F1 2024

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

Did anyone else notice Stroll ? After his spin, he willingly *drove* through a wet gravel trap to rejoin (and beached himself, shocker). With an asphalt road on either side of him. How is he still in F1 ?

His dad owns the team, and he bought the team for his son to drive F1.

[rfuerst911sc]

^^^ Daddy and his $$$$$

[Captain Ahab Jr]

4x new rookies confirmed for 2025

Bortoleto to Sauber
Doohan to Alpine
Antonelli to Mercedes
Barman to Haas

Great news as F1 needed to replenish the driver gene pool and replace a few slower drivers not performing well enough

Just need to get rid of two more

[rfuerst911sc]

Captain in your opinion will Stroll Sr ever get rid of his son for the good of the team ?

[astrochex]

My Intervention post for the Vegas GP is 9.9, adjacent to the Sphere. I’m gonna bring shades.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Captain in your opinion will Stroll Sr ever get rid of his son for the good of the team ?

You must have read my mind when I wrote the last line of my previous post

Don't think Lance is as bad as people consider him to be

Sure I mentioned helping him win his F3 championship and getting enough super license points to drive in F1

Back then I did question were we making an average driver look really good or helping a good driver look exceptional.

Came to the conclusion Lance is a good driver, even now in F1, I think he's good but without the advantage he had in F3 he isn't showing himself to be exceptional

Don't think Lawrence will get rid of Lance as I'm convinced before that point is reached Lance will be leading an AMF1 works Le Mans/WEC Hyper car team.

100% believe Lawrence is investing in AMF1 in a bid to win both F1 constructors and drivers champonships. As RB are proving so effectively you can't win a constructors championship with only one strong driver

Lawrence has built/building the newest, most up to date F1 facility on the grid, partnered with Honda, brought in Newey, hiring top talent, and I'm sure actively doing everything to entice Verstappen to join the team

AMF1 are sending out some serious messages of intent, can see it quickly becoming a top 3 or more like a top 5 team along with RB, Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren fighting it out for each championship

Hoping from 2026 F1 is going to get a lot more exciting to follow but I've got big reservations one engine manufacturer is going to nail the new 2026 engine regs and spoil what could be some epic seasons of 5x way manufacturers title fights and maybe even 8x way drivers title fights

[rfuerst911sc]

Looks like the $$$ needed to play in the F1 sand box combined with declining sales has caused VW/Audi to sell a majority in the F1 team to Qatar investment group . So much for being a German team

https://www.sportbible.com/f1/qatar-investors-shock-announcement-f1-team-328935-20241107

[rfuerst911sc]

This article states that the contract Jack Doohan has with Alpine is only for the first five races next year . If Colapinto does well the last three races Doohans career with Alpine could be short . Of course if Doohan does well in those five races he could stay with the team .


https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/franco-colapintos-manager-stuns-interviewer-when-asked-to-rate-his-2025-formula-1-chances/

[Captain Ahab Jr]

F1 is so ruthless, sharks circling around in the kiddies driver pool

[Reg]

[QUOTE

Hoping from 2026 F1 is going to get a lot more exciting to follow but I've got big reservations one engine manufacturer is going to nail the new 2026 engine regs and spoil what could be some epic seasons of 5x way manufacturers title fights and maybe even 8x way drivers title fights[/QUOTE]

And if I may ask Captain who you think will nail the engine regulations?

