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

[tokeweed]

I read somewhere and I can't find link that in upcoming season F1 will keep 60 minutes length training seassions, despite that previously there was announcement about return to 90 minutes length.

No way...  I mean why make a big fuss out of it esp with how his season ended last year?  If Hamilton really had retired I think we would’ve had an announcement without giving out any hints about it.  Maybe that’s what they want us to think to get more attention before they finally unveil their car.  Dunno...  It seems like it’s a little too late for that.  Who would replace him?  

But then again if he really did retire and has yet to announce it, it would be a sad season for me for different reasons.  Lolol.  Since he’s gotten so good, I love hating the guy.  

I also don't believe that Hamilton will retire. I think at all this stuff is made to keep fans interest and some hype during off-season when there isn't much action. And Kimi replacing him, for me it's more like bad April Fools day joke. Just leave him alone.

Raikonnen will prolly end up crashing and dying in that Mercedes.  Lol.  The guy is losing his reflexes as shown in the last season.  I think it’s just for show to get something going with the journos and the fans before the start of the season.  But then again I could be wrong.  So we’ll see.

One thing the sports betting sites should do is open a market if Hamilton retires or not before the start of the season.  Would anybody take a bet on Hamilton retiring?  

That sounds a bit harsh, but of course you wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Perhaps we will also experience a surprise. You can never know it before...

Personally, I'm looking forward to it and I'm excited.

Nope and who would wish that on anybody?  I’m just make a point and saying did you guys notice Raikonnen’s driving last season?  His reflexes aren’t what they used to.  He’s making a lot of mistakes out there in the race, making him a danger to himself and all the other drivers.  It’s prolly age related dunno.  But if you were watching, you kinda knew he was done in F1.

And what do you mean by ‘surprise’?  It’s not gonna happen imho.  The season starts in less than a couple of months from now.

[bestcoins1]

Although he strongly recognizes the power of Ducati motorcycles in MotoGP, Joan Mir as a Suzuki Ecstar racer, feels it is unfair that the Italian manufacturer will field eight riders at once in 2022. He stated this to Speedweek on Thursday (27/1/2022), ahead of the test. try pre-season in Sepang, Malaysia, 5-6 February.

"When you look at the potential of their bikes, as a racer, I don't think it's fair. Eight bikes are not half of the grid, but almost half of the front row. In a championship that has six manufacturers, this is definitely odd, said Mir.

The Spaniard also stated that the large number of Ducati riders would be very difficult for other manufacturers, especially Suzuki. The reason is, Suzuki is known to be weak in single laps, so their qualifying results are not ideal. Moreover, their engine power and top speed are still not as high as Ducati.

"Qualification will be an increasingly critical session for us. Not only will it be more difficult to win, but it will also be more difficult to go through Qualifying 2 (Q2). Overtaking has also been the worst part of last year. When overtaking Ducati, my front tire got too hot. Our bike looks bad from a result point of view," said Mir.

However, this is also an opportunity for Mir to encourage Suzuki to improve the performance of the GSX-RR. "Ducati's potential is amazing. But it will be very difficult for us if we don't improve. I am also worried about this. Moreover, Aprilia has also made great progress," he concluded.

_{Source : Bola.net
Source : https://www.instagram.com/gpindonesia.id/}

[Velvet78]

I think that there is no way Kimi Raikkonen replacing Lewis Hamilton for the Mercedes seat. This must be some kind of a joke for sure. Raikkonen must have already forgotten about F1.    He was looking forward to retire and he got what he wanted. Maybe we could see him in rally but not F1 surely. Rather than Raikkonen, there have been some rumours like that Vettel might replace Hamilton. This is another far possibility for me. I don't even think that Hamilton will retire already now. But let's say he is retired, then maybe Mercedes would think of bringing Vettel seriously.

