The 2024 Motorsports Thread

[RadioactiveWaste]

On 07/02/2024 at 11:35, Comrade 86 said:

So, sadly, it seems Christian Horner is not a serial shagger (boring!) and the complaint actually relates to him acting in a 'controlling manner' towards a female co-worker and not any sexual impropriety. Meanwhile, we are also told Red Bull themselves are advising him to resign, rather than risk removal, so this does seem like it could potentially be the end of the road for Horner at RBR. In an interesting twist, it appears both Horner and Adrian Newey have clauses in their contracts that if one leaves, the other can. 

So, wild conspiracy theory time: Horner & Newey > Ferrari > Hamilton joins them in 2025

Couldn't happen, or could it? 🤔

That's interesting, so it's more of a workplace bullying kind of thing then?

 I'm glad it's not creepy sex stuff, but there are limits to workplace behaviour, and, I wouldn't want any real harm being overshadowed by the way it's being used as politics. We've also got to bare in mind this is a company HR matter, not a criminal one.

There were various rumours of power struggles, Marko being sidelined and so on towards the back of last season, so in that context the complaint may be being used as a pawn in their game.

[Comrade 86]

5 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

That's interesting, so it's more of a workplace bullying kind of thing then?

 I'm glad it's not creepy sex stuff, but there are limits to workplace behaviour, and, I wouldn't want any real harm being overshadowed by the way it's being used as politics. We've also got to bare in mind this is a company HR matter, not a criminal one.

There were various rumours of power struggles, Marko being sidelined and so on towards the back of last season, so in that context the complaint may be being used as a pawn in their game.

Not really suggesting he's done anything RAW. Think we've all known from the off what this is about. Just having a laugh at RBR's expense really, but I'm not unhappy that it's Horner in the scope, given the accusations he's bandied about over the years. What goes around.

[Gaspode]

FIA are reportedly changing use of DRS to enable it on the 2nd lap rather than the 3rd to try to make the racing more equal - think they'd be better employed working out what Red Bull did last year to give them such a huge DRS advantage over everyone else.....

[RadioactiveWaste]

I'm not sure which I dislike more, DRS or that F1 has become so dependent on DRS.

 

[Comrade 86]

They should take my advice and pause the race for midway monster Trucks demo and a song or two from Shakira. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

3 hours ago, Comrade 86 said:

They should take my advice and pause the race for midway monster Trucks demo and a song or two from Shakira. 

Time to look again at the Bernie's bright ideas selection box:

Short cuts;

Sprinklers;

Not championship points, but a gold silver and bronze medal;

Give Ferrari more money;

<I'm sure he had other spice up the show ideas but I can't remember them off the top of my head>

Or maybe some more left field ideas, like junk DRS, make the cars smaller and lighter, let them have good tyres again, allow testing, stick a bottle of poppers in verstappen's hemlet.....

 

[Comrade 86]

25 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Or maybe some more left field ideas, like junk DRS, make the cars smaller and lighter, let them have good tyres again, allow testing, stick a bottle of poppers in verstappen's hemlet.....

Made me chuckle! 

It remains the greatest mystery in F1 though that they build cars that are rocket ships, then send them out wearing wellingtons. Absurd really.

[RadioactiveWaste]

5 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

Made me chuckle! 

It remains the greatest mystery in F1 though that they build cars that are rocket ships, then send them out wearing wellingtons. Absurd really.

Bringing back tyre suppliers and allowing tyre development (within spec on size, pressures etc to keep some sense on it) would be really fun.

[Comrade 86]

Some pics of the F1 2024 cars here. No RBR or Merc, but most of the others. If the RB is in any way similar to the RBR, then check the side-pods. Markedly different to all the other cars, being effectively wine-bottle shaped. Visually, they appear thinner at their widest point and longer with little of the tapering at the rear of that all the other cars illustrate. It'll be interesting to see the Mclaren, Merc and RBR cars to see if any mimic this design.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68248880

 

[Comrade 86]

Gotta say that the new Merc looks pretty damn sexy. Lewis might be looking back in 2025 with lustful looks after the 'lover' he jilted for Ferrari. Or maybe not! Here it is anyway; I think it probably most closely follows the design elements of the RBR with the sidepods deeply cut but not tapering massively end to end. 

Also released now is the McLaren MCL38, which is not quite a beautiful as last year's model but rather attractive all the same. Looks a lot like an RBR though, like a lot!

Anyway, pretty, metal shiny things! 😍😂

[RadioactiveWaste]

I get the feeling the pack of Ferrari, merc and McLaren are going to be closer to red bull this season, but I fear not close enough with verstappen in the car (Perez for Danny Ric is surely a when not if). I'd 100% be over the moon if I'm wrong and there's teams and drivers in an even fight this year.

