Reply With QuoteWhat's the point, they'll fiddle the result so it matches the marketing departments script.
Well chaps, the new season will soon be upon us again, and this time we have a new WDC who will be defending his title. We will also see Russell driving for Mercedes and the first Chinese driver in F1 (which will be interesting). More importantly we will see new cars, sporting new aero packages and big 18” wheels. If we are lucky we might even see LED wheel covers, just to add to the show. Oh and closer racing if Ross Brawn is correct. We will even get to see a tracks not seen in the past 2 years.
What we might not see is Hamilton (albeit highly unlikely) and Micheal Masi (who hopefully we fall on his sword). It’s also very unlikely we will hear the communications between the FIA and the teams, which might be a good thing, but perhaps they will televise the pre-race drivers briefing which would actually be a good thing as it might educate some of the fans as to what is and what isn’t allowed.
As for the FIA detailed analysis and report into what happened in AD last season, I imagine we might get to see snippets, none of which will defame Masi, question the decisions made on the day or undermine Max’s championship. Hopefully it will force the FIA to draft some clear unambiguous rules and removes the “right” of the race director to do as he pleases.
As for predictions. Firstly Mercedes will once again be strong, but Ferrari, AM, Alpine, and McLaren will be the mix. Not sure about RBR because we know they focused most of their efforts on winning the WCC/WDC in 2021, so might struggle in 2022. Mercedes have already stated that they believe they have fixed the reliability issues they had in 2021, so should be very strong contenders. The big question is whether the other teams have closed the gap. Testing starts next month so we should get a better idea after this.
It should be interesting and hopefully without the interference of the FIA, Liberty and Netflix.
Anywhoo here is the Calendar for the season. Enjoy and try to be nice.
2022 Formula 1 calendar
Date Grand Prix Venue 20 March Bahrain Sakhir 27 March Saudi Arabia Jeddah 10 April Australia Melbourne 24 April Emilia Romagna Imola 8 May Miami Miami 22 May Spain Barcelona 29 May Monaco Monaco 12 June Azerbaijan Baku 19 June Canada Montreal 3 July United Kingdom Silverstone 10 July Austria Spielberg 24 July France Le Castellet 31 July Hungary Budapest 28 August Belgium Spa 4 September Netherlands Zandvoort 11 September Italy Monza 25 September Russia Sochi 2 October Singapore Singapore 9 October Japan Suzuka 23 October USA Austin 30 October Mexico Mexico City 13 November Brazil Sao Paulo 20 November Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
What's the point, they'll fiddle the result so it matches the marketing departments script.
Agreed. Lost interest they've got their work cut out to get me back.Originally Posted by Jeremy67
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Ah yes, my favourite country.... Miami.
Presumably done to differentiate it from the USA GP, in Austin, on 23 October.
When are the new car launches?
i think Ferrari are launching the first week of Feb followed by Mercedes (who have already released a YT of its engine on start up).
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nice, not long to go then.
Like Europe or Styria.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Aston Martin February 10th
McLaren February 11th
Ferrari February 17th
Mercedes February 18th
Rest are "TBA"
And the first pre-season test is 23/2/22
Good point. Double header I'm the US.. Liberty Media is really doing a good job getting the Americans on board including Netflix etc.
Williams driver lineup ffs!
In shocking news, Hamilton turned up for work at Mercedes F1 HQ on Monday.
It would appear that all of the media (including Crofty and Brundle) speculation regarding his impending retirement might have been rather exaggerated.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Been watching every F1 race since ‘87 but honestly the last race and Spa has tested my resolve so I think I’m done.
Stadium super truck racing is where it’s at :)
You say that, but once qualification's on the TV ...
Although I think you are right (especially based on his tweet) I don’t think we can actually say for sure. Say for the sake of argument he is waiting for the FIA investigation to conclude, he needs to do the pre-season prep to keep his options option.
You could well right. However I expect the FIA to drag its heels effectively forcing Hamilton will race. However if the FIA try to drag it out to long, I could well see Hamilton kicking over the table mid season to make his point even louder and demonstrating perfectly that FIA cannot be trusted to police itself and therefore the sport.
This could then open the doors to an alternative F1 series, a bit like what we are seeing in professional golf. The timing might be perfect given that Todt, Brawn, Ecclestone, Symonds, are all effectively free agents this year, why not launch an alternative.
Interesting times.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Norris signs 4 year deal with McLaren: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/n...-2025/8015249/
I think McLaren might have got the better deal there; it seems a long contract for an upcoming driver.
What a load of tosh Andyg. There's no way on earth that Hamilton isn't going to race this season even if Toto is so far up his crack, he knows the turds names.
And as for a breakaway/alternative series, that's as likely as the sun not coming up anywhere. Ever. Again.
The whole off season garbage waffle is just that - to keep the columns full.
LOL. Eccleston is about 203 years old now. Just what he wants, to set up a breakaway formula.
David
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
I wonder what the FIA are going to do. It’s grim reading the radio transcripts back today. Particularly the one from Wheatley.
It’s a blouse for the whole sport
For those who live in a cave https://youtu.be/HpO3xxv8a64
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I'd imagine surely they can't let the result stand for the final race. Else the sport is a total mockery.
You know this as a fact do you? Of course you don’t.
Plus you seem to have forgotten that Hamilton and Toto are richer than god, so can do exactly as they please. As for an alternative series to F1, why not. The FIA doesn’t control DTM, MotoGP, World Superbikes, Porsche Cup, Indy Car, BRTC and many many others. All it needs is money, teams, tracks (which are very plentiful) and an audience.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hmm, I think they will, however possible options.
