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

[boltz]

Sainz finally has some ego in him and it was about time! Now , he needs to keep this pace during races and this might safe his seat in Ferrari for next season because if he won't perform at least decent this year , I'm afraid his contract will end sooner than 2026 and same goes for Leclerc. I mean , we all know Ferrari doesn't have a competitive car this year but they do have a car that they could finish 3rd and so far , they will be 4th place.

This special livery for McLaren for Monaco GP is absolutely amazing and I love it! The story behind it , is that they are champions of triple crown ; LeMans, Indy and F1 Monaco GP.

[swogerino]

Sainz finally has some ego in him and it was about time! Now , he needs to keep this pace during races and this might safe his seat in Ferrari for next season because if he won't perform at least decent this year , I'm afraid his contract will end sooner than 2026 and same goes for Leclerc. I mean , we all know Ferrari doesn't have a competitive car this year but they do have a car that they could finish 3rd and so far , they will be 4th place.

This special livery for McLaren for Monaco GP is absolutely amazing and I love it! The story behind it , is that they are champions of triple crown ; LeMans, Indy and F1 Monaco GP.

The special livery is also because they have won the Monaco GP more than any other teams in the F1,5 wins Prost,4 Senna,2 Coulthard,1 Hakkinen,1 Raikkonen and 1 Lewis Hamilton.

In the free practices looks like Ferrari is right there behind Max Verstappen and if this was to be the true form for Ferrari also in the race it would be perfect.A little rain tomorrow might make the qualifying awesome as in rain and a track like Monaco is not the car that makes the difference but the driver and I would love to see a rainy qualifying tomorrow.

[coinlocket$]

Free practice 2 completed, and Ferrari is very competitive here on this track like the previous years.


2023 F1 MONACO GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (2)
POS    DRIVER    NAT.   TEAM    TIME
1   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m12.462s
2   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari   1m12.527s
3   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Scuderia Ferrari   1m12.569s
4   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m12.682s
5   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren F1 Team   1m12.906s
6   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m12.960s
7   Sergio Perez   MEX   Oracle Bull Racing   1m12.991s
8   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m13.050s
9   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m13.089s
10   Esteban Ocon   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m13.162s
11   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team   1m13.185s
12   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m13.191s
13   Zhou Guanyu   CHN   Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake   1m13.354s
14   Kevin Magnussen   DEN   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m13.457s
15   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   MoneyGram Haas F1 Team   1m13.520s
16   Yuki Tsunoda   JPN   Scuderia AlphaTauri    1m13.641s
17   Nyck de Vries   NED   Scuderia AlphaTauri   1m13.663s
18   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren F1 Team   1m13.673s
19   Alex Albon   THA   Williams Racing   1m14.217s
20   Logan Sargeant   USA   Williams Racing   1m14.238s   

Source https://www.crash.net/f1/results/1026853/1/f1-2023-monaco-grand-prix-friday-practice-results

[boltz]

Alonso really had a very solid qualifying session and almost had a pole but Max snatched it from him in the last moment which once again proves that he is indeed one of the greatest even if the car is helping him a lot.

Tomorrow , I have a feeling that we might see more than 1 Safety car deployed during the race and if somehow we have an incident in front , I think we are up for a surprise winner if not , Max will secure it easily. 

[coinlocket$]

Verstappen got the pole position with Alonso in second place and Leclerc in third place.

If nothing happens it will be an easy win again for RBR in this track

[püsür]

It looks like it will be such a tight qualifying session if we don't see any accident during it. Because we have FP2 results in hand as well and there is a really slight time gap between Verstappen and Leclerc at top - 0.065s. To tell the truth I'm still expecting Sainz to prepare for a strong attack in the qualifying session because he has also seemed quite fast so far. But my favourite driver to take pole position is Leclerc now. Even though Red Bull is the strongest team on the grid things change a lot in Monaco.

The reason why is that Monaco track is completely different from all others. Cornering performance is the most important factor here. Right now Ferrari seems faster at turns rather than straights in comparison to Red Bull. This is just the track for Ferrari with a downforce focused car setup. I hope Leclerc doesn't mess up his weekend while pushing to the limit in the qualifying session tomorrow.

Verstappen, which entered the last sector by 0.204, closed ahead by 0.084. I don't understand how he drove in that last sector without rubbing against the walls. 1-2 people have said that the last sector success was due to the car, but it has nothing to do with the car. In a normal race, only 0.3 can be won on a long straight. 0.3 in the last sector, 99% verstappen's driving. He approached the barriers more than anyone else and drove almost at the limits. It was a qualifying round that proved once again why Monaco is special. this is a circuit that really pushes the final limits of pilots, and it should stay on the calendar.

