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

[Davian144]

The official pre-season test at the Sepang circuit on the first day, which is today, is over. And to this day, the Ducati motorbike still shows extraordinary strength, even though the average speed of the Ducati motorbike in the test session is not much different from the speed of other motorbikes such as Yamaha and Honda motorbikes.

Today is a very extraordinary day for Marco Bezzecchi because he managed to score the best and fastest time on the old version of the Ducati motorbike and will there be another surprise from different riders tomorrow? Let's see tomorrow's second day of testing at the same circuit. Here are two pictures I took from local sources

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[Luzin]

The official pre-season test at the Sepang circuit on the first day, which is today, is over. And to this day, the Ducati motorbike still shows extraordinary strength, even though the average speed of the Ducati motorbike in the test session is not much different from the speed of other motorbikes such as Yamaha and Honda motorbikes.

Sure, even I think Ducati will still dominate this season. They have worked hard for the development of motoe. Last season they showed it. They also found drivers who were willing to work hard and provide constant feedback. So this moment looks like it will continue. Maybe 3-4 years. In the past, Honda was also very successful when it had the right drivers. This year, Ducati is the favorite to win. Even though I know this test is only the beginning, the best riders are still adapting. I think the second test the results will change.

[Volgastallion]

AlphaTauri is not very eager to launch its car for the next season this year, it seems to me.
For now they have limited themselves to teasing their fans with just an image of some details of the car on their social networks....
That photo of the tire with a very "different" design and color compared to the 2022 is totally irrelevant.

It is promised for this Saturday (the 11th) the presentation of the AT04 with a new painting, but is that all?

Like other automakers, AlphaTauri also has a new master sponsor (Orlen). But it seems to me that it's really a big change, the only thing I see is the departure of Pierre Gasly for the arrival of Nyck de Vries.

Im really tired about Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri and pissed of Red Bull management, they always says all the years something like " This year our B team its gonna raise the stick and can compete for top spots" but always ended in the same way, nothing happen and a shit year comes, a good year after you again dream about it, and when you think this finally its gonna happen again in the hole.

[emrecemsan]

I'm not surprised with seeing the odds favouring Mercedes more than Ferrari as the second team right after Red Bull. Because they must be relying on the latest looks of Ferrari and Mercedes in the previous season. You know how much power Ferrari lost and Mercedes made a really great effort in the meantime to catch up with them. In the latest races they really did it and even got better results than Ferraris from time to time. There is no solid proof yet like Ferrari is faster than Mercedes again so they might be taking the latest season into account.

But if we see Ferrari regaining their strength for real they can still be one step ahead of Mercedes actually. Mercedes are also improving their car on one hand but I don't know if they can deal with the best version of Ferrari's car. It would be great to see Red Bull and those two teams fighting for the championship all as well. 

[swogerino]

Mclaren is thinking about changing the engine for 2026.
They are probably going to leave Mercedes and go back to Honda with Redbull and maybe more teams.

To me this if true is great news.The glorious times of Senna and McLaren Honda are the most successful years of McLaren in my opinion during their whole history.I know that they failed in a really big way in their first comeback of 2015 and McLaren I think rushed to go back to Mercedes as we all saw what a Honda engine is capable to do if given enough time to their engineers,they won Redbull already two titles in the last 2 years while they are one of the favorites for the upcoming season.If McLaren waited I think they would be fighting for the title in these last years so I hope the comeback of 2026 is a true comeback bringing back the memories every McLaren fan wants to live again.

[el kaka22]

AlphaTauri is not at a place where they are looking to really be competitive at all. They do have a "decent" car, not a last place level car if you ask me, and that should stay this year as well. But they have 2 drivers who are not experienced, Nick is a freshman and Tsunoda hasn't been around for that long neither.

It means that they didn't pay much to them, and they are spending that money on building the future car and research. Many teams will eventually do that, 2026 will be a big season with a ton of changes, so I wouldn't be shocked if teams outside of top three would start using their funds to have a better car in 2026 and forget these next 3 seasons.

[coinlocket$]

Finally a real car but it has fake wings  .

They copied Ferrari and Redbull.





Source: https://www.formulapassion.it/opinioni/carlo-platella/f1-haas-vf23-analisi-tecnica-anteprima-di-novita-ferrari

[dezoel]

I think Haas did something similar to that, got Mick and Mazepin, one of them just brought in only money and nothing else, the other brought in some attention and sponsorships because of his father. Basically that duo was there to make sure Haas spent absolutely nothing and just made profit and used that money for last years car, and now this years of course.

