Formula 1 - 2023 Season

I believe it. Max gave the wall out of the last turn a hard kiss in his last Q3 lap, IIRC, and his sector 3 time was two tenths up on his best.

Charles demoted three places for impeding Lando in the tunnel in Q3.

Apparently Lewis crashed in FP3 and a Monaco crane displayed Merc’s new floor to the world, too.
 
what an amazing quali but im gutted so close for my boi

hopefully something happens in the race
 
quite tense monaco grand prix and a lot of collisions with very few retirements
 
Odd quali. Light rain at the beginning meant slippery painted lines and an almost phantom slippery section that sent a lot of cars into the gravel due to losing traction on throttle. LeClerc didn't make it out of Q1! He said later he thought there was something wrong with the car because he had problems into left-handers (on a "right-hand," or clockwise, circuit). Perez, Russell out in Q2. Alonso scuffed his floor in the gravel which compromised his Q3 (to the extent that Stroll outqualified him). Lewis was nine tenths off Max after their first Q3 laps (which drew a rueful smile from Toto). Max ended up over four tenths clear of P2, and he was a tenth and a half up when he bailed on his second Q3 lap because he didn't need it. Gasly (P4!) outqualified Ocon. I chalked all this up to slick tires in overcast, slightly damp conditions being a bit of a lottery.

Then I saw Peter Windsor's quali summary and he had an interesting observation (hypothesis may be uncharitable considering how long he's been around F1). He said he noticed Max extending (not shortening or driving optimally) T3 yesterday, and he thought it was to overexert the tires (which are on the harder end of the Pirelli spectrum) to put some heat into them, which then helped him with grip on rest of the lap. Lando said in his post-quali interview that McLaren seem to go well in these conditions, and that could be that the car tends to overheat the tire (which usually means better quali/one-lap but worse race/long-run pace). Windsor said Carlos' and Lando's less efficient cornering style meant more tire scrub and temp which explained their better performance today, and that he noticed in Monaco that Lewis seemed to drive the updated Merc more aggressively, which may be why he outperformed George today. (George said his car was bottoming in places it wasn't earlier in practice, but it's unclear if that's because of a setup change or because of low tire temp and thus maybe pressure and diameter thus insufficient ride height in high-speed corners, but what do I know about racing. Almost everyone was complaining about bouncing/porpoising in the last two corners in FP1, though, even Red Bull, so teams started their cars too low.)

I think Ocon said he made a mistake in T10 in his last Q3 lap, so maybe I can't read too much into Gasly's racing style from his outqualifying Ocon. Lewis also said he made a mistake in T10 which cost him P2. Checo lost it in I think T7, a medium 90º left-hander, which I thought was because he put his car too far onto the paint but could be because his generally smooth driving style ("tire whisperer") meant lower tire temps and less grip, particularly on the less-stressed right hand tires. Windsor thought LeClerc's clinical driving style may have meant under-temp tires, which may explain his problem with left-hand turns. Or maybe he just has a cracked chassis.

Windsor talks about the Rob Wilson the driver coach. Wilson said Kimi Raikkonen was a natural in his style of creating a neutral platform before turn in via the brakes. Stroll was a student of Wilson's. Stroll is also generally good in the rain, presumably because of this. So did Stroll outqualify Alonso today just because Alonso had floor damage, or did he (wisely) ignore some of Wilson's teaching and scrub some heat into his tires? Maybe he's finally over his bike crash and getting to grips with the car, seeing as he matched Alonso in Q1 and Q2.

Gasly got two separate three-place grid penalties for impeding, which dropped him from P4 to P10.

IIRC, Sainz and Norris did the same times they did in Q2 in Q3, 1:12.7s. Max did a 12.7 in Q2 and dialed that up to a 12.2 that could have been a 12.0 in Q3. A Red Bull was probably going to be on pole anyway, but Max is obviously as good at wringing the neck of a car in quali as he is at being easy on the tires in the race. Not every driver seems to master both (e.g., Perez the human traction control able to extend tire stints in the race but not the fastest over a single lap).
 
Pretty interesting race because of a number of unusually bad (team/car) performances and some fun (albeit mainly DRS-assisted T1) overtakes (Russell on Sainz, Alonso on Ocon). RB were dominant, Merc made a step, and Ferrari and Aston lost a step. Without knowing how much Max was cruising, the Merc seemed half a second slower on race pace, though Lewis only ended 20s behind Max after 66 laps. Toto said Lewis backed off at the end so the “true” gap was 15-16 rather than 20s. Still huge.

