The cars are cleaner for sure. And it is good to clearly see what appear to be significantly different design approaches.

I am interested to see how the new tires work out.

One of the biggest stories of the year is developing. The return of the original "Silver Arrows", or the rivalry between Mercedes and Audi in just a few years time. My goodness, the imagination just reels at the spectacle of it. RBR would be the last of the major privateer teams, battling for wins with a Porsche hybrid hyperdrive in back. The only way this gets better would be if they allowed all wheel drive.

I find it interesting that Andretti Motorsports is saying they already have an engine supplier lined up if they are granted a 2024 entry into F1 . So I would think that would rule out Porsche and Audi .

Isn't the only team with extra engine capacity Reneult/Alpine ? Could they possibly be working behind the scenes with Honda ? Or Ferrari ? Any thoughts on this ? I know it's only speculation but there aren't too many choices . Maybe a stand alone team but collaborate with Haas as a quasi sister team ?

Q2 tire rule is dead… you no longer have to start with that tire…

Good! Get back to speed as the metric.

Let the games begin, https://racer.com/2022/02/19/medland-the-f1-spying-stakes-increase/.

But it looks like the FIA is making that a non-issue, https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-new-show-and-tell-technical-sessions/8310121/. I think this is a dumb idea, as if teams don’t have enough to do over a race weekend, lets add tasking thats takes away from race preparation.

So I’ve been wondering about Haas and their significant Russian backing by Matzespin. If Russia invades Ukraine and gets sanctioned, will Haas have enough funding to make it without Russian money? Obviously pure speculation, but I thought I would throw it out there.

^^^ Interesting question . If this were to become an issue it could open the door for an Andretti partnership . Just speculation .

I hadn’t heard about that rule, that sounds like a really stupid idea to me.

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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1645495349.jpg



Might have been a stunner without the damn BWT pink.

I wonder if the Russian GP will happen this year under the sanctions? And can HAAS get any funding from the Russians or is that over?

After Max & Seb's comments, I'm betting the Russian GP ain't happening this year.

some snippets from f1TV form day 2 of testing:

Aston Martin are struggling with porposing, with the car banging and sparking off the ground. Lots of teams are struggling with a similar issue, but not to that extent. Mercedes look much better than yesterday, but their 'porpoising' isn't fully solved - Hamilton looks like he is struggling with the car through the corners.

Palmer also mentioned the rumours that are swirling through the paddock about the weights of the cars. Some are over the minimum limit by quite a margin, and getting those weights down could prove to be a fair old issue before the first race of the season.

Regarding Haas - Mick had a good morning, racking up exactly a race distance. More importantly, he looked comfortable in the car, the car looked sharper than yesterday and that gives them more hope of joining the midfield.

Alfa Romeo are on the back foot. With a new generation of car, something that's so different - mileage is key, and that's been shown by all the other teams experiencing issues such as porpoising. At least they have the data to fix it, whereas Alfa will be behind on the learning curve considering they've already lost a lot of running. On top of that they have two new drivers who need to acclimatize to the team and to the engineers.

While testing isn't always indicative of a team's true form, looking at testing from across the last couple of years, Mercedes looked strongest in 2020, topping two out of the three days. And Red Bull returned the favour in 2021, also topping two of three.
All of which points to both McLaren potentially being one to watch - and the timing sheets lighting up in Bahrain for the test in a couple of weeks' time. (Ferrari look Ok too)

Lawrance baretto chatted to Carlos Sainz earlier. He followed Verstappen and then Alonso very closely yesterday to see if the new rules have made it easier to follow - and he noticed a positive difference versus last year, which bodes well for overtaking opportunities this year

Good for him. I'm a much bigger Vettel fan these days than when he was world champion.

Haas officially announced today all references to Russian sponsorship have been removed from the car . The car will just be white . I wonder when the sponsorship checks stop coming ? An opening for Andretti ?

I think the car looks great! In general I am not a fan of pink but some in there just makes it pop vs just blue.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/60523049

clearly the right decision. Calls St Petersburg into question as well

Agreed!
I wonder if Andretti can swoop in ?

Gunther Steiner says a decision on Uralkali sponsorship and Nikita Mazepin's future with the team will be decided next week . That tells me the lawyers are pouring through the contracts to see what a departure looks like .

