2023 Formula 1 Season thread

[Glideslope]

Ferrari did a good job of keeping Max behind for a lot longer than I thought. But as soon as he got by, that was that. I’m surprised LeClerk couldn’t have done more to help out his teammate at the start. If he’d been all over his gearbox, it might have been a different story.

Agreed. The first 15 laps were exciting up front. Ferrari had the straight line speed from their super low downforce setup. But Max would simply stay close especially putting the power down on exit and force Carlos to use way more tire then he wanted. Then once Max was past Carlos simply could never put the power down on exit without cooking the L Rear.

Then the RB19 was stellar on the Hards. I’m very interested to find out what Max was nursing the last 2 laps. He was practically coasting the last lap. Maybe fuel conservation?

 

[CWallace]

Sainz was MVP for me holding off both Max and Checco for as long as he did. Totally deserved the 3rd spot. And Ferrari really needed to tell LeClerc to hold position - that banzai charge at the end could have knocked both him and Sainz out of the race.

 

[ovbacon]

Nothing says sore loser more than saying "I don't care about those numbers, those records are for Wikipedia and nobody reads that anyway"...... sure Toto, you never cared when Lewis and/or Merc broke a record.

And The past year Wikipedia has had between 4.5 / 5 billion unique global visitors per month.... Yup, nobody reads wikipedia 🤣

 

[ovbacon]

Valtteri, it’s James...Please abort the fastest lap....James its Valtteri, **** YOU!

 

[Pezimak]

I was watching the race yesterday but it was very late and I had a full on busy day, so sadly fell asleep too much. I stopped watching it as I saw enough to know it was a hell of a race. Penalties and over takes galore. So I want to watch it when I'm more awake.

But what on earth the Race Directors were doing at the beginning I'll never know, don't start the race but don't let the pit crews on the track for a few minutes??

 

[JustinePaula]

This is what happens when you allow non adults to organize an event, chaos.. 2 weeks in a row, don't tell me those overpaid brains in the race directors HQ did not see all n sundry, last week, they have cameras that sky cannot access, they could see when there is an accident long before we do, or so I assume, so last week, it would not have made much difference if they went red flag 1 minute before Perez entered the pit...NO no, too complicated...

A week later, a car breaks on the formation lap, panic panic, yes no, maybe, all a bit comical and lacking in what is expected of sane rational competent adults... Come on it is not that hard, you can see that it will take more than 9-0 seconds, red flag, simple, but no, Race Director is confused, or taking a piss, a smoke break, busy doing not his job..

The abortion of a start, like this was the first time a car binned it on the formation lap..
Dishing out 5 second penalties like they are VIP cards to the buffet upstairs for the fatcats...

F1 is looking way to like this is an audition to Clown College..

 

[CWallace]

Frankly I was happy the FIA clowns running the show delayed the race until 20 after the hour because I woke up at 15 past the hour and was therefore able to watch the entire thing live.

 

[Glideslope]

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Pretty impressive from Max and the team supporting him.

Loved his dry, typical Dutch answer on Sunday when asked what it was going to take to win; Max replied: “Finish first.” and that is just so true.

 

[Glideslope]

Pretty impressive from Max and the team supporting him.

Loved his dry, typical Dutch answer on Sunday when asked what it was going to take to win; Max replied: “Finish first.” and that is just so true.

Agreed. The haters will always hate though. It’s the current state of Sports in general in 2023. Had to admit though Toto’s Wikipedia Meltdown confirmed everything I’ve always felt he was inside.

 

[DaveOZ]

F1 is looking way to like this is an audition to Clown College..

They should never have bowed to pressure and removed Michael Masi. He is an excellent race director.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

They should never have bowed to pressure and removed Michael Masi. He is an excellent race director.

Agreed, it isn't easy to take the difficult decision, and you can't please everyone all the time. They've lost a lot of experience. However, I doubt it was all the race director and team, it wouldn't surprise me if it was compounded with a bit of local cultural behaviour.

Agreed. The haters will always hate though. It’s the current state of Sports in general in 2023. Had to admit though Toto’s Wikipedia Meltdown confirmed everything I’ve always felt he was inside.