With both of those drivers gone and they have hulkenberg with magnussen, that means that we are going to see them be awesome for sure. Same could happen with Alpha Tauri, or any team that wants to be good, hire 2 cheap racers who bring in money, suck for a few years, and use that to get better car and kick the drivers and get better ones for the better car.

[püsür]

Lewis Hamilton is the greatest example of the 'dominating is disliked' thesis. Since he has been the champion for years every season, people got bored and started to hate him with the psychology of competing and seeing another champion. It is said that he will lose this year in every competition, and every year he wins again, causing anger to accumulate. On the other hand, Schumacher was a more nasty character, almost killing his former teammate Barichello in the race. The crew who is waving to lewis now worships Schumi, but Schumi was also disliked when he dominated, years later he gained value. It will be the same for Sir. Max will be hated if he continues like this.

[dothebeats]

Lewis Hamilton is the greatest example of the 'dominating is disliked' thesis. Since he has been the champion for years every season, people got bored and started to hate him with the psychology of competing and seeing another champion. It is said that he will lose this year in every competition, and every year he wins again, causing anger to accumulate. On the other hand, Schumacher was a more nasty character, almost killing his former teammate Barichello in the race. The crew who is waving to lewis now worships Schumi, but Schumi was also disliked when he dominated, years later he gained value. It will be the same for Sir. Max will be hated if he continues like this.

People appreciate greatness when they see one, but they certainly don't want to see the same person in the pedestal for a long period of time. It just wears out their 'respect' for that person even though that person is truly showing talent and skill. Hamilton doesn't really deserve all the hate. He's a top chap and has shown his character is, for the most part, likeable. It's not his problem that his team built the most dominant car for years, helping him achieve championships after championships. To be honest, I only watched F1 again because of Hamilton and Bottas and their synergy on the track a few years back. Had it not been for Hamilton, I would not be following F1 after Schumacher retired.

[coinlocket$]

Another fake car, this time Alpha Tauri and luckily it will be the last rendering.



Source: https://www.formulapassion.it/motorsport/formula-1/alphatauri-new-york-moda-motori-insieme

[swogerino]

Another fake car, this time Alpha Tauri and luckily it will be the last rendering.

Source: https://www.formulapassion.it/motorsport/formula-1/alphatauri-new-york-moda-motori-insieme

From after tomorrow I think the real presentations of the big ones will start and soon after we will have some testing and then soon after that we will be watching the first 2023 F1 race and that is just awesome!

I am personally not that much interested in the real car presentations as I am in seeing how well will they perform in the very short time testing that we will have before starting the season,I think we will have just 2 or a maximum of 3 days of testing and that is a very short amount of time to gather real data on different cars and their performance,for me the real measurement of how well a car performs will be the official qualifying of the first race.

[BitcoinAccepted]

The last time was a flop when the new Red Bull car was presented. It turned out to be the same car with a different sticker here and there. At least that's how Max Verstappen himself put it. Soon we would really see the new car from Red Bull. They turn out to have built a great car again. However, I am also curious about how the competition has done in recent months? Sitting still is a decline in this sport, but can Red Bull be kept up if you look at last season? There is no better driver than Verstappen, but with a bad car Verstappen will not become world champion, of course.

[Koal-84]

So what do you guys think?  Any chance Merc or Ferrari snag the top spot from RBR this year?

To be honest, this year I have the feeling that Ferrari has the strongest car, and if they stop making mistakes, they could have the strongest car the whole season. Last season, Ferrari definitely had the strongest car in the first half of the season and lost a lot of important points due to their own mistakes (strategy, pit stops, etc.).

My guess is that Ferrari will be the strongest car, followed closely by RedBull and Mercedes.

[coinlocket$]

New Mclaren here it seems they have a real front wing.



It seems they are going to Mercedes direction with a very thin car on sides

Pic Source: https://www.mclaren.com/racing/2023/car-launch/mclaren-celebrates-landmark-anniversary-new-driver-line-up-for-mcl60/

[Distraction]

To be honest, this year I have the feeling that Ferrari has the strongest car, and if they stop making mistakes, they could have the strongest car the whole season. Last season, Ferrari definitely had the strongest car in the first half of the season and lost a lot of important points due to their own mistakes (strategy, pit stops, etc.).

My guess is that Ferrari will be the strongest car, followed closely by RedBull and Mercedes.

