Grand Prix Rejects

It's Offical. Mazepin is out. No news yet of who is taking the second seat.

Probably the right decision in the end but now the question remains of who takes that seat.... Could the international man of Mystery (Giovinazzi) make a shock return?

rachel1990 wrote:No news yet of who is taking the second seat.

Probably the right decision in the end but now the question remains of who takes that seat.... Could the international man of Mystery (Giovinazzi) make a shock return?

I personally think it's more than likely that it'll be Pietro Fittipaldi.

dr-baker wrote:

rachel1990 wrote:No news yet of who is taking the second seat.

Probably the right decision in the end but now the question remains of who takes that seat.... Could the international man of Mystery (Giovinazzi) make a shock return?

I personally think it's more than likely that it'll be Pietro Fittipaldi.

Given that Steiner stated previously that Pietro would be the first in line, it's almost certainly going to be him.

Looks like Russia has isolated itself pretty much in the international community by starting that war, or as least as much as you can isolate yourself when you're the world's largest country. The decision making process is so beyond me that I cannot even grasp it. And the horrible outcome so far hasn't made me want to try either.

However, it is no surprise at all that the loss of a sponsor results in a pay driver losing his seat to somebody else. Just that this time, the reason for that is more drastic than ever before.

It's sad.

I saw a tweet that said Kevin Magnussen will be replacing Mazepin at Haas. That's a development. Is he really better off coming back to Haas than being part of a top-line sportscar program?

Row Man Gross-Gene wrote:I saw a tweet that said Kevin Magnussen will be replacing Mazepin at Haas. That's a development. Is he really better off coming back to Haas than being part of a top-line sportscar program?

I've seen the news on Autosport. In olden days of this forum, we would have said, "Autosport or it didn't happen." So it's official now. When I saw the news, I saw it from Haas's point of view, thinking that it's probably a good move for them at this point, going for someone who knows the team well and has experience. But you're right, what's in it for him, other than being in F1 again for the sake of it?

Presumably Magnussen brings the missing sponsorship that Fittipaldi and Giovinazzi could not.

IceG wrote:Presumably Magnussen brings the missing sponsorship that Fittipaldi and Giovinazzi could not.

I think that's probably unlikely. But the freezing of the Russian money might renew talks of an Andretti takeover or at least partnership. I don't know.

dr-baker wrote:

Row Man Gross-Gene wrote:I saw a tweet that said Kevin Magnussen will be replacing Mazepin at Haas. That's a development. Is he really better off coming back to Haas than being part of a top-line sportscar program?

I've seen the news on Autosport. In olden days of this forum, we would have said, "Autosport or it didn't happen." So it's official now. When I saw the news, I saw it from Haas's point of view, thinking that it's probably a good move for them at this point, going for someone who knows the team well and has experience. But you're right, what's in it for him, other than being in F1 again for the sake of it?

It's a big surprise, as the indications until now were that Fittipaldi was the most likely candidate.

I do also wonder why Magnussen accepted the deal too, since there do not seem to be a huge number of positives and Magnussen had previously indicated he wouldn't try to go back to F1 just because he could. It's true that the current situation is not exactly normal times, but I still do wonder what is motivating him to return.

I'm please we get to see how Schumacher goes with an experienced driver in the other car as a yardstick - think it's a good move by the team.

James1978 wrote:I'm please we get to see how Schumacher goes with an experienced driver in the other car as a yardstick - think it's a good move by the team.

It's definitely good for the team from a sporting perspective, Kevin is good. What doesn't make sense is why it is good for Kevin or how the operating budget can handle the hit, when ostensibly Kevin doesn't bring much money (certainly not billionaire's kid money at least).

Haas have really struck gold given their situation. Now they have a decent driver who, unlike Mazepin, will grab at points if the Haas is actually good enough to do so. Now they just need to hope and pray that the team stays afloat for long enough so that they can actually get the money for their work.

