F1 2023 Season

Only thing you can criticise Leclerc is if he stays in Ferrari if any of Red Bull or Mercedes come knocking, because even Verstappen wouldn't win anything with Ferrari.

He's had his mistakes this season, but it's nowhere near top car, and last year he's had 8/10 season easily which would win him the title if he had the best car. I mean, he finished P2 ahead of Perez last season in a much slower car, you can argue that overall Mercedes were on similar level to Ferrari too, and yet he smashed both Russel and Hamilton too.

Not exactly sure why he deserves so much mention today, despite the grid penalty(probably not his fault either, he's had impressive qualifying lap btw), he again finished ahead of his teammate who was ahead of him at the start. Mercedes gave their drivers better strategy once again, and they look to have far better race car than Ferrari anyway.
 
BusbyMalone said:
I do rate Leclerc, but it's clear to me that he just isn't in the elite bracket. To be fair, there aren't many on the grid that are, but it just feels like his season hasn't even started yet. Just another meh race from him and the team.

Ferrari are not blameless here of course, and I think his contract is up next year, so it'll be interesting to see what he does. He just seems exasperated with them at times
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It’s why they should have told Leclerc to stay in line and be a second driver while learning a year or two from Seb.

But politics rule at Ferrari and it’s why they’re still going to be shit for the next few years.
 
Ahmer Baig said:
Muted celebrations at AM.

AM will be wondering for a long time what if about that brutal dry tyre call. When you have your shot you take it.
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It wouldn't have changed anything. Even if they had pitted for the Inters the first time he would not have made up 9 or 10 seconds in one lap.
 
Just watched the GP, rain helped a snorefest to wake up for abit. Ferrari are a fecking mess. Bringing in sainz to cover lewis when he could have gone longer as he was on the hards, to overcut ocon. No wonder sainz was pissed.

Anyway always glad to get the worse GP of the season out of the way.
 
F1 is dead. They bent the rules mid race to choose the winner 2 seasons ago. Then changed the rules to give that same team a massive advantage. Now that team is winning every race. Boring.
 
Mercedes won 7 WDCs in a row. Red Bull are on their third, and people are already crying about it.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Mercedes won 7 WDCs in a row. Red Bull are on their third, and people are already crying about it.
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Only cause Max doesnt have a teammate who can really push him. Hamilton had Rosberg. Less said about Bottas the better.

Stick any of leclerc, russell, hamilton, alonso, norris in the other RedBull seat and you'll have a much more entertaining inter team dynamic straight away. Plus max would be put under pressure. Sergio Perez just isnt of the level required.

Its not Red Bulls fault that they nailed the regs and mercedes and ferrari screwed them up.

Unfortuntely the cost cap has become the new token system and is stopping teams from trying to close the gap to RedBull.

Lets see if the FIA do something with the rules to slow RB down as they did to Merecedes in 2020.
 
dinostar77 said:
Only cause Max doesnt have a teammate who can really push him. Hamilton had Rosberg. Less said about Bottas the better.

Stick any of leclerc, russell, hamilton, alonso, norris in the other RedBull seat and you'll have a much more entertaining inter team dynamic straight away. Plus max would be put under pressure. Sergio Perez just isnt of the level required.

Its not Red Bulls fault that they nailed the regs and mercedes and ferrari screwed them up.

Unfortuntely the cost cap has become the new token system and is stopping teams from trying to close the gap to RedBull.

Lets see if the FIA do something with the rules to slow RB down as they did to Merecedes in 2020.
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Trying to slow them down wouldn’t gave the same effect because of the cost cap, even in the merc dominated years they had a good designed car just the engine was a shit box.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Mercedes won 7 WDCs in a row. Red Bull are on their third, and people are already crying about it.
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I know. Max has had ONE season where he has dominated, and that was last season. Domination is never fun in the sport, but people are going on as if he's been doing it for 10 years. Now he may well go on and do just that but, again, it's been ONE season. And the season before that was one of the best seasons in recent memory. A season that brought in a lot of new viewers.

As is always the case, and everyone does it, when it's not your guy that dominating, it's a different story. The sport is gone, bin it off, it's not the same, etc.
 
the Mercedes years were wank for the sport too but it’s an Irish forum with a lot of brits so you’ll see more have an affinity for Lewis during those years. It doesn’t help either that Horner is a cock, marko is a cock and somehow max is a bigger cock than Lewis so they’re just a really unlikeable team unless you are a fan of them. There are plenty of teams that I don’t like but they’re just boring so it doesn’t matter. Red bull are extremely unlikeable so that’s probably why you get the annoyance more than you do for Mercedes and Lewis.
 
