F1 2024 Season

ferrari-sf24.webp
 
Interesting that Merc haven't really copied Red Bull's concept too much, most likely meaning it won't win anything.
 
It’s worth remembering that for the most part these are just last years cars with this years livery.

I am not sure that's true is it? Think alpine, Alfa and visa cashback app(!) Were actual launches were they not? Ferrari too since they did a shakedown. Williams is late. Merc also now looks like an actual car launch.
 
I am not sure that's true is it? Think alpine, Alfa and visa cashback app(!) Were actual launches were they not? Ferrari too since they did a shakedown. Williams is late. Merc also now looks like an actual car launch.

What you see now will be very different to Bahrain. No one is running their final specs in any launch event or designs. McLaren’s is heavily photoshopped this morning to hide what they’re doing with the floor.

Looks like a majority of teams will still struggling with weight this year, focusing on areas that TV camera angles will mainly see to add some paint to their car.
 
What you see now will be very different to Bahrain. No one is running their final specs in any launch event or designs. McLaren’s is heavily photoshopped this morning to hide what they’re doing with the floor.

Looks like a majority of teams will still struggling with weight this year, focusing on areas that TV camera angles will mainly see to add some paint to their car.

Well yeah but I still don't think they are last year's cars.
 
Well yeah but I still don't think they are last year's cars.

There’s very little regulation changes for this season so we’ll see a convergence of everyone looking like a Red Bull.

McLaren and Red Bulls cars will broadly look similar to their cars from last year with some slight nuances.
 
I wonder if the extra engine allotment this season will benefit a team like RB who have been rumored to run theirs more conservatively during the last season in particular. Maybe we ll see some form of party mode return if the field tightens up.
 
It’s worth remembering that for the most part these are just last years cars with this years livery.
Yep, these cars aren't the cars that will be in the Bahrain test. No one is really going to reveal anything until then.
 
I wonder if the extra engine allotment this season will benefit a team like RB who have been rumored to run theirs more conservatively during the last season in particular. Maybe we ll see some form of party mode return if the field tightens up.

They all had the use of four engines last year, I don’t think we’ll see much change on that conservative running front considering the increase in Grand Prix’s this year.
 
This season will be shite to watch
Yep, think RB will race off into the distance again. The pics of the car arent representative. Newey hasnt rested on his laurels and has been aggressive with this years car. Mclaren have said they dont think RB can be beaten over the course of the season. Ferrari are going in their own direction, unlike the rest of the grid and not following the RB design philiosphy.

Mercedes have already said they had to compromise on the 2024 car because of the cost cap (sigh).

"...Allison concedes that electing to start afresh with its chassis and gearbox this season has meant it had to be more conservative in other areas due to cost cap constraints.

“A new chassis and a gearbox were standard for every year, pre-cost cap,” he acknowledged. “And there’ll be several other teams who have done both things in a single year.

“But the cost cap does force you to pick and choose your battles, and there’s no doubt that having a new outer casing as well as at the same time as having a new chassis are two big projects that are going to take a chunk of our available firepower. That is what we have done this year.

It does mean that in other parts of the car we have not tried to reinvent the wheel. But it has allowed us to undertake a couple of big projects without breaking the bank and we believe that this is a good and important use of our efforts.”

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024...ssis-took-a-chunk-of-our-available-firepower/
 
I know this won't be the final/actual form per se but is it just me or does the engine cover look quite a bit differently shaped than before? I dont have a pic to compare right now but that's the first part that drew my attention.

Yeah it’s following a similar design seen on most cars this year, running from the halo out towards the exhaust exit area. Most of the conversations around the Red Bull at testing will be around the very narrow air intakes on the side pods. They‘ve not disclosed them on the renders, but you could see them slightly in the launch video.

 
Yeah it’s following a similar design seen on most cars this year, running from the halo out towards the exhaust exit area. Most of the conversations around the Red Bull at testing will be around the very narrow air intakes on the side pods. They‘ve not disclosed them on the renders, but you could see them slightly in the launch video.



Also notable that they've switched from an underbite intake to an overbite after most of the grid switched the opposite way to copy the RB19.

There have been rumblings that they've figured out how to do vertical intake channels a la the Merc zero sidepod concept but that remains to be seen...
 
Also notable that they've switched from an underbite intake to an overbite after most of the grid switched the opposite way to copy the RB19.