Are you willing to share? 😀

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Ohhhh, impossible question to answer but I'll share my thoughts

Ferrari, think they'll be at the front end, most established team, hasn't suffered any recent disruptions to affect their stability/continuity

Mercedes, the strongest team of the current hybrid era, RB Powertrains poached a lot of experience staff, not enough good experienced people to go around in F1 so they will have definitely been weakened

Honda, currently the strongest or one of the strongest teams of the current hybrid era, recently shutdown their F1 programme, many people transferred back to road car/motorbike parts of the business, established team but experience/knowledge needs time to rebuild up again

RB Powertrain, newly set up, big influx of Mercedes people, newest facility but mixing people from rival teams can cause a little competitive internal friction which can hamper progress and it takes time for a newly established team to work effectively

Alpine, no longer

Audi, very experienced in sport car racing but F1 is a whole another level of detail/pushing the limits, parent company not looking financially strong so real risk they might not be around for 2026

If I had to choose how 2026 will shake out if there was a PU Championship I rank the teams as

Ferrari, Mercedes and Honda for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in any combination, will depend who has the fastest chassis and strongest driver pairing

RBPT 4th

Audi very distant 5th

What I can say is 2014 was an incredibly difficult transition year when the current hybrid era was introduced, on my complexity/effort scale we went to 11 out of 10

Having spent the last year on 2026 PU design, I'm exhausted, in 23yrs of F1 I've never worked so many hours, so hard, taken on a more difficult challenge, pushed the limits so far or worked on anything more complex

Add the new active aero chassis rules, keeping weight to a minimum to offset the increase in battery capacity I think the complexity/effort scale will easily hit 13 out of 10

So far, really enjoying being in the middle of a PU war but admit there are days when I doubt I've still got what it takes for working at such a high intensity to incredibly short timescales

Starting to think I'll be done with F1 by 2026, want to try other motorsport categories before I'm too old and slow

[Rtrorkt]

Originally Posted by astrochex

My Intervention post for the Vegas GP is 9.9, adjacent to the Sphere. I’m gonna bring shades.

Just got my assignment after not having one at first. Yellow flag, station 0.0. Hope to see you in the meetings

[Reg]

Captain - I think Indycar could use a new car. Maybe that might be a fit?? Thanks for your reply!

[rfuerst911sc]

Nestle announces they have partnered with F1 to have KitKat be the official candy bar of F1 . Yeah it's a slow news day .

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/formula-1-welcomes-kitkat-as-official-chocolate-bar-partner.78cQVrqIwT3KiU3j9xPkED

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Reg

Captain - I think Indycar could use a new car. Maybe that might be a fit?? Thanks for your reply!

Always here to share my insider perspective

Indy car, is one of my top preferences, started my career working my internship year on Indy cars, only have fond memories

[rfuerst911sc]

Well isn't this interesting ? Must be something going on behind the curtain .

https://www.thedrive.com/news/andretti-f1s-biggest-opponent-is-now-out-of-the-picture

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Well isn't this interesting ? Must be something going on behind the curtain .

https://www.thedrive.com/news/andretti-f1s-biggest-opponent-is-now-out-of-the-picture

yeah when I read that I immediately thought "uh oh, Alpine is for sale again" !
More folks are leaving the FIA every day too, looks like the boss there is liked by no-one, inside or out. I love seeing F1 drivers try to avoid shaking his hand.

[astrochex]

No love for Las Vegas?

Should be good race.

Cold and dusty conditions.

[rfuerst911sc]

^^^ I watched all three practice sessions , unfortunately my recording of qualy didn't take . I am puzzled by Red Bull only bringing a high downforce rear wing . They have admitted they are down on speed on the long straight . Maybe they need it for the cold conditions ?

Yeah it's a very slippery surface . Colapinto wrecked his car big time it was a 50 G hit !! Hopefully Williams has enough parts and time to get him on the grid . Russell on pole with his team mate 10th . Hey Lewis release the hand brake

How about Gasly ? Man he got everything out of his Alpine . Well done . I think this race will be a crash fest , I hope I am wrong .

[GH85Carrera]

Interesting practices and qualifying. They asked Russel about his Q1 and he said they were surprised how well the cars are doing. Hamilton was whining after Brazil, and siad he may just drop out of the rest of the year. He rallied and did great in the practices, but made a big mistake in Q3 and is at 10th.

And Ferrari is getting rid of the wrong driver. Carols is looking way better than his teammate.