F1 2022 season - Michael Masi sacked

First topic message reminder :

Otmar Szafnauer has left Aston Martin, widely expected, after Martin Whitmarsh joined the team.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Verstappen’s Red Bull is the one to beat at present. From what I saw the Dutchman wasn’t even anyway near the limit. He looked at ease.
The two red cars are fast but Charles was certainly giving it a lot more than Verstappen.
And by general this is a track Charles is really good at, so if he can get the most maybe he can beat Verstappen but I see Verstappen with a lot more in his pocket.

Mercedes really needs to fix the bouncing. Hamilton’s neck will be gone if he has these issues in Jeddah next weekend.

They'll have to raise the ride height but just makes them worse in the corners

Charles is also a lot more relaxed this year. After being humbled last year by Carlos. Looks like he’s gone away and reset.

Is this porpoising affecting all cars to some degree and is it associated with the new regulations that presumably regulates the rake angle and underside details?  Seeing the drivers head being violently shaken up and down just doesn't look safe at all.  You hear that the drivers have to sustain huge g-forces in driving stable F1 cars - but if they get huge head shake that surely could result in concussive issues - if the neck doesn't go first.

ps: I see that the Williams are right at the back while the Haas appears to have made progress. Surely Williams can't survive for too much longer if they remain at the back for another few seasons.

The bouncing seems to happen at top speed, but for some reason Mercedes are bouncing in the corners as well.

Red Bull seems to have eradicated the bouncing by having a slight rake to their car.

McLaren seems to have a solution but they are massively off the pace so it remains to be seen if their solution is as good as they claim

Ferrari has a small amount of bouncing but the drivers don’t seem overly concerned by it.

I’m hearing Hockenheim are trying to raise money to take the place of Sochi.
Strong rumours suggest Sebastian Vettel will quit F1, so the Germans want to give him a send off. And also passing of the German torch to Mick Schumacher.
Additionally Qatar doesn’t want to host a race, but Liberty are really desperate for them to take the slot.

In effect it's because of the changes to make the cars generate most of their downforce from the underbody. Broadly speaking, the cars generate too much suction, the floor stalls and raises up. Then the downforce kicks in and sucks the floor back to the road again.

It's not a "new" phenomenon, it happened the last time the cars had underfloor aero. But evidently it can't be modelled in the simulators and wind tunnels can't run the car that close to the ground without damaging the equipment. Maybe not a shock the team with the lead designer who was around in that era is most on top of it. Question now is whether Mercedes concept is salvageable

Max and Charles pretty evenly split so far. Opportunity for LeClerc to make a statement, we know Max can deliver the ultimate pace when it matters, if Charles wants to be considered in that bracket, he has to match

GSC wrote:In effect it's because of the changes to make the cars generate most of their downforce from the underbody ....

Okay that seems to make sense.  I suppose the other downforce elements were the ones creating all the turbulent air behind the car that was preventing close following of cars behind (loss of grip for the following car). With the loss of those elements these cars become more dependent on underbody created downforce - which creates the porpoising problem.

Underbody aero parts weren't permitted before this year.

FIA report is out. Masi ‘acted in good faith but made human error’.
2021 results are final and cannot be altered.
Basically FIA says ‘house always wins’.

Might be time to start facing that fact that Daniel Ricciardo is finished as a top driver.
Lance Stroll continues to embarrass himself, out qualified by Hulkenberg whom only drove the car for the first time yesterday
Nicholas Latifi shouldn’t be in F1 either.

Reminder that top 10 drivers no longer have to start on their q2 tyres now

Red cars looking strong…that Dutchman still looking a bit better though…

Quite the statement from K Mag, Mick has a challenge.

Both McLarens out before Q3 is quite the climb down

Blistering lap by Charles

We are back!

It's Ferrari with the quali advantage in Bahrain. Max salvaging p2 ahead of Sainz with Perez far behind

Hands up who had Mr Saturday qualifying behind a Haas and Bottas

Did Haas shoot themselves in the foot by picking Schumacher and Mazepin last year. K-Mag jumps in the car at the last minute and is already well ahead of Schumacher.

Albon must be the new Mr Saturday. Williams still not very good. Latifi qualified last and Albon 14th.

No name Bertie wrote:Did Haas shoot themselves in the foot by picking Schumacher and Mazepin last year.   K-Mag jumps in the car at the last minute and is already well ahead of Schumacher.

Haas needed money from Mazepin. So they had no choice.

Last year's Haas was dog, wouldn't have mattered if Senna and Prost in their primes were driving it

Looks like Ferrari/RB have the upper hand to start the year then, albeit Merc aren't quite as bad as they want to make out I don't think - Russell totally cocked up his lap on fresh tyres in Q3.

Ferrari powered cars looking good, suggests their engine is doing well. Fight between Mick and Magnussen should be good (Mick bailed his final run in Q2, otherwise might've made Q3 too!).

McLaren a massive disappointment, miles off it and Danny Ric continues to be handily beaten by Lando. As does Tsunoda by Gasly...

Aston's look way off it too

Ferrari caught napping but DRS massively overpowered here

Wonder if Perez is on mediums to try and repeat his heroics of Abu Dhabi here. Max overcooked it on the last try

Red Bull has better tyre warm up than Ferrari so the under cut still in play for Verstappen and Perez.

