Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 165. (Read 141586 times)

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.

Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m31.610s   133
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m31.650s   47
3   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team   1m32.205s   130
4   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m32.222s   74
5   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m32.466s   68
6   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m32.486s   70
7   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m32.549s   154
8   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m32.725s   68
9   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m33.175s   74
10   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.186s   59
11   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.442s   67
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.490s   49
13   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.654s   26
14   Sergio Perez   MEX    Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m33.751s   76
15   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.954s   72
16   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m35.522s   65
17   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m35.708s   8


Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1020800/1/f1-2023-bahrain-preseason-testing-day-2-lap-times


Timers of the day.

We are still slow, pole-position is expected to be 1.29/1.30 this year so they can push 2/3 seconds more.

Tomorrow will be the final day of tests.

Finally being able to see the cars and the drivers, even though it is a test and we will definitely not see anything remotely close to reality, we will at least see if there is any "obvious" differences. Like for example last year Aston Martin made a huge mistake and it was obvious even from the test level that they would suck, and would be terrible. Same would go for any team that makes a huge mistake this year as well, definitely going to end up with a big difference in the end.

I feel like there is a good chance we could see at least one team and my money is on McLaren, they are going to be so much worse than everyone expects them to be and it will come as a shock to everyone. Can't say the worst team, but will be out of top 5.

Verstappen seems very fast as usual. Red Bull are such a consistent team for a long time really.

However I'm wondering about what we will see from Mercedes and Ferrari in the qualifying session of the first race. Maybe they both are really hiding their maximum power. Actually Ferrari have already started to show some examples but I think they have more than this. I assume they didn't claim that they had a very quick car for nothing. Something must have really changed for this season. The most important thing for them to fix durability issues of course. I'm curious about Mercedes the most now. Because Toto seemed confident about helping Hamilton win his 8th world title.

157 laps means they have a good car without any serious technical and engineering shortcomings or problems that need tweaking.  They got a stable and a consistent car.  I think the odds for Verstappen to win the driver's championship will be cut a couple of notches down.  Lol.

I hope to see Ricciardo to be given a chance to test the car.  I think between him and Perez, Ricciardo is a tad faster and be a couple of places up from where Perez was in testing day 2.  IMHO.

1   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m32.486s   70
2   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m32.549s   84
3   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team   1m32.969s   64
4   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m33.170s   43
5   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m33.442s   67
6   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.490s   49
7   Sergio Perez   MEX    Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m33.751s   76
8   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.954s   72
9   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m35.522s   65
10   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m35.708s   85


Ferrari fixed the porposing, (or was it only a stress test they did yesterday)

Redbull is the most impressive car so far, with an incredible "be consistent" on tires.

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1020800/1/f1-2023-bahrain-preseason-testing-day-2-lap-times


Is Mercedes hiding?

Tomorrow the first round for the WSBK race will begin at the Phillip Island circuit which is located in Australia and it will open the WSBK race this season. Hopefully there will be another very exciting race there and as usual for tomorrow there will be FP1 and FP2 in the WSSP and WSBK classes. The following is an entry for the teams, riders and motorbikes they use for the 2023 season and for the schedule you can see it directly on worldsbk and also on motorsport.com

It is not clear yet if it is a real problem or something related to extreme tests condition.
We will see more tomorrow, but the Ferrari is very fast on straight but very bouncy for now.

They are the only team using a mid-load back wing and this is incredible, it means they have a big downforce in the car over the other teams.

Let us see if they can fix the bouncing.

The test results are pretty interesting to me. Especially seeing Fernando Alonso with Aston Martin at top places is really surprising. This still doesn't prove anything about the upcoming season yet of course. But at least it gives us some opinion. There is another fact about Aston Martin during the test laps as well actually. Alonso had a big problem with the car and the session had to stop if I'm not mistaken. If Aston Martin also have durability problems then there will be nowhere to escape for Alonso.

By the way Ferrari scared me by making a mistake as well. The mechanics made a mistake with the mounting of the nose of the car. I hope we don't see this kind of things during the season.

We are slowly starting the F1 season again. has been at a standstill for several months. But soon we will be racing again for real. Could there be teams or players that could give Verstappen competition in the fight for the world championship? I can hardly imagine that myself. And then there is also the fact that I assume that Red Bull has another great car for this season. Most questions will end up with Mercedes, they really have to close a very big gap compared to last season. And I also wonder how much sense Hamilton still has in it. He will certainly want revenge for the lost season in which he did not win a single game. How big would the jug have been on that? And will Verstappen break his own record for the total number of victories?