F1 2022 Season Spoiler Filled Race Talk

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Mixolyde wrote:

What's the C2, C3, and C4 on those timing charts?

Thanks, everyone. Found the wiki page, too.

Something useful to know when you're watching a race weekend: as Nickson said, three of the five compounds are available during each race weekend. They are identifiable by the color of the line and the P ZERO logo on the wall of the tires. The softest of the three available compounds will have a red trim, the intermediate one will have a yellow trim, and the hardest one will have a white trim. So, for example, if you see some cars starting the race on the red tires and others on the yellow tires, expect the guys with the red (softer) tires to be faster at the beginning but require a pit stop sooner.

I was just coming to post that. Probably for the best for everyone involved.

So, the question now is who gets the seat. There are still rumors that Giovanazzi is in the running, but apparently Pietro Fittipaldi (who stood in for Grojean for the last two races of 2020 after his crash) is the front runner due to him being already integrated well liked within the team. Very interesting to see how that develops this week.

Is there a guide to that ridiculous video game controller they drive with?

Every wheel is a little different but this is a good one.

So I am almost done with the first season, and I have listened to the Shift F1 explainer for 2021 and most of the 2022 preview episode, and here is where I am.

McClaren are my clear favorite by a country kilometer. Two lovable goofball drivers! Ricciardo has the same birthday as my wife! His mom is delightful! Lando is a silly memeboy. I LOVE the aqua and "papaya" color scheme of the new car. I used to live near a McClaren dealer and liked looking at their cars when on a walk. That tinder meme above is what got me to start start looking at F1. I like the IT tech company sponsors like Splunk. It all fits.

Other options considered:
Williams is actually my maiden name. We changed both are names to something new we both liked when we got married. I am not really attached to the name now, but that boss lady seems pretty cool. The livery is my 2nd favorite

Ferrari. Well, I own a Porsche mini-SUV, and porsches are kinda like Ferrari, I guess? I find the all red livery to be pretty dull, but I guess that comes from not having a long history with the sport and the appreciation for Ferrari that others have.

Haas. Yep. Well, it would be nice to root for the American team, if they had any cars. Also their Russian flag livery is gross.

Aston Martin also has a really gorgeous car, but I can't get behind Lance Stroll or the Saudi sponsor.

Red Bull have a great story and history and a decent look, but I have too many negative associations with the drink and don't like the taste.

Let's race!

Also, I am really going to miss seeing Marcus Ericsson on the show, he's one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen.

You can watch Indy car and still get your Marcus fix. Yay more motorsport to learn.

Checo might be my favorite driver but Lando is a close second. I'm excited to see him get his first win this year.

Heh, well, good news about Haas -- the livery and the oligarch fail son are definitely gone. What they'll be replaced with, well, we'll see as the week progresses.

And, good news/bad news about Williams. Bad news, Claire and the Williams family finally had to give up ownership of the team, and she declined to stay on as team principle. Good news, the new owners seem to be making good use of their money to revive the team's prospects while respecting the legacy of the team.

So, as teams are arriving at the track in Bahrain, several interesting developments.

First, Mazepin has (predictably) spent the last few days trying to paint himself as some kind of victim for being dumped from his seat, complaining that he was willing the meet the FIA requirements of driving without representing his nation, etc, and saying that Haas treated him unfairly -- completely ignoring the part where he wasn't just dumped for being Russian, he was dumped because economic sanctions meant that Haas cannot continue their sponsorship agreement with his dad's company, and that money is literally all that was keeping him in that seat.

Well, this morning the whole thing has been made EVEN MORE moot as both Mazepin and his father have been explicitly added to the list of individuals targeted by sanctions because again, his father is part of Putin's inner circle of oligarchs. So yeah, while other Russian athletes can compete in their sports if they are willing compete under a neutral flag, Mazepin is now the specific target of sanctions for being the f*cking son of a man actively participating in the unprovoked criminal invasion of a sovereign nation, and you don't get to f*cking play the victim card when that's the case. You participate in/profit from war crimes, you don't get to drive a speedy race car. F*ck you a million times for trying to portray it as anything else, on top of the thousand reasons you were already a piece of shit creep.

Anyway, Haas' freight is still delayed in arriving so we might not see whatever their car will look like immediately as the test starts. Also still unclear who is getting the seat -- Pietro Fittipaldi will almost certainly be doing some of the driving during the test, but it sounds like maybe Kevin Magnussen has made his way to the top of the contenders and may make a previously unlikely return not just to F1, but to Haas specifically. Very interesting indeed.

EDIT:

And as I was writing this, it's now official: Magnussen is back at Haas.


Finally, in much less emotionally charged and much more fun news, McLaren has been spotted at the track with a slightly modified livery from what they launched and ran in testing at Barcelona:

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Have to see it from other angles to really say, but at the very least it still looks sharp.

(The VELO becoming A Better Tomorrow is just because Bahrain is one of the countries that doesn't allow explicit tobacco advertising, so they have to use BAT's bullshit "no a tobacco brand!" branding instead.)

