Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 151. (Read 137782 times)

It would have been nice but it's not going to work. Think of it this way, Vettel and Alonso in a good car... my god that sounds like a dream come true for all the F1 fans that are old like me, I have barely seen Micheal Schumacher to be good, he was basically at the end of his career when I started watching and barely remember his last title, after that it was all Alonso and when I was out of college it was pure Vettel domination as well, and for a while he was seen as the only chance to stop Mercedes and Hamilton domination as well.

Both these drivers in a good car could actually end up fighting for the top spot. Vettel retired for a reason, BUT if they could get him, somehow, these two could get them the third position, I am sure of it.

I don't think we should worry for rain in races like this one in the middle of the desert,usually we have not seen a rainy race in such places but maybe I have forgotten about one such race that we had in the past.In here it is a night race I am assuming like has always been and that enough is a great key factor in usually making a Safety Car coming in from what we have seen at the past races here.

I also can't wait for it to start,in this race we will see the true colors (power) of all the teams,I am sure they have not given their 100% performance in the testing.

After seeing the opening race for the first round of WSBK in Australia to be precise at the Phillip Island circuit. It looks like Alvaro Bautista with his Ducati motorbike will still dominate the race this season. Because from the results of Race1, Sprace, and Race2 all of them were wiped out by Alvaro Bautista even though the race was in wet conditions. And I think this is proof at the start of the season that Ducati is still very strong in WSBK and gives a little signal that the Ducati competitors still have to work harder on different bike setups in order to be able to fight the higher RPM Ducati bikes.

This week the WSBK riders will leave for Indonesia for the next race, to be precise in Lombok with the circuit name Mandalika. And I see from several media that the Mandalika circuit has also been repainted to make it look cleaner and newer. Hopefully there will be more interesting competition in Mandalika this week. _infoworldsbk

3 days at the start.

Small update about the weather, no rain on the radar.

It should be a 100% sunny weekend.

Glad to know that the father is not somewhat "firing" his son but he has hand injury as I found it hard to believe.Now I see the reason is good enough but I think Vettel should accept the offer to just race once more in Bahrain as that would be a good opportunity for him to race with this new improved car as his last race ended somewhat well with a lot of overtakes if I remember correctly so it would be nice to see for at least one race team mates Alonso and Vettel.The testing showed that this new Aston Martin was good enough and it can be fighting for top spots,a simple Safety Car who knows how can impact the race for such car,I am looking forward to the first race next week.

It will be their 3rd driver who will race for Bahrain: https://www.planetf1.com/news/aston-martin-felipe-drugovich-potential-replacement/

Quite unfortunate for the hand injury to happen right before Bahrain starts. Must have been really frustrating for Stroll even though he's not racing for the win and mainly just for the points. I'm actually more invested in Vettel possibly handling the wheel for Aston Martin, but somehow okay with their decision to let the responsibility be given to the 3rd driver. At least, we'll get to see how well Drugovich performs on track and not just testing but we'll see. It's as if they're trying to get Lance up to speed before the race starts.

While I agree that usually Alonso do not get a seat without being promised a good car,well except the case at McLaren which really screw up in their first return to Honda engine,so I am assuming the tests are real for Aston Martin and they did not want to hide anything.I have heard the rumors and some local newspapers here and also in the Internet I saw that Aston Martin had offered a seat to Vettel and that would be a perfect duo for the team,Vettel with Alonso but this would be a bit strange as Lance Stroll the son of the owner of that team would be without a seat,maybe he needs one year off as a test driver,who knows.

It is not sure that Vettel will race it is only a rumor for now.

Vettel will be exited if he will have the opportunity, Aston Martin is a very strong team after tests and they can aim for Podium.

It's very unfortunate that Stroll broke his hand as we approach the start of the season. The Bahrain GP starts next week. I'm looking forward to it anyway. It's nice to see Vettel driving again, if that all continues. Stroll will be unable to race for a while with his injury. That will have little effect on the standings because it is not a driver who seriously participates in the World Cup. But for him it is of course very frustrating, he didn't have a bad season at all last year. I tip Max as the winner of the GP of Bahrain.

A possible comeback in Formula 1.
Vettel can race at the start of the season with Aston Martin.

Stroll has his hand broken and it is not sure he will race, it is improbable.

In his place, it will race their 3rd driver or Vettel.

Many local social media wrote Marquez was a little disappointed with Honda. This was because Honda's development of the Bike did not appropriate expectations. This left him dissatisfied and there were rumours of Ducati being interested in him. This is because he also hasn't gotten a contract renewal that expires in 2024. Indeed, if you look at the current strength of Ducati I am pessimistic about the strength of Honda and Yamaha. In addition there are four Ducati teams at the moment, that means there are eight riders.

