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Aye - and you can buy this one!… 🤣🤣
You’d need a big space to hang it!
All I need is EUR75,001 and this could be my fourth Alfa Romeo. The missus is keen to have a go.
You’d need a big space to hang it!
mount it upside down on the ceiling. obviously, you’d need high ceilings or you’d cut your scalp on the wing
mount it upside down on the ceiling. obviously, you’d need high ceilings or you’d cut your scalp on the wing
If it was going fast enough you wouldn't need to mount it
If it was going fast enough you wouldn’t need to mount it
Exactly. Just put a conveyer belt on the ceiling and the car's downforce will be enough to keep it in place.
What a mess
Mohammed Ben Sulayem to step back from direct Formula 1 involvement - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/64572992
What a mess
Mohammed Ben Sulayem to step back from direct Formula 1 involvement - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/64572992
Yesterdays news! 🤣
Todays WTF news…
https://the-race.com/formula-1/initial-contact-made-over-possible-mclaren-honda-f1-reunion/
What a mess
Mohammed Ben Sulayem to step back from direct Formula 1 involvement
Believe the phrase is “back in your box”
The FIAs roll is about rules and regulations not commercial agreements
Wow, Honda are almost at Alonso levels of bad career decisions and timings!
Alfa Romeo out at Barcelona today for a shakedown
https://twitter.com/alfaromeof1/status/1623987384714162177
Unsurprisingly, the sides of the floor on that Sauber (Alfa) are completely different to those on the launch renders... I quite liked the gappy blunt-toothed look of the render, woudl never be effective in teh real world though!
I'm sure Alonso gave a cheeky wink at the end of that comment.
Expecting him to completely destroy Lance this season.
Red Bull caught pretending to be the new kid in school... 🙂
https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-mercedes-audi-stop-red-bull/
Seems everyone is copying Red Bull sidepods - McLaren now. Be interesting to see if Ferrari and Merc stick to their concepts…
https://the-race.com/formula-1/mclaren-launches-mcl60-f1-2023-car/
https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech/status/1625181907985088527/photo/1
Yes was going to comment on the convergence we seem to be seeing - it'll be interesting to see what they all look like on the last day of testing. It's a tough call for merc - a change to rbr/ferrari style sidepods leaves them with a lot of learning to do but it's proven to be effective, whereas they've had a painful year learning about their current concept but it didn't deliver race winning pace (yeah OK) let alone title contention. But if they have learnt what wasn't working and can fix it...
Another Red Bull clone! 😴😴😴
https://www.racefans.net/2023/02/13/first-pictures-aston-martin-reveals-genuine-amr23/
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Seems they've stuck to their concept. It's developed little winglets too, not sure if they're legal...
[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo7FxzIXsAAib8f?format=jpg&name=small [/img]
https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech/status/1625453977943810050/photo/1
TBH they didn't need that much more from the car last year - the title was lost thanks to unreliability, strategic errors and unforced mistakes from Leclerc.
Mercedes tomorrow then. Although I feel they turn up at the test with something completely different.
Then Apline - but not sure anyone cares about that. They'll promise the earth and underperform as normal.
Then Apline – but not sure anyone cares about that. They’ll promise the earth and underperform as normal.
Nooo - they fall into the special category of "teams that Alonso has just left" so are in line for a stonking turnaround this year 😀 Hopefully we'll see the real Merc on day 1 of testing - with only 3 days to play with they can't faff around too much.
[url= https://the-race.com/formula-1/everything-wrong-with-f1-2023-launch-season-so-far/ ]This piece on The Race[/url] echoes my thoughts around this year's pre-season too - all show and no go.
Looks good, hope it's quick.
Looking at the sidepods, it appears they've adopted a bit of the 'downwash' style rather than the uber-tight engine hugging previous one.
Comparison of last year and this
That does look good! Black is way better than the silver (purely aesthetically of course!) How much will it bounce though?
bigdaddy
Full MemberThat does look good! Black is way better than the silver (purely aesthetically of course!) How much will it bounce though?
You would hope that they well and truly understood what was causing it and how to fix it given last year!
They did mention on the stream that it had all new suspension.
