I am waiting for that day too
Soooo maaaany occassions already missed when that emoji was the only one appropriate
(in general, I do not mean anyone specifically
)
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Soooo maaaany occassions already missed when that emoji was the only one appropriate
(in general, I do not mean anyone specifically
)
There are two ways to approach a Monday...
I report real life Hermes sandals spotting- I went for lunch and at the table next to me there are two super elegant and posh looking ladies in their 70 at least (with visible signs of having work done to their faces). They already examined a young waitress about the whole menu (and gave exact instructions about their dish). Now they are watching pictures in their phones of people they know and just called one guy's wife "too good looking for him" and another one of their friends in these pictures "a witch like no other. I am telling you what a witch! ". They are both wearing all white and both are wearing Hermes sandals. I am dying here
ETA for the record, it is usual place, not some posh one, I dont go to posh places
ETA for the record, it is usual place, not some posh one, I dont go to posh places
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Happy new thread!!
Happy race week!!
Monza
Hope the curse is not true (although most of you want it to happen
)
Happy race week!!
Monza
Hope the curse is not true (although most of you want it to happen
)
So kika is pretty much guaranteed to be at Monza, what other wags are we expecting?
Hopefully Carmen has enough earned time for some much needed time off!
Hopefully Carmen has enough earned time for some much needed time off!
This is a little disingenuous, especially in regards to McLaren. Stella came in in December when Seidl resigned and instantly made some very sweeping changes including switching up the way things worked within engineering departments back at the MTC, the aero department in particular where we now know the heads of the department had been stifled and sidelined by Key. We are staring to see the effect of those changes with the b-spec car (the last thing Key had a hand in was the Baku upgrade to the old car). There's a very interesting in-depth interview out with Zak this week where he opens up as to what was actually going on at McLaren around the time of Seidl departing and Stella coming in and what had been happening at the MTC that led to Key's sidelining and eventual sacking. It explains a lot, not only in regards to why the 2022 car was so flipping mediocre but also gives a large clue as to why they didn't fight harder to keep Andreas Seidl when he wanted to leave. It's worth a read actually - a good illustration of how much a team can shoot themselves in the foot internally by having just one person in the wrong position.
Vowles hasn't been at Williams long enough to make a difference performance-wise at Williams but what he has brought a visible difference to is the culture and spirit within the team and that shouldn't be underestimated. From a people management point of view, at least, he is proving to be exactly what they needed (kind of reminds me of Seidl in that regard when he first took over at McLaren and turned the team culture and spirit around in 2019).
I think the biggest problem at Merc is what I'd call the hangover of success. When a team has been at the top for as long as they have, a certain amount of complacency and to some extent entitlement kicks in. A similar thing happened to McLaren back in the early 2010s and also to Ferrari post-Schumacher. They got used to winning, they expected to win, and to a large extent they felt entitled to win so the road to acceptance of failure and turning that around becomes much tougher because accepting they were wrong is harder to swallow. We saw that very clearly with Merc last year and to an extent the start of this year as well. The two teams who have affected huge turnarounds recently (AM and McLaren) did so because they held their hands up, admitted they had screwed up and chose to take the pain (and accompanying ridicule) of falling down the order for the months needed for them to start over. The willingness to do also came about from new blood being appointed in the team - Szafenauer out and Krack in at AM and Stella taking the helm at McLaren. Not saying at all that Toto needs to go but a shake up at the heads of departments may not be a bad thing. They may not be coming from as far back as AM or McLaren were but they still need to be willing to make some sweeping changes to properly progress imo.
I also think Merc also got used to just being able to chuck as much money as they liked at a problem to sort it out and they're struggling somewhat now they're not able to. It's no coincidence that the two teams struggling the most to turn things around under a cost cap are the two who were used to throwing endless amounts of cash at everything - Mercedes and Ferrari. Yes Red Bull have a lot of money as well but they did always operate under a budget that was significantly lower than Mercedes or Ferrari. I think it's been a big culture shock at Mercedes, not just to Toto but throughout the team, and it's taken them a while to get their heads around it. I'm still not sure they have - sometimes Toto says things that make me feel hopeful and other times I'm not so sure.
