F1 2023 Season

The nature of qualifying, it's why it's so important to get that banker lap in as you never know what's going to happen.

Yeah, for sure. I bet Max is just as annoyed with himself for making that mistake. It makes the race interesting tomorrow though.
 
Dont know why the rest of the top 10 havent figured out they have to get out on track before Charles because he will invariably crash half a dozen Q3s per season.

I like Charles and think he's a great driver, but he's not elite for me. He has too many of them in him
 
I like Charles and think he's a great driver, but he's not elite for me. He has too many of them in him

No one is apart from Max tbf. Charles' biggest problem is that he wants to be quick as Max in far slower car and basically his every crash was pushing the car over the limit when chasing Red Bulls.
 
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Easy P4 for K-Mag! Perfectly set up for him to damage his front wing on lap 1 and drop to 16th tomorrow :drool:
 
He's the best qualifier on the grid on his day but so many mistakes in him. The spotlight tailed off last season because the car gap kept growing and Ferrari were obviously a clown show, but some of his mistakes last season were horrendous for a championship contender.

Yeah, there seemed to be this notion that Ferrari were letting him down to the point where it was scuppering his title hopes, but the truth of the matter is, he just isn't at that level. Not yet, anyway. And as long as Max is racing, he's not going to be.
 
No one is apart from Max tbf. Charles' biggest problem is that he wants to be quick as Max in far slower car and basically his every crash was oushing the car over the limit when chasing Red Bulls.

Don't say it don't say it don't say it don't say it don't say it don't say it don't say it don't say it...
 
Max getting fecked over here but that's racing. Perez being gifted P1 in the race and possibly in the standings here
Pretty harsh on Perez. He got a quality first lap in whilst others didn’t because they made mistakes. Notwithstanding that Max most likely would have taken pole if Leclerc hadn’t binned it.
 
I've been away from this thread for a while. Is it safe yet for a Verstappen fan?
 
I've been away from this thread for a while. Is it safe yet for a Verstappen fan?

Been pretty chilled recently but that's probably because there's no competition and boring races.
 
Pretty harsh on Perez. He got a quality first lap in whilst others didn’t because they made mistakes. Notwithstanding that Max most likely would have taken pole if Leclerc hadn’t binned it.
Maybe. Yeah his first lap was alright but it's like you said if Leclerc hadn't done a Leclerc chances are Max is P1 because he's been far superior all weekend and Perez would probably have had to improve on that lap time to stay ahead of Leclerc and Sainz too. At the start of Q3 I thought P3 was the most likely outcome for Perez. Now he's on pole while Max is 9th and Leclerc is 7th. Which is ridiculous in its own right. Something should be done about drivers gaining an advantage from binning it in qualifying. I don't know, maybe create a rule that if someone causes a red flag in qualifying the clock resets to a point where everyone can still get 1 more lap in.
 
Did not see any thing last night, al I know is Leclerc crashed in Q3 costing a few a flying lap.
WTF happened ? Lewis not even out of Q2, was expecting more after a decent FP.
Must be the most mixed up grid for a long while.
 
Maybe. Yeah his first lap was alright but it's like you said if Leclerc hadn't done a Leclerc chances are Max is P1 because he's been far superior all weekend and Perez would probably have had to improve on that lap time to stay ahead of Leclerc and Sainz too. At the start of Q3 I thought P3 was the most likely outcome for Perez. Now he's on pole while Max is 9th and Leclerc is 7th. Which is ridiculous in its own right. Something should be done about drivers gaining an advantage from binning it in qualifying. I don't know, maybe create a rule that if someone causes a red flag in qualifying the clock resets to a point where everyone can still get 1 more lap in.
Drivers gain advantage from others feck ups all the time, it’s like when someone can be in the lead of a race home and dry but someone else crashes causing a safety car allowing second place to catch up and be on the tail again, or someone crashing into another driver, lots of things can happen that seem to be described as ridiculous in its own right.
 
Maybe. Yeah his first lap was alright but it's like you said if Leclerc hadn't done a Leclerc chances are Max is P1 because he's been far superior all weekend and Perez would probably have had to improve on that lap time to stay ahead of Leclerc and Sainz too. At the start of Q3 I thought P3 was the most likely outcome for Perez. Now he's on pole while Max is 9th and Leclerc is 7th. Which is ridiculous in its own right. Something should be done about drivers gaining an advantage from binning it in qualifying. I don't know, maybe create a rule that if someone causes a red flag in qualifying the clock resets to a point where everyone can still get 1 more lap in.
Nah its just motor racing and its always been like that. The only situtation they need to address for any Q3 is a driver binning it on purpose to stop others beating his time ala Monaco on numerous occasions.
 
Maybe. Yeah his first lap was alright but it's like you said if Leclerc hadn't done a Leclerc chances are Max is P1 because he's been far superior all weekend and Perez would probably have had to improve on that lap time to stay ahead of Leclerc and Sainz too. At the start of Q3 I thought P3 was the most likely outcome for Perez. Now he's on pole while Max is 9th and Leclerc is 7th. Which is ridiculous in its own right. Something should be done about drivers gaining an advantage from binning it in qualifying. I don't know, maybe create a rule that if someone causes a red flag in qualifying the clock resets to a point where everyone can still get 1 more lap in.

