2022 Formula 1 Thread

[axmea?]

I like DR but he's not even close to LN plus too many excuses or promises. He's not getting the job done and so no choice but to let him go.

[DLSTR]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/wh...les-/10353381/

Why Mercedes steered clear of an F1 car concept revamp despite early struggles
Mercedes opted against revamping its Formula 1 car concept despite its early struggles in 2022 as it felt following other designs would "only get you so far."
Luke Smith
By:
Luke Smith
Co-author:
Jonathan Noble
Aug 16, 2022, 5:13 PM
Why Mercedes steered clear of an F1 car concept revamp despite early struggles

Mercedes failed to regularly challenge Red Bull and Ferrari at the front of the pack through the first half of this season as it struggled with porpoising and bouncing on its W13 car.

The team opted for a different design route compared to the rest of the field, chasing a slimline sidepod solution that was dubbed the 'zeropod' when it debuted in Bahrain testing.

As the season progressed, Mercedes gained a better understanding of its car and the issues it faced, paving the way for George Russell to score pole in Hungary at the end of July.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained Mercedes was "not wanting to go down the route of just copying the fastest car that we could see", instead taking a long-term view with its car concept.

"When you look at the long-term future as a team through a set of regulations, if you don't understand it, copying will only get you so far," Shovlin told Autosport.

"The most sensitive elements of the car's aerodynamics exist underneath it. So the bit that you are least able to copy is the bit that's most important anyway.

"I would say that in the media, the concept of the narrow bodywork was probably a much bigger talking point than it was within the team.

"But we weren't clinging to it through any kind of sort of affection for our own ideas."

Shovlin said the problems Mercedes faced "would not have been solved by changing our bodywork in a hurry" and following other design routes for this year, particularly given the pressure of the budget cap.

"We need to be very careful about where we're where we're spending that [resource] and what we didn't want to do was embark on a project that might take four to six weeks to deliver," Shovlin said.

"We wanted to go step-by-step and check, does what we're doing on the car makes sense with all of our tools and all of our expectations?

"Because we were almost tiptoeing through the early steps of development, just to see if we can make a change to the car and get the expected effect, rather than put all our hopes in motion for something that looks physically different and can suddenly rocket us up the grid."
Read Also:


Mercedes has not ruled out switching car concept for next year and following a Red Bull-style design route, given the majority of teams have opted for its sidepod solution.

Team principal Toto Wolff said Mercedes had "no specific preference" over what concept it follows, but that it is simply "about having the quickest car."

"We will never copy anybody else, but we may see things on other cars that we deem to be better," Wolff told Autosport.

"So these fundamental questions are being discussed at the moment and [will be] answered by September."

[axmea?]

Toto and MB are too proud to follow others and will not admit it, is one reason they're apprehensive to change and sticking with their design. They'll continue to invest resources and find a way to make it work.

He'll also influence to change the rules instead of change their design/concept.

[DLSTR]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/co...eams/10353821/

Could late rule changes to F1 2023 floors aid bigger teams?
The FIA World Motor Sport Council finally pushed through rule changes to address porpoising for the 2023 Formula 1 season, amid suggestions the late alterations will help bigger teams.
By:
Filip Cleeren
Co-author:
Luke Smith
Aug 17, 2022, 5:11 PM
Could late rule changes to F1 2023 floors aid bigger teams?

After much debate, the edge of the cars' floors will be raised for 2023 and the diffuser throat height will also be raised, while the floor edges will also be stiffened to combat the dreaded bouncing issue that has plagued some F1 teams in 2022.

The FIA will also demand the placement of additional sensor on the floor to monitor porpoising.

Rather than the 25mm floor raise that the FIA initially proposed, and which several teams lobbied against, a compromise of 15mm has now been pushed through.

Ferrari and Red Bull were among the teams against the changes, while McLaren and Mercedes - which struggled the most with bouncing – pushed for the change on safety grounds.

In Tuesday's announcement the FIA said the changes will be implemented in a way that should "avoid any impact on the teams' designs of the mechanical components".

But with designs for the 2023 machinery already at an advanced stage by now, some suggest the late nature of the changes will make it easier for the bigger teams to respond.

Speaking ahead of the summer break and the final decision on the rule changes, Alpine chief technical officer Pat Fry said he believed the tweaks to F1’s floor regulations for 2023 will only aid bigger teams as they could call on more staff to react to the issue.

“For us it is engineering resource, we’ve clearly got a lot smaller aero department than the three above us and the one we are fighting with, they are all bigger than us,” Fry said.

“They might have 20 people parked outside the cost cap doing sailing or push bikes, but they can quite easily drag them back in to hit a problem and then send them away again.

“So when you’ve got that level of extra capacity, they’ve got a huge advantage. Delaying the rules for them is great, because they know all the small teams are not going to be able to cope.”
2023 Proposal rules front view

2023 Proposal rules front view

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Fry said that although Alpine was “growing and getting better”, it remained “sensibly-sized” within the cost cap and without the “massive overspill” of staff that other outfits had.

Teams were forced to work to the new cost cap of $145 million per season from last year, prompting some of the bigger squads to divert staff to other projects.

