F1 2022 Season

Missed second half of the race, and looks like I missed some good things, shame.

Sainz finishing the race 9 seconds ahead of Hamilton who was last says a lot about him. Leclerc unlucky, but as I said, Red Bulls are actually better than Ferraris this year IMO, people are actually giving Ferrari too much praise.

I don't get people complaining about teams having nr.1 driver, it's always been the case, and considering there was no real battles so far, it's pretty much quite clear who is better in top3-4 teams based on this years' form.
 
Alpine showed some decent pace to get into the points. The midfield really need to get some of these upgrades working and bunch up to the front runners, they can just pit into free air at the moment.

It all fell into Red Bull’s hands, who would’ve expected them to be in the lead after their retirements. Ferrari had the better pace it seemed in the first stint and they are better over a single lap which may be important for Monaco so it’s all to play for in the championship still.
 
ZIDANE said:
Alpine showed some decent pace to get into the points. The midfield really need to get some of these upgrades working and bunch up to the front runners, they can just pit into free air at the moment.

It all fell into Red Bull’s hands, who would’ve expected them to be in the lead after their retirements. Ferrari had the better pace it seemed in the first stint and they are better over a single lap which may be important for Monaco so it’s all to play for in the championship still.
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Yes though merc put in some good times in the slow.corner sectors which could bode well for them at Monaco as well

Could be a very good race but as its Monaco I expect it won't be
 
Amar__ said:
Missed second half of the race, and looks like I missed some good things, shame.

Sainz finishing the race 9 seconds ahead of Hamilton who was last says a lot about him. Leclerc unlucky, but as I said, Red Bulls are actually better than Ferraris this year IMO, people are actually giving Ferrari too much praise.

I don't get people complaining about teams having nr.1 driver, it's always been the case, and considering there was no real battles so far, it's pretty much quite clear who is better in top3-4 teams based on this years' form.
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Sainz was passed on track by Hamilton. And got shit Luck by having to back off due to engine overheating issues which allowed sainz to retake the position. Hamilton was having one of those races today. Was super fast
 
ChaddyP said:
Sainz was passed on track by Hamilton. And got shit Luck by having to back off due to engine overheating issues which allowed sainz to retake the position. Hamilton was having one of those races today. Was super fast
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Yeah, without the issue at the end, Hamilton finishes 5-10 seconds clear of Sainz. Absolute stinker of a drive in a Ferrari, considering the speed of that car.
 
Zlaatan said:
How is Russel a so so driver? He’s done better than anyone could ever ask of him in every single F1 car he’s ever driven and is now outperforming a 7-time world champion in pretty much every race.
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I meant to type respectively, not respectfully. He has everything to prove. And you can't judge on just a few races of a new regulation season. He's not been better than Hamilton anyway, both have been ok in an ok car.
 
Camilo said:
I meant to type respectively, not respectfully. He has everything to prove. And you can't judge on just a few races of a new regulation season. He's not been better than Hamilton anyway, both have been ok in an ok car.
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He's out scored him in 5 of the 6 rounds so far, bizzare hill to die on. Doesn't mean he will all season but certainly suggests he doesn't still have "everything to prove".
 
Camilo said:
I meant to type respectively, not respectfully. He has everything to prove. And you can't judge on just a few races of a new regulation season. He's not been better than Hamilton anyway, both have been ok in an ok car.
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If you're talking about him being young and haven't gotten the chance to show how he'd perform in a championship winning car then sure, I think everyone would agree that he's still got a lot to prove, but that can't mean he's a so-so driver. I'm also not judging him based on this season alone, if you look at what he achieved in F2 where he beat a guy like Norris by almost 70 points (the same Norris that everyone seems to agree is a future WC if he gets the right car) and then his F1 career so far then I think he's done more than anyone could ever ask of him. Outdriving that Williams for years, immediately delivering and should've been top of the podium in Bahrain for Merc and then last years quali in Spa which was one of the most impressive feats I've ever seen in F1.

And imo at least if you finish ahead of your teammate in 5/6 races then you have done better than him.
 
mitChley said:
He's out scored him in 5 of the 6 rounds so far, bizzare hill to die on. Doesn't mean he will all season but certainly suggests he doesn't still have "everything to prove".
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Well to be fair, because what's the point otherwise, in Saudi George was lucky, and today Hamilton was unlucky (and much faster).
 
