Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 42. (Read 142989 times)

Yeah it was Norris' 2nd pole position in his career after Sochi.    His career is on the rise this season. McLaren is getting better and we are seeing more competition thanks to that. It wasn't a good session for Piastri though. I hope he doesn't have serious problems with the car. This track is quite challenging but he can still gain more positions with the right strategies.

I thought Sainz or Leclerc would be in top 3 today. But they couldn't even finish ahead of Mercedes drivers. Anyways, I'm especially wondering how the fight between Norris and Verstappen will be for the win. 

Lando finally got his second pole position this season after finishing P1 in the qualifying session, I'm also happy for him because he was finally able to get pole position again. And the same goes for Sir Hamilton, he showed a good performance in the qualifying session by finishing in P3. However, I'm sorry that Sainz couldn't get pole position in his last race with Ferrari at his home circuit, even though in the previous FP3 he managed to get a very good position, but it's a shame he only got P6 in qualifying - but I hope that at least he can still get a podium in the racing session.

There were 4 drivers in 0.1 seconds at top in FP3 really.    Currently the qualifying odds are like Verstappen @2.10 and Norris @2.60.

It looks like we will probably watch an enjoyable Q3. I hope Norris wins which would be a serious advantage in the race. It is so much fun to watch the rivalry of these best friends, Norris - Verstappen. Since McLaren made a big progress we have seen what Norris is capable of.

When it comes to Ferrari, they might carry one driver to podium. Who do you think it would be?    I think Sainz is likely to be more successful now. Leclerc is still complaining about the car.  

Looks like a very tight fight for the poleposition today.

The question is always the same, did Max hide himself or can he push more?

Also we will have not raid today, but almost for sure tomorrow.

Yeah...  But I'm not sure if the rain will help them more or not.  At first glance I think it could hurt them more than not but then again the rain takes away some of the advantages of the guys ahead of them like Red Bull and McLaren.

But look at this.    Ferrari ahead at FP3!  This should be an interesting quali as it looks like Ferrari had some upgrades of their own.  

2024 F1 Spanish GP FP3 Results

1   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m13.013s
2   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m13.043s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m13.050s
4   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m13.087s
5   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m13.164s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m13.359s
7   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m13.723s
8   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m13.753s
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m13.786s
10   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m13.907s
11   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m13.950s
12   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m13.964s
13   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m13.975s
14   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m14.024s
15   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m14.074s
16   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m14.161s
17   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m14.254s
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m14.420s
19   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m14.572s
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m14.729s

Ferrari to get quali is at 5.00 and Merc is at 12.00.  Books still thinking it's either Red Bull or McLaren.

I believe that the biggest shock to this race will be Mercedes. They worked very hard on their upgrades and last week they have seen what they can do, however drivers weren't used to this new upgrade, so they are going to utilize it even further this weekend.

I feel like all four cars look quite similar to each other in pace, Red Bull isn't doing as well as they used to, they are only getting good results because Max is insanely better than everyone else, we have seen Ferrari make a lot of mistakes and very often, but the car seems quite on par with other cars on pace, we have seen Mclaren slowly getting to that second place, which is very good to see for competition sake, and Mercedes sucked most of the season but for the past two races they have gradually became better and better.

Briatore is back in F1.

He is back in Renault even if I'm pretty sure back in time he got a life ban for what he did with Alonso.
Not sure how it works.

Recent wheater prediction talsk for rain on Saturaday too.

Yeah I agree, let's not underestimate Mercedes especially during qualifying session at the weekend.    That was some solid progress in Canada thanks to that front wing upgrade.

When it comes to Verstappen, those are just rumours for now. The only thing Verstappen has said so far is that he would always like to drive for the fastest car on the grid. So he is leaving the door open for any probability.
 

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By the way have you seen this?

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mercedes-calls-in-police-over-anonymous-hamilton-f1-sabotage-email/10625689/

An anonymous email was sent to a certain list of F1 and media people. The email said that Mercedes sabotaged Hamilton's car. Mercedes called in police for the case and I hope there isn't such thing happened for real. 

If KTM is willing to supply the same engine as their own factory team to the Gasgas Tech3 team next season, of course there is the possibility for Bastianini and Vinales to compete in front of other new riders. Because currently the move of several riders from manufacturers to satellite teams is not a really desirable option. But there are also forced reasons and there is no harmony in his old team, as experienced by Vinales when he found out that Aprilia had recruited Jorge Martin for next season.

With the new front wing and seeing how threatening it could be for Red Bull, just judging from their reaction, I think Mercedes could be onto something that could alter the table this season.  There could be a loophole found and Toto Wolff and the Merc engineers aim to exploit it.  So they're prolly ahead by a couple or three GP's with this loophole before the other teams catch up.  And then again, some of them could even never catch up.  

...  And what's this about Verstappen talks swirling around that he could leave Red Bull and join Mercedes?

