Formula 1 2024 - WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Yes Lando! Beat him on true pace.

That was fun! Dropping Max by 7 seconds was awesome

Just seen the yt highlights, very dusty here.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/why-donald-trump-at-f1-miami-gp-mclaren/

Lucky charm for Lando? 😄

The smell of trump was so overpowering Lando had to drive that fast for the wind to clear it

I think it was the allure of all that orange that drew him in to the McLaren garage.

Well done Lando!

Nice race. Refreshing to see Max genuinely struggling in that car.

I’m going to make a wild prediction, too, based almost entirely on how relaxed Hamilton has looked for the past week or so: I’ll put a couple of quid on Ferrari making a Newey announcement at Imola. There, I’ve said it.

Great result! See, Newey quits and the team falls apart.

Anyone else struggle with red text on a black background for the Ferrari whinge radio? It's known to be one of the least accessible colour combinations for text, so I'm surprised they went with it.

[i]Anyone else struggle with red text on a black background for the Ferrari whinge radio?[/i] - Glad you mentioned this, I thought it was my eyes. I gnored it the first time but then they were having whole conversations I couldn't properly hear or read.

Yeah, it's a good idea to have conversations in team colours , less impressive in the actual real life though. I thought it was just my teeny telly that made it harder.

nickcFull Member
Yeah, it’s a good idea to have conversations in team colours , less impressive in the actual real life though. I thought it was just my teeny telly that made it harder.

There are a few naff graphics at the moment.  My personal bugbear is the "BATTLE FOR 5th" that they sometimes show.  Fine, highlight the two drivers names, but why hide the timing & tyres at exactly the most critical time?

the worse graphic is the little floaty box super-imposed above the cars as they are racing side-by-side

Painfully dreadful!

the worse graphic is the little floaty box super-imposed above the cars

the worse graphic is the little floaty box super-imposed above the cars as they are racing side-by-side

My wife watches maybe 1 in 10 races, she really likes it. I reckon it must be pretty annoying if you're racing to have a wee floaty sign with your initials on it hovering over your car. Very distracting

While we are at it, my own personal bugbear is when they switch to the driver’s POV as an overtake is happening. You can’t see what is going on. Either the car in front disappears from view or you sit there looking at an empty track and suddenly the nose of the car behind appears. It gives you know idea of what is actually taking place.

The line they draw when in drivers-eye view, with a measure of the distance to the car ahead, is a smidgen more annoying than the driver name that floats above the car. But it doesn't appear often.

Maybe they'll bring in ghost car graphics, so they can show far ahead/behind they are. Then how many lives they've got left. 😀

I wish they’d show overall times behind the leader for everyone, would save me having to add several interval times together.

Let's be honest, it looks shite, but the current cars look pretty shite anyway so we may as well go all in.

*Checks calendar *^

No, it's not April 1st

It does look *, but if it's a choice between a wet race with cars that look * or no race, I'll take the cars that look ****.

Hmm they appear to have picked to wrong day to test those.

thols2
It does look *, but if it’s a choice between a wet race with cars that look * or no race, I’ll take the cars that look ****

Exactly

nixie
Hmm they appear to have picked to wrong day to test those.

I believe they're also re-evaluating Bernie's sprinker idea 😉

Not gonna claim to be an expert on such matters, but it doesn't look like they work brilliantly

There goes a 2 second pit stop when the track dries out!

That looks quite a lot less spray though

I know its hard to compare, we don't know track conditions or speed, but I think the idea is just to reduce the amount of spray, not to try to eliminate it altogether

I would imagine just the car moving over the surface will create a certain amount of spray regardless of what comes off the wheels.

How the hell do they chance wheels?

[Ans: slowly]

 I think the idea is just to reduce the amount of spray, not to try to eliminate it altogether

It's not possible to eliminate it, some of it comes from the diffuser, but they don't know how much. They are testing different packages to try to understand the problem better. It may prove to be impossible to reduce it enough to race in really wet conditions.

There are shots online showing the mudguards do push the front wheel spray outboard quite nicely compared to running without. However the rear axle is still kicking up a massive rooster tail from the diffuser etc.

edit - pic, front car only has guards

The bolt that holds the wheel on (green) looks to go through the 'blue' plate which probably comes off when the wheel comes off then the wheel back on 'blue' plate then bolt again. 'Red' cover I assume stays on all the time....

In the previous pic, with the cars viewed from the front, the rooster tail of the front one does look like it may be thinner/less dense than the rear one without guards.

The front one definitely has lower/wider spray off the front tyres though, but track surface, wetness and braking force could all influence the spray patterns between ront and rear cars.

Albon sticking with Williams

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/albon-signs-new-multi-year-f1-contract-with-williams/10611069/

Is anyone else thinking that the F1 press are over-hyping McLaren's B Spec car and its going to be business as usual this weekend?

