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

[retreat]

The season has just begun and we are already treated to a legendary battle between Ferrari and Mercedes. In the early laps of the race, the two Ferraris vs the two Mercs were absolute cinema, both had paces that were not even that different, it was an opening that made Ferrari fans smile widely, before Ferrari's strategist ruined it all. Ferrari already had the VSC advantage, but they didn't use it and allowed Mercedes to gain the advantage by pitting in that position. And yeah, that pit cost Ferrari their race which was ruined because Mercedes already had the advantage of fresher tires. And Russell got the podium and it was Mercs' first podium of the season.

Australian GP results:

[Volgastallion]

What are your opinions about this first race?

I feel like it was better than it was the qualy and free practice, so having a low expectation maybe help me to not see it so bad, but i still have my doubts about this new rules and regulations.

Aside of it i also cant have a proper opinion since i feel like we are still in fault with some teams not being serious, Aston Martin is the main one, and a few other drivers crashing in the pre start lap.

Anyways congratulations to Mercedes for again having the best car.

[tokeweed]

^  It was alright.  I had low expectations too.  So I just watched the first 10 laps then the last few laps.  Lol.  I already knew, as everybody else already knows, that Russell was gonna win this me.  But I do like seeing the two Ferrari guys be directly behind the leaders. 

A part of me wants to see Hamilton get a fighting chance for his next driver's championship.  It'll be a historic moment and I'd like to see another one of those.

[tokeweed]

Where all the regs itt?  The season started and you decided to stop following F1?  

Next race is just a few days away.    You guys think it's Russell again in China GP or will one of the Ferraris snag the chequered flag?  

Here's the schedule.

2025 F1 Chinese GP Schedule
Track:  Shanghai International Circuit



March 13, Friday:  Practice 1  11:30 - 12:30
March 13, Friday:  Sprint Qualifying  15:30 - 16:15
March 14, Saturday:  Sprint  11:00 - 12:00
March 14, Saturday:  Qualifying  15:00 - 16:00
March 15, Sunday:  Race  15:00

[retreat]

Next race is just a few days away.    You guys think it's Russell again in China GP or will one of the Ferraris snag the chequered flag?  

I would say that maybe Mercedes will be able to get that podium again considering the advantage they have now. But Ferrari is said to use rotating rear wings in the Chinese GP, don't know if this will give them an immediate advantage, but whatever they do - even with engine performance that can be said to be almost equal to Mercedes - if they still have a bad strategy, it will only make them unable to win the race, that's what I think, but who knows maybe they will make a change (or not at all).

[retreat]

Mercedes' dominance continued after they secured P1 again in qualifying for the sprint race. Russell secured P1 and Kimi finished P2. I had expected them to regain their lead at this circuit, and they would likely secure the sprint race if they continued like this.

[ILuckyGuyI]

This is how top 10 looked in sprint qualifying.



Indeed Mercedes is just so fast! I don't know how the other teams will be able to stop them. As long as FIA doesn't intervene with the regulations it doesn't look possible.

I already feel the first F1 championship for Russell... By the way will these races really go on like this? Seeing the drivers lose at least 40-50 km/h on straights every lap because of draining the battery? 

[retreat]

Indeed Mercedes is just so fast! I don't know how the other teams will be able to stop them. As long as FIA doesn't intervene with the regulations it doesn't look possible.

The FIA ​​hasn't found a valid reason to intervene in the tricks employed by Mercedes and Red Bull, so their actions are legal because there are no regulations governing them. You could call it a loophole.


By the way, a double podium for Ferrari, and Mercedes remains in P1 from the first sprint race of the season. This is a quite satisfying result for Ferrari, even though they couldn't secure P1 due to Mercedes' speed. Seeing Hamilton maneuver through the corners was like a memory, but he still lost on the straights to Mercedes. It seems Ferrari needs to upgrade or they will be left far behind by Mercedes.

Qualifying is still underway, let's see who will get the pole position.

[tokeweed]

It's looking like we know which team Verstappen will be driving next season.  

Here are the results for qualifying.  I'd like to see the guys at Ferrari do better than they did last race for this one.  All eyes on Hamilton.  

