No F1 thread?

[duncs500]

Race behind the Mercs could be interesting tomorrow.

[Mito Man]

The cars are so strange onboard. When starting a flying lap they don’t start accelerating from the previous corner but on the main straight just a little bit before the timing line. On the back straight just before the fast chicane the battery dies and they lose over 50 mph, then have to change down a gear or 2

Ferrari does it again. Gets the Tifosi fans frothing with being the fastest in testing, FP1. They even carry it through into Q1 with the medium tyres just being a tiny bit slower than the soft runners. Then they’re a second off the pace
However if that Mercedes advantage really is all down to the compression then that’s a shame as it would otherwise have been very close between the top teams.

[duncs500]

However if that Mercedes advantage really is all down to the compression then that’s a shame as it would otherwise have been very close between the top teams.

I'm not sure I really believe that it's all that big an advantage. We'll see in June! Although I'm sure they'll have found a mitigation by then if they haven't already.

[jamcg]

3.42 seconds slower. Shocking

[GG.]

Yes it is very underwhelming - seeing a car visibly slow like it has a malfunction on account of the superclipping is just not on. I really hope the simpletons that set the regs are ashamed of what its become. More to the point - fuck Audi as they're the ones that caused all of this and to boot Porsche have pulled out of Le Mans due to the budget being spent on this shit show.

ETA: 3.42 seconds slower is abysmal.

[Mito Man]

Oh Lando can go fuck himself. Pre season when he thought he’d have the best car again he was on about the regs being great and that Max with his moaning about them can go do something else. Suddenly his car isn’t P1 and now he’s moaning

Anyway, the cars will be much slower in race pace compared to last year.

[Mito Man]

There is still hope. The Ferrari had software deployment issues from Q2 onwards.
The Mercedes doesn’t seem reliable

[Mito Man]

Just reading about the Ferrari software glitch. Looks like the teams use AI software so the car learns the track and the AI controls the amount of electrical deployment. The red flag caught it out. Now taking all that in you can deduct that 50% of the powertrain of the car is not even controlled by driver which is very stupid when they have “the car must be driven alone and unaided” rule.

Anyway this also came up


How come the camera angles now are so bad? The filming of that quali lap could be in the F1 movie.

[RobYob]

ETA: 3.42 seconds slower is abysmal.

Don't care about the times, I mean F1 has been artificially restricted for decades now. But I DO mind the engines can't rev because of the stupid instantaneous fuel flow nonsense and that the hybrid regen system can't handle a full lap at race speed.

What's the odds on more than half the field finishing tomorrow?

I recon we might lose half a dozen to breakdowns before lap 10.

[Mito Man]

The way these cars generate their lap time is awful. This is the pole lap and it looks like the 2025 cars doing a cool down lap

[Marv]

F1 cars now have to hypermile to get the most out of their battery packs. Brilliant

[Mito Man]

“Hormonal teenagers driving Priuses” is the best comment I’ve seen for this

[duncs500]

It might not be the cool thing to say, but it's really not bothering me. The way they launch into a quali lap is proper acceleration, I actually like it more than trying to max the final corner.

I'll judge it on the race. If running out / harvesting of energy allows a quicker car to have a dart in various unexpected parts of the track, it could be cool. Could also be shit, but I'm not going to write it off just because they're not flat out everywhere.

[RobYob]

Well that's fucking embarrassing.

[RobYob]

Ok I am entertained and was wrong about failure rates by lap 10.

[jamcg]

Ferrari strategy team by lap 3 “this is going well, a little too well- we’d better start to figure out how we can fuck this up”

[V8Granite]

It's like they're racing on cooldown lap strategies or they each have a bowl of water they can't spill.

Dave!

[jamcg]

It's like they're racing on cooldown lap strategies or they each have a bowl of water they can't spill.

Dave!

The water one only works if you’re going sideways down a Japanese mountain

[Mito Man]

I won’t be able to take an entire season of Ferrari having a decent car but having strategists with the collective IQ of an onion.

Positives are the racing was better than expected but is it the end of hard wheel to wheel racing? Seems like there’s no point risking it now because you won’t get stuck behind the car in front. You, can just boost past, and the speed difference seems crazy.

[jamcg]

None will risk a front wing anymore, sainz has one and it took ages. Meant mention, did anyone notice at the start Lawson failed to get away and was so nearly collected by one of the alpines? And then they didn’t speak of it at all in the broadcast, as if they’d been told not to? Crofty I could imagine failing to spot it happening but not Martin