1   Sergio Perez   MEX    Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m30.305s   133
2   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m30.664s   65
3   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m30.827s   131
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.024s   67
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.036s   76
6   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m31.261s   79
7   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.381s   95
8   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.442s   83
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team   1m31.450s   80
10   Felipe Drugovich   BRA   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team   1m32.075s   77
11   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m32.160s   37
12   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m32.762s   56
13   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m32.793s   136
14   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.257s   76
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.329s   77
16   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m33.655s   44
17   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m38.244s   8

Time of the day, https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1020955/1/f1-2023-bahrain-preseason-testing-day-3-lap-times <- Source


So in the end, Redbull should be the best car overall.
Ferrari seems to be very fast in single lap time.
Mercedes seem to be in difficult.

Aston Martin is very close to the top 3 teams.

Keep the updates coming coinlocket$!  Kinda sad Red Bull not giving Ricciardo some time to test the car.  I think they won't like what they'll see...  A reserve driver showing that he's potentially faster than one of the drivers.    I don't think Perez will get a contract extension if he doesn't help the team give a consistent 1 - 2 finish every race.  Ricciardo, in a car like that, def could.

By the time the market goes live again Verstappen's line could be around 1.50 to win the driver's championship.  Red Bull might be 1.80 to win the constructor's.  Still kinda high because of Perez's inconsistency.

And here's Ricciardo rn.  

I highly doubt Alfa Romeo to have improved that much,it is just that the other drivers are not showing their full power in the testing,well the title contenders because drivers like Zhou want attention and they are giving 100% of their capacity even in testing.Also most of the teams are not showing their true forms here,they are just testing and collecting data.

All of our doubts will be removed after the first session of the official qualifying which we will see on 4 March which is exactly next weekend we will have the first race in Qatar.

Morning timers:

1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m31.024s   42
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m31.442s   56
3   Felipe Drugovich   BRA   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team   1m32.075s   45
4   Sergio Perez   MEX    Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m32.459s   49
5   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m32.762s   40
6   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.329s    46
7   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m33.655s   31
8   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m34.192s   38
9   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m36.854s   72
10   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m38.817s   70

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1020955/1/f1-2023-bahrain-preseason-testing-day-3-lap-times


Ferrari is very fast in the single lap but a disaster in the race time and management of the tires so far, unless they are hiding.

I didn't expect that Zhou Guanyu would rank first in this second test, surpassing Max Verstappen. It seems that his speed and consistency are very interesting to talk about. And it seems that Zhou Guanyu is quite familiar at this Bahrain circuit and that also makes Zhou Guanyu not to be underestimated this season because he managed to start the season off with surprising performance.

In the presentation of the W14, Mercedes followed its "tradition" of promising little in order for those who know how to deliver a lot, a mentality that has always been present in the German team, and Mercedes' objective is to minimize the pressure on its drivers in order to allow that your entire team can work in peace to deliver the best racing results.
As far as I remember, Mercedes were never very bold in their promises even when they clearly had the best car in F1.
I honestly think her attitude is magnificent.

Obviously, after a 2022 marked by frustrations with the W13, the tone adopted in the launch of the W14 seemed a little different from the norm, with a much greater sense of caution, which helped to reinforce the rumors that the 2023 performance will not be as good like that.

But even so, I believe that Mercedes are bluffing and that they should surprise us this season.

Mercedes already said that they are far behind of RB and Ferrari, there are hopeful fans out there who think that Mercedes could be hiding some power and all that, but the reality is that Mercedes is just that much slower. Toto already said that they are working on the next upgrade, not that the will be this bad all season, just like last season they will get closer to the top, they have more road to cover so they will have a bigger improvement and maybe even win a race or two by the end, but at the start of the season I do not expect Mercedes to have any good results, they really looked awful so far.

The pole position was from Ferrari, Leclerc.

The race was 1-2 for Ferrari and 0 points for Redbull retired for Fuel problems.

Who came first in that race? I don't know that name. Is that perhaps a new great talent? Red Bull has informed Max Verstappen that the car has driven properly and that he is also satisfied with it. Seems like an optimal preparation for the new season for Verstappen, who has secretly become world champion for 2 years in a row. No doubt many more will follow. March 19th then we will race in Saudi Arabia for real, so that is starting to get along. The teams still have about 3 weeks to prepare and adjust things.