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).

I hope it's not going to be another boring season.

The eye I had on the race fell asleep😅
Maybe Australia will be better.

These street circuits do nothing for me, looking forward to getting to the good circuits.

Well Verstappen's dad showed his true colours when Perez ran over to the Red Bull team and they were all congratulating him, cheering etc. He stood there with a face like thunder

I’m relieved that Checo won today. It gives us a hope of a contest for the drivers’ championship. For the next few races, anyway. Red Bull’s current aero advantage over the rest is similar to Mercedes’ power unit advantage in 2014 & 15. It’s going to be a long season…

I understand what you mean because both are pretty dull, but neither Bahrain IC nor Jeddah Corniche are street circuits. Both are typically bland Tilkedromes.

Sad about the second time penalty for Alonso. They seem to be very strict this year

@XDownwiththissortofthingX apologies, I just see the tight roads with temporary looking silver rails (and boring race...) and assume street

Yeah, I'm gutted for Alonso.

Thought there was a distinct chill between Checo and Max at the finish. Could be interesting to watch as the season goes on!

They have reinstated Alonso's third place. What the actual fuck is going on with the FIA. It was a harsh penalty but they have to be consistent. Occon was treated far worse in Bahrain.

Soo.. FIA too late to reinstate the correct result for Abu Dhabi 21 eh?

Just be consistent and stick to the rules FFS!

These shenanigans are why I'm finding it increasingly difficult to care about F1. Sort yourselves out, FIA, you're terrible.

That is just shocking. I went to bed last night with Russell having been elevated to 3rd place and woke up this morning with him back in 4th!

This has more impact on 3rd and 4th places, knowing that points are awarded 1st-10th and this also impacts the Constructor's championship too.

They have to be consistent here. The issue is that the FIA still, after all this time, appears to be making it up as they go along and flip-flopping their decisions.

By reinstating Alonso, they have effectively said that if a front/rear jack man touches the car with their jack, it's not seen as "working" on the car when serving a time penalty in the pit lane. Then they should document it and circulate it to all teams up and down the paddock. I wonder how many other time penalties served in the pit lane could have been affected by this decision in the past.

I agree! Also I thought the safety car was overkill too. Lance had pulled off the track.

I fell I have to point out that the FIA changed their decision in relation to a penalty received during the race which impacted on the outcome of the race not once, but twice here....after the race was over.

Can someone point out to me why a similar decision change wasn't made following AD '21? They were making the rules up as they went along during that race and season too.

The penalty itself was inconsistent in the first place as AM showed with the examples of other people serving the same one, but they really do need to sort themselves out, to give a penalty post-race for a pitstop 35 or so laps earlier, just to have the team appeal it & have it reversed is embarrassing!

@LookItsMeAgain AD21 was a farce, as were many decisions during 2021, the Stewards upheld the Race Director not following the rules. Michael Masi’s NDA means we will never have the truth of what happened. I still feel they didn’t know how to resolve it and there was an element of racism at the top as they didn’t, and still don’t, want Michael’s record to be beaten by the only black F1 driver there has ever been. Mercedes did F1 a huge favour by not going to the court of arbitration as it would all have been made public.

The sad fact is F1 is still missing Charlie Whiting, he clearly was irreplaceable.

On a different point, Martin Brundle kept mentioning RBS rear wing as being more effective than others. I do wonder if there are some questions/whispers in the paddock about it.

Yes the sport is really missing Charlie Whiting!

I didn't pick that up about the rear wing with Martin Brundle, interesting, but knowing Adrian Newey's genius, it's probably marginal but within regs.

The thing that sticks in my throat at the moment in relation to F1 is that RBR was found to have gone over the budget cap in the 2022/23 season and were fined and they got a punishment of fewer hours in the wind tunnel but if their 2023 car is as good as it is, and others are unable to challenge them for the wins, then the wind tunnel punishment is ineffective as they haven't really made many changes to the car since 2022 so they will have received a pittance of a punishment.

This is why I think they needed to come down heavier on whichever teams were found to have broken the budget cap. That they didn't, just sets a precedent for others to follow. To cap it all off, Adrian Newey actually admits as much:
www.racefans.net/2022/12/14/red-bulls-aerodynamic-testing-reduction-wont-make-much-difference-if-were-really-smart/#:~:text=The%20baseline%20figures%20provided%20by,in%20less%20than%20202%20runs.

Agree. Seems at the moment that cheating pays off.

I am becoming less and less interested in watching the races now. I am only really watching in the hope that Lewis can do well or at least someone can win other than Verstappen. I don't dislike Perez at all but don't really want him to win either because I dislike RB so much.

I have been a fan of F1 for around 50 years but am sick now of the FIA's inconsistency and ridiculous decisions plus my anger at Lewis being robbed of his 8th title still makes me angry beyond words

AD2021 is over and done with. Seriously, move on.

@JimnJoyce that's easier said than done, it has completely ruined the sport for me. We haven't watched DTS this year, we haven't booked any tickets for this year, we haven't bought any merch and have only put it on when we've remembered; it's just a constant reminder of how badly it was handled. It's left such a sour taste, if you haven't got integrity and fairness you haven't got a sport it's as simple as that.

Yep this x20

@fgdk I get it i really do. But what a waste of time to keep dwelling on something you cant change and even worse keep bringing it up. Ive been a huge F1 fan since 1994 and during that time there have been loads of incidents/happenings/decisions made that loads of people have hated.
You cant change it, you either watch F1 or dont watch it. But get over it and move on. Its one incident amongst many, its hardly the be all and end all in your life.

You are both missing the point, long stand F1 fans, not the DTS newbies, have seen the ups and downs of the sport over decades and AD21 left a very sour taste.

It wasn’t like Schumacher taking out Hill, Mansell’s tyre blowing or Lauda pulling out of the Japanese GP because it was too dangerous to drive.

This was a race director not following the rules and the Stewards backing the breach. Plus, as we found out later, RB breaching the cost cap, so spending more on their car than permitted.

The impact of AD21 is still having repercussions. A lot of fans now question every decision as they are suspicious. Look at the backlash last year aimed at RBs strategist Hannah, because of the Yuki’s coded radio messages and actions at the Dutch GP. Everyone suspects RB and AT work together under Marko’s watchful eye, but a female engineer was targeted.

The same for the last races, why was Lewis warned for making one move and then re-taking the racing line when Carlos Sainz weaved several times? Why was Alonso treated differently to Ocon?

Plus Japan last year was a shambles, I’m not a Max fan but it wasn’t a nice way for him to find out he was World Champion.

@JimnJoyce - AD 2021 will be the yardstick that every FIA decision will be judged by going forwards. Whether you agree with that or not, it is what it is.

How they handled that disaster of a race and all of the decisions in fairness throughout that season that essentially led to that race and the outcome that we got will be how the FIA is judged. The FIA Race Director decided the Driver and Constructor's championship in that race.

It's not a Lewis v Max thing at this stage. It's the rules, how they get applied, how they are interpreted.

Can you imagine in any other sport a decision that was about how the rules got applied and the subsequent fall out from it. I certainly can't. I know of no other global sport that a single decision has had such impact.

I know I can't change the outcome but the FIA has just demonstrated that after SA '23 they can change the outcome of a race after the race has been won. They claimed they couldn't do that after AD '21.

Who is to say that those 3 points in the difference that Alonso got for being P3 rather than P4 won't change where Aston Martin finishes in the Constructors Championship at the end of the season - that will impact money the team will spend for '24, wind tunnel time, development etc. etc. etc.

That's why AD '21 and SA '23 are important in how the rules are applied and when.