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f1 · 2 years ago

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F1 teams had big upgrades planned for Imola but what happens now?

One of the many disruptions the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix not going ahead has caused is that of the teams’ development programmes, with several squads having planned to bring big upgrade packages to the race. Formula 1 technical expert Mark Hughes explains what effect the event being called off will have on those plans – especially since the next round is at Monaco, an outlier in terms of circuit style... Mercedes, Ferrari and AlphaTauri had all confirmed their plans to introduce significant upgrades to their cars for the Imola race and it’s likely they would not have been the only ones. READ MORE: Hamilton ‘counting down the days’ until Mercedes upgrades arrive Mercedes’ update is particularly significant in that it’s the first one planned since the team acknowledged it had simply got it wrong with this car, that the aerodynamic concept it kept the faith in from last year was simply “wrong” in the words of team boss Toto Wolff. Front suspension, bodywork and floor updates for the W14 were due to appear at Imola, with the aim of providing a more stable aerodynamic platform for the car. The biggest shortfall of the W14 so far has been rear grip through high-speed corners and Imola would have been quite a good test of how effective the upgrade was in addressing that. This feature is currently not available because you need to provide consent to functional cookies. Please update your cookie preferences TECH TALK: How do Mercedes fix their car? | Crypto.com The upgrade will instead make its debut next weekend at Monaco. Although there is a distinct absence of high-speed sections here, the update will still be relevant and running this specification will give the team useful data prior to the Spanish Grand Prix the week after, at a circuit with plenty of high-speed sections. Likewise, Ferrari have revised upper bodywork as part of a package of changes which was initiated in Miami with the new floor. READ MORE: How Ferrari tried to tame their SF-23 with new floor upgrades in Miami There are also rumours of a revised suspension. The aerodynamic upgrades slated for Imola are expected to be seen at Monaco. The SF23’s shortfall has so far been a tricky, inconsistent balance through high-speed corners. But its speed into and through slow corners has been a real strength and Monaco should see it in its best light, especially so given Charles Leclerc’s renowned speed around here. Ferrari’s new floor (Miami, bottom, compared to Baku, top) features a more hooded outer edge in the forward section, revised vortex-generating shapes and a more pronounced ramp ahead of the rear wheels AlphaTauri continue to address a weakness in their car’s low-speed corner performance and the updates planned for Imola included another new floor (a development of that introduced in Melbourne) to improve the car’s aerodynamics at high rear ride heights. This will be particularly relevant for Monaco and the upgrade is due to be on the car there. TECH TUESDAY: 0.3s per lap and a sign of things to come – AlphaTauri's latest floor upgrades analysed There is always a greater risk of running new body parts around the street circuit with its unforgiving walls, but because the parts of all three of these teams were planned for Imola, they would likely have been on the cars for Monaco regardless. Imola not going ahead does mean the production departments of the teams will at least have been given a few extra days to make spares. via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

#F1 #F1 teams had big upgrades planned for Imola – but what happens now?#Formula 1

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chussyracing · 9 months ago

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what is happening in the world of motorsports?

send all of hatred toward Red Bull because apparently they suspended the woman who dared to speak up against innapropriate behaviour from the side of her boss (there were rumours that Horner would leave the team by Australia because of boycotts coming from the US market which they wanna focus on, but it was denied a few hours after by Red Bull spokesman, worth noting that Emely de Heus running Red Bull livery in F1 Academy has Ford logos on the car which seems to be a nod towards proceeding with their deal for 2026, then also rumours of Max leaving for Mercedes, Horner contradicting by saying that no individual is bigger than the whole team etc.)

Fred Vasseur and his full wallet are still hungry for more for their all star team and they are now apparently looking into getting engineers from Red Bull (among the names most mentioned online are: head of aero Enrico Balbo, the legend himself Adrian Newey, David Morgan, Ben Waterhouse or Alessandro Germani)

what he already achieved is get Jerome d'Ambrossio who was preparing to take over the team principal duties in Mercedes when Toto Wolff's contract expires, Jerome will join Ferrari and be linked to FDA which should allow Jock Clear to focus more on F1

Red Bull Racing have a planned upgrade for Imola that is meant to be the reworked no-pod concept Mercedes tried out at the start of current regulations and Ferrari will react with their own big upgrade package featuring new floor, bodywork and sidepod scales (McLaren also teased upgrades for their car around this time in the season)

there are so many silly season rumours including Kimi Antonelli to Mercedes (Toto and Kimi were on track for a team who Marco Antonelli drives for in Imola), Fernando Alonso to Mercedes (Toto had another coffee date with his manager Flavio Briatore), Carlos Sainz to Red Bull Racing (his father met up with some Red Bull figures in the paddock), Carlos Sainz to Mercedes (again they visited their facilities and Corriere dello Sport claims that they started the negotiations for a 2025 seat), Ollie Bearman to Haas (he was already linked to the seat and according to our comms it was one of the worst kept secrets he had that seat reserved before the start of the season already, but after his amazing debut in Jeddah, he may have gotten the attention of some other - better - teams as well), Max Verstappen to Mercedes (Marko Helmut has been running his mouth to media - name ORL - about how he may be suspended for leaking internal information and Max followed by with saying he is linked to Marko so basically if he goes, he will follow him + Toto and Lewis spoke about how anyone would love to have him) and Guenther Steiner told Sky that Toto Wolff should consider Nico Hulkenberg for the Mercedes seat......

