Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[Juggy777]

What an unexpected pole position we got.
Ferrari both in top 2 and Max 3rd.

It is not over yet since 10 drivers are under investigation.

It was a very exciting qualifying where Mercedes, Ferrari and RBR, competed quite fiercely and showed their best performance. But of all that I was more surprised to see Danny beating the McLarens, Mercedes, and Perez. Maybe they didn't expect Danny to reach P4 in the car that's last in the WCC and outperform Perez at his home circuit in the RB19. This may further worry Perez that Red Bull will replace him as soon as possible because of his poor performance using a car as good as the RB19.

@retreat even though Ferrari sealed those spots the media reports it as a shocking result which shows how low they have fallen and it’s a long way for them to reclaim their glory day’s. Furthermore I believe that if they can consistently put in such performance only then can they challenge for the title again otherwise they’ll only continue to face criticism for their performances.

[1715221073]

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[1715221073]

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[boty]

in my opinion, the pressure is not on martin, but on bagnaia. you know that it is more difficult to defend than to chase first place. moreover, getting a podium in races and sprint races is not easy. bagnaia will not only be fighting martin, but also other drivers, which means his chances of getting p1 are not too big.

In all sessions at the Buriram circuit in Thailand this week, almost all of the first positions were wiped out by Jorge Martin (except in the race because it will only start today). Yesterday it was quite apparent that it was very difficult for Bagnaia to overtake several riders in front of him, which put him in an unfavorable position because yesterday Bagnaia didn't get a single point.

and in the race, martin will occupy 1st place and bagnaia will be in p6. this might be a good opportunity for martin to close his gap with bagnaia. and my feeling says that martin can take p1 in this race seeing his good performance in the sprint race.

Jorge Martin, who has managed to cut the points gap with Bagnaia from 27 points to 18 points after winning the Sprint Race yesterday, is starting to again create quite fierce competition because today Bagnaia must be able to finish the race on the podium in order to maintain the points distance with Jorge Martin because Bagnaia he still needs a win to become world champion this season and that is now starting to look tough for him.

It was very interesting in today's race, Binder put up a very interesting fight with Martin and Martin managed to win, Binder received a penalty of dropping one position due to the track limit at turn 4 and the points result was that Bagnaia was still leading the standings temporarily with a difference of 13 points with Martin. I think the battle for world champion this year will come down to the Valencia series.

[Distraction]

It is the situation indeed. The engine of Charles Leclerc's car is also said to have a potential to have durability problems in the Mexico GP. However Vasseur decided not to make any change. They are said to be waiting for next weeks to make new changes in his car. This news was enough to make me nervous about Leclerc's race. I won't be surprised if he can't finish the race or lose a lot of pace after a point.

If Sainz is also in a similar condition then it doesn't seem logical to expect much from Ferrari at this race weekend.  

They have 2 "3rd drivers" in case of necessity, one is Giovinazzi.

Lecler will drive under drugs, for Sainz not clear yet.

Leclerc did an amazing work in qualifying by taking pole position.    Sainz also followed him right behind. Sainz actually hardly managed to make it to Q3 first as the best lap times of him and Zhou were really close. However if I'm not wrong Albon's best lap time was deleted and this made things easier for Sainz and especially Zhou. But Sainz was great in Q3.  

Ricciardo should be the driver about whom we should talk about the most now. Because he was awesome throughout the session and he even got 4th place being right behind Verstappen by 0.1s.    I don't know what AlphaTauri did in one week but it was a great job. However I'm not hopeful about his racing pace.

[swogerino]

A really strange qualifying session like Leclerc said,it was a surprise to be on Pole Position but a good one.In fact he is completely right as I wonder where did Ferrari found all that pace that was not at all showing in both the free practices before the official qualifying.It is good that they are on the front row both of the Ferraris as the race promises to be a good one during today and I think that although Max is clearly advantaged for the win even from the bookies,a good team play in the start of the race by both Ferrari drivers would make the rest of the race interesting.

As for the free practices I thought they showed somewhat the true potential but apparently they do not.

[tokeweed]

What an unexpected pole position we got.
Ferrari both in top 2 and Max 3rd.

It is not over yet since 10 drivers are under investigation.