I also feel like Ferrari will have the fastest car in this new season. Because they are saying that there is a big improvement in the engine by 30 horsepower.

This is a really big improvement indeed. Because they didn't see any other way than cutting the power by some rate last season to get ahead of serious issues. But now they are claiming that there is no need anymore. I really can't trust them completely yet as we are talking about Ferrari.    We need to see them racing without the same problems for some weeks to be convinced about them. Then I can say my favourite for the championship will be Ferrari this time.

[swogerino]

To be honest, this year I have the feeling that Ferrari has the strongest car, and if they stop making mistakes, they could have the strongest car the whole season. Last season, Ferrari definitely had the strongest car in the first half of the season and lost a lot of important points due to their own mistakes (strategy, pit stops, etc.).

My guess is that Ferrari will be the strongest car, followed closely by RedBull and Mercedes.

I also feel like Ferrari will have the fastest car in this new season. Because they are saying that there is a big improvement in the engine by 30 horsepower.

This is a really big improvement indeed. Because they didn't see any other way than cutting the power by some rate last season to get ahead of serious issues. But now they are claiming that there is no need anymore. I really can't trust them completely yet as we are talking about Ferrari.    We need to see them racing without the same problems for some weeks to be convinced about them. Then I can say my favourite for the championship will be Ferrari this time.

They have not promised anything officially to their "tifosi" for the upcoming season and that is a good decision by the team management.Every time they promised they didn't deliver and things changed to not good even when they started like last year by winning the first couple of races which dramatically increased their "tifosi" expectations.This year they have just said that there have been big improvements and that they have worked hard to fight to win every race of the calendar.

I think they have build a fast car but I am sure they are not the only team to have improved dramatically their car,most likely even other teams like Mercedes and Redbull have also done so.

[dothebeats]

To be honest, this year I have the feeling that Ferrari has the strongest car, and if they stop making mistakes, they could have the strongest car the whole season. Last season, Ferrari definitely had the strongest car in the first half of the season and lost a lot of important points due to their own mistakes (strategy, pit stops, etc.).

My guess is that Ferrari will be the strongest car, followed closely by RedBull and Mercedes.

I also feel like Ferrari will have the fastest car in this new season. Because they are saying that there is a big improvement in the engine by 30 horsepower.

This is a really big improvement indeed. Because they didn't see any other way than cutting the power by some rate last season to get ahead of serious issues. But now they are claiming that there is no need anymore. I really can't trust them completely yet as we are talking about Ferrari.    We need to see them racing without the same problems for some weeks to be convinced about them. Then I can say my favourite for the championship will be Ferrari this time.

Ferrari is quite inconsistent in their reports about their car, but they can damn sure create a powerful car that can breeze through corners and fly through straights if they wanted to. Their main problem is communication and strategies, as was evidenced last season. They have no problem in terms of their car and can compete to the best constructors out there. Just hope that they can do something about the additional power that they slap into their car and win some championships. Leclerc is a good driver, so is Sainz. They just have to get those timings in pit stops and they're golden.

[Davian144]

Sure, even I think Ducati will still dominate this season. They have worked hard for the development of motoe. Last season they showed it. They also found drivers who were willing to work hard and provide constant feedback. So this moment looks like it will continue. Maybe 3-4 years. In the past, Honda was also very successful when it had the right drivers. This year, Ducati is the favorite to win. Even though I know this test is only the beginning, the best riders are still adapting. I think the second test the results will change.

During the three days of testing there were always changes and what was unique was that on the last day of the test at the Sepang circuit, the Mooney VR46 team, which used last year's version of the Ducati motorbike, again managed to become the fastest through its best racer Luca Marini with a top speed of 336.4KM /H even though the top speed was still narrowly inferior to that made by Bagnaia on the last day. But Luca Marini managed to score the best and fastest time of all the drivers who were there at that time.

Talking about the success of the MotoGP manufacturers in the past, where Ducati was still not very dominant (except in 2007) so what is often seen is the two Japanese manufacturers who often compete at the front, namely Honda and Yamaha. Because statistically the wins for these two manufacturers in MotoGP are very thin, although in recent years it has been Ducati that has begun to rise and have had success last year and it is still very possible for Ducati to repeat this season.

[coinlocket$]

Ferrari is here and it is rumored they used a grey area of the regulation to get a top-speed advantage imitating the old S-Duch if you can remember it 5 ish years ago.


If they really did it, it would probably be 10km/h at top speed.