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

[alegotardo]

Rumors are that Ferrari gained great pace in this mini-break we had with F1 so I'm really curious how they will perform in Baku because usually they had good performances over the years. If they somehow catch a podium on Sunday , I think they will re-become the 2nd faster car after RedBull because in the long run I don't see AM remaining on 2nd place but I do see them securing that 3rd spot over Mercedes.

Yep, I've read the same.
It is quite unbelievable so far they were slower than the previous year, without big change in the regulation

So... The Azerbaijan track is already quite "chaotic" and I think that debuting a new sprint format just now will heat up the disputes a lot.
Okay, the idea is to have more competitive sessions on the weekend and make the two events independent so that the drivers attack more in the sprint, but I think that even with this different format, Red Bull is still the favourite.

In my opinion, Baku's long straights should favor Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez's car, as it generates less air resistance and reaches high top speeds without needing very small wings.
Also speaking of Aston Martin, they also promised a rear wing that generates less drag to try to solve the chronic problem of final speed of Fernando Alonso's car and Mercedes also announced that it would bring news to its car.

F1 is constantly changing so it's hard to talk about favourites, but I still believe in Red Bull.

[swogerino]

Rumors are that Ferrari gained great pace in this mini-break we had with F1 so I'm really curious how they will perform in Baku because usually they had good performances over the years. If they somehow catch a podium on Sunday , I think they will re-become the 2nd faster car after RedBull because in the long run I don't see AM remaining on 2nd place but I do see them securing that 3rd spot over Mercedes.

Yep, I've read the same.
It is quite unbelievable so far they were slower than the previous year, without big change in the regulation

So... The Azerbaijan track is already quite "chaotic" and I think that debuting a new sprint format just now will heat up the disputes a lot.
Okay, the idea is to have more competitive sessions on the weekend and make the two events independent so that the drivers attack more in the sprint, but I think that even with this different format, Red Bull is still the favourite.

In my opinion, Baku's long straights should favor Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez's car, as it generates less air resistance and reaches high top speeds without needing very small wings.
Also speaking of Aston Martin, they also promised a rear wing that generates less drag to try to solve the chronic problem of final speed of Fernando Alonso's car and Mercedes also announced that it would bring news to its car.

F1 is constantly changing so it's hard to talk about favourites, but I still believe in Red Bull.

I didn't know that we would have a sprint race on Saturday and on today we will have the "qualifying" format as how will the cars be up for the start of the sprint race.For me I am always happy when we have a sprint race as especially in this track where it is wide in most places and it can be very narrow at that slowest corner of the season if I am not mistaken near the castle.I think we can see a lot of happening despite this being a small race,the sprint one and we can have a really good understanding of where the cars line up for the race so we can place some good bets and win some money here.

I don't think in 3 weeks though some time to have improved that much to beat Redbull but I would welcome very much if some team has closed the gap to them in a decent amount.

[bitgolden]

Rumors are that Ferrari gained great pace in this mini-break we had with F1 so I'm really curious how they will perform in Baku because usually they had good performances over the years. If they somehow catch a podium on Sunday , I think they will re-become the 2nd faster car after RedBull because in the long run I don't see AM remaining on 2nd place but I do see them securing that 3rd spot over Mercedes.

Ferrari keeps saying that and then they go out and make a huge mistake and that causes them to lose points yet again. Like for Australia, it wasn't just pace or car that mattered, sure that matters but Charles just got out and got zero points because of that, and Sainz hit Alonso and lost all points because of that as well.

All those combined causes them to lose points, that has nothing to do with the state of the car at all, they could get a lot faster and if they keep making these mistakes then they are going to end up being worse yet again. So this is why they need to minimalize the mistakes and then the car would be important improvement. You can give that crew the best car and they would find a way to lose anyway.

[coinlocket$]

   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m42.315s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.352s
3   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m42.454s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.899s
5   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m43.125s
6   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m43.414s
7   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m43.455s
8   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m43.560s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m43.628s
10   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m43.748s
11   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.798s
12   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m43.980s
13   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m44.010s
14   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m44.137s
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m44.323s
16   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m44.900s
17   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m45.082s
18   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m45.955s
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m46.321s
20   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m47.498s

Results: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1024814/1/f1-2023-azerbaijan-grand-prix-friday-practice-1-results



Remember the qualify will be done today afternoon since we will have the sprint race.

[Velvet78]

Leclerc's performance seemed nice in the first practice session maybe. But I still can't fully trust Ferrari on one hand. Because the season hasn't started well for them and they don't seem convincing yet. But my hope is that Leclerc finishes the race on podium at least. It is up to Ferrari's preparing the right strategies for Leclerc as well. Because they haven't seemed very good at it so far.

Ferrari couldn't make the necessary amount of improvement in the car either. They are still far away from being in a race with Red Bull for being the top team. Even Aston Martin have made a huge improvement despite being terrible last season.

[retreat]

Rumors are that Ferrari gained great pace in this mini-break we had with F1 so I'm really curious how they will perform in Baku because usually they had good performances over the years. If they somehow catch a podium on Sunday , I think they will re-become the 2nd faster car after RedBull because in the long run I don't see AM remaining on 2nd place but I do see them securing that 3rd spot over Mercedes.

