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

[tokeweed]

^  I don't think there's gonna be another 'Verstappen' tbh.  Verstappen is one in a million imho and he came in F1 without the media pressure.  Toto Wolff should be careful in handling the new kid as he could fold under pressure.  And could even cause an accident on the track.  Must let him be and develop as a racer.

Maybe you don't know but they have made an important change to the Formula 1 registration rules.

the FIA ​​has decided to lower the minimum age of a formula one driver, no big deal you might say.

But this fits perfectly with a possible arrival in Formula One next year of Kimi Antonelli, currently in Formula2.

would take over from Lewiz Hamilton.

The 17 year old phenom that everybody is so hell bent at comparing to Max Verstappen..    Yeah, they remind me of those football journos in the EPL who love making these funny comparisons of English players with Spanish greats.  Like Jack Wilshere back in the day who was dubbed to be the 'English Iniesta'..  

[Republikcoin.com]

yamaha may have a less competitive bike performance compared to ducati, but since pramac is a team that needs better financial support, moving to yamaha may not be a bad choice since they offer good conditions for the payment of riders and bikes compared to what ducati offers them. but maybe that choice will affect their competitiveness on the circuit since yamaha is still in the development stage of their bike and no one can be sure whether the performance of their bike can be better or not.

The Prima Pramac Racing team's move from the Ducati brand to the Yamaha engine brand is not about whether the Yamaha engine itself is competitive or not. However, this was triggered by the drama that occurred in the Ducati camp itself, where Ducati had chosen Marquez to be placed in the Ducati factory team even though Marquez himself had just joined the Gresini Racing team which also uses Ducati engines this season with a contract duration of only one season. .

This is what made the Prima Pramac Racing team disappointed because Ducati itself did not choose a rider from Prima Pramac Racing, namely Jorge Martin, who has been fighting for a long time in the team and was also the runner-up rider last season and is currently the leader of the standings. It seems that you don't read and understand enough about the dramas that are happening in several teams in MotoGP at the moment.

[FanEagle]

I would say Kimi Antonelli would not really make "that" much of a change for Mercedes, don't get me wrong he is a great kid and all ,but I do not think that there is any need for a hype yet. Russell on the other hand is looking like he doesn't have that "finishing" ability, he drives very well but when he is at a situation where he has a chance to overtake and get a win, he fails to take that last chance.

In the end, Mercedes is getting a better and better car with the current design but we are nearing the end of the current design, I believe that until 2026 they are going to get nothing. After that, it will definitely be anyone's game, cars will be sooooo much different, lets see how it is going to impact the teams and which one will be better or worse.

[Republikcoin.com]

Race 1 for WSBK yesterday really made me sleepy when Toprak slipped to the front so that no rider was able to catch him in Emilia Romagna. At the start of the race, Remy Gardner made a surprise by immediately placing himself at the front, but the Yamaha rider was also unable to stay at the front for long after being overtaken by the BMW motorbike driven by Toprak. Today the Superpole Race and Race2 will also start soon and I will also watch them until the end because there is no MotoGP race this week.

[coinlocket$]

Well well...

Ferrari won for the second time in a row the 24 hours of LeMans.
It was an interesting race with a lot of rain.

The second Ferrari got also a good result completing the podium.

Superb weekend.

[Distraction]

^  I don't think there's gonna be another 'Verstappen' tbh.  Verstappen is one in a million imho and he came in F1 without the media pressure.  Toto Wolff should be careful in handling the new kid as he could fold under pressure.  And could even cause an accident on the track.  Must let him be and develop as a racer.

Yeah, maybe I got carried away too much.    Verstappen has really unique set of skills. It would still be great if Antonelli just focuses on his development completely. He can still be one of the best drivers in the future. He has long years ahead of him to work on it. I think Toto Wolff would know what kind of actions he should take. He wouldn't like to pressure him excessively.

If Mercedes makes big progress for 2026 season then I would be very keen on watching Russell - Antonelli duo closely. 


When it comes to Le Mans... Truthfully I don't have much knowledge about the sport. But it must be really difficult to drive these cars for many hours under any kind of weather conditions. 

[alegotardo]

^  I don't think there's gonna be another 'Verstappen' tbh.  Verstappen is one in a million imho and he came in F1 without the media pressure.  Toto Wolff should be careful in handling the new kid as he could fold under pressure.  And could even cause an accident on the track.  Must let him be and develop as a racer.

Yeah, maybe I got carried away too much.    Verstappen has really unique set of skills.

Rafael Câmara, the Brazilian who has already matched Verstappen!
Calm down, it's clickbait

I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk about it...