“It is a little bit challenging for us,” Fry said before the rule changes were confirmed. “The sooner for us to know [about the changes], the better really, because if it is going to change, we are going to tear up what we are going to do already.

“I am sure every team is running some number of weeks in the windtunnel for next year’s car concept anyway, we certainly are.

“But how much of that work we’ve actually done is going to get changed with a rule change.”

The FIA has also ratified a roll hoop change in response to a scary accident for Zhou Guanyu in July's British Grand Prix, in which the Alfa Romeo's roll hoop was sheared off.

The top of the roll hoop design will be tweaked, while homologation tests have also been revised ahead of further planned changes in 2024.

[DLSTR]

F1 is BACK this weekend - THANK the RACING F1 Gods!

Sky preview with all the questions/considerations to restart this season - https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12...-as-f1-returns

[danegrey]

Originally Posted by DLSTR

F1 is BACK this weekend - THANK the RACING F1 Gods!

Sky preview with all the questions/considerations to restart this season - https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12...-as-f1-returns

Interesting for all the talk, Leclerc, has only crashed out of one race. The rest have been car problems or strategy I actually thought he had more shunts in races.

[DLSTR]

Originally Posted by danegrey

Interesting for all the talk, Leclerc, has only crashed out of one race. The rest have been car problems or strategy I actually thought he had more shunts in races.

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3...le-bid-tatters

.... an exact figure of 32 can be traced to Leclerc himself.

The first of Leclerc's mistakes came at Imola in April when he spun out of a solid third position trying to catch the two Red Bulls ahead and dropped to fifth at the finish, costing him seven points. The second came on Sunday when he threw away a clear shot at victory, costing him a full 25- French GP.

** He also had unforced errors last year. He has now a reputation for VERY poorly timed errors and he cannot literally afford another or that label becomes MUCH stickier lol

[axmea?]

Zoltar says he's gonna shunt at least one more time.

Originally Posted by DLSTR

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3...le-bid-tatters

.... an exact figure of 32 can be traced to Leclerc himself.

The first of Leclerc's mistakes came at Imola in April when he spun out of a solid third position trying to catch the two Red Bulls ahead and dropped to fifth at the finish, costing him seven points. The second came on Sunday when he threw away a clear shot at victory, costing him a full 25- French GP.

** He also had unforced errors last year. He has now a reputation for VERY poorly timed errors and he cannot literally afford another or that label becomes MUCH stickier lol

[danegrey]

Originally Posted by axmea?

Zoltar says he's gonna shunt at least one more time.

Saw this morning in 3rd practice, he did have an off...

[danegrey]

Watch the race with my son this morning...
boring -- why it was all Max and RB, credit to them for the dominate win...
Hamilton -- what in the world was he thinking, could've been so much
Rico - McLaren -- I think it was Rico - there is no plan G...
Alpine - ok, looking good
HAAS - no where
Williams and Albon - 10th on straight line speed..
Bottas -- bad luck
Ferrari - conversation with the drivers about strategy and tires
Leclerc - bad luck, and going for the fastest lap caught him speeding, 5 sec penalty..

Question was the visor tear off from Max that got caught in Leclerc front brake duct?

[ZCanadian]

Originally Posted by danegrey

Question was the visor tear off from Max that got caught in Leclerc front brake duct?

Extra panel on Max's car:

[DLSTR]

[QUOTE
Question was the visor tear off from Max that got caught in Leclerc front brake duct?[/QUOTE]

Video evidence shows it was Verstappen’s tear off in Leclerc’s brake duct

Video footage of the opening lap of Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix has left Ferrari in no doubt that the tear off that wrecked Charles Leclerc’s race was Max Verstappen’s.

[ZCanadian]

Originally Posted by DLSTR

[QUOTE
Question was the visor tear off from Max that got caught in Leclerc front brake duct?

Video evidence shows it was Verstappen’s tear off in Leclerc’s brake duct

Video footage of the opening lap of Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix has left Ferrari in no doubt that the tear off that wrecked Charles Leclerc’s race was Max Verstappen’s.[/QUOTE]

Do you have the link?

That would explain the smoke coming from the wheel area, which he noted on the radio.

I heard a report that the heat from this might have also damaged a speed sensor (hence the speeding in the pit lane), but suspect that is only an excuse? Have you heard anything?

[DLSTR]

Originally Posted by ZCanadian

Video evidence shows it was Verstappen’s tear off in Leclerc’s brake duct

Video footage of the opening lap of Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix has left Ferrari in no doubt that the tear off that wrecked Charles Leclerc’s race was Max Verstappen’s.

Do you have the link?

That would explain the smoke coming from the wheel area, which he noted on the radio.

I heard a report that the heat from this might have also damaged a speed sensor (hence the speeding in the pit lane), but suspect that is only an excuse? Have you heard anything?[/QUOTE]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/vi...duct/10359944/

With Leclerc running right behind Verstappen at the time, footage showed that it was the Red Bull driver's tear off that was thrown directly in to the path of the Ferrari driver and got stuck in his brake duct.

[ZCanadian]

Saw some Mario Kart memes of this last night. LOL.
Max must have spent his summer break developing his pitching arm. :-)