Didn't watch quali...  How did that happen?  Lol.  And Ricciardo a spot above Perez?  Lmaooo.  I think it's a sign.  Ricciardo to move up to RBR, while Perez is thrown out.

And didn't see any sort of news about an investigation.  So the quali results is the starting grid?

Anyway, just for completeness' sake.  Here are the results.

2023 Mexican GP Qualifying Results

1      Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m18.401s   1m17.901s   1m17.166s
2   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m18.755s   1m18.382s   1m17.233s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m18.099s   1m17.625s   1m17.263s
4   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m18.341s   1m17.706s   1m17.382s
5   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m18.553s   1m18.124s   1m17.423s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m18.677s   1m17.571s   1m17.454s
7   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m18.241s   1m17.874s   1m17.623s
8   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m18.893s   1m17.673s   1m17.674s
9   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m18.429s   1m18.016s   1m18.032s
10   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m19.016s   1m18.440s   1m18.050s
11   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m18.945s   1m18.521s   
12   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m18.969s   1m18.524s   
13   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m18.848s   1m18.738s   
14   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m18.828s   1m19.147s   
15   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m18.890s   No Time Set   
16   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m19.080s       
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m19.163s       
18   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m19.227s       
19   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m21.554s       
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   No Time Set

And I checked out the betting market.  Vertappen is at 1.21.  Lol.  But Sainz is at 26.00?  I think that's worth a small bet imho.  

[swogerino]

The odd of 26 for Sainz is because before qualifying he was at doubt if he would start the race at all while Leclerc confirmed he would start with pain relievers and it was sure to race.I believe this to be the fact to have such high odd for the win and we can be even smarter to place a bet on Sainz top three as since the odd for winning is 26 the odd for the podium should be well over 2 near 3 or even some more and this is highly more likely than any other type of bet.

I agree with the bookies though as long as Verstappen has that super car it will be difficult for him to not win any race.

[coinlocket$]

Yet another easy win for MAx after the red flag he was just unstoppable.
Idk why when so slow after changing the tyres.

Super Riccardo it will be fun to see him in RBR the next year.

[Velvet78]

Max just shows it very easy to beat everyone with his incredibly fast car. He didn't even need to pit for guaranteeing the fastest lap as he got it anyway. Apart from his performance I must admit that I was really impressed by 3 drivers especially. These are Hamilton, Norris and Ricciardo. Hamilton got mediums after the red flag which was a different strategy than Red Bull and Ferrari.

But he was still able to save his tyres very well and keep a great pace at the same time. The gap with Leclerc was huge at the end of the race. If Russell managed to overtake Sainz early then he would have also finished ahead of Ferrari drivers probably. Norris climbed very well despite starting far behind on the grid. Ricciardo had a really impressive pace throughout the race. 

[LTU_btc]

Super Riccardo it will be fun to see him in RBR the next year.

Ricciardo performance with one of worst cars on the grid was awesome. He was even close from overtaking Russel in last laps.
While Perez, such failure at home GP, that crash was completely his fault. I'm not sure what happened to him after great previous season.
Yeah, Ricciardo to Red Bull. But mark my words - he won't do much better than Perez and will get critisized a lot too.

[alegotardo]

Super Riccardo it will be fun to see him in RBR the next year.

Daniel Ricciardo truly deserves to be celebrated for his good performance at the Mexican Grand Prix, finishing the race in seventh place after starting fourth.
Unfortunately, his AlphaTauri teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, could only regret the incident with Oscar Piastri, which greatly damaged his performance in the race.

Better than celebrating the position gained, was seeing the spirit of companionship Ricciardo expressed in expressing relief when he learned that Kevin Magnussen was unharmed after his accident. Even with obstacles, such as the red flag and the choice of hard tires, Ricciardo remained resilient, highlighting how close he was to overtaking George Russell at the end. I'm also very confident that with a better car at RBR next year he will be able to get on the podium more often.

[retreat]

Well, Max wins again which is predictable. But what's interesting is how Daniel managed to finish in P7 with his car. This could be a bad sign for Perez because of his poor performance and Daniel is increasingly optimistic about becoming the second driver for the RBR team.
And Charles he showed a good race but the Ferrari team came up with a bad strategy which made him lose P2 to Hamilton. Yeah, this isn't the first time Ferrari has come up with a duff strategy, but it sure is annoying.

