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

[CLS63]

I don't think that the main problem at Ferrari is Binotto now. The problem is their being stubborn about not making big changes in their crew. For example the pit crew should definitely be changed. Because we have witnessed many unbelievable mistakes this season. These mistakes just destroyed especially Leclerc's races. They also need better strategists as it seems. Because we have witnessed also that they have made very bad decisions this season. One of them happened even on the last race week.

If they decide to do these I will be more positive about Ferrari. Otherwise they might have another problematic season.

[tygeade]

It is now official

Schumacher and Haas will not continue.

Sad to see Mick go, and also Ricciardio as well, both of them deserved spots in the league if you ask me, they are both good enough to be placed somewhere, and unfortunately, they weren't. Sometimes life is so hard that you forget how smallest things could make such huge changes. Daniel could have gone to a better team as a second driver, like go to ferrari instead of sainz, and he could have been great there with such car, but went to Mclaren to a team that focused on Lando because he had the future, and Dany didn't get the attention he deserved, so he became worse and worse.

Mick for example could have been somewhere that was better for his first years, but his first ever f1 years were in the worst possible car, so he couldn't developer properly, but these are no excuses, if there are better options, teams will take it.

[coinlocket$]

Haas has already chosen his next driver and he will be... Nico.



Source: https://twitter.com/F1/status/1593121647909011457

You may remember him as the "Covid" driver from 2021 when he has been called by several teams to substitute the drivers positive for COVID-19

[Velvet78]

I remember a time when Magnussen and Hulkenberg weren't getting along. Therefore I wonder how much good teammates they will be this time. The thing I said was many years ago so their relationship might not be the same now. Hulkenberg is a sensible choice for Haas actually. Because he is a talented driver and he can fight better than Mick as well I think.

Somehow Mick couldn't impress the team as much as Magnussen. I really don't know if he can find a team for himself to race next season.

[swogerino]

I remember a time when Magnussen and Hulkenberg weren't getting along. Therefore I wonder how much good teammates they will be this time. The thing I said was many years ago so their relationship might not be the same now. Hulkenberg is a sensible choice for Haas actually. Because he is a talented driver and he can fight better than Mick as well I think.

Somehow Mick couldn't impress the team as much as Magnussen. I really don't know if he can find a team for himself to race next season.

Hulkenberg sure is a better driver than Magnussen for me,I remember him getting more points in the seasons he took place compared with the points of Magnussen.However it was a natural choice for Haas to keep Magnussen as he clearly did much better than his team mate Mick Schumacher.I think since Haas has shown great improvement to their car during this season compared to the previous one,we may even have a better car for the next season and Hulkenberg is a great choice if the car happens to perform better next season.

I am more sorry for Ricciardo that most likely will be without any team for next year.

[Koal-84]

The last Formula 1 race this season, there is nothing left to distribute except for the vice world champion. But I think Red Bull is in a bit of a bind because of the last weekend, and that should be cleared up by next season. If the team-mates don't work together, it will probably be more difficult, Mercedes has caught up in development and Ferrari will hopefully not make the same mistakes next season.

[swogerino]

The last Formula 1 race this season, there is nothing left to distribute except for the vice world champion. But I think Red Bull is in a bit of a bind because of the last weekend, and that should be cleared up by next season. If the team-mates don't work together, it will probably be more difficult, Mercedes has caught up in development and Ferrari will hopefully not make the same mistakes next season.

I am curious to see how will Mercedes behave in this last race where they were dominant last year and it was only because of the events we know that they lost the final race together with the title.Mercedes was doing really well in Brazil which is another track where they dominated in the last year much better than they did in this last weekend race.If the Mercedes team manages again to win the race and to have both drivers on the podium it looks like we are going to have one hell of a beautiful next season and hopefully also Mclaren and Ferrari will be more competitive.

[coinlocket$]

1   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m26.633s
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m26.853s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m26.888s
4   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m26.967s
5   Liam Lawson   NZL   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m27.201s
6   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m27.268s
7   Robert Shwartzman   ISR   Scuderia Ferrari   1m27.429s
8   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m27.619s
9   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m27.655s
10   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m27.840s
11   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m27.845s
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m27.791s
13   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m27.991s
14   Robert Kubica   POL   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m28.064s
15   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m28.098s
16   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m28.142s
17   Pietro Fittipaldi   BRA   Haas F1 Team   1m28.204s
18   Pato O'Ward   MEX   McLaren F1 Team   1m28.350s
19   Jack Doohan   AUS   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m28.484s
20   Felipe Drugovich   BRA   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m28.672s


Mercedes is ahead again...

As I told you months ago with the change of the regulation they did Mercedes became the car to beat...


Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1017399/1/f1-2022-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-1

[el kaka22]

I really really want to see Vetten winning this race but that would be as near impossible as it gets. It would be like farewell to Kobe where he scored 60 points on his last game and got the win, Vettel winning this race would be epic for him. I know that he is retired now and this is his last race but I really hope to see him racing again with a great car.

Something like putting him on Red Bull again, both because he has won so much there already, but also he could have both helped Max to win more titles, but also could teach him how to be even better could have been awesome. The retirement is something I am having hard time accepting, I am hoping he would come back one way or another.

[coinlocket$]

Session 2 for the last race of the year.

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m25.146s
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.487s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m25.599s
4   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.761s
5   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m25.852s
6   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m25.932s
7   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m26.038s
8   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m26.043s
9   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.124s
10   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m26.300s
11   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m26.377s
12   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.395s
13   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m26.479s
14   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m26.547s
15   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m26.680s
16   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m26.750s
17   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m26.839s
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m26.915s
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m27.036s
20   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing   1m27.262s

Mercedes very close to the top.

In the meanwhile this week we got a piece of news that Ferrari stopped the progress of this car a long time ago for problems with the budget cap and both Ferrari and Mercedes were surprised about the expensive new bottom of the car (around 2m$) used by Redbull from the summer and they don't know how they could spend so much money with the budget cap.

Let's see if history will repeat itself...

Source : https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1017451/1/f1-2022-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-free-practice-results-2

[Velvet78]

Mercedes are just as most people expected. They are stronger from now on and they are again a big challenge for Red Bull drivers. I think we will watch another domination by Russell and Hamilton on podium. This time Hamilton might go for the win on his last attempts for a win in this season. Russell got his first career win in the previous race so he might race a little more comfortably maybe.

I'm curious about what Perez and Verstappen will do this time as well. After the recent incidents I can't predict what can happen if we see some competition between them in the race.

[alegotardo]

Mercedes are just as most people expected. They are stronger from now on and they are again a big challenge for Red Bull drivers. I think we will watch another domination by Russell and Hamilton on podium. This time Hamilton might go for the win on his last attempts for a win in this season. Russell got his first career win in the previous race so he might race a little more comfortably maybe.

I'm curious about what Perez and Verstappen will do this time as well. After the recent incidents I can't predict what can happen if we see some competition between them in the race.

Firstly, the Mexican regretted everything he said about his Red Bull teammate at Interlagos and wants to resume the good atmosphere in the team from now on, even if it's just for one more circuit until they enjoy the holidays and cool off.
However, as hard-headed as Verstappen is, I believe he would follow his team's orders at the end of the day.
Because it's one thing to win a race, it's another to maintain confidence in the team to continue having a good season next year.

[swogerino]

Mercedes are just as most people expected. They are stronger from now on and they are again a big challenge for Red Bull drivers. I think we will watch another domination by Russell and Hamilton on podium. This time Hamilton might go for the win on his last attempts for a win in this season. Russell got his first career win in the previous race so he might race a little more comfortably maybe.

I'm curious about what Perez and Verstappen will do this time as well. After the recent incidents I can't predict what can happen if we see some competition between them in the race.

I think that Mercedes did well only in the first practice,in the second one Verstappen was clearly the fastest,we have the third one before the qualification at 11.30 Am European time while the official qualifying starts at 15 Pm European time.It will be interesting to see how drivers will behave in this third practice,most likely Mercedes will push to their 100% as they want to see how much they have improved while Redbull and Verstappen may not give 100% in this third practice and leave everything for the official qualifying.I think in the end it won't be this easy here in Abu Dhabi as it was in Interlagos for Mercedes.

[Koal-84]

A very good starting position for Perez to win the runner-up title. Verstappen won't let Perez pass or anything like that, you just have to hope that Verstappen and Perez don't have an accident...

I'm a bit surprised that Mercedes has a bigger gap to RedBull and Ferrari again?

[tokeweed]

^  At this point of the season, I hope something exciting happens.  Lolol.

Mercedes are just as most people expected. They are stronger from now on and they are again a big challenge for Red Bull drivers. I think we will watch another domination by Russell and Hamilton on podium. This time Hamilton might go for the win on his last attempts for a win in this season. Russell got his first career win in the previous race so he might race a little more comfortably maybe.

I'm curious about what Perez and Verstappen will do this time as well. After the recent incidents I can't predict what can happen if we see some competition between them in the race.

In the end, it's F1 after all...  And in order to get pole position and win races, you need a really good car besides having a really good driver.  That's why Mercedes dominated the sport for 8 years prior to Red Bull winning it with Verstappen last season.

Anyway here are the results for quali.  I didn't watch it because I...  forgot.  Lmao.  And I didn't really care much about it anymore and had no interest taking a little action in it as the lines really have no value.  The books have gotten really sharp.

