F1 2022

[RadioactiveWaste]

Interesting, apparently Red Bull are taking Danny Ricciardo as their reserve driver next season.

This is going to go badly for one of Perez and Ricciardo.

But I can see the logic, Dan really needs to be around next season in some form if he hopes to get back on the grid, but also, he was most successful at red bull and his driving depends on a very pointy set up which is more Max like than Checo likes. But on the other hand they might just want to be mean to him all over again.

[Andicis]

10 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Interesting, apparently Red Bull are taking Danny Ricciardo as their reserve driver next season.

This is going to go badly for one of Perez and Ricciardo.

But I can see the logic, Dan really needs to be around next season in some form if he hopes to get back on the grid, but also, he was most successful at red bull and his driving depends on a very pointy set up which is more Max like than Checo likes. But on the other hand they might just want to be mean to him all over again.

Ricciardo left Red Bull as he was fed up of being the second driver, and now he's coming back a few years later as their third driver! It's all gone so wrong for Danny Ric. 

I'm not sure Ricciardo has that hunger to be a top driver any more. It seems like he has accepted he won't ever be a Championship driver and doesn't have much to race for any more. I think it would be a mistake to swap Checo out for Ricciardo if it did in fact ever happen. 

[Alph]

2 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

I admire your honesty fella. I want to see an end to SOME aspects of RBR's behaviours and I qualify this so as to not be reminded that other teams are not whiter than white, an illusion under which I've never fallen. That said, not at Checo's demise. Had he not looked after Max on a few occasions this season, I feel pretty sure he'd have 2nd place locked in already. In a sport where oftentimes nice guys finish last, it'd be grand to see one in finish an honourable and well-earned second.*

*DISCLAIMER: But yes, in some ways so do I ?

I like Perez too so it does feel a bit mean saying it. But then I like Leclerc. In fact I like most of them. 

I hope that Perez could use the hurt for next season. And the next time Max needs him that Perez just says nah. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Well, it was a bit "animals came in 2 by 2" in qualifying.

But all the tesion today surrounds key questions like:

"who is going to give Seb Vettel the send off by punting him on lap 1?" (Danny Ric is my guess, although Ocon might give it a go)

Will Lance Stroll pull a dangerous defensive move again? (yes)

Will Latifi give us a greatest hits visit to the barrier?

Will Ocon and Alonso be "not exactly friends" by the end of the race?

And of course, what is Ferrari's final clown meme moment of the season going to look like? Probably not a change to inters, they did that last time, but I'm sure they'll have something.

1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:23.824
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull +0.228
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.268
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.418
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.684
6 George Russell Mercedes +0.687
7 Lando Norris McLaren +0.945
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.006
9 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +1.137
10 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1.221
11 Fernando Alonso Alpine +0.677 (Q2)
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +0.800
13 Mick Schumacher Haas +0.806
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.940
15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +0.989
16 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1.080 (Q1)
17 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +1.105
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1.138
19 Alex Albon Williams +1.274
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams +1.300

[Andicis]

A fairly boring race at the end of the season. I'd love to know how Hamilton was forced to give the place back to Sainz, despite being forced off track. What was he supposed to do there? Damaged his car in the process which didn't help matters. 

For once, it was Red Bull who had made the mistake and put Checo on the new tyres, and Ferrari who just held on to second with the one stop strategy. 

Ultimately, the difference here was probably Hamilton holding Perez up making the 2 seconds difference. A bit of pay back from last year there! 

I sincerely hope after the reset that the Mercedes and Ferrari are more competitive with the Red Bull to provide more actual racing at the front. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Well done Charles Leclerc and Ferrari.

Well, F1 2022 has not been as dramatic and exciting as F1 2021 was, but, we've at least had Ferrari returning to the front even if they then shot themselves in the foot *quite* a lot.

George Russell hasn't disappointed in his first season in the Mercedes, even if the car was off the pace.

