F1 2022 thread - see post 1 for rules

Why is he going to lol?

And Mario nearly pissed his pants with excitement. 😂

He will be taking the record from our own Rosemary Smith.

She was 79 when she drove the Renault F1.

So he won't be able to hold it in 😁

I wonder if the sidepods being lower on the Merc are contributing to the porpoising

I was there sitting at Tabac corner and I thought he very nearly lost it there on the previous lap.

During the actual racing, 2 other guys went off at Tabac and absolutely totalled the cars in the process, one guy losing two corners. Some bang when they hit and I was amazed how far they travelled before the cars actually came to a halt. An expensive hobby for rich guys indeed. Some of those old F1 cars must be worth serious money.

Ferrari can still make parts for those cars. Isn’t that the same one Alesi was driving last year when someone crashed into him?

Aston with a big upgrade for Spain!

You can upload it directly!

As for AM, that’s a legit copy of the RB.

They'd be estimates based on what it usually costs to design and develop similar upgrades, I suppose.

The point wasn't to create an accurate estimate, it was to draw attention to the topic so the FIA would maybe do a random audit. That threat keeps Red Bull honest and, assuming they have front-loaded their development, it ensures that they don't keep up their current rate of upgrades.

It's shithousery rather than science

I don't know. I just heard on the podcast I mentioned, that they have a cost cap on upgrades. I don't know how itemised or detailed it needs to be. But if they have to be able to defend their spending in an audit, i presume it'll need to be fairly detailed.

I'll link the podcast so you can hear it for yourself.

The story starts at 2 mins.

The host is a dose but the info is good.

Re Aston Martin upgrade, I don't think F1 is as easy as just copying the visual bits of a competitive car.

I think the team is a shambles.

Whitmarsh and Mike Krack in there and daddy stroll attending technical meetings and likely throwing his weight around.

It's abit like the billionaire football club owner wanting to pick the team.

On the 3rd anniversary of Niki Lauda's passing McLaren have unveiled a new bronze statue in his honour.

Had a listen, not much in the detail just speculating along the lines that we are.

The three things that stood out to me:

1. Ferrari are keeping an eye on other teams spending, costing that teams upgrades and providing it to the FIA? I may have taken that up wrong.

2.Mercs issue with the porpoising stems from their floor flexing, other teams have stays in the side pods to help but because the Merc have no room in their sidepod design they can't implement the same fix. Surely that means it's a fundamental flaw and the side pod design needs to be rolled back to the older iteration?

3.They came to the conclusion that RB have spent a huge chunk of their allowed budget on upgrades extremely early this season and that the next upgrade will be the last one they can implement while staying under the cap. Seems a bit made. Aston Martin have brought 8 upgrades to this weekend, they seem pretty significant. Surely they are tapped out now as well if the RB situation is anything to go by.

I think people are reading way too much into this. Binotto made a few throwaway comments about how Red Bull must be running out of steam on their budget cap, probably to keep morale up at Ferrari as much as anything else. This "dossier" they supposedly have ready to unleash comes from an Italian tabloid journalist and I haven't seen any major respectable news sources pick it up. I doubt it's a real thing and if it is it will have zero impact as a list of hypothetical guesses at other team's expenses is completely meaningless. The budget cap isn't measured in number of upgrades, it's measured in actual monetary expenditure.

I'd suspect the reality is that Red Bull are simply working more efficiently than Ferrari. Looking at the 2019 budgets for example, pre-budget cap (and pre covid weirdness), Red Bull spent 335 million while Mercedes spent 425 million and Ferrari spent 435. So Ferrari's excess spending over Red Bull has typically more than two thirds of the entire budget cap this season. And Verstappen finished ahead of both Ferraris in the championship that year. If you go back through the years you'd find it's generally always been similar with Ferrari and Merc spending the most, Red Bull spending about 75% as much, then McLaren and Renault a bit behind that. Even back when Vettel was dominating, Red Bull's budget was well behind the other big teams.

Plus it's not like Red Bull have been unique in bringing a bunch of updates. Arguably Ferrari are the outlier across the whole field for bringing the least upgrades so far this season, though obviously they started with a strong enough car not to need to.

I have wondered about the budget cap and how it would be policed should some designers have inexplicable "eureka" moments and come up with new designs in minimal working hours. If anyone breaks the spirit of the regulations I'd imagine it's manufacturers who have extensive sports car programs including ones that boast of featuring F1 technology that would be in an easier position to do so than an energy drink company.

The main thing to note is that FIA have been clear previously that they will come down extremely hard on anyone found to break the budget limit rules, with punishment potentially going so far as complete expulsion from the championship, which is the biggest reason why teams are unlikely to risk doing anything dodgy.