Topic: 🏁🏎️ Sportsbet.io🏁 FORMULA 1 2023 Season🏁🏎️Prediction Pool Discussion Thread - page 102. (Read 22024 times)

Leclerc did an error in Australia since the very first lap and this shows his character in my opinion as he is not as stable psychologically like winning drivers,he did the same in Imola last year,he could not hold the fans pressure and got out of the race almost completely and now in the last race he did the same,this is much different than winning drivers mentality,for example I never have seen Michael Schumacher caring that much about the first lap as he knew the race is long and anything can happen,so Leclerc needs to correct this,needs to be more cool headed otherwise I think he will just continue to be a mediocre driver and not a winning one.

I absolutely agree with this. Red Bull are much more ahead of the other teams now. I wouldn't even be surpised if Red Bull drivers win all of the races this season. However it wouldn't be a very big surprise for me if Leclerc gets the third place in Azerbaijan as well.

^  Sorry to say this but it still wouldn't be good enough against Red Bull.  They're just ahead in car development at this point.  But wishing both Mercedes and Ferrari get their sht together and be more competitive by the time we're at the European GP's. 

I'm more curious about how the Aston Martins would do on a track with lots of straights.  Half hoping Alonso could snag the second spot at the podium. 

Azerbaijan track is a much more fitting one for Ferrari because the number of straights is big. Even though I accept that they are worse than the previous season I think Ferrari can't show their full performance this year. It wouldn't be a very big surprise for me to see Leclerc on podium 3 weeks later.

The race calendar this season is really very bad. It is nonsense that the teams have only 1 week to go to Miami from Azerbaijan after a three-week break.

But with Perez winning one race shows just how competitive these teammates are. And everybody seems to forget about their backup driver, Daniel Ricciardo.
Who looked to have the most fun from all the chaos on the track, well because he didn't have take part of all the insanity and getting paid either way.
I don't see a scenario where we'll see him take his place in the cockpit of one of those RB cars this season.
So he has the easiest job of all the drivers of F!. Just at Red Bull control and smiling for the rest of the year.

As for Ferrari, I see Sainz as having the worst luck out of the two. He worked all the way to the last two laps then got slapped with that penalty which shouldn't have occurred since according to the FIA that lap didn't exist to them in this race.
They have the weirdest decisions while the race is happening live of any sport in the world.

The next one is exactly one that last year saw both Ferraris out because of mechanical problems and is a really heavy city track for the cars,usually in this race less than 16.5 cars end the race there.It is going to be an epic race in Azerbaijan this time but we have to wait for about 3 weeks from now as it takes time before this race takes place.Predictions we have said several times that we need to make after the Saturday early morning practices so we can have a better picture before putting our picks and that is what you must do.I also had a lot of DNF choices in this race but also a lot of other had the same,as we saw 12 points was the maximum.

So I managed to completely forget about F1 over the weekend, checked and I saw I had a relatively poor performance, thanks largely to all the DNFs... so much so even my old "fav" Tsunoda finally got AT their first point haha.

So loads of drama, and supposedly expected, I really need to read up on the next track to see if there will be similar predictions -- these always seem to take drivers out (LeClerc on Lap 1 being the most magnificent dud).

Verstappen's victory was not really surprising, what surprised me was Mercedes, Alonso and Aston Martin is currently the strongest combination behind RedBull. Really disappointing this season so far is Ferrari and Leclerc, I would have thought Leclerc would get back on track, but it doesn't look like, there is still some time until the next race at the end of April, let's see if Ferrari can make a move in the meantime.

When we look at the drivers on the podium of the Australian GP we can see that these names are the legends of their own generations.
It is wonderful to see that three different generations are still racing at a high level on the track.

Hamilton managed to complete the race without making a mistake despite Alonso's heavy pressure during the race. Although Perez was selected for the driver of the day I'm voting for Hamilton.Lastly, the name I was sad about the most at the weekend was Albon. He was deserving a good degree in the race especially after his performance in the 2nd sector.

I don't think Mercedes has improved dramatically at the point to beat Redbull.We saw in this last race as both drivers of Mercedes had a much better start than Redbull during the restarts of the race but when it come to Verstappen overtaking these drivers on track it looked like a Playstation game more than like a race competition as Redbull seem to have an additional gear compared to the other cars which makes me pessimistic in predicting some team catching up with them.

As for Baku which is 3 weeks away because China race is suspended,I only hope that we don't see mechanical failures like we saw last race as both Ferraris were out because of such problems.

I dont know what to expect on Baku, the only thing i want its to any team to catch a little RedBull they make the race really boring, they are a flash against the other cars.

Lets see if the step forward of Mercedes was only a good mood with the track of if they really find some pace.

The big surprise for me in this track was Alpine, really in pace and fighting against Ferrari. But i think its not so mensurable because i see a lot of teams in the fight when they normally cant fight, so i dont know.

I agree with your assessment. It seems like the implementation of these "safety" rules can sometimes lead to more confusion and unpredictability, and it's possible that this is intentional. Restarting the race with only 2 laps to go doesn't seem like the safest option, and it could have put the drivers at risk!! Safety should always be the top priority in these situations, and it's important to find a balance between introducing new rules and maintaining a safe environment for the drivers and fans alike!!!
Now let's think about the Baku circuit, which will take place at the end of this month. I believe that both Max and Perez will have a say in this race. What do you think?

