advertisement


The 2023 Formula One Season

No different to normal road car brakes in that the rotation of the disc knocks the pads away by just enough to allow free rotation. I think that the carbon disc expands less than the old fashioned iron discs.
 
There's an interesting article in the December issue of MotorSport on the RB19 aero package. Starts with a explanation of the Lotus 78 whilst making the point that other teams at the time also had to play catch up. Theres a couple of detailed graphics comparing the underside of the RB and the Merc. As I understand it (maybe not!) RB have reconfigured the cooling package to raise the radiator allowing much deeper aero tunnels and the vane system system at the duct entry that generates the vortices acting as virtual skirts is much more complicated. Perhaps Ian W could provide us with a layman's explanation?
Regards,
Steve
 
Well it's over. Another all time first: first driver to lead more than 1000 laps in one season.

I have to say though I don't put any stock on these absolute number "1sts", I mean there are more races so it was inevitable that somebody would break 1000 laps. I'm only interested in percentages, not numbers. I don't care about 19 wins (for example), what percentage is that in terms of total number of races. Absolute numbers tell us nothing really in a sport where there are more and more events as time goes on. It's the same as saying film X was the biggest budget, or made the most money of all time. Well duh! Inflation!

If you start looking at F1 stats in terms of percentages, eg which driver won the highest percentage of races in a year, or had the highest number of pole positions as a percentage of races, then things start to look a little different.

If there were 100 races in a year, how meaningful would it be if someone won 20? Not very, yet when there are only 20 races in a year, winning all of them is hugely significant.
 
steve6080 said:
There's an interesting article in the December issue of MotorSport on the RB19 aero package. Starts with a explanation of the Lotus 78 whilst making the point that other teams at the time also had to play catch up. Theres a couple of detailed graphics comparing the underside of the RB and the Merc. As I understand it (maybe not!) RB have reconfigured the cooling package to raise the radiator allowing much deeper aero tunnels and the vane system system at the duct entry that generates the vortices acting as virtual skirts is much more complicated. Perhaps Ian W could provide us with a layman's explanation?
Regards,
Steve
Click to expand...
I am afraid that is beyond me. I do not understand and have never investigated the aero flow fields, as that is what aero engineers are experts in.

I understand what the numbers from the wind tunnel mean in terms of vehicle performance as that is my area of expertise.
 
gez said:
Hmmm... now why do I think that's fake? Can anybody really see that group of people sitting down for a meal together? Even at the end of the season? I have my doubts.
Click to expand...
Not fake, they did it last year when Seb retired and did it again this year although only 11 drivers were present. Notable absences included Max and Fernando. Nice Xmas jumper Danny :D
 
gez said:
Well it's over. Another all time first: first driver to lead more than 1000 laps in one season.

I have to say though I don't put any stock on these absolute number "1sts", I mean there are more races so it was inevitable that somebody would break 1000 laps. I'm only interested in percentages, not numbers. I don't care about 19 wins (for example), what percentage is that in terms of total number of races. Absolute numbers tell us nothing really in a sport where there are more and more events as time goes on. It's the same as saying film X was the biggest budget, or made the most money of all time. Well duh! Inflation!

If you start looking at F1 stats in terms of percentages, eg which driver won the highest percentage of races in a year, or had the highest number of pole positions as a percentage of races, then things start to look a little different.

If there were 100 races in a year, how meaningful would it be if someone won 20? Not very, yet when there are only 20 races in a year, winning all of them is hugely significant.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm, if you look at percentage of races won in a season Max is still way ahead of the previous record holder… Alberto Ascari. I don’t think you could ever say that his domination this year has been anything other than extraordinary.
 
tiggers said:
Hmmmm, if you look at percentage of races won in a season Max is still way ahead of the previous record holder… Alberto Ascari. I don’t think you could ever say that his domination this year has been anything other than extraordinary.
Click to expand...

I remember many "extraordinary" seasons from Senna, MSC, VET and HAM. They have been plenty or truly outstanding drives and seasons in the past as well all for different reasons but they can only really be judged in context of that era. Therefore all the GOAT and best ever, most this or that are generally irrelevant.

In the era of super reliable cars, much higher points scoring than ever before, sprint races increasing the points differential, penalties for not wearing your safety glasses and a generational talent with the rest of the teams and a team mate not even close to competitive over the season the stats will be very skewed and unlikely to be bettered. So yes extraordinary, but in the same way as a MSC or VET season with no competition from anywhere, interest is low for all who are not VER and RB fans..

I still think there are questions over VER racecraft, the past two years he has had such a good car he has not had to try that hard wheel to wheel as he knows he had very efficient aero to use DRS with enormous effect. He also bullies other drivers, usually getting away with it. His use of the block pass is overly aggressive and cynical IMO. However, I think he is maturing a little and with a few WDC in his backpack now maybe when he is next competing on a level playing field he will moderate but I have doubts.

