Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

They’re introducing guards to reduce spray on the 2026 cars, aren’t they?

They did a test to see if they would help, they didn’t make enough of a difference to be worth it. Let’s face it, the tyres have to squirt the water out so the guards don’t change the volume of water that the tyres throw up, it just stops the tyres directly throwing it up into the air. That water is still picked up by the turbulent wake of the car and thrown higher into the air though. Without making the wake of the car much smaller, I don’t think it would be possible to really reduce the spray enough to make it possible to race when the track is really wet. To make the wake smaller, you would need to fundamentally change the aerodynamics of the car. So, basically, don’t expect a modern F1 car to ever be able to race on a properly wet track.

Have McLaren said anything about whether they’d still ask Piastri to make way for Norris should the opportunity arise in Vegas? After all there’s still a mathematical change of Norris winning the WDC so I’d see it as a measure of their competitive spirit as to whether they are still chasing it. How Piastri reacts is anyone’s guess though.

Based on the Sprint, I’m not expecting Oscar to help out anymore.
The chop at the start and holding onto the lead for so long doesnt seem like Oscar is going to just roll out of the way.
He was happy to give up the Sprint win as the drivers dont place any value on it.

Its all about setting the scene for ’25 between the McLaren drivers.

Stella seems to be of the view that it’s still a possibility, so I’m sure that if they find themselves able to keep the WDC alive with the need for a car swap they’ll do it. But realistically I think the chances of that being the case in Vegas are slim, and beyond that negligible, so I think from this point on it most probably just plays out straight on track. Whatever happens, it won’t go down well if the thing that kills the WDC stone dead is Oscar refusing to toe the line.

Based on the Sprint, I’m not expecting Oscar to help out anymore.

The chop at the start and holding onto the lead for so long doesnt seem like Oscar is going to just roll out of the way.

He was happy to give up the Sprint win as the drivers dont place any value on it.

Its all about setting the scene for ’25 between the McLaren drivers.

I think Oscar did it right.  He needs to show what he can do, which he did. It’s advantageous for him to be as far ahead as possible if, for example, Norris has a problem, then a good lead for him over Verstappen still gets the team the win. Different if Norris is being hassled by Max but he wasn’t. And then swap at the last minute, or if Max starts threatening Norris. But when the yellow flag came out I was thinking that’s going to be a safety car and was silently shouting swap now! swap now! and they dithered then.

If they wanted Oscar to really help they should have swapped the lead early and then told him to go full Alonso.
Defend like a Lion, back everyone up in the middle section to allow Lando to drive away.

Leaving it to later in the race, just added risk, due to a red flag/safety car (which almost happened)

McLaren still arnt acting like a championship winning team.

They should have made a better call on Saturday around swapping drivers and they should have kept Lando out on track on Sunday to keep track position as the rain became heavier. They were too busy racing George and not Max.

andrewh

I think Oscar did it right. He needs to show what he can do, which he did.

Piastri didn’t do a very good job holding up Max though, basically waved him straight through. Max couldn’t afford a DNF so he could have been pretty robust with him.

Piastri was never in a position to really help Lando in the main race.

If Piastri has sufficient self-belief then he should expect to be in a position next year where he could need some help from his team mate. Doing whatever he can at this point in the season doesn’t affect his WDC chances but might make all the difference in 2025.

the-muffin-manFull Member
Piastri was never in a position to really help Lando in the main race.

well as i mentioned above, he could have for example held him up by not doing this:

In other news: Bottas out at Audi, Bortoleto in according to AMuS

Valtteri Bottas out as Audi F1 complete exciting F1 2025 driver line-up – report

If they’re going for a rookie why pick him over Porchaire? Seems an odd choice. Nothing against Borteletto but I can’t see one being loads better than the other so why not take your own reserve rather than someone else’s?

well as i mentioned above, he could have for example held him up by not doing this:

Perhaps he felt he’d done his bit to help the day before! 🙂

Sauber/Audi’ statement is very odd:

”After open and constructive discussions with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, we mutually concluded that conditions to continue together could not be met so we agreed that it is time to part ways.”

