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).

Normally me and DH always get up early to watch as both of us like watching a race live. Thinking about not bothering this year though

My DP is on his stag do this weekend so we will save the race for when he returns Sunday night with a take away. Just have to stay off socials all day until we put it on. But I'm sure my toddlers will keep me busy enough. Hoping it's a good one. I'll be watching quali with a glass of prosecco Saturday night once I get them to bed I think as my reward for "solo parenting" ( I hate that phrase" all weekend.

I would love to watch live and would have no problem getting up/staying up but DP has refused and DS age 6 loves to watch too so we'll be watching the replay from lunchtime.

I like the way Sky F1 are showing the full coverage on the replay (build up, race, chequered flag etc) so you can pretend it is live. Shame they don't do that with the qualifying, the build up seems to be missing from the tv schedule.

Where did that come from re Mercedes?!
so good to see Lewis smiling again.

feel for Checo, a lot of people on twitter peddling the conspiracy 🙈😂

'Not too shabby!' So happy for Mercedes. I'm hoping they can have a good race tomorrow.
Feel so disappointed for Checo. If anyone can stop Max he can but not looking very likely this weekend.

Well I did wake up at 6 in the head, although I was half asleep when Perez crashed out, that woke me up!

Yeah not too shabby for the Merc boys, but the best for me was Albon in the Williams. As a lifelong Williams fan, dare I hope, just a teeny bit, that things are on the up for them again? Is this improvement down to James Vowels and/or healthy financials? Whatever it is I will take it. 😎

@Sulusu Me too. I would love to have Williams competitive again.
I have never been able to decide if Albon has been unlucky or isn't quite good enough but happy to give him the benefit of the doubt if he can get a W on the podium at some point.

Come on Russel, though he was quite up front post qualifying about not being able to beet MV tomorrow.

Ive got a report I have to write tomorrow just wondering whether I can concentrate and watch at the same time.

I agree it’s good to see Alex and Williams doing well. They have had a lot of difficult years.

Clearly Mercedes are understanding their car better. The big question for them is whether there is sufficient potential for this car to match/beat the RB or if the absolute potential is less than the RB.

What is happening at McLaren and Ferrari they are both going backwards?

I would LOVE Mercedes to beat RBR to the first corner, both of their cars so that MV is in 3rd place in the first few corners. I realise that it is unlikely to last long as the RBR car is in another league at the moment but the other teams are really trying to bring the challenge to them.

I love the gravel traps and the grass. It's really nostalgic in comparison to other circuits that have run off areas.

Sometimes these older style circuits throw up some interesting races (Monaco the exception to that one as it's a glorified 'follow the leader' track) so I'm optimistic for tomorrows race!

@LookItsMeAgain I hope you’re right!

Just listed to Chequered Flag review.

What’s the deal with Perez? There seems to be suggestions of something going on (team orders?) or am I reading to much into it? Or was it driver error or car problems, CH seems to be saying driver and Perez car.

The suggestion is Checo’s car has an issue affecting breaking, which is why has been going off track. Cynics suggest the set up is a way for RB to ensure Checo doesn’t beat Max or for his complaints about mixed messages to the drivers at the last race.

The problem for RB is that since AD2021 there is a real sense of distrust of anything that is seen to benefit RB and, in particular, Max. As I’ve said before look at the immediate conclusions everyone jumped to at last years Dutch GP due to ATs coded radio messages and Yuki’s actions stopping then getting going again etc. There were a lot of suspicions that AT had behaved as they did under instruction from RB/Marco. The RB strategist Hannah got a lot of undeserved abuse. Actually on reflection it was more simple than that AT were worried a tyre was loose and didn’t want to alert the stewards, but AD2021 played a big part in the initial conclusions everyone jumped to.

Even today Ted in his notebook said AD2021 was still impacting the Stewards and their decision making. DC also said something similar about how ridiculous some of the rules/penalties have been and the overturning of penalties.

This isn’t a Max vs Lewis, RB vs Merc etc. it’s about the ongoing damage AD2021 did to the sport of F1.

Anyone awake watching the Australian f1? It’s been worth getting up early for!

Just got up. Gutted for GR!

hoping Lewis can hold on to a podium posistion!

I started watching at 6.30, I missed the safety car. What was the issue with the ten lengths?

This could be an interesting end

Glad I made the bacon sandwiches in the middle part of the race when there was no drama!!

I was awake at just after 6am so got up and watched. Missed the first couple of laps.

Thought it was a good race and really happy to see Lewis on the podium

Quote from BBC website

“The unprecedented events will lead to controversy that F1 is putting showbusiness before sport.
There is a direct line from the final laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021 - when officials made errors that changed the course of the world championship fight between Verstappen and Hamilton - to these events, as the final red flag was thrown to try to ensure the grand prix would finish under racing conditions.
Ironically, that desire led to the final, bizarre and confusing climax, and a race that instead ended under a safety car.”

The FIA have got to address the elephant in the room.

It's just been one mess after another for years now. It all seemed to start to fall apart when we lost Charlie Whiting. He wasn't perfect but there was consistency, and a confidence in races he ran. Surely there must be someone else who can do the job of running races competently with a proper knowledge of rules and how they should be applied. I wonder if Vettel is bored with retirement yet. If only eh! He would be a good race director.

Gutted for George and Alex today. And Carlos, that penalty should have been applied after the race, and then adding penalty points on top of it seems overly harsh.

What's going to happen to Pierre now? If he gets any penalty points for that crash it's a race ban for him as would have too many. Poor Pierre looked like he was on the verge of tears in his post race interview 😪
I hope Esteban is okay with it all, which he seemed to be after the race. I want those two to be friends again.

@Sulusu thats what I mean about the ongoing impact.

Pre AD2021 they would have either kept the safety car out and risked ending the race under the safety car or not restarted after the penultimate red flag I.e. 2 laps short. The pressure to finish a race under racing conditions for the “show” is unnecessarily risking lives.

They are all athletes at their peak performance level, the majority are mid 20s and all want to win. A restart with 2 laps to go was always likely to result in some cars touching.

I feel for the drivers, and teams impacted by the restart. The Cost Cap means Alpine have had an expensive day just for the show. It would be so unfair if Pierre gets points and misses the next race.

I still think Michael Masi could have remained as race director if the FIA, Stewards and he, had done the right thing.

I have some sympathy for Masi as I understand he was not only flying to races but also stopping off or making separate trips to oversee new tracks and changes to tracks in his capacity as safety director. He was put under enormous pressure throughout the season, but particularly in AD by Team Principals being able to talk to him during the race. He must have been mentally and physically exhausted by AD2021 and a mistake in the heat of the moment with team directors telling him what to do is understandable. Had he been honest said I made a mistake let’s look at how to resolve it he could have kept the job.

if you watch Kim Illman on YouTube you know being Australian the days he was away from home during 2021. Masi would have done more flights and time changes because of inspecting tracks. Masi needed a bigger team to support him e.g. doing the track safety inspections, double checking rules/race decisions.

Whilst I was very happy to see Lewis and Fernando on the podium, and believe that that was correct, that was an absolute mess. What did they think was going to happen re-starting a race with two laps left? Obviously the drivers were going to try to overtake each other. Really unfair for Alpine to not go back to the previous lap as the results. Sainz deserved that penalty imo.

I completely lost the plot there by the end, what a shambles. I'm still a newbie and just can't make head nor tail of half of what goes on!

Glad to see Alonso on the podium again though; I just love his no-fucks villain vibe.