[LTU_btc]

Verstappen, which entered the last sector by 0.204, closed ahead by 0.084. I don't understand how he drove in that last sector without rubbing against the walls. 1-2 people have said that the last sector success was due to the car, but it has nothing to do with the car. In a normal race, only 0.3 can be won on a long straight. 0.3 in the last sector, 99% verstappen's driving. He approached the barriers more than anyone else and drove almost at the limits. It was a qualifying round that proved once again why Monaco is special. this is a circuit that really pushes the final limits of pilots, and it should stay on the calendar.

It was one of the best qualifying sessios recently. After 2 sectors it already looked that Alonso have pole in his hands. But then Verstappen did something unbeleavable. He didn't just hit the wall twice, but also he had lot of traffic in flying lap. Alonso did everything what he can, but it was simply impossible to do something against such Verstappen.
And Perez crash, in Monaco it costs so much. Now it's impossible for him to fight for good points.

[coinlocket$]

Breaking news Leclerc got 3 position penalty for impeding Norris according to Stewarts.

He will now start from 6th position.

Also as I said previous days rain is a huge possibility

According to Google, we will have 70% ish at race time.



Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=meteo+montecarclo&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=APwXEdc8xuOg6Doo5sPX0V3-T2psIH-hwA%3A1685224428971&ei=7HtyZPj3OoTzkgW4qJbICQ&ved=0ahUKEwj4ndKbvpb_AhWEuaQKHTiUBZkQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=meteo+montecarclo&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIMCAAQDRCABBBGEIACMgkIABANEIAEEAoyBggAEB4QDTIGCAAQHhANMgYIABAeEA0yBggAEB4QDTIGCAAQHhANMgYIABAeEA0yCQgAEB4QDRDxBDIGCAAQHhANOgoIABBHENYEELADOgoIIxCKBRAnEJ0COgUIABDLAToHCAAQChDLAToKCAAQywEQRhCAAkoECEEYAFD1CVimFmDaF2gBcAF4AIAB3QGIAdYIkgEFOS4xLjGYAQCgAQHAAQHIAQg&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

[jakdanyel]

There was some extraordinary driving by Verstappen there in qualifying.    Maybe he has the fastest car on the grid now but indeed it isn't easy to just say that it was only due to the quickness of his car. There was some amazing skills by Verstappen especially in last sector and you can just see how close he was to the walls at every turn. He was definitely at the limit in this sector and made the difference there.

He couldn't show that much impressive performance in first and second sectors but was better in last one like always. Alonso was doing a much better job in those ones and he could have also take pole position if it weren't for Verstappen's unbelievable lap. By the way this lap time by Verstappen was even the improved version of Leclerc's pole lap in 2022 by 0.011 seconds.

[retreat]

Verstappen got the pole position with Alonso in second place and Leclerc in third place.

If nothing happens it will be an easy win again for RBR in this track

Well, to be honest, this is the best and most exciting qualifying session I've ever watched. Alonso and Lecrec really gave their best to take pole position from Verstappen. Especially when Alonso was in 1st position, the Aston Martin team was very happy there, but unfortunately it didn't last long, Verstappen took it back. Yes, we can admit that RBR and Verstappen are the best cars and drivers to date. Can't wait for the Monaco race, looks like it's going to be interesting.

[Koal-84]

Breaking news Leclerc got 3 position penalty for impeding Norris according to Stewarts.

He will now start from 6th position.

Also as I said previous days rain is a huge possibility

According to Google, we will have 70% ish at race time.

I've also heard about the penalty for Leclerc, his home race is not exactly a happy race for him.

Looks like a start-finish victory for Verstappen, or can Alonso possibly pull off a surprise and overtake Verstappen at the start? Of course, the weather could also play a role.

[tokeweed]

The race just got a looot more interesting.  Lmao!

And I don't think I'll win my fastest lap bet now.  :/  With just around 18 laps to go, I don't think the track will dry up to give a chance for either Red Bull cars to snag it away from Hamilton.

Edit:  If the race stops now then both Mercedes cars would've finished fourth and fifth.  Decent job imho.

[emrecemsan]

The rain really made the race more intriguing for most of us I assume. It started to rain heavier in such a short time that many drivers had serious difficulties in even reaching pit to change the tyres to intermediates. But even under this tough conditions Verstappen continued to dominate the race without having serious issues. I have a big respect for his effort today and I believe he was the driver of the day.

