F1 2023 Season

I'm going Spa so it better not rain too much as they will understandably be reluctant to run at all in the rain with recent events.

Don't fancy having a couple of grand wasted like those poor feckers a few years back
 
To be honest, I think I preferred (but still disliked) when the Spirnt race acted as a qualifier for the main race, too. I understand the objections, but from a viewer's perspective, at least it had a bit more on the line.

Having qualifying on a Friday is just fecking nonsense.
 
Lightbringer said:
LOVE sprint weekends. Other weekends I just turn in for Q and ignore practice 1 to 3 completely. (its still mostly Toto & Lewis saying the Merc is the worst car in 50 years after P1, P2 and P3 before having a great Q like this previous weekend - repeat over and over again)

With the sprint I watch more sessions, so its definitely a win win for me. I also just watch the sessions afterwards if busy when it takes place, in todays modern society thats not an issue.
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Sprints are utter dog shite. I refuse to watch them. Feck the FIA.
 
laughtersassassin said:
I'm going Spa so it better not rain too much as they will understandably be reluctant to run at all in the rain with recent events.

Don't fancy having a couple of grand wasted like those poor feckers a few years back
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Good luck!

What's the best place to watch at Spa, I reckon you can't see much except track apart from one or two corners at best?
 
Amar__ said:
Good luck!

What's the best place to watch at Spa, I reckon you can't see much except track apart from one or two corners at best?
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Cheers mate. This is my first time at Spa so not sure what's the best but I got tickets for the new Stand at Eau Rouge which should be cool.

Can't imagine the views will match that of Austria turn 3 though.

I highly recommend if anyone in is thinking of attending a European Grand Prix to get Austria Turn 3 tickets. Had to be the best view on the entire Calendar. You can see like 80% of the track. It was amazing.
 
laughtersassassin said:
Cheers mate. This is my first time at Spa so not sure what's the best but I got tickets for the new Stand at Eau Rouge which should be cool.

Can't imagine the views will match that of Austria turn 3 though.

I highly recommend if anyone in is thinking of attending a European Grand Prix to get Austria Turn 3 tickets. Had to be the best view on the entire Calendar. You can see like 80% of the track. It was amazing.
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I was there few weeks ago, I was actually in the middle of that second DRS straight- Schönberg stand, and it was great, you can see most of the track. We had numbered seats, but we were free to wander during that straight wherever we want on the hill, and as you said, it's hardly better place on the entire calendar to follow the race.

What's the price of tickets for Spa?
 
Amar__ said:
I was there few weeks ago, I was actually in the middle of that second DRS straight- Schönberg stand, and it was great, you can see most of the track. We had numbered seats, but we were free to wander during that straight wherever we want on the hill, and as you said, it's hardly better place on the entire calendar to follow the race.

What's the price of tickets for Spa?
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615 for a 3 day ticket in the Eau Rouge stand.

Think there was some other stands a good bit cheaper but had my heart set on this one so I said feck it and spent the extra money.
 
Might be across the pond in the Netherlands the same weekend as the Zandvoort race. I want to see if I can join the orange madhouse. Anyone have any tips? Might only be able to attend one of the days. Possibly only Friday and Saturday and not the race unfortunately. Though there is an off chance i could in fact do Sunday
 
Redplane said:
Might be across the pond in the Netherlands the same weekend as the Zandvoort race. I want to see if I can join the orange madhouse. Anyone have any tips? Might only be able to attend one of the days. Possibly only Friday and Saturday and not the race unfortunately. Though there is an off chance i could in fact do Sunday
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not cheap , but also not has expensive has I thought they would be.
https://dutchgp.com/en/tickets/#

BUT
CAN I STILL BUY TICKETS FOR THE FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2023?
Most tickets for the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix are now sold out. Due to cancellations, tickets may still become available. Would you like to be informed about this? Then sign up for the ticket alert on our website.
It is also possible to buy tickets through the official resell platform. Through this platform, it is possible to safely buy a ticket from another race fan. In addition to the original ticket price, a €10.00 administration fee will be charged. After paying the amount, you are automatically the owner of the ticket. Click here to go to the resell platform.
Please note: If you already have tickets and purchase an additional ticket for the same day, these orders cannot be combined and therefore cannot be placed next to each other on the stand. This is because of the large number of tickets already sold.
 
Bad thing is F1 quali is on while most are at work and even more so if you rely on C4 highlights, as for whatever reason since this sprint race thing started last season they don't allow quali highlights on Friday night. It wouldn't be so bad if they actually shown the fecking thing later as we're used to that and you could avoid the results that late afternoon/evening. I don't mind avoiding the results that day to watch in HD with a good presenter crew C4 have but I'm not avoiding the results for 24 hours while they shoehorn it in the sprint race coverage.

On any other weekend the Saturday quali is a big part of the big F1 event, it feels odd to shove it back Friday and kind of fall back to a 2 min youtube watch. I'm often a bit hazy on what happened in Friday quali on Sunday after the second quali and sprint race on Sat.

Maybe they should just keep Friday afternoon as a practice session and have Saturday quali used for both races. For the majority of viewers qualifying becomes a non event in sprint race weekend with it not being allowed to be shown or C4 don't have a slot.
 
5gHCGKe.jpg
 
Redplane said:
Somewhat hard to tell without the cover but it looks more and more like the RBs pods. Soon every car will look similar no matter how hard some of the other teams try to make their own designs work.
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Found better pics, top is new below in each pic is old.



 
Didn't they change their sidepods just few races ago? After almost a year sticking with same sidepods and claiming it's difficult to update them with budget restriction, and now they changed it again after few races?
 
