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[Other Sport] F1 2024



kojak

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2022
831
I only watched it at half time in the Albion game but it looked an absolute snooze fest. Red Bull 1 and 2 at a canter, the rest battling it out for the minors.

Maybe next year when the regs change?
I watched the race
turns out we both missed nothing 😂
 






A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
20,532
Deepest, darkest Sussex
Well that’s this season over

I keep thinking back to something Ted Kravitz said during one of the Notebooks he did from testing, essentially that a lot of the recent growth in F1 has been driven by a massive fanbase explosion in the USA. But sports fans in the USA are not really used to one team dominating consistently (hence why they have a draft system to try and level the playing field), so if Red Bull do end up running away with it again (and after 1/24 races, that looks like it's definitely one of the likely outcomes if not the most likely) will that start to hurt F1 with that fanbase? Probably not at first, but what if it happens again in 2025 (and who would bet against that)?
 
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Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
Maybe next year when the regs change?

2026 for that.

Well that’s this season over

Not so sure myself. Bahrain isn't a typical circuit, I'm going to cling to the hope that it just happened to play to the RBR car strengths and that other circuits this year will swing things back towards other teams.

Few positives to come out of the race weekend:

1. Ferrari appears to have better / more consistent race pace than last year. Sainz was able to push through the whole race and didn't fade. Even Leclerc, once he'd sorted out whatever the braking problem was, was able to push to the end. Any difficult weekends for RBR and they should be there with a race-winning pace.

2. Qually-wise, it was tight through the whole field. Verstappen was gifted pole - Leclerc set a time in Q2 that would have been pole.

3. The Mercedes and McLaren should get better as the season progresses. Both teams have shown they can develop through a season, and this season they are both starting from a much better base than previous seasons.

I keep thinking back to something Ted Kravitz said during one of the Notebooks he did from testing, essentially that a lot of the recent growth in F1 has been driven by a massive fanbase explosion in the USA. But sports fans in the USA are not really used to one team dominating consistently (hence why they have a draft system to try and level the playing field), so if Red Bull do end up running away with it again (and after 1/24 races, that looks like it's definitely one of the likely outcomes if not the most likely) will that start to hurt F1 with that fanbase? Probably not at first, but what if it happens again in 2025 (and who would bet against that)?

This is where I think FOM have been exceedingly short sighted in rejecting Andretti. They really could have done with having a big name from US motorsports for the US fans to follow (as they get ready over the next 2 years) and then cheer from 2026 onwards. Haas just isn't that team; he's not there to win, he's there to advertise his business which means "good enough is good enough". Andretti would be there to compete and target wins.

From a fan numbers point of view, it's already looking like the shine is coming off - the initial ratings numbers for Netflix's "Drive to Survive" are way down compared to last year.
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
Alpine in trouble. Car is slow, and senior rats ... I mean, staff ... are fleeing the ship:



 




AstroSloth

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2020
1,379
2. Qually-wise, it was tight through the whole field. Verstappen was gifted pole - Leclerc set a time in Q2 that would have been pole.
Tbf Verstappen also had a time in Q2 which was 2 tenths up on Leclerc in the first sector alone before he abandoned the run.

Red Bull are also rumoured to have a big package coming for Imola.
 
















Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
Formula 1 ... if the racing is boring, just wait a little and something else will emerge that captures the interest. Or, as has done today, multiple "somethings".

Something 1: I already posted about Alpine's staff merry-go-round merrily going around.

Something 2: Rumours emerge that Ford are looking into whether they can escape their deal with Red Bull, as they don't want to be involved in the chaos:



Something 3: In Italy, it is now reported that Horner secretly tried to buy out Red Bull with backing from UK financiers last year:



Something 4: Mohammed Ben Sulayem, FIA President, is being investigated over potentially interfering with the Saudi race result last year:

 










A1X

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 1, 2017
20,532
Deepest, darkest Sussex


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,263
Uckfield
Wonder what other race MBS might have fixed? You know the one where the people involved left the FIA and signed NDAs and the wrong champion was crowned.
That happened before MBS became president. 2021 was Jean Todt era.
 


indy3050

Well-known member
Jun 22, 2011
1,394
Hamilton was absolutely ROBBED. I still can’t believe it was never overturned.
 






AstroSloth

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2020
1,379
Rumours abound that Helmut Marko may leave Red Bull to make way for Max to leave.

Apparently he has an exit clause in his contract giving him the ability to leave it Marko leaves.

Rumours are mainly that Marko could retire with Newey and Max moving away from Red Bull.
 


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