FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX 2024....Race.... ▄▀▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▄▀▄▀▄▀

Sadly it is a pale shadow of its former self.

 

I turned off the race with 15 laps left to go and watched vintage motogp on YouTube

 

I wish they would give him a car with which we could test that theory.

 

It occurs to me that all these anti-testing and anti-development rules were imposed with the excuse of trying to control costs.

But now that they have a "spending cap" on the teams, they could just dump all the other rules, no?
Let the teams develop the cars to be more competitive ... provided they don't break the spending cap.

It's just sad that a "manufacturers' series" is consistently dominated by a team that does NOT build street cars.

The justification for racing was always to make production cars better/safer.
Just what is F1 developing now?

 

Charles can put together a good qualifying, by pushing the car to 11/10ths.
But he can't keep that up all the time.
That makes him a bit inconsistent.

The thing about Schumi was that he'd drive every lap at 10/10ths, every time.
Consistency.
Every corner exactly the same.
Chuck doesn't have that.

And he lets his ego override his responsibility to the team.
If he knew his car wasn't up to snuff, why fight so hard to keep Sainz from passing?
Not a team player.

Neither is Ham.
2025 doesn't look good for the Scud.

 

Predictably,

The comparison between Leclerc and Schumacher doesn’t make much sense. Leclerc has never enjoyed a car with pace close to anything Schumacher had.

I agree that Hamilton will not be good for the team next season and beyond.

 

Here’s someone who understands context.

 

Why bother lol! Andretti gets what — backmarker status for a BIL$?? F1 is the last thing Andretti needs lol. Do you sense any potential major improvement coming behind his name. I do not

 

Liberty charges what for that???

 

F1 was created as a Drivers Championship in 1950.
The Constructors Championship was added in 1958. It's NOT a "manufacturers series".
By constructors, they mean those that have the intellectual property of the chassis design, regardless if they outsource the engine or not. That was done to allow the "garagists" to fill the grid in F1 when Mercedes, Maserati, Vanwall and else left. There was never any obligation to build street cars.
Beside, most manufacturers in F1 aren't involved in making their F1 cars. It's simply badge engineering.

 

Verstappen's sector 1 times lap 19 to 27:

30.585
30.576
30.576
30.553
30.553
30.548
30.522
30.588

what’s wrong with this dude? That’s a spread of 6 hundreds. He’s done identical to the thousand split times…twice. In a row.

 

Absolutely phenomenal,
This guy is inhuman.

 

He’s a remarkable talent. Beyond what we could have imagined. He could be not just a great, but THE great.

 

I know all that stuff and 400 million on LH is ridiculous but from a business sense its good business. They will treble their investment and lets face it, F! is about $$$$$$... period. LH will bring something to the team I am sure of that, dont like him but if he delivers then great.

The existing TD at Ferrari has already been culled and people like Mekkies, Sanchez en all have been booted out, new talent takes time to nurture but you need experience, Newey has been doing this for 40 years! Cardile was 6 when Newey started with March so he has some catching up to do.

They (RB) already have the advantage and as we have seen with the Merc dominance, catching up is impossible. Even Byrne as Technical consultant cannot make up the deficiency, that says something as he is possibly equal to Newey.


tony

 

I agree, from a business perspective they'll make plenty. Lewis is a very popular driver, they'll sell many hats and shirts.

From a winning perspective, it is absolutely the wrong way and it's not even funny. Time waits for no one. Yes Alonso is doing good but is current age Alonso as good as Alonso from 18 years ago? Absolutely not. Lewis is rapidly approaching the ''wrong'' side of age.

And then we go back to the business side...The same money spend but on Max/Newey/Wache? They'll sell as many hats if not even more. Ok Maybe acquiring Max would be even more expensive as Ferrari would have to make it enticing enough to leave RB. But you get multiple championships in return.

 

I have to say I’m a little worried that Ferrari is signing a 40 years old Lewis.
You are absolutely right about the fact that time waits for no one.
Even Alonso is publicly stating about a possible retirement..

 

Lewis was asked this weekend if Russell can take over the team as the main driver when Lewis is gone. Lewis didn't give a real endorsement.

Russell beat Lewis in his first year at the team. Lewis has been beaten in his prime by drivers he shouldn't be beaten by.

The signing apart from hat sales, makes zero sense.

 

LH endorsed Russell and plainly it appears:

--Speaking at the driver press conference ahead of the first race in Bahrain, Hamilton said: "I'm sure he can [lead the team]. I don't know what else to say about it.

"George is very technical, massively engaging and has come a long way since joining Williams and then joining the team. He's incredibly close with Toto. No doubt that will be his position."--

 

All good points and dont disagree one bit...but even if they signed those three tomorrow, it would still take years to get on par with the RB20, thats assuming it will be the dominant car all season and havent overdeveloped the car.

With LH they make money. Dont see many Wache or Newey hats and t shirts about

 

Not exactly a glowing endorsement if you ask me.

 

with Wache/Newey/Max gone at RB it would set Ferrari up perfectly for 2026. Their current car was build from last season...it's a new concept to them. So a 1 year turn around is certainly possible I'd say. Not for 25, too late/expensive to change concepts now I'd say, but 26 certainly....

 

If they’re enough stupid to put Horner aside, this would be a great opportunity for Ferrari to hire some major figures of this dream team.
Maybe Newey is really close to Horner?
They are both involved in this team since the beginning..

 

Another boring race.

Red Bull having a B team (RB) is a HUGE advantage. They have access to telemetry, wind tunnel data, RB drivers are lab rats in the race (test X tire, block X driver), etc.
So in reality, they have double the budget cap/wind tunnel time of other teams.

An average of 1s per lap (10 laps):

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Zak Brown and others in F1 have complained about this matter many times but FIA doesn't seem to li$ten.
If this continues Red Bull will be dominant again in 2026.