I'm a Brazilian who loves F1, I saw Airton Sena race, and today I can't hide my frustration at not being able to support a Brazilian in F1.
Among the almost 200 countries in the world, Brazil is still the third best placed in the ranking of all time, our drivers won eight world titles (three with Ayrton Senna, three with Nelson Piquet and two with Emerson Fittipaldi). So, the absence of a Brazilian driver on the grid is still quite unusual for many Brazilians

However, one of the main promises for the future is linked to a driver who equaled Max Verstappen's titles in karting and who already has a contract with Ferrari: Rafael Câmara from Pernambuco, who is currently competing in the European Regional Formula Championship for the Prema Racing team and who is also a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Never, ever, will anyone replace Verstappen, just as to this day no one has replaced Airton Sena. But I hope that someday a Brazilian can occupy the spotlight of F1 in the same way as Verstappen does today.

[coinlocket$]

The strength of Mercedes has been explained with the new wing they created.

Something is weird about it, I don't know what but Redbull already asked to FIA to Judge if the wing is following the rules they have in F1.

I guess others teams will copy it if will be judged as an OK part of the car.

[retreat]

Well well...

Ferrari won for the second time in a row the 24 hours of LeMans.
It was an interesting race with a lot of rain.

The second Ferrari got also a good result completing the podium.

Superb weekend.

I didn't really follow the LeMans race since it was held for 24 hours straight, but after seeing the results that Ferrari won this race I was quite proud of their achievements, because winning the LeMans race is not an easy thing - your team must have good strategy and communication so that you can maintain a good position on the circuit. Hopefully the Ferrari team's victory at LeMans will be a motivation for the Ferrari F1 team to be able to improve their performance and win the race at the Spanish GP later.

[Velvet78]

The strength of Mercedes has been explained with the new wing they created.

Something is weird about it, I don't know what but Redbull already asked to FIA to Judge if the wing is following the rules they have in F1.

I guess others teams will copy it if will be judged as an OK part of the car.

If Red Bull also copies that wing they would have a bigger gap with the others again which I wouldn't like to see at all.    It has been so much fun to watch some nice rivalries for the victory.

Ferrari made big preparations for Canada but failing this big wasn't among their calculations. Next time in Spain they had better come with a good upgrade as well to play bigger. They still need to improve their strategies. That attempt with Leclerc in the last race was unbelievable! In this kind of situations none of the remaining drivers would like to be in Leclerc's place. He must be really fed up with this kind of mistakes for years. 

[Republikcoin.com]

The BMW team at WSBK is really very happy to have Toprak as their mainstay rider in the championship. Because at the 2024 WSBK Emilia Romagna event, Toprak really couldn't be caught by other riders and also by any manufacturer, including the Ducati manufacturer who was the host and relied on the host rider too. This could be a big disaster for Alvaro Bautista and also for Nicolo Bulega because Toprak has really been quite spectacular with BMW this season. So Toprak was able to wipe out all the wins by being on the first podium at the 2024 WSBK Emilia Romagna event.

[FanEagle]

The strength of Mercedes has been explained with the new wing they created.

Something is weird about it, I don't know what but Redbull already asked to FIA to Judge if the wing is following the rules they have in F1.

I guess others teams will copy it if will be judged as an OK part of the car.

But, is it enough though? That seems to be the question that needs to be asked, is it enough? I think Red Bull is not doing that well anymore, but also Newey will leave after this season so I am sure that he is not putting all his efforts in anymore, which is why I can understand why people may see that as an issue, but reality is that we are going to end up with something that will take a while, and I believe that we shouldn't really be worried about it at all, it should be considered as normal as it gets and not a big deal.

This is why I suggest that Mercedes may get even better, but right now there is still a gap, Red Bull getting worse and Mercedes getting better means the gap is smaller but they are still not better right now.

[karabiber]

The strength of Mercedes has been explained with the new wing they created.

Something is weird about it, I don't know what but Redbull already asked to FIA to Judge if the wing is following the rules they have in F1.

I guess others teams will copy it if will be judged as an OK part of the car.

In fact, this is a commentary on why the budget constraint was introduced. If there were no budget constraints, it would be very difficult to stop Mercedes. Mercedes new wings are completely legal because the cars are built under FIA supervision. This is valid for the 2024 season, but I don't know what will happen in 2025. There is a system of banning almost everything and this is killing the culture of F1. I think for F1 to get better, the cars need to be simplified and the skills of the drivers need to be emphasized. The power unit should be changed back to V10 or V8. The racing culture is dying because of the safety measures.

[Distraction]

I'm a Brazilian who loves F1, I saw Airton Sena race, and today I can't hide my frustration at not being able to support a Brazilian in F1.
Among the almost 200 countries in the world, Brazil is still the third best placed in the ranking of all time, our drivers won eight world titles (three with Ayrton Senna, three with Nelson Piquet and two with Emerson Fittipaldi). So, the absence of a Brazilian driver on the grid is still quite unusual for many Brazilians

However, one of the main promises for the future is linked to a driver who equaled Max Verstappen's titles in karting and who already has a contract with Ferrari: Rafael Câmara from Pernambuco, who is currently competing in the European Regional Formula Championship for the Prema Racing team and who is also a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

There was Felipe Massa also as a Brazilian driver in Formula 1 and I liked him a lot. In 2008 season, he was so close to winning a title but missed it by only 1 point against Hamilton. He had even more wins than Hamilton in that season. Since he left Formula 1, there hasn't been any Brazilian driver who has made such an impact. I don't know about Rafael Câmara but I hope he also gets what he deserves in Formula 1. 