drivers have been shown the new track in Saudi - Qiddiya - that could appear in the calendar from 2027 by Alex Wurz himself (who co-designed it with Tilke) and they posted about it one after another as an ad for the gp (so there is no way you could have avoided it)

Mercedes may have more problems in the near future because their track data doesn't corelate well with sim data, so neither the engineers nor the drivers are sure how to evolve the package they have on their hands (they were 2nd slowest in high speeds after Alpine according to data) meaning that it is probably not a problem of their setup but rather the whole design

Felipe Massa sued FIA, F1 management and also Bernie Ecclestone over 2008 crashgate which cost him the title, he is asking for around 80 mil for the Singapore race not being nullified like it should (and Bernie because he said last year that he and Moss knew about the breach at the time but decided not to act on it in fear of it damaging F1 as a brand)

Jody Schecker is auctioning off some of his cars if you have a few millions to spare

we don't have an official update on Carlos, but according to Fred Vasseur he could even be ready to jump in the car by Australia (the decision will be made in accordance to the doctors and to how Carlos himself feels soon, probably next week)

Alessandro Bruni explained that Sauber is working on a fix for their pit stop issue, so it wouldn't repeat in the future

Alan Permane from RB team wants to talk to the FIA about Kevin Magnussen's unsportman like behaviour (mate he got 20s of penalties i think they are were aware he didn't race by the rules)

Ollie Bearman sat behind the wheel of Ferrari again as he tested F1-75 in Fiorano today

after the head of Bahrain mentioned they would want the gp on Saturday to be a permanent thing, the head of Saudi Arabian gp is now considering the same thing

Jack Doohan will participate in a special event during Australian GP to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his father's 1st Motorcycling World Championship win (Mick will also driver MotoGP Honda, so they will share a track)

after Otmar Szafnauer was fired from Alpine, he appeared at a Honda event and has also been linked to Andretti

lil summary of Jeddah 2024:

after the brake issues Charles experienced in Bahrain, the team started to investigate it, because they didn't experience this before and Jock Clear said they didn't get to the bottom of it yet with Brembo (the braking system manufacturer)

the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain is apparently considering the sale of its share in McLaren

Andretti showed off their new HQ whoch features a hint towards F1 journey so it seems like they will try again to get into the sport

in F1, FP2 session was delayed for a drain cover in pit lane which had to be re-screwed to stay safe

Carlos felt sick all weekend and it was because of appenditic, he had to get his appendix taken out and Ollie Bearman from FDA jumped in his seat for the weekend - after already scoring a pole for the feature race in F2 (the rules prevent him to start in both, so he chose to take the chance in f1 and lose a chance to score points from the sprint and feature race in f2)

Lando jump started the gp but didn't get a penalty (because he stopped and didn't gain anything from it and was still inside the starting box, so the sensor for jump starting the race didn't qualify it as such)

Checo Perez scored his 8th penalty point in Jeddah (after he left the pit box while the red light was still on and was therefor unsafely released in front of Fernando) and is near a possible race ban if he gets to 12 before some of them expire

F1 Academy championship started and Doriane Pin absolutely dominated (she got double pole and double victory - although she got demoted to p9 after the second win for taking checkered flag twice) and not even this was a smooth ride, because they had to take two formation laps in the first race after the race control had a problem with the starting lights

fun facts and fan's point of view:

Ollie is the first driver in history to be on the grid with a driver - Fernando Alonso - who scored a championship when he was born

also important note i see nobody else speaking about, Ollie mentioned a point that is contradicting what Logan has been saying, which is that feeder series - namely F2 - prepares drivers well for stepping up into F1

Ollie also mentioned that before the race, he got a message from Seb as a good luck and it made him happy, because it's a driver he admires a lot

fun fact about Ollie's 2024 season so far: he has more points in F1 than he has in F2 currently

oh and since Lewis was there first to congratulate Ollie, he has been helping him out of the car after the demanding gp

Charles got himself a new Ferrari (and yes i thought it is his Pista because he got a similar customisation for this one)

Alex posted a photodump where he photoshopped Yuki (you need to see it)

Australian gp will have The Pride Hub ready for fans (in partnership with Racing Pride)

there was this long essay written on F1 and the way the rich world works called "Behind F1's velvet curtain" and the piece from Kate Wagner was taken down without a word although the writer was commisioned to write it and it looks like the highest figures and structures were included in the decision to take it down due to criticism of the sport (or more like the world of it)

Nico Rosberg made a new ad where he sings karaoke (he is never escaping the Britney allegations)

last note: Ollie has gotten so much support from other drivers and fans, it's beautiful to see (also his father David Bearman has been an absolute icon in the Ferrari garage the whole two days)

Charles met with an Italian singer Ultimo and signed his T-shirt

Oscar showed off his new helmet for his home gp and it's very pretty!!