2026 F1 Chinese GP Qualifying Results

1   Kimi Antonelli   ITA   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.305s   1m32.443s   1m32.064s
2   George Russell   GBR   Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team   1m33.262s   1m32.523s   1m32.286s
3   Lewis Hamilton   GBR   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m33.522s   1m32.567s   1m32.415s
4   Charles Leclerc   MON   Scuderia Ferrari HP   1m33.175s   1m32.486s   1m32.428s
5   Oscar Piastri   AUS   McLaren Mastercard F1 Team   1m33.590s   1m33.130s   1m32.550s
6   Lando Norris   GBR   McLaren Mastercard F1 Team   1m33.535s   1m32.910s   1m32.608s
7   Pierre Gasly   FRA   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.788s   1m33.003s   1m32.873s
8   Max Verstappen   NED   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m33.417s   1m33.098s   1m33.002s
9   Isack Hadjar   FRA   Oracle Red Bull Racing   1m33.632s   1m33.352s   1m33.121s
10   Oliver Bearman   GBR   TGR Haas F1 Team   1m33.687s   1m33.197s   1m33.292s
11   Nico Hulkenberg   GER   Audi Revolut F1 Team   1m34.116s   1m33.354s   
12   Franco Colapinto   ARG   BWT Alpine F1 Team   1m33.634s   1m33.357s   
13   Esteban Ocon   FRA   TGR Haas F1 Team   1m33.974s   1m33.538s   
14   Liam Lawson   NZL   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m34.139s   1m33.765s   
15   Arvid Lindblad   GBR   Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team   1m33.906s   1m33.784s   
16   Gabriel Bortoleto   BRA   Audi Revolut F1 Team   1m33.549s   1m33.965s   
17   Carlos Sainz   ESP   Atlassian Williams Racing   1m34.317s       
18   Alex Albon   THA   Atlassian Williams F1 Team   1m34.772s       
19   Fernando Alonso   ESP   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m35.203s       
20   Valtteri Bottas   FIN   Cadillac F1 Team   1m35.436s       
21   Lance Stroll   CAN   Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team   1m35.995s       
22   Sergio Perez   MEX   Cadillac F1 Team   1m35.906s   

[retreat]

It's looking like we know which team Verstappen will be driving next season.  

I bet Max is really frustrated with Red Bull right now because while Ferrari and Mercedes are competing, they're actually falling behind. Max should still have had a chance to score some points in that race, but due to the ERS cooling failure, they had to retire his car. This really shows how unreliable their car is at the moment.


And as expected, Mercedes took the podium again, but this time it wasn't Russell, but Kimi who won the race. In this race, he achieved two new records: youngest polesitter and second-youngest race winner in F1 history at 19 years old. I could already see how proud Toto was of this young man.

In P3, we saw Hamilton also secure his first podium with Ferrari. It's quite impressive that he managed to reach the podium and remain competitive at his age. I think Charles could still outperform him in this race, but experience doesn't lie; they both have similar car specs, and Hamilton is more capable of controlling his car. But their race yesterday was beautiful, with no dangerous pushing and still maintaining the limits.

[tokeweed]

^  Verstappen might show that he's frustrated, but only in public...  But in private he might have already expected that they'd suck this season under the new specs, without Newey, Horner and having an engine partner that's mostly new to F1.

He couldn't really expect anything good.

As for Russell getting second, what happened there?  Lol.  Due to some irl stuff, I was't able to watch the race.

[retreat]

-snip-
As for Russell getting second, what happened there?  Lol.  Due to some irl stuff, I was't able to watch the race.

It was just his poor start that prevented him from securing a good position. Furthermore, Hamilton and Charles were also at similar paces in the early laps - and when the Ferraris were competing, he was unable to overtake. Although he eventually secured second place due to his better pace, Kimi was already so far ahead, making it difficult for him to catch up, and he had to settle for P2. If he hadn't had a minor issue in Q3 qualifying that forced him to restart, Kimi probably wouldn't have secured pole. It was quite unlucky for him, which is why his face was so ugly yesterday, lol.

[Volgastallion]

Ferrari is looking really good after so many years, im excited about seeing them finally fighting for something, they need only a few tents of a second more to be at the same level with Mercedes, i feel like they can improve a little and maybe after a few extra FIA regulations about the mercedes engine we can see a real fight between this two teams in front.

[FanEagle]

Verstappen might show that he's frustrated, but only in public...  But in private he might have already expected that they'd suck this season under the new specs, without Newey, Horner and having an engine partner that's mostly new to F1.

He couldn't really expect anything good.

As for Russell getting second, what happened there?  Lol.  Due to some irl stuff, I was't able to watch the race.

On the first race he mentioned that he was out of energy even before the race started, probably something went wrong in that case, but on the second race we saw how his car started as well, he had to battle his way back for half of the race. So there is basically something wrong with the car without a doubt, not sure how bad it is, but it's clear that it's very bad.

But fair to them, all the cars that are not Mercedes or Ferrari have something bad about them, and just two teams showed up with a good car this season. Mercedes more so than any other, they are winning with miles difference. At this point leader could have an extra pit and still win, that much gap is being put in every single race so far and doesn't look like it will change.

[tokeweed]

-snip-
As for Russell getting second, what happened there?  Lol.  Due to some irl stuff, I was't able to watch the race.