[swogerino]

Well, Max wins again which is predictable. But what's interesting is how Daniel managed to finish in P7 with his car. This could be a bad sign for Perez because of his poor performance and Daniel is increasingly optimistic about becoming the second driver for the RBR team.
And Charles he showed a good race but the Ferrari team came up with a bad strategy which made him lose P2 to Hamilton. Yeah, this isn't the first time Ferrari has come up with a duff strategy, but it sure is annoying.

Not much they could do in this situation,they thought that the hard tire will start to be faster after some laps and I don't blame them for it,most teams thought the same,only Mercedes and McLaren got the strategy right as they believed in the medium compound which proved to be a winner in the last stint of the race.Ferrari did not make any mistake from this point of view,they opted for the obvious strategy which proved to be wrong for many teams and not only Ferrari so in this race they have no fault in trying what seemed as the best option available at that time.The Safety Car made them lose P2 to Hamilton otherwise they would have got it.

[Koal-84]

After seeing the results of the FP1 session this afternoon where Jorge Martin was able to set the best time and was in first place with Bagnaia who was in tenth place, it was very clear that Jorge Martin really pushed himself when it came to taking risks. Now I'm watching the Practice session to see where the two will be after setting their best times.

Martin has now come close again to 13 points, it definitely remains exciting for us spectators. It's all open.

I also read this rumor yesterday and indeed the Ducati sporting director said so, but it could also be very possible because considering that the team that oversees Marc Marquez is an independent team that generally doesn't have a lot of money so maybe Gresini will have a little difficulty paying Marc. Marquez previously had a fairly high salary at the Honda manufacturer.

There is no way the Gresini team could pay Marc's wages, as you write Marc was earning very well at Honda and now probably just wants to know if he is still competitive, if the plan with Ducati doesn't work out I assume he will retire.

[Distraction]

Super Riccardo it will be fun to see him in RBR the next year.

Ricciardo performance with one of worst cars on the grid was awesome. He was even close from overtaking Russel in last laps.
While Perez, such failure at home GP, that crash was completely his fault. I'm not sure what happened to him after great previous season.
Yeah, Ricciardo to Red Bull. But mark my words - he won't do much better than Perez and will get critisized a lot too.

Perez shouldn't stay at Red Bull for another season absolutely. Because it looks very risky for Red Bull to retain their constructors title. Perez is even under the danger of losing 2nd place to Hamilton as the point difference has been closed by 19 more points after this Grand Prix. Red Bull must be reevaluating their decision about going on with Perez in the 2024 season also.

Perez has started to make very simple mistakes. At the start of this race it was completely his fault that he was DNF. Because Leclerc didn't have anywhere to go there. Perez should have stayed outside and been okay to lose a couple of positions also.

When it comes to Ricciardo's possible performance at Red Bull it is hard to say something for now. I don't know if we would see the same old ambitious Ricciardo again.

[Davian144]

It was very interesting in today's race, Binder put up a very interesting fight with Martin and Martin managed to win, Binder received a penalty of dropping one position due to the track limit at turn 4 and the points result was that Bagnaia was still leading the standings temporarily with a difference of 13 points with Martin. I think the battle for world champion this year will come down to the Valencia series.

There are still three more series equipped with Sprint races. In general, Jorge Martin is very strong in the Sprint so that a distance of 13 points is quite sacred for Bagnaia if Bagnaia is not too persistent in the remaining three series this season. Bagnaia still needs to win and must always be on the podium in order to maintain his distance from Martin in three more series.

Martin has now come close again to 13 points, it definitely remains exciting for us spectators. It's all open.

Martin will continue to maintain his consistency in three more series because the distance of 13 points is quite easy for Martin to overtake Bagnaia again in the standings. Now Bagnaia's task is starting to look tough because he really has to be able to handle it well in three more series for this season, Bagnaia has to use all the remaining sprints and main races to prevent himself from being overtaken by Martin.

There is no way the Gresini team could pay Marc's wages, as you write Marc was earning very well at Honda and now probably just wants to know if he is still competitive, if the plan with Ducati doesn't work out I assume he will retire.

