[Other Sport] F1 2022

[PeterOut]

The key for me is consistency. If they want to be lenient, or harsh, or somewhere in between ... I'm ok with any of those options. But it needs to be consistent, and it needs to be something that all the teams and drivers understand where the line is. None of this "running someone off circuit where there's a massive run off area is ok, but doing it where you put them in the gravel by half a tyre width isn't" (Austria vs Brazil).

I'd also like to see them tidy up the red flag rules. As much as it all happened within the rules, I didn't like that Hamilton got away with it in Silverstone only because a red flag was shown and his team was allowed to make repairs during the red. If you've damaged your car in an incident, it should only be repairable under yellow or green flag - not red. [As much as I think Verstappen is a dirty little f*^%er of a driver who shouldn't have won the title, Hamilton made a mistake and caused an incident at Silverstone].

I completely agree regarding the need for comsistency - but I can not, for the life of me, understand how having two alternating race directors will help to achieve that?
Time will tell, I suppose - maybe Herbie Blash is the one who will provide the consistency?

 

[MTSeagulls]

I'm determined to get to the Brazilian GP this year. Does anyone have any good tips on getting tickets at the best price?

 

[A1X]

3. Confirmation that the Race Director / Race Control team will be supported by a remote team (maybe a bit of a faux pas - they've likened it to the VAR system...)

Bruno Fernandes just became favourite for the title

 

[Audax]

I completely agree regarding the need for comsistency - but I can not, for the life of me, understand how having two alternating race directors will help to achieve that?
Time will tell, I suppose - maybe Herbie Blash is the one who will provide the consistency?

Suspect they might be reliant on the remote team to provide consistency. When the rumours first emerged it was suggested it would be staffed by permanent people.

 

[Audax]

Alpine launched their new car yesterday. They launched not 1, but 2 new liveries. The full-pink BWT livery will be used for the first two races of the season, and then for the rest of the season they'll use a predominantly blue livery with pink as secondary colour.

[tweet]1495874721459490816[/tweet]


First day of all-teams running tomorrow at Barcelona. There won't be much coverage - for eg not expecting any official times to be available. Barcelona will be 3 days, then on to Bahrain for the final pre-season tests.

Also worth noting that the FIA have announced some tweaks / clarifications on the safety car rules. Nothing substantial ... in some respects it can be interpreted as trying to legitimise what Masi was trying to do (get the race restarted as quickly as possible), as the revision to the rules means that they will be able to call the safety car back to the pits sooner. This is now triggered by when the message that lapped cars may pass is sent, rather than when the last lapped car passes the safety car. The message may only be sent once the track is declared safe, however, so the overall effect is likely to be that they'll get racing underway 1 lap sooner than otherwise, and with previously lapped cars still not that far in front of the leaders once racing resumes.

 

[Icy Gull]

Boo to Alpine giving up Iconic French Blue

 

[Audax]

Barcelona testing is underway ... and we now get a good look at why Red Bull only did a livery launch. Their sidepods are ... insane:

[tweet]1496401446937452548[/tweet]

Also, something I've forgotten to mention up to now. Another new rule for 2022: teams must, at every race, do a "show and tell" session before each race sharing what they've changed on their cars. Will be an interesting element for the F1 geeks like me.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Barcelona testing is underway ... and we now get a good look at why Red Bull only did a livery launch. Their sidepods are ... insane:

[tweet]1496401446937452548[/tweet]

Also, something I've forgotten to mention up to now. Another new rule for 2022: teams must, at every race, do a "show and tell" session before each race sharing what they've changed on their cars. Will be an interesting element for the F1 geeks like me.

Keep us up to date buddy

 

[Audax]

Few hours into testing. Turns out (despite what I previously thought) we are getting times from today - just not full live timing.

So far today:

1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.165s, C3, 58 laps
2. Russell (Mercedes) 1m20.784s, C3, 57 laps
3. Norris (McLaren) 1m21.173s, C2, 40 laps
4. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m22.246s, C2, 65 laps
5. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m22.692s, C3, 26 laps
6. Alonso (Alpine) 1m23.317s, C3, 40 laps
7. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m23.328s, C2, 31 laps
8. Latifi (Williams) 1m23.379s, C3, 47 laps
9. Mazepin (Haas) 1m26.455s, C2, 13 laps
10. Kubica (Alfa Romeo) no time, 4 laps

From this we can see that Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Alpine, Williams are all getting plenty of laps done and learning a lot from that. Alfa, Haas both well short of completed laps.

