Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 176. (Read 137833 times)

Session 2 for the last race of the year.

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m25.146s
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.487s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m25.599s
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.761s
5   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m25.852s
6   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m25.932s
7   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m26.038s
8   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m26.043s
9   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.124s
10   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m26.300s
11   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.377s
12   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.395s
13   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m26.479s
14   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.547s
15   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m26.680s
16   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m26.750s
17   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m26.839s
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m26.915s
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m27.036s
20   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m27.262s

Mercedes very close to the top.

In the meanwhile this week we got a piece of news that Ferrari stopped the progress of this car a long time ago for problems with the budget cap and both Ferrari and Mercedes were surprised about the expensive new bottom of the car (around 2m$) used by Redbull from the summer and they don't know how they could spend so much money with the budget cap.

Let's see if history will repeat itself...

Source : https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1017451/1/f1-2022-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-2

I really really want to see Vetten winning this race but that would be as near impossible as it gets. It would be like farewell to Kobe where he scored 60 points on his last game and got the win, Vettel winning this race would be epic for him. I know that he is retired now and this is his last race but I really hope to see him racing again with a great car.

Something like putting him on Red Bull again, both because he has won so much there already, but also he could have both helped Max to win more titles, but also could teach him how to be even better could have been awesome. The retirement is something I am having hard time accepting, I am hoping he would come back one way or another.

1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m26.633s
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m26.853s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m26.888s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m26.967s
5   Liam Lawson   NZL   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m27.201s
6   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m27.268s
7   Robert Shwartzman   ISR   Scuderia Ferrari   1m27.429s
8   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.619s
9   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m27.655s
10   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m27.840s
11   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m27.845s
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m27.791s
13   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m27.991s
14   Robert Kubica   POL   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m28.064s
15   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m28.098s
16   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m28.142s
17   Pietro Fittipaldi   BRA   Haas F1 Team   1m28.204s
18   Pato O'Ward   MEX   McLaren F1 Team   1m28.350s
19   Jack Doohan   AUS   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m28.484s
20   Felipe Drugovich   BRA   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m28.672s


Mercedes is ahead again...

As I told you months ago with the change of the regulation they did Mercedes became the car to beat...


Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1017399/1/f1-2022-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1

I am curious to see how will Mercedes behave in this last race where they were dominant last year and it was only because of the events we know that they lost the final race together with the title.Mercedes was doing really well in Brazil which is another track where they dominated in the last year much better than they did in this last weekend race.If the Mercedes team manages again to win the race and to have both drivers on the podium it looks like we are going to have one hell of a beautiful next season and hopefully also Mclaren and Ferrari will be more competitive.

The last Formula 1 race this season, there is nothing left to distribute except for the vice world champion. But I think Red Bull is in a bit of a bind because of the last weekend, and that should be cleared up by next season. If the team-mates don't work together, it will probably be more difficult, Mercedes has caught up in development and Ferrari will hopefully not make the same mistakes next season.

Hulkenberg sure is a better driver than Magnussen for me,I remember him getting more points in the seasons he took place compared with the points of Magnussen.However it was a natural choice for Haas to keep Magnussen as he clearly did much better than his team mate Mick Schumacher.I think since Haas has shown great improvement to their car during this season compared to the previous one,we may even have a better car for the next season and Hulkenberg is a great choice if the car happens to perform better next season.

I am more sorry for Ricciardo that most likely will be without any team for next year.

I remember a time when Magnussen and Hulkenberg weren't getting along. Therefore I wonder how much good teammates they will be this time. The thing I said was many years ago so their relationship might not be the same now. Hulkenberg is a sensible choice for Haas actually. Because he is a talented driver and he can fight better than Mick as well I think.

Somehow Mick couldn't impress the team as much as Magnussen. I really don't know if he can find a team for himself to race next season.

Haas has already chosen his next driver and he will be... Nico.



Source: https://twitter.com/F1/status/1593121647909011457

You may remember him as the "Covid" driver from 2021 when he has been called by several teams to substitute the drivers positive for COVID-19

Sad to see Mick go, and also Ricciardio as well, both of them deserved spots in the league if you ask me, they are both good enough to be placed somewhere, and unfortunately, they weren't. Sometimes life is so hard that you forget how smallest things could make such huge changes. Daniel could have gone to a better team as a second driver, like go to ferrari instead of sainz, and he could have been great there with such car, but went to Mclaren to a team that focused on Lando because he had the future, and Dany didn't get the attention he deserved, so he became worse and worse.

Mick for example could have been somewhere that was better for his first years, but his first ever f1 years were in the worst possible car, so he couldn't developer properly, but these are no excuses, if there are better options, teams will take it.

