F1 2023
- Thread starter spitfire
- Start date
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Hospitality food prices at Miami
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
And drinks…
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Willing to bet their idea of “serves 4” doesn’t match mine 
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
I’d guess 4.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Sergio Perez demands Red Bull 'investigation' after Max Verstappen's pace in Miami
Sergio Perez wants answers on how Max Verstappen ended up being much "stronger" than him at the Miami Grand Prix and wants an investigation into the matter at Red Bull. It's been a close battle all year between Perez and Verstappen so far. The Red Bull team-mates headed into Miami with just a few points separating them at the top of the championship having won two races apiece. But Perez struggled to match Verstappen throughout the entire weekend in Miami, even after benefitting from Charles Leclerc's crash in qualifying.Verstappen had to make do with ninth on the grid for Sunday's race while Perez started on pole. Despite that huge advantage from the start, Perez was unable to build a lead over Verstappen. The Dutchman made light work of closing the gap and eventually took control of the race after both drivers pitted. It ended up being a comfortable victory for Verstappen in a race Perez should have been able to dominate. And the Mexican has been left with several questions he wants to ask Red Bull before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. "All in all, Verstappen was stronger than me this Sunday. We have to investigate why that was the case and during the race weekend in Imola we have to get back to our normal level," Perez said. "The performance that Verstappen showed was unattainable for me. We need to understand why that was. The tyre story didn't help, but overall he was the better driver. I've been stronger on other weekends but this Sunday Max was the better one. He did a good job, but we need to understand what went wrong on our end."
The Red Bull drivers were on different strategies for the race with Perez starting on the medium compound and Verstappen the hards. But Christian Horner feels Verstappen still would have come out on top if his drivers were on the same strategy. "I think if he'd been on the other strategy as well the performance would have been very similar today," he said. "I think he was obviously frustrated with himself after quali, that he made a mistake, and then obviously didn't get the chance to rectify that. And I think he was confident coming into the race today, and just wanted to do something slightly different."
1%er
Well-Known Member
Influential lobby in UK resisting Mallya’s extradition to India
The extradition of fugitive Vijay Mallya, who escaped India six years ago and is now staying in London, is being resisted by an influential lobby based in India and the United Kingdom, official sources have said. According to them, the chances of the return of the 67-year-old Mallya to India are “remote” despite India’s best efforts that include meeting all the stringent requirements that were put forth by the British courts. This emerged even as the UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman approved the extradition of middleman Sanjay Bhandari earlier last week. Earlier in November 2022, a UK court, while allowing Bhandari’s extradition to India, had sent the application to the Home Department for its approval.Notably, in April 2020, after exhausting all legal remedies available to him to escape extradition to India to face charges of embezzling public money, Mallya had filed an asylum request with the UK Home Department on “humanitarian grounds”. However, almost 36 months later, the UK Home Department is yet to either allow or deny the asylum request, thereby allowing him to stay in London even as he avoids the fraud and money laundering related charges that he is facing in India for the approximately Rs 9,000 crore of public money that he swindled. Officials said that Mallya’s case was being pushed aggressively with the office of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Braverman by a lobby comprising Mallya’s well-wishers. “The UK government has no legal ground to stop his extradition; Mallya’s lawyers have done whatever they could and failed. What we are seeing for the past three years is intervention at the level of the UK government to stop him from being sent to India,” an official source, who was until recently posted in the United Kingdom and monitoring Mallya’s case, told The Sunday Guardian.
“During his prime, Mallya was known for his hospitality that he would shower on politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, and members of the judiciary by way of moveable and immovable gifts, and it is likely that the same people are now helping him escape a prison life in India,” the source said. A businessman who was a partner of Mallya in the past said: “He has a very strong network in the UK. He has built this network over the last two decades. Many of the lawmakers were financially obliged by him in the past. I will not be surprised if he is getting a favourable response from London.”
dessiato
🇪🇸 my spirit is crying for leaving
What struck me more was how long Max went on the hards. Checo seemed unable to do that with his tyre strategy. It seemed as if his strategy was designed to make sure Max took the win.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
$42 Wagyu steak sandwich served at Miami Formula 1 gets dubbed 'Fyre Festival vibes'
If you thought that sandwich was bad, you should check out the prices on the lunch menu.
