Heading into the winter is a great time to try and break the morale of the workers at your opponent’s factory
1 Like
An outbreak of common sense??
I am sure F1 will find a way to take appropriate actions that prevent common sense from becoming endemic.
4 Likes
Benson, as usual, is late to the party. There was a lengthy article in Autosport about the sprint races a week or so ago e.g. analysing why the drivers are often reticent to attempt overtaking, and also the formatting of the weekend with the qualifying for both Sprint & the GP. All I can think is that in trying to ape other motor racing formats (esp the 'bikes), they’ve overlooked just how the latter can recover relatively quickly from crashes and incidents, whereas F1 cars are so fragile & costly, it’s easy to see why there is so much reticence to race, especially in a class where overtaking is so challenging to start with.
It strikes me the F1 set-up is so focused on the cars et al, it really struggles to understand the racing element of the offering, notwithstanding Ross Brawn’s statements about the aim of the ‘new reg’s’, which have generated such an inequality in performance with the RB. Go figure.
I feel very satisfied with this season. Excellent
2 Likes
“Most curses broken in a season”
1 Like
I certainly hope there is more parity in 2024.
I think 50% of the credit should go to Adrian Newey and his design team. Max was given the best tool for the job and made the best use of it. Max is in the small group of exceptional drivers who are consistently able to truly able to get the best out of a car or take it beyond its limits if needed, not that he needed to do this often this year. Checo was given the same tool and showed he is not really up to being in a top team.
4 Likes
I’m sure RB’s development gains will plateau soon. However the engine regs change in 2026 could be the thing that finally breaks their dominance. It will be their first year running their own self built engine so they could suffer from reliability issues.
The rest of the teams though are really close together already and Haas finished with the most points for a last place team ever. Next season looks like it will be very tight up and down the field.
2 Likes
Guess what helped Max was just how reliable the cars were this season. Can’t remember too much retiring because of mechanical faults.
I think I heard he was the only driver to complete every lap of every race.
Yes. It’s a remarkable statistic.
2 Likes
A good season although very low on real action at the front but nothing new there it’s F1.
My top 10 drivers of the season (I wonder how close the the autocourse top 10 anyone can get).
- Verstappen (difficult choice).
- Norris
- Alonso
- Hamilton
- Leclerc
- Piastri
- Sainz
- Russell
- Albon
- Hulkenberg
That’s really difficult. I agree with Verstappen. I 'd put Alonso number 3 ahead of Norris. I’d also put Hamilton at number 2 ahead of Alonso and Norris. He has taken a comparative dog of a car and make it work. To get so close to being second in the points shows just how good he is. Perez not in your list and though he would be somewhere near the bottom I think he should be in the top ten. Sainz and Russell have for me been the big disappointment. I’m not even sure they should retain their seats in the top teams.
Curious about why you say that about Russel? He seemed to be doing 'n pretty good job? Ended up equal with Hamilton in qualification result (the only second driver to do that in a team) and often he ended up outscoring him as well.
1 Like
Look at how many podiums he had vs Hamilton and how many points they both had vs last season. He hasn’t performed well at all. I might even suggest Bottas would have out performed him in the Merc this season. His promise has not yet been realised.
1 Like
George didn’t have a good season but luck didn’t goes his way either. Hamilton was poor at times and I really don’t think the car was that bad, inconsistently good yes, but not that bad and a lot better than half the grid. I think a lot of people might have fallen for Hamilton’s constant moaning about it.
I did say comparatively. We are talking about the top teams here, not the midfield.
Did not think about it like that. He just never seemed bad to me, but then again he was not getting most of my attention in the races either so I was just talking from gut feel.