I would have expected the messaging to be “we’re bringing in young talent alongside a seasoned campaigner”, but (although I’m sure it isn’t actually this) it reads a bit like “these guys wanted too much so we went with our next best option”.

In other news: Bottas out

Probably concentrating on his gravel career.

Just seen this posted on Twitter, don’t think the first part went out on the broadcast – no wonder George was ticked off with the team!

https://x.com/sim3744/status/1853807472521171440

Probably concentrating on his gravel career.

On four wheels as well as two…

Valtteri Bottas makes surprise reveal over secret rally test rumours in F1 career update

Surprised Audi have not asked Colapinto to drive for them, he’s a rookie who has proven himself worthy of an F1 seat where as Bortoleto has no F1 experince apart from test sessions in the 2022 Mclaren

Rumours suggest Colapinto may be close to getting a seat elsewhere* (or maybe already has one) so he may have been unavailable anyway.

* Red Bull, Vcarb or Williams, depending on which rumour you prefer and which way the wind’s blowing in Milton Keynes today

Alpine officially announce Mercedes engine deal…

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/alpine-to-use-mercedes-f1-engines-from-2026/

How many teams is that now?

Mercedes, Williams, Aston, Alpine, and McLaren?

Aston are taking Honda engines in 2026.

Dan Fallowes is leaving Aston.   I did wonder where he fitted in with Newey’s role

So another race director bites the dust! Niels Wittich has gone with immediate effect. What’s going on at the FIA???

Perhaps he said bugger in front of Ben Sulayem!

Finally some good news – the 2025 livery launches are all going to happen at one central event. Much easier to just have to ignore 1 event rather than 10!

No F1 fan is interested in a livery launch. F1 liveries aren’t special now and change every other race with some ‘special, one of a kind’ livery anyway.

Agree. The liveries won’t last more than a couple of races before some pr excuse to change them and try and drum up some interest for the sponsors

at a local F1 anonymous…

Hi, My name’s Nick, I’m an F1 fan of 20 plus years, I like a livery launch

Whaaaat?!? #SurprisedFace

@nickc

…I bet the Ferrari livery launch is your fave! 🙂

@nickc

…I bet the Ferrari livery launch is your fave! ?

Full face makeup and everything I bet. It means the red faces are not just after strategy calls 🙂

I like a livery launch

They are offally good.

I can’t stand them, what a load of tripe

Maybe it’s just that your heart’s not in it.

It’s because it signals that the season’s just around the corner, I like to see how they change,- whether they keep ‘traditional’ colours, etc etc. It was my daughters’ entry point to become one of the blighted – when she was very young, she like to copy them and draw them, so they have fond memories, and now we have a league table as a bit of fun. Plus yonks ago I got an invite to a Jordan launch and it was a day off work, and a bunch of fun- drinkies and freebies.

Damn, looks like Williams is in a real mess

Williams to miss the Las Vegas Grand Prix

That article was painful to read. Are they all like that on that site? Never mind the clickbait headline

TL;DR – “So Williams will be in Las Vegas, whether they can run two of their latest specification cars is highly doubtful following Vowles assessment, but at least one car must make it onto the track in practice to fulfil their contractual obligations, but to all intent and purpose Williams could well be out of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.”

 at least one car must make it onto the track in practice to fulfil their contractual obligations,

Exactly. They will patch together whatever they can, giving Albon the best parts available. Not showing up at all would cost them a huge penalty so they’ll turn up with something that looks like a car. To fulfil their obligations, they basically need to line two cars up for practice, have each one drive out of pit lane and then park up.

Monaco is signed up until 2031 but at a later weekend. Means that Canada should be able to be run earlier and be paired up with Miami. Also avoids the Indy 500 clash.

mashrFull Member
That article was painful to read. Are they all like that on that site? Never mind the clickbait headline

It’s gone to pot in the last few years, used to be alright.

Monaco is signed up until 2031 but at a later weekend

Slowly but surely Monaco is realising that it might need F1 more than F1 needs it. They’ve given up on having their own schedule (because the market that used to happen on Fridays hasn’t happened for years), they’ve given up on doing the TV production themselves and now they’re moving from the traditional date. But what they really need is some sort of re-think of the circuit layout so there’s a chance that it might turn back into a motor race for modern F1 cars.