Steiner stated the team is strong financially and has no affect on the team moving forward . Sounds like Fittipaldi will slot into the seat and the team seamlessly moves forward .

That would open up potential new sponsorship opportunities and/or second seat drivers . I am sure Michael Andretti is in contact with Gene Haas . Let's see how this plays out .

I sure will not miss THE slowest driver every race last year. Maza-spin needs to go away.

I can't imagine any way the Russian GP or anything or anyone from Russia being part of F1 in the next decade. Putin is a murderer and a criminal. Abosolute psychotic who needs to be stopped. And banning anything associated with Russia is how we do it. Glad Gene Haas is on board with his country's policy. It's not like anyone blames Mazepin for Putin. To the point, this is how Putin is stopped, short of shooting innocent Russians.

Glad that Ron Dennis didn't do his deal with China. I hope the Audi deal goes through. And looking forward to Red Bull Porsche.

Andretti confirms Renault engine, was really their only realistic choice, will also help Alpine too accelerate their own power unit development

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=120&v=xJ7cj79QEII&feature=emb_ logo

I'm sure now with dreadful Ukraine situation the Andretti's will be talking to Gene Haas about buying his team to save the $200million entry fee or 'dilution payment'

More here,
https://www.racefans.net/2022/02/25/andretti-has-deal-to-use-renault-power-units-and-plans-uk-base-for-f1-team/

Recruiting has kicked off too, used to things moving extremely quickly in F1 but was very surprised to get a call only 4 days after it all went public, the team will need to be up and running ASAP as it will be a monumental achievement just making it to the grid for 2024

I wish the Andretti's the best of luck as having the Andretti family dynasty involved will only make F1 more appealing for fans!

Porpoising
 

So the new cars are "porpoising", I assume that's a rebounding fore and aft which would not be a fun thing to battle for an entire race.

Back when Rob Walker was writing F1 race reports for Road & Track magazine, the new era of ground effects brought in by the Lotus 78 caused the drivers to complain about porpoising.

New cars, new rules, and porpoising is back.

One of the reports I read about testing in Portugal said that the drivers who observed Max said his car looked the smoothest. There is suspicion that he's been instructed to take it easy so as not to give away something that Red Bull has up its sleeve.

Further, Scarbs was talking today about the front A arms on the RB18 and he suspects that Adrian Newey has come up with something that causes the front end to dive dramatically under heavy braking thereby making the front wing more effective, reducing the porpoising that some other teams are experiencing.

And Mercedes today allowed their drivers to drop some of the sandbags off at the end of day 3 so that everyone would be biting their nails wondering if it was just going to be the same old same old.

I would love to see Ferrari and McLaren fighting for the wins and championships this year. My dream at the end of the season would be Danny, Lando and Carlos 1, 2 and 3 in drivers points.

Possibly, Newey has found a way to reduce the sensitivity to ride height? Maybe that's what the huge tunnel intakes are, I don't know. Or maybe RB has better heave springs.

According to this article Andretti started talking to Haas about purchasing the team two years ago .

https://the-race.com/formula-1/andretti-has-been-trying-to-buy-haas-f1-team-for-two-years/

Sky F1 Germany is reporting Haas is releasing Mazepin with Fittipaldi driving the rest of the year .

I can see that, He would very 'unwelcome' Hass needed to get on with racing not politics

Yep. Anything Russian needs to be disposed of. Get back to racing.

And it's now official: Haas F1 has terminated it's contract with Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin effective immediately . Fittipaldi will be testing next weekend and is familiar with the car being the reserve driver .

But rumors are getting stronger that Giovinazzi may be placed into the seat being a Ferrari contract driver. It is time for Fittipaldi to step up and show he has the stuff to keep the seat .

I don't have much faith in Gio. I would like to see Hulk return to a regular seat in F1.

+ 1 on Hulk returning

Will Haas be short on funding now ? I had thought the team had been teetering on survival/selling in the past year or so before the Russian sponsorship?

Gene Haas doesn't seem concerned about the money per this article . I would not be surprised if Ferrari throw in some $$$ to Haas to give the seat to Giovinazzi .

https://www.yahoo.com/news/haas-run-rebranded-f1-cars-220122491.html

It could be posturing. Don't want vultures circling overhead like when Force India was in trouble.

There may be something that Haas has with or against Andretti. Why would you not want to tie up with a fellow American especially now?