Pre-Season testing is complete. The only car that was obviously having problems was Mclaren for 2nd season in a row. That's very problematic...I don't now why they can't get it right from the start.

It looks like we might be in for a boring season as Red Bull look like the class of the field again. The Red Bull might pull away from the start but the fight for 2-4 could be interesting at least. Ferrari appear to have pace but might not be very good on long runs. Its hard to tell where Mercedes are. They have a unique sidepod design that doesn't seem to work well but they're sticking with it. I expect this years engine will be better than last year which was a dog. Aston Martin looked very good in testing. With the improved Mercedes engine and one of the best drivers in the field they might be fighting for podiums. Renault didn't look very good but they claim they are happy. They had a good car last season.

One of the interesting things to watch will be Hamilton/Russell battle at Mercedes. We'll see how Hamilton holds up. Russell is devious as hell and Hamilton isn't the best when under pressure.

That’s a depressing recap.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Yeah Red Bull looked good in test. Ferrari and Mercedes need to up their game. Ferrari might be as fast in qual. That would make things a lot more interesting. They have the best engine.

I’m really shocked that Mercedes can’t get it together two years in a row. And Lewis Hamilton has to be pissed with all of the races in the USA where he’s always a crowd favorite. Hopefully they at least addressed the porpoising from last season. And power should NEVER be a shortcoming for them.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Read a great article that I'm not even going to link, suffice to say that F1 is doing a terrific job navigating the treacherous waters of sports/tv/platforms...the nfl is the nfl...

but mlb and the nba with their worst ever all-star game viewership could learn a thing or two

ok i link it

https://stratechery.com/2023/what-the-nba-can-learn-from-formula-1/

a bit nerdy, but good

Somehow their engine wasn't as efficient with the E10 fuel as the others so it was down on power. I have to think that situation has been rectified so we'll see where they stand now. They also got a rule change so the cars are running higher this season. The other teams weren't happy with this because porpoising wasn't as big an issue for them. I imagine that situation was due to Mercedes strange sidepod design.

I think the Hamilton/Russell situation will be interesting. Russell is shady and he's going to do some things that annoy Hamilton. He will constantly be doing things behind scenes and during race to gain the upper hand.

Shakes watches the Netflix show. He seemed to enjoy it but he wasn't watching the races because he didn't want to know what was going to happen on the show so it actually hurt them lol. I think the biggest reason for ratings increase was they aren't showing commercials. I think if they go back to commercials the ratings are going back down. Its ridiculous watching a race with commercials. These morons pay too much for the rights then the ratings aren't what they thought and they have to air a ridiculous amount of commercials to recoup some of the cost. Its unwatchable even with the side by side commercials where they put the race on one side and the commercial on the other. Even in a theater it doesn't work at least for me and it seems when they do that they double the commercials.

I have an F1TV subscription. I prefer the international feed. The Sky broadcast that ESPN uses is kind of a clown show IMO. F1 were smart in they are giving ESPN a deal on the rights because they want to get the US interested.

Agreed on the Sky broadcast. They squeal and shriek over everything. But I sure can’t wait for this season, unless it’s another Verstappen runaway

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I think Red Bull will be in class by itself...Mercedes seem to be conceding they're in a class by themselves. It could still be an interesting race though. Everyone is talking up Aston Martin and Renault are chirping so the battle with them and Ferrari/Mercedes could be close. Aston Martin is interesting because they were running out of the old Jordan factory and they just built a new facility and poached a couple of Red Bull and Mercedes' top engineers. We'll never see something like we did with Brawn though where someone shows up with a trick that blows everyone away. I doubt Mclaren will be as bad as people think.

Everyone knows Alonso is fast but more impressive is the team owner's kid finishing 6th in qual sims with a broken wrist. The car is very fast.

Mercedes look to be in trouble. They showed up to race with a small rear wing which means their car must be draggy again. It looks like they're banging their heads against a wall with their sidepod design. Its a bad sign when nobody else is copying their idea. It would be ironic if Aston were the ones that benefited from the improved engine and they couldn't take advantage because the car is inefficient. Its possible both Aston and Renault have leapfrogged them. Oof.

Ferrari had some issues so who knows where they are. The pace seemed good but they had a rear wing almost fall off and a bad spin from bottoming.

F1tv has a 7 day trial...there's a lot of good content on there. They show all the sessions and have people that know what they're talking about.

Wtf happened to good German efficiency? Did the best all go to Red Bull and Aston??? Oh well I'll just hold out hope for Lando Norris, Sergio Perez and the Scuderia.

And I’ll look into F1tv, thanks.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Oof. By "wrong track" he's talking about their sidepod. It seemed like the design would increase top speed so it was strange that it created a draggy car. It would be cool if they did a B-spec like they used to. I think they might be too stubborn to abandon it though unless it gets really bad. From 2014-2021 they had by far the best engine. We've never seen a gap like that before in the history of F1. I wonder if that caused them to get behind in aero dept. since all they had to do was design a solid car that wouldn't fall apart because the engine was so much better.

He was fairly quick this morning in P3. But it seems silly to run these practices and qualifying midday when the race is at night when you are talking less heat and different track conditions in the actual race. Besides I don’t get not opening up in a place like Singapore where the later races have been getting killed by rain. Unless it’s worse now.

Edit: I didn’t realize that qualifying is after sundown.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

The Ferrari look really twitchy I'll be surprised if they get the tires to work in the race. Ferrari's only chance will be to get ahead of Red Bull at start so we might see them bounce off each other.

It should be a pretty interesting race. The field is really close. It was nice to see Hulkenberg do well he's a good driver. Mclaren are in trouble I don't know how they got it so wrong. Overall speed is mid at best and they are really slow on the straights.