Void AD and award Max the WDC because he has more wins, but then this would introduce the non Spa race, at which Masi seemed happy to finish under safety car. Cue another dispute.
Void AD and Spa (as these were Masi influenced races) which means that Hamilton wins on gaining more 3rd places. Cue meltdown by the Orange Army.
Void the last lap in AD, which means Hamilton wins. Cue a meltdown by the Orange Army.
Give it the driver who lead the most laps - Max wins.
Give it to the driver to complete most races - Hamilton wins
Give it to the driver with the most likes/followers on Instagram, Farcebook, or Sh*tter - who cares!
Give it to the driver with the most penalty points - Max wins.
Personally I hope they void the WDC for 2021 all together, or simply have Max and Hamilton as joint winners. It would seem fair as both deserved to win, but it wouldn't go down well with some factions within the F1 community.
Alternatively, put both drivers in a Williams and let them have a sprint race over 10 laps. Now that would be quite interesting, but no doubt would end in a crash. A better option would be a pursuit race. Both start at each side of the track and hunt each other down. The first one to catch the other wins.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
There is no way they will change the result in either Abu Dhabi or of the WDC.
They will move/fire Masi and quietly agree that something similar won’t happen again.
I don't think it's as simple as firing Massi or any others, because then they (FIA) would be admitting there was a mistake made or that the result was wrong, which would lead to further questions etc.
I think a possibility is that Massi stays on for a while longer and once it blows over a bit he will 'decide to retire of his own volition'.
I don’t think it will blow over until the end of this season and only if Hamilton wins his 8th, breaks Schumi record, etc, then perhaps. If not, this will simply fester and get worse.
When Schumi cleared out Hill in 95, fans were upset but didn’t have a voice. Now they have the internet and social media. Hence The FIA will need take some action in order to resurrect any shred of integrity left. This will mean new regs, removal of a clause which enables the Race Director to do as he feels fit, and the head of Masi.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I would love to see it awarded jointly, think it’s the only fair outcome, But FIA won’t do that. They’ll simply change the rules for this season around communication with RD and move Masi into a different role, they’ll also not make the RD a single role, it will be like football with 2 assistant refs for particular rules e.g a safety car ref etc and a 4th ref that liaises with team managers.
Masi has been sacked as Race Director, but will retain a role in the FIA looking after safety. His place will be taken by two new Race Directors. One chap from DTM the other from WEC. These will “direct” alternate races (thus ensuring even less consistency).
The FIA are also setting up a dedicated VAR team to review incidents, thus ensuring major falling outs between them and the track side stewards. Hopefully overtime, they can remove the stewards all together and simply use a professional set of fully trained and consistent referees (like other sports).
Finally it seems that the great unwashed will be prevented from hearing radio traffic between teams and the Race Director. A good thing, except without this we would never had heard the discussion which took place between Wheatley and Masi in AD.
Hopefully the FIA are planning some more substantive changes to bring back some credibility into the sport, but the sacking of Masi proves without doubt that what happened in AD was a farce.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
For those interested the FIA have just published the latest version of the Sporting Code.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/fi...2022-02-18.pdf
It’s actually quite interesting.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Guess I was way off on this one!
In other news though, Drive to Survive must be coming out in the next couple of weeks, as the season starts soon
11th March IIRC
Looking forward to that!
Will drivers get "bounced" for not wanting to drive in Russia?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bPA6_NRa0Nw
Unlikely as the FIA has cancelled the Russian F1 GP and it looks as if it will be moving to Turkey instead. Not exactly the bastion of liberal ideals and human rights, but it’s better than many others that infect the calendar. Plus it’s a much better track.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Anything in there to prevent/sanction piloting a car like a missile in the event of having a points lead in the drivers championship?
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It's looking like Haas will cut ties with their sponsor and remove Mazepin. If they do and manage to find some other funding, who'll they replace Mazepin with?
They've already said it'll be Pietro Fittipaldi
Formula 1 terminates contract with Russian Grand Prix promoter
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...CSQj25Xg3.html
Maizepan has been dropped.
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from Guenther Steiner
"The decision to recall Magnussen, who last drove for the team in 2020, comes despite Haas team principal Guenther Steiner previously suggesting that the team’s reserve driver, Pietro Fittipaldi, would have “first call” on a race seat should Mazepin lose his role in the team."
So they say one thing and do another.
Kevin Magnussen in the Haas for 2022 !!! That simply says to Fittipaldi......"sorry, we think you're $h1te mate" hahahaha
Last edited by reggie747; 10th March 2022 at 10:04.
I expect that having 2 relatively junior drivers wouldn’t sell well with new sponsors but KMag will.
Practice 3: ha!
Kilograms of sand flying out behind those Mercs on their first out-laps 🤣
Who’d ‘av’ thought it…
What an absolutely unexpected end to the race today!
Looks like we may have at least three teams fighting this year, which will make a refreshing change.
Fernando would probably call it Double Karma…
Oh dear.
🤣
Hamilton would not have expected a podium in his wildest dreams at the start of this weekend.
Did you really think they were sandbagging then?
"An issue with the fuel system" on the RBs apparently. Is that a euphemism for running out of the fluid that is held in the fuel system?
The fact that it happened to both of them within a short time makes me think that is, indeed, what happened.
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