F1 2023 Season

dinostar77 said:
F1 will never take off with american audiences for long. They hate "dynasties" (serial winners), 7 years of Mercedes and now probably 4 years of RedBull will see to that.

Besides they have NASCAR and Indycar
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Haven't all US F1 weekends been sold out? I can't fact check it atm myself.
 
I know ESPN got more viewers for Spa last weekend that they did last year. I was reading that somewhere.

Edit: 1.17 million viewers for Sunday's F1 race CircuitSpa, up 11% from 1.05 million last year
 
JuriM said:
Haven't all US F1 weekends been sold out? I can't fact check it atm myself.
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Probably. F1 is always the biggest event of the year at any circuit. The overall viewers appear to be taking a hit though. This is the third time in my lifetime F1 has attempted to break America, they can't maintain interest beyond a few seasons. I doubt the DTS audience are going to be the ones to crack it.
 
An Article in Arkansas Gazette on why F1 is becoming snooze fest for Americans.

It's OK to feel duped by Formula One and the splashy Netflix show that sucked you into the globetrotting racing series at the height of the pandemic.

The behind-the-scenes "Drive to Survive" docudrama packaged F1 as sexy and sophisticated, a highbrow alternative to beer-soaked NASCAR and its crash-cheering fans. The epic 2021 championship fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton made for must-watch racing, with Americans setting their alarms for ungodly hours to watch one of the fiercest battles in series history.

F1 had finally captured the elusive American audience and Liberty Media, its rights holder, added stops in Miami and Las Vegas to the schedule to give the United States three races this year. With Canada and Mexico City, that's five stops total in North America on a 22-race calendar.

But here's F1's dirty little secret: the racing has never been great and 2021 was an anomaly of a season.

Since Verstappen controversially beat Hamilton in the Abu Dhabi season finale, only five drivers have won races in the 31 races since.
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dinostar77 said:
F1 will never take off with american audiences for long. They hate "dynasties" (serial winners), 7 years of Mercedes and now probably 4 years of RedBull will see to that.

Besides they have NASCAR and Indycar
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Im not sure that is entirely true. When the Bulls, Lakers, Patriots, Yankees, etc etc were winning or a Pete Sampras eas dominating tennis season after season some of the interest in games especially when they played was way high. People love heroes and villains in this country. Someone who rises way above the crop like a Michael Jordan or Tom Brady. Or look at what Lance Armstrong did for cycling. But that doesn't mean they necessarily watch it all either. Winning a lot gives you mythical status.

Anecdotally, I ve heard more and more people in my circles suddenly knowing who or what Red Bull and Max Verstappen is from people who had no clue before. When Lewis was winning his titles F1 was less popular but people still like to know about a winner. Look at Messi now as well. Sure your own team might get whooped but you still get to see Messi play. So no, I don't buy it that Americans don't like the concept of someone winning all the time.

The only thing the DTS crowd especially is now finding out and not realizing that F1 is still F1 and they would have been similarly bored with the sport itself during the Lewis, Seb and Schumacher days. 75% of drama before was often down to reliability issues, longer pitstops, different tyre manufacturers, looser controls of design gimmicks etc. That isn't on the drivers, that's on the sport's organization.
 
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dinostar77 said:
A very good idea i think. Only get DRS when your over a second behind the car infront, then use proper skill to get overtake done.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/richard-bradley-reverse-drs-idea/
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It's a terrible idea.

There is no magic solution, anything they try or bring in will have pros and cons. It was rubbish when faster cars got stuck behind slower ones but on the flipside DRS now just makes it too easy, it used to be a genuine skill and achievement for someone to fight from a lowly grid spot (out of order) and get back to the front, now if a Red Bull starts 20th I still expect it to reach the podium because the midfield literally serves no challenge with DRS.

The only genuine difference maker could be a ballast system, I don't particularly like that sort of artificial racing but it's the only thing that can guarantee multiple race winners by multiple teams.
 
Or they could just make the DRS zones shorter and that's about it?
 
Amar__ said:
Or they could just make the DRS zones shorter and that's about it?
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Yes but that's expecting the FIA to get something right. They will either make them too short and therefore nobody will overtake or too long and it will still be easy.
 
hobbers said:
Just need to keep making DRS zones shorter until they disappear.

Also completely bin the idiotic double DRS zones where you pass in the first then get a speed boost away in the second, like in Hungary.
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Yeah, that's terrible. One drs activation zone for two DRS zones should be binned completely, it doesn't leave anything for the car that was in front.
 
I've come to the conclusion that there is no way that DRS and good racing are compatible. Good racing results from two cars being nearly identical in overall lap time but with different strengths and their drivers having slightly different skill sets.