#f1 #gossip night #e

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bunnytalksf1 · 5 months ago

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it's race week in spain

and media day!

This week is a big one for two reasons. It marks the start of the European triple header (!!!!!!!!!!) and it's the first traditional circuit after a leg of circuits that are outliers on the calendar, with Monaco, then Montreal. This is where we truly find out how fast the cars are in comparison to each other, given the red bull was EXPECTED to be weak on both of those circuits with its inability to take kerbs and its general weakness on street circuits. every race where MV33 has been beaten so far has relied on outside circumstances:

damage taken in Miami, unlucky safety car timing

Monaco, car didn't suit the track.

Australia brakes literally on fucking fire??

granted, in Imola, LN4 was close, but nowhere near close enough, and they had setup issues too that weekend. In Montreal, the car wasn't fastest and norris got hugely unlucky with team strat / safety car timing, but that's the price you pay for qualifying lower - the mclaren was definitely fast that week.

So, now we're finally back on a traditional circuit. McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and RedBull are all bringing upgrades. Ferrari's will probably be most substantial, given they were bought forward from being planned for Silverstone, and they'll have more upgrades coming to complete the package in Austria, as far as I'm aware. Red bull's upgrades so far haven't made a massive step forward in terms of pace (i think they're somewhat at a performance ceiling) but McLaren's have been very, very successful, and Ferrari's are, hopefully, going to provide a step forward also. Mercedes are-- i truly don't know what's going to happen there. Canada was an outlier of a track, and mercedes need to be consistent moving forward. I think they'll likely be back behind mclaren at least this week, and behind ferrari too if they dont shit the bed and deliver another strategy disasterclass.

I'm expecting the top three (VER-LEC-NOR, more accurately) to be extremely close. I can't watch anything except free practice this week live, so I'll be watching replays. Perez still has a grid penalty to serve (three places) on a track where overtaking potential isn't great, so I'm not expecting a great weekend from him, but Leclerc and Verstappen in particular have the potential to outperform the car. Norris has yet to fully prove himself to me, specifically, but his racecraft is VERY, very good and he can't be counted out either. Piastri also, with a good qualifying, could definitely challenge for a podium, and same goes for Sainz. I think Perez will likely just be out of the mix.

What I think will happen is that the teams will be:

RBR / VER

McL

Ferrari

Mercedes

RB / AM, depending on whether alonso or ricciardo wakes up

It will be interesting to see how this weekend pans out because this will essentially indicate whether or not we have a title challenge for this season, and who is most likely to put it forward - mclaren or ferrari.

I'm so excited!! IM SO EXCITED!!

Also F2 and F1 Academy are back racing this week! rooting for doriane and ollie always my goats.

#bunny talks f1 #on the right blog this time

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vro0m · 2 years ago

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not to discuss masi in the year of 2023 but him being the one to decide last lap doesn't change the fact that wheatley was the one suggesting it and it was orchestrated to benefit rbr so i can't just only blame masi. and like i love the optimism but the car is tractor. at this point, with this performance they won't be winning any races. apperantly the imola upgrade was planned to bring 3 tenths of a second. idk how they will develop when they just figured out the concept was wrong acc to toto

You know one thing that's interesting about the whole Masi argument? People tend to conveniently forget that Toto was asking for "no safety car" when it was indeed a matter of safety.

Both teams were scheming and being insane over radio. Masi decided to listen to one of them. I don't doubt there's more issues with the FIA than just him but however unsportsmanlike the teams get, the decisions are not made by them. And RBR is far from the only one being unsportsmanlike although they piss me off big time. They didn't hold Masi at gunpoint. They shot their shot just like Mercedes did but they got what they wanted and Mercedes didn't. Were a lot of people happy about it? Sure. Is that on RedBull? No.

And we just don't have the same definition of tractor. Being 3rd or 4th fastest car after the first, not representative, race is barely being a tractor imo. They might arguably not even be considered midfield with their current performance. You're judging them (and Mercedes are judging themselves) based on past results instead of taking what is happening now at face value. Not winning races isn't being a tractor. Especially when the team winning races is so far ahead of everyone else. Otherwise it would mean that last year there were basically 4 cars and 16 tractors on track lol.

Also you can still develop when the base concept isn't great. Toto is well known for being extremely dramatic in his statements when he's unhappy. It doesn't mean it's not true that the concept is not good enough but it doesn't mean they won't still gain some over the year. They did win a race last year, didn't they? Also they dispelled the rumours that they had a plan B but who knows? And if they don't have one for this year and the concept is unsalvageable, then it will be for next year.

That's what I meant the other day when I said you can't expect F1 to go upside down from one season to the next. It's a long-term sport. It's frustrating but it takes patience.

#vro0m's asks

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