Formula 1-2022 Season

I suspect Daddy Stroll hoped Vettel would help elevate the team. I'm not sure Seb has the car development chops needed - that's a different skill set from winning races. 

I'm surprised/not surprised......there's been a lot of talk about this, both because of his and the cars performance not coming up to the standards they both expected and his stance on climate and ecology, and how that conflicts with driving an F1 car, or being involved in the F1 circus at all.

But that sure does open up some interesting speculation about what's happening with the team - maybe this is Audi's entrance, Stroll never bought the team as anything as other than an investment and an opportunity to put his son in an F1 race seat. If he can sell it to a deep pockets outfit like Audi I'm sure he'll make a nice chunk of change, and that gets Audi into F1 without having to pay the $200-400 million new entrant's fee like Andretti would, and they don't have to start from dead scratch. Aston/Force has all the facilities and engineers in place, Audi would only have to make the changes to accommodate the new rules and bring in their drivers - I doubt they would keep Stroll Jr., maybe quick Nick finally gets his shot?

Fun to think about......

I thought Audi was sniffing around Sauber.

Maybe this is a chance for Andretti to get in.

If AMR gets sold to another group there will be a hit called on Stroll Snr. for sure.  He's pretty much sacrificed all other factory backed racing efforts at the alter of the F1 team Budget.  If that goes, Aston has lost it's racing exposure except for private teams.

Best comment I've seen so far on the Porsche / Red Bull deal.  "As long as porsche doesnt use IMS bearings, Locasil and Nickosil all good"

Lots of people on the Interwebs convinced that Porsche/Red Bull is going to be a dominant combination so I had to make a dumb meme.

Aaron_King said:

So my oldest is Air Force basic training and has asked me to send him race reports from the races he is not going to be able to watch, he graduates Aug 26th so I think only 1 or 2 more.  I have been cutting and pasting from F1.com, is there any other place that would be better?

Aside from Drive to Survive I have not followed F1 since the 90's so I am out of touch.

Just quoting this so it doesn't get missed. You're probably good with F1.com, the-race.com might be another spot to check.

Got up sort of early (hey, I don't work anymore...), and see that there's some actual creativity from Aston Martin- they have a totally unique rear wing that is more like last season- but with what is being called an armchair endplate.  So it satisfies the curvature requirement.  Now with FP1, we see if it will work.

alfadriver said:

Got up sort of early (hey, I don't work anymore...), and see that there's some actual creativity from Aston Martin- they have a totally unique rear wing that is more like last season- but with what is being called an armchair endplate.  So it satisfies the curvature requirement.  Now with FP1, we see if it will work.

If FP1 times mean something, I don't expect to see this new wing the rest of the weekend- the Astons are slowest.

adam525i said:

Aaron_King said:

So my oldest is Air Force basic training and has asked me to send him race reports from the races he is not going to be able to watch, he graduates Aug 26th so I think only 1 or 2 more.  I have been cutting and pasting from F1.com, is there any other place that would be better?

Aside from Drive to Survive I have not followed F1 since the 90's so I am out of touch.

Just quoting this so it doesn't get missed. You're probably good with F1.com, the-race.com might be another spot to check.

I was trying to figure out what to suggest. I realize I rely on podcasts and videos for reports mostly. I think this year, outside of the official Formula one site I read articles on the-race.com sparingly. 

2026 seems so far away that these VW group announcements seem like concept plans rather than reality. I will check back in a year or so. 

I think Vettel leaving will cause the FIA and F1 owners to push super hard to get one of the F2 champions on the grid. Their longterm plans to sustain f2 and f3 hinge on those series actually leading to f1 chances.

We will see soon I guess.

Stroll will stay in for 2 more seasons at least. The team staff changes will take that long to gel. Then probably evaluate if staying in f1 is worth it. 

Advan046 said:

adam525i said:

Aaron_King said:

So my oldest is Air Force basic training and has asked me to send him race reports from the races he is not going to be able to watch, he graduates Aug 26th so I think only 1 or 2 more.  I have been cutting and pasting from F1.com, is there any other place that would be better?