Yeah I wonder what the deal was for Magnussen, but the surface knowledge I have read is that it's a multi-year contract. With his connections he probably has semi-decent sponsors that can help Haas out, and the team will desperately need someone who is reliable and experienced. Let's see how it goes.

Anyone been watching the Bahrain test at all?

The cars actually look quite elegant except for those daft wings over the front wheels. The swoopy bodywork (especially Mercedes) is amost reminiscent of LM endurance prototypes. Shame all the little deflectors and winglets are already creeping in.

But all the cars look very stiff, perhaps a symptom of the new tyre sidewalls, and they all look to be running quite high off the track, perhaps related to the reported ground-effect porpoising issues from Barcelona.

Hard to tell if they are going fast yet but Gasly's final time (1m 33.9s) is quite respectable in comparison with the race FL from 2021 (1m 32.1s).

IceG wrote:Anyone been watching the Bahrain test at all?

The cars actually look quite elegant except for those daft wings over the front wheels. The swoopy bodywork (especially Mercedes) is amost reminiscent of LM endurance prototypes. Shame all the little deflectors and winglets are already creeping in.

But all the cars look very stiff, perhaps a symptom of the new tyre sidewalls, and they all look to be running quite high off the track, perhaps related to the reported ground-effect porpoising issues from Barcelona.

Hard to tell if they are going fast yet but Gasly's final time (1m 33.9s) is quite respectable in comparison with the race FL from 2021 (1m 32.1s).

I haven't been watching yet, but I think I'll watch some replay sessions (been moving house). I'm glad to hear the cars look good. I've read some articles stating the cars are much more on-the-pace than they were supposed to be at this point. Hopefully that's not a negative for the racing, we'll see!

I went to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire (England) today, and saw the 2012 Lotus E20. When I saw the front wing, I found the message apt. At each end of the main plane was the message, “Peace One Day.”

IceG wrote:Anyone been watching the Bahrain test at all?

The cars actually look quite elegant except for those daft wings over the front wheels. The swoopy bodywork (especially Mercedes) is amost reminiscent of LM endurance prototypes. Shame all the little deflectors and winglets are already creeping in.

But all the cars look very stiff, perhaps a symptom of the new tyre sidewalls, and they all look to be running quite high off the track, perhaps related to the reported ground-effect porpoising issues from Barcelona.

Hard to tell if they are going fast yet but Gasly's final time (1m 33.9s) is quite respectable in comparison with the race FL from 2021 (1m 32.1s).

It seems to be that the stiff suspension is linked to the porpoising issues, with teams looking to run a stiffer set up to reduce the amount that the car pitches. The suspension systems have also been simplified this season - the oleo-pneumatic systems that a number of teams had are now banned - so the damping systems on the cars are less effective compared to what they were in the past.

I suppose the question will also be whether the characteristics of Bahrain, and also with Barcelona, perhaps paint a slightly more favourable impression. The cars are generally faster down the straights and in faster corners, where they are less likely to be drag limited compared to the past, although the simplification of the suspension systems and the higher weight means they are noticeably worse in slow corners. Bahrain might be a more favourable track, but I wouldn't be surprised if, at places like Monaco, the cars will perform significantly worse than they did in the past.

So Hülkenberg takes part in place of a COVID -stricken Vettel. Interesting how he's becoming the token supersub of our time, even if his career is long past its peak.

With no gap between races, I guess we'll see him in Saudi as well?

So Russell out qualified the lead driver of his former team by 5 places, but his predecessor in his current seat beats him by 3 places in what was a worse car last year. And last time he was in a Merc, he was 4 rows further forward. That first statistic is what he must be focusing on right now.

Really excited to see if Ferrari can not screw this up. Part of me still predicts a Verstappen walkover so who knows.

Those Ferrari overalls really are dreadful though I keep imagining they're going to start taking orders for cheeseburgers

McLaren having a good shot at ROTR in Bahrain

Oh dear, not the best start to the career of Red Bull Powertrains! Sets things up nicely for the season, though, if Red Bull can sort out those issues.

