F1 2023 - Watchalong thread

[LookItsMeAgain]

At the moment it's pre-season testing and they are in Bahrain as that is where the first race happens

Is anyone watching the preseason testing at the moment?

Anyone follow the WTF1 personnel change over the past few weeks (social media channel) and that Tommy & Matt have set up P1 with just Matt & Tommy as co-owners?

I'm really looking forward to seeing what progress the other teams have been able to make since RBR had their wind tunnel time reduced due to their overspend in 2022 (that was their punishment for doing that).

Have you seen or heard the news today?

Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds are part of an investor group taking a 24% equity stake in Alpine!!!

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/66016904

yes I read it 10 mins ago

Yes, saw it on twitter. I don’t know why but I wasn’t overjoyed, it seems like after 70 years America has finally realised F1 is worth watching, investing in, commercialising but also Americanising.

The Miami intros were a bit OTT and I imagine Vegas may be worse. Austin and Indy got the balance right .

I know Rob and Ryan have been really positive for Wrexham, so hopefully they will respect F1 e.g. know who Sir Jackie Stewart and Martin Brundle are. Michael Douglas is the F1 fan I like, he has been a fan for decades.

this made me laugh

If I didn't already know it was Austria this weekend I would now.

That is hilarious. I wonder how hard it was to convince them to do that?

Max's trainers with that outfit

RB always like to put their drivers in ridiculous outfits.

Hah that's great! I like when the teams relax a bit and show their fun side.

Four weekends of F1 on the trot, and all proper circuits. It weirdly feels like the season is starting properly only now!

Hope Merc and McLaren upgrades make it a bit more interesting this weekend and not a RB procession.

I honestly can’t see anything stopping the RB rocket ship this year.

It does look like McLaren/Lando have made a step forward, as have the Ferrari’s. Lewis is back on it but still doesn’t have the car.

Christian Horners face went red in his post qualy interview when talking about Perez. He said Perez isn't under threat but his face told another story to me.

I think Perez is on borrowed time now.

I agree, both Perez and De Vries are in danger of losing their seats. Helmet Marko is ruthless. The pressure in RB on the drivers has impacted Daniil Kyvat, Pierre Gasley and Alex Albon’s careers. In this years RB, Perez should be more consistently 2nd in qually and the race.

Mercedes take a different approach, they supported Valtteri, allowed him to beat Lewis, particularly in qually, celebrating his achievements. They made sure he had the Alpha job before announcing George etc.

I can see if the tyre test goes well they may put Danny Ric in one of the cars just to test him out. They are also talking about testing Liam Lawson.

You could say McLaren were just as bad with Danny Ric but I always thought they tried everything and in the end it was a tough but fair decision. I think a 3rd year would have destroyed him mentally.

Loving how well Lando is doing at the moment, he deserves a shot at a top drive and Albon too

Good sprint race, amazing what a drop of water does.

Dreadful news about the young driver that died at Eau Rouge at Spa today. Only 18 :(

It is sad news. Lance Stroll made some good points.

Lance was so emotional, I wanted to reach through my TV and give him a big hug. Good on him for speaking up about it.

Yes, Alonso said it’s not that they can’t handle the cars it’s the lack of visibility. I think the GPDA will raise this before Spa.

The problem is F1 cocked up Spa in 2021, then made ill thought through rule changes that led to the farce in Japan 2022 when no one knew if Max was WDC or not.

In 2021 it was obvious that the race should be cancelled. Yes, it’s awful as you couldn’t run it on the Monday but better than farce we had with two laps behind the safety car. Lando was extremely lucky in 2021 qually to walk away.

Well here we go again. Chance of rain later in the race.

Might feel a bit flat if Max skips off into the distance, but at least you can overtake on this track so hopefully some interest behind with George and Checo coming through the pack.

Some decent bits of overtaking. But mostly a meh race partially ruined by the track limits issue.

Lando Norris my driver of the day.

Lando is having a great race I think.

Alonso has barely shifted out of position so pretty disappointing stuff.

Just watching C4 highlights - so lots of track limit infringements and Max 🚀.

I can't believe the outcome of the race was changed hours after the checkered flag waved and changed by the FIA.

They had 1200 infringements of track limits during the race. They couldn't manage to keep track of all of them and it was only after Aston Martin's objection was accepted as being valid that they went back and took a look at all of the drivers and the warnings.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.austrian-grand-prix-results-confirmed-as-sainz-and-hamilton-among-drivers.5NDy3AuwARp91UnXCknqge.html

If there are that many track limit infringements then surely they should be looking at adjusting the track as it's not working for the drivers?

The problem is the track is only used for F1 for 4 days a year. They have to think about other users as well. For example Motorbikes can’t cope with gravel which is one solution. A wall, tyre barrier, humped curve etc. may also not be safe.

The point is these are the top drivers who can cope with Monaco and Jeddah’s walls so should be able to stay within in track limits. Lando managed it, as did Max and others.

It’s not unusual to get penalties altering the race later in the day.

Hamilton in Spa 2008 comes to mind. He cut the last chicane gave the place back as per the rules but immediately slip streamed to retake the lead at the next corner. A 25 second penalty after the race stripped him of the win. Yes, 25 seconds.

Plus rules were changed so you had to allow one corner before trying to overtake again. A rule that was quietly dropped later - no racism here.