So yes celebrate a pretty much perfect season I hope we never see another - well except if it is with NOR of course :cool:
 
tiggers said:
Not fake, they did it last year when Seb retired and did it again this year although only 11 drivers were present. Notable absences included Max and Fernando. Nice Xmas jumper Danny :D
Click to expand...

Are they that much more "notably" absent than the other seven?

At least a few whole team driver rosters are present - Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Red Bull and Haas are not represented.

Is the empty chair the photographer? If so, perhaps one more was present. If any more had shown, they would have needed a larger table.
 
Last edited:
cutting42 said:
I remember many "extraordinary" seasons from Senna, MSC, VET and HAM. They have been plenty or truly outstanding drives and seasons in the past as well all for different reasons but they can only really be judged in context of that era. Therefore all the GOAT and best ever, most this or that are generally irrelevant.

In the era of super reliable cars, much higher points scoring than ever before, sprint races increasing the points differential, penalties for not wearing your safety glasses and a generational talent with the rest of the teams and a team mate not even close to competitive over the season the stats will be very skewed and unlikely to be bettered. So yes extraordinary, but in the same way as a MSC or VET season with no competition from anywhere, interest is low for all who are not VER and RB fans..

I still think there are questions over VER racecraft, the past two years he has had such a good car he has not had to try that hard wheel to wheel as he knows he had very efficient aero to use DRS with enormous effect. He also bullies other drivers, usually getting away with it. His use of the block pass is overly aggressive and cynical IMO. However, I think he is maturing a little and with a few WDC in his backpack now maybe when he is next competing on a level playing field he will moderate but I have doubts.

So yes celebrate a pretty much perfect season I hope we never see another - well except if it is with NOR of course :cool:
Click to expand...

No disrespect, but Verstappen's bullying is no worse than that dished out by Senna or Schumacher and if he really was 'bullying' I think the stewards would be a lot more interested. Yes, he drives to the very edge of acceptability, but so what? It's not a kindergarten egg and spoon race is it?

While I take your point about longer seasons and more reliable cars etc. this can be tempered with the fact that drivers these days do not get to jump in a spare car if theirs does go wrong (or take over their teammate's car as it was in days of yore). Grids are a lot closer than they were 30 years ago etc. etc. It's swings and roundabouts. As for weak teammates yeah maybe a bit, but I also think Verstappen has just got to the point where just about anyone would end up well beaten... it's just the level he's at right now.

One thing that does set him apart from just about any other driver I have seen is there is never a single session he doesn't want to win, be it practice, quali, sprints, the race or whatever. When Hamilton or Schumacher or even Senna won a title they would ease off just a little... Verstappen doesn't... he just wants to keep on winning. At the end of 2015 Hamilton having won the title relaxed and Nico won the last 3 races of the season... that gave him the impetus to hit the ground running in 2016 and we all know what happened then... Max would simply not do that... IMO anyway. It's impressive.

Anyway let's hope Ferrari or Merc can find some magic over winter, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
tiggers said:
At the end of 2015 Hamilton having won the title relaxed and Nico won the last 3 races of the season... that gave him the impetus to hit the ground running in 2016 and we all know what happened then... Max would simply not do that...
Click to expand...

More a reflection of the status of the drivers within the teams. It may be that Hamilton ‘relaxed’ but it’s not a word that I associate with him even if he were to re-visit a cart track for fun. Max has been imperious this season but that team is built around Max first, Max second and Max third in a way that I don’t recall seeing since Schuey.

Another shout out this season apart from the amazing reliability has been the incredible job Red Bull have done, not just with the design which has obviously been incredible but also the driver support. I don’t recall many small hiccups at pit stops or release delays they consistently perform to the very highest level. Merc (for example) didn’t get close to that level, Ferrari really cocked up strategy a couple of times and had several pit problems. Perhaps McLaren were up there too in the support stakes. It still surprises me that Merc got the second place constructors place with that dog. Ferrari should be ashamed.

Merc have got to considerably up their game in all sorts of areas and are so far off the pace with the basic car, it would be a formidable effort. Unless the FIA start to worry about people getting bored and shake the dice (again).
 
I am not so sure that Max has matured that much. There have been a few ‘rants’ when things haven’t gone his way more recently. I suspect that if racing becomes close he will become petulant again and drive in a way that is bound to end up in big shunts, I cant see the younger ‘better’ drivers taking any crap from him where they have a genuine chance of beating him.
 
IanW -- realise that this is a very specialised subject -- perhaps only Mr Newey and his aero team fully understand it.
Regards,
Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top