Zlaatan said:
If you're talking about him being young and haven't gotten the chance to show how he'd perform in a championship winning car then sure, I think everyone would agree that he's still got a lot to prove, but that can't mean he's a so-so driver. I'm also not judging him based on this season alone, if you look at what he achieved in F2 where he beat a guy like Norris by almost 70 points (the same Norris that everyone seems to agree is a future WC if he gets the right car) and then his F1 career so far then I think he's done more than anyone could ever ask of him. Outdriving that Williams for years, immediately delivering and should've been top of the podium in Bahrain for Merc and then last years quali in Spa which was one of the most impressive feats I've ever seen in F1.

And imo at least if you finish ahead of your teammate in 5/6 races then you have done better than him.
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The fact that he is even sticking close to Hamilton who is arguably the GOAT of F1 is a feat in itself.

I think he will run him closer than Bottas ever managed. Great defending today with the red bulls.

Lewis today though was back to 2021 form, that was a mesmeric drive. When he gets into this zone it's like he can make his tyres last all race but still have peak performance.

He just has a higher level than anybody on the grid when it all gels together. Such a shame he got that puncture as he would have rivalled for the win today.
 
Russell the only driver to score points at every race so far this season. Also finished in the top five in every race. I know Merc are having their troubles, but he's having a very good season all things considered. Hopefully it continues.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Russell the only driver to score points at every race so far this season. Also finished in the top five in every race. I know Merc are having their troubles, but he's having a very good season all things considered. Hopefully it continues.
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Crazy as it seems, all it would take is a dnf for max and leclerc and a win for russell and he'd be only be 10 points behind max in the standings and 4 points behind leclerc.
 
dinostar77 said:
Crazy as it seems, all it would take is a dnf for max and leclerc and a win for russell and he'd be only be 10 points behind max in the standings and 4 points behind leclerc.
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Yeah, he's gone under the radar a little. Obviously the focus has been on Charles and Max, and in regards to Merc it's all been about Hamilton, but Russell is having a great season. It would be nice to have three drivers going for the title.

Checo ain't a million miles off either.
 
Ted Kravitz Notebook:

Apparently according to Binotto, Sainz cant cope with the aggressive but fast balance of the ferrari that charles can. Carlos driving style cant deal with such a nervous car but leclerc can make it dance.

Alonso and his agent pushing for a drive at Ferrari or RedBull. However neither team will give him a drive as he's too good to be a no2, wont accept being a no2 and will probably upset their no1 drivers.

Max's DRS issues maybe self inflicted by RB. They are trying to reduce weight on the RB, primarily Max's car and have been trying to lighten the drs system.

Lewis might not be allowed out into fp1 at monaco if he doesn't remove his nose piercing, which would require an operation to remove. FP1 on Thursday will be a showdown between lewis and fia.

Williams looking at replacing latifi with nic de vries. They are checking to see if they can get by without latifi's sponsorship as they'd tather have a good driver alongside albion.
 
Totto not giving up on this years championship:

Team principal Toto Wolff went one step further.

"I've seen a race car that reminded me of the race cars of previous season when you are 30-plus seconds behind the whole field and come all the way to the front and get a podium," he said.

"It is very encouraging and shows we've made another stop.

"Can we fight for the world championship? We bet we can, but we just need a car that can finish first and second and we have reasons to believe we can get there.

"The odds are against us but motor racing is a different ball game. We saw Ferrari didn't score a lot of points although they should. We are absolutely pushing flat out to bring us back into the game."
 
Very impressed with Russell again, not the defending really which was still nice but the pace he set throughout.

Sainz nowhere in lap time, forget the spin. He should be a lot closer to Leclerc, he's not even a good wingman at this pace regardless of his errors. Real shame about Leclerc's car, he was out in front driving very well.
 
Doracle said:
Yeah, without the issue at the end, Hamilton finishes 5-10 seconds clear of Sainz. Absolute stinker of a drive in a Ferrari, considering the speed of that car.
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Funny you say that. Mercedes race pace was better than ferrari in practice. Still no reason for Hamilton to pass u after having to pass literally the whole field
 
sun_tzu said:
Yes though merc put in some good times in the slow.corner sectors which could bode well for them at Monaco as well

Could be a very good race but as its Monaco I expect it won't be
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Yes and Monaco reduces the spread of the field but I'm not reading too much into these cars for odd circuits just yet because of the way teams have set up their cars so far. Red Bull until recently ran a very skinny rear wing so they could beat the Ferrari on the straights in recent races - learnt from the Merc battle.