It does look like everyone is refining their cars under these regulations and particually Ferrari and Merc think they've got the right way to unlock the performance, Ferrari last year was fast but impossible to drive on the limit over a race stint, hence ruining it's tyres, hence throwing the strategy under the bus, compromising set ups to make it managable etc (paraphrasing from the race's podcast there) but they think they've resolved that. (although, Ferrari, always,  gonna Ferrari).

There's a bit of me that is interested in how "what Horner (allegedly) did" overshadows their launch, but then there's the bit of me that knows it'll be PR managment overdrive.

[Andicis]

Looks like Merc have a fairly innovative new front wing set up: Hopefully James Allison has built a car capable of competing. He is probably the only designer capable of rivalling Newey.

 

[Comrade 86]

21 minutes ago, Andicis said:

Looks like Merc have a fairly innovative new front wing set up: Hopefully James Allison has built a car capable of competing. He is probably the only designer capable of rivalling Newey.

 

So RBR are bitching already lol. You have to laugh really.

[Andicis]

4 minutes ago, Comrade 86 said:

So RBR are bitching already lol. You have to laugh really.

Our friend Helmut Marko is as usual, quickly on hand to immediately complain about any team that can threaten Redbull...

[Comrade 86]

3 minutes ago, Andicis said:

Our friend Helmut Marko is as usual, quickly on hand to immediately complain about any team that can threaten Redbull...

Just a loathsome outfit from top to bottom. I really hope someone takes them down a few pegs, but I still think the RBR will be near impossible to beat. That said the Merc car is sexy AF and might well have Hammy wishing he'd not jumped ship.

[RadioactiveWaste]

I like the cleverness of the merc front wing, it's the kind of thing that makes F1 what it is, and I do hope it gets them back to fighting for wins.

I know the off season is nothing compared to times gone by (it's probably at least 2 months shorter than it used to be) but finally as the daylight starts to return and the weeks tick by we can start to look to the month of March when most of the main motorsports start up again (F1 and MotoGP), i need to check the calendar for things like BTCC.

We did have rally Sweden this weekend just gone, although the highlights show isn't on itv yet.

There's World Superbike highlights fro Philip Island (Australia) which I hadn't realised was on. I'll give that a watch after dinner I think.

https://www.itv.com/watch/world-superbike-highlights/2a4431/2a4431a0110

Edited February 20 by RadioactiveWaste

[Andicis]

8 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

I like the cleverness of the merc front wing, it's the kind of thing that makes F1 what it is, and I do hope it gets them back to fighting for wins.

I know the off season is nothing compared to times gone by (it's probably at least 2 months shorter than it used to be) but finally as the daylight starts to return and the weeks tick by we can start to look to the month of March when most of the main motorsports start up again (F1 and MotoGP), i need to check the calendar for things like BTCC.

We did have rally Sweden this weekend just gone, although the highlights show isn't on itv yet.

There's World Superbike highlights fro Philip Island (Australia) which I hadn't realised was on. I'll give that a watch after dinner I think.

https://www.itv.com/watch/world-superbike-highlights/2a4431/2a4431a0110

I've definitely missed the F1, although if by lap 10 Redbull are sat 15 seconds ahead, I'll probably revise that statement! 

Testing starting tomorrow, so hopefully we should see early glimpses of which teams look competitive. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

2 minutes ago, Andicis said:

I've definitely missed the F1, although if by lap 10 Redbull are sat 15 seconds ahead, I'll probably revise that statement! 

Testing starting tomorrow, so hopefully we should see early glimpses of which teams look competitive. 

Always the way, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Testing is always easier to figure out who has messed up than who is really good becasue the teasm who are really good are tootling round on full tanks not showing their hand, but, it's always exciting to get a first proper look at the cars. I do agree with Alonso thay should allow more testing, mayby just having 2 or 3 pre-season tests, Barcelona and Bahrain (assuming they're going to stay as the first race) are both good tracks for testing and it wouldn't add that much to the calenda.

[Andicis]

6 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Always the way, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Testing is always easier to figure out who has messed up than who is really good becasue the teasm who are really good are tootling round on full tanks not showing their hand, but, it's always exciting to get a first proper look at the cars. I do agree with Alonso thay should allow more testing, mayby just having 2 or 3 pre-season tests, Barcelona and Bahrain (assuming they're going to stay as the first race) are both good tracks for testing and it wouldn't add that much to the calenda.

Fair point on the testing. You did get a sense last year that Aston had stumbled there way into a half decent car, and also that Ferrari were nowhere near as good I remember Leclerc being extremely unhappy after testing. Hopefully we see something entertaining!

[RadioactiveWaste]

It's only testing but.....

2025 anyone?