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

[jostorres]

It is a sad day to see Binotto leave, and I agree that he was an amazing, awesome engineer, but when you are talking about Team Principle you are talking about something much more than an engineer, you are talking about a leader. That is why Horner and Toto did so well, they are fiery people with both fury towards all others and try to beat them, but also kindness towards their successful workers. Look at the teams they built, it's in great harmony.

Binotto deserved to be a great race engineer forever, but leading a team was something he couldn't do. New leader should be someone who is great with people skills, not just racing, that's the key to success.

[AakZaki]

I read the 2023 Moto GP calendar, though it's still a long way to go. The opening in Portugal will be on March 26. For this year there are two name countries which are the new organizers of Kazakhstan and India. There are a total of 21 races for this season.

~snip~

It's great that my country is still on the 2023 MotoGP calendar. Mandalika will certainly be the epitome of racing in our country. Although my country does not yet have a driver who enters this race. I hope the riders won't be disappointed much because Mandalika has made some improvements. That fix has been used in this month's WSB races. The improvement was a creb that was 1 meter wide to 1.5 meters. In addition there seems to be a change in the run off in some corners. This is done in compliance with the homologation standard of grade A.

[Koal-84]

I read the 2023 Moto GP calendar, though it's still a long way to go. The opening in Portugal will be on March 26. For this year there are two name countries which are the new organizers of Kazakhstan and India. There are a total of 21 races for this season.

Last season there were already 20 races due to the cancellation of the Finnish Grand Prix, in 2021 there were 18 races, in 2019 before Corona there were 19 races. So next year's season is already particularly long with 21 races, even though I'm a big fan of Moto GP races, but I think that's already too much for the team in development and for the riders.

[swogerino]

It is official now, Binotto is out the new leader will be announced not before the 2023.

What a day for Jonh Elkann, in 12 hours he changed the lead of Ferrari and Juventus, both societies under his holding, Exor.

I think he has great project managers to replace them and both to be superior to these guys being "fired" from John Elkann otherwise if he does not replace them with successful successors it will be a really grave mistake.I believe that he will bring the new managers to be much more competitive,of course without removing nothing to Binotto which still remains one of the great minds of engineering in the F1 circus but he had his time and unfortunately did not bring any new title to Ferrari so that is why I agree with this move,it is time for a new face being able to bring a winning car for real and not half the season which would consequently bring back a F1 title to Ferrari that is waiting from more than 15 years now.

[SquallLeonhart]

It is a sad day to see Binotto leave, and I agree that he was an amazing, awesome engineer, but when you are talking about Team Principle you are talking about something much more than an engineer, you are talking about a leader. That is why Horner and Toto did so well, they are fiery people with both fury towards all others and try to beat them, but also kindness towards their successful workers. Look at the teams they built, it's in great harmony.

Binotto deserved to be a great race engineer forever, but leading a team was something he couldn't do. New leader should be someone who is great with people skills, not just racing, that's the key to success.

Ferrari always was a racing team, in fact it is known that while all other teams race to sell more cars, Ferrari sells cars to race more. Which is a pride for them, in fact they have a rule just for them and get extra money for being Ferrari, imagine how great they are. So to say that Binotto was "enough" for them would be an overstatement, dude was never enough for them and they need to be a lot better and they need someone that is a lot better as well.

I imagine AT LEAST a horner or toto level person at the helm, probably someone even better if they can, they need the greatest ever, because Ferrari has the history of being the greatest ever in the past.

[safari88]

Ferrari has actually also built a much bigger name with racing than Red Bull. Nevertheless, Red Bull has also achieved modest successes in the past. But you never see Red Bull cars driving on the highways, I don't think they exist either? Ferrari is better known to the general public than Red Bull, but has a lot of problems to solve before the start of the new season. If they don't get that right mechanically, it could well be another disappointing season. I expect Hamilton to be able to fight for the title again with Verstappen like 2 seasons ago.