Aside from Drive to Survive I have not followed F1 since the 90's so I am out of touch.

Just quoting this so it doesn't get missed. You're probably good with F1.com, the-race.com might be another spot to check.

I was trying to figure out what to suggest. I realize I rely on podcasts and videos for reports mostly. I think this year, outside of the official Formula one site I read articles on the-race.com sparingly. 

I like the race reports from theparcferme.com.  Their weekly podcast is one that I (almost) never miss.  The co-host that does the race review podcast episodes is the team principle for the Aston Martin IMSA team, so he's got a good perspective on things and occasionally they'll spend some time talking about IMSA stuff, which is interesting.

I try to watch live, but f1.com is a decent source if I want a recap for some reason. It's the official site so it's free of editorializing and contains the official party line - for good and for bad. No clickbait headlines at least, if you see it on F1.com it's very likely legit. But there will never be any stories that make Formula 1 (TM) or the FIA look bad.

Now that FP2 has gotten going, the Astons have found some speed, and the Mercedes are quite slow on the medium tires.  Tomorrow will be interesting, since there's a strong forecast of rain during qualifying.  

Norris is the surprised of FP2, Mercedes is further down the order than expected and Ferrari is strong as predicted.

And all of it means nothing as it's 80% chance of rain tomorrow during qually.

Should be a fun race on Sunday, supposed to be dry for the race but gusty winds.

Keith Tanner said:

I've come to appreciate Seb at his current team more than any of his other drives. It'll be a shame to see him go. Let's hope he displaces Nico Rosberg as the ex-champion commentator.

I really want to see all the teams leaderships change to involve their veteran drivers more.  I'd love to see folks like Vettel and Alonso driving the team and driver developments.  Not sure why that ended aside from some noteable exceptions like Laude.

There's something we haven't seen for a long time- a Williams topping the timing chart.  And something we've never(?) seen- Latifi topping the timing chart.

alfadriver said:

There's something we haven't seen for a long time- a Williams topping the timing chart.  And something we've never(?) seen- Latifi topping the timing chart.

Was he the first car on track? 

Thanks for the suggestions, I figured F1.com was probably the least biased source and the recaps are fairly in depth.  A few minutes of cut and paste and its done.

Interesting qualifying so far- the Haas's finally brought some improvements, and they did make Q2, but are not as good as they have been before.

And Perez gets knocked out in Q2.  

Mercedes seems decent- closer to Max and the Ferraris than before, but will that hold up in Q3?

Latifi... gets fastest time in FP3, storms to the best first sector time in Q1, and manages to be the slowest car in the field.  Can he be replaced before Spa?

Is it just me or did it seem as though Perez was lingering in the box in Q2 and why ?

and it got more interesting- for this season at least.

Red Bull has partially started the break- with Max having no power, and now starting 10th.  So 10th/11th for Red Bull.

Lewis had speed but not DRS, so starts 7th- kind of where he was.  But what *might* have been, with George Russell getting POLE!  What in the world is going on now?

105th different driver to get pole, and this was supposed to be a tough track for Mercedes.  Great drive, George!

Yes, that was a shock to everyone, including Mercedes!

However.....how is it that he was not the fastest in any section on that run, yet still took top time?

On a track that's difficult to pass on, I'm thinking the start will be everything!  

MiniDave said:

However.....how is it that he was not the fastest in any section on that run, yet still took top time?

Consistency is the answer.

BTW, on the purple/green/yellow thing, one thing they appear to be doing in Q1/Q2 is that for cars which are currently in the "drop zone" they rank them relative to the last position needed to advance.  So in Q1, if you're currently P16 or lower, you can get a purple if your sector time is faster than the P15 car (or perhaps just fastest of all of the P16-20 cars), even if it's slower than some of the sector times for cars in P1-P14.

Lewis didn't win championships by being the fastest (though that helped), he won by being consistent.  George has surely taken that to heart.

It's why Max is walking away with this year's driver's championship while Ferrari flop like a hooked fish on a hot sunny day.