F1 2022 thread - see post 1 for rules

El_Duderino 09 · 28-12-2021 08:13PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118382715#Comment_118382715

Probably the couple of weeks leading up to testing and a few will launch on the morning of the first test.

antodeco · 28-12-2021 08:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118375177#Comment_118375177

I haven't been in a few years, but used to go to Barcelona and Valencia (ex European GP race). It's just as easy to stay in Barcelona. The train is busy going in, but everyone is in great spirits. They offer a free shuttle bus from close to the train station up the circuit (it's a bit of a walk!).

I usually do the grandstand. They're probably not the best seats, but it's covered (it can get super hot) and you are at the starting grid. Funny story one year, I got hit in the face by a flying Ferrari cap. Saw a fan running towards me so picked it up and handed it to him (thinking it was his). Turns out it was a signed cap from Alonso that he threw over the fence and hit me with it.

eviltimeban · 29-12-2021 12:51PM

Is it too early to start making predictions? I suppose we need to see what testing brings in February.

Things I'd like to see is; new race winners, also Alonso winning a few races. Ferrari mounting a decent challenge. A three or four way title fight. One big team getting the regs VERY wrong, and one small team getting them VERY right. ;-)

Frank Bullitt · 29-12-2021 02:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118385642#Comment_118385642

Yeah it’s a bit early, you’d imagine the best will still be up there, but I fancy a few surprises. We are in the unknown with who has reverted resources to 2022 and when during last season. I know Haas did and a few others, and we have a cost cap as well.

Youd imagine the usual will be there, but that doesn’t always happen.

klose · 29-12-2021 06:12PM

Ferrari probably are the ones to watch for next season, that engine upgrade was pretty meaty in the last third of this season and had pretty much zero reliability issues.

The big question is how much time and money did redbull and merc pour into the season as it panned out when the likes of ferrari were (so they say) fully focused on next year's regs?

You'd love to see a brawn type scenario where a back marker makes a big stride and wins the championship but its hard to see it? Alpine are probably one that need to be nailing this, making their own engine and chassis and no customer teams to be dealing with, they've little excuse.

El_Duderino 09 · 29-12-2021 06:41PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118386958#Comment_118386958

They have the worst engine though. We'd they're always had the worst engine for the whole hybrid era except for competitors mistakes. Honda being terrible at the start and the Ferrari cheating agreement made them poor for a season. Renault making such a leap in engine performance would be a massive bolt from the blue considering they've shown no indication of catching the Mercedes or Honda.

Ferrari is probably well ahead of them again with its latest engine.

Captain_Crash · 29-12-2021 06:59PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118387087#Comment_118387087

Ferrari are taking a different approach next season as they’ll be the only team who won’t be running a split turbo setup. They developed two engines and earlier this year decided on the risky move of doing something different.

They’ll be running the turbocharger and supercharger at the front of the engine whereas all other teams have the supercharger at the back and turbo at the front. I don’t know if that’s the engine they ran at the end of the season or even if a new engine concept is allowed mid season (I presume it is so long as it meets the regs) but they’ve banked on this for the next 3 years so they’ll need it to work!

El_Duderino 09 · 30-12-2021 02:07AM

Saw the Williams documentary tonight. Interesting show. He build a great business but he's not a sympathetic character. He had no interest in anything in life except the business. His family seemed to mean very little him. They showed love and devotion to him which he didn't seem capable of, or interested in, reciprocating.

Good show all the same.

quokula · 30-12-2021 02:41AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118386958#Comment_118386958

I just can't see a repeat of Brawn because I can't see a customer team beating their supplier's works team with the complexity of the hybrid power units - this was the reason Ron Dennis gave for ditching Mercedes for Honda originally. Although that gamble didn't work out, his prediction has generally proven correct, with the only exception through the whole hybrid era has been McLaren beating Renault in 2019 and 2020. Renault of course are no longer supplying customers, only Mercedes and Ferrari are and neither constructor has ever been beaten by a customer under this formula.

Realistically that means there are four teams in with a shot at the championship, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Alpine. Ferrari and Alpine have surely been throwing everything they possibly can at the new car and if they're ever going to get back to the front this has to be the year. Mercedes will have split focus more with 2021, but their massive engine advantage is unlikely to be going anywhere and that still leaves them likely to be strong. Red Bull are the most precarious in my view as unlike their competitor's engine advantage which is preserved, their biggest strength is in aero and that's all going in the bin and back to the drawing board for the new cars. Newey is a master of finding opportunities in new regs of course but he's just one man and he's clearly had much of his focus on 2021, in addition to missing a bunch of time after his severe bike crash. The transition of the Honda engines into in-house ownership could see some hiccups too.

I've been keeping my eye on the driver's betting markets and for me Russell, Sainz and Alonso are the value bets right now. I made a fortune betting on Rosberg each way for the 2014 title back in 2013 but unlike the obvious head start Mercedes had with that engine, there's no clear front runner just yet so I think I'll be waiting for testing this time.

mickdw · 31-12-2021 06:49PM

Clearly Mercedes Ferrari and red bull will be the expected front runners but will all new regs a clever interpretation could easily be enough to result in McLaren being faster than Mercedes for example.

