2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

FLRacingFan

FLRacingFan

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Interesting qualifying session for the GP this morning, Leclerc takes pole over the Red Bulls. Russell knocked out in Q2 and Hamilton was nearly a second off of pole in P5, the Merc still seems very inconsistent from race to race.

Sprint qualifying and sprint race are tomorrow, but meh.
 
Hamilton pulled that P5 out of his ass. The W14 is so trash.

How is every team improving but Mercedes seems to be stuck with a car that won’t go. McLaren took one upgrade and are essentially on par.
 
Reck said:
Hamilton pulled that P5 out of his ass. The W14 is so trash.

How is every team improving but Mercedes seems to be stuck with a car that won’t go. McLaren took one upgrade and are essentially on par.
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I don’t think Alonso and Stroll had DRS working either, they probably both jump Lewis if it were.
 
I'm ok with the sprints but they have been boring so far. Instead of having a shootout qualifying on musical tires, why not just invert the grid by points? That would probably be more entertaining than what we'll get tomorrow.
 
Doc Austin said:
I'm ok with the sprints but they have been boring so far. Instead of having a shootout qualifying on musical tires, why not just invert the grid by points? That would probably be more entertaining than what we'll get tomorrow.
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Teams would never agree to that.

Not a big fan of the Pétit Prix on Saturday and I'm certainly a fan of the Baku Street circuit so let's see how this plays out.
 
These sprint races are even more boring that regular races because there are no pit stops and tire strategy.
 
Perez isn't rolling over, is he?

I found it amusing that Verstappen thinks he has room to complain when he gets run wide.

We will probably see another Red Bull run away, but at least this time Verstappen has to go through Perez again. There will be a moment when they are wheel to wheel, and let's see how hard they play with each other. My guess is it will probably end up with hard feelings, which will be great news for the rest of the grid.
 
Unless they went to reverse grids or invert a certain number of positions from regular qualifying like F2/F3 these races won’t be interesting, and they’ll never do that. All these races serve to do is give even more points to the bigger teams. You need refueling or tire strategy to shake things up and these have neither.

Domenicali is Brian France Jr.
 
Doc Austin said:
Perez isn't rolling over, is he?

I found it amusing that Verstappen thinks he has room to complain when he gets run wide.

We will probably see another Red Bull run away, but at least this time Verstappen has to go through Perez again. There will be a moment when they are wheel to wheel, and let's see how hard they play with each other. My guess is it will probably end up with hard feelings, which will be great news for the rest of the grid.
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Max is starting ahead. The sprint no longer determines the starting grid for Sunday.
 
I think few people expected Chico to mount a real challenge to Max, so it's a bit surprising to see it so tight now. Of course, we are only four races in, so you can't make too many definitive statements about how it will play out, but parallels to the past can't be ignored. Thinking way back, teammates Mansell and Piquet were in the dominant Williams and took enough points off each other to allow Prost to steal the championship. As of right now, they are on that same road, with the exception that no one is close enough to take advantage of it.

It will be roundly amusing to see all the trash talk this week. Max will make excuses and blame George for everything, and Marko will probably run down to the Mercedes pit and take a dump. Max' Mom might even say something about Checo's girlfriends or something. Hell, I'll bet Jos started to get all tingly seeing Ocon almost mow a bunch of people down car because that's what he would have done. I'm betting Horner will just stay out of it because he seems like a reasonable guy. It will be fascinating to see what everyone says this week.

It's funny to watch Checo and Max when they lose. Checo accepts his fate and prepares for the next race while Max and his entourage make excuses and blame everyone else. Checo has a bad Oz, but uses the time off to focus and prepare. When Max loses it's some excuse, or he's mad someone drove him as dirty as he drove them.

Max roughed up a lot of guys when he was coming up, but the game changes when you have something to lose and half the grid owing you one. I don't think George deliberately ran Max wide because it was a close deal and George is usually pretty sporting. Racing deal at best in my mind. it was actually a little bit satisfying to watch considering how many people Max has run off the road. It was really a very minor touch, but that shows you how dangerous those spinning wheels can be.

Maybe Max gets too wound up. With the DRS advantage they have, why would you go wheel to wheel on the outside with someone when you can blow by them in the next DRS zone? I don't think Max ever gets out of the "kill or be killed mode." If there is any car in front of him at all, Max just sees red.

Assuming no one can catch Red Bull, I'm guessing Max will have fewer bad weekends than Checo and it's his to lose. It's just nice to (so far) see him have to fight for it.

I'm still only halfway through the WEC race, and now I've got the rest of the GP and Indycar to watch. Hell of a weekend.
 
