Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 219. (Read 141643 times)

That top speed of Ferrari is improving and of course in this track the thing that is needed the most is of course the top speed.In the second free practice Sainz topped the times and it was a good time but we are far from real qualification times which should be about 2-3 seconds lower than that time of 1.21.664 we saw in the practice.Nevertheless this indicates that there will be great fighting in the qualifying although in a track like this one what is needed the most is to have a better top speed in the race,since the track is straight and it can be easy to overtake here.

In my opinion, I'm a little frustrated that Ferrari is still so far behind RedBull, as they invested a lot in innovation in their cars and started the championship with that impression that they would impress the world and fight for the lead until the end.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened, but I believe that for 2023 they should be even stronger.

The problem is that not everything is in Ferrari's hands, the driver is 50% responsible for the trophy, and Verstappen knows how to make the most of it.

Ducati already has another innovation this year and whether it can be used for the rest of the season on their factory bike. I don't know about that, but what is clear is that Ducati has made new innovations in their motorcycle clutch lever, in order to expedite the release of the clutch at the start.

As reported by skysportmotogp "soon a new device to try for @pecco63 It is easy to conclude that it is necessary to increase the clutch release at the beginning. We remind you that with MotoGP smooth shifting, the rider no longer has to use the clutch to change gears. The clutch only needed to start and when the bike stops. The tool on the clutch lever is also for @johannzarco".

I agree that luck plays a role, but you can't win a championship back to back with just luck, you need to be talented of course, but you also need a great team and a great car. When you have all those three, even if you get unlucky here and there, you will still end up winning. Of course it is better to be lucky than unlucky, but that doesn't mean that you should be focusing purely on luck neither, you should be focusing on how you could turn it around.

I personally do not think that neither Max nor Lewis were lucky, they both had great cars when they won and Max will keep on winning more and that will show how great he is and not just lucky.

Verstappen will probably win but IMHO as said several times... be aware of Mercedes.

About Ferrari, they have a new Venturi part of the car to trying to get a better top speed, but yeah the championship is over

Verstappen was not the first in free practice, but that doesn't say much either. The championship for Verstappen is in. Even if he crashed a few more times, he would still be at the top. Only mechanical problems seem to be able to thwart him. I don't know what Ferrari's intentions are for this season. They can forget about the world title, maybe they should try to calmly prepare for next season's World Cup and put in the best possible performances now. The same goes for Mercedes. I predict Verstappen to win the race again.

Ferrari is ahead in p2 too, again my risky bet for the weekend is on Mercedes.

About wheater, we should have only Sun until Sunday.

^  True but most of the time FP1 doesn't really show these drivers' real pace yet.  Come FP3 the real pace will be shown with a couple of surprises here and there at quali.  I'm still expecting Red Bull - Ferrari - Mercedes in that order after quali.  The race could be different tho.  I fancy Hamilton racing against the leaders and fight for a podium finish.  I mean esp after last week, he's prolly itching to race again.  He could've gotten to the podium if he had the softs on imho.

Edit:

2022 F1 Italian GP FP2 Results

1   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m21.664s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m21.807s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m21.857s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m22.338s
5   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m22.386s
6   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m22.394s
7   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m22.503s
8   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m22.728s
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m22.752s
10   Alexander Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m22.835s
11   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m22.911s
12   Guanyu Zhou   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m22.938s
13   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m22.993s
14   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m23.135s
15   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m23.217s
16   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m23.557s
17   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m23.731s
18   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m23.785s
19   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m23.982s
20   Mick Schumacher    GER   Haas F1 Team   1m24.586s

1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m22.410s
2   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m22.487s
3   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m22.689s
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m22.831s
5   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m22.840s
6   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m23.075s
7   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m23.099s
8   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m23.260s
9   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m23.394s
10   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m23.511s
11   Alexander Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m23.529s
12   Guanyu Zhou   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m23.570s
13   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m23.640s
14   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m23.661s
15   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m23.688s
16   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m23.856s
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m24.006s
18   Antonio Giovinazzi   ITA   Haas F1 Team   1m24.317s
19   Nyck de Vries    NED   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m24.731s
20   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m24.941s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1011881/1/f1-italian-grand-prix-practice-results-leclerc-leads-ferrari-12-fp1

Ferrari at top followed by.... Mercedes.

At told yesterday, be aware of Mercedes

Every great Champion we had in F1 before was also accompanied from a huge amount of luck because without it no matter how brave you are and how skillful you are you cannot win consecutive Championships in a sport like this.Based on this I think the time of Hamilton has finally ended and we are witnessing the time of a new Champion,that of Verstappen which also had a huge dose of luck in the last GP of last season which netted him the Champion title.
We need some competition from any team to him as only Ferrari is not enough,we need McLaren back and some other teams also including Mercedes.

I haven't heard of any other update but it looks like Mercedes have changed the engine of Hamilton's car so it is confirmed that he is starting from the back of the grid.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-set-for-back-of-the-grid-start-with-monza-f1-engine-penalty/10365580/

When it comes to the challenge between Hamilton and Russell it can really turn into Hamilton - Rosberg in time. Russell said before coming here that he was going to be easy going with Hamilton like Bottas was also. It didn't seem like Russell was going to compete with Hamilton this season. However things seem to have changed. Especially the last race was a pretty nice example. Russell is a very competitive driver so he can't hold himself off from trying for better every time. He has had a much better season than Hamilton so far so I understand Hamilton's actions from now on. Because Hamilton still wants one more title.

