No F1 thread?

[jamcg]

No more Aston Martin safety cars

[Mito Man]

Buckle up lads, it’s gonna be another shitshow

Just seen it’s Lewis in the car too

[duncs500]

I must admit, I am more excited than usual about the first race. Not because it's going to be a good race, but it sure is likely to be an Interesting one.

[Mito Man]

Apparently that was a planned stop so maybe it’s not all doomed from the get go. All the cars so far sound better though. The active aero seems to be much like DRS - fully on or fully off. So not really active in the way most people imagined it I guess.

[duncs500]

Sounds like the energy management may be the thing that creates racing intrigue.

[mik]

[Mito Man]

[Zonda_]

The airflow monitoring things they use every year in testing?

[Mito Man]

No, the zero side pod concept but not done as well as Mercedes did a few years ago.

Overall the cars are more like evolutions from last year rather than looking like the compact 2004 era.

[DeskJockey]

Looks like it is sucking it's cheeks in.

[Mito Man]

Not holding out high hopes for these cars. They’re derating halfway down the straights (and Bahrain isn’t exactly Monza), then lift and coast for another 100+ metres before finally hitting the braking zone.
Seem to take multiple build laps to recharge the battery. Qualifying could be a one shot event.
My day 1 observations are that Red Bull looked decent onboard. Didn’t see much of the McLaren but it posted the quickest time. Mercedes and Ferrari looked a handful. Feels like last year in that regard. Oh and I reckon the Aston is a POS.

[RobYob]

Wonder if McLaren are going to ditch the DP World sponsorship, surely they have to after the CEO has been busted as an Epstein buddy.

[integrale_evo]

I was expecting the cars to look quite different, but they don’t really. They do look a bit smaller and more compact, not sure whether they actually are at all.

I still think they’re great whole hybrid thing is bollocks though. Less reliance on fossil fuels while flying crazy amounts of people and infrastructure around the globe and turning tons of rubber into black dust. Just use sustainable fuels and declare that enough for a wasteful sport.

[jamcg]

Yup, would be better promoting true sustainable fuels, biofuels that don’t require massive amounts of agricultural land devoted to growing crops just for fuel, and then implementing their use in aerospace and shipping applications, not just car engines. Or even funding mass atmospheric carbon capture. As for the hybrid batteries, everyone knows lithium mining isn’t environmentally friendly- but if you want to ignore that and claim that electric is better then go watch formula E

[Mito Man]

BBC news F1 section isn’t positive. Both Lewis and Max essentially calling the cars shit. (And the Aston is shit as a shit thing).
I guess we’re here because of Audi so I can only hope they finish last for every race and then quit after 2 years so we can finally have something decent.

[Zonda_]

The way Verstappen is talking I can see him going rallying or WEC.

[Mito Man]

Seems he has a good compromise if he can do a few GT3 endurance races per year whilst getting paid $80 million per year to drive the Red Bull

One thing I didn’t realise - the cars this year have a 70kg fuel tank (Down from 110kg). Seems unbelievably little for a 300km race. And also don’t know how that works with the new driving style which is to take all the corners in 1 or 2 gears lowers to increase rpms and energy harvesting - seems at odds.
The races will be 90% energy management.

[duncs500]

If you get fairly evenly matched cars, we might see overtaking in unorthodox parts of the circuit, which at least might be pretty cool. But yeah, the management sounds a bit extreme.

[integrale_evo]

Are GP2 cars doing the whole hybrid thing or are we going to end up with GP2 cars being faster than F1?

Having to coast at the end of the straights because the power is dropping off seems a pretty shitty form of motorsport however you dress it up.

[jamcg]

Imagine if battery degradation ends up so bad you can replace your battery every race, take a 5 place penalty, spend all your money on new batteries and do no development, and still overtake everyone because you still have charge at the end of the straights