You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
The trouble with RedBull is that, from the outside at least, it is Max’s team and he/they want a team mate that’ll concistently deliver the “2” bit of a 1-2 finish.
The Verstappens may think it's their team, after the race Horner said "We want to find the best pairing that we can [...] You've had a very fast unemployed driver win todays race, so the market's reasonably fluid."
Ralf Schumacher claims Red Bull are keen to sign him 😂
Sorry, I meant keen to sign Alonso 😂.
It would be interesting...I reckon Max would thrash Alonso, and Alonso would throw his toys out of the pram bigly
I think it would be amazing to see Alonso and Verstappen on the same team, two of the greatest ever drivers in F1 going head to head! Please make this happen!
A team that’s already on the brink of shaking itself apart from the inside and desperately looking for stability, hiring Alonso? Drive to Survive will self-combust and we’ll all be cooking popcorn on the flames. Where do I sign?
^^^^ Sorry, don't do Twitter / X anyway ... what's the story?
Que?
Meanwhile the next round of the alternate F1 year is kicking off with a Benson reporting on an interview with "a friend" of the female at the centre of the Horner allegations
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68712864
The woman is unable to talk about her claims, having signed a legal undertaking not to discuss the matter with anyone other than her father and brother, the friend said.
Erm...
If I've read that the same as Scotroutes has this could get interesting...
She can still discuss her feelings without discussing the details of the case.
Why would she have signed a legally binding agreement like that? Nothing in it for her.
…it’s like she’s been pressured into it via some coercive behaviour.
What penalty for breaking it though? Says she's worried about not being employable in motorsport in the future but it feels like that so may have already sailed.
Why would she have signed a legally binding agreement like that? Nothing in it for her.
Money?
I saw this story earlier today, wasn't sure if it's the BBC taking the moral high ground, or whether it's a genuine grievance against Red Bull.
I'd like to think that in this day and age this sort of thing didn't happen, and that you could go to work feeling safe in that environment.
The fact that there has been an agreement signed for nondisclosure doesn't look good for Red Bull, and that she's still feeling under pressure isn't good.
Still, makes for an interesting Chequered Flag podcast...
But then again, a person has felt intimidated in the workplace, which isn't good. And the lack of transparency on Red Bull's part isn't helping.
This is a very strange story. McLaren hire a senior Ferrari engineer then they mutually decide to separate after three months. Did McLaren realize they'd bought a pup or did Sanchez get a better offer from elsewhere?
They'd finished the photocopying 🤣
Why would she have signed a legally binding agreement like that? Nothing in it for her.
I would imagine it was part of the procedure to mount her claim against Red Bull. She goes to HR with her claims, and they say "Fine, if you want to lunch a claim, both parties have to sign this NDA to stop them from talking about it". Not a problem for Horner to sign it, so she does otherwise her claim goes nowhere...Seen it before.
Edit: Also given where she worked, and the secrecy they like to surround themselves with, may even be part of her employment contract.
ouch:
Not sure about Seb returning to F1, yes I miss his openness and humour.
Hopefully it won't be a repeat of Michael Schumacher's return to Mercedes if it does happen.
I watched the interview with Seb. He was pushed for an answer and his response was that yes, he's thought about it as he misses some aspects, but the question about talking to team principals wasn't connected and was answered more in a way that he was talking to them about other things, not about rejoining.
Meanwhile in the Guardian.
‘I’d love it if he came back’: Hamilton backs Vettel to take his seat at Mercedes
Sergeant's binned it in FP1, he could blame the chassis I s'pose
Sergeant : I need a new gearbox!
Williams : We will check the spare supplies
Sergeant : Hurry, I must race this weekend!
Williams : Are you sure it is not just the green cable we use to adjust your drink fluid speed, we have some of them?
[url= https://i.postimg.cc/X70KnNJP/Empty-spares-Shelf.pn g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/X70KnNJP/Empty-spares-Shelf.pn g"/> [/img][/url]
Quote from James Vowles in the bbc practice report isn't encouraging for Sargeant's F1 future. If only there had been some warning signs last season...
Team principal James Vowles described the crash as "frustrating", saying Sargeant ran wide because "he didn't quite realise where he was with where the grass was on the outside and put a wheel on the grass.
"What you saw here wasn't a driver making a mistake because they were pushing to the limit. It's a very different type of mistake, a frustrating one by all accounts, because it wasn't on the limit of what the car could do.
"There was far more turning potential in there. He just didn't know where the car was on track relative to where he expected it to be anyway."
Yeah, that's a damning condemnation of your driver's skills to a worldwide audience.
That makes it a safety issue too. If his awareness is that bad, he's a danger to everyone else on the track.