[Minor Miner]

I think that there is no way Kimi Raikkonen replacing Lewis Hamilton for the Mercedes seat. This must be some kind of a joke for sure. Raikkonen must have already forgotten about F1.    He was looking forward to retire and he got what he wanted. Maybe we could see him in rally but not F1 surely. Rather than Raikkonen, there have been some rumours like that Vettel might replace Hamilton. This is another far possibility for me. I don't even think that Hamilton will retire already now. But let's say he is retired, then maybe Mercedes would think of bringing Vettel seriously.

Everyone along with me wants that the rumors of Hamilton retiring are false but from what it seems from the Teasers Mercedes has been posting recently, it seems quite inevitable that his retirement is closer than we might expect.

But I think Vettel would be a better replacement compared to Kimi as I think Kimi is somewhat of washed away and Vettel has the potential to be a very good option for Mercedes.

[Koal-84]

A little surprise, Honda is now building the engines for RedBull until 2025 and not only until 2022 as planned. I think this is very good news for RedBull and they can now concentrate fully on the next season and defending the title.

https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel-1/news/neuer-motorenplan-bei-red-bull-honda-uebernimmt-noch-bis-2025-22012801

[Pulsar77]

A little surprise, Honda is now building the engines for RedBull until 2025 and not only until 2022 as planned. I think this is very good news for RedBull and they can now concentrate fully on the next season and defending the title.

https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel-1/news/neuer-motorenplan-bei-red-bull-honda-uebernimmt-noch-bis-2025-22012801

It is really good news. Because I was really sad to hear that Honda was about to end building engines for Red Bull by the 2022 season. The Honda - Red Bull relationship in F1 is going on very well as Honda has built a great engine for Red Bull for the last season and Verstappen became even the champion thanks to a really fast car. This deal must go on as long as possible for Red Bull to continue to be strong. As long as the engine is strong, they will always be one of the biggest candidates for winning a title.

[Captain Corporate]

A little surprise, Honda is now building the engines for RedBull until 2025 and not only until 2022 as planned. I think this is very good news for RedBull and they can now concentrate fully on the next season and defending the title.

https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel-1/news/neuer-motorenplan-bei-red-bull-honda-uebernimmt-noch-bis-2025-22012801

It is really good news. Because I was really sad to hear that Honda was about to end building engines for Red Bull by the 2022 season. The Honda - Red Bull relationship in F1 is going on very well as Honda has built a great engine for Red Bull for the last season and Verstappen became even the champion thanks to a really fast car. This deal must go on as long as possible for Red Bull to continue to be strong. As long as the engine is strong, they will always be one of the biggest candidates for winning a title.

 It wasn't sad that Honda would stop, but it was sad to learn that Red Bull would have to learn how to build their own engines which we all know would be terribly difficult to do. Of course I would love to see Honda building engines forever if they can, but my priority was that someone has to challange Mercedes. We all know that Mercedes has the best car, and by a big mile compared to most of the field, the only close ones were Red Bull and maybe ferrari+mclaren were near, even if not near enough. This would have meant that Red Bull would have an engine they built while learning and that would make them a tad bit slower, while Mercedes probably got faster. With Honda staying, the gap won't be too big once again.

[swogerino]

A little surprise, Honda is now building the engines for RedBull until 2025 and not only until 2022 as planned. I think this is very good news for RedBull and they can now concentrate fully on the next season and defending the title.

https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel-1/news/neuer-motorenplan-bei-red-bull-honda-uebernimmt-noch-bis-2025-22012801

That is really great news as F1 is in much need of fierce competition.I predict also Ferrari to be competitive during the 2022 season as they have been preparing since late 2020.Hopefully McLaren will be a bit stronger too to give us what we have not seen from quite some years now in F1,fierce competition not against just two teams.The more the merrier here takes a special meaning,also the 2022 will have new regulations so everything will be new to the teams so let's hope for even a better season that the last one of 2021 which was a great one. 

