Topic: Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM..... - page 57. (Read 145120 times)

By the way, have you seen this? : https://x.com/RBR_Daily/status/1793999851698708486

F2 driver Isack Hadjar could have crashed into Miyata if he didn't have those insane reflexes.    Thankfully Formula drivers are focusing on improving their reflexes much more than a normal person. That tunnel is really dangerous for such moments. Because you are getting past it at full speed and there is a blind corner there which is open for accidents.

Coming back to F1, Hamilton was really impressive in FP1. But will he maintain a solid performance? I doubt that honestly as the car is generally so slow.

After announcing his retirement at the end of this season, during today's Practice Aleix Espargaro managed to set a new record with his quite epic time on an Aprilia motorbike at the Catalunya circuit today where he managed to set a time of 1:38.562 seconds in today's Practice session and placed him as the first and immediately qualify for Q2 for tomorrow. Meanwhile, Marquez failed to qualify for Q2 even though he was in first place in today's FP1 session, but this is certainly not a problem for him because Marquez can take this through Q1 tomorrow.

Yeah, the rumours linking Sainz with Mercedes have been out there for quite a while in fact. But I'm hearing about the Williams one for the first time. Another driver being linked with Williams lately is Bottas. Sargeant is losing his seat for sure after not being able to meet the expectations. He looked decent though when he was driving in F2 but it doesn't look like F1 is for him. 

Red Bull really offered Perez an extension?    I wasn't expecting that. Because after the drop in his performance in last times of the 2023 season I thought Red Bull would be more hesitant.

Williams looks like they're trying to be a great team again.  There are words swirling around that they're determined to get Adrian Newey to join them.  Dunno tho...  It feels like Newey will take at least a year off from F1.  He's been meaning to do it from what I've seen.

As for Red Bull...  Lol.  That means they've given up on Ricciardo.  Looks like the guy is washed.

Here's FP1.  Interesting result even tho we know most of them are in sand bagging mode.

2024 F1 Monaco GP FP1 Results

1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m12.169s
2   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m12.198s
3   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m12.295s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m12.396s
5   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m12.397s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m12.775s
7   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m12.789s
8   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m12.875s
9   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Visa Cash App RB F1 Team   1m12.901s
10   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m12.954s
11   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m12.984s
12   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m13.229s
13   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m13.248s
14   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m13.390s
15   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m13.425s
16   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m13.576s
17   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m14.150s
18   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m14.159s
19   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber   1m14.570s
20   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m15.574s

It is likely that Sainz will join Mercedes next season - to fill the slot left by Hamilton. Sainz is not a bad racer, compared to Charles, he has a slightly superior performance, but it's just that at some points his luck runs out. I'm sure that his joining Mercedes will allow Mercedes to maintain their performance and it is possible that they can get a podium, but only if it is accompanied by good upgrades by Mercedes on their car. I'm quite positive about the possibility of Sainz moving to Mercedes, and I hope it happens.

From what I've been reading today about Sainz, I think he has a good chance of ending up in a completely unexpected destination in 2025 for many people... in fact he seems to be in "advanced talks" to take over from American Logan Sargeant at Williams .
Sainz has known since the beginning of this year that he will no longer stay at Ferrari for next year, they want to make room for Hamilton and he would certainly make an excellent pairing with Charles Leclerc.

The other vacancies sought by the Spaniard are at Red Bull and Mercedes. However, the bullfighting team is in negotiations to keep Sergio Pérez for another year alongside three-time world champion Max Verstappen, while the Brackley team's tendency is to promote the young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who is currently in Formula 2, to be the duo by George Russell.

New rumors today about Sainz.
He is rumored to have be in contact with 2 teams lately: Williams and Mecedes.

Following the rumors that links him to Mercedes, the voice has been turned off so it seems to Mercedes for him.


Redbull offered 1 year extention to Perez, he asked for 2. So at the moment Redbull has no second driver for the next year.

That's why McLaren and Ferrari need to get their sht together during qualifying...  If they get pole then more likely than not, they win the race.

Verstappen is at 2.40 to get pole.  This could be another spot the books are giving us some decent value 'preflop'.  :/


There's prolly gonna be some drizzle but no hard rain like those ones we've seen happen in Spa and Suzuka for like more than a couple if times.

Another race week has arrived already!    It is Monaco Grand Prix maybe but it is still nice to be able to watch F1 quite often. This track is all about qualifying effort considering how narrow the track is.

When it comes to the weather...



Source: Formula 1 official website

There is some rain probability during qualifying. If it happens the session can get more exciting. It is already a quite challenging track which needs full concentration every second. On a slippy Monaco track that concentration level must be as high as possible. Otherwise the barriers are really unforgiving. 

I might bet on Norris or Leclerc to get the pole position to add some extra fun into it.

When you upgrade a car, you do not have all the data that you want to have, you have all the data that you test for, but during a race itself is the only time the test will give you the full results.

Even this season Max had a situation where he had to retire the car, there was literally a brake on fire that blew, did we see anything like that in the past two seasons? Of course not, and we just need to keep an eye on all of those things. Mclaren is being smart about not pushing it further, Norris could have pushed to the highest level all race long but then maybe the car wouldn't be able to keep a hold of itself if it was pushed that much, so they take it easy, and pushed only at the last few laps, which was nearly enough, it was less than a second.