That's good news as a Williams fan, would have liked to see what he could do in the other Mercedes seat though.

nickc

Full Member
Is anyone else thinking that the F1 press are over-hyping McLaren’s B Spec car and its going to be business as usual this weekend?

Yeah I had the same feeling mate, but it's hard to say with the floor damage on Verstappen's car last race. Fingers crossed it's legit though!

Usually the case though as the regs stabilise the field closes up as they all work out how to get the most out of them. This year is closer than last, next year should be closer than this and the year after that should be, oh bugger.

I think McLaren and Ferrari are getting close enough to Red Bull that things like track conditions and  tyre warmup can make the difference. If Red Bull don't have a perfect weekend, the other teams can beat them on pace and Perez can't be guaranteed to be there to put pressure on them.

Merc will have the second half of their update this weekend too...

...so that will bring them 0.0000001 seconds closer to the pointy end! 🙂

I'm a big fan of Albon, I hope that him extending with Williams is a vote of confidence in the team's trajectory.  It's a shame that he's not in the second Mercedes though.

Is anyone else thinking that the F1 press are over-hyping McLaren’s B Spec car and its going to be business as usual this weekend?

Yeah, this.  IIRC Red Bull & Ferrari have significant updates due to debut at Imola.

Spy pictures of the new F1 wet-weather tyre revealed

Is anyone else thinking that the F1 press are over-hyping McLaren’s B Spec car and its going to be business as usual this weekend?

It's definitely what normally happens, but it would be nice to be surprised for a change. More than 2 teams in serious contention for the championships would be an incredibly exciting prospect for next year, and the first time it's happened for over ten years

It was either 2010 or 2012, I can't remember which, but we had something like 7 different winners over the first 7 races, it's hard to imagine that ever happened now!

2012:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Formula_One_World_Championship

Albon sticking with Williams

WTF?!?

As a driver of his level, why would you rule yourself out of any opportunity of driving for a race winning team for the next 3 years?

If anyone can turn Williams around its Vowles, but its going to take several years to do so so it feels like hes writing his career off?

Unless hes been told that all the other opportunities have been closed off, but what happens the day that either Lewis/Alonso retire. Either hes stuck at Williams or that 'vote of confidence' is undermined by exit clauses.

As a driver of his level, why would you rule yourself out of any opportunity of driving for a race winning team for the next 3 years?

Because every other option is blocked off.

Merc - full

Ferrari - full

Red Bull - full

Aston - full

And after those it's just shuffling up and down the mid-pack teams.

And this is also a driver who not that long ago didn't look like he'd have an F1 career at all.

On The Race latest youtube, the discussion was that this year there could be a record number of changes.  But also that many are moving/signing very early in the season, or even pre-season. So I would not say that all those teams are necessarily full.

There certainly is a level of get something sorted now before it's too late.

Hope it is confidence that Williams is on an upwards trend.  I mean it wasn't all that long ago that McLaren were getting like 800 grid place penalties as well as qualifying last. So there's scope.

I had Albon down to partner Russell. But sainz is the one with the biggest issue. Be criminal if he's not signed for next year, even more criminal than the year that Ocon had to sit out.

WTF?!?

Williams are taking a hit now for transforming their operation. It’s very likely that by the start of next year they’ll be very much on an upward trajectory. They’re a known quantity and Albon will have seen all the work being done behind the scenes.

Whereas, the alternatives…? Haas: never going to be a top flight team by virtue of their operating model, let alone the way Gene sticks his oar in. Alpine: absolutely in crisis with no publicly visible solution to their issues. Sauber/Audi: viable as a prospect but unlikely to have Albon high on their list for the one vacant seat. VCARB: already oversubscribed and can never be more than a stepping stone to RB, which Albon knows is a toxic environment for him. McLaren, Ferrari, Aston all full (assuming Lance doesn’t spontaneously combust), RB looking elsewhere and—as mentioned—toxic anyway with Max still there. Merc also looking elsewhere and putting their long term bet on Antonelli. Williams really is the best horse in Albontown. He’s well regarded there and whatever growth the team sees he will be able to shape.

I can see that there might be no options for next year, but he already had a contract covering that.

What happens if Lewis wins the championship with Ferrari in 26 and then retires?

Hes already taken himself out of the driver market for that scenario, with the contract extension.

If Ferrari came knocking then Williams will think of a number and ask Ferrari for that as compensation.

In reality that's not going to happen - he's decent but not that good.

And we never know - Williams may have talked Newey into a part-time remote working consultancy role while he's off sailing around the world! 🙂

Aston all full (assuming Lance doesn’t spontaneously combust)

Given that Lawrence Stroll has said that he's planning for top 3 status for the team, when do we think he's going to suggest to his son that perhaps his career in racing is going to be outside F1..?

Albon will have release clauses in his contract. He's already talked to all the teams, none of the top ones want him. If they change their minds, he'll be able to buy his way out of his contract.