I also read from the official F1 website, they estimate that the Spanish GP on Sunday has a 40% chance of rain, that might be a challenge for the teams, especially for Ferrari which yesterday experienced a double DNF. However, if the weather is not rainy, this will be a very exciting race, because Ferrari has prepared themselves thoroughly and has prepared themselves to be able to get a podium - so it is very likely that we will be able to see RB, McLaren and Ferrari battle it out again in this race. And it seems that RB will have quite a difficult time in this race, seeing that they are still experiencing suspension problems, and Ferrari and McLaren are bringing their upgrades to this race. So I'm quite optimistic about Ferrari in this race.

We are closing in on the race weekend... For now weather says it might rain on Sunday but only in the morning which is bad news for us.    Catalunya track is already not the greatest for overtaking so some rain drops would be nice. Anyway do you think we would continue to see some competition? Or would we see a classic Verstappen domination?

I hope to see a different result in qualifying once again. Currently Verstappen is favoured by 1.66 and the closest one is Norris @6.00. I'm quite surprised that Leclerc is given 10.00 odds, not even close to Norris.

I would prefer Norris or Leclerc to betting on Verstappen @1.66.  

Indeed, there is a lot of surprising news on the racer market at the moment, including what happened to Vinales who was willing to move from a manufacturer like Aprilia to the independent Gasgas team which uses KTM engines. And yesterday I also read a little rumor on someone's social media status that the announcement for the rider who would be placed in the second seat at Aprilia still had to be postponed due to several other things. Because according to rumors it looks like Marco Bezzecchi will join Aprilia to fill Vinales' seat.

What's really happening is Red Bull has no real idea if the flex in Mercedes front wing is legal or not and has asked the FIA to observe the wing in the Spanish GP.  The can't file an official complaint to stop Mercedes from using it because for all we know, Mercedes might not be doing anything illegal.  So it's possible that it's just a bluff to scare Mercedes which ain't gonna work.  Lol.

Merc to get pole at quali is at 9.50, to win the race is at 13.00.  Decent odds for what we know imho.

The Honda is still a bit behind in development and has been struggling a bit unsuccessfully for years to catch up, but you're definitely right that Mir's options are very slim, so he'd rather stay with Honda than not have a bike next year.

Next year there will be no more GasGas and Tech-3 will have the current factory bikes (like this year) and there will also be 4 bikes from KTM in the same colours and sponsors.

joan has no other choice but to follow how honda plans, and since he is not so competitive which makes his options not too many. but it is not a bad decision for joan because honda is focusing on developing their bike to be better and with his presence it is hoped that the development of their bike will be smoother. and for bastianini and vinales who joined gasgas tech3 it was quite surprising, since these two riders chose to join the ktm satellite team and it is very possible that this team can perform very well in the 2025 season. and that could help ktm to compete better with ducati.

In the current break there is a lot going on in the rider market, today it was announced that Mir will stay with Honda and has a contract extension until the end of 2026. But I think he will have no other options than Honda, I guess anyway.

KTM now also has a very strong quartet for next year, even if I'm a bit surprised by Vinales, but KTM has signed very strong riders with Acosta, Binder, Bastianini and Vinales.

There was Felipe Massa also as a Brazilian driver in Formula 1 and I liked him a lot. In 2008 season, he was so close to winning a title but missed it by only 1 point against Hamilton. He had even more wins than Hamilton in that season. Since he left Formula 1, there hasn't been any Brazilian driver who has made such an impact. I don't know about Rafael Câmara but I hope he also gets what he deserves in Formula 1. 

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I have found an animation like this telling us which drivers won their last Grand Prix when.

https://x.com/Formuladdict/status/1802784427551895958

I saw a sad thing in the video. Fernando Alonso couldn't win a race since 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.    He is a champion driver so it isn't nice to see him like this.

As long as he doesn't leave Aston Martin for a better team it looks quite difficult for him to win a race. Luck must also be beside him as there are many faster cars.

In fact, this is a commentary on why the budget constraint was introduced. If there were no budget constraints, it would be very difficult to stop Mercedes. Mercedes new wings are completely legal because the cars are built under FIA supervision. This is valid for the 2024 season, but I don't know what will happen in 2025. There is a system of banning almost everything and this is killing the culture of F1. I think for F1 to get better, the cars need to be simplified and the skills of the drivers need to be emphasized. The power unit should be changed back to V10 or V8. The racing culture is dying because of the safety measures.

But, is it enough though? That seems to be the question that needs to be asked, is it enough? I think Red Bull is not doing that well anymore, but also Newey will leave after this season so I am sure that he is not putting all his efforts in anymore, which is why I can understand why people may see that as an issue, but reality is that we are going to end up with something that will take a while, and I believe that we shouldn't really be worried about it at all, it should be considered as normal as it gets and not a big deal.

This is why I suggest that Mercedes may get even better, but right now there is still a gap, Red Bull getting worse and Mercedes getting better means the gap is smaller but they are still not better right now.