Amar__ said:
Didn't they change their sidepods just few races ago? After almost a year sticking with same sidepods and claiming it's difficult to update them with budget restriction, and now they changed it again after few races?
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The rear end of the sidepods was very under developed to be fair. Even a armchair nobody like myself noticed how simplist it was. So that was a no brainer.

Most likely the new sidepods are yielding new data which is allowing them to tweak the sidepods to get the airflow to work more efficiently.
 
Krack says they they made mistakes. Improvement in one area had side effects on others.

“It’s very complex,” he explained. “You change one thing but you never change one thing and everything else is fine.

“You always have side effects when you do changes and you need to weigh what you use.

“For example, a part makes more downforce but has a different character or vice versa and we think that in one or two situations we have done not the right choice.”
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Lets hope they can improve after the upgrade.
 
looking at the weather, cant see the upgrades making any difference.
The Merc side pod look very simple compared to the previous race, but already said, very much a work in progress, over the past couple of season, some of Merc's upgrade have not worked.
Hopefully the rain will not be that bad so we can see these upgrade work.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
looking at the weather, cant see the upgrades making any difference.
The Merc side pod look very simple compared to the previous race, but already said, very much a work in progress, over the past couple of season, some of Merc's upgrade have not worked.
Hopefully the rain will not be that bad so we can see these upgrade work.
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Isnt the actual race still supposed to be dry? Or has weather prediction for that day changed? A wet race with DRS disabled would be a advantage for anyone trying to get closer to max's RB.
 
dinostar77 said:
Isnt the actual race still supposed to be dry? Or has weather prediction for that day changed? A wet race with DRS disabled would be a advantage for anyone trying to get closer to max's RB.
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Sunday is between 24% and 53% chance of rain, with a chance of some Thunder, hopefully it will be dry, but its Spa anything could happen.
Wet race with no DRS would be great, Max would be under fire for sure.
 
Last time in wet qualifying he came out on track first and put the riskiest lap and left them all at least one second behind in first stint.
 
George Russell has expressed his growing safety concerns ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, where heavy rain is forecast over the course of this weekend. Conditions are expected to be wet on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit just weeks after Dutch racing driver Dilano van 't Hoff was killed in a crash at the notorious Raidillon curve.

OK Its from the Express, but does he have a point ?

F1 LIVE: George Russell calls for Belgian Grand Prix to be cancelled after driver death (msn.com)
 
With regards to the predictions - Verstappen has his penalty, will pole be based on before or after the penalty is applied? So if I pick him for pole but he's moved back will I get the point?
 
United Hobbit said:
With regards to the predictions - Verstappen has his penalty, will pole be based on before or after the penalty is applied? So if I pick him for pole but he's moved back will I get the point?
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I was also wondering that.
I have just look at it says, Pole (front of grid after any grid penalties )
This makes pole harder to pick now, could be any one from half a dozen
 
pauldyson1uk said:
George Russell has expressed his growing safety concerns ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, where heavy rain is forecast over the course of this weekend. Conditions are expected to be wet on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit just weeks after Dutch racing driver Dilano van 't Hoff was killed in a crash at the notorious Raidillon curve.

OK Its from the Express, but does he have a point ?

F1 LIVE: George Russell calls for Belgian Grand Prix to be cancelled after driver death (msn.com)
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Meh.. I'm with Max on this. Seems most drivers are.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/2276...herwise-we-can-t-have-rain-races-anymore.html
 
ArjenIsM3 said:
Meh.. I'm with Max on this. Seems most drivers are.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/2276...herwise-we-can-t-have-rain-races-anymore.html
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I also tend to agree with Max on this.
They have made changes to address the safety concerns, personally I love watching F1 in the rain, so long has its not extreme heavy rain, its what you have wet weather tyres for.
But I do see the FIA being red flag happy, if it does rain heavy.
Maybe Mercedes should tell Russell just to get on with it.
 
ArjenIsM3 said:
Meh.. I'm with Max on this. Seems most drivers are.

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/2276...herwise-we-can-t-have-rain-races-anymore.html
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I agree with Max too. I don't think it helps that F1 is so sterile now that wet races bring some rare excitement. I can remember the 90s I'm sure they used to race in teeming down rain? The cars weren't as safe then. So what has changed that now if there's anything more than a bit of rain and it's being red flagged or cancelled? Spa a couple of years ago was an absolute farce and I felt for the fans who had dutifully sat there in the rain all afternoon to see a one lap procession

Would it work adding more lights to the cars? When you're driving your road car in the rain you usually put lights on - would there be a way of putting lights along the back wing for example that can be used in the wet?

There needs to be a solution because I and I'm sure a lot of fans enjoy wet races because of the unpredictability. Obviously we don't want to see someone die but these are also the best drivers in the world so should be able to drive in all conditions? Are the feeder series cars as safe? If not perhaps cancel these as it seems most deaths recently have been in these series, bar Bianchis freak accident

If it's that corner at Spa everytime could the side be widened and changed to gravel so the car goes forward for longer then gets stuck, so it can't come back on the track?
 
hobbers said:
Princess George being Princess George.

It is just down to bad luck that Spa has seen back to back tragedies. It's not that the corner has unique problems, it's just cars spinning, colliding and re-entering the track in no visibility, which could happen anywhere in heavy rain. Just look at Suzuka last year.

It's an aero outwash/spray problem with F1/2/3 cars nothing track specific.
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Of course it's not just bad luck, there is a reason two deaths happened in the same corner. Rest of the track is not dangerous.
 
United Hobbit said:
With regards to the predictions - Verstappen has his penalty, will pole be based on before or after the penalty is applied? So if I pick him for pole but he's moved back will I get the point?
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This is interesting. Now who to select on pole. And you do raise valid point.
 
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