As with the ‘70’s music, it was a bit gritty and ragged (trying not to say ‘amateurish’ but it *felt* like it was not run very well to my child eyes). While todays F1 can be called overly-produced and pretentious, it was the exact opposite back then. Masi may have fit in pretty well with F1 in the ‘70’s. I don’t really like Ecclestone, but F1 in the mid-90’s is when the sport took a big leap forward (imo). Schumacher/Ferrari as the face of that generation was like a return to Camelot. They also got serious about developing reliable, safe cars and young, fast drivers. This past season should have been remembered for all of the great things that happened (MV vs LH, rise of Norris, Sainz upstaging Leclerc, return of McLaren, “Mr Saturday” Russell, etc). Too much good stuff to be fouled up by unnecessary controversy.
Was this season a little ****ed up? Yeah, most of the great ones in history are. 89', 90' 94', 97', 2003', 2007'. We've got it pretty good now, imho. There have been times of far more dysfunction, politics, race screw ups, and the dark side of racing used to loom so much larger. I miss a lot of things about the motorsports I grew up with, but one thing I don't miss is the death and gruesome injuries we used to see every year. The monster that lurked behind the walls in those days was almost too much to accept. I always keep that in my mind whenever I start to ***** about current racing issues. *Off my soap box.
All good points. Also one of the big changes I see is safety. I think safety really became a focus in the 90s.
Yep, they've certainly been allowed to play in the grey areas of the rules without any real pushback from the FIA. One thing is for sure, Mercedes dramatic gain in speed after the USGP, where they went from 2 tenths off pole, to Hamilton being almost half a second faster than RB in Mexico and Brazil, and 6 tenths in Qatar was not magic. Yes, the new engine gave Lewis a tenth or two, but that rear wing was shady as hell. The main plan score marks and the Mercedes speed dropping back to only 1-2 tenths over RB in Qatar after inquiry began, tells the story Part of the blame has to be on Mercedes rivals for not forming alliances to challenge the grey things that they do, as RBR and Mercedes ironically did together against Ferrari in 2019 in protest against the latter's engines.
I think the FIA looked the other way many times this season in order to keep the championship compelling. There is certainly the case to say that Max was running away with it and then suddenly it tightened up. The issue I have with what you posted is that The Merc got cleaned up in Mexico by RBR. It was notable that Hamilton barely held off Perez.
True, but the point stands that the Mercedes did suddenly go from struggling to keep up with the RB, to all the sudden having faster short run pace. Then by Brazil Hamilton was just flying by people on the straights, as if he had his DRS open. The score marks on the rear wing plan, the damage that left it illegal after Brazil, and the wing plan being clearly deformed in pictures in Qatar are obvious evidence the wing was being purposely made to flex. It was definitely part of Hamilton's sudden massive and absurd speed advantage. What's telling is that as soon as the score marks were discovered and the images in Qatar of the wing deforming emerged, Mercedes were still fast, but they were suddenly only a tenth up on RB in Jeddah. Clearly, they stopped doing something.
Yeah, they stopped racing at Interlagos. (An F1 engineer told me that they had a specific advantage at Interlagos, and a car setup that worked with Hamilton to make him fast. Pretty sure you will know better than F1 engineers though ...)
Right, because we should just believe you allegedly know an F1 engineer, who allegedly knows Mercedes winning secrets, which even their competitors struggle to know for sure. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Are we in a pissing contest for who's been watching racing longer? 25 years here. If you've watched longer, goodie for you.
That doesn't make any sense though. Unless what he means with ''specific advantage'' is a huge power advantage and a suspect wing, you can't bend physics with a ''nice setup that works for lewis''. There is no way in hell that you can run the highest downforce package and reach extraordinary speeds with huge acceleration advantage on top of that, easily blowing past cars with way lower downforce. Doesn't happen.
