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

[RealMalatesta]

Three days to go for the Spa GP in F1. 

If it rains during the race this might make things more interesting. Because then I wouldn't be so sure about one of the Verstappen-Leclerc duo to win the race. Maybe it would be an advantage for Mercedes for example. By the way, Mercedes have been improving their car and the current level is quite impressive. They still need some luck in races too to be able to get solid results.

However I believe this can change next season and the car can start being capable of fighting with Red Bull and Ferrari at the same level. I mean that Hamilton can find a big opportunity to achieve his 8th title to break the record by himself.

If there is a rain, nobody really knows what's going to happen. I am not saying that Red Bull or Ferrari won't be favorites, they can be but when there is a big crash or something and plenty of people get impacted, weird results could happen. Last year on Hungary we had Ocon win for example, how many times could you say that you expect an Ocon win for Alpine? That is why there is really no expected result from anyone at any time because there is a big chance that people could end up with a big problem when the time comes.

Long story short, just make sure that you are doing fine with your car all race, and just do not crash or make mistakes, if you race, even a decent enough pace would get a win from anyone.

[swogerino]

Three days to go for the Spa GP in F1. 

If it rains during the race this might make things more interesting. Because then I wouldn't be so sure about one of the Verstappen-Leclerc duo to win the race. Maybe it would be an advantage for Mercedes for example. By the way, Mercedes have been improving their car and the current level is quite impressive. They still need some luck in races too to be able to get solid results.

However I believe this can change next season and the car can start being capable of fighting with Red Bull and Ferrari at the same level. I mean that Hamilton can find a big opportunity to achieve his 8th title to break the record by himself.

If there is a rain, nobody really knows what's going to happen. I am not saying that Red Bull or Ferrari won't be favorites, they can be but when there is a big crash or something and plenty of people get impacted, weird results could happen. Last year on Hungary we had Ocon win for example, how many times could you say that you expect an Ocon win for Alpine? That is why there is really no expected result from anyone at any time because there is a big chance that people could end up with a big problem when the time comes.

Long story short, just make sure that you are doing fine with your car all race, and just do not crash or make mistakes, if you race, even a decent enough pace would get a win from anyone.

Hopefully we don't have any rain in this track,it was enough to see it not racing last year and two years consecutively I think it would not be taken well from FIA and fans and most probably one of the most beautiful tracks of the season will not be racing again for F1 and no one wants it.

In not normal conditions like rain the teams needs to have a perfect strategy beside having a really good balanced car,if rain happens in normal quantity just to make the race more interesting for me Mercedes is the team that has the highest chances to surprise us all with a win.

[coinlocket$]

Who fancies Hamilton to get the win at the Belgian GP?  Leclerc and Verstappen are starting from the back of the grid and so are Ocon, Norris, Schumacher and Bottas for taking in new parts for their power units.  I'm thinking Leclerc on pole, Verstappen could get the fastest lap at the race and Hamilton to win it...  What do you guys think?

Could be Sainz or Perez but in Spa Safety cars are very commons so if one will happen, even Leclerc and Verstappen could fight for the win.

[tokeweed]

^  I forgot about Perez tbh.  Lol.  I know he's a good driver and all but sometimes I feel like he's a non factor for Red Bull.  It'd be hard for the team to win the constructor's championship if he's inconsistent for the whole season.  He was hired to keep his results close to Verstappen at every race, kinda like how Vettel and Webber were.

Anyway I didn't watch FP2 as I was watching ONE FC but here are the results. Stroll at got 4th?  Did it rain or something?

2022 Belgian GP FP2 Results

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m45.507s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m46.369s
3   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m46.589s
4   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m46.635s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m46.649s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m46.893s
7   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m46.975s
8   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m47.042s
9   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m47.255s
10   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m47.346s
11   Alexander Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m47.520s
12   Guanyu Zhou   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m47.617s
13   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m47.658s
14   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m47.782s
15   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m47.867s
16   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m47.944s
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m48.208s
18   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m48.149s
19   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m48.612s
20   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m49.941s

[ryzaadit]

He was hired to keep his results close to Verstappen at every race, kinda like how Vettel and Webber were.

Soon or later.

He gonna betray MAX ~XD I love he was really disappointed in the radio while need to maximize the points for max. Based on the radio conversation, just thinking he gonna to fight for him self.