Max said he thought the hard tire wore like the medium (that’s bad). Charles said his starting hard tire felt bad (at the end of his stint I think he was a second a lap slower than Carlos on softs) but the second set felt better. Inter-set variability? Track evolution? Different ambient temps (maybe it cooled off slightly though the conditions remained overcast throughout)? Still, he finished out of the points.

Lando ruined his race by touching Lewis at lap 1 T2 and basically running at the back from there. Piastri was able to remain about where he started. Similarly, Charles basically didn’t make any progress starting from pit lane (Ferrari changed his rear end) but Carlos remained about where he was. It seemed hard to move up or down too many places.

Checo, George, and Alonso may have been the prime movers in the race.

Some relevant tire quotes. From the typically excellent Mark Hughes, on quali (with tons of tire tech talk):

Chronologically, this performance comes directly after Norris and Piastri were the fastest cars on track in the late, wet stages of Monaco. Therein lies a vital clue. The McLaren generates heat in its front tyres very effectively, possibly better than any other car and in cool or damp conditions this becomes a super-valuable trait. So much so, it can even make a car quicker than an aerodynamically superior machine.

And from Carlos, on the race:

“Honestly I just spent the whole race managing tyres because we know we are very hard on them,” Sainz said after the race.

“With this high-deg circuit I just couldn’t push, we know it’s a weakness of our car and coming to a high-deg circuit and a two-stop race we were just managing the whole way, trying to make it to the target laps of the stint and still falling short of some of them.

“The weaknesses of the car coming alive at a circuit like this, with the high-speed corners and how hard we are on tyres. … I still believe with the bouncing and the high-speed weakness we had we were never going to be very competitive around here so it’s too early to tell.”

Sainz said the “biggest surprise” was the pace of the Mercedes, with Ferrari finishing “more or less” where it had in Miami – Sainz finished 42.5s off the lead there and 45.6s off the lead in Barcelona.
Edit: Listening to Charles’ radio after the race (see F1’s YT channel), Ferrari said Carlos was fastest on the hards (he ran SMH: soft, medium, then hard). Charles ran HSH, despite having a new set of M, and said his first set of H was “very, very bad” while the second was “okay.”

Charles on Sky F1 post-race interview: quali limitation was a “rear that was super loose and super strange,” race “mostly the front.”
 
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someone needs to go to rbr and put some gremlins in their power unit because they are on a different planet
well, max is. perez needs to be p2 if he is not p1, but he just cant get near max.
 
24 Hours of Le Mans is on! Fred Vasseur was on the grid, Jenson Button is driving a NASCAR entry and I think I saw Giovinazzi in a Ferrari racing suit, and Anthony Davidson is one of a lovely commentary crew (no Crofty shouting!) if we want to keep things vaguely F1.
 
Gio was driving the #51 Ferrari... Leclerc was in the pit box towards the end of the race. There was a whole host of ex F1 drivers competing. I spotted Buemi, Bourdois, Kubica and DiResta.

Anyway Ferrari finally winning something. Its too bad the Toyota crashed with 2 hours to go because for most of the race I think there was only 30 seconds or something between them at most. The Hypercar field was fairly competitive which was good to see even though I think its all BoP'ed. I think next year Lamborghini, Alpine and Honda/Acura are joining too. At that point they almost have more teams competing than in F1.
 
Yep, Gio and Buemi were in the #51 Ferrari. Brendan Hartley (also former F1) drove the #8 Toyota to within about 10secs of the 51 before the last driver change. He actually warned the team over the radio that the rear would lock up under full braking going into the corner his driver replacement locked up and thus crashed in. They still had a sniff of a chance because the 51 stalled and had to be fully restarted (not for the first time) on their last pitstop.

Kobayashi was in the #7 Toyota when it was taken out, crashed into by following cars at the start of a slow zone.

IIRC, Kubica came in second in LMP2, losing to a Polish team with another Polish driver.

Knowing almost nothing about the series or car categories, it was still a good race to catch parts of. Lots of racing at the top of each category.
 
