Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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chrisc90
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Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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Might be a better place to discuss drivers, thoughts on in-between seasons and the season overall rather than use the Abu Dhabi Race thread since some of the posts arent related to the race this weekend.

Lets try keep it sensible with each person's favourite teams, drivers etc.

Ill start with my opinions and thoughts.

Sad to see Vettel retire. He's had a great career in F1 with 4x WDC, 53 wins and 300 race weekends. Great guy on and off the track and spoke passionately about some of his beliefs and values in the closing years and helped drive forwards some great causes. Hopefully we will see him in and out the paddock over the coming years.

Danny Ric - Also sad to see him not get a seat next year, but I think he's made the right choice within himself to give himself a little break, possibly chase some different series in the years to come, but its good to see that he's the new reserve driver (when signs) for Red Bull which will keep him busy - im sure there will be some sim work there for him too to help develop the car. His face and famous smile will be missed from the forefront of F1.

Mick Schumacher - gutted not to see him get a seat for Haas next year. Probably some pretty big crashes cost Haas a few quid this season, but I think he has developed as a driver pretty well and the schumacher name was always a good thing to see in the paddock. Hopefully he can stay involved in F1 in the next year and maybe find a new route back in or 2024.

Max Verstappen - dominant drive this season. Early technical issues with the car cost him a good margin of points early on, but I think he has matured a lot this season and showed the fans a spectacular drive throughout the season - rarely putting a foot wrong in the race and getting his head down and doing the job in hand. Few little moments, but I think that's the character of Max as a die hard racer. Will be good to see him hopefully start 2023 where he finished in 2022.

Hamilton - Not really sure where to start with Lewis. Spent the early days of the season doing a lot of car development after the W13 didnt turn out the way the team expected it to. Worked hard during the Free Practice sessions trying setups that were outside of the box in order to try and get a understanding of the car. As always, showed good race pace and management throughout the season. Shame to see him lose his tally of getting a win in the season since he started - but im sure Lewis will have the drive for next year and with a good car under his feet should show the normal Lewis we are used to seeing.

George Russell - Good first season in a team that is at the sharper end of the grid. At times showed great race craft, knowledge of reading the race and pace throughout. However I think some of his moves and comments on track leave a little to be desired for and sure George can look back and learn from little instances like that where its a little different from racing at the back of the grid at Williams to the front in the Mercedes. Great drive and scored very good points - took his first F1 win in Brazil with a faultless drive so a great base to begin 2023 with.

Charles - 2nd in the WDC - which is deserved given he was 40 points clear of Max after the first couple of races, however technical issues and reliability cost him dearly, especially in the opening part of the season. Occasionally let a little bit of pressure get to him when Max and himself were close on points with a few little errors losing him valuable points - but again, a good drive from him all season.

Sergio - a strong drive all season. Initially showed great pace in the early parts of the season, until car development just got away from his preferred driving style a little bit I think. Worked hard the rest of the season to give us a thrilling battle for 2nd place in the WDC in Dubai - but narrowly missed out.


Red Bull/RB18 - Few little reliability issues in the opening races of the season, initially putting them quite far down the standings. Got on top of the reliability issues and the RB18 was a superb race car to watch come race day. Lacked a little bit come qualifying day, but points are scored on a Sunday in the races. Great overall package with good straight line speed. Good strategy calls all season as expected from Red Bull team.

Mercedes/W13 - the petulant child, unlucky for some number 13. Impressed us all with the zero-pod concept and interpretation of the rules, however the car had a very narrow setup window, sometimes failing to get the tyres in a good window. Possibly a little bit draggy on the straights due to a unusual concept, however once the team got on top of the bouncing, the car showed a little more pace and often showed it still had its foot in the door for podium positions.

Ferrari/F1-75 - a very fast car come qualifying day but reliability issues cost them dearly in many races together with some questionable strategy calls from the pit wall in some races. I think the TD039 hurt them quite a bit in the races Spa onwards, but if they managed to get the car setup right - it was a very strong race car come Sunday.


Coming onto 2023 - looking forward to seeing what the new talent on the grid will pull off. It will be interesting to see the likes of De Vries, Sargent and Piastri in their first year of F1 - I wish them luck.

Car wise - I dont think we will see many major changes. We are likely to see a convergence of aero designs/concepts to come together to begin to follow the greater come the 2nd season of a new rule change. Looking forward to seeing what Mercedes will come up with - given the vastly differing design in 2022. So whether they find some scope in the W13 design package to stop the drag hurting them is another topic.

Of course, there is the new floor regs, with a higher profile infront of the rear wheels and a higher throat height, so I think the main focus will be around the floor making sure it is fully optimised to give the best levels of performance. Will we see a few more cars with a little bit of rake come 2023? Who knows.