Here's a top down shot showing the new sidepods better (but who knows if they'll make it to the first test 🙂 )
The Alpine was out on track yesterday too - with added rocket launchers!...
https://twitter.com/F1PToficial/status/1625537223402700808?cxt=HHwWkIC-ocDfiI8tAAAA
[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fo8RfDCXwAwV3Jm?format=jpg&name=large [/img]
Seems they’ve stuck to their concept. It’s developed little winglets too, not sure if they’re legal…
They appear to be according to this chap
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vA8xxmEyOqI
He seems to know his stuff and have good credentials to suggest he knows what he is talking about
That does look good! Black is way better than the silver (purely aesthetically of course!)
Can we call them the black arrows now? I love the sound of that!
"Mercedes plans to change its sidepod concept early in the new Formula 1 season, team boss Toto Wolff has revealed."
“On the sidepods, this is the first iteration and, when we're going through the first few races, that's going to change a little bit.”
Expect a complete volte-face to adopt Red Bull-a-like side pods then lol
That’s a lot of work for them to throw it away - some mad sidepod work going on here…
https://twitter.com/EngineMode11/status/1625862963675426816?cxt=HHwWgMCztYrwnJAtAAAA
[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FpA5vlOWIAYlt_1?format=jpg&name=large [/img]
My reading of the Mercedes statement isn’t that it’s going to change radically. Quite the opposite.
What are those wheels on the Merc? I assume they're just for pushing it around?
Yep - they don't fit in the trucks with normal wheels fitted. And easier to roll a skinny tyre.
easier to roll a skinny tyre.
Oh, Christ, I thought mountain bikers had stopped believing that 15 years ago.
Oh, Christ, I thought mountain bikers had stopped believing that 15 years ago.
Go and compare your fattie to your road bike.
I suspect it makes next to no difference when you have a dozen guys to push a car weighing less than a ton but the principle stands
Don't know about rolling them but certainly (much) easier to turn the steering wheel compared to full size slicks
Kyle’s examination of the W14 has landed
lol pipped to the post!
So the Spanish driver Alonso was recently moaning about limited testing and now his team mate is missing testing after a bike crash in Spain. Coincidence???
https://the-race.com/formula-1/stroll-to-miss-f1s-bahrain-test-after-minor-accident/
Someone check the front of his car for a Lance shaped dent lol
Anyone know more details about Stoll's bike crash??
I know we all had a bit of a chunter about the Halo when it was introduced. But I don't think there could be a better illustration of just how good it is than this...
[img] 
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Anyone know more details about Stoll’s bike crash??
Alonso > stick > front wheel > ooops, that's a shame! 🙂
Yes, it's funny how it only took a few months for everyone to get used to how the halo looks. It's hard to believe that people used to think it was normal for the drivers to have their heads sticking out ready for decapitation.
Yes, they did improve a bit on that, but still certain death if you had a crash like Grojean's.
Not sure how much faith to put in Ted but it sounds like they're quite far along with alternative sidepods.
thols2
Full MemberYes, it’s funny how it only took a few months for everyone to get used to how the halo looks.
You get used to it, but when you watch old footage it quickly comes flooding back just how much better the cars used to look.
I'm not willing to watch drivers racing with their heads exposed any more though. It's a complete anachronism.
It still puzzles me how we don't have aeroscreens though, we've had so many near misses with debris now.
Before the action starts, can we all just remember "it's only testing".
Expectations - RBR & Ferrari to try to be quick. Merc happy to get the mileage rather than full pace. One team (usually Williams though depends on who needs more sponsorship) to go for hero runs on the last day. One team to suffer with reliability - for karma's sake I'm going for Aston Martin during the sessions where Nando's meant to be in the car.
And lots of 'oooh look at the new red bull, what have they done to those sidepods'.
Look fancy enough I suppose
Also didn’t take long:
“ That didn't take long! Drugovich comes to a halt on his first lap out of the pits in the Aston Martin and the session is stopped.”
Wrong driver though
Many teams seem to have done a lot of work from the Halo back. Nothing like this on the Ferrari...
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Oh dear, heard porpoising on the Alpine and Ferrari onboards. Was hoping that would be gone this year.
Not heard any on the Merc yet.
Re. Lance Stroll - soounds like he broke either one of both his wrists, doubt he'll be in for the first race
The-Race reported that they’d seen some bouncing on the Merc, but absolutely nothing like last year
Oh dear, heard porpoising on the Alpine and Ferrari onboards. Was hoping that would be gone this year.
