2022 Bahrain Pre-Race Thread

Little sympathy for Hamilton though. He was spotted breaking Covid rules and instead out at a restaurant with some IG gold diggas in Dubai prior to illness.

 

Sympathy for none when your team relies on you completely to show up and race. Take a few precautions to respect the team's effort.

Ricci has to have a STELLAR year. Not just good. Lando more than matched him and did well to carry the team. What seats are open if Ricci fails this year?

None at a major team = ZERO.
Aston if they dump Seb
Alpine - no
Haas - no
Williams - maybe but think none will be
Alfa lol??

Ricci needs to get it right from race 1. Missing the test hours as he did in a totally new car was not optimal lol

 

To blame Riccardo for getting a bit of covid is ridiculous. It could quite literally happen to anyone. You could be in the most reasonably protected bubble and it'll still happen.

 

It is called a sofa !

If Ricci fails this year he might as well retire.

 

When is Hamilton retiring? If he fails to win the Championship again this year, he may finally call it quits at the end of the year.
That is going to be a contested seat for sure. Everyone should be ready to get in line for that seat.

 

2024

By 1-15 points he will be back.
By 16-35 points--toss up--likely stay.
By 36-99 points--toss up--likely retire.
By 100 or more points, he is done.

 

Agree
I get it and frankly I was very cautious before.
I don’t know where.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-teams-set-to-discuss-rule-tweaks-to-avert-mirror-war/8982337/

F1 teams set to discuss rule tweaks to avert "mirror war"
Formula 1 teams are set for discussions on Tuesday aimed at heading off the risk of a "mirror war", in the wake of Mercedes' aggressive design.


The FIA's head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis suggested the issue right now was that the wording of the current regulations has left some ambiguity about whether or not certain bodywork is or is not part of the mirror design.

In theory, the mirrors are not classified as bodywork, so according to article 3.2.2. of F1's technical regulations their aerodynamic influence: "Must be incidental to its main function. Any design which aims to maximise such an aerodynamic influence is prohibited."

However, the rules also do allow teams to declare some bodywork as 'mirror stay' – so they get viewed in a different way.

Tombazis said: "The regulations state that bodywork declared as mirrors stay, and there's two types of stay, must fulfil certain conditions. It must lie in this box, it must lie in whatever, not have sections or whatever. The way that is phrased, it assigns the name mirror stay to that bodywork that is declared as such.

"The regulation could have said the bodywork declared as ABC must lie in that, and it doesn't, there's no direct association between the name and the function.

"In other areas of the car, in other areas of the regulations, we have a statement like: 'For the sole purpose of something, you must do XYZ.' And then we take a different view there, because it says there the regulations state specifically an objective or a reason for the existence of a certain component.

"If we see a team obviously doing something different and using that function as an excuse, we tend to not allow it. On the other hand, for the mirror stays, that wording isn't there, and therefore, at least at the moment, we've formed that opinion."

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

If Russell clearly outperforms him he will retire at the end of the year(to devote himself to humanitarian causes while increasing his personal fortune).

 

in 2018 the Ferrari mirrors where banned because the way they where mounted gave an aerodynamic gain. FIA acknowledged that the rules where written poorly and open for interpretation, but banned them anyways.

 

Move to LA, start TV show with E! called "Keeping up with the Hamdashians" where he has a 24/7 platform to make up things as he goes along.

 

The non-Mercedes teams need to aggressively protest the spaceship mirrors and possibly the sidepods.

 

True, but 2022 the chassis has side impact beams for safety to the driver. Those W13 wings( where the mirrors are mounted) are sculpted around those side impact beams.

Teams ( the ones without Mercedes engines) need to protest the legality of the mirrors mounted on the wings(which house those side impact beams).

 

Vettel and Lewis are on the same path .
They don't want to feel guilty about their fortune.

 

Right. Does anyone think Merc or Red Bull would hold back from protesting if Ferrari were the alleged offender? Hell no . . . .

In fact I would say it would be irresponsible not to protest.

 

Agreed.

 

Side pods are fine. Very narrow but if they completed the crash test no issues there...

Yes...but clearly they shaped the impact beam as a mid mounted extra wing and as mirror mounts...Pretty sure that neither are meant to be used like that, in spirit of the rules.

 

Why the sidepods? They are legal it seems.

It's not because other teams haven't exploited a loophole in the technical rules that a different solution should be banned.

F1 is about innovation and progress, not copying each other's design.

 

OK so at least give me the flexi-wing?

 

Nothing wrong with finding out, is there?

 

I believe Mercedes discussed with the FIA about mounting the mirrors on the wings..............and got cleared.....IMO.(FIA assistance????)

Teams like RedBull and Ferrari NEED to protest.

 

Definitely...that flexes WAY more than even last year.

Ferrari had the all clear on their mirrors in 2018 as well. Fitted them for a race and where banned subsequently...

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Questionning the FIA for clarification perhaps, but they already have the answer: the Mercedes design has been passed already.

Protesting would be petty, and unnecessary. F1 is political enough as it is.