F1 2024 News/Misc.

FLRacingFan said:
Mercedes are going to go on the offensive. Toto says Verstappen needs to be in a Merc at some point and is their #1 target for the vacant seat next year.

Other candidates mentioned at this point in time are Alonso, Sainz, and Antonelli.

www.motorsport.com

Wolff: Mercedes F1 relationship with Verstappen "needs to happen at a certain stage"

www.motorsport.com www.motorsport.com
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When I was really deep into boxing, I became aware of a pattern that every promoter would engage in when discussing upcoming fights for a star. They'd throw out names - 3-5 names, specifically - and in that list of names all but one would be strong, unquestionable, indisputable options for a fight that were often stars in their own right. And then there was the one outlier: clearly someone who didn't belong next to the other names, didn't have the resume, didn't have the skills, but who appeared stronger simply by being positioned next to them. And as Jim Cornette would say, "Wouldn't you know who won the pony!" when it came time to actually announce a fight. Always the outlier.

Verstappen is the top guy in the world. Alonso is a legend. Sainz appears to be one of the best drivers around today and just won, breaking up the Red Bull domination - been linked to Audi Sauber forever which may be legitimate talk or just banter from people fantasizing about a landing spot. And then there's Kimi Antonelli, a 17 year old junior driver who skipped FIA F3 after winning two regional F3 series last year (just as well; it's all the same people really). I've seen plenty of him last year and he's, you know, pretty decent looking I guess but suffers from the same lack of capability to set up a pass that many junior drivers have. He overtakes either when DRS is enabled or someone makes a mistake in front of him, which is fine, but probably not the skill set required to dominate at the F1 level. I could be very wrong, but that's my feeling on him. I think I know who is stepping in that car when Lewis is out.
 
If I were Mercedes. I'de be looking for the guy who could deliver the next six championships, and it's hard at his age to believe Alonso is that guy. The most they could get out of Alonso would be two or three years and then Mercedes would have a driver problem all over again. With Honda coming and Mercedes sucking, Aston seems like a good place to stay. Alonso is always looking for the best car, and for a while the Mercedes has not been it, with not much hope they will get better.

Whatever is going on with Merc is something deeper than the zero pod tripping them up. The zero pod has been gone almost a year now and they still can't figure out how to make the car work. Going there would be a big gamble that might pay off or might keep right on being a disaster.

The Red Bull mess has quieted down enough that I think Max will probably stay where he's at, so that leaves Carlos, who's at the peak of his career. The guy is obviously devoted, and he's driving well enough to win races, so at least to me that makes the most sense. The way he bounced back from surgery was very Lauda-like.

I don't know enough about Kimi to comment, but Mercedes really needs a seasoned driver if they want to pull themselves out of their quagmire of confusion. Verstappen is probably staying where he is at, Alonso wants a car that can win right now, and Carlos is young enough to take the top drive and work to make it better. I'm not going to make any predictions, but Carlos makes the best sense to me.
 
One thing seems odd to me. Mercedes says their wind tunnel data doesn't correlate to real world results. Why not dry a different tunnel? This has been going on for two years now, but they are going to keep trusting a tunnel that's giving them bad info?
 
virtualbalboa said:
When I was really deep into boxing, I became aware of a pattern that every promoter would engage in when discussing upcoming fights for a star. They'd throw out names - 3-5 names, specifically - and in that list of names all but one would be strong, unquestionable, indisputable options for a fight that were often stars in their own right. And then there was the one outlier: clearly someone who didn't belong next to the other names, didn't have the resume, didn't have the skills, but who appeared stronger simply by being positioned next to them. And as Jim Cornette would say, "Wouldn't you know who won the pony!" when it came time to actually announce a fight. Always the outlier.