[Koal-84]

I think that there is no way Kimi Raikkonen replacing Lewis Hamilton for the Mercedes seat. This must be some kind of a joke for sure. Raikkonen must have already forgotten about F1.    He was looking forward to retire and he got what he wanted. Maybe we could see him in rally but not F1 surely. Rather than Raikkonen, there have been some rumours like that Vettel might replace Hamilton. This is another far possibility for me. I don't even think that Hamilton will retire already now. But let's say he is retired, then maybe Mercedes would think of bringing Vettel seriously.

Everyone along with me wants that the rumors of Hamilton retiring are false but from what it seems from the Teasers Mercedes has been posting recently, it seems quite inevitable that his retirement is closer than we might expect.

But I think Vettel would be a better replacement compared to Kimi as I think Kimi is somewhat of washed away and Vettel has the potential to be a very good option for Mercedes.

It will come up what Hamilton and Mercedes are doing, plus Raikönen already has a new job. He is now team manager of a Kawasaki MXGP team, but I can't estimate how much time the new job will take. But now it depends on what Hamilton does.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/kimi-raikkonen-kawasaki-mxgp-project/

[sana54210]

I’m just make a point and saying did you guys notice Raikonnen’s driving last season?  His reflexes aren’t what they used to.  He’s making a lot of mistakes out there in the race, making him a danger to himself and all the other drivers.  It’s prolly age related dunno.  But if you were watching, you kinda knew he was done in F1.

And what do you mean by ‘surprise’?  It’s not gonna happen imho.  The season starts in less than a couple of months from now.

The funny thing about F1 is that, Kimi probably has 100x better reflexes than all of us combined, even if you are a great f1 game player on PC, when you get in that real thing it is something else. I never had the chance to do it, but there was a simulator when the races came to us and since I was invited by someone who worked on it, I had a bit of access and simulator was basically used by these super rich folk, which I am not at all, I am just invited by friend who worked there so I was by far the poorest person there.

These rich folk and their kids were allowed to use the simulator, and at first it is like the game, I played the f1 game and it is easy enough, I mean when you get used to it, it is like any other game (aside from crashing all the time until you get used to it). Then I used real life setup and BOY OH BOY, it is so hard. You can't even believe it. So all in all I have to say that it is impossible for any of us to have relfexes of Kimi... and yet dude "lost" his reflexes when you compare him to other drivers.

[bestcoins1]

There had been rumors about the cancellation of the pre-season test for MotoGP at the Sepang circuit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but today I read the news that the pre-season test schedule will take place as usual.

"In addition to the pre-season test, there will also be a shakedown test which will also be held in Sepang from January 31 to February 2. This test is only for MotoGP 2022 test riders and debutants, namely Remy Gardner, Raul Fernandez, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio , and Darryn Binder.

Moto2 and Moto3 riders will also undergo a series of pre-season tests. In the test monitored by IRTA, they will do it at the Algarve Circuit, Portugal, on 19-21 February."

_{Source : Motorsport.com
Source : https://www.instagram.com/gpindonesia.id/}

[LTU_btc]

Nope and who would wish that on anybody?  I’m just make a point and saying did you guys notice Raikonnen’s driving last season?  His reflexes aren’t what they used to.  He’s making a lot of mistakes out there in the race, making him a danger to himself and all the other drivers.  It’s prolly age related dunno.  But if you were watching, you kinda knew he was done in F1.

And what do you mean by ‘surprise’?  It’s not gonna happen imho.  The season starts in less than a couple of months from now.

Don't agree about Kimi. He wasn't that bad last season as you describe. Offcourse, he was not as good as in his prime, but that's normal thing. He outscored Giovinazzi by quite big margin and haven't finished just in few races. Mazepin, Latifi or Tsunoda is more dangerous for other drivers than Kimi.
Offcourse, we're not talking about Kimi racing in Mercedes. It sounds more like a joke.

