Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Business as usual then. The McLarens look close though!

Should be a good race tomorrow – sounds like Max only got pole because he got a massive tow off Hulk.

and Lando promoted to second now with Piastri getting a penalty for impeding.

And Yuki is making a strong case for that second Red Bull seat next season.

Should be a good race tomorrow – sounds like Max only got pole because he got a massive tow off Hulk.

Not really as he lost time on the final corner which probably evened it out.

And Yuki is making a strong case for that second Red Bull seat next season.

He’s had an amazing weekend so far, it’s hard to see him at Red Bull tho.

And Yuki is making a strong case for that second Red Bull seat next season.

Not sure why anyone thinks Tsonoda would do any better than Perez at Red Bull (not saying he’d be worse but…..)

Feel sorry for Piastri given KMag’s wilful obstruction and dodgy driving in Miami to preserve Hulks points – I know quali obstruction rules are there for a reason, but if I was a steward I’d have seen the incident as just balancing the karma bank.

Piastri got in the way and disrupted Magnusson’s lap as the evidence the stewards found confirmed, the team just didn’t give him enough notice. It’s a slam dunk sadly. If its practice you can get away with it but not a competitive session.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2024%20Emilia%20Romagna%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Infringement%20-%20Car%2081%20-%20Impeding%20of%20Car%2020.pdf

Looking forward to the race. Much prefer these older proper circuits to the newer ones, might look at going to Imola or Monza next year.

Well this is dull!
Looks like zero chance of anyone  being able to do an overtake.

Yep, shaping up to be a snoozefest

Well, it looks like McLaren really are right there with RB.  0.7s over a full race distance, no damage, no SC, no thing to confuse things. Max also got the B&W flag for not being able to keep the car on track early on, so hard was he pushing. Norris may not win the Championship, but could start to win a few races.  Ferrari weren’t too far behind either.

McLaren’s upgrade is pretty convincing, I’m pleased to see the gap to Red Bull being much closer over the last two races.  What a finish!

I enjoyed watching Vettel drive Senna’s ’93 McLaren Ford round the circuit too.  Nice tribute to Senna & Ratzenberger.

Having been curious for a while, I decided to watch the full race from Norris’ car as I thought it might be interesting.

It was ok and I kept with it to the end, but was quite strange with next to no information and pretty much no idea what was happening until quickly catching Max up to what turned out to be 2 laps from the end when a radio message confirmed it.

Would much prefer to have at least a lap indicator and maybe gap behind/ahead, plus the overall positions to get an idea of what’s happening elsewhere. But otherwise ok and the race flew by.

so hard was he pushing

You are Yoda and I claim my £5 😁

Anyone else disappointed with Ferrari?

They’ve been the No.2 team behind Red Bull since the start of these new regs but can’t find that last few tenths. And now dropping behind McLaren.

And Aston are proving the point that you can’t buy success in F1 (as BMW and Toyota found out). Dismal weekend for them and they are way behind their 2023 form.

Anyone else disappointed with Ferrari?

I think gaining an advantage this year is getting harder and harder, as all 3 of the top teams are demonstrating it’s more important than ever now to have a strong driver line-up and while max is clearly still the driver to beat Perez was nowhere this weekend, I still think that Ferrari have the strongest driver line up, although it’s a close thing to Piastri and Norris, and this weekend McLaren took the most points away at the race, next weekend it’s just qualifying that counts, and I’d still give Leclerc the upper hand there.

Its not often Max looks like this at the end of a race, Norris must’ve been pushing them hard. ‘nother couple of laps, and who knows…

the-muffin-man

Full Member
Anyone else disappointed with Ferrari?

They’ve been the No.2 team behind Red Bull since the start of these new regs but can’t find that last few tenths. And now dropping behind McLaren.

And Aston are proving the point that you can’t buy success in F1 (as BMW and Toyota found out). Dismal weekend for them and they are way behind their 2023 form.

Yeah, a little bit. The car looked good overall, clearly it’s still a way off the front.  Hats off to Mclaren though, the confidence Lando had in those last few laps was brilliant to watch.

My biggest disappointment this weekend was (once again) Mercedes.  Didn’t seem like there was much improvement at all from their update. Balance still seems to be all over the place and setup looks tricky. As usual George got it right for qualifying and Lewis for the race.  Waste of two good drivers at the moment.

Anyone else disappointed with Ferrari?

They’ve been the No.2 team behind Red Bull since the start of these new regs but can’t find that last few tenths. And now dropping behind McLaren.

I think they’ve improved their car more than it appears. Leclerc is an amazing qualifier and he flattered the car in previous years. Red Bull had a car that struggled to warm up its tyres in qualifying, but was easy on the tyres in the race and could just cruise off into the distance once the Ferrari chewed its tyres up. This year’s Ferrari is much closer to the Red Bull in races, with much better tyre life, it’s just that McLaren have done a spectacular job considering how bad their car was at the start of last year.

the-muffin-man

Anyone else disappointed with Ferrari?

