Formula One

[exeterjeep]

1 minute ago, Bravo73 said:

Don’t forget though:

”In addition, as part of a wider restructure of race control aimed at providing a calmer environment, direct radio communications between the teams and the race director will no longer be allowed.”

Did realise that, but before/after the race there could be friction if whichever race director is on duty that race makes a decision the other side does not like. I can't see there being peace in our time  --- this year. The feelings will last well into the season.

[NedaSay]

Also They are bring in Eduardo Freitas from Le Mans 24/WEC and Niels Wittich from DTM, both of them have strong experience even if Wittich last year at  DTM was also tinted in controversy, which also involved Mercedes and RedBull.  They retained Herbie Blash  and are creating a virtual remote control room hopefully it will be manned properly.

I think it is interesting that the FIA president had to mention that Masi would be reassigned.

Edited February 17, 2022 by NedaSay

[jimichanga]

So if Lewis had kept Max behind him on that last lap to win the title Masi keeps his job and everyone’s happy? Not cool. Mercedes and LH are being the ultimate sore losers.

[NedaSay]

Nope... had the rules and regulations been respected, some would have been upset and some would have been happy but Masi would have done his job properly and kept it. Instead of that the sporting body known as the FIA had to deal with a shitshow.  The 2021 champion is still going to have a shadow over his shoulder because. Had Mercedes been a sore loser they would have taken this to court and won, because the race director did not do his due diligence  in that race.  LH asked Mercedes not to push it that way to which Mercedes F1 boss said ok. If you consider that being a sore loser, then I can't even imagine...

[Rambo]

14 hours ago, Bravo73 said:

In other news, Masi has been sacked. Phew. 

There is justice after all. Finally, Michael Masi, former F1 race director has been booted out 😅

Let's see whether last year's Abu Dhabi result will be overturned. Personally, I doubt it, as they are spineless, but then again they said there was no chance of sacking Masi and look what's happened

Watch this space. It could get even messier

 

[PaulCP]

11 hours ago, jimichanga said:

So if Lewis had kept Max behind him on that last lap to win the title Masi keeps his job and everyone’s happy? Not cool. Mercedes and LH are being the ultimate sore losers.

Nothing like keep wanting to keep playing “devil’s advocate” is there 😛

You made your point a few pages ago, you hate Mercedes & LH.
Facts are facts and they speak for themselves, the rules were not followed on 2 occasions over 5 laps, If’s and buts are pure speculation and not admissible in credible arguments.

Maybe there’s something in the F1 team managers training guide that only you have seen “all team managers should make contingency plans during a race just in case the Race Director decides to change the rules for a few laps during a race” 

[jimichanga]

Have to respect Mercedes and Hamilton’s achievements but his behaviour since has been unsporting and disappointing but nobody’s perfect. I understand Lewis’s emotion but he has to see the bigger picture and not seek to control the sport. He will win plenty more races on his on merit with or without the help of the officials. I get that he’s trying to influence 50:50 calls next year and also that such tactics can be the difference in a close title battle. But I liked to think he was a pure racer and above that sort of thing.

But if he had won the last lap race there would be no complaints from anyone, that stinks too. It can’t go from ‘appalling’ to ‘fine’ just because of who wins. If what Masi did was appalling then it should be considered that regardless of outcome. They had 108m people watching Abu Dhabi, Masi was under pressure from the FIA to let the epic title battle be concluded by racing, we can all agree that is preferable. The intention was right, the execution a mess but hellish difficult decision under the circumstances. Assuming it was all a big conspiracy against Lewis is just childish and ignores the reality of the situation.

[PaulCP]

51 minutes ago, jimichanga said:

Have to respect Mercedes and Hamilton’s achievements but his behaviour since has been unsporting and disappointing

They had 108m people watching Abu Dhabi, Masi was under pressure from the FIA to let the epic title battle be concluded by racing, we can all agree that is preferable.

Re the 1st para I think you see things differently to the majority, including many of the drivers who believe that LH has handled to situation very well. 
 

Re 2nd point, what was the racing that they tried to conclude with?Even ignoring the tyre situation, how does a 1 lap sprint with the gap closed up after 1 driver has established a few seconds lead over the previous 70 (or whatever) laps constitute racing? 
If I get you right you are saying that it was the FIA who ordered the rules to be broken, not Masi.

