F1 2022 thread - see post 1 for rules

Since we are only 3 races in on new cars we would probably need to be six in before we really know where cars stand.

I think this gap to Imola will slow a lot for the teams in bringing improvements and solving issues. These are my poorly listed thoughts as I have no one else to discuss these things with . Apologies for my terrible terrible grammar and sentence sentence structure but ye will get the idea.

Starting at the worst

Aston : Car is awful , Despite Strolls stupidity in Practice/qual sessions. Both he and Vettel seem dismayed . I think that whole team is just waiting for the B-Spec car to be ready and that will put them in the Midfield properly if it is to believed there is some race pace in that ( Race 7 at the earliest I believe) . they are not even trying damage limitation .

Williams : The car is just ok to Grab some points as Albon showed it can be done ...Just . Not sure where they can go . Latifi paid driver or not. He has an expensive weakness ......Street Circuits and Red Flags . I don't think the have the budget to Progress.

Alpha Tauri . Not sure what Gasly or a good Tsnouda can do here . The car does have issues and The slight gremlins in the RBPT engines a have affected them as much as the parent team , but they are not at the same level as last year and it will be time before they can be back in the mix for points fully.

Haas : The Car is fast and they will still Grab points Via KMAG mostly but as the season goes on I think this will get harder and harder . Miami is early enough in the season so the US team should preform well at the US race . Might bag some investment . They do need to develop to stay in the midfield fight. The Pace was gone quickly in Australia compared to the first 2 races which was strange

Alfa Romeo : Similar to Haas . Car is fast . They will rely on Bottas grabbing points early in the year . I do think they have more development capacity that Haas so should be well in the midfield over the season .

Apline : These guys are flattering to Deceive , for me anyway . The pace Alonso can show in Qual and as well Ocon just is not there in the race. Australia been a prime example . Ocon should not have had any issues passing Albon but the car wasn't there . The have lots of hidden issues both engine , Gearbox . They seem to have sort some of the physical issues with the car but not enough to be where they seem themselves

Mclaren. Brakes fixed now it appears. They looked comfortable in Australia so I kinda think they will Progress from Here and Maybe start to close the gap. The car does look good if down a bit on Race pace.

Redbull : Car looks physically good , but the RBPT gremlins and the weight issue looks like it will hamper them. The Tire wear looks like a big enough Issue given Mercedes some how had race pace to match Perez anyway yesterday. It's Probably the Best car given how smooth it actually looks going around everywhere.

Mercedes : I think this car might scare me . Not the bouncing . I am not sure If I am seeing things or not ,but to me it gets to the Ground effect way way quicker than any other team . IF or when that bouncing is sorted they might have a monster. Any of the footage I look back at very very early on the straights they are suffering , where for everyone else it seems to be from the middle to the end . Have been very lucky in the first 3 races and damage limitation is going well for them .

Ferrari : I believe this team to have the Engine of the season . It probably has way way more engine performance to give as well but I don't see the car as the best . They have worked very well around the bouncing issues but it is in the car and I assume the are working on that like everyone else. their only issue to me is if Redbull sort the RBPT issues out faster than Ferrari sort the last few issue with the car then the gap will close fast . The First 3 races have given some breathing space.

What about lifespan of engines?

Like, would the Merc engines last longer because the components in them don't seem to be moving as quick as Ferrari or redbull?

Hamilton and Russell look like they are reliable anyway if nothing else???

JAYSUS

Yup, and right now they need to have that car just finish races, it is clearly fast, and getting 7kg back in terms of ballast helps with the balance and laptime overall.

The problem yesterday sounds like a fuel line break, which is so silly in how basic it is. This reminds me of 2010 when RB had a tough few first races, Neweys designs really push the boundaries of it all.

I'm aware but I said how is it policed.

A ground effect floor fitted to some older chassis with enough revisions to make it function might provide some useful data for further development seeing as they say wind tunnel and cfd did not indicate that this bounce would be an issue.

I often think of ferrari also. Private test track, how do you stop them putting development engines into test mules and running many many miles of testing.

I believe there are very strict restrictions on putting dev engines into a road going car. There is only so much you can get from that when you run it outside the car it is intended for. They are also restricted on running new aero on older cars, plus fitting a GE floor would mean reengineering the car to accommodate it with the packaging etc.

The only way to get real data is on the car it is all intended for. The FIA have really clamped down on that even for filming days with the current cars, oddly that was due to Ferrari running a new blown diffuser in 2010, they installed it for a filming day to get data.

This is bonkers.

On Russels radio when he was coming in they were already warning him that there were people in the pit lane, I got the impression it was a significant amount.

How does what you describe differ from the virtual safety car? The cars already drive to a lap time for that and it doesn't bunch up the field.

I think there should be a button to press like the Pit Limiter, so it controls speed, revs and all that Jazz during virtual safety car periods and normal safety car periods.

While activated, it could restrict those items in more extremes around the yellow flag areas.

Yep. If they're contractually obliged to use Aston Martins then get 'em to supply a Valkyrie.

Just Red Flag the track until it's clear then grid restart.

Exactly if everyone is driving to a set time how would the cars at the back catch up?