Farewell to Seb for good, Danny for now (probably for good if I'm honest), Mick for now (suspect his name will get him another shot) and Latifi (meme's aside, he'll probably race sportscars fairly successfully and he's not a bad guy, just, not good enough for F1)

Already looking forward to next season, hopefully Ferrari continue to improve, Mercedes are competetive again, Piastri, Sargent and De Vries all do well, team dramas keep us entertained at red bull, Alpine and Aston Martin (seriously, Alonso v Daddy Stroll is my pick for team drama next year)

[Gaspode]

46 minutes ago, Andicis said:

A fairly boring race at the end of the season. I'd love to know how Hamilton was forced to give the place back to Sainz, despite being forced off track. What was he supposed to do there? Damaged his car in the process which didn't help matters. 

For once, it was Red Bull who had made the mistake and put Checo on the new tyres, and Ferrari who just held on to second with the one stop strategy. 

Ultimately, the difference here was probably Hamilton holding Perez up making the 2 seconds difference. A bit of pay back from last year there! 

I sincerely hope after the reset that the Mercedes and Ferrari are more competitive with the Red Bull to provide more actual racing at the front. 

If Hamilton hadn't gone off the track and had held his position, there would have been a huge collision for which Sainz would quite rightly have been blamed - and if he wasn't forced off the track (as they decided), it was clearly being considered as a racing incident in which case what happened in the aftermath should have been treated in the same way...

Stewarding is getting farcical (the motor racing equiavelent of poor VAR decisions every race) - and why is the driver (in this case Russell) given a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release? - the driver can't see if it's safe or not. Take a point off the team and they'll be more careful - fine the team or deduct points for new engines, but let the drivers race.....

As for Brundle, surprised that he didn't give a cheer when Hamilton's car broke down - his anti-Lewis, pro-his darling Max bias is getting ridiculous.....

[ColonelBlimp]

On 18/11/2022 at 10:03, 86 Hair Islands said:

OK, so a long, but final word from me on this latest rather unsavoury fiasco. The young Seb was quite irritating, but I'm not sure who the 'they' you refer to is. Do you mean the media? Sorry if I'm being a bit thick, but I've just slept for 9 hours for the first time in years and my brain is struggling to comprehend what's just happened ? 

From a wider perspective, I recall a lot of folk getting irked by Seb's finger wagging exploits, but the arrogance of youth is something we all go through in one shape or form and I think most would acknowledge that whilst he treated Webber poorly, he's shown in recent years that he's not that person. Max is experiencing a wholly new level of bilious vitriol and whilst I don't condone much of the Twatter fallout, Max and RBR must accept and shoulder the lion's share of the blame. Also, we British especially, are not always keen on teams or individuals who dominate their sport and are only too happy when they are knocked off their perch. Those who are driven are especially open to our disdain. It's not enough to be a champion, but rather one must win AND lose with equal panache and humility. It's something of a tough brief and Red Bull Racing have fallen short on this metric by a mile and for a long time.

With the Verstappen, it all feels rather different and rather more orchestrated. They've built their 'monster' from the ground up and it's now become a runaway train. As you astutely point out, their PR folk are having to work around the clock as the Max, Marko and Karen Gobshite Horner take it in turns to drop a bolark and as one fire is extinguished, another begins to rage elsewhere. Let's not forget that Verstappen senior is a nasty piece of work and for me, he also carries a fair share of the blame. 

For my part, I think this could have been turned into a 'win' of sorts, or at least used as an opportunity to show a little humility and to demonstrate an understanding that RBR is just one team in a wider competition. Something along the lines of: 

We understand the current optics and we take responsibility for our actions as a group. We simply ask that people remember that Max is still a young man, in a pressure cooker of a sport and on occasions and in the heat of battle, errors of judgement are made. In the public glare, regrettable things can be said and done and social media dictates that they will be scrutinised and rehashed to a level that drivers from earlier eras never experienced. This extreme pressure resides at the heart of this wonderful sport of ours and in some regards, is the very thing that makes it so compelling. These factors notwithstanding, we understand, acknowledge and embrace our wider responsibilities to F1, the fans and our owners, Red Bull. We will now sit down with our drivers and try to ensure we do better, both individually and as a group. Better for F1, better for its audience and better for our owners, Red Bull. We would simply ask that those looking inward take into account that at 300KPH, where every decision must be made in milliseconds, errors of judgement will inevitably follow. We fully grasp that while positive results are key, there are other factors in play and we will strive to do better.

