Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Long way to go before he reaches that status imho.

The big question mark over Verstappen is that Ricciardo is the only challenging teammate he’s ever had. The great champions mostly (maybe all) had highly competitive teammates. Senna and Prost raced each other as teammates. So did Prost and Lauda. Schumacher beat Piquet. Hamilton was teammates with Alonso, Button, and Rosberg. Alonso raced against Hamilton and Raikkonen as teammates. Verstappen did eventually seem to get the best of Ricciardo, but it was a close thing.

the-muffin-man

It’s a reference to wings and aero bits – which back in olden times used to be know as spoilers!

Engage nerd mode! 😵

A wing is used primarily to create down (or up!) force whereas a spoiler interrupts (‘spoils’) airflow over the car, generally to reduce drag.

Think perhaps I’ve spent too long on Dull Men’s Club recently.

Not wishing to take anything away from Verstappen, who has driven like and absolute champion but just one non-Red Bull win in the season rendered 2023 a colossal snoozefest.

McLaren have promised much in recent races, I’d like to see them racing for wins in 2024 – Norris is way overdue his first win.  I also wouldn’t be surprised if Renault decided to pull the plug on Alpine and flog it.

The great champions mostly (maybe all) had highly competitive teammates.

I *think* Max is the only World champion never to have had another world champion as a team mate (or shared the same car with another team)

Engage nerd mode! 😵

A wing is used primarily to create down (or up!) force whereas a spoiler interrupts (‘spoils’) airflow over the car, generally to reduce drag.

I think that comment is almost as obligatory as the “contains spoilers” tag. Though usually the comment is in response to someone posting an image of some wings and calling them spoilers.

thepurist

Full Member

I think that comment is almost as obligatory as the “contains spoilers” tag. Though usually the comment is in response to someone posting an image of some wings and calling them spoilers.

Spoil sport 😉

I *think* Max is the only World champion never to have had another world champion as a team mate (or shared the same car with another team)

James Hunt and Alan Jones are the others

Didn’t they have the same car, for different teams though?

I’m hoping that Newey drops a clanger when designing the RB20, and the rest of the field closes in together. Come the end of the season it’s a 4 or 5 way battle for the championship. 

It’ll also be interesting to see how Verstappen reacts to the pressure, this season he led for over a thousand laps, impressive achievement, but bad for the sport. 

It’ll also be interesting to see how Verstappen reacts to the pressure, this season he led for over a thousand laps, impressive achievement, but bad for the sport.

Yup – I could barely muster any enthusiasm for the season (although I do always keep up with race weekends on the BBC app) – it has been coming for a while with the lack of live racing now behind a pay wall, but when you read (yet again) about another easy pole for MV, you just know that will translate into yet another easy race win so why even bother following it or watching the race highlights? The only time I got more interested was in the last race and the contest for second-best team (which I am pleased Mercedes won).

Especially when the highlights programme on Chanel 4 is brought to us by RBTV in all but name. DC, RB employee and owner of the company making the programme

Didn’t they have the same car, for different teams though?

Top spot there.

It also depends on your definition of team mate. There are a few more who it was only for a handful of races (eg. Hakkinen – Senna/Mansell) or when one of the drivers were past their best (eg. Schumacher – Piquet/Rosberg)

jimster01
Full Member

I’m hoping that Newey drops a clanger when designing the RB20, and the rest of the field closes in together. Come the end of the season it’s a 4 or 5 way battle for the championship.

It’ll also be interesting to see how Verstappen reacts to the pressure, this season he led for over a thousand laps, impressive achievement, but bad for the sport.

Depressingly, I think they’ve had such a headstart that the best we can hope for is for one of the other teams to find something big over the winter and close the gap a little bit.

Aston clearly got **** over by one or both of the mid-season technical directives, so there’s a good chance they can make a big step forward if they can sort that over the winter. Likewise Mercedes having the big chassis upgrade they should have done last winter.

I suspect that Red Bull could turn up with this year’s car and still be competitive next year.

Likewise Mercedes having the big chassis upgrade they should have done last winter.

I think at least they made the decision to scrap the W13/14 design that wasn’t going anywhere and start fresh. So they’ve had huge amounts of time on the new chassis. Mind you RB hadn’t made any new bits for the RB -19 since the summer break, so they’ve been working on the new designs since than as well. 

’23 was a dull season, I’m not sure it’s worth the money that I pay Virgin for it anymore, and now that I’m having to look at what I’m doing for DH/cycling coverage as well now that CGN+ has been pulled, I might not bother with Sky and look at either Now TV and pay race by race or something else entirely. 

Now TV is fine if you can watch the race live.

But there is no pause/rewind function and if you miss the race it can take days for it to be made available. For what you pay it’s a really poor offering.

I suspect that Red Bull Alpha Tauri could will turn up with this year’s car Red Bull and still be competitive next year.

FTFY

Post abudahbi season finale dinner

I predict most the teams switching to a suspension system similar to Red Bull, ie pull rod at the front promoting anti dive and push rod at the rear promoting anti squat.

I’m hoping the other teams will be a bit closer as the regulations are static and also I think the other teams understand that it was the overall holistic approach to design (aero, chassis and suspension) that created the monster that is the RB19.

For ages folks were only looking at the aero aspect of the RB19 and trying to figure out what they were doing differently and then they realised its everything working together, its the whole concept not one particular thing.

I still think Red Bull will be out at the front as they have such a huge head start on everyone but hopefully the gap is a bit closer such that on circuits or conditions that do not favour Red Bull one of the other teams can take the victory. While at the moment RB are so far out in the lead that even on a bad day they win just with a smaller gap to 2nd place.

