F1 2024 -Watchalong thread

[Brazilianadventure]

Happy New Year.

Thought I would start the 2024 thread given there is more political intrigue with the FIA.

2 resignations and one person choosing to not renew their contract. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/67906883

Plus allegedly another ex-Red Bull employee moving to the FIA. https://x.com/silverarrowsnet/status/1744375322131231089?s=46&t=lJm6-66fq4MtGcwwAsK6Kg

Did anyone see an Alonso post-interview where he was asked if good races like this make him want to keep driving?

And he said well...yes, because I've had a great weekend's driving...but also no, because I was still 40 seconds behind Max, so it's not really an attractive proposition. And moving to another team like Mercedes wouldn't make it any better.

@EvenStillIWantTo I did see it later and agree the gap is demoralising for the drivers.

Alonso has resigned for Aston Martin until 2026. So will do at least one year of the new regs.

Andretti are still pushing forward to try and get into F1. I think an 11th team would be good.

I wonder if Alonso decided to sign after Max's comments about his age and Red Bull normally nurturing younger talent. He saw the way the wind was blowing!
It seems that Red Bull would have been his main option given that Mercedes are hardly doing better than Aston at the moment.
Maybe if someone like Sainz had been in Stroll's car, Aston might even be doing better than Mercedes right now.

@milski I think Fernando knew he wasn’t in line for either the Merc or RB 2nd seat. So Aston is the best chance he has. Lawrence Stroll is obviously throwing big bucks at the team.

Apparently both sides in the Fernando/Red Bull negotiations were aware that it was for Max's seat should he choose to leave. There was no expectation of them being teammates unfortunately

China this weekend, it will be interesting how a new circuit to many drivers will impact the racing.

I like the 08:00 starts for qually & the race and 08:30 for the sprint shootout/qually. It means you don’t have to wake up really early but it’s early enough you have most of the day left to do other things. However, the sprint race is at 04:00 and I’m not convinced it’s worth setting the alarm for.

The sprint weekend format makes much more sense and hopefully not going into parc ferme until the start of race qually on Saturday will give two different races. It should also avoid a repeat of the plank disqualification issue from Austin.

Andretti will not get an F1 entry. F1 doesn't need another team and the current teams will not agree to more participants unless the "anti-dilution" fee is raised considerably higher than $200 million.

@ColleenDonaghy interesting, I missed that but honestly I couldn’t see them as team mates.

DH saw it somewhere, not sure where. He follows more closely than me these days.

@Aaron95 I agree about the fee. However, there is also the option of Andretti buying an existing team.

I won't be up for the sprint race tomorrow. There is a weird vibe at this track for me. Green grass going on fire, fake crowd noise and hardly any drivers radio being transmitted. It all feels odd.

Happy for Zhou to have a good sprint qualy in front of his home crowd though. Those cheers at least were genuine.

Not watched it yet as I'm at work but nice to see lando on pole. Let's hope that's good omens for maclaren this weekend.

I really wanted Lewis on pole but very happy for Lando.

Fuck sake Lewis.

Yay, well done Alonso!!

😂😂😆

I reckon in an incident free race Verstappen will win by a huge margin tomorrow. Positions 3 to 8 might have some action, after that it will be a DRS train stuck behind Bottas.

Hamilton qualifying so low down might give us some interest as he moves through the field. But I reckon the DRS train in the Sprint today was ominous and he will get stuck in it too. Mercedes really need to run a drastic strategy for him to avoid it.

Toto has got to be thinking about an exit, surely?!

poor old Lulu went the wrong way with set up by the looks of it

😂😂 2024 is just not his year. He must be looking at the Ferrari’s going I can’t wait for 2025. Although can I be a bit of a bitch and point out Red Bull now has 100 poles, but Lewis has 104!

Alonso 👏👏👏👏

Lando 🥲 for the sprint start.

Carlos for being slightly lucky but also skillful in keeping the damage to the car to a minimum.

DR - managed to overtake in the sprint despite the DRS train and p11 in qually. Has the new floor done the trick?

Why?
He is a major shareholder in Mercedes F1 and they made a huge profit last year.

I'm so disappointed, although I shouldn't have raised my expectations. The first 6 or 7 laps of the sprint were good then Max domination took over. Same for qualy. A whole season of this and then maybe the same for 2025 is depressing.
Perez seems to be doing enough to keep the Red Bull seat but I wish they'd put Sainz in there just to give us a little bit of competition!

Anyone up watching?

Ignoring old Versboring up front, Alonso is providing some excitement.

I am. Although it looks a bit processional - hoping for rain!

Yeah - make me laugh that the biggest 'excitement' of Gasly's tyre not being on - and that has not been shown, presumably not caught on camera.

Unless it sparks up a bit, I may wander off and just leave it playing in the background.