Max is turning into a whiner, comes up with non existing car problems when running in second and then sets a fast lap 👎
 
Quite frankly, this weekend stunk. The midseason rule change last year and further changes this year have only served to neuter Ferrari and distance the gap from everyone else to Red Bull, and made teams try to claw back topside downforce. Dirty air is back and it doesn’t look like it’ll get better for a while. Good thing Mercedes complained all first half of last season.
 
West said:
Max is turning into a whiner, comes up with non existing car problems when running in second and then sets a fast lap 👎
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Didn’t Russell get fastest lap after the late pit anyways?

He’d rather win than get fastest lap and it’s clear he couldn’t catch Perez so it’s no surprise he might feel frustrated. The cars typically always lap faster as the race goes on since they’re burning a full tank of fuel, especially on hard tires without degradation.
 
Yes, GR got the fastest lap as did MV just before that. The thing is, if your car has problems as mentione/complained by MV, you shouldn't be able to come close to a fast lap. It would show better on MV to say he got beat today, rather than blame his car.
 
Drivers always complain. Athletes always talk ****. It reminds me of this but from Vettel a few years - imagine if all of the comms were broadcasted in stick and ball sports, all the athletes were mic’d up the whole event, what might be heard. Makes me wonder how many viewers were ever in a competitive environment themselves. Seems weird to overplay things that are said in the heat of the battle (fwiw, I don’t know what exactly was said).

 
All Max had to do was point to the hole in the side of his car. I mean, I'de buy that. At a high speed place like this the drag must have been horrendous.

The collision between him and George was just two guys not giving an inch. It was on both of them. Just like ThunderDome: Two go in and one comes out. I think George could have given him a little more room but I also think if the roles were reversed the same thing would have happened.

The funny part is it was so unnecessary. Max would have smoked him with the first DRS opportunity, and we already knew the Ferrari was going to melt it's tires. All Max would have had to worry about was Checo getting away, and maybe that caused a bit of bad judgement. Maybe Checo has gotten under his skin a little.

And, as many times as Max has run other drivers off the road, he doesn't have room to complain when it's done to him.
 
West said:
Max is turning into a whiner, comes up with non existing car problems when running in second and then sets a fast lap 👎
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Has turned?

Max has always been like this. Guy has never had a bad car in his F1 career. Doesn’t like competition and always blames everyone else when he gets straight up beaten.
 
Reck said:
Has turned?

Max has always been like this. Guy has never had a bad car in his F1 career. Doesn’t like competition and always blames everyone else when he gets straight up beaten.
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Come on, they are all whiners. Let's be honest and say none of them accepts defeat without offering an excuse of some kind. In almost any interview they say this was a problem or the tires this or the tires that, and it's always something. Even the winner will often complain about some sort of problem.

I'm ok with Max having excuses. What I'm not ok with is him blaming George for something he (Max) has made a career off. If you run people out of road any time you are challenged, you don't have much room to complain when you get it back. In this particular incident, he might have a bit to be unhappy about, but I don't want to hear it when he has rammed Leclerc off the road to steal a win in Austria or punted Botas off the straight at Monza. Let's not even mention landing on Lewis' head. Max has a long list of pulling dirty stunts, so there's not a lot of credibility when he complains he was done dirty.

I mean, does a two time world champion, best driver in the world really need to get into so many scrapes? Max has been pissing off just about everyone from Kimi to Lewis to Rosberg, and even Vettel (who rarely complains about anything), but when he gets it back the bitching is out of control. Granted they stick a mic in his face while he's still hot, but you don't often see that from Kimi or Lewis or even LeClerc. I don't believe LeClerc even complained when Max shoved him off the road at Austria a few years ago. Max goes bgallistic when someone even squeezes him a little.

Last year Max had a beautiful, clean year, but then again, did anyone ever challenge him wheel to wheel? No, he just simply drove away. Now that he's getting a challenge here and there, this is a problem, that's a problem and this or that was unfair. I think Max would have a lot more fans if he just accepts defeat and stops making everything someone else's fault.

And then, there's Jos...........
 
FLRacingFan said:
Quite frankly, this weekend stunk. The midseason rule change last year and further changes this year have only served to neuter Ferrari and distance the gap from everyone else to Red Bull, and made teams try to claw back topside downforce. Dirty air is back and it doesn’t look like it’ll get better for a while. Good thing Mercedes complained all first half of last season.
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Concerns about more "outwash" elements on the cars were already voiced after Jeddah and Bahrain, Australia was decent as far as passing is concerned but this race pretty much sucked.
At the speeds these cars are running, tiny aero changes can have huge effects on the racing.
 
donthaveanickname said:
Concerns about more "outwash" elements on the cars were already voiced after Jeddah and Bahrain, Australia was decent as far as passing is concerned but this race pretty much sucked.
At the speeds these cars are running, tiny aero changes can have huge effects on the racing.
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The main straight DRS zone being reduced really hurt as well.
 
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