Otherwise, gonna to have the same fate like Bottas in Mercedes without any world championship. Sometimes he need to selfish rather than got the same fate like bottas.

[swogerino]

He was hired to keep his results close to Verstappen at every race, kinda like how Vettel and Webber were.

Soon or later.

He gonna betray MAX ~XD I love he was really disappointed in the radio while need to maximize the points for max. Based on the radio conversation, just thinking he gonna to fight for him self.

Otherwise, gonna to have the same fate like Bottas in Mercedes without any world championship. Sometimes he need to selfish rather than got the same fate like bottas.

I think that Verstappen once again showed that he is the most skillful driver of the grid right now despite not clearly having the best car,but one car that can be the best under his driving skills.Based on this I find it difficult for any other driver to win this year SPA considering that the weather is more encouraging right now that it was last year and we are driving in one of the most technical tracks of the world where driving skills are paramount of course when you have a competing car.

Ferrari needs to fight hard,to have the best aerodynamics but the second practice showed that Verstappen made a gap at 0.800 in just a lap,maybe the Ferrari drivers were testing different setups but this surely does not look good.

[Distraction]

To tell the truth Perez is still doing a really good job in general. Because he is right behind Leclerc by only five points in the driver standings. He can even leave Leclerc behind this Sunday as Leclerc is going to start from the back. Perez is doing his best to help Red Bull stay at top in the championship race. He sometimes struggles to be consistent in races but I appreciate his effort until now. It is early to tell if Verstappen-Perez can be like Hamilton-Bottas at the end of this season. But Ferrari's mistakes are also paving the way for Perez to do just that.

As for my prediction about the winner of this Grand Prix, I think that it might be a chance for Sainz. If he fails then one of Perez and Hamilton can do this.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Perez is really an ideal 2nd driver for Red Bull. He also took points here and there for Red Bull last season, which allowed Max to become world champion. Max is of course better and only talented, but I don't think Perez has a problem with being 2nd driver. He normally has to let Max go first, but he can also just win circuits. Verstappen is again the favorite, even if he started from 10th place he would still pass them all. Truly a phenomenon. Would he be better than Schumacher in his good time?

[coinlocket$]

Anyway I didn't watch FP2 as I was watching ONE FC but here are the results. Stroll at got 4th?  Did it rain or something?

Yup.

Light rain in the latest 30 minutes and the track went slippery so nobody could a good time.

More penalties will be official tomorrow, will be an interesting race.

[darewaller]

Everyone is getting a new team, but Mick seems to be getting a bit shorter end of the stick. Even ricciardio will find a team to play (probably Haas) but Mick doesn't seem to have a clear direction where he will go and because of that it is going to be a bit of a trouble for him. Just get him to any team at all because he has some sort of talent with the type of name which will give him to be something big in the end if he races for a better team and that is going to be getting us a great driver.

I always said that he has "potential" and now he is going to end up with not being even in the league if no big club offers him something. I am not saying get him to Ferrari right away, but alpine, or alfa romeo, or whatever should get him and not let him be out of f1 this early.

[Koal-84]

More penalties will be official tomorrow, will be an interesting race.

As I read there are some penalties this weekend on the grid, Leclerc apparently starts from the last place, which is another setback for the world championship fight.

At the Sauber team now rises Alfa Romeo early after the end of this season on the announcement of Audi.will also be interesting, Audi finances next year already Sauber, and what about the Ferrari powertrain?

[emrecemsan]

This is the best and worst races for the drivers during the season so far. DNFs aren't included by the way.

When we look at this statistics we can clearly see that Russell is really the "Mr Consistency".    Mercedes must be very satisfied with his performance even though they started the season with a very weak car. Even Hamilton couldn't do better than him at first. It is for sure that Russell is going to be Mercedes' main driver after Hamilton retires. Ricciardo is one of the most unsuccessful drivers of this season. We aren't going to see him at McLaren next season as it seems. While I was waiting for him to sign for Alpine some news related to Haas came out indeed. But with whom will he be replaced at Haas?


There was a red flag out in FP3 after Leclerc had an accident by losing control. I hope there is no problem with the car right before qualifying.

[tokeweed]

^  The car is ok as he didn't the barriers and he managed to get the car out of the gravel so that's good news.

And it looks like the Red Bulls have had a better upgrade than the Ferraris have.  But we'll see for sure in quali.  By the time they get to Q2, that's when we finally have an idea how fast the Ferraris are in this track.  I'm still hopeful they're quick because it makes for a good race.  Spa is one of the best tracks in F1 imho.  