Paul Hayes wrote:Oh dear, not the best start to the career of Red Bull Powertrains! Sets things up nicely for the season, though, if Red Bull can sort out those issues.

Three failures in quick succession during that race might be raising a few alarms, especially if, as some have suggested, this could be a systemic design issue (a suggestion that it might be the power takeoff for the hydraulic pump that is failing). Even if they can work out the cause, fixing it when the next race is only a week away is another matter.

With Gasly, that looks like that power unit and the associated components are going to be completely written off - if Perez and Verstappen are also having to write components off, then that probably guarantees at least one penalty later in the season given the parts limits.

Report is both Red Bulls had fuel pump failure so I'd say it's unrelated to Gasly's fire. Obviously still a bad sign for Honda if they have to address two different issues.

Mixed feelings on this race. Well chuffed that Ferrari actually fulfilled promise for once! I can't imagine many are upset about Leclerc winning today.

The race itself was almost uniformly dull outside of the few amazing laps fighting for the lead between Charles and Max. Then there was the deathmatch for p17 between the Williams and the McLarens.

Sad to see the red bulls retire so gracelessly, especially seeing as it appears at this very moment that we have three teams solidly competing for wins this year. Red bull can't afford to be reliable when they're up against the Mercedes that literally never has a problem.

It's going to be an interesting year I think.

So Haas is currently 3rd in the constructors?

Good marks so far on the cars being able to follow more easily. The mid-race dice between Charles and Max would have lasted half as long with the old cars, so I’m happy to see that.

Vassago wrote:Report is both Red Bulls had fuel pump failure.

I remember a (possibly?) MotoGP race in the dim and distant past when a race-losing crankshaft failure eventually turned out to be running out of fuel. This was in the two-stroke mixed oil/petrol era (where in some engines the crank was lubed by the fuel/oil mixture) but there was general merriment that Honda (for it was they) preferred to admit to engineering issues rather than blame a basic fueling error.

At some point in the Bahrain pre-race waffling I seem to remember some-one referring to the E10 petrol being unpredicatble when hot and that this could lead to fuel starvation issues at the end of the race as more fuel vapourised in the fuel tanks

Verstappen had a gradual loss of power but managed to limp into the bits. Perez talked about his engine mis-firing before it suddenly stopped. Could the Red Bull farce actually be just running out of fuel?

I guess we will find out next weekend if there are any power unit changes on the cars.

IceG wrote:

Vassago wrote:Report is both Red Bulls had fuel pump failure.

I remember a (possibly?) MotoGP race in the dim and distant past when a race-losing crankshaft failure eventually turned out to be running out of fuel. This was in the two-stroke mixed oil/petrol era (where in some engines the crank was lubed by the fuel/oil mixture) but there was general merriment that Honda (for it was they) preferred to admit to engineering issues rather than blame a basic fueling error.

At some point in the Bahrain pre-race waffling I seem to remember some-one referring to the E10 petrol being unpredicatble when hot and that this could lead to fuel starvation issues at the end of the race as more fuel vapourised in the fuel tanks

Verstappen had a gradual loss of power but managed to limp into the bits. Perez talked about his engine mis-firing before it suddenly stopped. Could the Red Bull farce actually be just running out of fuel?

I guess we will find out next weekend if there are any power unit changes on the cars.

My suspicion is that they tried underfuelling the car, gambling on a couple of safety car phases to lower the fuel burn because the car is overweight and that's an easy way to lower the weight of the car.

Fetzie wrote:My suspicion is that they tried underfuelling the car, gambling on a couple of safety car phases to lower the fuel burn because the car is overweight and that's an easy way to lower the weight of the car.

Check out Mark Hughes' report on the-race.com. It gives a pretty good understanding. It's more complicated than I thought.

You know, I know Domenicali keeps saying F1 is healthy - viewerships are increasing (in their markets of interest...), money is definetely flowing - but I look at the past year and can't help but to think that isn't so the case. The number of high profile "incidents" which have occurred off track shows there's some truly rotten things happening within the world of F1, and as fans, I don't see how any of this is "healthy" for its long term longevity.

