Formula 1 2023.

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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!

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PRACTICE 2

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Practice 3

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QUALIFYING

Normal service resumed. Verstappen back on  pole.

Q1

Sargeant binned his car during this session, major damage to the horror of the team,  who face a major rebuild overnight. Also out in Q1 were Bottas, Stroll, Hulkenberg and Zhou.

Q2

Out in Q2 were Lawson, Albon, Gasly, Ocon and Magnussen

Q3. The final 10

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The Final Grid JAPAN.

Well done to Piastri, McLaren's rookie, who has never driven at this track before.

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Boring race.  George Russell sulking towards the end because he was asked to let Lewis through (Lewis had the faster car) and they hoped he could chase down LeClerc for 4th. It didn't happen but there you go.

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Forgot to mention, Red Bull won the Constructors Championship today. Max CAN win the drivers championship in Qatar which is the next race.

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QATAR F1

SPRINT WEEKEND

PRACTICE 1

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Its Qualifying next.

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QUALIFYING

Pointless  trying to show true positions as F1 has not released the final grid yet

This is what is showing currently.

However, both Norris and Piastri exceeded track limits and it was embarrassing the length of time it took the stewards to announce it. Norris parked up in 2nd then was told by his engineer he was down in 10th. No one told Naomi Schiff who was doing post Qualy interviews. So Piastri rocked up to be interviewed for 3rd and it flashed up that HE had his lap time deleted.

So Norris is in 10th and Piastri 6th, moving Russell into 2nd and Hamilton into 3rd.

Pathetic that the stewards took so long to bring up results, as track limit infringements changed the whole top 10 of the grid. The FIA have still not posted the the full results.

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NOW they have.

This is the whole grid for tomorrow.