There have been rumblings that they've figured out how to do vertical intake channels a la the Merc zero sidepod concept but that remains to be seen...

If you zoom on the first image on this tweet, you can see the intake I was referring to…

 
Red bull have had a whole year pretty much to work on the car, I have absolutely no doubts they will walk it. No one else can get close to them in this era thanks to Newey.
 
For the most part these things still feel pointless to compare.

Merc could very well at least be a lot closer now and I'm not discounting McLaren, Ferrari or even Alpine having found something.

That comparison pic above between the Merc and the RB don't seem to have much weight. Look at the detail of the barge board alone on the Merc and none on the RB. You can't tell me RBs barge board will indeed be so plain to start
Some of what it does show does appear pretty unique again with the inverted sidepod inlet and obviously completely reshaped PU cover.

Having said that - I know people want to see a closer season but part of me is also curious how much more RB can extract out of this concept and see if it can come close to matching the best times ever set in F1. Some of those records have stood for quite a lot of years.
 
Newey won't have got this wrong, they decimated 2023 in a car they didn't bother upgrading much halfway through.

Maybe we see a surprise, if you were to offer me now a handful of wins for non-RB cars this season I would take it but I think this will be another domination. Max will be stat padding again this year and probably next.
 
Team boss Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing is accused of sexual misconduct, according to reports and documents.

On February 3, lawyers for Brit (50) offered the reporter to settle for £650,000.

 
For the most part these things still feel pointless to compare.

Merc could very well at least be a lot closer now and I'm not discounting McLaren, Ferrari or even Alpine having found something.

That comparison pic above between the Merc and the RB don't seem to have much weight. Look at the detail of the barge board alone on the Merc and none on the RB. You can't tell me RBs barge board will indeed be so plain to start
Some of what it does show does appear pretty unique again with the inverted sidepod inlet and obviously completely reshaped PU cover.

Having said that - I know people want to see a closer season but part of me is also curious how much more RB can extract out of this concept and see if it can come close to matching the best times ever set in F1. Some of those records have stood for quite a lot of years.

That is right.
It is possible to highlight individual features and point to those and say this does that...
But an F1 car is mainly about ground effect which we don't get access to normality.
And even above the floor, you need to consider the whole package holistically.

RB have been better than the rest at wringing the maximum amount of work out of each gram or kilogramme of air by feeding it from feature to feature front to back and beyond with as little turbulence as possible.
 
Team boss Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing is accused of sexual misconduct, according to reports and documents.

On February 3, lawyers for Brit (50) offered the reporter to settle for £650,000.



Surprised. Always thought he was a cnut but not a creepy one. Turns out he is. Should be removed from the sport.
 
Why is there such a big divergence in what the Dutch press have been saying about the Horney accusations and what Sky and the BBC said?

The journalist of De Telegraaf is being fed stories from within the RedBull organization, the paper reckons there’s some sort of civil war going on.
 
Other rumours say Jos is part of the civil war as well and it’s he who is feeding the press
Isn't part of the rumor that there is a war between the top of the organization who either is in the camp with Helmut and then there is the Hornet camp? Either way it sounds like a bit of a mess with lots of mudslinging going. Goes to show you I guess how powerful a figure Matteschitz was. It feels a bit like the parent(s) died and now the kids are squabbling over the pieces.

One thing I've learned is that in many ways it's not worth paying attention to someone like a Van Haren who has a clear inside connection in these things. They ll push an individual narrative that RB as an organization cannot. In my line of work mudslinging and camp forming combined with internal investigations is extremely common but 99% of the time we won't respond to the outside, because it just isn't worth it. People not being able to shut up often only shoot themselves in the foot. There are a ton of moving parts in organizations that size.
 
Last edited:
Isn't part of the rumor that there is a war between the top of the organization who either is in the camp with Helmut and then there is the Hornet camp? Either way it sounds like a bit of a mess with lots of mudslinging going. Goes to show you I guess how powerful a figure Matteschitz was. It feels a bit like the parent(s) died and now the kids are squabbling over the pieces.

One thing I've learned is that in many ways it's not worth paying attention to someone like a Van Haren who has a clear inside connection in these things. They ll push an individual narrative that RB as an organization cannot. In my line of work mudslinging and camp forming combined with internal investigations is extremely common but 99% of the time we won't respond to the outside, because it just isn't worth it. People not being able to shut up often only shoot themselves in the foot. There are a ton of moving parts in organizations that size.
Succession, RB edition