I don't think that the main problem at Ferrari is Binotto now. The problem is their being stubborn about not making big changes in their crew. For example the pit crew should definitely be changed. Because we have witnessed many unbelievable mistakes this season. These mistakes just destroyed especially Leclerc's races. They also need better strategists as it seems. Because we have witnessed also that they have made very bad decisions this season. One of them happened even on the last race week.

If they decide to do these I will be more positive about Ferrari. Otherwise they might have another problematic season.

It was already confirmed that Nick Hulkenberg will race for Haas next season. I think it's good choice for Haas, they know what they will get and what to expect from Nick.
There were no serious talk about Ricciardo in Haas. He didn't wanted to race for team which fight for bottom places. Ambitions is good thing, but when you haven't raced well in few recent seasons, it's not worth to expect good offers.
Mick in his second season was better, but in general, nothing special. If he will become Mercedes reserve driver, it will keep him close to F1 and maybe he will get chance one day.

The opportunity is still very large to make six parallels with MotoGP by two riders from the factory Ducati (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) which are currently inhabited by Alvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Likewise with the factory championship, which is very likely to be obtained by Ducati because the advantage in points is already quite a lot and if you refer to the source you provided, I think only a crash can prevent Ducati and the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team from getting two more champions so that the title is to be very complete (Triple Crown) this season.


Actually, Yamaha has been aware of this for a long time, so rumors circulated recently that next year the Yamaha manufacturer will use a V4 configuration engine. But during the test at Valencia, Yamaha has not provided further confirmation on this matter and it is possible that Yamaha will still use the engine with the old model configuration, namely Inline4. Because the V4 engine can indeed provide more power on a straight line, Yamaha has been very happy with their Inline4 engine in recent years. Henceforth, let's see what new things Yamaha will bring to MotoGP next season, especially with regard to the engine.

It is going to be difficult but this makes me think that Haas truly wants Ricciardo then as most probably it is there where Ricciardo is going if he does not want to be a reserve driver for any of the big teams for the next season.Haas showed some signs of improvement during this year compared to last year where they were always near the bottom in results,so who knows what happens with this car development for the next season and who knows if Gunther will stay true to his words "if Daniel wants to come he is welcome but I am not going to call him".

It is now official

Schumacher and Haas will not continue.



Source: https://twitter.com/SchumacherMick/status/1593107190063435776

Can he find a seat?

The speed problem will can not resolve even if have a top racer like Quartararo, because when we look at the trial a moment ago, The top speed Yamaha is 327 km/h far behind Ducati's 335 km/h. Those 8 different calculation is more bit effect on the track even having skill overtaking around the corner because when occurring on a straight track Ducati can definitely pass Yamaha's speed. That problem will make Quartararo think hard about in the bike and how to ahead thus making crashes.

Still not sure about Binotto, we have increasing rumors about Vassour from France.

But how they will explain the deny twitter about it if we will have him in 1 month? 

The idea that he is the best technical guy? Seriously? I mean building a good car is one thing, but during the races the team sucks, we all know this and they have made the wrong decisions plenty of times at every turn. Just on the last weekend with the horrible decision on the inter tires when they could have gone soft, and everyone else did, that was a wrong move and caused Charles to start from 10th because of that.

In the end, we are talking about Binotto being terrible for ferrari, they need to hire someone else but it is not easy to just sack someone and get a better one, because these people are not dozens out there, they are rarely found. Unless they manage to hire horner or toto, I doubt they would be able to find a marvellous replacement.

We are in the final race week now.

I will be eyeing Hamilton's performance in this race. This is his last chance for winning at least one race in this season. There is a record for him such as winning at least one race every season since 2007. It would be sad for him if he can't win in Abu Dhabi. Mercedes drivers started to perform much better in the recent times with some improvements in the car. Maybe we can watch another rivalry between Russell and Hamilton for the win here as well.

That's because Binotto is more of an engineer than a team principal.  It's like if Red Bull gave the team principal role to Adrian Newey instead of Horner.  

Binotto is a good engineer and he's irreplaceable.  If Ferrari does give him the sack then that would be the most idiotic decision making for the team.  Ferrari should put him where he's good at as chief technical officer for the team and let him continue making competitive cars.  Removing him totally will bring Ferrari back to square one imho.

In F1 Instagram official page they showed something in those lines but then they said it was not true.Judging from the press in Italy and elsewhere it is clear that something will happen yet they are just extending it before making it public because there is the last race to run this weekend and they do not want to remove the focus from this race as they are still fighting for that second place in the drivers Championship meanwhile they need to defend the second place in the Constructors Championship from a Mercedes becoming better and better in these last years.

Most probably they will make it public after the end of this race.