[Distraction]

I hope this change will be good for Ferrari. Because their fans must be running out of patience now. Because Ferrari gave big hopes to them at the beginning of the season. They made a really good start to it also but the problems didn't end for them. Durability problems started to affect them really badly. Red Bull also had the same issues at the beginning but they at least fixed these issues in a short time. Somehow Ferrari couldn't do this and it just stayed like that for a long time in the season.

This problem was a big hindrance for Leclerc - Sainz duo. Because they were so ambitious to race with the fastest car on the grid but things turned upside down suddenly. Leclerc's championship dreams collapsed not much time later. Ferrari will need to create a new crew with better people to decrease the issues to minimum. Pit crew should also be changed after all those unbelievable mistakes.

[alegotardo]

I hope this change will be good for Ferrari. Because their fans must be running out of patience now. Because Ferrari gave big hopes to them at the beginning of the season. They made a really good start to it also but the problems didn't end for them. Durability problems started to affect them really badly. Red Bull also had the same issues at the beginning but they at least fixed these issues in a short time. Somehow Ferrari couldn't do this and it just stayed like that for a long time in the season.

Ferrari's main problem this year was certainly its engine... Ferrari's uneven performance in the last races of the 2022 Formula 1 season, which started in Mexico and extended to the "fight" they had against the team from Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, show how critical this problem was.

Anyone who has followed the team's trajectory this year knows that they had two problems to deal with: the first is the adjustment of the power unit, mainly the size of the turbo, which was not ideal for races at high altitude, such as the one that took place in Mexico. It's in Brazil.
The second was Mattia Binotto's confirmation after the last GP, as the team had to reduce engine performance in these last races because of reliability concerns.

In addition, Ferrari still had some failures of "great magnitude" and that cost a lot at the beginning of the campaign... Charles Leclerc incidents in Spain, then in Azerbaijan and finally the fire of Carlos Sainz in Austria . All this forced Ferrari to have to reduce the pace a little while they looked for a solution to the already existing problems.

I hope they now have enough time to get the shop in order and return for the 2023 season with everything set up.

[Koal-84]

Ferrari has actually also built a much bigger name with racing than Red Bull. Nevertheless, Red Bull has also achieved modest successes in the past. But you never see Red Bull cars driving on the highways, I don't think they exist either? Ferrari is better known to the general public than Red Bull, but has a lot of problems to solve before the start of the new season. If they don't get that right mechanically, it could well be another disappointing season. I expect Hamilton to be able to fight for the title again with Verstappen like 2 seasons ago.

Red Bull is also not a classic car manufacturer but first and foremost a beverage producer, Mateschitz used the sport in the early days (especially extreme sports) for marketing purposes, and I don't think there will ever be a Red Bull car for road use, why should there? Possibly a very small Supersport series...

Formula 1 and MotoGP are on the road worldwide and so the Red Bull brand is presented in a good light in all corners of the world, which in my opinion is the most important thing for Red Bull, money is earned with the drink and not with motorsport. What Red Bull has done very well, however, is to get very good technicians ahead of Newey and to build up the team, one after the other.

You can read the history of Red Bull racing here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_Racing

[swogerino]

Ferrari has actually also built a much bigger name with racing than Red Bull. Nevertheless, Red Bull has also achieved modest successes in the past. But you never see Red Bull cars driving on the highways, I don't think they exist either? Ferrari is better known to the general public than Red Bull, but has a lot of problems to solve before the start of the new season. If they don't get that right mechanically, it could well be another disappointing season. I expect Hamilton to be able to fight for the title again with Verstappen like 2 seasons ago.

We are not discussing which team has better history,we are discussing the actual times and the actual last season of F1 which just ended a couple of weeks ago.The engine to Redbull is provided by Honda a legendary Japanese provider which is also very well known in the highways,of course not as much as Ferrari but they too build really cool cars from family wagons to NSX their high end street racing car,in this context Redbull has nothing to envy to Ferrari as the engine they use is from a company at least as powerful as Ferrari and for me personally even more powerful.Ferrari as we have already discussed here has internal problems and it is these problems that they should fix and then starting to fight for the title again.

