There is a theory going around that Mclaren made better progress then the other Merc teams because they use their own rear suspension and not the one that is build by Mercedes and supplied to Williams and Aston. So maybe the problem is "just" the rear suspension. Of course fixing this issue might take more time especially since the Merc itself has a complete different design theory then the rest of the field. Also funny sidenote: Red Bull brought a new rear suspension to Imola and suddenly the propoising was cured. So maybe that's the key to get the car working in general. Hopefully Ferrari will bring somethingh similar to cure there propoising even though they don't loose performance because of it
With Mercedes, you never know if they didn't design their rear suspension from the ground up with a specific design that only works with a no-pod approach, but didn't tell their partner teams and gave them a suspension that's literally worthless to them if they run a regular sidepod design.
I'd be pretty pissed in that case, if I was AM.
I think it's part of the deals Mercedes offers. Customers can buy more then just the engine you can also buy the gearbox and other stuff that is basically part of the engine. It also saves the customers time to design and build those parts as they simply get what fits the engine. I think Ferrari does the same
Haas had huge issues in 2020 (and I think 2021), cause the Ferrari rear suspension was utter garbage. IIRC, the suspension heated up during the race, which made the balance shift quite extremely, so a setup that works well for Qualifying would change over time, possibly even during the course of a single lap, depending on how hot the engine runs.
Buying parts from a partner like Merc or Ferrari is a great idea to safe on cost when it works, but when the package sucks, you're shit out of luck.
Hambone says this now, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has his own
Alain Prost "truck" moment before the season is out. Whether it'd be enough for Toto to fire Hambone, especially given current year sensibilities, is another story.
At the moment, I doubt it. Toto is very open about the car underperforming.
Ferrari is the kind of company that'll make a shitbox of a car and still claim it's perfection on wheels and the sole issue is with the driver not being able to take advantage of their divine design decisions.
Both race directors have covid, unfortunately nothing funny will happen even if they can't travel
View attachment 3230283
In a perfect world something like this would happen:
After Russel spins in Q2 and can't get a quick time, it's up to Hamilton to perform, he somehow manages to drag his car to Q3, he gets a decent time, right on P4 with a decent chance to profit, should the front runners have issues!
He gets out of the car, removes his helmet and shakes his sausage hair. His massive golden earrings jangle while bright rays of light flash and shine off their polished surfaces. As he walks to the cool down room, a sulfuric, putrid, noxious smoke billows from the doorway and a dark silhouette emerges. "Well well well, Lewis" a loud, booming voice anounces. Hamilton is taken aback. It can't be. It simply can't be. Not him. "Congratulations to your good lap time, Lewis.... but... what's that? Oh no." Masi's voice echoes down the pit lane "Are those earrings? And that after FIA expressly forbade wearing those while driving...? Such a shame, such a shame. Lewis, you're disqualified from racing this weekend." Everything turns into a blurr of tears and impotent anger, as Lewis virgin-walks to his trailer.
F1 to trial new mandatory qualifying tyre compound rule in 2023
Posted on
29th April 2022, 18:55 | Written by
Will Wood
Formula 1 drivers will be required to use specific tyre compounds during different stages of qualifying in a trial of a new format next year.
The change to next year’s rules is detailed in updated sporting regulations for the current season issued by the FIA.
The F1 Commission agreed earlier this week to trial a reduction in the total number of tyre sets permitted for a race weekend from 13 to 11. This will take place at two races next year where a ‘Revised Qualifying Format’ is to be used.
Drivers will receive half as many soft compound tyres for these events as usual – four instead of eight. The allocations of medium and hard tyres will increase by one each, to four and three respectively. In a further change, drivers will be required to use one of each of these compounds during the regular, three-stage qualifying session.
Each driver will only be permitted to run on the hardest compound of dry tyres in Q1. The medium compound will be mandatory in Q2 and those who reach Q3 may only use the soft tyres.
In a statement released after the F1 Commission meeting on Tuesday, the FIA noted that a test run of reduced tyre compounds at two race weekends in the 2023 season would be carried out “to evaluate the impact of the reduction in tyre allocation on track-running, with the overall intention to move to more sustainable use of tyres in the future.”
Rules changes approved for this year include scrapping the maximum number of tyre testing days of 30 permitted in the season, as well as clarifications over the use of so-called ‘mule cars’ and what the FIA will recognise as ‘genuine car damage’ sustained in incidents for rules purposes.
The Commission also discussed expanding the number of sprint races to six next year, but the FIA is yet to grant its approval for the change. The first edition of the 2023 F1 sporting regulations has yet to be published.
Revised 2023 F1 driver tyre allocations
| Tyre | Revised Qualifying Format | Qualifying | Sprint Race |
|---|
| Soft | 4 | 8 | 6 |
| Medium | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Hard | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Total | 11 | 13 | 12 |
This is a complete garbage decision. FIA might as well tell drivers in what order to start, without bothering with a qualifiying. They make so many stupid orders during races like mandatory tyre changes, mandatory use of compounds and so on, we need to cut back on that shit, not go deeper into crap creek.
The more open the rules are with tyre changes, the more crazy teams can get with strategies. Allow no-stop races, allow single-compound races, allow fucking FREEDOM to make a bold strategy. Most times, teams will stick to what we see now with teams using different tyre compounds during different stages of the race anyway, but merely having the option of going the long way or using up 3 sets of soft tyres or something outrageous like that would be cool.
