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

[Jackl87]

Incredible what happened to LeClerc.
He got the win in his hand and got a mechanical issue.
Sad.
Max should win now.

True, very sad and extremely unlucky for LeClerc and also i have to say completely surprising for me as the car of Ferrari seemed to be so reliable this season so far, so this issue today came completely out of nowhere. Up until to that point it looked like a relatively easy win for LeClerc as the DRS of Verstappen does not work most of the times so he could not even get past Russel for a few laps so it looked like a great race weekend for LeClerc but that issue changed that completely of course.
Of course we also have to consider that Verstappen also had 2 issues so far in this season already where he had to stop the race when he was on second or even first position.

[tokeweed]

2022 F1 Spanish GP Race Results

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   66 Laps
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   + 13.072s
3   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   + 32.927s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   + 45.208s
5   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   + 54.534s
6   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   + 59.976s
7   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   + 75.397s
8   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   + 83.235s
9   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   + 1 Lap
10   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri   + 1 Lap
11   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   + 1 Lap
12   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   + 1 Lap
13   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   + 1 Lap
14   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   + 1 Lap
15   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   + 1 Lap
16   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   + 1 Lap
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   + 2 Laps
18   Alexander Albon   THA   Williams Racing   + 2 Laps
    Guanyu Zhou   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   DNF
    Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   DNF

Check out this subreddit /r/formula dank.  The memes are hilarious.  

The race was ok with some excitement at the start but got boring later at around the 30th lap or so.  Gutted for Leclerc and as coinlocket$ said, it was in the bag for Leclerc until the power issue on his engine.  I'm pretty sure he'll get Monaco if there aren't any more issues with the car.

Edit:  Lmao this meme.  For the guys who noticed...

[swogerino]

A very lucky race for Redbull seeing that they were less than powerful to fight against Leclerc in the first stage of the race,it was just the engine problem of Leclerc who mysteriously gave them a lot of good luck and they got maximum points from the race becoming leaders in the constructors Championship and also Max gaining the lead for the first time during this season.

Nice radio after the end of the race with Perez,when asked by the team say something about the race,he replied "I am happy for the team but we will have to talk later" showing he was not happy with the team order.

Great thing we are going to Monaco this very next weekend,can't wait as the season is becoming more and more unpredictable with Mercedes putting up a good run today.

[tokeweed]

^  I think Perez knew what he was getting into when he signed the contract with Red Bull.  But yeah, I agree.  It would've been better for Verstappen to earn the spot than giving it to him thru team orders.  But then again from the team's pov, Verstappen had the pace and would pass Perez anyway at some point in the race so why take the risk.

Anyway, Monaco next weekend.  Quali will def be good, race will be soso.

[Cnut237]

Gutted for Leclerc and as coinlocket$ said, it was in the bag for Leclerc until the power issue on his engine.  I'm pretty sure he'll get Monaco if there aren't any more issues with the car.

Well, he'll be favourite for pole... and as we all know, whoever gets pole at Monaco is likely to win the race, unless they get caught out at a pit stop.

If Leclerc qualifies in pole at Monaco, I'm pretty sure there's nothing that could possibly go wrong and prevent him winning (or cause him to not even start the race for some reason, and end up with 0 points). There's no history here, right?


I think we all hate Monaco, once qualifying is done the race is simply a dull procession. I've said it before, if F1 want to try something different (as they are with sprint races), then Monaco would be the ideal place to it. They could forget about having the 'race' entirely, and just have something like a series of cycling-style time trials. Or just anything more innovative. Any suggestion at all would probably be better than the 'race'. What do you all think? How could they change Monaco to make it better?

[swogerino]

^  I think Perez knew what he was getting into when he signed the contract with Red Bull.  But yeah, I agree.  It would've been better for Verstappen to earn the spot than giving it to him thru team orders.  But then again from the team's pov, Verstappen had the pace and would pass Perez anyway at some point in the race so why take the risk.

Anyway, Monaco next weekend.  Quali will def be good, race will be soso.