Way back in the day they used to start season at Kyalami in South Africa. That was a great circuit. Sadly they demolished most of it and built apartments or something. COTA should of just built a replica of that instead of the garbage track they built in Austin. Starting in Australia was good too. I think they like Bahrain because its closer and they can shuttle parts in from factories which is useful for the 1st race.

That was a completely unsatisfying “race”, except for Alonso.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I thought it was pretty good until about 10 laps to go. If the Hamilton/Sainz battle developed it would have been a nice ending. It looked like Mercedes brought Hamilton in too early. He wanted to stay out longer. If they had listened he would have had some tire left to battle Sainz so that was a strange call. There were some nice battles. At least the Red Bulls got split so Perez had to battle Leclerc. It was nice watching Alonso behind the wheel of a good car. It wasn't nice watching him get him by his teammate. I think at this point people have to concede Stroll has decent pace...he just drives like a blockhead at times.

The next couple of tracks will be interesting as they're a lot different than Bahrain. There's a chance the Red Bull won't be as dominant.

I can't understand how Mclaren are so bad. They're in talks with Honda for 2026. If I was Honda I would look elsewhere if they can't even build a proper car.

LeClerc started on new softs and Verstappen still pulled 7 second gap in first 9 laps.

Mercedes have some decisions to make. Keep developing the current car and fight for 2nd or go with what they have and start work on next years car.

Why isn't the American driver on the American team? Sargeant qualified same pace as Norris in inferior car. Haas wonder why nobody cares about them.

This could be interesting. I don't see him going to Ferrari but I could see a swap with Norris at Mclaren. Mclaren will have their new wind tunnel up and running in June and they are negotiating with new engine suppliers so maybe Hamilton gambles they'll be good. Hamilton has said he would like to return to Mclaren before he hangs it up.

The engine rules in F1 are incredibly stupid...2nd race and already seeing grid penalties.

Should be an interesting race today with Verstappen and Leclerc starting towards the back. If Perez and Alonso can get away clean and there is no safety car I don't think Verstappen will catch them. Saudi Arabia is a much better track than Bahrain so should be plenty of action.

Hamilton seems defeated. Parting ways with his physio was very strange timing with everything going on within Mercedes. I don't know if he trusts anyone within Mercedes. Maybe seeing a Mclaren qualify right behind him is giving him some ideas for next season.

Glad for Checo, and nice to see the sourness on Verstappen. It's like he couldn't take losing today.

And Russell is showing his colors.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Yeah Perez will be faster than Verstappen at a few circuits. After the ridiculous safety car and his lead was taken away he did a great job getting away and keeping a gap.

The safety car was ridiculous. Stroll pulled into a cut in the track like you're supposed to and they still brought out the safety car. They're doing it to manipulate the races and the constructors should complain. The officiating is worse than an SCCA race at VIR. The Alonso situation was really embarrassing. They served their penalty correctly and their officials at the track confirmed it was served properly then they're contacted off site on last lap? These idiots knew it didn't matter anyways because penalties have to be issued within 25 minutes which was long past. Baffling ineptitude. At least Alonso got his podium back.

Ferrari has good one lap pace but their race pace is brutal. This track should of favored them and their car was still a dud.

Are Mclaren tanking for maximum wind tunnel time next season? Their new wind tunnel comes on-line in June. I hope so they look pathetic.

That was a very strange strategy today with Hamilton starting on hard tires. After restart they should of let him overtake Russell when he was on mediums and try and catch Alonso then if Russell caught him switch back. They just had Hamilton sit behind Russell until his mediums died and he fell back. I don't understand what they were doing with their strategy.

I would like to see Hamilton go back to Mclaren and finish his career there.

It seems Russell was asked to let Hamilton thru when he restarted on mediums and he declined. They didn't show that on the International feed. That would explain why Hamilton stayed behind until his tires were done. It shows how bad their relationship must be. Its common when on split strategy for teams to let car on the faster tire thru to see if they can catch car ahead and if not to give position back later.

It was funny how Red Bull was trying to get Perez to drive to a delta towards the end to take care of car and he wouldn't have any of it even with a 5 second lead. Good luck trying to control him this season Red Bull.

Another race with poor race control. The 1st red flag for some gravel put everyone on same strategy. The restart at the end was ridiculous. It never works all you end up with is millions of dollars in torn up cars. Just end race under safety car the real race fans will understand. It sucks but alternative is worse.

Great job by Magnussen to hit wall on basically a straight to ruin the race. This guy has always been a clown. We would have seen a nice battle with Hamilton/Alonso to the end if that hadn't happened.

The penalty on Sainz was too severe what the hell did they think was going to happen with a standing start on hard cold tires with 2 laps left...

Mercedes was quick this week so Aston Martin needs a response. Mclaren looked pretty decent and they have a big update coming for next race.

Its too bad F1 didn't find a replacement for China GP. Why not go back to Malaysia? A month between races is too long.

That was brutal but the organizers are Euros so they need to look in the mirror instead of blaming the US. We don't like that garbage either.

Just wish the races could be a bit more competitive. The most exciting thing that happened was Verstappen had a large lead and the only question was whether or not he could still pit and get out before Checo. He didn't, but wasn't long at all before he just passed him later and kept going. Red Bull dominating right now.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

At least Verstappen has a quick teammate that will give him trouble in some races this season. Pirelli are to blame for some of this. The tires are supposed to degrade around 15-20% but the hard is about 50% from the mediums if not more. Because of that there isn't any strategy to these races. Verstappen did a fast lap on 40 lap old hard tires after a heavy fuel load. That's not acceptable.

Ferrari and Mercedes also dropped the ball. You can throw Renault in there too. An energy drink company is better at making cars than they are.