I usually watch a couple of hours every year but this year was indeed pretty good. No doubt the (in the eyes of some unfair) last minute BoP change that had the Toyota's lugging around 40+ kilos of ballast helped. This year the LMP2 field all used the same chassis as well I believe. Didn't follow the GT's much but I think they are always pretty close because of BoP. Last year of the GT's in their current form though. Not sure what its getting replaced with.
 
Incredibly informative video on anti-dive suspension and associated parameters (downforce, pitch/roll, sway bar stiffness, etc.) by BrrrakeF1, former Red Bull performance engineer: Is This F1 Suspension Trick Overpowered?

He ultimately argues that anti-dive only affects performance under braking, and that he sees RB’s strengths as medium and high speed corners and straights moreso than braking. He thinks what RB is doing at the rear in terms of anti-lift under braking and anti-/pro-squat under acceleration has more scope to affect performance than what’s going on in the front because the suspension travel can be 3x greater at the rear. Anti-lift may be preferable for a stable aero platform under braking. Pro-squat may be preferable for low-speed corner exit acceleration. Lewis said that Max (and presumably Alonso) had way more traction out of the low speed (basically all of the) corners in Canada.

Some interesting comments from the video:
There's also the mechanical balance between front and rear axles, oversteer setup puts more load on the rear axle, understeer more load on the front. This can lead to a situation where the front axle doesn't generate enough temperature limiting ultimate grip, and vice versa. Another issue can be from the tires being just on the cusp of being in their working range, and this can lead to balance shifts mid corner as the tire is out of the window on turn in, and turn in balance is ok, but then goes into the window mid corner creating oversteer balance mid corner, then understeer balance on corner exit as the rears come up to temperature, and the fronts fall out. -rolandotillit2867
Mindblowing how complicated this subject is. How do you account aerodynamic balance and car attitude while trimming the setup for a driver's liking? How does slow and fast bump/rebound come into play? What about bump stops? There's just an overwhelming ammount of variables. I guess that's where the truly great talents like Verstappen and Alonso shine (even Hamilton falls flat in that regard, IMO). Just give them whatever and they will figure it out. There's a reason why Senna himself said Jim Clark was the greatest of all. The man avoided messing with setup and prefered to just adapt. -danttonrose3000

It's actually not insane once you isolate which variables you want to work with. -brrrake
How does anti-dive take away brake feel? -ktwei

It entirely depends. In some cars, it doesn't make much difference. In others, it can have a big impact. But in F1 the brake feel related to anti-dive is a 2nd or 3rd order effect - not really a factor. -brrrake
 
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I was in the Mclaren suite for MTL and got to meet Oscar. Greet experience and I recommend it to anyone who happen chances on the tickets.

But really upsetting to see the double stack pit after 10 laps. Apparently they had major tire deg issues
 
24 Hours of Le Mans is on! Fred Vasseur was on the grid, Jenson Button is driving a NASCAR entry and I think I saw Giovinazzi in a Ferrari racing suit, and Anthony Davidson is one of a lovely commentary crew (no Crofty shouting!) if we want to keep things vaguely F1.
Planned to watch the race but completely forgot about it. :confused: Found this Le Mans highlight video and seems it was quite the eventful race!
 
So is Williams lackluster performance everywhere else due the fact their engineers think every track is Silverstone and/or there's only Silverstone?
 
So is Williams lackluster performance everywhere else due the fact their engineers think every track is Silverstone and/or there's only Silverstone?
They got their upgrade in MTL. But it was only for Albon at the time. It’s now been applied to Sargents car.

Williams is currently the fastest in the straights, I’m not sure where they stand in the cornering, but at least they can work on just that going forward. But they are faster than even RB in the straights, it’s going to make it tough for other teams to pass them on DRS zones, and it makes it easy for them to pass on DRS zones so it’s a decent strategy to build around. Monza should be faster than Silverstone if I recall that correctly from playing Forza.

I mean, it should keep them in the points if they can maintain it. I’m expecting Williams to pull out of last place now, as we are starting to see some consistent performance from them since MTL. They are no longer dead last in standing. Points are definitely coming.

Mclaren also did something similar, Lando got the upgrade in Austria, Piastri will get the upgrade for Silverstone.
 
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Huh. “Mixed” conditions working for McLaren again. Hopefully the fight for P2 and P3 lasts all race.
 
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