www.ladbible.com
Ax^
Silly Rabbit
hmm Red Bull Favouring max ... how dare you make those accusations
would be like if Horner instead of congratulating Perez on his win the week before
reassured Max that it would not happen again and it was just a lucky event due to the bad safety car call
Perez will be lucky if he sees out his contract if he keeps pushing back on this
1%er
Well-Known Member
Adrian Newey received Mercedes phone call in attempt to sign him
Toto Wolff reportedly had one of his colleagues phone Adrian Newey in an attempt to lure him over to Mercedes with Red Bull’s Helmut Marko having the last laugh. Newey has long been lauded for designing championship-winning cars with his latest three creations, the RB16B, RB18 and RB19, all race winners with the former two having also won titles. The RB19 is expected to continue that run with Red Bull dominating this year’s championship with five wins from five races, four of which have been 1-2 results.Their superior performances have been largely attributed to Newey, “the only bloke that can see air”, with Mercedes reportedly keen on enticing him over to Brackley as they try to turn their “poisonous” W14 into a race winner. According to reports, Mercedes went as far as to approach the design guru in the weeks before he committed his future to Red Bull. ‘Shortly before Red Bull’s mastermind Adrian Newey extended his contract with Red Bull a week ago,’ claims a publication, ‘he received a phone call from a former Red Bull employee, who is now one of the personal assistants of the Mercedes team boss and shareholder is Toto Wolff. ‘On behalf of her boss, the lady tried lure the top-class aerodynamicist to Mercedes. ‘Newey, however, declined with thanks and preferred to commit himself to Red Bull for another year.’
That opened the door for motorsport advisor Helmut Marko’s latest jab at Mercedes. “Mr. Wolff does not seem to have the full confidence in his own people to fix the problems with their car,” he said. But while this is reportedly the first time Mercedes have made a play for Newey, it’s not the first time a rival has tried to sign him. Back in 2018 the Briton revealed Ferrari having made several plays in the past. “It’s come close three times,” Newey told Sky Sports F1. “Initially in my IndyCar career where Ferrari decided to build an IndyCar, I was offered to join as chief designer on their project but didn’t feel it was right so I turned that one down. Then, much more seriously, Jean Todt offered for me to join as technical director in 1996. At that point, I had offers to stay at Williams, join McLaren or join Ferrari. I thought long and hard about it but I had a young family at the time, and decided I wanted to stay in the UK.”
The Scuderia made another offer in 2014 when the Red Bull engine supplier Renault dropped the ball and the team went from winning World titles to struggling to reach the podium. “I was in a bit of a difficult position,” Newey recalled. “I didn’t want to walk out of Red Bull because it feels like home and I’d been heavily involved from the start with Christian [Horner, team principal], building the team up from the ashes of Jaguar to where it was today. I didn’t want to walk out on that but equally I didn’t want to be in a position where we were operating with one hand tied behind our back in the engine department. It was a very difficult decision. Ferrari came up with an incredible offer, very attractive, and it caused me a lot of sleepless nights deciding what to do and who to go for. In the end, it would have felt wrong to walk out on Red Bull.”
1%er
Well-Known Member
Miami considering switching F1 grand prix to night race
Organisers of the Miami Grand Prix have confirmed that they have looked into staging the race in a nighttime setting. F1 returned to the Miami International Autodrome last weekend for the second grand prix at the circuit as it continues to run its 10-year contract with F1. It is one of three races held in the USA this season, with Austin and Las Vegas scheduled later in the campaign.F1’s return to Las Vegas will see the sport race under the floodlights, a theme that has become increasingly popular in recent years. All of F1’s races in the Middle East (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi) are night races, as is the round at Singapore. And Miami Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel, who is also a managing partner of the Miami Grand Prix, says his race could buy into the trend.
“We’ve had some discussions about that. It’s obviously this time of year the weather’s a little unpredictable, the weather’s been nice this year so far,” he said. “Last year was unseasonably hot, but there’s a lot of factors that go into that with F1 and television and everything else. So we’ve got to weigh all those things, but we’re certainly open-minded to it.”
The Las Vegas race will take place on Saturday night, a first for F1 in over 40 years. Garfinkel revealed that Miami has considered if it would be plausible to follow suit with similar plans. “I don’t know, we’re not at a place where we’re making a decision right now, I think we’re having discussions where if we did it what would it look like.”