Anyway here are the results for FP3...

2022 F1 Belgian GP FP3 Results

1      Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m45.047s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m45.184s
3   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m45.824s
4   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m45.965s
5   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m46.061s
6   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m46.071s
7   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m46.120s
8   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m46.166s
9   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m46.601s
10   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m46.604s
11   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m46.646s
12   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m46.789s
13   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m46.811s
14   Alexander Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m46.836s
15   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m46.881s
16   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m46.975s
17   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m46.982s
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m47.035s
19   Guanyu Zhou   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m47.089s
20   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m52.494s

[coinlocket$]

RBR seems to be on another level I don't think Ferrari hid itself this morning.

For Ferrari, it seems harder to heat the tires.

[tokeweed]

^  Yup and the books also really think that they're on another level, they lined Verstappen the favorite to win at 2.75 with Sainz behind him at 3.05 then Perez at 4.00.    It should be a very interesting race with lots of memes if Verstappen wins from behind...

Anyway what do you guys think of Leclerc at 12.00?  Seems like a nice value bet and worth a shot for a small bet.  Leclerc showed he has some pace at Q2 too.

[Pulsar77]

~snip~

~snip~

Personally I believe Ferrari will win here if weather and team principals from Ferrari don't screw up Leclerc race.

We have the qualifying results now.

Sainz did a really good job today. He managed to take the pole position by finishing ahead of Perez. They both wasted their last chances by worse laps. Perez had a chance to overtake Sainz but couldn't make use of it. Verstappen was so comfortable also. Maybe he was going to start from the back to the race anyway but this wasn't an obstacle for him to have the best lap of the session. There was a huge difference between him and Sainz like 0.6 second. It might be a signal for the race tomorrow however it seems very difficult for him to finish the race as the winner by starting at the 15th position.

I expect Sainz to win the race also. He has the biggest opportunity in his hand after winning the British GP.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Sainz can start from Pole position tomorrow. No guarantee of victory. Verstappen has had a new engine installed so it will probably be allowed to start somewhere at the back. But if there is anyone who can still win from any place, it is Verstappen. Ferrari could use another success. The battle for the world championship already seems decided because Leclerc just doesn't manage to win and Verstappen falls in points every time and also wins many races comfortably. If Ferrari wants to achieve anything, they will have to win tomorrow and hope that Red Bull does not fall into the points. The battle for the constructors' championship is still there.

[coinlocket$]

Pole position for Sainz but RBR is so much faster.

During the interview on Italian television, Lecler said something like

"We don't know how RBR is so fast here this weekend we didn't expect to be 7-8 tens behind them"



But tomorrow will be hotter, and everything can change with the change of the temeperature.

[dezoel]

The summer break changed NOTHING for Ferrari, I mean they put on wrong tires on either Charles or Sainz I forgot which one but that is basically the same old idiotic pit team from Ferrari, that is just not acceptable at all.

At this point I am expecting Ferrari to one day have wet tires on left rear, hard on right rear, medium on left front and softs on right front, does it sound like a joke? It does, but would anyone be really shocked that Ferrari ever did something like that? I wouldn't be really. This is why I guess that Red Bull would have a very easy chance for championship this year, Max and RB will be the winners until some serious competition comes along.

[LTU_btc]

Red Bull have much better pace than Ferrari and it means a lot in such track like Spa. It's good news for Max who will start race from back of grid, overtaking won't be a problem. I only don't understand why Max on Q3 didn't went to help Perez and give him slipstream.

The summer break changed NOTHING for Ferrari, I mean they put on wrong tires on either Charles or Sainz I forgot which one but that is basically the same old idiotic pit team from Ferrari, that is just not acceptable at all.

At this point I am expecting Ferrari to one day have wet tires on left rear, hard on right rear, medium on left front and softs on right front, does it sound like a joke? It does, but would anyone be really shocked that Ferrari ever did something like that? I wouldn't be really. This is why I guess that Red Bull would have a very easy chance for championship this year, Max and RB will be the winners until some serious competition comes along.

That moment with Leclerc tyres pretty much summarizes Ferrari season. Maybe it's not worst mistake that they had, with correct set of tyres there is no guarantee that his result would be much better, but it shows that they haven't learnt anything and such things is going to continue