F1/ Formula E/ Motorsport Thread

This could put the cat amongst the pigeons, but somehow I think they will just brush over it and the "Fixed Finish" will remain in force.

Personally I will never accept that MV is 2021 champion, that accolade belongs to Lewis Hamilton the true 2021 Champion as far as I am concerned and probably millions of others are as well.

 

Super Max, Max, Max, Super Max, Max, Max

 

Masi set to be axed apparently

 

They're closing the gate after the horse had bolted but at least they're closing it. The Spa points half points farce can't happen again:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/fia-changes-f1-points-rules-after-belgian-gp-washout/8170151/

 

Now confirmed.

https://www.fia.com/news/fia-presid...ens-way-new-step-forward-formula-1-refereeing

 

It's a start.
TBH a bare minimum.

 

Good, sensible improvements. No direct contact with the race director. An external team to support decision making.

Not really sure why they have two race directors alternating, as that opens up the opportunity for inconsistency, but at least they are supported by a senior advisor and the external technical team.

I know a head had to roll and relationships restored, but to be honest Masi would have been fine if he had all of the support being offered to the new directors. His errors were huge, but came from a huge amount of pressure in an unprecedented situation, with little support around him.

 

"The FIA will add a remote race control that will operate in a similar way to the video assistant referee in football."

It will all be ok now.

 

Brilliant news and should hopefully keep the cry-babies happy.

Guess it also removes any doubt that Hamilton wouldn't be racing this year which is great, looking forward to seeing how he does with a more competitive team mate.

 

The FIA has confirmed that this year's F1 sporting regulations no longer feature the rule that required the top ten drivers in qualifying to start their race on their fastest Q2 tyre compound

 

I wasn’t going to watch F1 anymore with a race fixer in charge, but now Masi has been removed it’s a step in the right direction.

 

Who knows if the cars revealed are genuine, or just fake versions to throw other cars of the scent, but there are some very different designs out there this year.

The Ferrari looks great this year. Aston Martin, in typical Stroll-esque fashion, seems to be on the cheaty side of a number of the regs.

Good video of the apparent new Merc:

 

Whinger Spice Whinges. In other news all bears are Catholic and the Pope poos in the woods.

 

Is Drive To Survive any good? Shall I just bother with the last series etc?

 

It's better than it should be. If you can ignore the fake race commentary then you'll enjoy it.

 

Will the other drivers want to race against him though?

I think it will just take a couple of the other drivers to make a stand against Mazepin for the powers to be to kick him out. Especially if they are big names like LH or MV.

I believe SV has already said he does not want to race against him, but that was before the new idea of him driving under a neutral flag, so maybe he has changed his mind?

IMO if Mazepin is allowed to do race under a neutral flag he should also make a statement condemning what Putin is doing, then it could be OK for him to race if his peers are in agreement.

I also think that the current idea of Russians being able to complete in sporting activities under this so called "Russian Olympic Committee" banner is a farce, and I thought this before what Putin is doing right now.

Therefore IMO they too should be made to condemn Putin's actions and compete under a neutral flag if they want to continue participation in sport.

However, many of them may be afraid to do this as Putin would quite likely take reprisals on them and their families. Therefore maybe Western Nations could possibly offer them and their families "Political Asylum".

 

My youngest daughter good friends with the son of one of the teams engineers, (not saying which team). His Dad told him this:

Apparently the Aston Martin boss released the car late as he wanted to steal ideas from the other cars as much as he could, the Haas and Ferrari have the best car in terms of the physics and engineering side of it, Mercedes is nothing special.

Just passing on what she told me after Mike's post above about the Aston Martin.

 

All the other cars on the grid breathe a sigh of relief.

I know he hasn't personally done anything wrong, but he isn't F1 level.

All these sanctions/bans are leaving Russia with little left to do apart from fight Ukraine. Maybe we should be stopping that...

 

Good news, I suspect that other drivers might have refused race with him on the starting grid especially as I believe he is the son of a Russian oligarch with strong connections to Putin.

 

Horner somehow still sore over last year despite his man winning:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60651647

 

Thank god… he’s moved on to whining about this season now. Merc have unveiled a massively changed car at today’s Bahrain test. No sidepods at all and rumours are that’s worth a second a lap. Horner’s already on about it not meeting the spirit of the regulations… which I take to mean he accepts it meets the letter of them and so Red Bill will now desperately be working on the same design.

Story about the new Merc for anyone interested:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-unveils-bold-f1-sidepod-design-in-bahrain-test/8862058/

 

It almost looks as if they're purposely taking the ****.

 

Hilariously reminds me of Tornado in Robot Wars who put a cage on to fight the unbeatable Razer.

 

Horner is tuning into Klopp. Initially he seemed interesting and open in the way he talked, he is now mostly just whiny as he thinks everything is against him.

 

It does, though the metal grills aren't part of the actual running model and I've seen them used on other cars. Not quite sure what function they serve but must be a test thing. Maybe @scummybear knows?

 

I think you're talking about aero rakes? They measure the flow of air around the car in real time and relay it back to the garage, so teams can make tweaks during testing and try out different set ups.

 

Most aero development is done these days virtually using Computational Fluid Dynamics

One key use of the aero rake is to calibrate the CFD, = validate in the physical world what the CFD is suggesting

If it's a good match then the teams know they can continue to develop in CFD , if not they know they must reset