Instead, we get lies upon lies, upon lies, the chief instigator playing the victim's card and a team who are perpetually compounding the very same mistakes that led them to this place. The Red Bull brand owners must be watching events unfurl with some disquiet and I'd say that 2023 will be a critical year for RBR, not in terms of their results on the track, but rather whether the sizeable RBR budget is yielding the positive PR benefits that Red Bull expect, or instead, negatively impacting brand perception. Not all publicity is positive, after all. And let's have it straight here, Red Bull finance all manner of sportsmen and sports teams across the globe and no other franchise comes remotely close to the levels of fallout we are seeing here. In some ways, I'm glad Dietrich Mateschitz is not around to see this latest fiasco, as I feel certain his F1 team fall a long way short of complementing his sporting ethos.

That seems fair comment.

[Comrade 86]

20 hours ago, Gaspode said:

As for Brundle, surprised that he didn't give a cheer when Hamilton's car broke down - his anti-Lewis, pro-his darling Max bias is getting ridiculous.....

He's obviously quite knowledgeable and his in-race insights are occasionally insightful, but his bias really does him no favours. It's got pretty tiresome tbh and it's time someone had a word in his shell-like. I guess the irony of him moaning that Lewis doesn't bother chatting with him for the cameras is lost on him. 

[Gaspode]

 Mattia Binotto will leave his position as Ferrari team principal at the end of 2022....

[RadioactiveWaste]

1 hour ago, Gaspode said:

 Mattia Binotto will leave his position as Ferrari team principal at the end of 2022....

Well, hopefully the new boss sorts out the strategy calls. Won't hold my breath because when the chips are down, Ferrari gonna Ferrari.

[Comrade 86]

Ferrari are a mystery to me. Under Binotto, they have finally developed a seriously competitive race car, but their current team strategists and pit crews are probably the least proficient on the grid. Compare also, the catalogue of errors from their drivers to their RB and Mercedes counterparts. Talented as Le Clerc and Sainz may be, they too have hopelessly underperformed in what was the quickest car on the grid for significant chunks of this season.

Sacking Binotto might bring about an uptick, but to my way of thinking, there's a strong undertone of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as whilst the the buck will always stop with the team principal, there are surely wider issues afoot at Scuderia Ferrari than simply the man in the hot seat. I suspect that next year, they will find themselves tailing not only RBR, but Mercedes too. A golden opportunity has been squandered, it seems, with many culpable, but only one man paying the price.

[RadioactiveWaste]

5 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Ferrari are a mystery to me. Under Binotto, they have finally developed a seriously competitive race car, but their current team strategists and pit crews are probably the least proficient on the grid. Compare also, the catalogue of errors from their drivers to their RB and Mercedes counterparts. Talented as Le Clerc and Sainz may be, they too have hopelessly underperformed in what was the quickest car on the grid for significant chunks of this season.

Sacking Binotto might bring about an uptick, but to my way of thinking, there's a strong undertone of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as whilst the the buck will always stop with the team principal, there are surely wider issues afoot at Scuderia Ferrari than simply the man in the hot seat. I suspect that next year, they will find themselves tailing not only RBR, but Mercedes too. A golden opportunity has been squandered, it seems, with many culpable, but only one man paying the price.

Well said.

It's not as if the clown meme moments are a new thing for Ferrari, they've just been glaringly obvious this season because they had a real chance.