[tokeweed]

There are some talks about Sebastian Vettel taking a little break at first, but then becoming a team principle.

I know that Horner and Toto is solid at where they are and won't change, but if it is possible then Ferrari, or even Aston Martin that he left, or any other team that takes him could really have a huge chance. This dude is the epitome of a great driver who understands the car, like Lewis for example is a great racer, but he is great racer behind the wheel, but when he is out, he is just a fashion icon or whatever, whereas Vettel understands the car itself just like an engineer as well and that could really turn a team into a marvellous future if he can be hired.

It's def a possibilty...  Vettel becoming a team principal I mean.  But def not a team principal for Ferrari.  Vettel lost his hair in that team as obv there was a lot of team politics at play.  He even said that he wanted to as Schumacher for advice on the finer side of team politics.  But it wasn't possible because of Schumacher's skiing accident.

Back in the day in Red Bull, Vettel would be beside Horner when he got a DNF and just be looking at the monitors or in the garage he'd be talking to Newey to understand more about the car.  And it was said that he worked very closely with his engineers in the garage, working all night until the wee hours in the morning.  So yeah...

He'll prolly be groomed to be Red Bull's team principal to replace Horner. 

[LTU_btc]

Nothing unexpected - Chinese GP 2023 got cancelled again because of China Covid regulations.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula-1-confirms-2023-chinese-grand-prix-will-not-take-place.186HJrsCh027R2rl0eJnWG.html
Well, it's ridiculous. Wouldn't be surprised if even in year 2035 it will be cancelled again, considering China attitude towards Covid.
Anyway, can't say that I will miss this track much. Portimao track is mentioned as potential replacement, it would be great choice.

[RealMalatesta]

Ferrari's main problem this year was certainly its engine... Ferrari's uneven performance in the last races of the 2022 Formula 1 season, which started in Mexico and extended to the "fight" they had against the team from Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, show how critical this problem was.

Anyone who has followed the team's trajectory this year knows that they had two problems to deal with: the first is the adjustment of the power unit, mainly the size of the turbo, which was not ideal for races at high altitude, such as the one that took place in Mexico. It's in Brazil.
The second was Mattia Binotto's confirmation after the last GP, as the team had to reduce engine performance in these last races because of reliability concerns.

In addition, Ferrari still had some failures of "great magnitude" and that cost a lot at the beginning of the campaign... Charles Leclerc incidents in Spain, then in Azerbaijan and finally the fire of Carlos Sainz in Austria . All this forced Ferrari to have to reduce the pace a little while they looked for a solution to the already existing problems.

I hope they now have enough time to get the shop in order and return for the 2023 season with everything set up.

These are good problems to have actually, because it means you bilt a good car but it has problems running, if you can make the reliability problem gone, and make the car running at 100% without issues, that means you are going to win many races. Of course that's not easy neither, but building a good car is even harder, fixing the DNF issues is a lot better than building a good car.

Ferrari also had a lot of troubles with pit strategy and tire strategy as well, we all saw this, they called pilots at the wrong times and often had wrong tire choices as well. If they can fix the reliability issue and also the strategy team, then they have a very good chance to win it next year.

[CLS63]

Next season has a potential to be a very interesting one. Because Mercedes have made huge progress throughout last season. They have developed their car into a much faster and durable one. They have started to compete with Ferrari at the same level first and they even got close to Red Bull's level in the final moments of the season.

This is alarming for not only Ferrari but also Red Bull. Ferrari need to fix the issues within their car and continue on their way with new workers in their crew as well. Otherwise they can't keep up with those teams next season. Red Bull will also need to be ready against the Mercedes threat. Maybe Verstappen might not have a this much comfortable season this time.

[Zackgeno96]

Next season has a potential to be a very interesting one. Because Mercedes have made huge progress throughout last season. They have developed their car into a much faster and durable one. They have started to compete with Ferrari at the same level first and they even got close to Red Bull's level in the final moments of the season.