Bottas is woeful at overtaking

Mercedes went 16 laps on the hards and junked them

Hard tyres = cement

Safety car after Pierre Gasly’s car goes on fire.

Charles nearly crashed into the safety car

Verstappen has a steering wheel issue

Verstappen out

Perez losing power

Honda engines imploding, Mercedes ran cars off the pace, someone check Ferraris oil flow rate

Redemption for Charles LeClerc finally gets the win in Bahrain. Carlos Sainz Jr completes a red car 1-2. Lewis Hamilton takes third.
Sergio Perez engine failure on last lap.

Three blown power units for Honda...

Safety cars great value for late drama

Sudden worry for RB/Honda, though wasn't apparent in testing so maybe turning the engines down now.

Bit of a bail out for Mercedes who were nowhere near it all weekend. Need a lot of improvement and quickly.

Ferrari are back. Whether they can maintain that everywhere remains to be seen but right now they have both cars running quick and both cars finishing.

What a turn around from Haas

Seems like Red Bull’s engines overheated. Probably need to open up the cooling vents.

Could be SC related then.

Seems like fuel pump failures on both Red Bulls. They broke curfew last night as the problem was already an issue. Seems like they’ll need a fix before Jeddah otherwise more DNFs on the cards

I assume the three engine rule is in place before grid penalties are imposed.  Ferrari powered cars seem to be doing well.

Verstappen and Perez engines are 100% fine.
Gasly will be nervous at his car was on fire, but he also suffered from MGU-K failure.

Ferrari need to make hay while they have the seeming upper hand, so today a fantastic result for them - LeClerc was imperious all day, Sainz a little off it imo but no damage done in the end

Disaster for RB, albeit pace wise they won't be hugely concerned I don't think. Merc on the other hand...lot of improvement needed quickly, albeit they sound confident they know the issue which makes it easier to fix!

Haas looked good, as did Alfa and Alpine imo. A total disaster weekend for McLaren and Aston, McLaren were a shambles

Mercedes engines are around 10-12kph down on the Honda and Ferrari power units.

Jeff Navarro wrote:Seems like fuel pump failures on both Red Bulls. They broke curfew last night as the problem was already an issue. Seems like they’ll need a fix before Jeddah otherwise more DNFs on the cards

Confirmed FIA mandated fuel pump failed on both Red Bulls.

McLaren had a similar issue after qualifying and one of the car’s was permitted to change the fuel pump.

Seems like poor quality control from the FIA and it could’ve happened to anyone.

Carlos Sainz Jr new deal agreed. Good news for us!

Sebastian Vettel still struggling with covid. May missed Jeddah.

Jeff Navarro wrote:

Jeff Navarro wrote:Seems like fuel pump failures on both Red Bulls. They broke curfew last night as the problem was already an issue. Seems like they’ll need a fix before Jeddah otherwise more DNFs on the cards

Confirmed FIA mandated fuel pump failed on both Red Bulls.

McLaren had a similar issue after qualifying and one of the car’s was permitted to change the fuel pump.

Seems like poor quality control from the FIA and it could’ve happened to anyone.

Kinda weird that it only happened to the Red Bulls though. 

QC would (or should) actually have been done by the supplier. FIA would supply the specs and maybe have someone from Brawn's team do a random check on a unit to ensure it complied, but thats about it.

Exceptionally unlucky for them to get two dodgy pumps.


Anyway, I enjoyed listening to Max having a meltdown in his cockpit, pretty much from the first pit stop onwards, when he found he was still behind Leclerc. You'd think he'd have learned by now that you can't push 100% for a full race distance, but he somehow thinks he knows better than the team about race strategy... The steering and fuel pump issues were just the icing on the cake.

Did feel sorry for Sainz though...he didn't deserve to go out like that.

Other than that, can't really add to GSC's assessment. Mercedes got very lucky - but at least made sure they were in place to take advantage of RB's misfortunes. Aston Martin seem to have taken another backward step. Williams look no better than last season. AT treading water. Alfa appear to have made some progress, as do Haas - amazing comeback by Magnussen. Really pleased for him.

Ferrari looking very handy - though they will have a fight on their hands if RB sort out their reliability issues. Loved the duel between Leclerc and Verstappen. Was surprised Max didn't actually run Charles off the track at any point and impressed at how Charles refused to let Max bully him on the restart after the SC.

McLaren look like they've returned to their 2018 form. Not only is the Mercedes power unit looking 3rd best (performance wise), but they clearly haven't interpreted the new regs very well and appear to have brake issues to boot.

While I trust Mercedes' formidable development team to get a handle on their problems over the next few races, it could be another season-long struggle for McLaren.

Seems like Saudi Arabian GP could be in doubt. Yemen has been firing missiles into Jeddah. FIA President, from Saudi Arabia, staying quiet...
Race should be axed. How on earth can they race in those conditions?

Jeff Navarro wrote:Seems like Saudi Arabian GP could be in doubt. Yemen has been firing missiles into Jeddah. FIA President, from Saudi Arabia, staying quiet...
Race should be axed. How on earth can they race in those conditions?

I certainly wouldn't consider it safe.

But I suppose they will say the schedule is set and it can't be called off. Saudi will say they can "guarantee" safety. Same old story - too much money & prestige at stake.