Federer keeps playing tennis for very long compared to someone risking his life in a racing car for another year, and another year. Especially when you have a family I guess there is a special motivation and incentive to perhaps not overstep the mark.

Lolol...  I think as the tests showed, Hamilton is telling the truth.  Leclerc on the other hand doesn't want the pressure that Ferrari might perform worse than expected so he's saying that Mercedes is competitive to make everyone think the gap between second and third isn't that big.  But what it really means is they're both correct.  As is, right now, both Mercedes and Ferrari aren't at the level of Red Bull.  But we'll see as the season goes.  Both teams have fine engineers and will def develop their cars.

Anyway, join us in the F1 pool.  It's fun!

FORMULA 1 2023 Season🏁🏎️Prediction Pool Discussion Thread
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/sportsbetio-formula-1-2023-seasonprediction-pool-discussion-thread-5441078

Leclerc talked about some understeer and oversteer problems both. He said that he was still having issues with having full control of the car. This is not a good sign for Ferrari at all if this continues within the new season as well. It would be a big disappointment for Tifosi as well. Because Ferrari were really assertive about their car in this season to be one of the bests. The problems I mentioned existed for Ferrari back in the day as well. It is kinda disappointing to see it happening again.

In this case I won't be surprised to see another Red Bull and Verstappen domination. But I hope Ferrari make a good start and make us watch a more competitive season.

Toto admitted that, but the action they're gonna do is to push the rules to FIA like usual.

If they have a terrible car, and cannot upgrade it or make it better and they're gonna make other team cars downgrade by their protest to FIA for some rules. Like usual, you can see from the previous season.

Nothing surprise.

Stroll is "unfortunately" back, not like Drugovich would made that much more difference but its really hard to watch Stroll. Aston Martin looks to be doing something right, and if they are this good, I would have rather not seen him there, obviously they are basically running the whole team with Strolls dads money so its totally understandable why he is there. In the end they have Alonso, they should be doing fine. I also do not believe that Mercedes is as bad as people make it out to be, and even Wolf himself talks like they have a terrible car, but in reality we are going to see them fight for wins for sure, and they will definitely have some good podiums this season.

The current era and the era during Casey Stoner's era are far different, including the talents of each rider. Casey Stoner debuted in MotoGP with the LCR Honda satellite team in 2006 before he moved to the factory Ducati team in 2007 because in his debut year Casey Stoner had made such a brilliant appearance that Ducati immediately glanced at him to be placed into the factory. And when Casey Stoner left the factory Ducati by accepting a contract from the Honda factory, Casey Stoner didn't take long to tame the Honda motorbike so he could win the championship in the MotoGP class.

Whereas Marquez, who at the time of his debut went straight to the Honda factory, until now still feels Honda motorbikes without feeling other factory motorbikes, I don't think Marquez will immediately win if he can be at another manufacturer like Ducati. Because the Ducati motorbike needs to be tamed differently by each rider and this certainly takes time for a Marquez even though he is a rider who has great talent in MotoGP racing.

The average satellite rider who uses a Ducati motorbike is a young rider (except for Johan Zarco) who is in the Pramac Racing team and it is indeed difficult to confirm their talent on a motorbike because they still don't have that much experience and their talents are very different. But this year it will be very interesting to see a rider from the satellite Ducati team who will try to make his performance even better than last season.

Although liars, at least they are humble

But this "friendly" atmosphere should end as soon as the cars enter the track (it's what we all hope), and I'm sure that Ferrari and Mercedes will "spice up" a lot the title dispute in the 2023 season against Red Bull, which will probably will see its domain, conquered last year, be threatened now in 2023.

Both the Italian team and the German team have their cards up their sleeves to try to surprise the current champion.... There were many technical changes and reformulation in general for the tracks and races.
Something "new" should happen this year (it's very unpredictable) and it should change our bets on the new "favourite" of the competition this year.

I won't risk any bets until I see how everyone's "presentation" goes.

1 day at the start

Hamilton said: we are not at the level of Red Bull and Mercedes

Leclerc said: Mercedes will be competitive.


Someone here is lying.

I think it's not even about that, it's about getting contracts as long as he can. Look at Dany, he didn't do so well and he couldn't find himself a team, he could have easily gone to Haas and still be racing today, just ask for as little as possible, ask literally nearly nothing to cover just expenses of a season and all that, and you would be racing today, and yet he declined and now he is third string in Red Bull for some reason.

This is why I believe that Alonso is still driving not just because he can, but because he is offered to and that's a very important distinction because we have seen plenty of drivers who can drive, and yet asked not to.

They at Ducati must be feeling really confident to close the door to a talent like Marquez.They only could have benefits from him as I think someone needs to remind them of the Stoner era where Honda was the best bike but Casey Stoner could ride a Ducati like no one couldn't at that time and he won a season with this team.I think that if they left the door open for Marquez,it would be the same,he would win with a good bike normally thanks to his skills but he would also be a great challenger to the title even if Ducati had not the best bike.

I have difficulties confirming the above for their satellite drivers.

Yup and if ever he's gonna return to F1 again, I think it's gonna be as a team principal or a team strategist role.  He has a good mind for the sport and has always showed his interest behind the scenes in the paddock.  I remember before when he used to be a young racer in Red Bull whenever he had a DNF, he's always there beside Horner and Newey in front of the monitors and trying to learn new things about the sport.

I hope we see him as a team principal as I think he'll be good at it.

This rumor seems to have begun to be debunked now, although I did not have time to read about the rumor because in the past two days there have also been many local media saying that Ducati is no longer interested in Marquez. And that was said directly by the Director of Sport for Ducati, Paolo Ciabatti, by emphasizing that there was no need for Marc Marquez in the ranks of his racers for MotoGP. The current material is quite satisfactory. Which means that Ducati has closed the door for Marc Marquez because maybe his time has passed, and besides that, Ducati itself also has many young riders in their satellite team at this time. _{Source: id.motorsport.com}

As long as Alonso feels confident and has reflexes he can race.We all saw in the last season that he did some pretty nice races despite him racing in a middle to low performance team like Alpine and in certain tracks where driving skills prevail he surely put himself in the spotlight and the fact that he manages to easy beat and overtake young drivers says a lot about his personality.

I never liked him in the Ferrari or Renault era but I changed my mind when he joined McLaren and made those funny statements like "GP 2 engine,GP2 engine" as I thought this guy must be crazy talking against his team like that but in the end he was right,since then I have only respect for him as a driver.

Vettel never seemed like the kind of guy who will take his word back and join the Formula 1 again. He is a racer at heart, but when I saw his goodbye message I thought that this is surely final. Alonso can't get enough and people thought he might stop driving years ago. Perhaps he is still driving when he is 45.