Formula 1 - 2022 Season

Small correction: the engines are no longer called Honda engines, but Red Bull Powertrains or something like that. Though from the looks of things Honda is staying very closely involved.

But yeah that the Ferrari engine is back is as much witnessed in Bottas driving the hell out of that Alfa as in the two Ferraris. How ironic that he is right next to Hamilton on the grid, battling with him for the first corner! That will be something to watch.

Als I am very happy to see LeClerc up there where he belongs. For a minute there I was worried that one of the most talented drivers in F1 was stuck in an underperforming car, but now he and Max can have a proper battle. I don’t mind by the way that the battle becomes four or five way (Hamilton is a fantastic driver still also), but these two certainly are high on my list as people who will be up there for the coming years.

Hopefully some of the other teams get their act together in time for the midfield to stay close to the front and have good battles there.
 
About last year yes Hamilton was deserving to win the last course but Verstappen easily deserved to win the year. I remember when Mercedes crashed Max out of the course twice and got plenty of points thanks to this. One by Bottas after an incredible "rookie mistake" at the start and one by no less than Hamilton after a clearly on purpose, criminal and very dangerous action where he simply pushed Max outside in a very fast corner. He should have being harshly punished after that, which he wasn't.


I was expecting Leclerc to have pole, and I am expecting him to win this. This year Verstappen will fight against Leclerc and Ferrari, not Mercedes. I wrote way back then Leclerc was champion material, and I still stand by that.
 
Freemantle said:
Very enjoyable first race, pleased for Ferrari, good to see the nasty team getting a good dose of karma at the end too.
Click to expand...

If you believe in karma then they were already squared.

Anyway shame that it went like this. It is a track where Leclerc has been good before and it will be interesting to see how the car will run on other tracks. Ditto for Mercedes once they’ve solved their porpoising issues they will probably still be competitive.

I’m never a fan of crashes and engine problems deciding an outcome. But at least Ferrari was rewarded for their hard work. Don’t forget though that they have also basically cheated not long ago, so the period of not being able to compete was deserved, karma or not ;).
 
I've been rooting for Haas and Williams since watching drive to survive.
It's good to see Kevin come in and just place 5th. That's a huge win for Hass there, I'm so happy for them.
As for Williams, Albon actually did them okay? But I'm sure they're waiting for that top 10 to really start getting some money.

Mclaren hurting. RB will be in top form next race I'm sure
 
WHAT.

I wanted more close racing from a closer field, but I’m not sure I’m ready for another rollercoaster of zaniness like last year. I’m definitely not ready for another year of Croft’s screaming. I should take this oportunidad to learn Spanish and start watching ESPN Deportes.

The passing and repassing between Max and Charles was promising.

So much for a two stop. I wonder what this means for the rest of the year, if they need this many stops on the hardest tires on a not that hot night race?

Three out of four RBPT engines didn’t finish the race. (Honda may have dodged a bullet with the engine rename. ;) ) Curious. Battery issue? The new 10% ethanol fuel causing problems when the tank gets closer to empty? They don’t have much time to figure it out for next weekend.

Toto said the new parts Merc have coming for next week should cure half of their top speed deficit.
 
Read somewhere it might be an issue with the fuel system.

It does look like the new cars are more capable of following without too much trouble. While I like the new look, for some reason they didn't appear to be as fast.

Ferrari looks good. RBR as well assuming they don't have some fundamental reliability issue. Mercedes is a bit on the back foot but I'm sure they'll com back soon enough.

Haas seems to have done a good job. Let's hope they can keep it up. But Aston and McLaren really dropped the ball. Doesn't look like there is much speed in those cars. Williams also not impressing much.

Some progress from Alfa and not really front Alpine. Btw every time I see that pink car I automatically think I'm looking at a force india.

Schumacher also isn't impressing me much. Didn't feel he was that much faster than mazepin last year and although we are only one race in, no jes
 
new fuel (more bio) combined new standard fuel pump may be causing issues

but i noticed the energy harvesting lights on the back of the red bull behaving oddly, like flashing on just one side, flashing longer, shorter
 
Few things I picked up from too much F1 media.

Gasly's problem may have been an MGU-K failure. The MGU-K is oil-cooled, per Scarbs on Peter Windsor, thus the small-ish oil fire in its vicinity. If they're lucky they won't have to replace too much else on their PU.

RB's problem may have been with the fuel system, as tongue and Bludd have said. The plastic casing on a standard part may degrade because of the ethanol in the new fuels. The FIA checked the part on the top ten after quali, and RB (dunno if others) replaced theirs. Are RB's failures down to their specific fuel (is it different than AT's, or do all RBPT customers use the same fuel supplier?)? Did they run closer to empty than others and thus were more affected by this new ethanol mixture supposedly acting differently when closer to fumes? If the fuel just cut off, RB may have gotten away with no engine damage.

