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They do seem to have made the leap that everyone was hoping that they wouldn't be able to manage, and yet again left everyone trailing in their wake...
Unless every other team is sandbagging and the RB has just a thimble's worth of fuel in it, and Max is ragging the arse of it.
It’s one ugly machine
As is the car Tsunoda is driving...that's one properly gopping paint job
So RB is already faster than last year's benchmark, and .70 secs or so faster than the Ferrari after just three hours on day one.
That's that then isn't it?
I think it is, although if one were theoretically to procure the use of F1 TV Pro (including video streaming) using a VPN set to go via an Indian endpoint and purchase it using Google Pay, they may find it is cheaper than the regular pricing…
F1TV blocked the use of VPN's to access the service earlier this year. Most annoying. If you purchase in a separate country and try to access without a VPN you'll probably get kicked off too.
Disappointing on the RB front, guess it'll be highlights only for me this year.
That’s that then isn’t it?
Unless Hornergate gets in the way it looks like it. Adrian Newey eh, took one look at Mercedes last year and went “oh, interesting, let me get my pencil out…” and makes it work.
Oh no! Sargeant is out in the Williams - I predict 5 laps till he bins it! 🙂
Norris goes fastest after only 16 laps.
Still a glimmer of hope for some competition this season 😆
...as Max goes 8 tenths faster!😕
Yep. That is pretty damning, I reckon.
The lap after Norris does the fastest time, Verstappen goes and puts nearly a second on him, after keeping Le Clerc to just over half a second in the morning, and you just know there's more to come. Ditching the Sky sub has looked like a better and better move all day.
I think WEC will take up most of my time on the first race weekend - F1 will be on in the background!
🤩 🤩 🤩 ....
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At what point do the other teams just say **** it and leave the sport. If it pans out like last season (or worse), what's the point of making the effort?
I dunno - while they're still making millions they'll still come out to play - but it's good to see that aero handicap hurting Red Bull hard!! 🤷♂️
If the season is like last season will F1 have anyone interested at all? I am not at all sure I can cope with smug highlights on C4.
My discounted Sky package is due for renewal in April and they want £20 a month to keep watching.
The first few races will need to be phenomenally good to make it worth that.
Mercedes was back in 12th, sure they're sandbagging.
Racing News have broken that Horner is leaving Red Bull on the 28th on Insta.
From twitter:
There's a claim that Viaplay Finland said today that Christian Horner will be sacked by Red Bull next week. This wasn't stated in the broadcast in such terms (it was misinterpreted then spread) and Viaplay even corrected the claim on air. Process isn't resolved either way yet.
F1TV blocked the use of VPN’s to access the service earlier this year. Most annoying. If you purchase in a separate country and try to access without a VPN you’ll probably get kicked off too.
Blocking VPNs is simply a game of whack-a-mole. I've been using VPNs for years to access geo-restricted content, and when the content provider has blocked a VPN, I've just raised a support ticket with the VPN provider and they tweak something* behind the scenes, the problem is fixed and I can watch the content again.
Granted, sometimes it might take a couple of days before the fix is put in place, so it's not gonna work for "live" or time-critical events but the last time I watched F1 live was Abu Dhabi in 2021...
* Probably assign a different IP address
I’ve just raised a support ticket with the VPN provider and they tweak something* behind the scenes, the problem is fixed and I can watch the content again.
Any idea if they work in open plan offices?
Mercedes was back in 12th, sure they’re sandbagging.
Everyone's just running through a checklist of tests to make sure that the cars are reliable and to understand how the car on track compares to the wind tunnel and simulation data. I don't think there's any doubt that Red Bull are looking good, but lap times from the first day of testing don't tell you very much.
Any idea if they work in open plan offices?
Sensibly, they work from home....😀
Red flag out on day 2, drain cover again.
You can see why Hamilton called it quits….
You can see why Hamilton called it quits….
https://www.racefans.net/2024/02/22/mercedes-wrong-2022-car-problems-hamilton/
Leclerc getting closer to Max's time from yesterday before the interruption. Still looks done and dusted though.
Looks like Perez has got the 'You do the boring trundling around work today, and look happy about it. There's a good fella.' job today. 🙂
Lando's beaten Max's time of yesterday as well.
Jesus, I think this is the same one that came loose yesterday.
https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1760936605446005205
Leclerc has just gone fastest for Ferrari, still 2 1/2 hours to go though
So, the riddles and confusion of testing are done. How many races do we think the RB20 won't win this year? Hopefully more than one, but I doubt it'll be more than a handful.
All but 3.
There are so many Youtube experts that feel Mercedes still have much more to contribute and are convinced they are only showing about 80% of their true performance.
It didnt look like that to me over the last 3 days, I think we are comfortably at RB, Ferrari/McLaren, Aston/Merc in the front end pecking order, pretty much as you were.
I don't think there's any doubt that Red Bull are the team to beat and that Ferrari look closest. Merc made fundamental changes to their car so it's a less mature design. Hopefully, that will mean that there is more potential to be unlocked through the season. At this stage, it's just too early to know.
Looks like Ford are turning the screw on RedBull to clear up the Karen-gate situation
https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/ford-frustration-red-bull-christian-horner-investigation/
Two Options
If he's totally innocent and the whole thing's made up, RB would've said so hours after the initial investigation. So there's something. I reckon this is just negotiating how much its going to cost them to get Horner to do the inevitable presser: "deciding to step down so RedBull can concentrate...I don't want to become the story etc, etc"
Either that or; there is something, and RedBull are desperate to keep him on, and Ford (and some other sponsors) are horrified and the negotiations are all "we don't want our corporate image to be blurred by having him still in charge after this" sort of thing.
My thinking is there's something in it and they're dragging their heals hoping it'll blow over to some extent, he can ride it out and he can stay on after a settlement in the background.