Those are just my opinions on a select few this season and hopefully managed to give a non bias review on them (i think i've been successful there). Im sure there will be people who find some areas to disagree with some of my opinions. Hopefully ive got most of the season pretty well understood as its been a long season and March seems like ages ago since we all kicked off with the race weekends.

Fingers crossed we hear little snippets of information over the winter break. its going to be a long few months ahead until we get to the first round of testing in 2023.

Chris

tpe
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and Future

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Generally, I agree.

There are a few things that I didn't like in 2022.

First of all, the rise of the politically-first drivers.
In my eyes, Russel and Sainz belong in this category. They caused disruptions and forced their teams to take some action that were against the interest of their teams, at least as I see it. I think Mercedes learned from this though.

The other issue is the cost cap.
Not so much the breach per se, but the management of the issue. It's highly problematic.
Based on this, I keep wondering how it's possible for Merc and on a lesser extent RB, to keep the development race so far into the season.

FIA hasn't solve The biggest issue, the race director and the decisions of the marshals. I hope they will fix it next year.

Sad for SEB, but it's was necessary. I liked him as person but the fact that he raised some specific political agenda within the races, for me is wrong.

yamahasho
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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Red Bull will dominant next two seasons. It was RB, Ferrari and Mercedes all season, too predictable. Ferrari just can't get it together and the only real challenger to Red Bull. I think F1 will lose a lot of viewership.

Ferrari needs a change in management and better strategy.

Mercedes should go back to the old high inlet pod design if they haven't already. Looks like Russell is a cleaner driver than Hamilton and I see him being the team #1 soon. Alonso has taken a step back, he's in a car where drivers just drive to retire, ie, Vettel.

I think they'll be an off season rule change to narrow up the field.

The 2022 season is far from over, a lot of talk about a majority of the teams being over the budget cap, they can't use the first year excuse anymore.

From all this, I still see it's the car that is fast, not the driver.
Supercharged Ford Taurus SHO 5spd. Sold.
BMW 335i, N54 6spd tuned with tunerPro

AR3-GP
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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I hope Aston Martin and Alpine can trouble the leaders next year, but I am by no means going to bank on it. That is all.

f1jcw
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and Future

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tpe wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:20
Sad for SEB, but it's was necessary. I liked him as person but the fact that he raised some specific political agenda within the races, for me is wrong.
I don’t see how raising environmental concerns and using your position to highlight that can be considered bad.

AR3-GP
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and Future

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f1jcw wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:36
tpe wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:20
Sad for SEB, but it's was necessary. I liked him as person but the fact that he raised some specific political agenda within the races, for me is wrong.
I don’t see how raising environmental concerns and using your position to highlight that can be considered bad.
I agree, but it's going to be difficult to elaborate on that without getting into trouble, so I'll leave it alone :lol:

DGP123
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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AR3-GP wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:35
I hope Aston Martin and Alpine can trouble the leaders next year, but I am by no means going to bank on it. That is all.
Can’t see it, and I don’t believe they do, either. Aston are really waiting for 26’. All their acquisitions really have only just come on board from RB, and until they’ve moved into their new base and settled in, I don’t think we will see much progress for a few years. Alonso is ageing and in decline, and Lance is just awful.

As for Alpine, I just don’t think the investment or hunger is there. Whilst Renault, they promised so much, and they’ve never delivered, or looked likely too. Alonso would not be jumping ship from something capable of challenging.

As for McLaren, can see them possibly getting closer to the top 3, but again, Siedl pretty much has said it will be another couple of years until they are competitive. New wind tunnel coming next year, so again, 2024 looking most likely for them to make a step.

I see RB dominant again next year, but Mercedes to leapfrog Ferrari quite comfortably

tpe
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and Future

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f1jcw wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:36
tpe wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:20
Sad for SEB, but it's was necessary. I liked him as person but the fact that he raised some specific political agenda within the races, for me is wrong.
I don’t see how raising environmental concerns and using your position to highlight that can be considered bad.
I have the same feelings for every person that raises his concerns inside sports.
I strongly believe they should do it outside of the sport.

aMessageToCharlie
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and Future

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tpe wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 22:32
f1jcw wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:36
tpe wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 21:20
Sad for SEB, but it's was necessary. I liked him as person but the fact that he raised some specific political agenda within the races, for me is wrong.
I don’t see how raising environmental concerns and using your position to highlight that can be considered bad.
I have the same feelings for every person that raises his concerns inside sports.
I strongly believe they should do it outside of the sport.
Agree. Drivers should act professionally and keep their personal political beliefs and activism to their unpaid time.

I want to see them perform and talk about what they do best in the world and not learn about which sexual orientations they support or how they disagree with x country's energy politcs.

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hollus
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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That was a quick turn to politics. Locked.
Rivals, not enemies.

maxxer
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Re: Post 2022 Season Thoughts, Opinions and The Future

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hollus wrote:
20 Nov 2022, 22:56
That was a quick turn to politics. Locked.
That went of the rails quickly

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