This break moment can be an opportunity for the Ferrari team to be able to fix various internal problems and take a moment to breathe. Given their worsening performance, this break could be their chance to review their performance and see what they can improve on. And I'm quite optimistic that the Ferrari team will be able to improve their performance in the race at the Baku circuit later.

[Davian144]

I was a little surprised when I saw the results of the FP1 MotoGP Jerez today because the first position with a pretty good time record was obtained by a rider who had retired from MotoGP. He is Dani Pedrosa from the KTM team where he is a test rider on the KTM factory team and from some local news I have read, Dani Pedrosa did take his wildcard spot in MotoGP Jerez this time so he will also be racing in this race.

[emrecemsan]

We have got the results of the qualifying session in Azerbaijan. I have realized how much I missed Formula 1 by this lovely session. Mercedes haven't made a very good start before anything else. Russell said goodbye to the session in Q2 already. I had bigger expectations from him to tell the truth. The race week started like a nightmare for Haas drivers as well. But one thing has drawn my attention the most and that is a big leap by Leclerc. You know how bad Ferrari started to the season before I start.

However it looks like Ferrari and especially Leclerc didn't just wait for the break to the end. There is a big progress I see now as Leclerc has the pole position. But the most important point is still going to be to reflect this effort onto the race as well. Leclerc and Ferrari both need a decent result here. Even finishing in top 3 would be nice.

[boltz]

Rumors are that Ferrari gained great pace in this mini-break we had with F1 so I'm really curious how they will perform in Baku because usually they had good performances over the years. If they somehow catch a podium on Sunday , I think they will re-become the 2nd faster car after RedBull because in the long run I don't see AM remaining on 2nd place but I do see them securing that 3rd spot over Mercedes.

It looks like the rumors were true and Ferrari indeed gained a lot of pace during this F1 break and I'm sure they still have some pace to gain until Barcelona. Today , Leclerc had his 3 straight Azerbaijan Pole and I do think Leclerc will manage to keep his position until the end of the race ...if somehow won't crash it like he did back in 2019.

[coinlocket$]

1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m41.269s    1m41.037s   1m40.203s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m41.398s   1m40.822s   1m40.391s
3   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m41.756s   1m41.131s   1m40.495s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.197s   1m41.369s    1m41.016s
5   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m42.113s   1m41.650s   1m41.177s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m41.720s   1m41.370s    1m41.253s
7   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.154s   1m41.485s   1m41.281s
8   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m42.234s   1m41.569s   1m41.581s
9   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m42.524s    1m41.576s   1m41.611s
10   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.455s   1m41.636s   1m41.611s
11   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m42.073s   1m41.654s   
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m42.622s   1m41.798s    
13   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m42.171s   1m41.818s   
14   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m42.582s   1m42.259   
15   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m42.242s   1m42.395s   
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m42.642s        
17   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m42.755s       
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m43.417s        
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m44.853s        
20   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m55.282s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1024890/1/f1-2023-azerbaijan-grand-prix-friday-qualifying-results


Pole position for Ferrari, so they were not just rumors, Ferrari improved!

Fun qualify, with 2 red flags.

[swogerino]

1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m41.269s    1m41.037s   1m40.203s
2   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m41.398s   1m40.822s   1m40.391s
3   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m41.756s   1m41.131s   1m40.495s
4   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.197s   1m41.369s    1m41.016s
5   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m42.113s   1m41.650s   1m41.177s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m41.720s   1m41.370s    1m41.253s
7   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.154s   1m41.485s   1m41.281s
8   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m42.234s   1m41.569s   1m41.581s
9   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m42.524s    1m41.576s   1m41.611s
10   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m42.455s   1m41.636s   1m41.611s
11   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m42.073s   1m41.654s   
12   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m42.622s   1m41.798s    
13   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m42.171s   1m41.818s   
14   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m42.582s   1m42.259   
15   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m42.242s   1m42.395s   
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m42.642s        
17   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m42.755s       
18   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m43.417s        
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m44.853s        
20   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m55.282s

Source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1024890/1/f1-2023-azerbaijan-grand-prix-friday-qualifying-results


Pole position for Ferrari, so they were not just rumors, Ferrari improved!

Fun qualify, with 2 red flags.

A fun and entertaining one for real.I thought that Verstappen would win or Perez but Leclerc surprised all of us for the good,I saw some improvement from Mercedes as well.I hope that in the Sunday race because the Sprint of tomorrow does not count for qualification as per the new rules of F1 this season,Ferrari has no problems like last year where both cars had mechanical failures so they could not finish the race.In this very beautiful city track having all the teams fighting for the top positions including the McLaren pleasant surprise will make sure we see a fun and entertaining race also.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Yet another great performance from Leclerc that he took the Pole Position, but Verstappen remains the favorite tomorrow, although the bookmakers are also confident in a good outcome for Leclerc. But free racing and racing against others there is a big difference of course. I don't know if Baku is a circuit where you can easily overtake people, because if it is then there is no one better than Verstappen. With Ferrari, Leclerc will see this as a golden opportunity to join RedBull, which has been dominating quite a bit so far. But the start will also say a lot. For Verstappen a small advantage that Perez is also among the best 3 drivers, that can come in handy later on.

