2023 F1 Thread

[Buzzard]

It's almost time for the season to begin.
I read this in the newspaper today:

 

[snabbu]

2023 Calendar

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1​	Bahrain	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	5-Mar​
2​	Saudi Arabian	Saudi Arabia Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah	19-Mar​
3​	Australian	Australia Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne	2-Apr​
4​	Azerbaijan	Azerbaijan Baku City Circuit, Baku	30-Apr​
5​	Miami	United States Miami International Autodrome, Florida	7-May​
6​	Emilia Romagna	Italy Imola Circuit, Imola	21-May​
7​	Monaco	Monaco Circuit de Monaco, Monaco	28-May​
8​	Spanish	Spain Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló	4-Jun​
9​	Canadian	Canada Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal	18-Jun​
10​	Austrian	Austria Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	2-Jul​
11​	British	United Kingdom Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	9-Jul​
12​	Hungarian	Hungary Hungaroring, Mogyoród	23-Jul​
13​	Belgian	Belgium Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	30-Jul​
14​	Dutch	Netherlands Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort	27-Aug​
15​	Italian	Italy Monza Circuit, Monza	3-Sep​
16​	Singapore	Singapore Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	17-Sep​
17​	Japanese	Japan Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka	24-Sep​
18​	Qatar	Qatar Lusail International Circuit, Lusail	8-Oct​
19​	United States	United States Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas	22-Oct​
20​	Mexico City	Mexico Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City	29-Oct​
21​	São Paulo	Brazil Interlagos Circuit, São Paulo	5-Nov​
22​	Las Vegas	United States Las Vegas Street Circuit, Las Vegas	18-Nov​
23​	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	26-Nov​

 

[Flashback]

Strange mix / calendar, going to be hopping all around the place....... Aus has lost the first race spot now for good, it seems.

 

[moa999]

Think the agreement for first race is 1 in 3 or something.
With no China GP it's kinda of an early season break after Australia.

 

[JessicaTam]

Interesting move, hopefully M-Sport who run Ford’s WRC campaign will get some goodies as well. Red Bull already sponsor some of the team.

Red Bull has a big, muscular, all-American tag-team partner to take on the F1 world

Ford will partner with Red Bull as their engine supplier in 2026, with both companies preparing to dominate Formula 1, writes Michael Doyle.

www.abc.net.au

From the 'what car do you drive' thread.

 

[serfty]

F1 car plays the national anthem

F1 car plays the national anthem

7news.com.au

 

[Buzzard]

Ford is returning to F1.
From 2026 Ford will supply the next gen hybrid engine to Red Bull and Alpha Tauri until at least 2030.

 

[JessicaTam]

APost has brought out a Jack Brabham stamp. Not sure if there are others in the series.

 

[Flashback]

Looks like it'll be RBR again this year ........... guessing a lot of people have tuned out as not a single comment in here on the first 2 races!

Cheeky VER, clocked in a last quick lap in the Saudi GP to snatch the point and take away the overall championship leadership from PER.

Will be a good battle between Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes for 2nd spot in the constructor's title.

 

[moa999]

Timezones haven't helped for the first two races.

Plus the underwhelming performance and bad luck for McLaren.

 

[cjd600]

Yeah, definitely unfriendly timezones to start the season.

Loving Max nicking fastest lap from Checo on the final lap, Checo fuming.....does look like the biggest challenges for RB this year may be internal, not external.

Flights/Accom booked for Vegas race in November. Getting a Gen Admin ticket is now the challenge. 4am this morning for Amex pre-sale, +2000 in queue, pre-sale allocation exhausted by the time i got in.
Cant pay thousands for a grandstand seat unfortunately (maybe if some luck on the roulette wheel on arrival lol)

 

[Flashback]

Just saying....

 

[Buzzard]

Yes the time zones are a killer.
I thought Oscar did well in qually.
It was also good to see Alonso showing some promise.

 

[eastwest101]

Good to see Alonso in a semi-competative car but agree with others that it looks like it will be a procession of Red Bull 1st and 2nds - at the moment it looks like Red Bull have an F1 car and everyone else is racing in a different F2 category.

The McClaren's look dreadful and Riccardo might have dodged a bullet not getting a seat in that car although he will need some retirements and/or some career implosion to get a racing seat next year. My prediction is that Oscar will finally expose Lando Norris and I will predict Lando will have a tough season if Oscar drives the wheels off his McClaren this season.

Will be interesting to see if Ferrari and Mercedes improve their cars, the Fezzers looked good on one set of tyres but terrible on another and might be an interesting tussle between Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine and Aston Martin

 

[serfty]

bad luck for McLaren

Incidentally it was an Alpine that bumped with Piastri, forcing him to pit.

 

[moa999]

We haven't really seen McLaren in a full race yet.
Qualy and race sims they looked close to Alpine, and both drivers were unlucky at the start.

But it's looking like RB is way ahead then AM/Merc and Ferrari fighting over 3rd to 8th. So typically only a handful of points for the other teams.

Happy that Alonso has finally made a good career move.

 

[JessicaTam]

Flights/Accom booked for Vegas race in November. Getting a Gen Admin ticket is now the challenge. 4am this morning for Amex pre-sale, +2000 in queue, pre-sale allocation exhausted by the time i got in.
Cant pay thousands for a grandstand seat unfortunately (maybe if some luck on the roulette wheel on arrival lol)

I looked a prices a while ago. Crikey, I thought Monaco was bad!

 

[Flashback]

I looked a prices a while ago. Crikey, I thought Monaco was bad!

Everything is... bigger and better in America?

 

[JessicaTam]

Everything is... bigger and better in America?

I wonder if I should try to get to Brazil a couple of weeks before instead. My leave starts on the Wednesday before so I only have 3-4 days to get there.

 

[kookaburra75]

I'm really enjoying watching the F2 and F3 races this year, especially with them at Melbourne this year.

Although the F1 Qualifying results were interesting for a change. The run into the first corner should be entertaining.