After 35 years of avidly following F1 I’ve not watched f1 since the end of season 2021 debacle.

Currently harbouring exactly 0% interest in wasting my time watching the 2024 season. I wonder if I’ll ever watch it again to be honest, it just feels like a total con these days.

How do you know if you’ve not watched it since 2021?

jairaj
Full Member
For ages folks were only looking at the aero aspect of the RB19 and trying to figure out what they were doing differently and then they realised its everything working together, its the whole concept not one particular thing.

Well it’s a good overall package of course, but I still think there is some undiscovered magic on the RB19.

For example, it simultaneously warms tyres quickly for qualifying/race outlaps and doesn’t cook them during the race stint. It works well on all tyre compounds. It rides the kerbs well (so has soft ARBs) yet doesn’t roll under cornering (so has firm ARBs? 🤷‍♂️). It runs mega-low, yet doesn’t wear the plank. In qualifying it often has amongst the highest top speed (so lowest drag) and the highest cornering speed (so highest downforce).

Another aspect that hasn’t been mentioned much about this car is the reliability, a couple of grumbles about the gearbox but no show stoppers that i can remember.

As much as I don’t care for Red Bull the team, this car is an absolute triumph, up there with the W11, MP4/4, F2002 and FW14B.

It is undoubtedly a great car. I spent most of the year waiting for some kind of slight of engineering to be revealed like when Ferrari were up to fuel tricks.

I hope it is just a great car and there are no dirty tricks.

Bruce

I hope it is just a great car and there are no dirty tricks

Other than finding inventive ways to blow the budget cap? Deep, deep pockets they have.

I often wonder how much influence Newey actually has. It must be highly demotivating for all the RB engineers to have all successes put down to him, especially when it comes to design detail.

I often wonder how much influence Newey actually has.

He hired the engineers and set up the work processes, etc. He’ll oversea the major decisions. Success is highly motivating and the engineers will all know that they have contributed to that success. I’m sure Newey makes everyone who works for him know that their contributions are essential to the success of the team.

I’ve gone from watching all BBC coverage to channel 4 to youtube 7 minutes and the BBC review

Its not the same

It’s not my favourite sport and my knowledge of is…basic.
I think that Mercedes will deliver a massive step change in car performance, McLaren will continue improving and RB will manage incremental improvements.
As for the other teams – no idea.
If Mercedes do have a much improved car, it will be interesting to see if Hamilton still has what it takes to beat Verstappen.

Williams have signed Logan Sargeant for another year.

Williams have signed Logan Sargeant for another year.

also

Sargeant was chasing all year. He chased from day one, and simply just didn’t get better.

I wonder just how much money he brings the team?

Got to agree with Bennyboy – not been interested enough to watch since the 2021 cheating / ridiculous debacle. Used to love it, but just briefly check the results since then – rather than watching / supporting like I used to. My hope for 2024 is that:

A – a team, ideally McLaren or Mercedes, actually challenges Red Bull to make it vaguely interesting. I personally feel Hamilton deserves the chance to legitimately go for the 8th title that was robbed from him. I’d also like Norris to do well. 

B – RB employ a driver actually capable of challenging Verstappen – the guy couldn’t take it and it would make it interesting to see him froth, moan, make mistakes and struggle rather than just drive round miles ahead of everyone else. C – ideally there would be at least 3-4 competitive teams – not just 1 or maybe 2

If all the above happened it could be a great season. Sadly, I suspect until the rule changes in 2026 it may remain the same for a couple more seasons. At least Max will probably not get to 7 titles because of the 2026 future changes – sincerely hope that does shake up the current status quo.

WorldClassAccident

Sargeant was chasing all year. He chased from day one, and simply just didn’t get better.

I wonder just how much money he brings the team?

A wheelbarrow-full I reckon, his family are loaded. That said although he’s under delivered compared to Albon this year, I don’t think he’s actually too bad. He came 4th in F2 just 1 point behind Lawson in 3rd and he won a couple of races.

Also it looks like from ’26 onward we’ll be racing in Madrid instead of Barcelona. Joe says it’ll be a track along the lines of Canada.

It will soon be announced that Madrid has won the deal to host the Spanish Grand Prix from 2026 onwards. The race will take place on a semi-permanent track around the IFEMA convention centre, close to Barajas Airport. The deal will be for 10 years.

— Joe Saward (@joesaward) December 5, 2023

6 Sprint races for next year Story

The race will take place on a semi-permanent track around the IFEMA convention centre, close to Barajas Airport.

Confidential info leaked to Toto (allegedly)

Ooh this could get messy 😁

[Twodogs]

Twodogs

Full Member

Confidential info leaked to Toto (allegedly)

Ooh this could get messy 😁

Another interesting aspect is that it has somehow united all the teams in releasing an identically worded statement denying involvement!

F1 AND F1 Teams against the FIA. You cannot make this up. ???????? pic.twitter.com/aJW1XL8NFT

— deni (@fiagirly) December 6, 2023

[Twodogs]

Confidential info leaked to Toto (allegedly)

Ooh this could get messy 😁

WTF is actually going on with that? There’s obviously something more going on behind the scenes than just the official version that Suzie Wolff is suspected of leaking information to Toto. Did the FIA decide they wanted to teach Toto a lesson and now it’s blown up in their faces?

FIA pissed off that FOM / teams don’t want an 11th team so tries to divide them. Teams – we’re not falling for that.

That went well for the FIA then

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/fia-drops-investigation-into-toto-and-susie-wolff/10556097/?

Well that de-escalated quickly