I really don't see what is there to hate. He is a very nice guy, well liked by everyone else, who is super focussed, drives cleanly and would welcome some racing duels. Right across the board, he has got it, understands the rules, understands how to use gimmicks like DRS to his advantage, has got the race pace, and above all, is super consistent and flawless for the duration of the race. Immense stamina and focus. Sure he speaks his mind, and doesn't wait for someone to ask for his opinion just a typical cultural thing, probably would have been worse if he grew up in the Netherlands opposed to Belgium. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Agreed. The haters will always hate though. It’s the current state of Sports in general in 2023. Had to admit though Toto’s Wikipedia Meltdown confirmed everything I’ve always felt he was inside.

Toto and Horner could be twins, always make stupid comments when the shoe is on the other foot and take the moral high ground when winning. We just pretend one is worse than the other depending on which team we prefer at the time.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

They should never have bowed to pressure and removed Michael Masi. He is an excellent race director.

He was great apart from getting flustered during races, and making up his own rules which he was eventually sacked for. Not suggesting anything has been improved since he left, but it’s certainly not gotten any worse. His incompetence decided a world championship, that’s a hell of a mistake on the job. Having a panel of decision makers technically should be a better alternative, but this is F1 so it is yet to be proven due to an inability to appoint the right people.

 

[Glideslope]

Agreed, it isn't easy to take the difficult decision, and you can't please everyone all the time. They've lost a lot of experience. However, I doubt it was all the race director and team, it wouldn't surprise me if it was compounded with a bit of local cultural behaviour.


I really don't see what is there to hate. He is a very nice guy, well liked by everyone else, who is super focussed, drives cleanly and would welcome some racing duels. Right across the board, he has got it, understands the rules, understands how to use gimmicks like DRS to his advantage, has got the race pace, and above all, is super consistent and flawless for the duration of the race. Immense stamina and focus. Sure he speaks his mind, and doesn't wait for someone to ask for his opinion just a typical cultural thing, probably would have been worse if he grew up in the Netherlands opposed to Belgium. Nothing wrong with that.

There are thousands of haters in mainstream F1 forums that can’t let Lewis go. Max has thousands of fans as he should as well. I wasn’t directing negative feelings from myself towards Max. I have nothing but respect for him, and others on the grid. It’s just nuts to see the hate directed toward him other places simply for being dominant. We never see the vial words spewed in here though. Which is nice even though there is a heavy Lewis presence in here.

 

[Glideslope]

Toto and Horner could be twins, always make stupid comments when the shoe is on the other foot and take the moral high ground when winning. We just pretend one is worse than the other depending on which team we prefer at the time.

Agreed to a point, but Toto was over the top on this one. He really let his personal relationship with Lewis create his Kindergarten Comments. .

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Agreed to a point, but Toto was over the top on this one. He really let his personal relationship with Lewis create his Kindergarten Comments. .

That’s what they do though, look at all the smarmy childish comments Horner was making after their dominance slipped in 2014-2021. Toto made this immature comment knowing it would get a reaction and unfortunately that is the type of mind games teams play in this modern era.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

There are thousands of haters in mainstream F1 forums that can’t let Lewis go. Max has thousands of fans as he should as well. I wasn’t directing negative feelings from myself towards Max. I have nothing but respect for him, and others on the grid. It’s just nuts to see the hate directed toward him other places simply for being dominant. We never see the vial words spewed in here though. Which is nice even though there is a heavy Lewis presence in here.

I know,

Although I think it is more down to the moderating style on here that some people refrain from the vial words than them not wanting to. The bias towards Lewis is strong on here, especially with the British thread members, really not different from on X or Facebook.

 

[JustinePaula]

What I find so amusing, is that a lot of folks have bought into the narrative that Lewis was robbed in 2021, there is that classic scene of Toto slamming his fist, and "No mikey that is wrong..." meme floating around, what is forgotten by Toto and many others is that a number of events happened in 2021 that lead to an incorrect assumption...

EVENT 1: Lewis and Lewis alone drove off the track in Baku, finished 15th, no points...
EVENT 2 3 4 : This is the failure of Bottas to finish 2nd in Bahrain, Spain, Portugal, in the same 3 events, Max finished 2nd 3 times...

So if you look at a season as a whole, as it is a sum of its parts, then you can see that overall Max had just a better season.. Contrast that 2021 season, Toto forgot what had happened at the start of the season, by the end was frustrated... Now in 2023, it has been 3 years since they last had any sort of consistent success..He is feeling what other must be so used to, Williams were the Mercs and Red Bull of the day, drivers would win driving total ox wagons...