[Minecache]

Nope and who would wish that on anybody?  I’m just make a point and saying did you guys notice Raikonnen’s driving last season?  His reflexes aren’t what they used to.  He’s making a lot of mistakes out there in the race, making him a danger to himself and all the other drivers.  It’s prolly age related dunno.  But if you were watching, you kinda knew he was done in F1.

And what do you mean by ‘surprise’?  It’s not gonna happen imho.  The season starts in less than a couple of months from now.

Don't agree about Kimi. He wasn't that bad last season as you describe. Offcourse, he was not as good as in his prime, but that's normal thing. He outscored Giovinazzi by quite big margin and haven't finished just in few races. Mazepin, Latifi or Tsunoda is more dangerous for other drivers than Kimi.
Offcourse, we're not talking about Kimi racing in Mercedes. It sounds more like a joke.

I really hope that the rumors we are hearing about Kimi joining Mercedes doesn't come true. I think what Mercedes should do right now is recruit a younger driver thinking about the long term.

You know, Kimi is 42 years old and as he has aged, his reflexes won't be on par with other drivers and maybe his decision-making will be worse than others which will impact Mercedes hugely. Only time will tell though, who will be replacing Hamilton.

[swogerino]

Nope and who would wish that on anybody?  I’m just make a point and saying did you guys notice Raikonnen’s driving last season?  His reflexes aren’t what they used to.  He’s making a lot of mistakes out there in the race, making him a danger to himself and all the other drivers.  It’s prolly age related dunno.  But if you were watching, you kinda knew he was done in F1.

And what do you mean by ‘surprise’?  It’s not gonna happen imho.  The season starts in less than a couple of months from now.

Don't agree about Kimi. He wasn't that bad last season as you describe. Offcourse, he was not as good as in his prime, but that's normal thing. He outscored Giovinazzi by quite big margin and haven't finished just in few races. Mazepin, Latifi or Tsunoda is more dangerous for other drivers than Kimi.
Offcourse, we're not talking about Kimi racing in Mercedes. It sounds more like a joke.

I really hope that the rumors we are hearing about Kimi joining Mercedes doesn't come true. I think what Mercedes should do right now is recruit a younger driver thinking about the long term.

You know, Kimi is 42 years old and as he has aged, his reflexes won't be on par with other drivers and maybe his decision-making will be worse than others which will impact Mercedes hugely. Only time will tell though, who will be replacing Hamilton.

I don't think Mercedes will risk it unless they will want to have George Russell as their first driver if Hamilton retires,if at all as I doubt he will and then give Russell a wing man with a lot of experience like Kimmi Raikkonen.That is the only option I see Kimi joining Mercedes but again I think these are just rumors and most probably Kimi is retired for good from Formula 1 as a 42 year old driver we rarely have seen some driver aged 42 fighting for the title even if they are given the best car.

[el kaka22]

Hamilton replacement will not be someone who will "win no", they have Russel who will be a great driver anyway, and he is very young, and he has the media personality as well, you can love him or hate him but has a personality that stands out. Which means that they will prime him, they will try to put Hamilton on that seat no matter what but if they can't they will just Russel take the reins.

It means that they will try their best to get a second driver and not a first one. Russel will be ahead, and I assume the second driver will be more like Bottas. Stroll could be a good candidate, he has a contract but that can be broken with enough penalty paid for it.

[alegotardo]

Hamilton replacement will not be someone who will "win no", they have Russel who will be a great driver anyway, and he is very young, and he has the media personality as well, you can love him or hate him but has a personality that stands out. Which means that they will prime him, they will try to put Hamilton on that seat no matter what but if they can't they will just Russel take the reins.

It means that they will try their best to get a second driver and not a first one. Russel will be ahead, and I assume the second driver will be more like Bottas. Stroll could be a good candidate, he has a contract but that can be broken with enough penalty paid for it.