However, one comment from an F1 journo at the track: apparently the Haas looks the most "developed" at this stage. More detailed etc, while other cars (such as the Red Bull) have areas of the car that still look very simple.

Edit: for those not aware, the C2, C3 etc refer to the tyre compound being used for the lap time set. These range C1 to C5, with the C1 being the hardest (and therefore slowest) and the C5 the hardest (theoretically the fastest, but on some circuits could be slower if the tyre performance falls away before the end of a maximum push lap).

[tweet]1496446913180274691[/tweet]

 

[Audax]

Times and lap counts now they've stopped for lunch:

1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.165s, C3, 80 laps
2. Norris (McLaren) 1m20.474s, C3, 50 laps
3. Russell (Mercedes) 1m20.784s, C3, 77 laps
4. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m21.276s, C3, 52 laps
5. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m21.638s, C3, 43 laps
6. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m22.246s, C2, 80 laps
7. Alonso (Alpine) 1m23.317s, C3, 54 laps
8. Latifi (Williams) 1m23.379s, C3, 66 laps
9. Mazepin (Haas) 1m26.455s, C2, 20 laps
10. Kubica (Alfa Romeo) 1m25.909s, C3, 9 laps

For comparison, the first morning's fastest time from 2020 pre-season test at Barcelona was 1:16:976, and the pole position time from Barcelona 2021 race was 1:16.741.

So these times are currently a little over 3s per lap slower. The new cars were expected to be a little slower, but also worth keeping in mind that as these are brand new cars the teams will a) be working their way up to speed, and b) wary about losing valuable testing time to accidents and thus not yet pushing the cars to 100%. Drivers are also needing to learn how the new cars handle and how best to drive them. So we'll see those times come down - I suspect the fastest time by the end of day 3 will be a 1:17:xxx.

 

[A1X]

Times and lap counts now they've stopped for lunch:

1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.165s, C3, 80 laps
2. Norris (McLaren) 1m20.474s, C3, 50 laps
3. Russell (Mercedes) 1m20.784s, C3, 77 laps
4. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m21.276s, C3, 52 laps
5. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m21.638s, C3, 43 laps
6. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m22.246s, C2, 80 laps
7. Alonso (Alpine) 1m23.317s, C3, 54 laps
8. Latifi (Williams) 1m23.379s, C3, 66 laps
9. Mazepin (Haas) 1m26.455s, C2, 20 laps
10. Kubica (Alfa Romeo) 1m25.909s, C3, 9 laps

For comparison, the first morning's fastest time from 2020 pre-season test at Barcelona was 1:16:976, and the pole position time from Barcelona 2021 race was 1:16.741.

So these times are currently a little over 3s per lap slower. The new cars were expected to be a little slower, but also worth keeping in mind that as these are brand new cars the teams will a) be working their way up to speed, and b) wary about losing valuable testing time to accidents and thus not yet pushing the cars to 100%. Drivers are also needing to learn how the new cars handle and how best to drive them. So we'll see those times come down - I suspect the fastest time by the end of day 3 will be a 1:17:xxx.

I mean, you'd think if any sport in the world could organise a drive-thru...

 

[Audax]

I mean, you'd think if any sport in the world could organise a drive-thru...

Liquid lunch via the drinks bottle system maybe?

Edit: not *that* sort of liquid lunch!

 

[Audax]

Day 1 done. Times edging down slightly. Norris the only driver to use the softer C4. Plenty of laps on the board for McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, AlphaTauri, Alpine, Red Bull, Aston Martin and Williams. Haas and Alfa Romeo both very light on laps completed and will be behind on their test programs.

1. Norris (McLaren) 1m19.568s, C4, 102 laps
2. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.165s, C3, 80 laps
3. Sainz (Ferrari) 1m20.416s, C3, 73 laps
4. Russell (Mercedes) 1m20.784s, C3, 77 laps
5. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m20.929s, C3, 50 laps
6. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m21.276s, C3, 52 laps
7. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m21.638s, C3, 120 laps
8. Alonso (Alpine) 1m21.746s, C3, 146 laps
9. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m22.246s, C2, 147 laps
10. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m22.572s, C3, 23 laps
11. Albon (Williams) 1m22.760s, C3, 66 laps
12. Schumacher (Haas) 1m22.962s, C3, 23 laps
13. Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m23.327s, C3, 67 laps
14. Latifi (Williams) 1m23.379s, C3, 66 laps
15. Mazepin (Haas) 1m24.505s, C2, 20 laps
16. Kubica (Alfa Romeo) 1m25.909s, C3, 9 laps


In other news, Michael Andretti appears to be using the press to try to open the FIA's doors on allowing him to enter a new team for 2024, as he looks to further extend his empire. Not satisfied with having teams in Indycar (plus junior Indy series), Formula E, Extreme E, a part ownership of a team in Aussie Supercars, and some other series - he's now very keen on entering Formula 1. Andretti attempted to buy Alfa Romeo at the end of last year, but couldn't agree terms with the current owner - so he has now set his sights on establishing his own team from scratch and reportedly already has an engine supply agreed in principle.