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Tbf I don’t pay enough attention to other teams to know timelines. I just know McLaren and Williams made a whole raft of changes to their technical teams this year, which is definitely a bold and brave thing to do and I don’t think that would have happened if Seidl or Capito had still been in place. James understands the gulf between teams more coming from Merc so it’s “easier” for him to address that, even simpler things like their systems being antiquated etc.
I actually think the place where Mercedes and I guess Ferrari also are at is more difficult to be in because the gap obviously is far far less than Williams this year or Aston last year. Neither team seems to understand the final pieces of the puzzle and they’re just stumbling around blind. My personal opinion is that this will be the case for whatever team is 2nd/3rd/4th with these regs. With the budget cap etc that final leap just isn’t going to happen for anyone, the order of the chasing pack will just change around a lot.
Mercedes biggest error was keeping Mike Elliot in his position when he was clearly completely out of his depth and I don’t think even wanted to be there. To allow him to develop this years car was madness and something I don’t think any other team would have done. And that’s where to me, Toto lacks ruthlessness. And yes I agree 100% about the money but also I’m not entirely sure any amount would instantly make them competitive because they don’t inherently understand the regs. I think if they’ve got any sense they’ll just do what they can until 2026 and make sure they absolutely nail their engine for then
scenes when Yuki beats Checo in a year old RB 
all I can say about Mercedes is that to me it looks like last season Mercedes was more over 2021 than Lewis was, in a way it seemed to me like he was more in the back and they were in the weird state of disbelief and denial but more denial but still kind of more energetic/moving, don;t know how to call it (even though the car was worse than this year).
This season it seems to me like Lewis has gotten over 2021 and is not only zen but more energised and ready, while Merc as a team seems slower in their reactions. they are rolling rolling but much more slower than him and are still in kind of disbelief about not being dominant. if that makes sense. Mostly what I mean is that, it seems Lewis is more ready to be back and push, he seems more composed and mobilised to go forward, no matter what while the team seems more whining, resigned and in pieces than he is. Still, from what I read today, apparently the cars were 3rd and 4th when it comes to pace yesterday (Fernando being 2nd obvs), it was the starting order and strategic mistakes that didn;t allow them to transfer pace to results matching it.
In all honesty I think 2021 ruined Toto. He is a stickler for rules and fairness, he reiterates that constantly. You can tell by the way he speaks about the FIA, the way he accepts the situation Red Bull are in now in a way Horner never did when it was Mercedes. It just doesn’t seem like he’s got his head around what happened there, as he always said in f1 the stopwatch never lies and that day it did. Plus they genuinely believed their 2022 car was going to be a world beater, that’s what all the data told them, which again, I don’t think he’s comprehended fully how they got it so wrong
This track definitely suited them and that’s why it’s so frustrating they did everything possible to sabotage themselves
because Monza will be pretty awful, Singapore probably better thoughYeah I agree about Lewis. He's the one person in the team I feel has reached the level of acceptance needed!
I think Merc were actually faster than AM on pure pace yesterday but the stats are affected both by George being on the hard tyres and both drivers being stuck in much slower traffic whereas Fernando's only real battle for most of the race was Checo in a RB. On pure pace in clear air, they and McLaren were on a par this weekend but McLaren still suffer from their hideous drag issues which not only affects them so much in traffic but hurt them through the vital second sector into the DRS zone, so over the course of a racing lap Mercedes were a fair bit faster. (Didn't help that McLaren chose not to run the new rear wing which would have helped massively with drag, after Oscar totalled the first one in FP2. They had a second one ready to be flown out for Lando for the Saturday and opted to leave it as they know it's going to vitally important for Monza and didn't want to risk any further damage to a second one and then not being able to fully repair things in the week's gap).
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Yeah I don't think Mercedes are closing the gap, nor will Ferrari. Even if they make sweeping changes to the philosophies over the winter, they will be miles behind in terms of development and won't have time to catch up. The main problem is that the base cars they have simply aren't able to be upgraded as they need to to reach the much higher performance ceiling so they have to start over.