This is alarming for not only Ferrari but also Red Bull. Ferrari need to fix the issues within their car and continue on their way with new workers in their crew as well. Otherwise they can't keep up with those teams next season. Red Bull will also need to be ready against the Mercedes threat. Maybe Verstappen might not have a this much comfortable season this time.

Everyone has a bad day sometimes, but at Mercedes it turned out that a lot had gone wrong structurally last season. The only hope is that in the last race they showed how well they can still race if they have a good car. Verstappen's talent has no one on the whole earth, but if you have a good car it also drives a lot easier. The Hamilton era is over for now. If Hamilton's car is not 100% next year, they have no chance of winning the championship. Hamilton has not even won a single race, unthinkable really.

[coinlocket$]

Now it's official, the Chinese Grand Prix for 2023 has been canceled and the Shanghai Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row.
However, the will is to continue racing over 24 races



Source: https://twitter.com/F1/status/1598633240947851266

[alegotardo]

Now it's official, the Chinese Grand Prix for 2023 has been canceled and the Shanghai Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row.

It is already the fourth time that China's F1 grand prix has been cancelled.... regrettable.

Although much of the world has already loosened restrictions on the coronavirus pandemic, which made it possible for the almost full return of the standard F1 calendar in 2021, China continued to adopt stricter policies of lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines.

Unfortunately, one of the main reasons for these out-of-control outbreaks of covid in the Asian country is the low demand for the vaccine in the elderly population, and the government's refusal to import foreign immunizers. For these two main reasons, the number of deaths and hospitalizations in China has increased again to alarming proportions and triggered this wave of protests against confinements that end up having no effect on controlling the disease.

It's sad, but the cancellation of the GP in China is a right decision by the organization.

[swogerino]

Now it's official, the Chinese Grand Prix for 2023 has been canceled and the Shanghai Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row.
However, the will is to continue racing over 24 races

I think it is a pity as the Shanghai track is one of the best tracks in terms that it permits overtaking and a lot of them and after the new regulations introduced this year in the F1 circus the cars can follow each other much closer and we would be seeing a really nice race there.I think it is the right decision though to make as the Covid 19 is out-breaking yet again at a really fast rate in China and the government does not seem to contain it except that shutting down a lot of things including the F1 race.

[Juggy777]

Now it's official, the Chinese Grand Prix for 2023 has been canceled and the Shanghai Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row.

It is already the fourth time that China's F1 grand prix has been cancelled.... regrettable.

Although much of the world has already loosened restrictions on the coronavirus pandemic, which made it possible for the almost full return of the standard F1 calendar in 2021, China continued to adopt stricter policies of lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines.

Unfortunately, one of the main reasons for these out-of-control outbreaks of covid in the Asian country is the low demand for the vaccine in the elderly population, and the government's refusal to import foreign immunizers. For these two main reasons, the number of deaths and hospitalizations in China has increased again to alarming proportions and triggered this wave of protests against confinements that end up having no effect on controlling the disease.

It's sad, but the cancellation of the GP in China is a right decision by the organization.

Now it's official, the Chinese Grand Prix for 2023 has been canceled and the Shanghai Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row.
However, the will is to continue racing over 24 races

I think it is a pity as the Shanghai track is one of the best tracks in terms that it permits overtaking and a lot of them and after the new regulations introduced this year in the F1 circus the cars can follow each other much closer and we would be seeing a really nice race there.I think it is the right decision though to make as the Covid 19 is out-breaking yet again at a really fast rate in China and the government does not seem to contain it except that shutting down a lot of things including the F1 race.

I too am not at all happy with this cancellation but it would have been a nightmare too had this race been on, due to the zero covid policy in China. Furthermore what’s more annoying is that F1 hasn’t announced a replacement yet for this race, and they probably won’t be having a replacement which is really sad in my personal opinion.

[coinlocket$]

The FIA is thinking of changing the rules of the formula again.
This time they are talking about changing the penalties in case a team has to change engine parts over the limit.

Currently, anyone who goes beyond the limit of permitted changes takes a penalty on the starting grid, they are thinking of moving the penalty to the first pit box.

They think it's more severe as a penalty but I think it can have the opposite effect.