Motorsport Off Topic Thread

[weta]

Gotta admit, I think this is going to be one hell of a season.

Sure is, evenly matched machinery, plenty of new blood and some stellar inter-team rivalries are all ingredients that make for a very exciting season ahead.

Is it me, or is it a telling sign to see Hamilton standing behind Leclerc in the promotional photo? While Hamilton is still extremely fast I get the feeling that he'll struggle to beat the Monegasque driver on a regular basis this year.

 

[Slam62]

Leclerc is going to get a wake up call

 

[weta]

Leclerc is going to get a wake up call

Leclerc certainly doesn't take pressure well and he'll get plenty of that from Hamilton, interesting times ahead.

 

[SimonRigga]

Leclerc is going to get a wake up call

either that or Hamilton will realise that the very sharp end is a young mans game

 

[weta]

either that or Hamilton will realise that the very sharp end is a young mans game

Also true, the older statesmen haven't been doing so well of late, I think Hamilton (2) and Perez (4) are the only drivers over 30 to have won any Formula 1 races in the past three seasons.

 

[Mr Jack]

Leclerc is going to get a wake up call

I'd rate Leclerc as good or better than Russell - and Russell has, at the very least, kept Lewis honest. I think it'll be a close matched battle. The really interesting thing is going to be if Ferrari have a title capable car and the two of them are fighting for real.

 

[GravyMonster]

Is it me, or is it a telling sign to see Hamilton standing behind Leclerc in the promotional photo?

I'm pretty sure that's a photoshop by the F1 media team of one of Hamilton's Mercedes headshots from last year. Another clue being that Leclerc is wearing a 2023 race suit with the sponsor logos digitally removed.

It's definitely not an official Ferrari image - they've not released any yet

 

[Mr Jack]

I'm pretty sure that's a photoshop by the F1 media team of one of Hamilton's Mercedes headshots from last year. Another clue being that Leclerc is wearing a 2023 race suit with the sponsor logos digitally removed.

Probably a fan photoshop, rather than F1 media, I think. I didn't actually check whether it is official or not, since it didn't seem important to what I was saying, but I agree it's not official. Other giveaways are inconsistent levels of blur between image and text which suggests higher res photos of the faces have been introduced into scaled up graphics.

 

[weta]

I didn't look at the photo too closely to be honest, my mistake.

 

[petridish]

I'd rate Leclerc as good or better than Russell - and Russell has, at the very least, kept Lewis honest. I think it'll be a close matched battle. The really interesting thing is going to be if Ferrari have a title capable car and the two of them are fighting for real.

I think that's a fair assessment. New car learning curve aside I expect them to be close, Hamilton with the better handling of pressure from behind. Leclerc with the worse luck / strategy.

 

[MissChief]

I'd rate Leclerc as good or better than Russell - and Russell has, at the very least, kept Lewis honest. I think it'll be a close matched battle. The really interesting thing is going to be if Ferrari have a title capable car and the two of them are fighting for real.

I think that's a fair assessment. New car learning curve aside I expect them to be close, Hamilton with the better handling of pressure from behind. Leclerc with the worse luck / strategy.

I can't wait to hear Lewis on the radio about the Ferrari 'Strategy' calls during the races. He was usually quite blunt to his team at Mercedes.

 

[weta]

I think that's a fair assessment. New car learning curve aside I expect them to be close, Hamilton with the better handling of pressure from behind. Leclerc with the worse luck / strategy.

There is the potential for some very good inter-team battles this year, there is also a lot of new blood on the grid which should shake up the established drivers, some of whom have become a tad stale of late.