If only there had been some warning signs last season…
In many, many, years of following F1 I can’t remember any other driver that’s got lost on the track
I can’t remember any other driver that’s got lost on the track
Same track, same team, same abundance of talent - I give you Nicholas Latifi turning the wrong way mid chicane
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFdeYOCFHg
Is that James May saying 'oh crikey'?🤣
In many, many, years of following F1 I can’t remember any other driver that’s got lost on the track
Kimi Raikkonen *I think* got lost at silverstone when he returned to f1 with lotus. It was after the track layout had been changed. It stuck in my mind because I did the same thing in grand tourismo.
cant find a video of it, so I probably made it up to make myself feel better about my virtual racing ability.
Martin Brundle (so he says 🙂 ) once had a big crash in practice/qualifying, dashed back to the pits and jumped in the spare car. Ken Tyrrell says "are you ok?" "Sure," says Martin. "Remind me - which way do I turn out of the pits?" They declined to start the car. 🙂
Well that qualy was a lot closer than I was expecting. Checo doing a sterling job. And others not too far behind on a circuit I expected Red Bull to be out of sight on.
Sainz showing Charles up again and if Aston had any sense they’d be popping him in alongside Fernando next season. Lance proved again he’s a liability.
Same track, same team, same abundance of talent – I give you Nicholas Latifi turning the wrong way mid chicane
ah, I’d convinced myself that was Sargeant too. Williams have a strong run of driver talen at the moment.
I know Rosset was useless, did he get lost though?
I know Sauber (or whatever they call themselves this week) are basically in a holding pattern, but why the heck is Zhou still in that car? *
* rhetorical question....$$$$$
Ted Kravitz fact from this morning: there was as much time separating the top eight as there was between Verstappen and p2 last year
I found it depressing reading the Andrew Benson article today, that all drivers are having to manage their tyres over one quali lap, 3.6 miles! Is this the best that Pirelli can do, or are F1 tyres still designed to wear quickly to make things interesting?
"I found it depressing reading the Andrew Benson article today, that all drivers are having to manage their tyres over one quali lap, 3.6 miles! Is this the best that Pirelli can do, or are F1 tyres still designed to wear quickly to make things interesting?"
Pirelli have been repeatedly asked to address this issue, and either can't or won't do so, no-one seems to know which.
Williams gonna need to get a move on with that spare chassis.
https://twitter.com/Motorsport/status/1776838936851046831
"I found it depressing reading the Andrew Benson article today,"
Aren't they all?
Joking aside, F1/FIA should put some pressure on Pirelli to either a. Improve their tyres. Or b. Bring another supplier in.
I think I've read an article where Benson ruled the latter out.
Joking aside, F1/FIA should put some pressure on Pirelli to either a. Improve their tyres. Or b. Bring another supplier in
In Oct 23 Pirelli beat Bridgestone to have their contract extended to 2027 or 28. Hardly a red flag from the FIA. Pirelli are delivering against a spec set by the FIA, so things like tyre degradation and durability are part of that spec. If the FIA wanted a robust, grippy tyre that could be pushed hard they could specify that and invite tenders but that's not looking likely.
Bringing back a tyre war may sound appealing but then you end up with another fixed performance offset that's baked in for the season (assuming tyre compounds are regulated as they are now). That's hardly going to improve racing - and if you want to allow in season development of tyres you need more testing which is more cost for the teams, more time away for the mechanics in an already busy calendar, so basically a non starter.
Andrew Benson answers the tyre question here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68649304
Andrew: It's not for me to say what the F1 rules should be, but I can tell you that there is no appetite among F1 stakeholders for a 'tyre war', as it is known when there is more than one tyre supplier in competition.
But to address the central issue in the question - ie tyre degradation and management - it does not require multiple suppliers to stop those being such an issue as they are now.
The Pirelli tyres supplied to F1 are most unlike what might be called a typical racing tyre, in that they are very thermally sensitive, and typically require gentle treatment to prevent them overheating. If they become too hot, then the grip never tends to come back.
This means drivers can hardly ever - even on qualifying laps - push to the limit. This is a very abnormal situation - and was certainly not the case when predecessors Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear were in F1 in the 1990s and 2000s, whether there was competition or not. And it's not how the tyres behave in other categories where Pirelli is not the supplier, for example in endurance racing or IndyCars.
Pirelli has repeatedly been asked in recent years to stop the tyres behaving in this way, and in addition to widen their working temperature window as well as to make the 'extreme' wet tyre better.
F1 had the opportunity to change tyre suppliers last year, when Bridgestone made a bid to return. Many people were pushing F1 chairman Stefano Domenicali to make the switch, but in the end he preferred to stick with Pirelli.