I must appreciate Alonso and Ocon as well for their high efforts. Both of them had a really great race and they managed these tough conditions nicely as well. It was a good day for Mercedes drivers because they made big improvement in this tough GP by capturing the 4th and 5th places. It was a nightmare for Ferraris on the other hand. Leclerc had a 3-place grid penalty and couldn't improve his placement. Sainz made a big mistake while he was making an overtake attempt and lost 4 places at the end of the race.

Congrats to Verstappen on his solid victory!

[coinlocket$]

The race was quite boring even with the rain lol.

These cars are so easy to drive in comparison of cars of 20 years ago. Noone crashed even under the rain.

About the race, I still think this GP must be deleted, is the most boring one, 90% of the time who does the 1st turn ahead wins the race.

[LGD2Business]

Again it was a very boring race. I don't even feel like following Formula 1 anymore. It's predetermined who will win each race. It's not that exciting to watch the fight for second and third place. I wonder if the F1 organization is not bothered by the falling ratings?
I watched today's race but didn't enjoy it at all. I said maybe rain will change things, but that didn't happen either. I probably wouldn't waste my time watching the next races. Unless something unusual happens, the champion is already clear. There is nothing in the name of competition.

[swogerino]

Again it was a very boring race. I don't even feel like following Formula 1 anymore. It's predetermined who will win each race. It's not that exciting to watch the fight for second and third place. I wonder if the F1 organization is not bothered by the falling ratings?
I watched today's race but didn't enjoy it at all. I said maybe rain will change things, but that didn't happen either. I probably wouldn't waste my time watching the next races. Unless something unusual happens, the champion is already clear. There is nothing in the name of competition.

The rain just made our sadness intensify as we were all expecting a lot of crashes,cars going out,change of positions or at least a Safety Car in the beginning of the rain which would have somewhat restarted the race.I am sure if a Safety Car would have been deployed things would have changed a lot,especially if the race were to restart in the peak of the rain that was falling for not so many minutes today at Monaco and that is why we feel now as F1 is boring.Monaco grand prix has always been like that and if nothing happened it would be a linear race,today rain happened but did not help much in not making it linear.I am sure we will see a better race the very next weekend in Spain.

[Jackl87]

The race just got a looot more interesting.  Lmao!

And I don't think I'll win my fastest lap bet now.  :/  With just around 18 laps to go, I don't think the track will dry up to give a chance for either Red Bull cars to snag it away from Hamilton.

I have to admit, that the race today was pretty interesting to watch as a neutral spectator. At least for Monaco standards. When the rain set in things definitely became much more interesting and even before that we saw a few overtakes, which is something special in Monaco. In the end though we had to expected winner with Verstappen who pretty much was in control of the race the entire time. Also i have to say, that i was surprised about how many mistakes some drivers made when the rain set in. I mean a lot of times it felt more like watching one of those e-sports races where people are bumping in the wall all the time.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Another sovereign victory for Max Verstappen. Somewhere also expected. He is the only one who makes almost no mistakes in the race. No one can come close to his level. I am sorry that we will not see an exciting title battle again, if we are going to see an exciting battle then it will be a battle between Verstappen and his teammate Perez. But that's not something the fans are waiting for either. We all want someone like Leclerc or at least another team to join. I don't think that will happen for now.

[flyingcarpet]

The race was quite boring even with the rain lol.

These cars are so easy to drive in comparison of cars of 20 years ago. Noone crashed even under the rain.

About the race, I still think this GP must be deleted, is the most boring one, 90% of the time who does the 1st turn ahead wins the race.

I like racing more when it rains. Of course, races that have become ordinary lately have now become boring. In fact, we watched such a race again. In the past, when it rained, our favorite pilot could not take the podium and we had surprises. Now we can't see such a thing and it was a very boring race. If it goes on like this, they won't find an audience.

[dothebeats]

Again it was a very boring race. I don't even feel like following Formula 1 anymore. It's predetermined who will win each race. It's not that exciting to watch the fight for second and third place. I wonder if the F1 organization is not bothered by the falling ratings?
I watched today's race but didn't enjoy it at all. I said maybe rain will change things, but that didn't happen either. I probably wouldn't waste my time watching the next races. Unless something unusual happens, the champion is already clear. There is nothing in the name of competition.

This is why I'm more concerned about the teams building the cars rather than the drivers who are driving these cars. Once a team figures out what works best in their car that can edge out any other car in the tournament, the driver is basically set for the rest of the season and all he needs to do is drive normally and not fuck things up. Red Bull just made one hell of a car and it shows, that even the second best team in the tournament is still lagging behind by a lot in F1 standards. the rain could have brought in more action, but unfortunately not much of interesting things happened in the race hence why Red Bull just claimed that top spot so easily.