1%er
Well-Known Member
Alpine CEO’s ‘amateurish’ criticism shows how little he knows about Formula One
Otmar Szafnauer is not the first general on the battlefield to carry the can for the incompetence of others sitting in bunkers miles from the front line, but he is unlikely to let an attack on his leadership pass without reply. Unhappy at Alpine’s underwhelming start to the season and pointless weekend in Baku, trigger-happy CEO, Laurent Rossi, unleashed a lava flow of invective on French television ahead of the Miami Grand Prix that stunned the paddock and left none in doubt whom he held responsible. Amateurish, bad, flawed and mediocre were some of the warmer tributes paid to Szafnauer without warning on Canal+. Rossi then doubled down on his criticisms with a second volley on Formula One’s own website. “I’m noting not only an obvious lack of performance and rigour in the delivery, but also potentially a state of mind that is not up to this team’s past standards,” Rossi said.“Otmar was brought in to steer the team, to constantly make progress, to get to the podiums. This is his mission to turn this team around and bring it to the performance that we want. We had a team that performed reasonably well last year, got the fourth position, which is the best improvement we had in a long time. It showed a lot of promise. It’s more or less the same people so I don’t accept that we are not capable of maintaining that. Otmar alone doesn’t do everything, but the buck stops with Otmar. It’s Otmar’s responsibility.”
Ouch. Szafnauer is an odd target since he was recruited as team principal by Rossi 15 months ago to transform the Renault sports car brand into championship challengers. With good reason. Szafnauer has been at the sharp end of racing his whole career, and for the past 14 seasons as arguably the heaviest hitting team principal, pound-for-pound, in the F1 paddock. He worked miracles at Force India under the chaotic ownership of Vijay Mallya, taking the old Jordan outfit from dead last to fourth, and managed the traumatic period when the owner’s financial dealings came under scrutiny on the sub-continent forcing him into exile and the team into administration.
As Force India migrated into Racing Point and finally Aston Martin under Canadian magnate Lawrence Stroll it was Szafnauer who recruited, among others, aero gods Dan Fallows and Eric Blandin from Red Bull and Mercedes respectively, Alfa Romeo chief designer and engineering guru Luca Furbatto, plus leading tyre engineers from Bridgestone. The result has seen Aston jump from the midfield to second in the constructors’ championship. That Aston are doing so with an Alpine recruit at the wheel, Fernando Alonso, deepens Rossi’s sense of grievance. So it should. It was Rossi’s failure to engage with Alonso earlier in that season that led to his departure, much to the frustration of Szafnauer, who found himself unable to affect outcomes.
Formula One is a long game. Success is born of patience and smart leadership. Renault, perennial water treaders in this phase of their F1 involvement, gave themselves a four-year window to make Alpine front runners. Fourth last year was evidence of progress. They presently sit joint-fifth after as many races having been gazumped like the rest of the field by the team Szafnauer built. When he arrived at Alpine, Szafnauer encountered a team needing reorganisation with staffing levels short of the numbers operating in key areas at Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. He inherited a team too slow to respond to the shifting dynamics of a race season, one that took too long to produce critical upgrades. Changing that culture, recruiting the necessary personnel to take Alpine forward is not a quick fix when rival teams lock down their staff on three-year contracts. Szafnauer instilled in the team a racing culture that sped up processes sufficiently to win the battle with McLaren for fourth last year.
The problem at Alpine is thus not the team principle but a CEO who has no racing pedigree and has never managed a thousand employees in an elite competitive environment. Rossi’s overarching concern is with appearances, hence his outburst in Miami, which ironically turned into a public relations disaster. Esteban Ocon’s triple time penalty at the opening race in Bahrain, the first for missing his box on the start line, the second when the mechanics started working before his time penalty had elapsed, and the third for speeding in the pit lane, was indeed sloppy. But Alpine responded with a double points finish at the next race in Saudi Arabia and both cars were running high in the points in Australia when Ocon and Pierre Gasly took each other out through no fault of their own as the carnage unfolded at the end of the race.
