2023 Formula 1 Thread

Vercingetorix

Charles drove with an infected tooth.

Evitzee

Looks like an interesting race in Mexico this weekend. After Verstappen's win in Austin last week in which he was booed on the podium (and not the TX governor), he has a couple of extra bodyguards in Mexico to escort him around and to/from the track, and there is a local campaign of #racepect emphasizing that what happens on the track stays on the track. Hopefully everyone remains calm and people don't act stupid. Perez is expected to be second to Max overall but if he is pipped by Hamilton by season's end his ride next year might be in question even though he has a contract through next year. He is P5 after today's practice, 0.3 seconds off Max so it looks like another tough weekend for Checo. At this point his goal is to stay ahead of Lewis to secure 2nd place in the Driver's Championship.

gostang9

Formula 1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of engineering, and driver safety has been a big driver in requirements over the past few years. They should implement a driver monitoring system (2 or 3 temp sensors against drivers skin in reasonable locations - torso?) and mandate maximum temperatures that are allowed. This would drive all teams to find creative solutions (car, suits, cooling mechanisms) to meet the requirement and keep drivers safe.

Evitzee

Good drive from Lewis, he finally has some pace but still about 0.3-0.5 sec per lap slower than Max. Ferraris hung in there but just can't compete right now. Checo is just out of sorts now, pressured and pushed and that's a recipe for poor performance. Tremendous pressure put on him for his home race.

BLOW UP

Yes, the overtake on Leclerc by Lewis was stunning, so committed and completely on the Edge, one of the best overtakes I've seen in a long time, and especially as the DRS in Mexico is at it's weakest..

Ferrari should probably have split the strategies early on, I like Checo but he's been out of sorts for way too long, and I'm sorry to say it doesn't deserve that seat. Ricardo will give Verstappen a better challenge for sure, but I just want to see a world championship contender in that seat to challenge Verstappen, he has a history of losing it when he's under pressure.

stevec14

While red bull have the Uber dominant car, I wouldn’t expect them to employ a title contender. Why risk the potential for max to win the drivers and the constructors near enough on his own with an unnecessary stress.

when merc employed the patsy Bottas it was a similar scenario to that which we have now - post it all going sour when rosberg won. And Russell for all his good points isn’t in the same ballpark as Lewis.

if you go back to around Baku, he was a challenger but he’s just lost it/ not got it done since. It happens, Danny Ric is a viable alternative (maybe the only one) but hardly a serial winner and we’ll be having the same conversations next year I’d expect.

I think challenges to max come from outside red bull and not within. I really hope it happens as the racing behind max yesterday was actually pretty good.

BLOW UP

For me, when you have an overtly dominant team, it's far better to have two drivers that are competing against each other pushing each other to the edge, rather than a facto or de facto number one and a number two.

For example when Lewis was racing for McLaren vs his teammate Fernando Alonso, or Lewis vs Jenson Button,
or Lewis vs Rosberg who was also a fantastically quick driver, all world champions, and the championship was all the better for it even though they were in dominant cars for the most part.

Yes, sadly Valtteri didn't quite have it, he had the speed but not the consistency nor the incredible raw talent of Lewis, and neither did Magnussen or Kovalainen.

Lewis has had three immensely talented world-champion teammates, and I would argue one of the very best-ever drivers, Fernando Alonso in his absolute prime.

BLOW UP

For me, when you have an overtly dominant team, it's far better to have two drivers that are competing against each other pushing each other to the edge, rather than a facto or de facto number one and a number two.

For example when Lewis was racing for McLaren vs his teammate Fernando Alonso, or Lewis vs Jenson Button,
or Lewis vs Rosberg who was also a fantastically quick driver, all world champions, and the championship was all the better for it even though they were in dominant cars for the most part.

Yes, sadly Valtteri didn't quite have it, he had the speed but not the consistency nor the incredible raw talent of Lewis, and neither did Magnussen or Kovalainen.

Lewis has had three immensely talented world-champion teammates, and I would argue one of the very best-ever drivers, Fernando Alonso in his absolute prime.

stevec14

I’m not disagreeing it would make for more interesting racing - it would - but who, realistically are you going to put in that seat?