Poll: Official 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix Race Thread - Sakhir Circuit - Race 1/23

[adam cool dude]

They lost development time, which is not a nothing punishment. The Merc fans wanted them to lose their title, which is hilarious because that wouldn’t have affected the new car.

$500k overspend doesn’t buy you this level of dominance.

Adrian Newey is just the GOAT really. Even whinger spice knows it. Mercedes dominance came from their engine and regs. Ferrari in the Brawn/Byrne years was something special but everywhere Newey has been he has changed and everywhere he has left has fallen off a cliff.

 

[fez]

Formula ones fundamental issue is almost always that there is a team that is far better than the rest and its dull. Good sport requires genuine competition at the top.

 

[imtoooldforthis]

F1 has fewer pay drivers these days, not more. Alonso, Hamilton, Ocon, etc are the exception not the rule; most F1 drivers come from money because it's a bloody expensive sport. It's not like you can lob a few jumpers down and have a kart race in your local park.



Absolute rubbish. Latifi may not have been top drawer but he wasn't complete trash either - and, okay, that Russian kleptocrat's son was worse - but they're also the two worst drivers in recent F1 history. They're notable because they're not up to the standards of most of the drivers on the grid.

I think the point is that probably 90% of the grid (maybe all of them...) wouldn't be in F1 if it was a sport open to everyone. Ultimately Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso etc are the best of a minuscule talent pool of a few thousand rich kids. The working class and majority of the middle class are excluded from ever discovering if they have talent or not and thus it's hard (for me at least) to view drivers as these amazing god tier talents, certainly not in the way i can someone like Messi who has become the best from a talent pool in the hundreds of thousands/millions.

Im sure you know all this, it's just something that always bugs me when I see people arguing passionately about how great certain drivers are.

 

[uscool]

Aston using Mercedes power unit and being faster , time to drop the zero pod me thinks

Fight between Aston / Ferrari and mercedes could be exciting while red bull run away with it

 

[Junglist]

Formula ones fundamental issue is almost always that there is a team that is far better than the rest and its dull. Good sport requires genuine competition at the top.

Then once all the cars start to converge, they change the formula

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Adrian Newey is just the GOAT really. Even whinger spice knows it. Mercedes dominance came from their engine and regs. Ferrari in the Brawn/Byrne years was something special but everywhere Newey has been he has changed and everywhere he has left has fallen off a cliff.

Newey is the best in his field no doubt, especially with ground effect. Mercedes had a dominant engine and then also aero at their peak, but they clearly don’t understand these new cars. Sounds like it’s going to be a dull season and even more so than some
of the merc years where at least the race director tried to spice things up.

 

[Mr Jack]

I think the point is that probably 90% of the grid (maybe all of them...) wouldn't be in F1 if it was a sport open to everyone. Ultimately Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso etc are the best of a minuscule talent pool of a few thousand rich kids.

Hamilton and Alonso are the exceptions who don't come from big money backgrounds. But, yeah, you're right: F1 is, and always will be, a rich man's sport. But it's far from the only such sport: money will always help, especially when you're talking about something where you need to invest huge amounts of time with minimal pay-off, and even in football where the stars can rise from modest starts, the sport is still awash with corrupt money buying titles.

Sports a dirty business, sadly.

 

[413x]

Once you see sport as a business and entertainment it makes it easier to accept money(especially in f1) is so important.

Even Hamilton required his family to make huge sacrifices. Most never get that opportunity.

F1 is probably one of the closer "sports" to being a business out of all of them. Really, I wouldn't consider it a sport myself.

 

[Stu999]

Newey is the best in his field no doubt, especially with ground effect. Mercedes had a dominant engine and then also aero at their peak, but they clearly don’t understand these new cars. Sounds like it’s going to be a dull season and even more so than some
of the merc years where at least the race director tried to spice things up.

Maybe RB could hire Ferrari’s strategists? The new rules could be that if you finish top of the constructors championship you get less development time and the Ferrari strategy team join you.

 

[bayo000]

Then once all the cars start to converge, they change the formula

True but if they don't do that then some manufacturers might leave as there's limited R&D at a significant cost running an F1 team. Personally I'm not too bothered if RB dominate again this season as it's only their 2nd (some could say 3rd) season back at the front, I just don't want to see another 8 years of same team winning titles.

Anyway, we only just had our first race and still have 22 to go so anything can happen yet.

 

[Slam62]

Nah nothing much will change, Merc have made a huge strategic mistake, they should have changed way back, they'll struggle until the next significant rule change.

 

[mattx4]

Toto should appeal to the FIA via email to remove side pods, they can cause collisions when cars are racing close so it's best to just remove them from all cars

 

[jonneymendoza]

Toto should appeal to the FIA via email to remove side pods, they can cause collisions when cars are racing close so it's best to just remove them from all cars

uhh?

 

[MissChief]

Happy for Nando. However there are wider concerns for the "f1 brand" in my opinion. I recall the dullness of the complete Ferrari domination with Schumy, and that's why I was happy when Max beat Lewis the other year to end the Merc domination. Right at the end of that era, we had Red Bull challenging Merc, Mcclaren had a car with pace and the midfield was tight.

The new regs have brought red bull dominance, and I can't see it changing until much later in the era as things normalise towards one central design.

Normally, as f1 fans, we'd just have to accept it, what concerns me is the wider global liberty media audience getting bored, and then random things happen to try and make it more interesting that waters down the sport.

I'm hopeful that as the restrictions placed on RB begin to curtail development of upgrades for this year's car the other teams will manage to close the gap.

 

[Bug One]

Alonso watching the replay of Lance torpedo into him. Biting your tongue is clearly a skill that comes with experience.

 

[Yaayuh!]

This season will dictate whether I continue with subscribing to Sky F1. I’m losing interest.

 

[cu3ed]

First season not bothered to watch the first race which is telling.
Also don't understand the Alonso love, the man has been a disgrace to F1 in the past.

 

[adam cool dude]

True but if they don't do that then some manufacturers might leave as there's limited R&D at a significant cost running an F1 team. Personally I'm not too bothered if RB dominate again this season as it's only their 2nd (some could say 3rd) season back at the front, I just don't want to see another 8 years of same team winning titles.

Anyway, we only just had our first race and still have 22 to go so anything can happen yet.

Denial is the first stage of acceptance. Season is already over. I get more entertainment at my local banger racing ring.

 

[KiNgPiN83]

Because many, yourself included, are incapable of dealing with how good a team Red Bull have become and will whine like children every race weekend . F1 is a unique sport, exceptional athletes paired with exceptional unique machinery, that pits the worlds greatest designers and engineers against each other. Ultimate team sport.

There's no doubting their technical excellence but they're are just so unlikeable to a lot of fans.

 

[wildman]

Mr Ferrari looks miffed

he looked extremely miffed and no doubt in the quest to try and make the engineers understand the level of his unhappiness was likely lining up the use of a lot of violent sexual imagery and hoping that none of them would be terribly offended..........................

At least that what he would do if his name was Mario Tuckerino.....................