It was just his poor start that prevented him from securing a good position. Furthermore, Hamilton and Charles were also at similar paces in the early laps - and when the Ferraris were competing, he was unable to overtake. Although he eventually secured second place due to his better pace, Kimi was already so far ahead, making it difficult for him to catch up, and he had to settle for P2. If he hadn't had a minor issue in Q3 qualifying that forced him to restart, Kimi probably wouldn't have secured pole. It was quite unlucky for him, which is why his face was so ugly yesterday, lol.

Ah yeah...  It just shows that Mercedes' cars are so good, it doesn't matter which driver is on pole.  The driver who gets it will be at high odds to finish at the top of the heap. 

Verstappen might show that he's frustrated, but only in public...  But in private he might have already expected that they'd suck this season under the new specs, without Newey, Horner and having an engine partner that's mostly new to F1.

He couldn't really expect anything good.

As for Russell getting second, what happened there?  Lol.  Due to some irl stuff, I was't able to watch the race.

On the first race he mentioned that he was out of energy even before the race started, probably something went wrong in that case, but on the second race we saw how his car started as well, he had to battle his way back for half of the race. So there is basically something wrong with the car without a doubt, not sure how bad it is, but it's clear that it's very bad.

But fair to them, all the cars that are not Mercedes or Ferrari have something bad about them, and just two teams showed up with a good car this season. Mercedes more so than any other, they are winning with miles difference. At this point leader could have an extra pit and still win, that much gap is being put in every single race so far and doesn't look like it will change.

First race he had no energy, then the second race it looks like the car had no energy.  Lmao. 

But yeah, it was already expected.  We've already been saying what could happen to the teams that's not Mercedes...  From reliability issues and weak engines.  And we also discussed that the spec changes could benefit Ferrari. 

Both came to be. 

[retreat]

Ferrari is looking really good after so many years, im excited about seeing them finally fighting for something, they need only a few tents of a second more to be at the same level with Mercedes, i feel like they can improve a little and maybe after a few extra FIA regulations about the mercedes engine we can see a real fight between this two teams in front.

Ferrari is always like that, they have given us hope many times but their strategy often ruins it all. Actually, I don't have much hope for Ferrari this season even though they have shown quite good performance improvements compared to last season, but still having lower expectations is the most realistic way to avoid being too disappointed. But hopefully I'm wrong on this.

[retreat]

Although people were quite optimistic that Newey’s appointment as team principal would improve Aston Martin’s situation, the team has not shown any significant progress, even after pouring so many resources and funds into developing their car. However, expectations that Newey could create another "monster" at Aston Martin have so far been nullified.

Because of this, Newey stepped down as Aston Martin F1 team principal, apparently unable to meet expectations to lead the team to greater heights. He is now solely focused on technical aspects, and his role as team principal has been replaced by Jonathan Wheatley, former Audi team boss.

[LTU_btc]

I wanted to post about Verstappen win in Nurburgring with Mercedes GT3 car, but looks that he was disqualified for using 28 tyres when only 24 were allowed:
https://www.motorsport.com/NLS/news/max-verstappen-disqualified-from-nls2-win-over-tyre-rule-breach/10807132/
Anyway, it was fun to see him watching there, it's very likely that he will return to this series in April when there will be long break in F1. But it would be interesting to see him racing in more competetive series.

[Koal-84]

So, let’s talk about MotoGP for a moment. It looks like Marc Marquez’s biggest competition this year isn’t coming from within his own team, but from Aprilia ✌️. It would be great if Aprilia could maintain this level of performance; for one thing, it would break Ducati’s recent dominance, and it would also mean Marc wouldn’t clinch the World Championship title halfway through the season 😉.

[tokeweed]

Although people were quite optimistic that Newey’s appointment as team principal would improve Aston Martin’s situation, the team has not shown any significant progress, even after pouring so many resources and funds into developing their car. However, expectations that Newey could create another "monster" at Aston Martin have so far been nullified.

Because of this, Newey stepped down as Aston Martin F1 team principal, apparently unable to meet expectations to lead the team to greater heights. He is now solely focused on technical aspects, and his role as team principal has been replaced by Jonathan Wheatley, former Audi team boss.

We that didn't take long.  I didn't even know he was the team principal til the season started.  Lol.  But yeah, the team should just do what Newey does best...  Designing cars.

Anyway, it's at Suzuka this weekend folks.  One of the best tracks for F1 imho.

2025 F1 Japanese GP Schedule
Track:  Suzuka Circuit



March 27, Friday:  Practice 1  11:30 - 12:30
March 27, Friday:  Practice 2  15:00 - 16:00
March 28, Saturday:  Practice 3  11:30 - 12:30
March 28, Saturday:  Qualifying  15:00 - 16:00
March 29, Sunday:  Race  14:00

Here's a fun replay to watch.

1997 Japanese Grand Prix:  Extended Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3ebzd674Rg