Congrats.  I really thought I got this race close to a tee.  I'm not sure what happened towards the end as I wasn't able to finish the race.  I left for a while during the red flag at the start of the race the when I came back I saw Russell's car was burning.  Lol.  After a couple of minutes or so I had to leave.

How did the McLarens, Tsunoda and Zhou creep up the grid?  And how did Sainz drop to 12?  Wtf.

Can't wait for the next one!

I do have to say that I agree with most of the points made here. They are using 'safety' rules to introduce more chaos and I do feel that sometimes it is planned.
Restarting the race like that with 2 laps to go is definitely not the safe option.

I'm very regretful really for not watching the race after watching the replay of it. It was very sad for Sainz that the result of that 5-second penalty was this heavy. If the race was completed without problems after the second red flag, we could have witnessed Hamilton to get a win after a long break.


I side with not giving up on EBP points in no case. However boltz wasn't in need of EBP points this week to win a yellow hat.

What a race, many unexpected red flags and safety cars.
Mercedes really looked strong here, even stronger compared to Aston Martin, if Russell doesn't get his engine issue. Very bad luck for him, but it didn't look good for Russell anyways after he got screwed by pitting early and a red flag shortly after it, where everyone changed tyres for free.
In general, half of the grid had bad luck today.  
Russell engine issue, both Alpine and Williams out and Magnussen hitting a wall.
Probably the worst weekend for Ferrari (once again): Leclerc gets hit by Stroll in Lap 1, Leclerc is stuck in gravel and later, Sainz crashes into Alonso, Sainz gets a 5 seconds penalty resulting in rank 12 for him, where he gets 0 points.  

Turned out to be a very bad decision to change predictions and lose our EBP.  
See you next round (Baku / Azerbaijan), everyone.

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I believe, it's a situation similar to Baku 2021, where only few laps were left when Verstappen had a crash. Session red flagged and standing restart (where Hamilton locked up and Perez won  )
Today, FIA had basically 2 choices:
- Option 1 like in Baku 2021 (Session red flagged and later standing restart)
- Option 2 like in Monza 2022 (Safety car finish)
Mabye race control decided to go for Option 1 because Magnussen distributed many parts of his car on the track, which needed to be cleaned up. And as it's about safety of Marshalls when tidying it up, race control made a red flag. After red flag, a standing start is done (as in Baku 2021). Of course, it's also about action because after Monza 2022, many people complained to FIA, that the race ended under Safety Car.
And yes, final laps destroyed my Alpine both cars points finish bet.
It's always a difficult situation for race control because not matter what's decided, someone will be pissed but Gasly made a really stupid move there when he re-joined the track, by going back to racing line immediately and he took out Ocon.  

Congratulations on getting the yellow cap for this weekend! It's a great achievement!!!
Regarding the wheel to wheel battle between Hamilton and Max, I agree that it was a fair one and there are no grounds for Max to start throwing words about Hamilton and the FIA. It seems like Max himself has been involved in incidents where he has not followed regulations and rules in the past, so he is not in a position to criticize others for the same. It's important to acknowledge a fair and competitive race, and I hope to see more exciting and sportsmanlike performances in the future.

Yeah FIA's decision about especially the final red flag might be disputable. But all these incidents and decisions made this race very interesting to watch for us. Especially after the last red flag Alonso was really lucky that the grid was back to its previous version. Otherwise it was going to be really unlucky for him to finish the race even out of top 10.

Sainz deserved that time penalty for sure. He pushed too hard there and hit Alonso as a result. It was a really great race for Hamilton as well. He already started to believe that they can catch up with Red Bull but it isn't easy at all.

Congratulations with yellow cap and extra prize from Sportsbet. I really wanted to win that hoodie and hat from Sportsbet and I were so close :/

I agree and disagree with some your thoughts. I think that today we hat situations when no matter what decision stewards will make, there will be someone who is unhappy about it. First red flag is somewhat understandable, there was lot of gravel on track. Though, maybe it was possible to clean traack without red flag.
Second red flag - it's not about safety, they just didn't wanted to finish races behind safety car like season in Monza.
And third red flag was joke, but decision to return positions was right according to the rules because they didn't completed full lap after restart. That last lap behind safety car was ridiculous. I like what NASCAR is doing in similar situations, they just add some extra lap.
Maybe all these security concerns killing sport, but thanks to it now we avoid fatal accidents. Remember when most of us were complaining about Halo when F1 introduced it, but now there is no questions about it.

From what you are describing it is great that I didn't wake up at all in the morning to watch such a boring race,with a lot of red flags I think that the race total time at 3 hours is not enough to see all that great racing.They are intentionally killing the sport then and I think Max was right in his complaints that the race direction is taking non well thought decisions and that indirectly he was complaining that they were trying to ruin his race and now I understand why Hamilton was near him all the time,it is all because of the stewards and race direction and not because Mercedes has truly improved.