2022 F1 Abu Dhabi GP Qualification Results

1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m24.754s   1m24.622s   1m23.824s
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m24.820s   1m24.419s   1m24.052s
3   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m25.211s   1m24.517s   1m24.092s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m25.090s   1m24.521s   1m24.242s
5   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.594s   1m24.774s   1m24.508s
6   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team   1m25.545s   1m24.940s   1m24.511s
7   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m25.387s   1m24.903s   1m24.769s
8   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m25.735s   1m25.007s   1m24.830s
9   Sebastian Vettel   GER   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m25.523s   1m24.974s   1m24.961s
10   Daniel Ricciardo   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m25.766s   1m25.068s   1m25.045s
11   Fernando Alonso   ESP   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m25.782s   1m25.096s   
12   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m25.630s   1m25.219s   
13   Mick Schumacher   GER   Haas F1 Team   1m25.711s   1m25.225s   
14   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m25.741s   1m25.359s   
15   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m25.594s   1m25.408s   
16   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   Haas F1 Team   1m25.834s       
17   Pierre Gasly   FRA   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m25.859s       
18   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen   1m25.892s       
19   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m26.028s       
20   Nicholas Latifi   CAN   Williams Racing

[swogerino]

A very good starting position for Perez to win the runner-up title. Verstappen won't let Perez pass or anything like that, you just have to hope that Verstappen and Perez don't have an accident...

I'm a bit surprised that Mercedes has a bigger gap to RedBull and Ferrari again?

I think this was because of Mercedes having fewer sets of new soft tires which most likely they are conserving for the race and that is why they were off the pace that they had at Interlagos.I knew that it would have been much more difficult here as Verstappen is if I remember correctly was three consecutive times on pole and two consecutive wins here which tomorrow if every thing goes well may be three victories.A good thing is that after qualifying he shake hands with Perez and they even nearly hug each other which is a good sign that the team work is going well.

[coinlocket$]

A very good starting position for Perez to win the runner-up title. Verstappen won't let Perez pass or anything like that, you just have to hope that Verstappen and Perez don't have an accident...

I'm a bit surprised that Mercedes has a bigger gap to RedBull and Ferrari again?

what happens if they will end with the same amout of points?

Anyway RBR is much strongher now he should have a confortable win or second spot.

[LTU_btc]

Important question who will be driver of the day in the last race - Vettel or GOATifi? With all respect to GOAT, I hope that it will be Seb. And it would be nice if he will finish in points tomorrow. But damn, time flies so fast. For me it looks that he started not that long time ago, I still remember his first win with Toro Rosso like it was yesterday.

what happens if they will end with the same amout of points?

That's good question. I'm not 100%, but I think that then they will look at h2h results of Perez and Leclerc. Something similar when they decide who will be above when multiple drivers have 0 points.

A very good starting position for Perez to win the runner-up title. Verstappen won't let Perez pass or anything like that, you just have to hope that Verstappen and Perez don't have an accident...

Max ambitions is one thing, but I don't beleive that Brazil scenario will repeat. It because Red Bull simply need that Perez would deliver 2nd place and I think that they had serious talk with Verstappen about it.

[Velvet78]

A very good starting position for Perez to win the runner-up title. Verstappen won't let Perez pass or anything like that, you just have to hope that Verstappen and Perez don't have an accident...

I'm a bit surprised that Mercedes has a bigger gap to RedBull and Ferrari again?

what happens if they will end with the same amout of points?

Anyway RBR is much strongher now he should have a confortable win or second spot.

Leclerc is ahead of Perez now in the driver standings already despite the equal points situation. It must be related to the total wins in this season maybe. Because Leclerc must have one more wins than Perez in this season so far. In case of they stay at equal points then Leclerc must be finishing at the second position.

But I feel like Perez can finish ahead of Leclerc anyway. He seems more ambitious now and he has a car advantage as well.

[alegotardo]

Leclerc is ahead of Perez now in the driver standings already despite the equal points situation. It must be related to the total wins in this season maybe. Because Leclerc must have one more wins than Perez in this season so far. In case of they stay at equal points then Leclerc must be finishing at the second position.

But I feel like Perez can finish ahead of Leclerc anyway. He seems more ambitious now and he has a car advantage as well.

Yes... Sérgio Pérez and Charles Leclerc appear tied, both with 290 points. However, the Ferrari driver is ahead because the tiebreaker is having achieved more victories in the season... he has three against two of his Mexican rival.

I still believe that Leclerc will be able to get ahead of Pérez in the next race and take second place, we'll see if that actually happens.
I believe that Verstappen himself will not make it easy for Pérez, consequently helping Leclerc in this achievement.