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!

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Or similar:

Singha sponsor.😂

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FP3 Bahrain. I got quite excited as Lewis was top for 5 minutes...but then, the shock of the new season, Alonso put his Alpine on pole. Apparently Alpine have poached Dan Fallows who worked with Red Bulls top designer Adrian Newey for 16years. That's the reason they have developed from a mid team car to be among the top 3.

Qualifying next. ....

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Qualifying (PS for Alonso above, please read Aston Martin NOT Alpine)

Not very clever Mercedes!!

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For Bahrain it was a pretty good race, except for McLaren. Alonso got tangled up at the start and dropped down the order. However after a scillintating drive (showing the young kids that the oldest driver on the grid has still got what it takes) he managed to finish 3rd.

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SAUDI ARABIA

Free Practice 1

Not looking good for Ferrari!! Leclerc is taking an engine penalty which is pretty poor having only had one race.

Merc 5th and 6th 🤐

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FP2

I bet Lewis was delighted to end up 11th 🙄

Might as well give Max the trophy now. 😂

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Free Practice 3

Qualifying at 5pm

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Qualifying. Although Leclerc was 2nd he is taking a grid penalty. So everyone below him moves up a place.

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A good street race under the lights of Jeddah.

Max went from 15th to 2nd. Alonso had a 5 sec penalty for being out of his grid box at the start. This penalty was to be served under his 1st pit stop. This means that the mechanics can't start working on the car till the 5 seconds  are up. Unfortunately the rear jack was touching the car and he was given a 10second penalty for that. He lost his 3rd position which then went to Russell who finished 4th in the race. Lewis made up two places and finished 5th behind Russell.

This shows the race finish before Alonso was given his 10 second penalty. So Russell is third Alonso 4th and Hamilton 5th.

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The FIA making a fool of itself and the sport!!

Alonso said this post race.

The team apparently complained and this posted an hour ago