 

[Audax]

Day 2 at Barcelona now done. Times as below:

1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m19.689s, C3, 78 laps
2. Gasly (AlphaTauri) 1m19.918s, C4, 146 laps
3. Ricciardo (McLaren) 1m20.288s, C4, 126 laps
4. Russell (Mercedes)1m20.537s, C3, 65 laps
5. Sainz (Ferrari) 1m20.546s, C3, 71 laps
6. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m20.784s, C3, 71 laps
7. Perez (Red Bull) 1m21.430s, C2, 73 laps
8. Albon (Williams) 1m21.531s, C3, 47 laps
9. Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1m21.885s, C3, 67 laps
10. Latifi (Williams) 1m21.894s, C3, 61 laps
11. Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m21.920s, C2, 55 laps
12. Schumacher (Haas) 1m21.949s, C3, 66 laps
13. Mazepin (Haas) 1m22.046s, C3, 41 laps
14. Ocon (Alpine) 1m22.164s, C3, 124 laps
15. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m22.288s, C3, 21 laps
16. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m22.562s, C2, 40 laps

Norris' time from Day 1 remains the fastest time at Barcelona so far in terms of the stop watch, but Leclerc's time today has to be considered the better time given he's done it on a harder compound tyre. Impressive lap count totals across all teams today, however a few things of interest nevertheless:

1. Red Bull had a gearbox failure that caused Perez to stop on track, and possibly a small engine niggle after the gearbox was fixed (former confirmed, latter not as yet as far as I've seen).

2. While Schumacher had a clean morning for Haas, Mazepin did encounter some small issues during his running (including stopping on track at one point).

3. Alfa Romeo continue to encounter problems that are affecting their ability to put laps on the board. Bottas in the morning was affected far more than Zhou.

4. All of the teams (some more than others) are experiencing what's called "porpoising" where the rear of the car bounces up and down at the ends of the straights where the cars are hitting their top speeds. This isn't a new thing (it was a trait of the cars when F1 last had ground effects as well), but it's something that all the teams will want to get on top of. Good examples of it from Ferrari in the tweet below.

[tweet]1496888665431326726[/tweet]

 

[Audax]

Has will be removing all Uralkali branding from their cars for tomorrow and running in plain white livery. Mazepin still driving in the morning as it stands.

 

[A1X]

[tweet]1497120318263021570[/tweet]

[tweet]1497134968794931222[/tweet]

 

[Bold Seagull]

Has will be removing all Uralkali branding from their cars for tomorrow and running in plain white livery. Mazepin still driving in the morning as it stands.

Haas surely has to show some balls here. Dmitry Mazepin is a close associate of Putin, there isn't really a grey area on this oligarch.

Nikita apparently said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was ultimately of no significance to him, because he’s “a big supporter of sports without politics.” Right, nice that you got your seat through sporting achievement and not your Dad's wealth then...

 

[Bold Seagull]

For comparison, the first morning's fastest time from 2020 pre-season test at Barcelona was 1:16:976, and the pole position time from Barcelona 2021 race was 1:16.741.

So we'll see those times come down - I suspect the fastest time by the end of day 3 will be a 1:17:xxx.

Russell currently fastest on 1:19.233. Possibly going to get sub 1:18...today but 1:17 seems out of reach. How much swapping of parts etc. can teams do during these sessions? Can they have various nose and wing options to chop and change?

 

[Icy Gull]

Haas surely has to show some balls here. Dmitry Mazepin is a close associate of Putin, there isn't really a grey area on this oligarch.

Nikita apparently said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was ultimately of no significance to him, because he’s “a big supporter of sports without politics.” Right, nice that you got your seat through sporting achievement and not your Dad's wealth then...

Agreed and it’ll hardly be any loss if they bin this out of his depth driver too

 

[Seasider78]

Russian GP cancelled

https://twitter.com/skysportsnews/status/1497182384105656322?s=21