The only team I think might have a chance (and it's a VERY big if) is McLaren, of closing in by 2025 in a similar way to how Red Bull did by 2021. Only reason I'm saying that though they are currently effectively a year behind in development for the new regs, murmurings out of the aero team are very interesting in the sense that they seem to know exactly what they need to do to close the gap, it's just whether or not they can get there in time before the regs changes, as RB will obviously also keep evolving. All the talk from Stella, Promrodrou etc points in a very focused direction development-wise as opposed to the floundering statements from their direct competitors right now. The current car is effectively still completely un-upgraded this year in terms of parity to the other teams (it's basically the base car they should have started the year with) and they have some big upgrades due to address suspension and drag and are already working on a DRS package as well. The base they have now is potentially very upgradeable in the right direction and that's the reason they started over, so they have that base. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next two years. AM are the only other ones I think may have an outside chance if they can nail their winter upgrades because again, they started over and have a potentially upgradeable base to work from even though they are behind in development (about 6 months ahead of McLaren).
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One thing RB will have to be very careful of is if McLaren do catch up, they can't afford having Checo anymore. Oscar has been pretty much on pace bar the odd but expected rookie mistakes and is only going to get better. Its going to cost them massively not only for the constructors but also giving McLaren and the drivers the advantage in terms of strategy when its a 2v1 situation.
Same goes for Aston, however I do think something may be going on in terms of reconsidering Stroll's future.
It’ll be interesting to see for McLaren. I’m very wary of reading too much into any rumours about potential data because 9 times out of 10 they’re wrong, think the only one that ever came true was Aston for this year. Didn’t Ferrari claim their car was like 2/3 seconds faster than last years? And it’s definitely not. But again I think it’s hard to tell with Ferrari and Merc because they’re working with a flawed concept. McLaren and Aston actually have a solid base. And remember for Red Bull to catch Merc in 2021 it required reg changes. Those floor changes completely screwed over the low rake cars and massively favoured the RB style ones. Without that they’d have had another 2020 style year. Merc also barely upgraded the 2021 car, ironically so they could focus on 2022 but it was a completely different scenario to where RB are now, especially considering I don’t think they’re even stretching their legs rn. If there’s any fear of anyone catching them I think they’re holding a lot back that they can easily utilise
LOOK AT HIM
remind me please, because I am lost now, Emilia is which one/where she appeared first
my brain got blocked/only recognises Magui, Olivia, Shirin (and of course JenJen), plus Randi reminding of herself (the last one without hinting about Lando)
Lando first linked to her in late 2019 or 2020. They liked and commented each other photos.remind me please, because I am lost now, Emilia is which one/where she appeared first
my brain got blocked/only recognises Magui, Olivia, Shirin (and of course JenJen), plus Randi reminding of herself (the last one without hinting about Lando)
ah, ok, so she is mostly an influencer?
what is the point of not following Lando but following his dad?
It's not about data in terms of time gains being spoken about (McLaren have actually massively exceeded their predicted gains with the b-spec rather than the other way around) but in terms of the language used around development direction. That's the thing that points to them having potential not numbers. There's a very big difference in the way McLaren and to a lesser extent AM (because they've admitted this is their last big upgrade this year now) are talking about their development direction as opposed to Mercedes and Ferrari.
As for Ferrari's predictions, it was very obvious the moment we hit testing that they'd been exaggerating that one. Same with Alpine. RB aside, Aston and McLaren were the only ones who were fully honest about where they were going into the season - AM with their cautiously confident optimism from their numbers and McLaren in terms of 'yeah we're going to be tit because we've had to start over'.
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In all fairness I’ve heard very little from Merc and Ferrari about 2024, aside from them both saying their cars will look vastly different. They’ve said they’re comfortable with the direction they’ve chosen but that’s it and that could very well prove to be the case. Theres been a definite change in approach from Vasseur at least, Binotto always bigged them up. I just think the margin is too big for anyone to turn it around, especially given as I’ve said, I think it’s obvious Red Bull are holding back, but we’ll see
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