Alpine were simply not quick enough at Baku, where the long straights exposed a power train that all engineers in the paddock know is slower than the Honda-powered Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. Again not Szafnauer’s fault. The bounce back in Miami with both drivers in the points might have provided the platform for sustained improvement. Instead Rossi’s grenade has created confusion and unrest, exposing how little the Renault leadership understands of the business they are in. Expect Szafnauer to make that point before the cars roll out at the Emelia Romagna Grand Prix a week hence. Not via television but face to face.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Pirelli to introduce new tougher tyre at Silverstone amid 'extraordinary' performance gains
Formula 1's tyre supplier Pirelli will introduce a new tougher specification of tyre at the British Grand Prix to cope with "extraordinary" advances in car performance. The current specification, which will continue to be used at the five races before F1 returns to Silverstone from July 7-9, were created using a projection of expected performance levels provided by teams before the season. However, far higher than expected downforce levels have prompted a change, with a pole position time that was two seconds faster than last year at the Miami Grand Prix having highlighted the issue.Pirelli confirmed on Friday that the new tyres will be tested in first and second practice at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday 2 June. Pirelli's head of car racing and F1 Mario Isola said: "We've seen how much more performance the 2023 cars have compared to last year throughout the opening races of this season, and that is thanks to the extraordinary pace of development shown by all 10 of the teams. In Miami, for example, the pole time was nearly two seconds faster than last year, but the same sort of progress has been seen during races as well. Pirelli's simulation work has always been aimed at not only supplying a product that hits the performance targets specified by stakeholders, but also anticipating any potential problems and reacting to them quickly. The new specification contains materials that we have already developed for 2024, which will make the tyres more resistant without affecting any of the other technical parameters or their behaviour on track. To allow all the teams to test the new construction on a level playing field, Pirelli will supply two extra tyre sets per car to be used during FP1 and FP2 at the Spanish Grand Prix."
The move has been approved by the FIA, who are allowed to make in-season changes to tyre specifications "for safety reasons without notice or delay". However, there are no concerns over the safety of the current tyres for upcoming races in Imola, Monaco, Spain, Canada and Austria, but it is a move designed to prevent any issues later in the campaign.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Is Daniel Ricciardo Set to Join AlphaTauri F1?
The Honey Badger could be making his way back into the first driver’s seat. The internet is rife with speculation that Australian Formula 1 (F1) driver and Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is set to join AlphaTauri F1. The rumour mills started earlier this week after Ricciardo took a trip to the team’s factory in Italy for a seat fitting, with fans convinced the Aussie star will soon replace underperforming rookie Nyck de Vries. But is it all just smoke and mirrors or is Ricciardo heading back to the track?It’s no secret that Ricciardo is looking to rejoin the ranks as a lead driver in the near future. His highly-publicised exit from McLaren last year saw the Australian star step back from the racing grid, taking on a role as a backup driver for reigning championship team Red Bull. At the time, Ricciardo was vocal in his support for incoming McLaren replacement Oscar Piastri while also noting that he was happy to take some off from the pressure of motorsport’s greatest spectacle. “For me, the ability to contribute to and be surrounded by the best team in F1 is hugely appealing, whilst also giving me some time to recharge and refocus,” Ricciardo said upon his Red Bull appointment. “I can’t wait to be with the team and support them with simulator work, testing sessions and commercial activities. Let’s go!”
While Ricciardo is yet to get behind the wheel of a Red Bull car, fans are already speculating the Aussie star is looking to make a change. The 2021 Monza GP winner was recently spotted in Faenza at the AlphaTauri F1 factory for a seat fitting, sending the rumour mill into overdrive. However, as Motorsport‘s Jonathan Noble rightly pointed out, Ricciardo’s visit to AlphaTauri wasn’t completely out of the ordinary. In addition to being a reserve driver for Red Bull, Ricciardo is also contracted as a backup for AlphaTauri. That distinction is important, as it means his services will be utilised whenever either team is struggling to find a first-seat driver. As it result, it’s unlikely that Ricciardo is suiting up to take over from de Vries in the immediate future, but the underperforming rookie is certainly under the pump.
de Vries Rumours
In his first season with the AlphaTauri livery, de Vries has struggled to make an impact, with a career-best finish of 14th. By all reports, Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko is unhappy with his development, with Marko suggesting that the team has given De Vries “until the end of the upcoming triple-header at Imola, Monaco and Barcelona to improve”. If true, the team’s dissatisfaction wouldn’t be unwarranted. In his first six starts as an F1 driver, de Vries has failed to reach the top 10, whilst also being the catalyst for a number of silly incidents. Just last week at the Miami Grand Prix, de Vries was involved in a crash with McLaren’s Lando Norris that sent both of them spinning out of control.
