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The 2023 Formula One Season

MartinC said:
I love the McLaren resurgence, perhaps Mika was correct in saying they may be challenging Red Bull by the seasons end :)
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Me too. But RB not stressing an engine or racing hard and still looking at 30 sec plus finishing gaps? That's going to need some pretty radical changes to make contests realistic this year I would have thought.
 
SteveS1 said:
Me too. But RB not stressing an engine or racing hard and still looking at 30 sec plus finishing gaps? That's going to need some pretty radical changes to make contests realistic this year I would have thought.
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And that’s the thing. When your aero is a couple of steps ahead in every area, you don’t need to use all the power or take chances with cooling. They’re operating in a safe zone and with Verstappen at least, making the most of it. We’ve no way of knowing how close to the limit McLaren and Mercedes are.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
And that’s the thing. When your aero is a couple of steps ahead in every area, you don’t need to use all the power or take chances with cooling. They’re operating in a safe zone and with Verstappen at least, making the most of it. We’ve no way of knowing how close to the limit McLaren and Mercedes are.
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Absolutely. When you see experienced drivers and team members who know only too well how fine these margins can be looking devoid of optimism - you know this is of a different order. How ironic the changes brought about by years of Merc dominance arrived pretty much as it was actually already over, with that amazing 2021 of well matched cars and the best racing we've seen for years.

The superb work that AN and RB have done has actually produced possibly an even more dominating package than Merc or anyone has ever had and the unnerving aspect is that so far, we haven't seen them pushed at all.
 
My only hope is that history doesn't repeat itself and that this isn't the car that kills off F1. This happened to the Can-Am "big banger" sports car series, when Porsche let the 917/30 loose:


F1 has always had teams that have completely dominated (Williams, McLaren, Ferrari, MB), but these periods of complete domination have ended. Hopefully, for the good of the sport, this one will too, and that the other teams can do a sufficiently good job to overtake RB's masterpiece. The commercial sponsors must hope this too. If "their" team keeps failing to win ("we came second" is not such a great selling pitch), they may be tempted to take their money elsewhere.
 
It was the 1973-74 oil crisis that killed Can-Am. Not Porsche. Remember, before Porsche's turbo McLaren won (nearly) all races for several seasons. That era group 7 cars was 'gas guzzler's', all of them.
 
RJohan said:
It was the 1973-74 oil crisis that killed Can-Am. Not Porsche. Remember, before Porsche's turbo McLaren won (nearly) all races for several seasons. That era group 7 cars was 'gas guzzler's', all of them.
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Thank you, I stand corrected, although I do think that the arrival of the 917/30 with its (then) absurd power output played its part in a rule change that sought to restrict the big bangers to less of a bang. As you say, after John Surtees's initial win in a Lola T70, the McLarens (in that now famous orange colour) dominated for years.
 
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tones said:
My only hope is that history doesn't repeat itself and that this isn't the car that kills off F1. This happened to the Can-Am "big banger" sports car series, when Porsche let the 917/30 loose:


F1 has always had teams that have completely dominated (Williams, McLaren, Ferrari, MB), but these periods of complete domination have ended. Hopefully, for the good of the sport, this one will too, and that the other teams can do a sufficiently good job to overtake RB's masterpiece. The commercial sponsors must hope this too. If "their" team keeps failing to win ("we came second" is not such a great selling pitch), they may be tempted to take their money elsewhere.
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Mercedes did not kill F1, why should any other serially successful team?
 
Cav said:
Mercedes did not kill F1, why should any other serially successful team?
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Part of it is the big effort to make F1 liked in the commercially-important USA. And, according to one report I saw, the US is losing fans largely because of the Verstappen-RB dominance. If you know the result in advance, why bother? The Americans like close racing,- it's what they're used to, courtesy of their tightly-regulated domestic series. It makes F1 with its totally different ethos a hard sell, hence the DRS and messing around with qualifying formats, etc., trying to jazz it up. Unless the rest of the grid can pull up their socks I fear that the US market will be lost, and that would be a colossal financial blow.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Not to me!
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Ditto, but, like it or not, F1 has been transformed from a niche sport for enthusiasts into a major entertainment circus, and that means that there is now a majority audience of non-enthusiasts who couldn't care less about the finer points but who want to be entertained. And if they aren't entertained, they aren't going to come, and that means that the commercial interests will direct their money elsewhere. Given the sophistication of current F1 and the vast amounts of money the major teams can bring to the table, I wonder whether the sport can survive without it. Can we go back to the days before Colin Chapman made his cars mobile fag packets and Bernie Ecclestone sold F1 as a major entertainment travelling circus? I personally would like to think so, but, given the current degree of technical sophistication (no more drawing out the car on the garage floor, like John and Charles Cooper!) and the amount of money needed to achieve this, I'm not sure that this is possible. If they're not careful, I can see the whole shebang disappearing up its own exhaust pipe.
 
Verstappen is taking a five-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix due to taking a fifth gearbox, the allowance for the year is four.

if he starts sixth, he’ll be third by the end of lap one, I’d guess.
 
Given the weather forecast, it's looking more like two hours under safety-car. It's a wonderful circuit, but not in heavy rain.
 
Bob McC said:
5 place grid penalty for Max.
I bet he still wins it.
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If the race runs he is bound to, Spa suits the RB really well, the car is the most dominant in F1 history and Max is a really good driver. His only threat are the conditions or someone taking him out.
 
cutting42 said:
Szafnauer out of Alpine

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/szafnauer-out-as-alpine-f1-team-boss/10501134/
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Pat Fry as CTO is out, although staying until end of the year before joining Williams.

Alan Permane, the Sporting Director is out after 34 years at the team.

All of them are responsible for Alpine slipping to a weak 6th, when their target was a strong 4th, closing in on 3rd.

But they are only part of the problem that has held the works team back so I expect more changes.
 
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