Verstappen is the top guy in the world. Alonso is a legend. Sainz appears to be one of the best drivers around today and just won, breaking up the Red Bull domination - been linked to Audi Sauber forever which may be legitimate talk or just banter from people fantasizing about a landing spot. And then there's Kimi Antonelli, a 17 year old junior driver who skipped FIA F3 after winning two regional F3 series last year (just as well; it's all the same people really). I've seen plenty of him last year and he's, you know, pretty decent looking I guess but suffers from the same lack of capability to set up a pass that many junior drivers have. He overtakes either when DRS is enabled or someone makes a mistake in front of him, which is fine, but probably not the skill set required to dominate at the F1 level. I could be very wrong, but that's my feeling on him. I think I know who is stepping in that car when Lewis is out.
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Sainz is probably the favorite at the moment as the guy who’s confirmed on the market and visibly impressive when Max isn’t stinking up the show. Antonelli was more likely to get the seat before he even started an F2 race, which is kinda wild. Unless he goes on a tear at some point this year, the start to the F2 season has me thinking he’ll be in a Williams next year if he moves up immediately.

I think it’s at least worth it for Merc to make Max an offer that he’ll have trouble saying no to, and if he does, so be it. But they’ll be looking for one killer to replace another and there is none bigger than Max, and enough instability at Red Bull right now where they could plausibly pull it off. I think that team would love to pull one over on Horner and Red Bull for the first time in a while.
 
Doc Austin said:
One thing seems odd to me. Mercedes says their wind tunnel data doesn't correlate to real world results. Why not dry a different tunnel? This has been going on for two years now, but they are going to keep trusting a tunnel that's giving them bad info?
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Where are they going to go?
 
Doc Austin said:
One thing seems odd to me. Mercedes says their wind tunnel data doesn't correlate to real world results. Why not dry a different tunnel? This has been going on for two years now, but they are going to keep trusting a tunnel that's giving them bad info?
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FLRacingFan said:
Antonelli was more likely to get the seat before he even started an F2 race, which is kinda wild. Unless he goes on a tear at some point this year, the start to the F2 season has me thinking he’ll be in a Williams next year if he moves up immediately.
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I am attaching both of these together because I think they reflect the same concern in my mind: sunk cost. Mercedes going to another rolling wind tunnel would mean the sunk cost of their own tunnel is excessive and wasteful (also would be a cost against the cap). I also recall this being more about their simulator, which, I dunno how you determine if the simulator is wrong or the wind tunnel is. Not my specialty. Antonelli is also someone the team has invested heavily in since signing him and again, do you want to see a return on the investment or do you want to burn money by having someone else run him? There's still only 20 seats next year and other than the guys leaving maybe leaving Haas and/or Sargeant, I dunno that we're seeing anyone who has a seat departing from the sport entirely.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Where are they going to go?
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Toyota has been known to rent out theirs. Anything would be better than data you can't trust. They just need to try a different tunnel as part of figuring out their own. Their tunnel has a problem they aren't going to fix by continuing to use it.
 
Doc Austin said:
Toyota has been known to rent out theirs. Anything would be better than data you can't trust. They just need to try a different tunnel as part of figuring out their own. Their tunnel has a problem they aren't going to fix by continuing to use it.
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McLaren were using Toyota’s Cologne wind tunnel from 2010, until building and opening their own last year because Toyota’s is both outdated and quite literally a waste of time and money considering what it takes to transit parts back and forth between the UK and Germany. Not sure that’s any better.
 
virtualbalboa said:
There's still only 20 seats next year and other than the guys leaving maybe leaving Haas and/or Sargeant, I dunno that we're seeing anyone who has a seat departing from the sport entirely.
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Hass is happy with their pair of shoes, though they have been through so much turmoil I shake up would not be shocking.

I'm not so sure Sargent will be given another year. He's simply not producing and playing the team game well is only going to help him so much. I think anyone drops out that's your best candidate.
virtualbalboa said:
I also recall this being more about their simulator, which, I dunno how you determine if the simulator is wrong or the wind tunnel is.
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It might even be both. I recall Toto specifically saying the tunnel showed good downforce, but in real life it wasn't there.
 