Not only the score marks but the fact that (coincidentally?—I think not!) the wing at that race failed the DRS test and was explained by Toto as being “damaged” where no damage was obvious. The FIA confiscated the wing and though Merc said nothing illegal was found, the FIA have said that they’re looking into how the tests could be changed to better control wing deflection. Now if this was Ferrari, the sceptics would be saying that the FIA turned a blind eye or made some sort of secret agreement but stopped short of penalizing them—because they had no hard proof or that the wing didn’t fall afoul of any specific written rule—as long as they fixed the wing for the next races. And, maybe, an agreement was made to rectify the situation by manipulating the result of the last race! LOL
As it happens one of the guys I lived with when I was living and racing in England has been at Mercedes since the beginning (previously Brawn and McLaren so he has his fair share of championships in his career). The other has been at Williams since the early 2000's so I do have some insight into modern F1. As it happens he told me that while everyone in F1 is constantly pushing the boundaries of the regulations, the general working ethos at Mercedes is they know they are under extra scrutiny so they are extra careful not to 'colour outside of the lines'. According to him the issue in Brazil was miniscule and was more than likely do to a slightly damaged part that was not perfectly checked because the cars arrived late and the mechanics worked well into the night to get them built barely in time. It was the same for everyone in the pitlane and on this day Mercedes got caught out.
I do believe the combination of a new engine, coupled with a suspension set up that worked very well at Interlagos were critical to his performance there. Note that the wing mentioned in the previous post was not used during the sprint race or in the actual race. I would think that Merc turned that engine up past 10, since losing Brazil would have made it impossible for them to stay in the battle. I'm guessing that once they got to circuits that favored the Merc on paper (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi) they went back to a more conservative engine setting. Actually, didn't they use a previous engine for Jeddah?
I’m guessing this was instituted AFTER they burned oil in the combustion process and AFTER they did the illegal tire test. Seriously though, I’m sure every single major manufacturer involved in F1 and other forms of high level racing has a similar ethos owing to the fact that in this age of PC, none can afford the negative fall-out. The days of the rogue “garagistes” playing fast and loose with the rules like cheat suspensions to circumvent skirt gap rules, brake cooling water ballast, lead balls in the fuel tank, etc. are effectively over.
Over the last two years or so, it's been interesting that Ferrari, Honda and RBR have had TD's from the FIA to close any theoretical grey areas they've been playing around with in the rules, while pretty much every grey area Mercedes have played with has been permitted, the plenum cooling, the rear wing, etc. I've said before that what Mercedes brings to the sport is vital for F1's survival. F1 could live without RBR, but it would be on life support without Mercedes. They supply 40% of the grids engines, spend tons of money helping promote the sport, the esteemed works team they've built, and oh yeah, they have a British driver with celebrity status (Hamilton), who is probably the most well known racer in the world right now. Mercedes spend an astronomical amount of money in F1 in an era when car builders are not banging at the doors to enter anymore like they did in the 90's and 2000's. Mercedes (and Ferrari) are the lifeblood of F1, like Audi was for ALMS and Honda and Toyota were for CART. The damage to the sport if Mercedes are ever angered by too much pushback from the FIA, triggering them to reduce their footprint or leave altogether, absolutely colors the FIA's decision making in regards to if and how to sanction Mercedes and their drivers.
Good points but as you say SF is basically a huge reason why people follow F1, the FIA are not shy in pushing them back?
Because right now Ferrari don't have the star driver, whereas Mercedes does. Put Hamilton in a Ferrari and many rulings would start going their way. When they had Schumacher a lot of things went their way. Not only that, Ferrari want to win another WDC. They wouldn't consider pulling out of the sport until they get another title under their belt, whenever that is I will say that it's interesting Ferrari are building a hypercar for Le Mans. One can't help but wonder if they question F1's relevance these days, and want to be diversified in their racing ventures.
They [CS / CL] only need a few wins and it will be surprising how quickly they will get star status. Ferrari want to win both titles which is why they are in F1 and for the money. F1 will always be top dog for them but their withdrawal may be triggered by FIA incompetence. Ultimately its a breeding ground for upcoming engineers & technology so it has benefits outside the scope of F1 Tony
From this… https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/horner-fulfils-qatar-f1-gp-rogue-marshal-offence-obligation/7930257/ … seems to me Masi is not going anywhere: “He also took part in a competitors’ panel specifically on subject of stewarding chaired by F1 race director Michael Masi. The panel also featured Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, former Formula E champion Antonio Felix da Costa, Toyota WRC boss Jari-Matti Latvala and Ford WRC driver Adrien Fourmaux. The two-day programme was preceded last week by a separate race director seminar with speakers including Masi, Scot Elkins from Formula E and new FIA deputy president Robert Reid.”
