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.