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

6 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Ferrari are a mystery to me. Under Binotto, they have finally developed a seriously competitive race car, but their current team strategists and pit crews are probably the least proficient on the grid. Compare also, the catalogue of errors from their drivers to their RB and Mercedes counterparts. Talented as Le Clerc and Sainz may be, they too have hopelessly underperformed in what was the quickest car on the grid for significant chunks of this season.

Sacking Binotto might bring about an uptick, but to my way of thinking, there's a strong undertone of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as whilst the the buck will always stop with the team principal, there are surely wider issues afoot at Scuderia Ferrari than simply the man in the hot seat. I suspect that next year, they will find themselves tailing not only RBR, but Mercedes too. A golden opportunity has been squandered, it seems, with many culpable, but only one man paying the price.

They should embrace the madness and get Briatore in as the new principle. Just lean in to the chaos and banter.

[RadioactiveWaste]

Can you imagine?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-approached-andreas-seidl-christian-horner-last-winter/

[Comrade 86]

2 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Can you imagine?

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-approached-andreas-seidl-christian-horner-last-winter/

How to make a relatively likeable team totally hateful in one fell swoop ?

[RadioactiveWaste]

10 minutes ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

How to make a relatively likeable team totally hateful in one fell swoop ?

It'd be Brawn/Schumacher era Ferrari all over again, yes the winning but so very un-ferrari.

Although to be fair, Ferrari would probably fall out with Horner and sack him before he became successful if it had ever happened.

[Andicis]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1s-active-aero-plans-for-2026-could-include-reverse-drs/10406751/

What a joke this would be 'F1’s active aero plans for 2026 could include ‘reverse DRS’'. 

This would just be ridiculous, there is no way it could be argued as a positive for the sport to remove any of the benefits of developing the best car to make it more appealing to Netflix viewers. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

27 minutes ago, Andicis said:

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1s-active-aero-plans-for-2026-could-include-reverse-drs/10406751/

What a joke this would be 'F1’s active aero plans for 2026 could include ‘reverse DRS’'. 

This would just be ridiculous, there is no way it could be argued as a positive for the sport to remove any of the benefits of developing the best car to make it more appealing to Netflix viewers. 

As a long term motorsports fan, I find this activly offensive. The introduction of DRS was bad enough (I've never liked it and we're now getting outside of the genuinly top drivers, a generation who can only pass with DRS assistance)

If you want close racing, make it a spec series.

If you want it to be the best, the ultimate performance, limited to contain safety but allowing open development, then you have to accept that sometimes it won't be close. I endured the Ferrari/Schumacher years (as I wasn't a schumacher or ferrari fan) but I never wanted a button to slow him down "and give the others a chance" - absolute joke. And it's in response to 1 season where Red Bull had the fastest car for 2/3rds of the season?

Upmarket Formula E gimmicks so the netflix edit looks dramatic...get to <rude word>

Edited December 1, 2022 by RadioactiveWaste

[Andicis]

4 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

As a long term motorsports fan, I find this activly offensive. The introduction of DRS was bad enough (I've never liked it and we're now getting outside of the genuinly top drivers, a generation who can only pass with DRS assistance)

If you want close racing, make it a spec series.

If you want it to be the best, the ultimate performance, limited to contain safety but allowing open development, then you have to accept that sometimes it won't be close. I endured the Ferrari/Schumacher years (as I wasn't a schumacher or ferrari fan) but I never wanted a button to slow him down "and give the others a chance" - absolute joke. And it's in response to 1 season where Red Bull had the fastest car for 2/3rds of the season?

Upmarket Formula E gimmicks so the netflix edit looks dramatic...get to <rude word>

I enjoy seeing the battle to build the best car. It's amazing to see what the teams can come up with every year, I don't want to see everyone in the same car. That halves my enjoyment of the sport, which is as much about the constructors as the drivers! 

I agree about DRS. I think it was too powerful this year. I think we need a reduction in the number of DRS zones on a track as some had far too many.