Any motorway bridge near you offers more spectacular views of overtakes than current F1 does. (Outside of when DRS isn't activated, there have been some good ones in the opening laps and after SC this season).
 
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rpitroda said:
Just bin DRS. The whole point of these rules were so that people can follow closer.
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Problem is that it's been reported that the teams have found ways around the rules to increase the wake behind the cars to make them harder to follow again. Thats what Max was implying when he talked about passing Lewis in Belgium.

That's not a new phenomenon in F1 of course. Rules are designed to do X yet teams find a way to develop around the rules to negate some of the positive effects the rules are supposed to have.
 
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christy87 said:
Have you seen what one sportscar racer suggested, reverse DRS for sprint races, basically you get it right up until your within a second of the car in front, but it would have only really work with the battle for the top spot, or have it between 6 and 1 seconds behind the car in front.
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Yeah i read his suggestions. I actually prefer the suggestion someone else made of a timed DRS. So you have 180 seconds of DRS to use for the entire race and you deploy it as you see fit. Once its used up, thats your lot for the entire race. Adds a different strategic/tactical aspect to the racing.
 
hobbers said:
Reverse DRS is just taking a bad idea and smothering it in feces to try and improve it

If Sainz leaves who do Ferrari go for when they raid mclaren then, Norris or Piastri?
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Always difficult to guess who ferrari will put in the car. I guess it will probably have to be a no2 driver who knows hes a no2 to leclerc.
 
I’d be happy for now with DRS if you’re stuck within a second on average for say 3 laps. So it’s not worth waiting for the DRS zone to make an overtake but you don’t get cars stuck behind a Williams all race
 


The same Aston Martin news twitter account explained it:

Was the Aston Martin front wing illegal or why did Aston Martin allegedly have to change it?

Already at the beginning of the season, the FIA began to closely observe the evolutions of the teams, especially in the front wings and their different specific compositions.

The front wings had no problem in passing all the technical controls in static, something that changed completely in full action on the track.

The FIA began to receive images of some of those elements that were flexible, especially the flaps, and that were able to change up to their angle of incidence depending on the speed they carried and of course the established downforce.

It is even said that the teams received an official notification signed by Nikolas Tombazis himself (A FIA single-seater director) in which they were asked to remove those flexible flaps and quickly correct the solution they had found. Among the teams that received the letter was Aston Martin.

The FIA could not declare those flexible AMR23 and other single-seaters "illegal", since they all perfectly complied with the rules established in the technical checks prior to each Grand Prix.

But they found a point at which to set their request for change. Article 3.2.2 of the technical regulations of the F1 World Championship:

"All aerodynamic or body components that affect the aerodynamic performance of the car must be fixed and immobile with respect to their reference defined in article 3.3. In addition, these components must have a uniform, solid, hard, continuous and impermeable surface in all circumstances.“

Regulation in hand, the FIA began to act, and that directly affected Aston Martin. With this, the advantage generated perhaps in all the hours worked in the wind tunnel was lost throughout the first months of the season. A time when the Silverstone team had more hours than its rivals because of the seventh final position in the 2022 constructors' world championship.
 
Ahmer Baig said:


The same Aston Martin news twitter account explained it:

Was the Aston Martin front wing illegal or why did Aston Martin allegedly have to change it?

Already at the beginning of the season, the FIA began to closely observe the evolutions of the teams, especially in the front wings and their different specific compositions.

The front wings had no problem in passing all the technical controls in static, something that changed completely in full action on the track.

The FIA began to receive images of some of those elements that were flexible, especially the flaps, and that were able to change up to their angle of incidence depending on the speed they carried and of course the established downforce.

It is even said that the teams received an official notification signed by Nikolas Tombazis himself (A FIA single-seater director) in which they were asked to remove those flexible flaps and quickly correct the solution they had found. Among the teams that received the letter was Aston Martin.

The FIA could not declare those flexible AMR23 and other single-seaters "illegal", since they all perfectly complied with the rules established in the technical checks prior to each Grand Prix.

But they found a point at which to set their request for change. Article 3.2.2 of the technical regulations of the F1 World Championship:

"All aerodynamic or body components that affect the aerodynamic performance of the car must be fixed and immobile with respect to their reference defined in article 3.3. In addition, these components must have a uniform, solid, hard, continuous and impermeable surface in all circumstances.“

Regulation in hand, the FIA began to act, and that directly affected Aston Martin. With this, the advantage generated perhaps in all the hours worked in the wind tunnel was lost throughout the first months of the season. A time when the Silverstone team had more hours than its rivals because of the seventh final position in the 2022 constructors' world championship.
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Interesting read, would explain their drop in performances
 
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