The tide is changing, teams are adapting, Lewis maybe is not the driver he thinks he was 12 years ago.. 38 is really an edge case of being a bit too mature...

I just love that so many folks still cannot accept that F1 is a sport over a very long season, there was a time when we dropped the worst x number of results and then you calculated the champion over the remainder y number of events, I have a vague recollection of dropping results...

The real issue is we are lacking any sort of Prost/Senna, Schumacher/Hill/Villuneve or Hamilton/Vettal fights, the last real season was 1 trick wonder, Hamilton v Rosberg, classic head to head, no orders, and boy it was fun, now we enjoy the fight for 3 n 4th place, really... Something is wrong.... the best fight should not be for 2nd losers...

 

[Apple fanboy]

What I find so amusing, is that a lot of folks have bought into the narrative that Lewis was robbed in 2021, there is that classic scene of Toto slamming his fist, and "No mikey that is wrong..." meme floating around, what is forgotten by Toto and many others is that a number of events happened in 2021 that lead to an incorrect assumption...

EVENT 1: Lewis and Lewis alone drove off the track in Baku, finished 15th, no points...
EVENT 2 3 4 : This is the failure of Bottas to finish 2nd in Bahrain, Spain, Portugal, in the same 3 events, Max finished 2nd 3 times...

So if you look at a season as a whole, as it is a sum of its parts, then you can see that overall Max had just a better season.. Contrast that 2021 season, Toto forgot what had happened at the start of the season, by the end was frustrated... Now in 2023, it has been 3 years since they last had any sort of consistent success..He is feeling what other must be so used to, Williams were the Mercs and Red Bull of the day, drivers would win driving total ox wagons...

The tide is changing, teams are adapting, Lewis maybe is not the driver he thinks he was 12 years ago.. 38 is really an edge case of being a bit too mature...

I just love that so many folks still cannot accept that F1 is a sport over a very long season, there was a time when we dropped the worst x number of results and then you calculated the champion over the remainder y number of events, I have a vague recollection of dropping results...

The real issue is we are lacking any sort of Prost/Senna, Schumacher/Hill/Villuneve or Hamilton/Vettal fights, the last real season was 1 trick wonder, Hamilton v Rosberg, classic head to head, no orders, and boy it was fun, now we enjoy the fight for 3 n 4th place, really... Something is wrong.... the best fight should not be for 2nd losers...

I’ll ignore the comments about 2021 as I think enough has been written about it.
But you are right in that we need a strong number 2 driver to challenger the number 1 driver.
The trouble with this season is the number 2 driver is different every week.
Perez
Alonso
Lando
Lewis
Sainz
Le Clerk

They’ve all had a good week and fallen short. No one driver has emerged as the challenger.
Add to that the RB is such a rocket ship. They have such an advantage under DRS over the rest it’s just boring. You know the pass (if there even is one!) will get done well before the braking zone.
I’ve been saying it for years. DRS needs to go.

 

[Don Quixote]

What I find so amusing, is that a lot of folks have bought into the narrative that Lewis was robbed in 2021, there is that classic scene of Toto slamming his fist, and "No mikey that is wrong..." meme floating around, what is forgotten by Toto and many others is that a number of events happened in 2021 that lead to an incorrect assumption...

EVENT 1: Lewis and Lewis alone drove off the track in Baku, finished 15th, no points...
EVENT 2 3 4 : This is the failure of Bottas to finish 2nd in Bahrain, Spain, Portugal, in the same 3 events, Max finished 2nd 3 times...

So if you look at a season as a whole, as it is a sum of its parts, then you can see that overall Max had just a better season.. Contrast that 2021 season, Toto forgot what had happened at the start of the season, by the end was frustrated... Now in 2023, it has been 3 years since they last had any sort of consistent success..He is feeling what other must be so used to, Williams were the Mercs and Red Bull of the day, drivers would win driving total ox wagons...

The tide is changing, teams are adapting, Lewis maybe is not the driver he thinks he was 12 years ago.. 38 is really an edge case of being a bit too mature...

I just love that so many folks still cannot accept that F1 is a sport over a very long season, there was a time when we dropped the worst x number of results and then you calculated the champion over the remainder y number of events, I have a vague recollection of dropping results...