SilentWitness said:
the Mercedes years were wank for the sport too but it’s an Irish forum with a lot of brits so you’ll see more have an affinity for Lewis during those years. It doesn’t help either that Horner is a cock, marko is a cock and somehow max is a bigger cock than Lewis so they’re just a really unlikeable team unless you are a fan of them. There are plenty of teams that I don’t like but they’re just boring so it doesn’t matter. Red bull are extremely unlikeable so that’s probably why you get the annoyance more than you do for Mercedes and Lewis.
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Again though, it just comes down to if it's your man dominating or not, as opposed to any objective truth about who's worse than who. I find Toto Wolff to be infinitely worse than anyone who works at Red Bull. Max can be a right knob, Hamilton has spent years being a knob. Max is typically more abrupt and explicit in being a knob, whereas Hamilton is a lot more snide. And the two of them like a good whinge. Both of them will turn people off unless you're a fan of them.

In my case, I'm a fan of Max, so when he has moments where he's a bit of a dick, it doesn't bother me too much. Whereas I dislike Hamiton quite a bit. That's all there is to it.

Also, I always found it strange to root for a specific team. I've always been this way in all the years I've watched the sport. Personally, I couldn't give a shite about Red Bull. It's Verstappen who I root for. I always found it a little odd to support a car manufacturer. It's the personalities and the style of the drivers for me. If Max was at Mercedes, then I'd want them to smash it. Just always found it odd to be vehemently for or against a specific car manufacturer.
 
BusbyMalone said:
It's really hard to judge Norris, to be fair. I rate him quite highly, but that car is sooo shit, it's hard to get a good read on him.
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This car was built around him and it’s a dog. Safe to say that I don’t think he actually knows how to setup a car or give proper feedback that engineers can work with. Piastri will be regretting his decision to piss alpine off while they throw everything behind Lando…

Im just happy to see Zac Brown (much Gunther) look like absolute arse clowns this year. How Gunther still has a job is beyond me.
 
If they keep sprint races, make them spec cars that are worth half points to the WDC.
 
Yorkeontop said:
Anybody catch the Indy 500? I saw the finish on Twitter, that weaving, yikes! Great finish though.

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I guess I just don't like IndyCar (from the little I've seen). I mean, VeeKay said before the race his strategy was to stay second for as long as needed to save fuel and when you see the races in general the car in front often is a sitting duck so I can see why he'd go for that strategy. If he hadn't made that mistake in the pits there's a good chance it'd have worked. And because of that you see stupid shite like the insane weaving. And then there's the ovals.. they're even worse than the F1 street circuits!
 
Spanish Grand Prix

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Having had last chicane removed, do you think teams will abandon high DF configurations and move into more medium DF levels, similar to Melbourne? I definitely think RB will do that, especially as their last year full DF wing didnt give them that much pace overall.
 
Be interesting to see what Mercedes can do here. If the B-spec car is the improvement they hope it is they should be able to get a result here. Podium is possible since this track is heavy on the tyres and the Mercedes is pretty good in that regard. A lot better than the Ferrari at least. Don't think they can get near Red Bull (unless RB cock up their set-up or their update package is a failure of course) but the question is can they take the fight to Alonso?
 
Ahmer Baig said:
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Think it's worth clarifying that the F1 team and the car brand are seperate. Geely's share of AML has doubled as a result & probably a sign of a takeover at a later date.

ArjenIsM3 said:
Be interesting to see what Mercedes can do here. If the B-spec car is the improvement they hope it is they should be able to get a result here. Podium is possible since this track is heavy on the tyres and the Mercedes is pretty good in that regard. A lot better than the Ferrari at least. Don't think they can get near Red Bull (unless RB cock up their set-up or their update package is a failure of course) but the question is can they take the fight to Alonso?
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A podium is probably their best hope here. Still think they'll be around 4th-6th and we won't see any significant improvement till Silverstone unless Aston Martin's upgrades in-season fail to impact.
 
Lando Norris thinks last corner will not be flat:

Norris: "I'm not looking forward to it at all"
McLaren driver Lando Norris also brings in another point that results from the new layout, namely the physical strain on the driver: "It's even harder for the neck muscles, so I'm not looking forward to it at all," says the Briton about the new track layout.

"I hope that this will make the race better. But to be honest, the last bend is tricky. I wouldn't say that the last corner will go full throttle, but I think it would help the racing. It could be even more of a management race than it already is, and it's already a big management race."
 
Its not even a competition anymore. Max is dominating and there is literally no one even close to challenging him.
 
BusbyMalone said:
Also, I always found it strange to root for a specific team. I've always been this way in all the years I've watched the sport. Just always found it odd to be vehemently for or against a specific car manufacturer.
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No stranger than supporting a football team over an individual player. I support whoever is driving a red car. It's a shame we're shit.
 
Standings after Round 6
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I would have had 1 more if I remembered to set my lineup and choose Verstappen for pole!
 
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