[coinlocket$]

Leclerc is probably the best driver in this F1 for the single lap time attack in qualify, better than Hamilton and Verstapper for sure.

[Davian144]

Yesterday the asphalt temperature at the Jerez circuit looked very hot and not as usual so many riders complained about this because when there is excessive heat on the asphalt, the thing that is often the problem is the front tires so that many racers cannot score their best times. And this was also proven by several Honda riders who crashed in yesterday's Free Practice session because maybe they (the Honda riders) suffered a lot when the heat was too much. Hopefully for today the weather and temperature conditions will be better because today there is FP3 and Qualification and Sprint Race.

[swogerino]

Leclerc is probably the best driver in this F1 for the single lap time attack in qualify, better than Hamilton and Verstapper for sure.

I agree with this statement but the problem is that most drivers that are and were World Champions their strength were not a single lap but being consistently fast throughout the race,we have Senna a legend of F1 in which beside having a lot of pole positions he was blazing fast through the races and Donnington 1993 first lap I recommend anyone to check it on Youtube to see him blazing from 6th to first by overtaking the riders through the lap.

I think if Leclerc keeps improving himself to do faster laps throughout the race can have real chances even this season which looks already in Redbull hands to open it up again and we would all love this.

[coinlocket$]

HE did it again.

Pos.   Driver   Nat.   Team   Q1   Q2   Q3
1   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m42.820s   1m42.500s   1m41.697s
2   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m43.858s   1m42.925s   1m41.844s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m43.288s   1m42.417s   1m41.987s
4   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.763s   1m43.112s   1m42.252s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m43.622s   1m42.909s   1m42.287s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m43.561s   1m43.061s   1m42.502s
7   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m43.987s   1m43.376s   1m42.846s
8   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m43.789s   1m42.976s   1m43.010s
9   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m43.879s   1m43.375s   1m43.064s
10   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m43.938s    1m43.395s   No time set
11   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m44.179s   1m43.427s   
12   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m44.843s   1m43.806s   
13   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m44.433s   1m44.088s   
14   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m44.101s   1m44.332s   
15   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m44.042s   No time set   
16   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m45.17ss       
17   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m45.352s       
18   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m45.436s       
19   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m46.951s       
20   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m48.180s


Leclerc set the pole position for the Sprint race once again.

Starting in 1 hour, source: https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1024996/1/f1-2023-azerbaijan-grand-prix-sprint-shootout-results

[Captain Corporate]

It really wasn't that weird to see Perez at the top, Max probably had some damage from the Russel tossel, and that is why he didn't really do that well. He was so close to Charles all sprint long but couldn't reach to him for some reason. I am guessing that if there wasn't any issues with the car (and team radio said he had some damage to the car as well) he would have caught up to Charles as well. It reached to DRS range quite a few times but that ended up with nothing and he couldn't pass him. This track has a great straight where anyone can catch up to anyone, even worse cars can pass better cars, but unfortunately Max didn't had the car to do that, must be the damage. Shows that tomorrow will be even harder for Charles without a doubt.

[Velvet78]

Leclerc started as the leader to the sprint race maybe but he still couldn't keep the lead I'm afraid. Perez waited for the right time and it didn't take him a very long time to overtake Leclerc later on. Verstappen seemed slower than my expectations. I don't know why he has been in the background for a while at this weekend. Of course his performance hasn't been bad.

But still people expect more from Verstappen in the end. I thought that maybe it was limited to the qualifying session only but the sprint race also didn't change anything. The big race is still a much longer one so I'm still waiting for him to do better than this. But honestly I wouldn't say no to seeing a different winner just to make the season more fun.

[tokeweed]

^  It's prolly just one of those days when no matter how hard they try, the team just can't find the right settings for the car, for the driver and for a specific track and its conditions.  And it looks like the break was more beneficial for Ferrari than it was for Mercedes.  Could make for an interesting race.  

Anyway, here are the results for sprint race at the Azerbaijan GP.  Enjoy the weekend  and good luck to everybody's bets.

2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP  Sprint Race Results
1   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Red Bull Racing   17 laps
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   +4.463s
3   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   +5.065s
4   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   +8.532s
5   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   +10.388s
6   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   +11.613s
7   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   +16.503s
8   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   +18.417s
9   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   +21.757s
10   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   +22.851s
11   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   +27.990s
12   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   +34.602s
13   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   +36.918s
14   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   +41.626s
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   +48.587s
16   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   +49.917s
17   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   +51.104s
18   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   +60.621s
DNF   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1 lap

[swogerino]

Well it looks like the guy who is now the master of city circuits won it again,I think tomorrow we will see the same scenario in the race as long as we are racing in normal conditions and drivers do not go and crash against the wall like they did in yesterday qualifying.I am happy for Ferrari,their comeback is greatly appreciated and the fact that Leclerc kept Verstappen behind during this small sprint race means a lot,means Ferrari has returned,also Mercedes has returned but not at that rate that they have been claiming in interviews given to different sources.