Maybe your assumption could also be correct, because when Marc can't have fun with his new Ducati motorbike, there is a possibility that he will choose to retire even though he is still not old enough to be a MotoGP rider. Because in general Marc definitely needs time to adapt to a new motorbike, although there may not be much time for Marc to do this.

[swogerino]

Super Riccardo it will be fun to see him in RBR the next year.

Ricciardo performance with one of worst cars on the grid was awesome. He was even close from overtaking Russel in last laps.
While Perez, such failure at home GP, that crash was completely his fault. I'm not sure what happened to him after great previous season.
Yeah, Ricciardo to Red Bull. But mark my words - he won't do much better than Perez and will get critisized a lot too.

Perez shouldn't stay at Red Bull for another season absolutely. Because it looks very risky for Red Bull to retain their constructors title. Perez is even under the danger of losing 2nd place to Hamilton as the point difference has been closed by 19 more points after this Grand Prix. Red Bull must be reevaluating their decision about going on with Perez in the 2024 season also.

Perez has started to make very simple mistakes. At the start of this race it was completely his fault that he was DNF. Because Leclerc didn't have anywhere to go there. Perez should have stayed outside and been okay to lose a couple of positions also.

When it comes to Ricciardo's possible performance at Red Bull it is hard to say something for now. I don't know if we would see the same old ambitious Ricciardo again.

Even if Ricciardo manages to get to Redbull next season which I highly doubt it,don't expect miracles from him,he had his golden age and days at Redbull previously and he was always beaten by his team mate at that time Sebastian Vettel.Even in that time Redbull was a dominating car and Ricciardo got nothing good out of it except some victories which is exactly the same case as with Perez right now against Vettel.

I agree though Perez has been doing really bad and he said for yesterday race I wanted to get first in the first corner but I paid a very high price for it.He should be more careful and patient in the last three races and I am sure he will still be driving for Redbull in 2024.

[tokeweed]

^  After leaving Red Bull all those years ago, I think Ricciardo would def know his place in the team if he comes back.  Just the second driver to support Verstappen and try to win the constructor championship as soon as possible in a season.

Anyway, Perez..  Lmaooo.  I think he over compensated and tried to get a couple of spots up the grid and be in the running for a podium.  It's his home race after all.  :/  Some Mexican fans were furious, they even tried to bear up other Mexicans who were wearing Ferrari shirts. 

[moneystery]

...
It was very interesting in today's race, Binder put up a very interesting fight with Martin and Martin managed to win, Binder received a penalty of dropping one position due to the track limit at turn 4 and the points result was that Bagnaia was still leading the standings temporarily with a difference of 13 points with Martin. I think the battle for world champion this year will come down to the Valencia series.

martin managed to win the race and get 37 points, which means that the difference between him and bagnaia is only 13 points, which is quite small. from this victory we can see how martin's strategy is starting to work and that it could be a direct threat to bagnaia.

the next race at the sepang circuit will probably be more exciting than this thai race because the difference between martin and bagnaia is only 13 points, which must be utilized carefully by these two racers and one fatal mistake will have a bad impact on their position.

[Volgastallion]

WE are gonna start to talk about how bad is Yuki Tsunoda? I is only in F1 because of being Japanese and a paid driver for Honda, you can see Lawson and Ricciardo with a car who doesnt  have so much time make way better results than him who is in his second season with the team/car.

[emrecemsan]

WE are gonna start to talk about how bad is Yuki Tsunoda? I is only in F1 because of being Japanese and a paid driver for Honda, you can see Lawson and Ricciardo with a car who doesnt  have so much time make way better results than him who is in his second season with the team/car.

Tsunoda could have finished this race in a really good position actually. But instead he made a simple individual mistake which ruined all of his plans. AlphaTauri could have had a fantastic weekend with the help of him as well. Still they had a solid week though thanks to Ricciardo's great drive.

When it comes to Tsunoda's future in this team I think he might not have a bright future here if he doesn't make improvement. If you remember he was really good and consistent at the beginning of the season. Bu it lasted for like 5 races. After that his performance started to drop quite much. To tell the truth his result in the United States GP might have increased his credit but I don't know how much.    I would like to see Lawson finding a permanent seat here in the future.