A bit, but they were explaining on The Race podcast that something to do with their engine layout/set-up didn’t suit the Imola circuit, so the track was probably a tough one for them compared to some others coming up.

There’s an article about Ferrari’s performance here:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/where-ferrari-really-stands-now-after-mclaren-beatings/

with this little snippet explaining the engine/power-unit deficiency:

“This is not necessarily the best layout for the Ferrari engine given its turbo arrangement provides good power delivery off corners and is perhaps lacking at the very top end. But Leclerc was also adamant that Ferrari was missing something with its engine strategy at Imola compared to McLaren and Red Bull.

He felt that its battery deployment was slightly off, as he lost time on the start-finish straight beginning his qualifying laps that he could not make up. Maybe that was a hint at a need to better compensate the engine’s characteristics on a track like this.

“We basically lost everything at the launch,” he said post-race.”

Towards the end of the race, a graphic representing “battery use” was being displayed, with Norris at something like 60% and Verstappen at something like 30%, with the emphasis that this was good for Norris, bad for Verstappen First time I’ve seen it. I though batteries were recharged each lap? Have I got that wrong? Can someone more knowledgeable explain please?

I think the idea is that they can temporarily turn up the electrical power output for a qualifying lap or to defend, but that drains the battery and they will have to turn it down again to recharge the battery.

I don’t think the charge resets every lap, just the allowed 30s of usage.  As Norris closed in and got within DRS range, he didn’t need as much deployment to keep up whilst Max was using lots to try and defend.  Another two laps and Max would’ve been almost out of charge and not generating enough storage to get 30s worth of deployment from it and would’ve been slower around much of the circuit, thus allowing Norris a better chance of overtaking.

perfect, thanks both. 👍

Imola is known to be difficult to build up charge due to the lack of proper hard braking into slow corners.

Sorry I am late to the party but I was watching the recording.o

Is there a reason they keep telling us that LeClerc is from Monaco?

I can se some interest as the race is coming up but they do it all season. I am wondering how many times they will mention is at the actual Monaco GP. I might put £5 on them saying something like:

“The local driver, Le Clerc, from Monaco is racing at his home Grand Prix and the Monegasque driver is aiming for pole in this, the place he lives”

Is there a reason they keep telling us that LeClerc is from Monaco?

A few years ago, someone discovered that the term for someone from Monaco is Monegasque and now they think they have to squeeze the word into every available opportunity as they think it makes them look clever.

Do the locals pronounce it MONaco or MonAHco?

When I heard the French speaking is sounded more like mo-na-ku and spoken with an Inspector Clouseau style accent

I can’t be the only one thinking they should have used the red and white Marlboro livery (sans name) with replica Senna helmets… how awesome would that have looked?

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/mclaren-unveil-special-ayrton-senna-inspired-livery-for-2024-monaco-grand.7e2wmR25HF4mX3scPjZjz9

They must have considered it, since the green and blue parts match the shape of the red in the Marlboro livery… maybe even nameless it still qualifies as tobacco advertising 🤔

maybe even nameless it still qualifies as tobacco advertising

Even if it was allowed I’m pretty sure their current tobacco sponsor (BAT) wouldn’t have let them do it.

Blimey, Andretti have signed Pat Symonds after he resigned from F1 management today!

Andretti: F1’s owner told me we’ll never let your team in

I can’t be the only one thinking they should have used the red and white Marlboro livery

I think they wanted to have a paint scheme inspired by and reminiscent of  Senna rather than one invented by a tobacco company, hence the use of his helmet colours. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Marlboro scheme, its a classic. But I can see why they didn’t use it.

Does anyone else see this weekend’s McLaren livery resembling an early ’90s Benetton?

PJM1974Free Member
Does anyone else see this weekend’s McLaren livery resembling an early ’90s Benetton?

You mean Scuderia Coloni shirely?

It resembles something I sicked up 30 years ago. Way too messy, not a fan of it.

Seems to be a lot of chatter about Sainz to Williams. Would seem a shame if they don’t make something half decent for him to drive.

Seems to be a lot of chatter about Sainz to Williams.

I’ve also heard Red Bull and Audi. and left-field choice: Mercedes with Russell. Although I  didn’t take that one seriously. I think if I was Albon, I think I’d be pissed off about Sainz coming to the team.

” I think if I was Albon, I think I’d be pissed off about Sainz coming to the team.”

Why? Sainz would bring a lot of experience along with him, and help develop the car. Things may happen quicker at Williams with 2 drivers as opposed to 1.

Williams would need to come up with a huge load of cash to make it more attractive than Audi. I don’t see it happening, both teams are a long way off the front of the grid but Audi are a well-funded works team with their own engine so they would seem the better gamble if Red Bull and Merc aren’t interested.