I've never seen an Adrian Newey Red Bull not do well around Monaco but Ferrari seem to pull out a fast lap in qualifying in any conditions so could lead the grid and we know there will be no overtaking with these massive cars.

BusbyMalone said:
Russell the only driver to score points at every race so far this season. Also finished in the top five in every race. I know Merc are having their troubles, but he's having a very good season all things considered. Hopefully it continues.
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Mercedes reliability has been spot on picking up points from other teams failures however they've been racing themselves or stuck behind a DRS train, we've only seen them push today and we saw they had cooling issues more than others.

dinostar77 said:
Hamilton fastest in Barcelona in sector 1 and 3.

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The top 3 drivers there all had soft tyres on low fuel at the end with Hamilton and Perez going for the fastest lap. No Leclerc and Max on old tyres by then.

Mercedes sorted their issues and I knew they would similar to Red Bull in the second test, they are just behind in development. They were still 6-7 tenths away in qualifying and when Perez is able to pull away from Russell you know you still have a little bit to do.

I expect Hamilton to be fighting for wins soon enough but will be interesting how much the teams can continue developing within the budget.
 
dinostar77 said:
Ted Kravitz Notebook:

Lewis might not be allowed out into fp1 at monaco if he doesn't remove his nose piercing, which would require an operation to remove. FP1 on Thursday will be a showdown between lewis and fia.
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That would be dumb. Its like Lewis is back in shcool.
 
I love how Red Bulls are not completely happy with 1 2 when Merc is delighted with 3 and 5. Keep it coming.
 
Jerch said:
I love how Red Bulls are not completely happy with 1 2 when Merc is delighted with 3 and 5. Keep it coming.
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What do you mean? They had technical issues again, otherwise I have no idea what you refer to not "completely" happy.
 
Jerch said:
I love how Red Bulls are not completely happy with 1 2 when Merc is delighted with 3 and 5. Keep it coming.
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They still had problems, Max's DRS for one, so I can see why they are not happy.
Merc will be over the moon with a podium and Lewis's run from 16th to get 5th, shows that what they are doing, is taking the car in the right direction.
 
At the end of the day, three competitive cars is the best we could hope for in terms of entertainment. It would have helped if Sainz stopped bottling it though.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
OK this maybe a daft question , but does that temp of the fuel make a huge difference and if so what.
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Massive difference, the cooler it is the more that can be injected into the engine combustion chambers and essentially gives more power. Reason for the 10 degrees below ambient temp rule is to make sure you don't get scenarios like we had in the 80s where fuel was being chilled aggressively before putting into the car. Given the extremely hot air temperatures in Spain yesterday, it probably caused more of an issue for some teams than what we've seen in other races.
 
F-Red said:
Massive difference, the cooler it is the more that can be injected into the engine combustion chambers and essentially gives more power. Reason for the 10 degrees below ambient temp rule is to make sure you don't get scenarios like we had in the 80s where fuel was being chilled aggressively before putting into the car. Given the extremely hot air temperatures in Spain yesterday, it probably caused more of an issue for some teams than what we've seen in other races.
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Cheers.
 
senorgregster said:
I wonder if Sainz's undercarriage was damaged?
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Possibly, but then so should Max's have been also. He didn't seem to be suffering apart from the DRS issues.

Sainz is just struggling with the car in general as admitted by himself. I suspect he was a little under driving just to make sure he finished in a semi decent position.
 
Would have been interesting to see what pace Hamilton had in a normal race, the contact and puncture must have done some floor damage. Bit of a shame the Monaco lottery is next, we won't really know the normal order for a while longer.
 
Leg-End said:
Would have been interesting to see what pace Hamilton had in a normal race, the contact and puncture must have done some floor damage. Bit of a shame the Monaco lottery is next, we won't really know the normal order for a while longer.
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Baku after that?
Another street circuit with some slow corners .... and a big flat out section

Then Canada which will be a proper test for merc I think
 
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