In less than a year, we've seen four different scenarios where Formula 1 has truly revealed they don't give a rat's ass about anything but money. Of course, I think we, as long term fans mostly, knew this - but I can't imagine how any of the new fans are looking at this and thinking "I want to waste time with this crap". Belgium 2021, Saudi 2021, Abu Dhabi 2021 and, now, Saudi 2022 - F1 is being made look like a bunch of twats. Londoner put up a Jamie quote last night on Discord and I believe it aptly sums up this crap: ""It's just unbelievable...that Formula 1 could be such a ridiculous melange of idiots."

For me, and not just on a personal level, Formula One has crossed a major red line with how they handled... well, safety in Saudi Arabia after the missile event. And again: if they went through with this, who says they won't put 30 races a year anyway? Incredibly dark day for the sport.

As good as it is that there is lots of new fans, the likelihood they will stay is dwindling with each stupid event that happens.

I think that especially the new fans don't view Saudi 21 and Abu Dhabi 21 as the shitshow it was. It was a lot of drama that for some was probably even exciting. A lot of the casual fans that I have talked with(of course only a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things), don't have too much of a problem with that. This is of course no excuse to let this stuff happen again, as the more hardcore community doesn't take this stuff well. We do however know that the hardcore fans are not the core target audience for F1, so they might as well don't give a bathplug.

Spa 21 on the other hand was bound to happen imo, and probably would have gone a similar way with Bernie at the helm. At least it can't happen similarly again due to the rule changes implemented because of it.

Saudi 22 however is a completely different ball game. It absolutely exposes the moral bankruptcy that F1 is in. You can't cancel the Russia race on one hand, and race in a country that gets actively attacked on a race weekend on the other hand. Yes, this all happens because of money, that's clear, but it has never been shown more that money is indeed the only deciding factor in this so-called sport.
My hopes, would be that some sponsors and maybe even race organizers are taking this as a cause to drop out, but that's probably never going to happen.

Here's hoping Schumacher isn't too badly injured. Lack of replay of audio from Mick concerns me as well as lack of crash replays makes me wonder that things are serious. Glad that Latifi is OK though.

And Hamilton 16th? ROTQ for sure.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-l ... y/9462772/

After much discussion, Las Vegas is indeed on the menu for next year's calendar. It's revolutionary in that it's over 5 kilometres, while Domenicali is continuing talk of an eventual stretching of the calendar to up to 30 races.

The circuit looks ok at least though!

I really hope that they gonna ditch Saudi (War with Yemen and missle attacks near the track multiple times in 2 years) and Azerti (for attacking Armania again) so that we have enough room to keep Belgium on the scheme and adding Las Vegas to it.

They only dropped Russia because they knew there would be massive public pressure; that's not as intense with Saudi Arabia (unfortunately) nor with Azerbaijan.

Perhaps if we invade Luxembourg we can remain on the calendar

Butterfox wrote:Perhaps if we invade Luxembourg we can remain on the calendar

Maybe Boris can start reforming the British Empire. But where should he start?

(And Boris is an Eastern European sounding name, isn’t it? Like Boris Yeltsin.)

Holy hell will be raised if they attempt to drop Spa from the calendar. It’s the coolest track and it has a lot of fans. Plus they’ve worked to remove the most dangerous features, so there’s no longer even a fake reason to dump it.

Row Man Gross-Gene wrote:Holy hell will be raised if they attempt to drop Spa from the calendar. It’s the coolest track and it has a lot of fans. Plus they’ve worked to remove the most dangerous features, so there’s no longer even a fake reason to dump it.

Well, the reason is they don't pay up. Fans will moo, but fans moo about everything. They will still keep watching.

just a tactic to extract more money from spa, is all, it's the usual story, and usually when spa is without a race for one or two years, they'll bring out a better bid again, because it's good marketing. So even if Spa leaves, i'm confident it will come back as well.

Nevertheless with the death of the track owner still being very recent, i can imagine negotiations aren't as smooth as they could have been.