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]

The summer break is over and the F1 'circus' is back.

ZANDVOORT -DUTCH GP.

This is Max Verstappens home race. Unless he has car problems, I can't see him being beaten (which is pretty boring for those of us who dont support Red Bull.)

PRACTICE ONE.

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PRACTICE TWO

Vandvoort track has 2 very high banking areas. On lap 6 Oscar Piastri attempted the bank and lost the car into the barrier. Daniel Ricciardo who was following him tried to avoid Oscars car and also smacked into the barrier.

(Daniel in the white car)

Sadly he was still holding the steering wheel and was taken away in the medical car. Back in the pitlane his wrist was heavily strapped and in a sling. Confirmed he has broken wrist. Alpha Tauri have requested he is

replaced by their reserve driver Liam Lawson (a junior from the Red Bull team.)

A good run from Norris who topped the leaderboard for P2

[pgn]

A chance for a junior to make a mark, I guess... Daniel'll not be holding a steering wheel for a few weeks, nor driving competitively for a few more, I suspect. Still, every cloud...

[Cleoriff]

@pgn 

Tragic really for Daniel. A great driver, who, for silly season choices of new drivers for some teams,  ended up without a seat this season. However, Alpha Tauri realised they had made a mistake with Nyck De Vries and sacked him 2 races before the summer break. Daniel was given his seat (Alpha Tauri is the sister team to Red Bull) He had 2 races and was doing well, (bearing in mind it's apparently 70% car and 30% driver and the AT is NOT a great car) .

I suppose Nyck De Vries will see this as karma! Some of us see it as an end to Daniels career 😢

[pgn]

Karma does have a knack of getting its own back... 😣

[Cleoriff]

PRACTICE 3.

Surprise Surprise, it was raining for P3.

As the session got underway and the drivers began to filter out on to the track, the sun began to shine through. However, track conditions were still wet with both Red Bulls in Verstappen and Perez, as well as Lando Norris ending up off-track.

The session was then red flagged when Kevin Magnussen spun into the barrier at Turn 3, with the Dane coming on the radio to immediately apologise to his Haas team. That signalled a difficult start to the day for Haas following Nico Hulkenberg’s crash in FP1 on Friday.

After a seven-minute delay, the drivers went back out on track with Verstappen going fastest, leading Norris by over a second and a half. However, there was another red flag as Zhou Guanyu beached his Alfa Romeo in the gravel at the final corner.

Once the action restarted, McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Norris began to swap fastest times, before the session was once again red flagged.

Liam Lawson – filling in for Daniel Ricciardo after the Australian broke a bone in his hand after his crash in FP2 – spun his AlphaTauri into the barrier at Turn 14, and despite damage to his front wing he was able to continue on into the pits.

Results.

[Cleoriff]

QUALIFYING

Q1)

Qualifying began on a rain soaked track and most cars ran on intermediates. Max ran off into the gravel.

Falling at the first hurdle were Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa) and Liam Lawson.

Q2)

The track was still wet, so all cars ran on inters again, but it dried quickly towards the end.

Verstappen topped the session by half a second with 1m18.856s, ahead of Piastri and Albon.

Knocked out at this point were Lance Stroll, whose Aston Martin was pipped by Sargeant’s Williams in the dying moments by 0.054s, Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Nico Hulkenberg(Haas). This session was like the M25 with cars queuing up to get out on track before the time ran out.

UPDATE: Tsunoda was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Hamilton. He will start 17th. If not for this impeding, Hamilton would have made it into Q3.

Q3)

The track was ready for slicks at last, with Albon setting the pace at 1m15.743s before team-mate Sargeant crashed heavily at Turn 2, causing a red flag.

After a lengthy delay, McLaren took a 1-2 at the resumption with Norris ahead of Piastri on 1m12.049s, with Verstappen three tenths in arrears. But another red flag was required soon after when Leclerc understeered off into the tyrewall at Turn 9.

The session restarted with four minutes to go, with Verstappen lowering the bar to 1m10.567s. Norris got to within 0.537s of that, with Russell going third for Mercedes, ahead of Albon, Fernando Alonso (Aston), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Piastri, Leclerc and Sargeant.

[Cleoriff]

DUTCH GP (RACE)

A dry start and after 10 minutes down came the rain. A rush to the pits to change tyres. I've never seen so many pit stops during a race which was dry, wet, dry, wet again a red flag which stopped the race on lap 64 (with 7 laps still to go)

Driver of the day was Alonso, although Gasly deserved it more. He started 12th, served a 5 second penalty and ended up 3rd.

Mercedes made a mess of strategy. Despite that, Lewis, who started 13th managed to get to 6th. His team mate Russell was not so lucky. He started 3rd and ended up last  of the 17 cars still running. His own fault really,  he attempted a risky overtake when the race restarted, clipped Norris and got a puncture.

[Cleoriff]

News this week:

Lewis Hamilton has signed for another 2 years with Mercedes, along with his team mate George Russell.

There have been many rumours about Hamiltons future as no announcement had been made. It was amusing to hear Toto say his contract was signed in May but they enjoyed keeping people guessing. 😂

[Cleoriff]

ITALIAN GP (MONZA)

This weekend F1 is at the 'Temple Of Speed' at Monza in Italy.

This is an 'old type' track and the home of Ferrari. They have changed the livery as well as bought some upgrades. A good job as they have failed to reach their potential so far this season.

PRACTICE 1.