I must admit, I thought Pirelli produced these crap tyres because that's what they'd been asked to produce. That article suggests they can't produce anything better 🙄
That explains why the P Zero's that came on my road car where so crap 😉
Undriveable, cars stepping out in corners and spinning on the straights - that would liven things up!... 🙂
the-muffin-manFull Member
Undriveable, cars stepping out in corners and spinning on the straights – that would liven things up!… 🙂
Seems a bit late in the day to be making that discovery doesn't it 😂 The whole active aero thing sounds like it will be pretty complex and only necessary anyway because the new PU is going to be such utter shite.
I find it slightly alarming that the idea of dumping an absolute shitload of rear downforce even necessitated a simulator to predict those consequences. It’s not exactly the MG Metro Cup, what were they thinking?
Ditch the wings and add big fans to suck them to the ground. Fast round slow corners. Less dirty air for the cars behind if the force the blown air to exit upwards instead of out the back. Loads of new opportunities for interesting solutions...
WCA hovercraft racing was invented and done years ago…
WCA hovercraft racing was invented and done years ago…
Umm...
I'd pay actual money to watch 20 F1 drivers tackle the M25 in Vauxhall Astravans. Everyone of a certain age will have seen a smoking, grubby 1.6 litre Astravan being driven with gusto up the chuff of a fast moving Porsche 928 or similar on the M25 before speed cameras became a thing.
Ditch the wings and add big fans to suck them to the ground.
Bernie Ecclestone's team tried this once. Not much came of it IIRC.
Bernie Ecclestone’s team tried this once. Not much came of it IIRC.
Brabham. Banned immediately 😂😂😂
Technically, Brabham withdrew it as continuing to race it would have hampered support from the other teams for Bernie to conquer the entire world, although it would definitely have been on borrowed time if they continued to race it. But yeah, one race, one win. 🙂
"I’d pay actual money to watch 20 F1 drivers tackle the M25 in Vauxhall Astravans. Everyone of a certain age will have seen a smoking, grubby 1.6 litre Astravan being driven with gusto up the chuff of a fast moving Porsche 928 or similar on the M25 before speed cameras became a thing"
Fastest vehicle known to mankind. Fact!
.
[bin dun] 🙂
Just about to post that - the pesky Americans aren't giving up!!
F3 and F2 teams too...
Fan cars have been tried over the years and when they don't break then they tend to be quite successful. Unfortunately they break a lot because they are banned or withdrawn before they can be properly developed. Give the F1 guys a couple of years warning and I reckon they could be a feasible option this time around.
[b]Brabham BT46[/b]
[i]The "B" variant of the car, also known as the "fan car", was introduced at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix as a counter to the dominant ground-effect Lotus 79. The BT46B generated an immense amount of downforce by means of a fan, claimed to be for increased cooling, but which also extracted air from beneath the car. The car only raced once in this configuration in the Formula One World Championship—when Niki Lauda won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp.
The "fan car" concept was withdrawn by Brabham after one race even though the FIA had ruled it could be used for the remainder of that season. Murray, Brabham's chief designer, later said that the car was withdrawn by Brabham due to concerns from Bernie Ecclestone, the team owner. Ecclestone became chief executive of the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA) in the same year that the Brabham BT46 appeared, and he was concerned that the upset from other teams over the fan car could collapse FOCA. Murray said in 2008 that Ecclestone "was working on getting his foothold in the Formula One Constructors’ Association and launching himself towards what he's doing now", with the words "what he's doing now" referring to Ecclestone's position as chief executive of the Formula One Group, which he held from 1987 until 2017.[3][/i]
[b]Chaparral 2J[/b]
[i]The 2J competed in the Can-Am series and qualified at least two seconds quicker than the next fastest car, but mechanical problems limited its success. It only ran in the 1970 season, after which it was outlawed by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). [/i]
So that is 1 win from 1 entry and 2 seconds a lap quicker in qualies which isn't too bad. Since then, fan cars have been absent from the motorsport world, as FIA regulations clamped down strongly against any form of movable aerodynamic device.
Alonso re-signed at Aston
Its not looking great for Sainz and Albon is it?
RB - Max + 1 (probably Checco now he accepts hes racing for 2nd every weekend)
Ferrari - Charles & Lewis
McLaren - Norris & Pistri
Mercedes - Russell +1 (sounds like they're going to take a chance on Antonelli)
Aston - Alonso & Stroll?
The only other reasonable seat is to take a punt on Audi (maybe for Sainz given his fathers connections)
Genuinely crushed that we're not going to see Alonso and Verstappen go head to head in the same car! I guess it might be a good opportunity at Audi for a relatively young driver though, maybe they could sign both Albon and Sainz?
Anronelli would be a huge gamble for Merc. When was the last time a top team took on a rookie? (Well, before Bearman) Hamilton at McLaren? They weren't really a top team when they signed Piastri, Norris, Vandoorne. Are Merc still a top team?
Surely Albon on a short contract at Merc and Antontelli to Williams would make more sense?