F1 2023 thread

My 2023 prediction thread is still open. If you want to take part, you can up to next Wednesday. Thread here.

On Coulthard, he also Co owns Whisper Productions, the company producing Channel 4's F1 coverage. While we're talking about the non Sky options, Alice Powell is a driver development coach at Alpine, pundit for Channel 4 and F1 TV. Billy Monger is a former F3 driver, they had Susie Wolff for a while. BBC Radio 5 Live had Jamie Chadwick in commentary for a couple of Grand Prix, they even shifted away from ex drivers with former mechanic Mark Priestly.

Very narrow minded to think only ex F1 drivers can analyse current F1 drivers.

We are only 2 weeks away from lights out

naughty

It will be on Sky Sports F1.

There might be rules around this, I think they'll have to use whoever their reserve driver is for some of the testing at least, plus they will want to if he is going to be starting the first race for them.

I felt really sorry for Drugovich signing for AM as it was obvious there would not be a possible seat for a few years. But hey, as a reserve driver, these opportunities do not come up that often. He's a great driver so let's see if he is put in the seat for testing and measures up against Alonso.

Good opportunity for the lad. But let's not get carried away with testing. They run to testing programmes that mean we probably won't be able to tell anything from their relative times.

Testing might be different this time as they only have one test so they might have to run proper quali or long stints to understand the tyres.

Listening to testing reviews in the past they said they often go full speed through a single corner or a couple of corners on each lap so they don't even set a purple sector time. Then they stitch the fast corners together to get a feel for their actual pace. So each team will know how fast they are but the other teams can only guess.

Isn’t Vandorne the 3rd driver for AM as well?

Less than two days to pre season testing 😎

Drugovich to test for Aston Martin on Thursday.

I read/heard something yesterday saying that only a few constructors have actually released their new upgraded car, most have just released their livery.

On an unrelated note, Ted Kravitz reckons that RB are 'nigh on unbeatable" for the season ahead. Never thought I'd hear him go against the British contingent but there you go. I'd have to agree with him too, I've no idea what sort of improvements are possible for Ferrari and Mercedes, but I can't imagine them being able to close the gap from last season in just one off-season.