Shit happens and from what I have now read but not seen shit did happen.
Causing a Red Flag and gaining from it, yes I can see where you are coming from.
Poor Max starting from 9th made me smile, from what I have read Lewis was lucky not to get a penalty.
One thing is sure with the expected rain and mixed up grid, it should be an excellent race, we could see an unexpected podium.
 
Did not see any thing last night, al I know is Leclerc crashed in Q3 costing a few a flying lap.
WTF happened ? Lewis not even out of Q2, was expecting more after a decent FP.
Must be the most mixed up grid for a long while.
Mercedes screwed up and got him out too late and into traffic. But the mercs are so slow here that maybe p9/p10 would have been the best he could have done. Either way one merc would have knocked the other out in Q2.
 
I dont know why Merc still persistent with that design. We due to another thesis or two about that dogshite car potential by now.
They arent. New sidepods and other pieces coming next race. If it wasnt for cost cap restrictions there would have been a new chassis as well.
 
Seems like Mercedes have been due a substantial upgrade in the next race for the last season and a half.
:lol: Yeah but they did improve in the second half of last season. Unfortunately they failed to build on that for this year's car. Will be interesting to see what direction they've gone with for the B-spec car. And if it's any good of course.
 
Seems like Mercedes have been due a substantial upgrade in the next race for the last season and a half.
To be fair RB are so far ahead right now it's thinkable Mercedes could improve significantly and it would be hard for the casual observer to even notice.
 
:lol: Yeah but they did improve in the second half of last season. Unfortunately they failed to build on that for this year's car. Will be interesting to see what direction they've gone with for the B-spec car. And if it's any good of course.
Like everyone else they are copying the RedBull. As James Allison is now back and Mike Elliot has been put out to pasture, hopefully they can start to claw back some laptime.

No-one is catching RB this season. Irony is the cost cap is as much of a hinderance as the engine token system was. If you nail the regs, others will struggle to catch you.
 
Any time he is not far of Red Bull this happens, hopefully he finally realised that he can't compete with them in a slower car:

“I know I’m taking more risk than others in Q3, and that’s why most of the time I’m doing good Q3s. But this is too much, and I’m very disappointed. I did the same mistake yesterday and this shouldn’t happen. It’s unacceptable to make twice the same mistake in the same corner. I’m very disappointed with myself. You can find excuses…the setup was very tricky. But I put myself in this position, I wanted the setup, and I knew it would be tricky, but…I thought I would be able to extract the maximum out of the car in Q3, as that is usually one of my strong points. It’s not acceptable, it’s not the level I should have. This weekend I didn’t do the job, two mistakes in the same corner. I’m very disappointed with myself.”
 
Yeah it's happening too often on all these street circuits. Also too much incentive for drivers to deliberately "crash" in the second Q3 lap if they put down a good time in the first.

Even if it's just a case of penalising any driver who brings out a red flag during Q3 by putting them in 10th.
Very hard to determine if a crash was deliberate.
 
Yeah it's happening too often on all these street circuits. Also too much incentive for drivers to deliberately "crash" in the second Q3 lap if they put down a good time in the first.

Even if it's just a case of penalising any driver who brings out a red flag during Q3 by putting them in 10th.
Nobody crashes deliberately to ruin his gearbox and get potential future grid penalty ffs.
 
Very hard to determine if a crash was deliberate.
Disagree to a point. If you damage the gearbox, floor, suspension etc then you run the risk of having to start the race from pitlane. Normally the drivers who do stuff like this on purpose, only damage their front wing or stop on track.

Theres a fine line between a balls out on the utter limit qually run, making a genuine mistake and a delibrate stop/crash on track.

Stewards have enough telemetry to tell the difference. You dont want to stop the balls out on the utter limit runs out of fear of being relegated to 10th.

Anyway its max fans who are complaining right now about this. Its not like that RB isnt going to waltz past everyone bar Perez and win the race. Just makes the current ineviatble outcome abit more interesting for 7-8 laps it might take to go past everyone.
 
Nobody said anyone did "ffs"

You did say there is an incentive to do so, and that kind of implies that some drivers would at least consider doing it. Really there is no incentive. You would need to be certain of a red flag, so the risk of damaging the car is too high. But you could certainly discuss taking out some of the randomness caused by red flags in Q3, but isn't it just part of racing, similar to the randomness caused by safety cars on race day?
 
Just occured to me that if we had a full wet race, RB wouldnt be abke to use their knight rider turbo boost/super pursuit mode DRS so would give ferrari more of a fighting chance of a win.
 
Firstly, does it look like a race will happen or is it gonna be too wet? What’s the latest?

Secondly, why the feck is the race starting at half past the hour?
 
Didnt know this. Apparently confirmed by onboards in FP1. Would explain why both cars were so poor in qually.

 
Why are people ignoring the fact there's always at least one lap at start of Q3 for each driver to set good lap if the second attempt is ruined in the final minute or two?

I mean, the grid for today's race is literally formed by the laps set in first stint, it's not FIAs fault someone made a shit lap in first try, that's why there's time limit and not lap limit.