Mercedes is in quite a bad condition at the moment, their team is not showing good progress, which is in contrast to their customer, McLaren, which is actually showing quite good performance at the moment. Even worse, many people say that the current Mercedes car is like a "cart" because they are a team that is usually at the top, but now they are competing with Haas and VCARB, that's how bad they are. At this point, Mercedes is just trying to maintain their position and considers that this season is no longer competitive for them.

I think McLaren surely is and the problem is this exact next track during this weekend which we will be in Monaco.This can be a double edged sword as it can prove very much beneficial to McLaren which can win the race if they get the pole position as we know how difficult if not impossible is to overtake in this track.If they have problems though and they start from the 2nd row of the grid or even lower it can impact their race for the worse.Whichever the case one sure thing in Monaco is that will be a boring race as the pole sitter if he gets out first from the first corner most likely will win the race.

You saying we'll see the tide turn this season with the McLarens and the Ferraris catching up in car development in the next few races?  :/  If so, yes please...  I for one would love to see a more competitive season among the guys at the top.  Throw in Mercedes in there too.  They have been lagging the last couple of seasons.

Anyway Joylon Palmer has something to say about McLaren and closing the gap vs Red Bull.  Enjoy...

Are McLaren Closing The Gap On Red Bull? | Jolyon Palmer’s F1 TV Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSk_6wCxNg0

Honestly, I don't. I feel like it was fun, specially the last few laps, Norris almost caught Max and watching that gave me a feeling of 2021 max/Lewis type of battle, and if I am right and if all goes well then we may actually see that next year. The reason? Red Bull hasn't gotten any better this year at all, Mclaren has and they are getting quite close, in fact I could say that Mclaren may actually have a better car but Max is an insane driver so it is not obvious but look at Perez and you will see it.

One more thing, Newey is out, and I am sure many other engineers will follow him too, so Red Bull will not be any better next season neither, whereas Mclaren is getting much better. So this race gave me hope for 1.5 more seasons, if you know where to look.

So you agree that they are not confident with their car then? Is that the results of their team com? I wonder what makes them that cautious if past results show they can at least push earlier than the last 10 laps. Track condition, or are there other reasons?

I don't think relying on a safety car to enter the race is a reliable strategy. You're pushing your luck too much if you always rely on that to change the tide IMO. Well, not like this is their exact strategy anyway. Hopefully, they learn from this and make better strategic decisions so this season will be competitive. CMIIW.

Let's say that the future promises well with a challenge between Max Norris and Leclerc.

However, a lot will depend on the car available.
Redbull is still the main force (with Max) but it is no longer dominant like in previous years and now they have also lost the Messi of the engineers.

I agree with all the people who think this was a boring race. Imola track was already a really narrow one. But I still thought we would see some competition between Ferrari and McLaren. Piastri was the only one with an overtake among those drivers but he did it while Sainz was in pit.    By the way wasn't Sainz really slow in this race?

Norris really made me excited also during last laps. If we had a safety car in the first times he started to drop the gap with Verstappen then I believe he could have really taken the lead. 

I'm loving this season a lot. It is much more thrilling than the last one. 

The vehicles have grown too big. It's very difficult to pass on such narrow tracks and the cars can't even get next to each other. And then you end up with such a boring race. The Imola GP was a dull race except for Norris catching Verstappen in the last laps. I like the Italian and European circuits, but I think it makes sense that Imola is off the calendar. Or this GP could have stayed in memory of Senna, but I don't think the F1 management would have cared about that. I don't think it was nice that only Verstappen wasn't wearing a Senna t-shirt at the Senna memorial.

Ferrari and McLaren are now championship contenders. If Perez continues his bad run, the Red Bull team championship will remain a dream. McLaren is at a very good level in terms of car development. Their upward trajectory since 2023 in Austria, coupled with the second update package coming soon, should see McLaren win more races in the second half of the season. Ferrari are also in good shape and wins could come from them too. Even though the big update package they brought here didn't work as well as they would have liked, the foundation of their cars is solid. The second half of the season will be more exciting.

The McLaren team tried to play it as safe as possible because they were concerned about the reliability of their car and if they tried to push it early on they would miss the moment at the end. So maybe their strategy was to play it safe at the start and then push at the end, and while hoping that the safety car would be brought out to reset the race, like they did at the Miami GP. However, this method apparently did not work at the Imola GP, so they were only able to finish in P2.
I'm just waiting for what surprises McLaren will present at the Monaco GP, since it is a very difficult race and there will definitely be tough competition, not only from RB but also Ferrari.

I remember seeing a meme about how Norris changed for the last 10 laps in every race he did for the last few months. Is this his recent habit or is he always this way? I'm not following F1 closely so I don't know much about it. That being said, some comments suggest that he or his team did this because they were not confident that their car could race against Red Bull's car from the beginning. How true do you think this is? Norris's latest comment about one more lap fuels this meme analysis even further on social media as far as I can see.