Holy cow, I remember the 6 wheel Tyrrell. That shows how old I am!
Pretty cool photo essay/article
Stroll fell off his bike while training a week before pre-season testing, so reserve Drugovich will split testing with Alonso.
Honestly if I were AM I would just let Alonso do all the testing. Drugovichās input is less valuable as a rookie with no experience whereas Iām sure Alonso could write a novel of opinions on the car after a few days of driving it.
I wonder if this is what Dan Fallows would of done at redbull if heād been allowed off the Newey lease.
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2023 has officially started with cars on track for day 1 of testing.
Standard annual disclaimer that lap times mean nothing in testing and everyone is on a different run plan/testing program/fuel load/tire program/engines arenāt running full wick/track conditions are not great/itās a new car and they havenāt dialed in setup yet etc blah blah.
And hereās Red Bullās real car in the flesh for the first time:
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If the fans got to determine starting order for a race based upon how well liked the drivers are (as personalities) what would your grid look like?
Iād have:
Seb - Daniel
Valterri - Perez
Lewis - Max
Nico - Mags
Alonso - Sainz
Then weād have the young guys making up the rest of the grid. Sainz is now part of the old set imho. Heās basically your uncle at this point. Lando would get pole for the younger generation. I know that Seb is retired but whatever. The newest guys, Piastri, Sargeant and DeVries get to start in back but they have to bring buffalo wings for everybody after the race. Lewis and Max have to bring the beer. Valterri will drink it and Kimi might stop by for a drink if his snowmobile is working again.
Valterri mullet + stache helmet for Bahrain:
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Whatās the deal with Ferrari nose dimpling at speed? Poor manufacturing/design I guess, not a good omen for the rest of the car
I think it was yourself last year who mentioned the best marker to gauge a teamās potential competitiveness for the coming season is how many laps they run during pre season test, certainly rang true last year.
From day 1, RB are on top again with Merc close behind. Ferrari a bit meh 
I wonder if it is intentional, no way an F1 team would let that happen
Ferrari said the nose dimple was an assembly issue and they fixed it already. I wonder if that is a cover up and the dimple will reappear at the first race.
And yes mileage is key for testing. Lap count is the only thing that matters. Not an indicator of performance, but good reliability means they can test setups and learn the car which will then guide aero development.
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Thought this was interesting.
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Really liking that Sargeant and Williams are just pounding out laps.
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Russell with hydraulic failure causing a red flag. Rare Merc reliability hiccup.
Lots of rumblings that the Aston Martin is actually a legitimately quick car. Newey apparently has mentioned it as a potential dark horse threat. Lap times mean nothing of course but Alonso had the best theoretical lap yesterday, and the times they are running right now are quicker than the FP times from the race last year, so the cars must be going at a fair level of performance at the moment.
Steiner thinks the field will be much tighter this year as well. He just noted that he thinks 5-10kgs of fuel could be the difference between making Q3 and getting knocked out of Q1. So very small margins.
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Iāve always been curious why teams do this at all, as far as I can tell this is an F1 only thing. It seems a few good cameras would do just as well at near zero cost.
I think most pro motorsports have a version of a pit wall gantry. NASCAR and INDYCAR both have pit boxes where key personnel like strategists, engineers, and crew chiefs sit.
Separates the guys making decisions on-track so they can focus.
Endurance racing has the best pitboxesā¦ they hold usually 3-4 people and are super comfy. Also usually a TV Feed and Car telemetry on the back for pitcrew guys to also hsve that information. The tent city at Daytona 24 always makes me smile. You can find almost any treat or food by walking down pit lane. Sometimes trade for stuff you want as well!
Apparently Red Bull is trying to offload the AlphaTauri team to new owners because they canāt justify the expense. Good time to sell, as team values have never been higher.
Also final pre-season session is live! Letās see some performance runs.
AlphaTauri serves as their feeder/development team, yes? Iām curious what their up-and-coming development will be; Iām guessing they can cherry pick from F2 e.g. Albon.