It's all up the air for now but there will surely be a surprise where one team arrived with an alternative design whether that's a midfield team jumping to the front or a front runners going backwards.

Jordan 199 · 01-01-2022 04:12AM

Happy New Year! Hopefully we will have another cracking season ahead of us.

Frank Bullitt · 01-01-2022 06:23PM

https://racingnews365.com/exclusive-honda-to-maintain-links-with-red-bull-until-the-end-of-2025

Honda will still be around for a while yet it seems!

Frank Bullitt · 01-01-2022 08:16PM

El_Duderino 09 · 01-01-2022 08:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402404#Comment_118402404

That's pretty cool.

I know moat people hate the cars every year, then they get used to them and like them and then hate when they change the next year. But I think that looks pretty good

Frank Bullitt · 01-01-2022 11:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402560#Comment_118402560

I wonder how close it is to the real thing, I doubt it’s the proper car just yet but it’s probably not far off.

Charlie-Bravo · 01-01-2022 11:20PM

You can be confident that they tried this model and found gains in a completely different setup. This is to throw people off.

This is it · 01-01-2022 11:31PM

Have we any idea how big/long the cars will be compared to this season? I presume they won't be bigger again...

El_Duderino 09 · 02-01-2022 12:03AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403241#Comment_118403241

It won't be close enough to give away anything unique about the Mercedes. Any detail that could give away any clue about how it's doing anything from front to back. So it's like an FIA render of a 2022 car.

But it looks pretty good nonetheless.

quokula · 02-01-2022 02:25AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403314#Comment_118403314

I'm pretty sure it's just a render of the FIA reference model with a Mercedes livery, there won't be any images of the real car for a good while.

Supposedly the new regs are very tight with little room to deviate so the real car may look a lot like that, but we won't know for sure until they hit the track in February, undoubtedly there'll be some loopholes to be found.

quokula · 02-01-2022 02:45AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118403378#Comment_118403378

They're the same width, and will be pretty much the same length - there's now a prescribed length where there wasn't previously, but it's pretty close to what the teams were already running, a few cm shorter than some of the longest cars but nothing noticeable. There's talk of them bringing the size back down to something more sensible with the new engine regs in 2026, but for now they'll continue to be the size of pickup trucks.

The weight is actually further increasing too, they're going to be nearly 800kg which is a long way from the sub 600kg cars before the hybrid era.

flazio · 02-01-2022 10:49AM

That looks to me like the show car from F1 painted in black with the badge stuck on the nose.

El_Duderino 09 · 02-01-2022 03:50PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118404385#Comment_118404385

Yeah I'd imagine that's pretty much all it is. A little marketing exercise that helps push the focus to the future.

I imagine that since heads have gad time to cool, Mercedes probably isn't proud of its behaviour in the couple of weeks after the last race. Onwards and upwards.

I also remember hearing a few months ago that they were probably moving back to the silver cars for next year.

blade1 · 02-01-2022 03:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402404#Comment_118402404

Ahh, the T2000.

Liquid metal over endoskeleton! 😁

El_Duderino 09 · 03-01-2022 03:19PM

Racingnews365.com: Red Bull head to court over departing Fallows.

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-head-to-court-over-departing-fallows

Shenanigans around the Red Bull aero chief going to Aston Martin. RB want his 6month gardening leave to start after his Co tract with them would have ended at the end of 2022. So he could only begin work in the middle of 2023.

The details aren't that important for now but it's good for AM to be able to attract such high profile people from other teams. Shows they have ambition at least.

weisses · 03-01-2022 03:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118410591#Comment_118410591

Money talks and the team is run by a Billionaire .... Not really rocket science that they are able to attract some good people

El_Duderino 09 · 03-01-2022 03:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118410622#Comment_118410622

Maybe so. It's probably good for the overall competitiveness of the sport.

Jordan 199 · 04-01-2022 12:56AM

Hopefully we will get some car launch dates soon.

flazio · 05-01-2022 12:20PM

https://twitter.com/F1/status/1478687393486094338?t=OrWOSCBOZbN85OJD7Kc1RA&s=19

Puts Martin Whitmarsh in charge doesn’t it?

Cool_CM · 05-01-2022 12:47PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118420379#Comment_118420379

Hope he lands on his feet - he did a lot of good work for that team

05-01-2022 01:14PM

I quite like the new shape of cars, only thing I specifically don't like about them is the front wing. Having wheels exposed fully just makes the cars look much better.

That and I dunno, the model looks a little bit "easy". Like it's no more exciting looking than some of the designs for IndyCar a few years back were. Like how restricted are the rear wings? The shape makes them look almost spec, do they have to follow the curved geometry etc?

F1 2022 thread - see post 1 for rules

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