F1 2023

[Bazg2]

Potentially very good news but don't forget Hondas last tie up with McLaren.
Really depends how committed Honda are and how well they can work with AM.

too much being made of that McBarron tie up, Honda wanted and extra year to test and develop an engine in similar vein to what Mercedes were doing before lobbying F1 to switch to this PU Formula. Ron wanted away from Mercedes because at the time they were not getting the same PU. Honda essentially was then testing on track during live events for all the world to see. A few years later and they’re pretty much the best PU on the grid and are looking like they’ll have a third consecutive drivers championship and two constructors championships so yeah, can only be good for AM.

[Cold]

And I think Honda was also a convenient scapegoat for McLaren after a while. Seeing as it then got fitted to a Red Bull and demolished everything. If I remember correctly. But 2026 is presumably about new regs again (?) so I guess anything could happen.

[Bazg2]

Yep, new regs and looks like AM will develop their own gearbox suspension etc. but with their wind tunnel/factory development plan etc and now a works PU, could be worse for them. Whitmarsh is saying F1 gearboxes are too complicated and needs simplifying.

[cdiv]

What does it mean for am roadcars, where they are sharing mercedes engines and other components? What is am path to electrification?

[Bazg2]

https://racer.com/2023/05/23/why-the...or-both-sides/

[Cold]

I’m sure the qualifying will be a lot more interesting than the race but it surely was an exciting qualifying. Max does some witchcraft on that last sector. This is where he made up time on every lap.

If I were Mercedes, I would ditch Hamilton and look for another driver. I’m sure all these rumours about Ferrari are out there to try to put pressure on Mercedes but why bother?

[Eoin]

Very impressive last sector car was on rails it looked almost CGI !

[Titan]

I'd say all of the teams have extra eyes looking and watching at any cars that stop/crash
on track, to get a good look at the underfloors on their competitors.

I don't know if it was just the camera angle, but those cranes seemed to be lifting the cars up to
a pretty big height.

[Cold]

Interesting for us to see the underneath but not great for the teams you’d think. Even if I suspect the RB showing was a lot more interesting for the competitors.

[hi-rev]

Well, that was actually interesting.
Overtakings in Monaco (in the dry!) is not something you see often.
And then the rain happened.
What a balls up by Aston Martin. If they had waited, chances are they could have jumped Verstappen with Alonso.
And again, Ferrari strategy came in a lap late and a dollar short, but that is to be expected at this point. If its not the drivers making the mistakes, then its the pitwall. Its just their way, I guess.

[Bazg2]

Qualifying was so good I didn't care about the race, bring on Barca, and any other "race" track.

[Cold]

The race was a bore obviously but not much else was expected. They went so slowly that when they crashed there was never any need for a safety car and that removed a significant source of drama. For whatever reason, the rain didn't really change anything other than the cars going even slower.

I expected Alonso to be quicker given how close qualifying was and more of a fight at the front. But perhaps the usual tyre management was at play, which I think is a real problem in F1 now. If I remember, at the start of the race they were lapping 6-7 seconds slower than the qualifying time. And don't tell me fuel load seeing as they don't use much fuel at Monaco.

[Titan]

Just before they showed the race on Ch4 they had a programme narrated by Prince Albert about the history of the race.

They showed a race from back in the 60's/70's where as it was raining.
They used a water tanker and some marshals to wet the track inside the tunnel,so the full track would be wet 😁

[TuneR]

C4 commentator, "Monaco the jewel of the F1 calendar." Perhaps he was just after watching the history Titan mentioned above and failed to see there is barely room for 2 cars side by side for years and it turns into a car park.

[Username]

Absolute snore'fest of a race, though in this instance it was to be expected since it's been this way for years and there's very little else they can do with the track to improve it.

Why they keep adding more and more of these street tracks is a mystery to me. It's just a beauty pageant for racing cars.