I think with the changes to the cars which allow them to follow more closer than they did the last couple of years even the race is going to be definitely good.Ferrari in here is in great advantage as the track is a narrow slow one city track and I doubt Redbull can do anything here.It will be a driver pure bravery other than the Ferraris if they get the pole which I highly doubt it.Anyway Friday practice will tell us more but this track is more suited to Ferrari than any other team so it will be a good one to recover many of the lost points in today race.

[bitgolden]

I think they have made small progress from race to race and I hope the promise of Totto Wolf in the beginning of the season to Hamilton that we will start fighting to win races in the second half of the season comes true.I know that is to late at that time but it would just add better view-ability to the races.I know that Max and Charles are the best drivers of this season so far,we can see from their individual results that they have so far which they have shared victories in these first 5 races of the season and I doubt this will change tomorrow.

Let's assume that Toto provides what he promised, and they start to win a few races, like end the season with 3 or 4 wins in total. Would that even be enough? I mean by 10th race we are going to have Ferrari and red bull both having that many wins anyway, so it is not going to be that simple to catch up to them at all.

Hence third team overall when the season ends. Maybe Russell or Hamilton would be like 4th, and take Perez out, maybe? I do not know, but that is going to be unlikely. I mean in a world where Russel is heading above Hamilton, we always knew that Hamilton would not be a dominant power when he loses the best car advantage, but to lose out to your teammate? I am not seeing Mercedes nor Hamilton doing anything at all.

[wildan88]

This had been an insane match today. Who would have thought that Verstappen would still win after his slip? It was to be expected that sooner or later Ferrari would suffer from his engine with Leclerc, that was today. Mercedes was better than the previous races, but Red Bull was supreme. And 1st and 2nd place, and Leclerc who retires. That's a dream scenario.

[Koal-84]

Very unexpected that Ferrari has a defect, but it is just so. RedBull has done everything right and are apparently reliable? Unexpected for me....

[Pulsar77]

It was a much better race than I expected in fact. Because the Spanish GP hasn't been a very enjoyable race until now. As there are limited number of places that drivers can overtake each other comfortably, it makes the race boring for spectators. But thankfully this was a better race. Leclerc's incident shocked me truthfully. He was driving just fine even though Sainz and Verstappen made big mistakes on the same turn. But Leclerc was just unlucky that he lost power and Ferrari didn't have any choice other than retiring the car. Verstappen collected significant points and he is ahead of Leclerc in the driver standings now!

[coinlocket$]

As predicted after the Ferrari's problem Max got an easy win.
Without the problem, it could be an easy win for Charles.
Verstappen now leads the leaderboard but it will be a tight fight.
Good recovery by Mercedes with the not so legal car

[LTU_btc]

Interesting race in Barcelona, rare thing, but it happened today. Leclerc had everything in his hands to win race, but nobody isn't protected from engine problems. Well, now he will have chance to finally win in Monaco. It's impressive that Verstappen managed to win after mistake and all issues with DRS. I don't undersand all this noise about team orders. Max was much faster with fresh tyres and without letting him to pass, it was question of few laps until he would overtake Checo.
I don't recognize Hamilton - asking team to save engine. Good that team didn't listen to him and he was able to achieve solid result
And poor Sainz, such difficult first part of season for him.

@tokeweed, that meme about camera guy, good one Why he did it?

I think we all hate Monaco, once qualifying is done the race is simply a dull procession. I've said it before, if F1 want to try something different (as they are with sprint races), then Monaco would be the ideal place to it. They could forget about having the 'race' entirely, and just have something like a series of cycling-style time trials. Or just anything more innovative. Any suggestion at all would probably be better than the 'race'. What do you all think? How could they change Monaco to make it better?

I think it's impossible to make Monaco interesting, it simply doesn't fits for current cars. Maybe time trials is interesting idea, but I can't race weekend without actual race.

[Davian144]

Moto2, Mugello: Pasini wild card with the GASGAS Aspar team.

