Formula 1 2023.

[Cleoriff]

I'll run a Formula 1 thread for one more season. Hopefully there will be some new members who are interested? If not, I'll spend a lot of time talking to myself 😂

A fair amount of changes this season with the driver line up but I'll discuss that later.

Kicking off in Bahrain on March 5 and concluding in Abu Dhabi on November 26, the season will feature a planned, record-breaking 24 races, with Qatar set to return and Las Vegas arriving as the penultimate round for a Saturday night race. China has been dropped due to the ongoing Covid situation.

CALENDAR

*Pre Season testing will take place in Bahrain on Feb23-25th

DRIVERS 2023

No change in the top three teams of Red Bull,(Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez)

Ferrari, (Charles LeClerc and Carlos Sainz and

Mercedes  (George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Alpine team, Pierre Gasly moves to drive with them as Alonso has moved out

McLaren Team. Oscar Piastri replaces Ricciardo and Lando Norris remains.

Alfa Romeo Team. No change in the line up with Valtteri Bottas and George Zhou.

Aston Martin Team. Fernando Alonso replace Seb Vettel who retired last year. Lance Stroll remains.

Haas Team Another change. Mick Schumacher was sacked last year and has been replaced with Nico Hulkenberg who will have his arch enemy Kevin Magnussen as a team mate.

Alpha Tauri team. Nyck De Vries (a rookie) replaces Gasly who moved to Alpine. Team mate Yuki Tsunoda (no change)

Williams team. Alex Albon remains and Nicholas Latifi (one of the worse drivers on the grid), resigned before being sacked, is replaced by another rookie Logan Sargeant (who was 4th in F2 last season)

So lots to look forward to this season. There have been changes in Team Principals. For Ferrari, Fred Vasseur replacing Mattio Binotti, McLaren has changed but the most shocking change (for me) is James Vowles Chief Strategist for Mercedes has taken on the team principal role for Williams!!

I hope Merc have got a damn good replacement!

[Cleoriff]

RACE HUNGARY

Oh well...The rocket ship of Red Bull overtook Lewis at turn one. (Max pushed him off the track) Allowing the  two McLarens through as well!

Still Lewis ended 4th and Russell 7th (did well from 18th)

[jonsie]

Boring as hell!

I'm sure Red Bull are using rocket fuel or doing something highly illegal

[Cleoriff]

It was boring @jonsie. Even when Mercedes were dominating, they had competition from Ferrari and they certainly didn't win every race. I'm pleased to see McLaren back up there but a bit worrying when you realise they they are using  Mercedes engines!!

[Cleoriff]

SPA- FRANCORCHAMPS (Belgium)

This is the last race before the summer break. It's also a SPRINT weekend Meh!! Add to that, it's raining as usual for Spa.

So this is the one and only Practice session before Qualifying at 4pm.
P1 has started and conditions are terrible. Hamilton is second currently with a slow time. Some cars are not bothering to go out.

[Cleoriff]

Practice 1

Some drivers didn't bother going out. Too close to Qualifying to risk the car. Max takes a 5 place grid penalty for a new gear box.

Discussions taking place re qualifying. If the weather conditions dont improve, the grid may be set by championship order. McLaren arent happy with that, due to their recent improvement in finishing positions at Silverstone and Hungary

[Cleoriff]

QUALIFYING

Eventually the rain stopped. There were different people heading the leaderboard during Q1, Q2 and the final Q3.

Max drops to 6th due to engine penalty So Leclerc starts on pole.

[Cleoriff]

Sprint Shootout

Q1

Q2

Q3

Note how well Hamilton was doing in Q1 and Q2. Hampered by his team mate Russell in Q3 who overtook him at the start when they were all queuing up to do the 1 or 2 laps. Russell then missed the apex and locked up compromising Lewis who was pretty close to him. This resulted in both Mercs doing badly,  particularly Lewis losing position. Martin Brundle has just said George owes Lewis an apology. In his defence, Russell has admitted he was at fault.

Cracking lap by Piastri considering he is a rookie.

The Sprint (15laps) starts at 3pm (weather permitting). This is where points are handed out from 1 to 10

[Cleoriff]

SPRINT.

After an hours delay due to torrential rain the Sprint start. Ist 4 laps behind the safety car.  Then they got going. Exciting but dangerous. Some of the lead cars went  straight into pits to change tyres. Alonso went into the bbarrier bringing out the safety car. Shame for Oscar Piastri the rookie who was leading the race, but was overtaken by Max soon after the safety car returned to pits.  Lewis moved up to 4th but was given a 5 second penalty by the stewards for a coming together with Perez. It was a racing incident and shouldn't have been penalised (every pundit agreed) Anyway that  penalty dropped him down to 7th from 4th.

[Cleoriff]

SPA RACE

 A dry race with about 10 mins of drizzle. No surprise that Max came from 6th to win.

Lewis did take the fastest lap from him though, earning himself an extra point!

Now a 4 week summer break for F1

[Safwan]

Feels like this season has become a write-off 😕 I’ll probably drop F1 for this season even when after the  break as the football will be in full swing