2023 F1 Miami Grand Prix Race thread

West said:
Yes, also Norris could use a better ride.
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Everybody but Max and Checo could use a better ride. That's why swapping drivers around won't make things any more competitive at the front. Right now, Red Bull could win with anyone in the car. What will make the difference is if/when Mercedes dumps their current sled and builds a good car. Ferrari could get in the game too, but they seem really lost and getting worse. Our best hope for a good championship is Aston finding enough speed to challenge.

Everyone will get it figured out if they leave things alone. Shuffling drivers and support people around simply destabilizes a team. Continuity counts.
 
If they don't change the seating position, you can expect an unhappy Hamilton. I'm sure he'll give it a good ride either way.
 
Paolo Banchero and Martin Brundle need to do a cop movie
 
Doc Austin said:
If they don't change the seating position, you can expect an unhappy Hamilton. I'm sure he'll give it a good ride either way.
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They explain they can’t do that this year because of the cost cap. Redesigning the chassis in less than a year doesn’t seem feasible to me anyways. In terms of the chassis they got what they got for the year, I’m afraid.
 
Reck said:
They explain they can’t do that this year because of the cost cap. Redesigning the chassis in less than a year doesn’t seem feasible to me anyways. In terms of the chassis they got what they got for the year, I’m afraid.
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They should have listened to Hamilton because that's the guy they built this team around to begin with.

You might have thought with Hamilton complaining about the seat last year, Mercedes would have had a contingency plan, but this looks more like a band aide.

One thing that is different in F1 now is even if you can fix the car, you can't test it. You only have the GP weekend to dial the car in. This means Mercedes is throwing a hail Mary as early as FPI! You want to talk about winging it! Hamilton and Russel have three sessions to take a brand new untested concept and get it up to speed enough to be better than what they had. There's not going to be any baseline or data. They are starting at ground zero while under the gun of competition.

See, there are other stories than just Red Bull. Now we're going to see what everyone at Mercedes is made of. The whole team is going to be in a giant pressure cooker. Remember though, no one likes a good fight more than Hamilton.
 
Reck said:
They explain they can’t do that this year because of the cost cap. Redesigning the chassis in less than a year doesn’t seem feasible to me anyways. In terms of the chassis they got what they got for the year, I’m afraid.
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Sorry I was not more complete in answering this. Of course, they would need a new tub to change the seating position. Apparently if they move the seating position it means placing the mandated side crash structure right in the way of airflow to the zero pod. They weren't ready to dump the zero pod, and now they have a tub they can't really work with. At least that is what I read, though I can't find it again.

They have no plan B except to take what they have, fix what they can and live with it. However, they are not total dumbasses. They were fooled by the result in Brazil, and they were fooled in Oz that this year's car had promise. There were so many false dawns and false hopes that they simply followed that down the rabbit hole. On it's day, this is a good car, but it doesn't have a good day that often.

Then again, it's still Hamilton. Mercedes woes means for now we're seeing the best Hamilton ever. He can no longer cruise around while smashing everyone. Now he has to fight for every inch, and no one does that better than him.

The other side of the coin is George just gets on with it and gets a good result when the car is still bad.
 
Doc Austin said:
Everybody but Max and Checo could use a better ride. That's why swapping drivers around won't make things any more competitive at the front. Right now, Red Bull could win with anyone in the car. What will make the difference is if/when Mercedes dumps their current sled and builds a good car. Ferrari could get in the game too, but they seem really lost and getting worse. Our best hope for a good championship is Aston finding enough speed to challenge.

Everyone will get it figured out if they leave things alone. Shuffling drivers and support people around simply destabilizes a team. Continuity counts.
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To this end, look at how McLaren has fallen to basically being with Williams as worst on the grid after replacing a race winning vet with a kid who sat for a year after winning in F2. Maybe Piastri is half as good as his supporters think, but right now he and De Vries are making recent F2 classes look anything but elite.
 
Doc Austin said:
I can't be the only one who gets a laugh out of Ralf...... https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ot...p&cvid=56e9bb7e16bb48ab8a2eda85db52de58&ei=19
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I mean, I don’t entirely disagree with him. Charles is an elite driver with future champion status but he’s in a moment in time where he’s not found the limits yet.

He makes too many mistakes and often tries to outdrive the car beyond its limits. He needs to clean up his act like Max did. Those mental mistakes will do you in every time.
 
Reck said:
I mean, I don’t entirely disagree with him. Charles is an elite driver with future champion status but he’s in a moment in time where he’s not found the limits yet.
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There is a distinct pattern to Ralf's views. Everyone but Mic sucks. That's his entire message.
 
virtualbalboa said:
To this end, look at how McLaren has fallen to basically being with Williams as worst on the grid after replacing a race winning vet with a kid who sat for a year after winning in F2.
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It may have not been in Mclaren's control. It was a mutual parting, so Ricciardo may have been gone no matter what McLaren did. We just don't know. I think as rational people they all saw it wasn't going to work, and from Ricciardo's perspective, he's probably happier on the pit wall (with a return possible) than he would have been driving this year's sled.

I guess this isn't so bad for Piastri. He probably isn't expected to get a good result simply because the car isn't up to it. He's got all year to play himself in and hope McLaren gets it together for next year. It's probably the ideal learning situation for him, and he's not so bad he's got nothing to build on.
 
Reck said:
I mean, I don’t entirely disagree with him. Charles is an elite driver with future champion status but he’s in a moment in time where he’s not found the limits yet.

He makes too many mistakes and often tries to outdrive the car beyond its limits. He needs to clean up his act like Max did. Those mental mistakes will do you in every time.
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Brundle said the same things this weekend. Not an unpopular opinion to have right now.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Brundle said the same things this weekend. Not an unpopular opinion to have right now.
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He makes mistakes for sure but I prefer him over Sainz and Ferrari shoots themselves in the foot more than Charles does.....imo.
 
virtualbalboa said:
To this end, look at how McLaren has fallen to basically being with Williams as worst on the grid after replacing a race winning vet with a kid who sat for a year after winning in F2. Maybe Piastri is half as good as his supporters think, but right now he and De Vries are making recent F2 classes look anything but elite.
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De Vries was a good story last year but I don’t think many expected him to be great, he won F2 in his third season against a pretty weak field.

Piastri is legitimately good I believe, but McLaren have so many things going on I don’t believe they’ll be decent again until at least 2025. They shook up the organizational structure back in March just after the season started, and one of their key hires from Ferrari can’t start until 2024. They missed their aero targets for the start of this year, and are admittedly too draggy. The existing Woking wind tunnel is so out of date they’ve been leasing one of Toyota’s Cologne wind tunnels for a few years now, which obviously isn’t an ideal setup for a number of reasons. The new Woking wind tunnel won’t be ready until later this season.

I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Norris wants to jump at the first opportunity elsewhere but I just don’t see where that seat would come from.

Imo what’ll be interesting to see is who jumps to Sauber within the next couple of years ahead of Audi debuting in 2026. People thought Lewis was a nut for leaving McLaren for Mercedes a year ahead of the 2014 hybrid regs but look at how that turned out.
 
Greg said:
He makes mistakes for sure but I prefer him over Sainz and Ferrari shoots themselves in the foot more than Charles does.....imo.
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I agree. I think some of it is self-induced, last year I think he felt let down by the team and it got to his head. This year I think he’s just trying to overdrive a flawed car. He’s still easily a top 5 driver imo.
 
There's a lot of disappointing cars, teams and drivers this year. I'de say it's everyone but Red Bull and Aston.
 
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