My bet is the Haas livery will be the same but with the blue removed or the blue made black.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

My bet is the Haas livery will be the same but with the blue removed or the blue made black.

Well, that's effectively what they did on the third day of testing in Barcelona after the invasion started.

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Obviously they'll get something a bit more developed than that, but it will be interesting to see if they can find another livery grade sponsor to fill in the gaps on short notice, or if they'll just default back to promoting the Haas Automation brand as hard as they can (ie, like the 2016 through 2018 liveries) in the absence of other money.

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Man, I hate Guenther, but he is entertaining to watch.

I like the modified McLaren livery. Looks a little more sleek and modern with the extra black.

Yeah, he’s hilarious, but very obviously a really poor boss/manager of people.

Mercedes might want to complain to whoever does their freight after their sidepod got crushed between Barcelona and Bahrain.

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Is that an air intake used in the engine at all, or just for air flow around the car?

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Every wheel is a little different but this is a good one.

Thanks! That was super helpful. I found a similar one with Lando in the recommendations, and it was also helpful, although he wasn't allowed to show the back because secrets! Very cool.

Mixolyde wrote:

Is that an air intake used in the engine at all, or just for air flow around the car?

It's used for both, yes. Some cooling, but also to modify airflow to the beam wing and to play with air pressures around and above the diffuser. It'll be interesting to see if they can cool the car sufficiently somewhere like Bahrain with sidepods that narrow.

Mixolyde wrote:

Is that an air intake used in the engine at all, or just for air flow around the car?

All of the above, and more. Notably this year, it's also another way to potentially get air down under the floor to assist with the the significantly increased ground effect downforce that these cars will be using. That said, I'm pretty sure that for most car concepts, the primary engine intake is the tower above the driver's head, but cooling is right up there with downforce generation in the list of priorities when designing nearly every aspect of the car.

Actually, one interesting thing about the the shot of the Bahrain spec there is that you can see a lot more of what's happening inside the sidepod, including that visible intake of some sort on the left.

So, lots going on while the first day of testing is under way.

First, Haas managed to get on track for the afternoon session, with what I assume will be their final livery (unless they find a livery sponsor). As I guessed, basically back to roughly the 2018 livery, although looking a bit cleaner and more professional.

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Meanwhile, Schumacher and Magnussen are out in updated fire suits -- still red, white, and blue, but now in an arrangement that much more distinctly reads as USA themed rather than Russian themed.

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Second, a few more looks at the new Mercedes "What me, sidepods?" design:

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Predictably, the paddock is pretty wound up about it today, including Christian Horner whining about it to the press and threatening to protest its legality, and then Red Bull's official media immediately coming out and screaming "WE HAVE NO OFFICIAL COMMENT OR POSITION ON THE NEW MERCEDES." Ultimately we'll just have to wait and see how it pans out of course, but it seems like at the very least they've got some work to do tuning it in this week -- apparently it was porpoising like crazy during the morning session.

EDIT:

Oh, and also worth noting -- Adrian Newey has been in interviews saying that they will have some "visible" upgrades coming for the Red Bull towards the end of the week, so maybe the whining shoes will be on the other foot then.

Final classification for day 1 of Bahrain testing:

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Probably not a lot to read into here, since Mercedes and Red Bull clearly had the sandbags on. But, Ferrari and McLaren are still looking solid, and it's nice to see Williams and Aston peaking out and showing some solid performance.

What happened to the other five?

Mixolyde wrote:

What happened to the other five?

For testing events the teams only run one car at a time, and each team has their own plans and running schedule. Sometimes the time will be split between the drivers, other times one driver will take whole day, then the other the next.

So, for today Perez, Albon, Gasly, and Norris took the full day to themselves, so expect Verstappen, Latifi, Tsunoda, and Ricciardo to perhaps do a full day tomorrow.

As for Haas, they have a lot going on. Their logistics got messed up and their car arrived late, so they only had part of the day to run. Also, looks like they decided to give that time to Fittipaldi (their test/reserve driver) even though both Schumacher and Magnussen were at the track, perhaps as a bit of apology that he didn't get the seat and to make good on the fact that they announced he'd be driving in this week's test last week while things were still up in the air. Expect it to be the official drivers for the rest of the week in the Haas car, though.

Actually, slightly pertinent to the last question, looks like Ricciardo may not have been at the track at all today despite it being the day for the official driver photoshoot:

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Other notable things: looks like Magnussen doesn't even have a helmet yet.

And speaking of helmets, here's what Seb's running, at least for this week:

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Love it. I don't like most of the helmet designs because they are all so similar.

Seb is good people.

Anyone else think Charles LeClerc looks like Harry Potter?

Mixolyde wrote:

Anyone else think Charles LeClerc looks like Harry Potter?

Even more so when he hangs out with Mattia Binotto.

Christmas at Hogwarts
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The new season of Drive to Survive is now available.