Formula One ( F1 )

In charge of 'bantz' on the Netflix doc then?
Or the foil to Horner's hard man routine...

Why do you think it's stupid out of interest? It's not like my thought that RB would treat their 2nd driver as disposable is somehow unfounded.

Calling a driver done in F1 is a bit naive IMO. He's been useless at McLaren from the get go so wouldn't be surprised if he improved by driving for a different team. Guess we'll have to wait and see if he gets another drive.

Shit. Do you have that actual thing in your actual house?

I can’t even process how cool that is.

Yes. It takes up half the spare room 😅

Schumacher and Latifi having some deja vu there

That was a shit race

Ferrari made up places due to a strategy call? What sort of parallel universe is this?

So, predictions for next season?

I'm betting it'll be an RB/Merc year again with Max taking the championship helped by George/Lewis taking points off each other.

Unless Vettel takes up a role as head of strategy at Ferrari that is. Otherwise, a year of the Ferraris tootling around on extreme wets or something.

Daniel back in a RB

i called it! Ok so not really but not surprised he's ended up back there.

Fairly dull/frustrating race but did enjoy cheering Vettel to the line. Also happy for Charles, most exciting driver of the season for me.

Not sure what assurances we have that the Merc will be more competitive next year but expect them to see them pick up the ball from Ferrari by mid season. Behind RB.

his pay isn’t even under the pay cap, so that sounds right.

I assume that means no simulator runs then as that's all car development

On the predictions note, decided to revisit my predictions from before pre-season testing:

Ferrari
Red Bull
Mercedes
Aston Martin
McLaren
Alpha Tauri
Williams
Alpine
Haas
Alfa Romeo

Some absolute howlers there. Hoping that 2023 is very much an evolution of this year as there've been great fights all the way through the field. Would love if RB/Merc/Ferrari were properly fighting at the top.

Also, while it was certainly a dull race, I don't think anyone should be surprised. Abu Dhabi has always been a horrible track for F1 (good point raised in commentary that the introduction of DRS was largely triggered by the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP). Even last year's race was dull aside from Perez backing up Hamilton and the SC. It's a damn shame Brazil isn't the last race of the season anymore. Even if the rain can make it feel like a bit of a lottery at times.

Not sure what assurances we have that the Merc will be more competitive next year but expect them to see them pick up the ball from Ferrari by mid season. Behind RB.

I think Merc struggled this year on a number of things.

First, they chose the wrong aero package. They went for the size-zero sidepods which worked well with the previous aero regulations, but the current aero appears to work much better with a massive undercut like the Red Bull has. The Red Bull cars already relied very heavily on their floors for downforce, so it doesn't surprise me that it wasn't too much of a transition for them to the new regulations. Mercedes always relied less on the floor and much more on wing and I think they struggled with the transition.

Second I think might have been budgetary. Merc had to make much, much bigger sacrifices internally to meet the new budget cut than any of the other teams. When I worked at RB, the rumours were that Merc were putting £7-800M per year into the race cars and that didn't include the engines. That was almost double what we were spending. They had to decide what areas of the team to cut and I just wonder if they made the right calls. You could see at times they were splicing patches of modifications into their cars where they would previously have brought new parts, especially on the floors and wings, which points to cutting costs. The result of that are parts which are heavier and which don't perform as well.

I'm certain they know what they did wrong and I have no doubt they'll be back fighting next year.

It'll definitely be interesting to see how Mercedes approach next season; evolution of current design vs "revolution" of larger sidepods a la the rest of the grid. Still like that they went completely their own direction even if it didn't pay off.

Also be interesting to see if the aero development cap Red Bull have for championship placement and spend cap punishments has a meaningful effect on them as the season / development progresses next year. They're already a fair way ahead so maybe it will just make the margin smaller.

Overall, despite Red Bulls dominance at the top, this has been an exiting season in comparison to many of the hybrid era.

Looking forward to March already.

Bbc sounds has a good podcast on the Spygate saga from 2007. If you can get over Pete Tongs presenting it’s really good!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p0dg9kj4?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Made me miss Brazil as the season closer. Some amazing races there during that period

https://twitter.com/_RichardParry_/status/1594857432236593152

Cutaway of the Red Bull garage is a work of art

Saw this on Reddit this morning. He's done a few garages now. Mercedes one is also good.

Latifi as employee of the month, November 2021 is incredible.

F1 not coming to shanghai next year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/63713326

Merc garage is on the monitor in the Red Bull office.

Perez's huge wing and tow rope was quite good I thought. Not sure what the right rear on Max's car is all about.

Not sure what the right rear on Max's car is all about.

Where he ran over Lewis Hamilton's head at Monza?

That was my thought, but a season out. Can't think of any other memorable instances with his right rears.

The teamwork makes the dream work poster is good too.

Ferrari - the Liverpool of Formula 1…

Think he deserves to stick around in a technical role personally, looking forward to Vasseur taking over though (would've preferred if Arrivebene came back). Though with Vasseur in charge, it'll be interesting to see if it turns into Team Leclerc.

Even bigger news is Ross Brawn stepping down. Seriously hope they've got someone decent to take over as I think he's done an excellent job in leading the sport over this past few years. Can definitely imagine things starting to crumble after his departure.

There were rumours of him joining Ferrari so it’s super interesting timing.

He’s denied it in reports today though so who knows.