The anticipation for the Mugello weekend is growing and for Italy there is a welcome return in Moto2 also Mattia Pasini will be back on track, who will line up on the grid as a wild card with the GASGAS Aspar team. The Italian GP is live on Sky Sport MotoGP and streaming on now, the times of the races scheduled for Sunday: Moto3 at 11, Moto2 at 12.20, MotoGP at 14 local time. _{(source: skysportmotogp)}

[Koal-84]

This race Leclerc had the misfortune of an (albeit unexpected) unreliable car. The drive damage to the Ferrari is unexpected, but it happens and can happen. Now RedBull has the advantage again, but as we have seen, this can change quickly this season and Mercedes has made progress with the updates.

[savetheFORUM]

Well the racing gods take it, and the racing gods give it. Charles won 2 races without much competition when Max stopped, he could have won those races anyway, but it was definitely great for him that Max couldn't finish those two races. And now the same happened to him.

This is racing and sometimes something happens to your car, specially in years when there are big changes like these, cars are made in a way where everyone is trying to find the optimum fastest possible car. So when reliability becomes an issue, they check it but you need to race with it in order to find what could go wrong. Max is leading and Red Bull is leading very easily ahead of everyone. I guessed as much.

[Davian144]

The slump in the performance of Honda and Marquez this season has been seen by many people and has also raised several questions for Marquez at this time after 7 races that have taken place and here are Marquez's answers to such questions;

"When asked if he would leave Honda, Marc replied emphatically that he would not leave Honda
According to him, in MotoGP now there is no longer a definition of an ideal motorbike (all motorbikes are the same). It all depends on the driving style of the racer on the bike.
And Marquez chose to do that bro, rather than leaving for another team". _{Source: gpcornercom}

[Koal-84]

Good recovery by Mercedes with the not so legal car

Why do you think the Mercedes is not legal? I haven't heard or noticed... If the Mercedes wasn't legal, wouldn't the other teams have already objected?

I only heard that Mercedes has improved the porposing on the straight and is now only a bit present in the corners.

[swogerino]

Good recovery by Mercedes with the not so legal car

Why do you think the Mercedes is not legal? I haven't heard or noticed... If the Mercedes wasn't legal, wouldn't the other teams have already objected?

I only heard that Mercedes has improved the porposing on the straight and is now only a bit present in the corners.

The other teams have not objected so far mainly Redbull and Ferrari which are the leaders as they don't see a threat from Mercedes yet.If Mercedes goes on with the changes which are at the edge of being legal at best and starts winning races you will immediately see objections from Ferrari and Redbull.So far both of them are winning races and are not concerned much with what Mercedes is doing but once Mercedes starts getting in the way because of such upgrades,I am sure we will see at least some objections.

[tokeweed]

@tokeweed, that meme about camera guy, good one Why he did it?

No idea but aa Hamilton went to pit for fresh tires when the tires were slapped on and bolted, the camera guy was like spinning the camera one time like he has in the tire when Hamilton rolled away.  Lolol.  Then like just a minute later I saw the meme at formuladank subbreddit and lauged cos I didn't think anybody else noticed.    But yeah..  I'll be posting memes itt starting next weekend esp when there are lull moments during the race.  Lots of good stuff at formuladank.

As predicted after the Ferrari's problem Max got an easy win.
Without the problem, it could be an easy win for Charles.
Verstappen now leads the leaderboard but it will be a tight fight.
Good recovery by Mercedes with the not so legal car

Verstappen had problems with his DRS tho.  His last lap at quali could'v been P1 or he could've made it close at the race.

Oh and here's a fun fact...  Leclerc has never finished a race in Monaco.  Dun dun duuun. 

[Koal-84]

Verstappen had problems with his DRS tho.  His last lap at quali could'v been P1 or he could've made it close at the race.

Oh and here's a fun fact...  Leclerc has never finished a race in Monaco.  Dun dun duuun. 

RedBull also tested new components for the DRS system and both cars ran with different versions. Perez used the old system and Verstappen the new DRS. However, the new DRS caused problems and didn't work as intended. Perhaps too much weight was saved on the new system and it didn't work as expected?

Even if Marko denies that different versions were used.

https://www.motorsport-magazin.com/formel1/news-277256-formel-1-max-verstappen-drs-problem-verzettelte-sich-red-bull-mit-upgrade-helmut-marko-barcelona-spanien-gp/