Oscar Piastri on the F1 Post-Race Show said Alpine's sim work didn't show any porpoising. Interesting that Alpine seems to have solved their porpoising via setup tweaks.

I honestly didn't see obvious porpoising on the Mercs (I saw them bouncing at the end of the main straight but I thought that was track bumpiness), but everyone's saying it's still there. George says it's affecting their tire life and brake temps. Lewis said their car isn't bad at the start of a stint, but they have huge deg and lack of rear downforce and straight-line speed. Toto says their car is too draggy because they're "over-winged." I think I heard that the Mercs were running their high-downforce rear wings, but it's weird to square that with Lewis' low rear downforce complaint. I assume he's talking about more than just his drifting out of T1 after putting on new hards.

Charles said he braked early to let Max pass him into T1 specifically to attack him back in T4. Still, Ferrari (Mattia?) said RB was keeping pace on used tires, and Max was overheating his brakes fighting with Charles. If RB gets away at the start of the next race, they may have a slight pace advantage over Ferrari. As easily as Max seemed to pass Charles into T1 because of RB's supposed top speed advantage, Charles equally easily repassed him in what looks like a shorter DRS zone. That could be Ferrari's supposedly superior battery deployment, which I think they debuted last year. I've heard a lot of talk about Ferrari's batteries over the years (first it was the split batteries, now IIRC they have an 800V system?) and next to none about everyone else's.
 
Pete said:
The passing and repassing between Max and Charles was promising.
Click to expand...
TBH it was nothing new, some tracks are just laid out like that - one gets just past the other with DRS only for the passed driver to get DRS couple corners later for re-pass.
 
Forgive me for this meme and if my ignorance is showing, but someone has to do it….

F1: We can’t hold a race in a country at war with a neighbor.
Also F1: We can hold a race in a country at war with a neighbor and hold FP2 immediately after a missile attack nine six miles from the racetrack.

BBC Sport has learned that a significant number of drivers had concerns about the safety of the event following the attack.

But eventually they were convinced to go ahead and race after being given further information by bosses.

Part of this information involved the possible consequences of not racing, such as how easily teams and drivers would be able to leave the country if the race did not happen.

…

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of F1's governing body the FIA, said: "They are targeting the infrastructure, not the civilians, and, of course, not the track. We've checked the facts and we've got assurances from the highest level that this is a secure place. Let's go on racing."
Click to expand...

Cripes. FIA president Sulayem doing his best to help us forget about Masi. Vettel picked a good time to catch Covid, though the drivers probably could have benefited from another veteran voice.

Anyway, FP revealed even RB suffers from porpoising. It just bounces at a lower frequency and amplitude. Merc still seems to bounce the most. Ferrari bounces more than you’d expect. Magnussen’s car had hydraulic issues again, causing him to miss a lot of running. Both Ferraris clipped the wall at one point, causing them to miss their long runs. Tsunoda’s engine failed at the end of the session.

Apparently Gasly’s fire in Bahrain wasn’t an MGU-K failure but a spontaneous battery failure. They’re interconnected, but I guess that changes from a mechanical failure to an electrical issue?
 
Last edited:
Guys, 10% Ethanol in the fuel will not cause any degradation issues in modern times. We have rubber hoses which can withstand Ethanol mixes for months and a lot of people running turbo cars use E85 fuel (including me). It's not a rocket science and there are off the shelf fuel systems (pump, PTFE hoses, AN connectors, etc) all made to work with Ethanol or even Methanol fuels. F1 teams are way ahead of mainstream users and I'm sure they have fuel systems able to run pure alcohol or even rocket fuel if needed ;)
Where it matters most is lower energy densities of Ethanol compared to regular fuels, meaning more of it needs to be burned to achieve the same power output and that's where engineers were seeing 5hp to 10hp power loss, which at least Ferrari claimed to have overcome somewhere else. Ethanol though gives much stronger knock resistance, allowing running higher boost or more advanced timing (the reason I run E85 on my BMW N54 engine).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Formula 1 - 2024 Season
3 4 5
Replies
81
Views
4K
iroboto
iroboto
Kaotik
Formula 1 - 2021 Season
21 22 23
Replies
455
Views
41K
Pete
P
B
Formula 1 - 2019 Season
18 19 20
Replies
383
Views
39K
Pete
P
Kaotik
Formula 1 - 2018 Season
20 21 22
Replies
422
Views
49K
Davros
D
Kaotik
Formula 1 - 2015 season
22 23 24
Replies
470
Views
47K
Dave Baumann
Dave Baumann
Back
Top