I think it's a case of finding how low they can run before they start to porpoise. Quite likely that the fastest setup will be with some mild porpoising at max speed.
The-Race reported that they’d seen some bouncing on the Merc, but absolutely nothing like last year
There was a comment on Twitter about that earlier - something to the effect of you'll never be rid of porpoising with ground effect but what little they had was not performance limiting like last year.
Makes sense. The comment was also regarding the main straight too, nothing like the high speed corner horror show from this time last year
Wonder how much of the general improvement in porpoising derives from a year of learning about it vs the changes in floor height mandated this year. For reference last year's first test day at Bahrain saw times from high 33s to mid 37s, this year it's high 32s to low 35s. But of course it's only testing so times don't mean a thing - after all Gasly was top of the sheets last year & Perez was 10th 😀
I guess without active aerodynamics to control the underfloor pressure, they have to dry and design something which changes behaviour when it encounters a specific pressure but that applies it’s behaviour gradually. That’s gotta be hard to do.
I’ve been simulating a heat exchanger core and on 200cpus it’s been running for a day and in that, the geometry and environment are fixed, only the flow is moving. Imagine trying to do it with transient geometry as well as transient flow! Nightmare!
drive to survive series 5 begins tomorrow
So they’ve kinda taken the 2022 Ferrari sidepod and plonked it on top of their tiny sidepod
OTOH delighted about the black now as it helps hide some of that ugly
Maybe its my eyes but I'm seeing a total lack of direct comparison in that pic....
Just showing the stark difference between Merc and Ferrari.
Look at the engine cover. Massively different
Alonso is looking fast in the Aston Martin
Not hearing good things about McLaren. Seems only Haas are slower so far.
Alonso looking good.
Even the Williams are looking like they have made a step forward (or is that me just being optimistic?).
Ferrari & Red Bull looking to be the ones to beat (Red Bull looking like they've come out of the blocks flying).
McLaren looking a bit cak, which is a shame for Norris.
Merc looking like they have still not got the pace to stick with Red Bull & Ferrari (assuming Ferrari don't implode like last year).
stumpy01
Full MemberEven the Williams are looking like they have made a step forward (or is that me just being optimistic?).
Hard to say, but i'm cautiously optimistic! Sargeant looks to be doing a good job
I like watching the testing if only to see how the new cars look but, and im not sure if this is still happening (im meaning the underweight to look good) but whos running under weight to look fast to try and bag a few extra £££ from sponsors? who up front is sandbagging to not give anything away and of course whos running at their true pace?
At least we dont have long to find out.
and im not sure if this is still happening (im meaning the underweight to look good) but whos running under weight to look fast to try and bag a few extra £££ from sponsors?
Not really anymore - they all seem well funded.
The opposite, no one wants to show their real pace.
And did anyone see Ted's Notebook last night? WTF was he doing carving lumps out of cheese! A load of waffle from drivers and very little 'tech'.
Potentially light fuel, but given the teams are going bare carbon to save weight I doubt anyone is running underweight to look good.
A few of the bigger teams will just be running their programmes and not really caring about times.
Red Bull are looking strong again and their pace will be real
Ferrari/Merc look fairly even
Hoping the Aston pace is genuine and Alonso may be able to battle at the front of the mid-pack
Similar with Williams, although battling at the back
McLaren seem like they are struggling again, so Piastri may regret not being in the Alpine
Alpine wouldn’t guarantee a 2023 drive for Piastri - so he signed for McLaren - then Vettel retired and Alonso left!
Alonso may, for once, have moved to a better team.
Alonso may, for once, have moved to a better team.
Which suggests Alpine are probably trying a little bit harder than everyone else to get a good time...😆😆
Just started watching DTS - team bosses in a small car is a great feature, needs more of that. Then on to everyone telling George that his new car looks shit 😂
Hamilton showing a little pace, briefly topping the leader board
Hamilton showing a little pace, briefly topping the leader board
But on a softer tyre than perez - not clear if that actually helped Hamilton over a full lap though, but (with respect to perez) we know that verstappen would be a few tenths quicker too.
Oh and it's only testing, times don't mean a thing until this time next week.