The real issue is we are lacking any sort of Prost/Senna, Schumacher/Hill/Villuneve or Hamilton/Vettal fights, the last real season was 1 trick wonder, Hamilton v Rosberg, classic head to head, no orders, and boy it was fun, now we enjoy the fight for 3 n 4th place, really... Something is wrong.... the best fight should not be for 2nd losers...

While you do make some very valid points, the fact remains that the decision to let lapped cars go by at Abu Dhabi looms too big to ignore.

You're correct though, a couple of different finishes from the Merc boys and the title is wrapped before the finale.

I, for one, was glad to see someone else win the title but that made all the difference.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

What I find so amusing, is that a lot of folks have bought into the narrative that Lewis was robbed in 2021, there is that classic scene of Toto slamming his fist, and "No mikey that is wrong..." meme floating around, what is forgotten by Toto and many others is that a number of events happened in 2021 that lead to an incorrect assumption...

EVENT 1: Lewis and Lewis alone drove off the track in Baku, finished 15th, no points...
EVENT 2 3 4 : This is the failure of Bottas to finish 2nd in Bahrain, Spain, Portugal, in the same 3 events, Max finished 2nd 3 times...

So if you look at a season as a whole, as it is a sum of its parts, then you can see that overall Max had just a better season.. Contrast that 2021 season, Toto forgot what had happened at the start of the season, by the end was frustrated... Now in 2023, it has been 3 years since they last had any sort of consistent success..He is feeling what other must be so used to, Williams were the Mercs and Red Bull of the day, drivers would win driving total ox wagons...

The tide is changing, teams are adapting, Lewis maybe is not the driver he thinks he was 12 years ago.. 38 is really an edge case of being a bit too mature...

I just love that so many folks still cannot accept that F1 is a sport over a very long season, there was a time when we dropped the worst x number of results and then you calculated the champion over the remainder y number of events, I have a vague recollection of dropping results...

The real issue is we are lacking any sort of Prost/Senna, Schumacher/Hill/Villuneve or Hamilton/Vettal fights, the last real season was 1 trick wonder, Hamilton v Rosberg, classic head to head, no orders, and boy it was fun, now we enjoy the fight for 3 n 4th place, really... Something is wrong.... the best fight should not be for 2nd losers...

The many events of that season allowed both drivers to arrive in Abu Dhabi equal on World Championship points. Max was overtaken at the start of that race and was losing the World Championship until a flustered race director folded under pressure and restarted the race 1 lap too early. He was investigated, found to have not followed the correct procedure and a driver was given an unfair advantage that resulted in him being gifted an easy one-lap win. Not Max’s fault and he took what was given to him with both hands. Lewis would have done exactly the same I have no doubt, but it will always be remembered for what happened. Masi was sacked for his incompetence and that was absolutely the correct decision.

None of the events during the season mean one driver was worthy over the other, what counted was who got the most points at the end of the season and that was decided off the racetrack unfortunately.

Edit; I probably shouldn’t have bitten to this but i’ll leave it there. It’s a dull season and there’s not enough exciting things to talk about for me.

 

[CWallace]

In addition to Abu Dhabi, we should not forget that Massi also was the one who decided that while conditions were too treacherous to attempt to hold an actual race, the Belgian Grand Prix should run three laps under the Safety Car so that the FIA and FOM could collect their Sanctioning Fee for the event and the track owners could claim "the event happened" and therefore no refunds to ticketholders was warranted.

 

[Glideslope]

That’s what they do though, look at all the smarmy childish comments Horner was making after their dominance slipped in 2014-2021. Toto made this immature comment knowing it would get a reaction and unfortunately that is the type of mind games teams play in this modern era.

It's not limited to F1 either. I was taken aback watching this years US Open and hearing unheard of things from the galleries. I mean, Tennis, really?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

It's not limited to F1 either. I was taken aback watching this years US Open and hearing unheard of things from the galleries. I mean, Tennis, really?

Social media and the desire to belong to a gang of sorts is largely to blame. Back in the late 90’s and early 00’s we only had dedicated forums for this outlet and it was considerably more civil than I see across platforms now. In those days you had fans who enjoyed the depths of the sport and the technology, not this ‘my driver is better than your driver’ tripe. You can’t even discuss the finer merits of drivers constructively outside of forums.