FLRacingFan said:
McLaren were using Toyota’s Cologne wind tunnel from 2010, until building and opening their own last year because Toyota’s is both outdated and quite literally a waste of time and money considering what it takes to transit parts back and forth between the UK and Germany. Not sure that’s any better.
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So what can they do except buy some tunnel time from another team? They are not going to get anywhere with bad information. If they can fix it, fine, but I think they need to have some sort of baseline to start from and they don't have that now. Whatever readings they are getting are clearly not working. I'm sure it would be expensive, but they need to do something or give up and start working on the '25 car.
 
Antonelli will have to massively step up his game in F2 to be considered for an F1 ride next year. If he does get one it's gonna be something like Williams. I absolutely can not see Merc replacing Hamilton with a rookie.

Merc would be crazy not to try everything to get Max if he's willing to leave Red Bull.
If I'm RedBull I'm trying to get my hands on Sainz no matter if Max leaves or not. Perez is not a world champion caliber driver. Alonso is still one of the best but he'll be 43 at the start of next season. I'd love to see him in a race-winning ride again though.

I really hope Max leaves Red Bull just to shake things up a bit. The sport definitely could use that.
 
donthaveanickname said:
That's a bit hyperbole. Lauda was in a coma, close to death for several days, came back 6 weeks later and finished 4th with bleeding wounds.
I'd consider that slightly more badass than winning after a routine surgery.
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Maybe a bit of hyperbole. Not that same thing certainly, but still very much worthy of note.

Lauda was the biggest badass in F1 history, but let's not ignore what Sainz overcame.
 
Mercedes has one of the most up to date and state of the art wind tunnel and simulator.

I just think they badly screwed up these regs and have been lagging behind in development 2 full years. Mercedes will have to wait until 2026 for the reset.
 
Doc Austin said:
There's rumor Red Bill Thailand wants to make him CEO. That would wind everyone up.
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That article also doesn't do much to dispel the notion that his accuser is being silenced intentionally not because she's untrustworthy, but because of ownership pressure around protecting Horner. Just saying. But regardless, if I were in Austria, I too would have a lot of questions about why a guy who's background professionally appears to be "racing, racing, also racing" would be in charge of a business that is radically different than racing. And needs to be protected from charges that he sexually harasses employees. And that the company also needs to move to a gulf state with minimal VAT and virtually no worker's protections. Kinda makes me think I should be drinking Monster when I need a pick me up (born in Southern California! Large stake owned by Coca-Cola!).
 
Funny how all the controversy went completely quiet after Oz. I'm sure the Horner mess will be back, and I'm sure ben Sulayem will be under attack as soon for something, but the quickness with which it all went quiet is a bit disconcerting. This week just might be the quiet before the storm. Too much stuff going on to be so quiet.
 
www.formula1.com

Ocon rues missed opportunity in Australia

Alpine’s struggles this season have been well documented and while on paper their race in Australia looked like more of the same disappointment towards the back of the field, there was actually plenty of cause for optimism – at least on Esteban Ocon’s side of the garage, despite him coming home...
www.formula1.com www.formula1.com

Tear offs might be a new issue since 2 cars had their races ruined by them.
 
Doc Austin said:
I'm surprised the entire grid isn't after him. Newey has been so quiet through all the butthurt that we have no idea where his loyalties lay.
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I’m sure they are, there just aren’t very many options he could feasibly go to so you don’t hear about it. Ferrari are supposedly heavily in the mix as well. Aston he wouldn’t really have to relocate for.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I’m sure they are, there just aren’t very many options he could feasibly go to so you don’t hear about it. Ferrari are supposedly heavily in the mix as well. Aston he wouldn’t really have to relocate for.
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Newey hasn't said a word since all this started. No one knows where he stands. Probably a good position to be in with this mess.
 
Reck said:
You should.

Liberty is mostly in it for the entertaining value but there is no doubting they boosted F1’s popularity here in the states.

I used to watch MotoGP all the time when it was more easy to follow. From Speed channel to the now defunct NBCSN.

If Liberty helps bring MotoGP to relevancy in the states again, I’m all for it.
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I just don't want them to dump popular venues. I'm not really eager to see MotoGP do five races each in the states and in the Middle East.
 
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