Lets just change F1 then to a 1 lap sprint race in future. F1 is now a ruined sport and has become just a part of reality TV.

[NedaSay]

3 hours ago, jimichanga said:

Have to respect Mercedes and Hamilton’s achievements but his behaviour since has been unsporting and disappointing but nobody’s perfect. I understand Lewis’s emotion but he has to see the bigger picture and not seek to control the sport. He will win plenty more races on his on merit with or without the help of the officials. I get that he’s trying to influence 50:50 calls next year and also that such tactics can be the difference in a close title battle. But I liked to think he was a pure racer and above that sort of thing.

But if he had won the last lap race there would be no complaints from anyone, that stinks too. It can’t go from ‘appalling’ to ‘fine’ just because of who wins. If what Masi did was appalling then it should be considered that regardless of outcome. They had 108m people watching Abu Dhabi, Masi was under pressure from the FIA to let the epic title battle be concluded by racing, we can all agree that is preferable. The intention was right, the execution a mess but hellish difficult decision under the circumstances. Assuming it was all a big conspiracy against Lewis is just childish and ignores the reality of the situation.

Masi was not under pressure from the FIA. That is BS! He may have felt under pressure from FOM, the promoter of the race, the TVs, Redbull... But he was not under pressure from the FIA... He effectively is/was the FIA most senior officer acting that day. Whatever he said went and it did. And he royally fucked up. The Epic battle was over before the crash, Hamilton had been leading the race by a full 10 sec... The FIA needed by its own admission and rules to let all lapped cars unlap themselves, which Masi initially said he would not, then he let five cars out of eight I believe unlap, then the safety car had to lead the race for another lap to have all the cars in proper restart order, he did not let that happen either... You ask Mercedes and Hamilton and Mercedes to see the big picture... Best part of the event was Masi calling it a motor race in Toto's face! Masi fucked up! He deserved to be fired.

Had Mercedes not already signed the new Fom agreement, Mercedes could have called it a day. Mercedes does not need F1. They could have said ok we are leaving and FIA and F1 would have add to clean up that mess.

 

Now see the big picture! 

[NedaSay]

Mercedes F1 E W13

The return of the silver arrows Very low nose, shrinkwrapped sidepods with big intakes and triple barge elements.

[C8RKH]

On 15/02/2022 at 10:07, jimichanga said:

Outrageous to blame everyone else for what happened and very unsportsmanlike to boycott the FIA prize giving, seek the removal of the race director and stripping MV of his title and not celebrate the incredible Constructors Championship which benefits many more into the team than an 8th Drivers title for LH.

So the fact that the FIA race director, no one else, ripped up the rule book, broke with convention, and did what he liked, is OK is it? Because the principle that most people are pissed about is NOT that LH did not win, it was that whether it was contrived or not, the result WAS manipulated by the actions of the Race Director. So if you take away the emotion of whether you are a LH, Merc, MV or Bull fan, and focus on the "facts" of what happened, then at the very least you have to find Massi's decisions strange, and at the extreme unsporting. Either way, Massi was is own man who made the decisions himself, and he decided to alter the rules of the game, during the game. I don't think that that ca be denied to be honest.

Personally, you cannot strip Max of the title now. The correct decision is to hold the person responsible for the whole debacle, responsible. So him getting the sack in my mind, is him being held accountable for the farce (some will say spectacle) that he created.  Although he ain't really being sacked, he is just being moved to another department. How very corporate of the FIA.

It doesn't help his case that he actually came across in the messages as an arrogant, entitled, twurp. IMVHO of course.

 

[C8RKH]

11 hours ago, Rambo said:

There is justice after all. Finally, Michael Masi, former F1 race director has been booted out 😅

Nope, he's been moved sideways into another job where he can do less damage for the same pay!

[Rambo]

I meant booted out of the Race Director role. No one gets sacked these days. Unfortunately 🤨

[Doug Ashley]

On 10/02/2022 at 16:12, exeterjeep said:

Horner’s Mercedes tour scuppered by ‘small print’

https://www.planetf1.com/news/christian-horner-mercedes-tour-scuppered/?fbclid=IwAR2pYMI2aW17c4HqbUcU36NTIzUHSEzIrKTlEs88BdyUTKTwGmvdi0Fm1gA

It is being reported terms and conditions for the Mercedes tour state “employees of other Formula 1 teams are not eligible to take this tour”.