I don't understand why people talk so much about Sebastian Vettel's name as a possible replacement for Hamilton.
I honestly can't believe that Hammilton will leave F1 despite the problems that occurred last season, but if that is the case, my bets on a replacement go to Pierre Gasly, one of the highlights of Formula 1 in recent years and, whenever he can, reveals dissatisfaction with Red Bull for leaving him at AlphaTauri, or Esteban Ocon, who has had a connection with Mercedes since the middle of the last decade.

[tokeweed]

A little surprise, Honda is now building the engines for RedBull until 2025 and not only until 2022 as planned. I think this is very good news for RedBull and they can now concentrate fully on the next season and defending the title.

https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel-1/news/neuer-motorenplan-bei-red-bull-honda-uebernimmt-noch-bis-2025-22012801

Yup just heard about this one.  Verstappen’s win of the driver’s championship could’ve encouraged them to push for another three years and prolly try to win the constructor’s championship?  It’s very possible imho.  And Honda prolly discovered something they could do in line with the 2022 specs.  Can’t wait for testing!  

Nope and who would wish that on anybody?  I’m just make a point and saying did you guys notice Raikonnen’s driving last season?  His reflexes aren’t what they used to.  He’s making a lot of mistakes out there in the race, making him a danger to himself and all the other drivers.  It’s prolly age related dunno.  But if you were watching, you kinda knew he was done in F1.

And what do you mean by ‘surprise’?  It’s not gonna happen imho.  The season starts in less than a couple of months from now.

Don't agree about Kimi. He wasn't that bad last season as you describe. Offcourse, he was not as good as in his prime, but that's normal thing. He outscored Giovinazzi by quite big margin and haven't finished just in few races. Mazepin, Latifi or Tsunoda is more dangerous for other drivers than Kimi.
Offcourse, we're not talking about Kimi racing in Mercedes. It sounds more like a joke.

I never said he had a bad season or that he sucks as a driver now, just saying that he’s getting old and he’s losing those reflexes.  There were multiple instances during the season when it showed.  I mean I can’t remember exactly when and where but I do know that there were more than a couple of times when me and my friends were going ‘whooaaa almost’ because he touched the car next to him or he was a tad slow to make an adjustment almost hitting another car, etc..  But yeah.

[boltz]

I miss Formula 1 so much but I don't miss the last race of the season. Honestly, I can't wait for teams to show up and present their cars as I have a feeling that this year Ferrari will come with a great car to compete at least for 2nd place as I do still believe that Mercedes will rise from the ash and win everything this year.

[tokeweed]

^  Yeah Mercedes to be the favorite to win both championships is really expected.  But Ferrari having the car to go for second, not too sure with RBR def having the chance to compete for first.  I mean if it’s either Mercedes or Red Bull that go win the whole thing it means Ferrari just goes for third at best.  But the gap between who ever’s third and Merc - RBR could be way smaller because of the new specs.  So we’ll see...  I’m hoping for an interesting and surprising season...  With a twist.  But that’s too much to ask.  Lol.

[Captain Corporate]

^  Yeah Mercedes to be the favorite to win both championships is really expected.  But Ferrari having the car to go for second, not too sure with RBR def having the chance to compete for first.  I mean if it’s either Mercedes or Red Bull that go win the whole thing it means Ferrari just goes for third at best.  But the gap between who ever’s third and Merc - RBR could be way smaller because of the new specs.  So we’ll see...  I’m hoping for an interesting and surprising season...  With a twist.  But that’s too much to ask.  Lol.

 Honestly, considering the fact that it was closer between RBR and Mercedes this year, and considering there will be new cars coming up next season if something unexpected happens, then this is the season for it. We still do not know what will happen, maybe Mercedes will still dominate because they have the engine for it and the engine is a major part of the deal, we all remember how Hamilton did when he had a small change in his engine, dude went from 20th to 1st in a weekend thanks to it. So I do not know if I would expect Mercedes to be worse. But with the new cars, we could expect others to get better and that could make things more interesting.