According to AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost, however, the team is committed to staying with de Vries, confirming that mistakes are part and parcel of new driver development. “As I always say, there is a learning process and a crash period because, if the drivers don’t crash, they don’t know the limit,” he said. “This is a credit you must give them, otherwise it doesn’t work. And there was no driver not crashing. I remember with Sebastian (Vettel) in the first races, he came back on the first lap most often without the front nose. That’s part of the game.”
Daniel Ricciardo’s Future
As for Ricciardo, the future looks undecided. The 33-year-old is currently contracted with Red Bull until the end of the 2023 season and hasn’t stepped foot inside an F1 vehicle on race day since last year. That being said, the Honey Badger is in good company. Red Bull has previously claimed that Ricciardo has recaptured his best form in the simulator, making him an ideal candidate for any team looking for an established driver. Whether or not that is true will be revealed later this year, when Ricciardo officially hops into a Red Bull driver’s seat for a tyre test following the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
At this stage, it does appear that Ricciardo will remain a backup and that de Vries will keep his seat at AlphaTauri, but it will be worth keeping an eye on seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes star is expected to re-sign with the team in the next few weeks, however, should he make the decision to retire, the door would be well and truly open for Ricciardo to make a triumphant return to the grid.
Ax^
Silly Rabbit
on stop romp for max at Silverstone bah
1%er
Well-Known Member
Elon Musk Planning to Join Hands With Jeff Bezos to Purchase F1
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the richest people in the United States of America. Both businessmen are always actively looking for new business and investment opportunities. Both billionaires are reportedly considering buying the commercial rights to Formula 1. Over the last 10 years, the value of Formula 1 and the participating teams have grown rapidly. This has attracted a lot of businesses to sponsor teams in Formula 1. We are actively seeing teams announce new partnerships with various sponsors.Now it has been reported that American billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are considering buying the commercial rights of the sport. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were spotted at the Miami Grand Prix last weekend. Elon Musk was a guest in the Red Bull garage while Jeff Bezos was standing with the McLaren team. Musk was also seen having a conversation with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sullayem.
The commercial right to the sport is currently owned by American company, Liberty Media who purchased the rights back in 2017. They reportedly paid somewhere close to $5 billion. Since then the sport has grown rapidly, mostly thanks to Netfix’s Drive To Survive series which premiered in 2018. A few months back Liberty Media was offered at least $20 billion for the commercial rights. The offer was made from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The offer was reportedly rejected as Liberty Media did not want to sell the rights to Saudi Arabia due to its controversial laws.
The deal with Liberty Media is set to expire at the end of 2025. So we could see investors making arrangements to buy the rights to the sport. However, it has been speculated that Musk and Bezos may not be buying out the rights entirely but instead will be part owners. The owner of Tesla and SpaceX is currently worth over $175 billion, while the founder of Amazon is worth over $130 billion. There is no doubt that either one of them can afford to buy the commercial rights to the sport in its entirety. But it is unlikely they would do that as Musk is already managing a number of businesses while Jeff Bezos stepped down from his CEO position at Amazon to focus on his passions. It is unlikely that managing Formula 1 is on either of their bucket lists.
If either or both of them take over, we could see some major changes in the management of the sport. We saw Elon Musk make some major changes after he took over Twitter. There have been reports that Stefano Domenicali is considering removing certain iconic tracks from the calendar over the coming years. Fans who have been following the sport for decades are not in support of these decisions. We also saw Domenicali introduce a new Sprint weekend format at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix a few weeks earlier. This also did not sit well with fans. These decisions by the CEO of Formula 1 could lead to him losing his job if Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos take over. Let us now wait and see if Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are seriously considering buying Formula 1.
a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
Fuck me. Can you honestly imagine Musk in charge of F1?
To save costs the first stupid thing he'd do is get rid of all those pesky marshals and that expensive first aid stuff. Then he'd probably insist on the cars having Top Fuel dragster engines.
To save costs the first stupid thing he'd do is get rid of all those pesky marshals and that expensive first aid stuff. Then he'd probably insist on the cars having Top Fuel dragster engines.
