The F1 thread

Boromedic

chillidoggy said:

Boromedic said:

chillidoggy said:

I do so hope we’re not going to see another year of a pair of Mercs driving into the distance.

I hope the opposite, I hope Hamilton walks to his rightful eighth title that was stolen from him last year. I also hope Red Bull end up scrubbing around in the midfield just cos Horner is a bellend.

Is this just sour grapes because you were dead last in the Fretboard F1 Fantasy league?

Hahaha, nice try, happy to make you all look good after all. Sour grapes that the FIA gave the title to the wrong driver perhaps.....

skullfunkerry

stickyfiddle said:

Great set of photos from Racefans here: https://www.racefans.net/2022/03/10/2022-f1-pre-season-testing-day-four-in-pictures/

The Williams is actually very similar in side pods to the Merc, just a little less extreme. I wonder if they'll be able to step up properly into (at least) the midfield again. I hope so

Got to say, I love the new rear wings, I think they look fantastic. I’m very disappointed that Alpha Tauri didn’t paint their wheel covers white though!

stickyfiddle

Aaand DannyRic has covid, so he's getting no car time this week. Going to be hard work getting up to speed for quali.

@skullfunkerry I agree on the new cars - they all genuinely look great. Even Alfa/Sauber finally managed a great livery, though their wheel covers also look a bit odd with the red & white. I hope teams start playing a bit more with the wheel cover schemes - they could become a good way to differentiate between drivers as well. Maybe they don't want to because they're all still overweight so even a few grams of unstrung weight on the wheels is going to hurt? idk

chillidoggy

Test times reports are interesting, Red Bull appear to have found some speed after bolting on some new bits, Hamster's moaning about lack of performance, and Ferrari has questioned the Merc's mirrors, too.

It's getting exciting!

Boromedic

Yeah I think Mercedes are behind which should please some folk, there's still a chance they're just deliberately hanging back but most observers say the car is twitchy and unstable compared to the Ferrari and now the Red Bull. If Lewis can't compete, I'm hoping Charles can dominate Max. Also the Alpine has impressed, we know how much of a pain Fernando can be when he's got some pace in the car. Looking forward to Quali next week.

TimmyO

Blimey we've got "boring season" gripes already pre season - that's a record even for the thread! :-) 

stickyfiddle

We've already seen Charles is perfectly happy to get elbows out when it matters, so between him and the new race directors I think Max will have to reign it in a little bit. 

I can see Merc taking til around Barcelona to get their floor/porpoise issues sorted and then come back from behind for a title challenge. Should be an interesting season, and it definitely looks like cars can follow more closely than in previous years, so that's the main thing. 

Cols

The Merc is porpoising like crazy, so they’ve got to find a fix for that in the next week.

https://youtu.be/QPvMNiEOxfs 

stickyfiddle

I can't help feeling that porpoising is because they almost have *too much* downforce... They're super quick in the slow corners so they'll be super fast if they can get it fixed.

Boromedic

It'll probably be something like that Mike, along the lines of their "diva" car in whatever year that was (19?). Once they get it hooked up they'll be in the mix for sure, depends how long that takes I guess. 

Part of me wonders if the reason Horner changed his tune about it all is because RB have worked out that Mercedes have gone into a cul de sac with the concept and it's not going to work as well as other solutions. We shall see, should be interesting come quali and the race.

Cols

stickyfiddle said:

I can't help feeling that porpoising is because they almost have *too much* downforce... They're super quick in the slow corners so they'll be super fast if they can get it fixed.

You may well have a point.  My limited understanding of it is that as the car is compressed closer to the ground with increasing downforce at speed it reaches a tipping point where the diffuser stalls.  The downforce disappears, the car bounces up on its springs, and then the downforce comes back.  Rinse and repeat.

So if the car’s generating tons of downforce, I could see the problem being correspondingly worse.

It can be resolved by just increasing the ride height to prevent diffuser stall, but at the expense of downforce generation.

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

stickyfiddle said:

I can't help feeling that porpoising is because they almost have *too much* downforce... They're super quick in the slow corners so they'll be super fast if they can get it fixed.

You may well have a point.  My limited understanding of it is that as the car is compressed closer to the ground with increasing downforce at speed it reaches a tipping point where the diffuser stalls.  The downforce disappears, the car bounces up on its springs, and then the downforce comes back.  Rinse and repeat.

So if the car’s generating tons of downforce, I could see the problem being correspondingly worse.

It can be resolved by just increasing the ride height to prevent diffuser stall, but at the expense of downforce generation.

Exactly this - the stall happens when it gets sucked too near the ground and (I assume) either loses the ability to generate vortices along the edges to seal the floor, or even touches the ground.

Ant Davidson noted it's a common thing in sportscars in WEC etc so it's absolutely an understood phenomenon from that side of racing.

The simplest solution is to raise the ride hide or dramatically stiffen the suspension, but then the car goes slower, so no-one wants to do that. Stiffening the floor is the next best option; stopping the edges from bending under load and exacerbating the problem, but that's hard to do within the floor, hence lots of teams running metal stays that very crudely attache the floor's edge to the monocoque forming a stiff triangle. What Merc will be trying to engineer is a stiff floor that still produces sealing vortices along the edges without compromising anything else. I wouldn't bet against them in the long run..!

TimmyO

Or have the reduction in downforce bleed off rather than be a cliff edge. Effectively force parts of it to stall before the others 

musicegbdf

A blocking pass is OK , and a fine line as to a dive bomb which is where it intentionally done to push the other driver off the road or crash.
Good to see the FIA have shut Horner up over W13 side pods .

stickyfiddle

musicegbdf said:

A blocking pass is OK , and a fine line as to a dive bomb which is where it intentionally done to push the other driver off the road or crash.
Good to see the FIA have shut Horner up over W13 side pods .

I have a feeling it was RB's lawyers & PR who shut him up...! 

Anyway.... IT'S RACE WEEK!!!! 

stickyfiddle

** PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ** 

Everyone must immediately stop what they're doing and read this twitter thread, detailing the thoughts of a lady going through the Vanity Fair F1 photoshoot. Though I must admit Pierre Look #1 is how I imagine he goes out for dinner every single night anyway. 

https://twitter.com/eliz_blackstock/status/1503361481269776385

The whole article is actually well worth a read too: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/03/netflix-drive-to-survive-and-the-new-cult-of-f1-fandom

stickyfiddle

Aaaand the Mazepin have been sanctioned... 

fretmeister

Seb has Covid.

Cols

I hope Vettel recovers swiftly, but I'm delighted to see Hulkenberg back on the grid.  He's an excellent driver who deserves to be in F1, but never managed to land a top drive and lacked the financial backing to keep a seat in the midfield.

stickyfiddle

Urgh. But maybe AM have secretly pulled a blinder and Hulkenberg will get his podium..??!