Perhaps Red Bull should just move Horner to another part of the wider organisation, outside the F1 team, just for the day of the tour...

[NedaSay]

6 minutes ago, Doug Ashley said:

Perhaps Red Bull should just move Horner to another part of the wider organisation, outside the F1 team, just for the day of the tour...

Horner did bid for the publicity and the fact that it was a good cause. He knew he was not going in beyond Toto's office and maybe a lunch room. He will give the tickets away to a bunch of kids as one does...

[jimichanga]

You are all forgetting that there was an agreed overarching principle to ‘let them race’ that was correctly allowed to influence decisions throughout the season. We had a better season as a result and it benefited LH several times not least in Abu Dhabi when he took the lead by cutting the corner and didn’t have to give it back. ‘Let them race’ was agreed throughout the sport at the most senior level. In this regard Masi was consistent and correct to try to find a way to let the championship conclude under racing conditions. Your collective outrage is disingenuous because it wouldn’t exist if LH had won. I don’t expect any of you to admit now that ‘let them race’ is an excellent guiding principle for the sport and for entertainment which is important to anyone who remembers how boring some of the F1 processions of the past could be. F1 has never been a pure sport. Just ask Senna and Mansell about politics.

Masi cracked under extreme pressure being human as I’m sure many of us would in that situation but his intentions were for the good of the sport and the spectators. The safety car 5 laps from the end was a nightmare scenario for him. People here still going on about how unfair it was that a leader loses his lead but that’s what always happens with every safety car and LH has benefitted from it many times. Masi wanted to let them race. I am very glad that the championship didn’t end under the safety car. Had Merc pitted LH they’d have won anyway. Having led more laps than anyone else all season (by far) having been shunted off by Mercedes cars twice depriving him of the chance to bag the title earlier, Verstappen did not deserve to watch his title handed to LH on a plate in the ultimate anti climax. I wish Masi well in his new role and given the amount of brainless hate online these days you really have to be hard hearted not to feel for what him and his family must be going through.

It will be very interesting to see how LH gets on with a more competitive team mate. Hilarious how quickly he recovered from covid when Russell looked like winning in his Merc! As with any close title battle there will be controversies and 50:50 calls. Really hope the cars are closely matched would really like to see more drivers getting wins.

[Chillidoggy]

Have I stumbled into the Brexit thread by mistake?

[C8RKH]

Same muppets, different topic (hahaha) - laughing at me, not you lot!

[exeterjeep]

Formula 1: Michael Andretti aiming to enter team in 2024

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60440631

Former IndyCar champion and Formula 1 driver Michael Andretti is aiming to field a new team in F1 from 2024.

The 59-year-old is the son of 1978 F1 world champion Mario, who confirmed the news on social media on Friday............

[NedaSay]

Now that the spending is manageable under 140m a year... F1 is attractive again. Andretti has developed their engineering capability lately with ATEC... But delivering a  brand new team in the next two years will probably require teaming up à la Haas-Ferrari. Andretti has a natural connection with McLaren so they could leverage that and Andretti keeps saying that he is fully funded for an F1 endeavour... Haas said that also and today he has one foot out the door.

[pete]

Work is going on at Spa to make it safer and hopefully be ablehttps://www.visordown.com/news/racing/general/spa-francorchamps-upgrade-return-top-flight-motorcycle-racing to hold motor bike racing.

[NedaSay]

Well it is BWT Alpine F1 team launch day. it is going to be blue and pink... I have no problem with pink except that BWT has chosen the worst hue of pink. the livery is just meeh the blue pops nicely but the pink looks faded... Is it a better livery than the BWT racing point, yes in my opinion cause the blue and black provides contrast. Is it a livery that will be remembered, no cause it appears like a complete afterthought ; the car was going to be blue, then BWT was shopping their sponsorship and alpine jumped on it and they did not find a way to integrate the pink to the colorscheme. Considering the amount of branding that BWT gets they are contributing a lot of money to the team.

[C8RKH]

@GFWilliamshad the best shade of pink!

[GFWilliams]

Looks great to me!

[NedaSay]

this one looks great to me:

This is the season opener livery... Alpine did their own version of one more thing. I think it would look ace at night races.

https://www.pitpass.com/gallery/2450/2022-Launch-Alpine/#

Edited February 21, 2022 by NedaSay