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

Looks like Newey has signed with Ferrari.

Max on pole again - never would have predicted that, not!

With Piastri's grid drop penalty that moves Norris up to second and Le Clerc third. It's an advantage at Imola to be on the odd grid numbers so Norris will have to watch out for the Ferrari behind him. It's also hard to overtake at Imola so he needs to get his elbows out with Verstappen, something he hasn't done historically. With the speed of the McLaren now he doesn't have any excuses left to not fight with Verstappen.

I'm hoping for some rain today otherwise if it's incident free it could potentially be another dull race with little overtaking.

I agree rain would be good.

Apparently Hulk gave Max a huge tow on his last lap to repay the tow Max gave him in Q2.

Loved Seb and honouring Senna and Ratzenberger. Hopefully Sky have him driving senna’s McLaren.

Just looked at the weather forecasts - there's thunderstorms all around the region but Imola looks dry. Boo.

Seb is driving Sennas McLaren MP4 today at a demo run. How amazing is that for the Imola crowd!

I know. I was at Imola in 2004 when Gerhard Berger drove his Lotus (Black and Gold), very emotional.

F1 on YouTube is streaming Seb driving the MP4 live now 😍

That must have been amazing!

Thanks for this ! Just put it on !

It was. Plus it was Jenson’s first pole position so a good weekend all round.

Pierre Gasley and Naomi are driving a Senna’s first F1 car on Sky. Bless it’s Naomi’s first F1 car - what an amazing treat.

Pierre has never driven a race car with an H box! It also makes you realise how vulnerable the drivers heads were back then.

Praying for rain - very boring so far … 😐

Or just for max to crash!

I slept from laps 7 to 23 and clearly missed nothing.

Bugger it, off to the treadmill.

Go Lando

The pack is definitely getting closer to Max.

Well. Result as expected. Few more laps and Norris would have had a chance but I think that last stint push cooked his tyres and Verstappen just went into another gear.

It does give me a bit of hope for the second half of the season if McLaren carries on with this trajectory, we might get closer racing finally.

Le Clerc moves to second in the driver's championship now. Perez had an all round bad weekend.

Wow that was an exciting finish. Go Lando 🏁

I ended up doing my taxes instead...

Well Monaco week.

Expect a thrilling qualifying, and a car parade of a race unless we get rain.

I don't know why the FIA put Imola and Monaco back-to-back. They are two tracks where overtaking is notoriously difficult and makes viewing really boring.

Hand on heart I wouldn't miss Monaco if it was to be taken off the F1 race list. I'd prefer Imola to it to be honest.

Do we know if the forecast for the next few days is changeable or is it now hot and sunny for Monaco this week?

I think the two races are close together because FOM are trying to be more eco-friendly but also thinking about the demands on the teams and drivers when they plan the schedule. It’s not perfect but the drive from Imola to Monaco is fairly reasonable I.e. 6-8 hours.

The schedule is definitely better this year from an eco point of view, but going from Monaco, to Canada, then back to Europe is nuts. I think it's due to weather issues that Montreal has to be early summer but it seems seems daft.

I'm away for the GP on Sunday so will miss it. Sods law it will be an interesting race for once!

I’m not saying the schedule is perfect but there is some logic.

I love Monaco for the glamour and boats. My dream is to watch from a mega yacht in the harbour.