Those yellows suits on Ferrari are just lovely  <3 and personally , I wouldn't mind to see Ferrari on those tracksuits on every race. Now , Monza ...what can it bring new ? Last 2 years here were crazy with Gasly victory and then Ricciardo doing the shoey so this year should be the one for Ferrari ? I remember that Leclerc won here in 2019 and the driver story is still funny.

Did Mercedes bring any updates ? Also the rumors are that Russel can fight with Lewis on every track from now on because Lewis decided to stop giving info to Russel of what he and his mechanics tested for a long time and apparently this upset Russel a lot as we saw the answer last race when he wanted to push for victory. With all this getting to surface , I'm getting flashbacks from 2016 Rosberg vs Hamilton and to be honest, I don't see Russel backing down from this but neither Hamilton but nothing is working in favor of Hamilton any longer.

I also think that these paint job with the yellow numbers and letters looks great. They should keep this for the rest of the season. I mean it would totally fit to the yellow logo of Ferrari. Regarding the race itself i expect Red Bull to be the strongest team again. Monza is a course where you need cars that have a high top speed and Red Bull is great at that this season. Ferrari is also good at that so if they manage to make no stupid mistakes this weekend then maybe they can battle Verstappen and Red Bull for the win this time.
Mercedes on the other hand should be weaker this weekend as their car is better for tracks with fast corners and not so long straights.

I've come across a really interesting rumour today.

According to the news, Mercedes might be assessing Ricciardo's condition already now. They might be thinking of him as a replacement for Hamilton in case Hamilton doesn't extend his contract. His contract is ending at the end of next season as you know. If they make such move I guess that Russell would be their main driver.

However I'm not so sure about Hamilton now. Mercedes are improving day by day. Considering this fact he wouldn't like to quit F1 before winning his 8th world title. Therefore we would probably start watching Ricciardo in a different team by next season instead of being a backup driver already now.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/ricciardo-mercedes-backup-driver-hamilton-27937869

I also read that Ferrari will use a new downforce package at Monza. So now we just have to wait and see. But the team's own mistakes were still the decisive factor in the last races.

It now seems that Audi will remain the only team of the VAG group in Formula 1, the negotiations between RedBull and Porsche have broken down.

https://kurier.at/sport/motorsport/formel-1-traum-gescheitert-porsche-und-red-bull-beenden-gespraeche/402140205

I am 100% sure that Ferrari will find a way to screw up even if they have a chance to win. However, by the looks of how amazing Red Bull is doing and how amazing Max is doing, there is a small chance that Ferrari would even be good at all, they would probably be losing anyway and make sure that they do not lose for sure with some mistakes, even get passed by Mercedes as well.

I feel like Ferrari is doomed with this team, they need to reconsider how they are doing everything. All in all, there is a gloom in the minds of all staff, people who would be good in another team, just do not care about the team enough and that makes everyone worse than they already are.

With the change of the hight of the cars keep a big eye open on Mercedes, as the simulation said 2 months ago they earned for free around 6/10 of a second...

It's not just only the repainting with a lot of yellow on the car, a bit unusual at first glance, but I personally don't think it's that bad. The team clothing and the motorhome will also have yellow accents for the 75th anniversary of Ferrari and the 100th anniversary of Monza.




I would be happy if a Ferrari would win this weekend, the lead of Max is big enough, but probably Ferrari will screw up again and give away the victory due to an unlucky pit stop or wrong strategy.

Can Ferrari be fast enough on the straights to compete with the Redbulls?

Quartararo has never had a good run at Aragon and has always been inconsistent there, but that doesn't mean he doesn't understand how the Aragon circuit is laid out.
It's just that Quartararo hasn't been able to beat the Aragon circuit well so he doesn't get a good performance when racing there (Aragon).

But as for the Yamaha motorcycle, I think you have forgotten a race that was held by Dorna in 2020 which was also in Aragon with the title Teruel race where at that time Franco Morbidelli was able to win the race with the 2019 version of the Yamaha M1 motorbike which was followed by the Suzuki duo ( Alex Rins and Joan Mir) at the time to complete podiums 2 and 3. This means that Yamaha still has to be watched out for by other competitors or other manufacturers at this time because they are actually catching up points from the Yamaha manufacturer.

Of course, Red Bull have a much better car and Verstappen is one of the greatest drivers on the grid. However Ferrari can still do better than this at least. They have given up on the championship race very early. There is a huge gap (more than 100 points) between not only Verstappen - Leclerc but also Ferrari - Red Bull. This is all Ferrari's fault I'm afraid. At least I wish they didn't make this many nonsensical mistakes. It makes the team more embarrassing.





Anyway, a new race weekend ahead. Verstappen is the absolute favourite as always. Ferrari have made some preparations for this special race like some changes in the look of their car and the racing suits are also going to be in yellow instead of red. But this won't change anything about their speed.    I'd like to bet on Verstappen but his odd is only 1.36 now. Maybe I can try my luck by Leclerc @7.00.