Topic: Push Square Formula 1 thread - F1

The grid is as absolutely ridiculous as I thought it was going to be. Makes Monaco seem calm and normal.

@BearsEatBeets I thought it was a brilliant weekend after the disaster of FP1. Excellent racing all over. I'm actually tempted to go back and see some onboard highlights. Not only the grid was all messed up but drivers caught up in the first corner incident or from penalties because of it overtook dozens of cars between them especially, Checo, Lewis, Carlos and Fernando, who was the instigator for once.

I groaned at the last safety car as I knew it played into Max's hands, but it actually gave us a lot of other exciting action. A thrilling weekend.

@themightyant A bit late responding but agree with you totally it ended up being one of the better races of the season. I heard Ricciardo saying in a press conference it was the second most overtakes in a race this season.
I was gutted for Lando but we have a few tight fights for places this weekend now. Ferrari and Merc for second in the constructors and although they may not care too much, there is only 5 points between Carlos, Alonso and Lando for 4th,5th and 6th.

Another relatively entertaining race. Congratulations to Max and Red Bull on an utterly dominant season. But as a fan I hope for more competition next year.

@BearsEatBeets Merc scraped to 2nd in constructors, Fernando to 4th in drivers level on points with Charles who finished strong - I think he got a little unlucky this year with 5 non-scoring races and should have been competing or beating Lewis in 3rd. Lando then pipped Carlos who will be frustrated to go from 4th to 7th in the last race! Fingers crossed for 2024.

@themightyant Not among the best races of the season but not in the worst either. I loved the strategy going on in LeClerc's head whilst driving at silly speeds.

Saw something that suggested the average speeds between the teams compared to the previous season did actually tighten. Fingers crossed a few teams catch up to the Red Bull next season. I'd love it if Marc, Maclaren and Ferrari are all able to compete for an occasional win next season even if RB still has an edge.

@BearsEatBeets Indeed. Enjoyed all that with Leclerc. Definitely want to see the other teams doing better.

Hoping Perez can sort his head out too. He almost matched Max in the first 5 races, winning two and coming second twice. But then only got 5 podiums in the next 17 while Max won 16 of those 17. I know it's really hard being Max's team mate, i'm not expecting him to beat Max frequently, but he massively underperformed. He should have been on the podium almost every race and won a few more. If the constructors title was closer I can't imagine they would put up with that complete lack of consistency, but Max won Constructors alone.

Enjoy the hibernation until testing in February

@themightyant Good point. If Perez had been more of a threat, those 2 battling might have caused some mishaps for others to benefit from as well.

With this and tennis done it's just footie and American football to see me through the dark winter 😁

And the 2024 season officially begins! Who's been sandbagging? Can anyone actually match Red Bull and Verstappen? Here's hoping for better competition. Would love to see a 3 way Alonso, Verstappen, Hamilton push for the title... you heard it here first. LMAO

@themightyant Well Q1 was a pleasant surprise I felt. Things looking a bit tighter/mixed than I thought it would. Max will still probably get Pole though.

@BearsEatBeets Q2 also surprising. Ferrari look fast again over 1 lap, but can they turn that into race pace?

Roll on Q3

@themightyant Pretty good qualifying session. Yes Max is first but only a few tenths of second between 2 to 9th. Apparently Leclerc's time in Q2 was actually faster the final Pole time too. Looking forward to the race tomorrow, which I'll have to make sure to remember is tomorrow and not Sun.

Unsurprisingly Max still on pole, despite not having a brilliant lap, was a little twitchy in at least one corner.

But nice to see top 9 all in just over half a second and them not being a second behind. One good upgrade could change a teams fortune.

Roll on the race. Feels weird it will be on a Saturday

EDIT: Snap! lol

If Maclaren can improve even half as well as they did last season then this could be an exciting season. Hopefully Merc slightly better in race pace still to really make things tight.

After a fun first 15 laps or so, it’s gone extremely quiet and pretty boring.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Yeah after Sainz dealt with Leclerc there wasn't a whole lot going on there. A bit of a disappointing first race in the end.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner yes, not a great race. Once everyone jostled into position it was pretty clear where the race pace was today.

Max dominant, led start to finish, P1 in qualifying and fastest lap plus he had enough time to make another stop if needed. Hard to see much different this year already. Sergio nowhere near but still took second.

Ferrari looked to have the edge on Mercedes and then McLaren, Aston Martin rounding out the top 5 teams.

@BearsEatBeets @themightyant I’m hopeful that without merc issues (as drivers seemed to complain, hopefully weren’t just excuses) that they will be able to fight more with Ferrari.

Because in all honesty I don’t watch f1 for 10-15th place battles!

I'm pretty confident we are going to see some good battles between Ferrari, Mercedes and Maclaren for the final podium place or more if Perez fluffs. Lando seemed to suggest in a post race interview that RB might not be as dominant as it seemed as this is a very RB suited track. Fingers crossed he is right.
Sainz moving next season will at the very least make more Ferrari infighting a good possibility.

I'm a little surprised none us posted when the Hamilton to Ferrari news dropped. I remember first seeing it on a Youtube thumbnail and thinking it must be fake but then unexpectedly confirmed it was true from a news site. It should make the big driver shuffle quite interesting when we start hearing of moves in the latter half of the season.

Hoping to see some more crazy drs detection zone action today. It can't possibly be as bad as last week but I'm not going to allow myself to be to optimistic it will be good. It's going to be interesting to see how Oli Bearman gets on.

Indeed. Bearman impressed me yesterday. Usually they are further off the pace in their first F1 qualifying, especially on narrower street tracks. I'm working today so can only keep one eye on it.