I have found an animation like this telling us which drivers won their last Grand Prix when.

https://x.com/Formuladdict/status/1802784427551895958

I saw a sad thing in the video. Fernando Alonso couldn't win a race since 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.    He is a champion driver so it isn't nice to see him like this.

As long as he doesn't leave Aston Martin for a better team it looks quite difficult for him to win a race. Luck must also be beside him as there are many faster cars.

[Koal-84]

In the current break there is a lot going on in the rider market, today it was announced that Mir will stay with Honda and has a contract extension until the end of 2026. But I think he will have no other options than Honda, I guess anyway.

KTM now also has a very strong quartet for next year, even if I'm a bit surprised by Vinales, but KTM has signed very strong riders with Acosta, Binder, Bastianini and Vinales.

[moneystery]

In the current break there is a lot going on in the rider market, today it was announced that Mir will stay with Honda and has a contract extension until the end of 2026. But I think he will have no other options than Honda, I guess anyway.

KTM now also has a very strong quartet for next year, even if I'm a bit surprised by Vinales, but KTM has signed very strong riders with Acosta, Binder, Bastianini and Vinales.

joan has no other choice but to follow how honda plans, and since he is not so competitive which makes his options not too many. but it is not a bad decision for joan because honda is focusing on developing their bike to be better and with his presence it is hoped that the development of their bike will be smoother. and for bastianini and vinales who joined gasgas tech3 it was quite surprising, since these two riders chose to join the ktm satellite team and it is very possible that this team can perform very well in the 2025 season. and that could help ktm to compete better with ducati.

[Koal-84]

joan has no other choice but to follow how honda plans, and since he is not so competitive which makes his options not too many. but it is not a bad decision for joan because honda is focusing on developing their bike to be better and with his presence it is hoped that the development of their bike will be smoother. and for bastianini and vinales who joined gasgas tech3 it was quite surprising, since these two riders chose to join the ktm satellite team and it is very possible that this team can perform very well in the 2025 season. and that could help ktm to compete better with ducati.

The Honda is still a bit behind in development and has been struggling a bit unsuccessfully for years to catch up, but you're definitely right that Mir's options are very slim, so he'd rather stay with Honda than not have a bike next year.

Next year there will be no more GasGas and Tech-3 will have the current factory bikes (like this year) and there will also be 4 bikes from KTM in the same colours and sponsors.

[tokeweed]

The strength of Mercedes has been explained with the new wing they created.

Something is weird about it, I don't know what but Redbull already asked to FIA to Judge if the wing is following the rules they have in F1.

I guess others teams will copy it if will be judged as an OK part of the car.

What's really happening is Red Bull has no real idea if the flex in Mercedes front wing is legal or not and has asked the FIA to observe the wing in the Spanish GP.  The can't file an official complaint to stop Mercedes from using it because for all we know, Mercedes might not be doing anything illegal.  So it's possible that it's just a bluff to scare Mercedes which ain't gonna work.  Lol.

Merc to get pole at quali is at 9.50, to win the race is at 13.00.  Decent odds for what we know imho.

[Republikcoin.com]

In the current break there is a lot going on in the rider market, today it was announced that Mir will stay with Honda and has a contract extension until the end of 2026. But I think he will have no other options than Honda, I guess anyway.

KTM now also has a very strong quartet for next year, even if I'm a bit surprised by Vinales, but KTM has signed very strong riders with Acosta, Binder, Bastianini and Vinales.

Indeed, there is a lot of surprising news on the racer market at the moment, including what happened to Vinales who was willing to move from a manufacturer like Aprilia to the independent Gasgas team which uses KTM engines. And yesterday I also read a little rumor on someone's social media status that the announcement for the rider who would be placed in the second seat at Aprilia still had to be postponed due to several other things. Because according to rumors it looks like Marco Bezzecchi will join Aprilia to fill Vinales' seat.

[Distraction]

We are closing in on the race weekend... For now weather says it might rain on Sunday but only in the morning which is bad news for us.    Catalunya track is already not the greatest for overtaking so some rain drops would be nice. Anyway do you think we would continue to see some competition? Or would we see a classic Verstappen domination?

I hope to see a different result in qualifying once again. Currently Verstappen is favoured by 1.66 and the closest one is Norris @6.00. I'm quite surprised that Leclerc is given 10.00 odds, not even close to Norris.

I would prefer Norris or Leclerc to betting on Verstappen @1.66.