Crown

The onboard camera shot of Max driving behind and catching Perez, before the over take on the straight, spoke volumes.

Max's late braking way way superior, the speed he took in to every corner was so much faster, even the positioning for every bend was way better. I was shocked and disappointed, I thought I could do better 

Get Lando in it, different story then  

throt

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The thing is, the Red Bull is custom tailored to Max's driving style, there is no compromise for 'him'. Everyone else that jumps in will have to fit their style to the car. 

The car is set up to be exceptionally loose, that's how Max likes it. In a way, karting style. The current crop of young guns are used to driving like that but may not be to that extreme. Perhaps Lando can do it in that car as he also drives a loose car, something Ricciardo can't quite manage when he was at McLaren with Lando. 

The one person that pops into my mind right away that can manage such a setup would be Vettel. Vettel is a new style V corner style driver, as oppose to the classic style U corner that most drivers are brought up with. 

V shape cornering style is what the YouTuber Peter Windsor branded as 'short corner'. It extends the straights on either side of the corner but has a lower min speed and rotation rate in the corner apex as the turn is sharper than U shape drivers. A loose car helps immensely at the apex as the car will do the rotation for the driver as it really wants to come around. 

One problem with such a setup and style would be rear tire life, as the rears will be sliding instead of rolling around the corners. 

When I was racing Porsche's coaches were trying to teach this new style. I tried but just can't do it. Doesn't feel nature to me as I was trained in the classic style. Many times I was going for the V but half way through my instinct took over and mix it the U stuff and ended up half way between and going slower. 

I have to imagine Perez is in the same position. He is part of the older generation U style driver and when he remembers to do everything V style he is quick in that Red Bull, but whenever he falls back to old habits he is nowhere to be found, which is more often than not. 

interesting read , buddy 

So, your muscle memory just would not allow the V style, maybe.

Even on the straight on overtake, Perez surely must have lifted off the pedal, Max blasted past him.

Anyway, even though I am a bit of a Max fan, Lewis was way to kind to him from the off when he entered F1. Max had the mental upper hand fairly quickly. Lewis shouldn't have been so kind to him on track with some of those dart inside overtakes. Vettel at his peak against Max, for instance, would have been bumper cars 

throt

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Max is getting much better corner exits than Perez, but even if Perez is getting his own custom tailored car, he will still be slower than Max as they are different level of drivers. 

Shaich:

Another great track and another sad race... I love the Belgian GP, and I always look forward to this race, as this is by far the best track IMO. And yet again due to the huge difference between RB and the rest it was a boring race. One must congratulate RB for doing such a great job with their car and the pairing of Max and the car is just perfect, but unfortunately it ruins the whole season... and TBH I don't see anything changing this or next year as it seems that RB is just on another planet. The only thing that would help F1 at the moment is to put a strong young gun like Norris, Russel or Leclerc in the RB next to Max in order to have some excitement, but as we know RB it will not happen... so for the coming years we will have to see how Max will drive circles around the rest of the field. 

Beyond silly - Toto gets it, it's the other teams that make the spread and need to perform, not to mention all the great racing visible for those that can see.  And F1 mangement needs to find the plot, Saturday was a joke that ruins the sport.

watt:

Shaich:

Another great track and another sad race... I love the Belgian GP, and I always look forward to this race, as this is by far the best track IMO. And yet again due to the huge difference between RB and the rest it was a boring race. One must congratulate RB for doing such a great job with their car and the pairing of Max and the car is just perfect, but unfortunately it ruins the whole season... and TBH I don't see anything changing this or next year as it seems that RB is just on another planet. The only thing that would help F1 at the moment is to put a strong young gun like Norris, Russel or Leclerc in the RB next to Max in order to have some excitement, but as we know RB it will not happen... so for the coming years we will have to see how Max will drive circles around the rest of the field. 

Beyond silly - Toto gets it, it's the other teams that make the spread and need to perform, not to mention all the great racing visible for those that can see.  And F1 mangement needs to find the plot, Saturday was a joke that ruins the sport.

 

Yes it is up to the other teams that need to perform... and the great racing you are talking about is there, but only behind RB... and in F1 the only thing that matters is the victory, sure I am watching the great battles in the midfield, but I want to see that racing at the front. I know you care about Max and so you ignore reality, but I really enjoyed a season as we saw the battle for the WDC until the last race. I care for great sport, what ruins the sport is such a huge gap between the leading team and the rest, I hope that the other teams can catch up... but I doubt it. I watch F1 since the early 90's and I saw many exciting seasons and less exciting ones, but what is happening now is just a joke, a car that can basically win from any place one the grid, if you enjoy it than great, I do not 

During the last dominant era. aka the Mercedes era, the racing was still close. Vettel in the Ferrari is just right there ready to pounce and Lewis had to be on his game in order to secure the win. Bottas also routinely take wins away from Lewis. And baby Max in the Red Bull is right behind ready to pick up anything if the Merecedes and Ferrari falters. For those 7 years, it wasn't a given that a Mercedes will win.

Arguably, in a couple of those years, the Ferrari is actually the faster car even. Those Mercedes was never this far ahead of the competition like the current Red Bull is.

Competitions also has the benefit of no cost cap so they can spend more in order to catch up.

Not so in the current era. Red Bull aced the regulations, and the other teams are unable to spend more to catch up because of the cost cap. With Max in the best car on the grid, it's no wonders he fucked off into the distance every race. Heck, he is driving at 80% and is still fucking off into the distance. 

The broadcast director at least has some common sense, all season we get very little TV time of seeing Max, the broadcast focus has been on the other 19 cars, and the fight among them. We see more Haas and Williams than Red Bull branding on TV, that's actually very nice. Very unlike before when it was always showing battle between 2 Mercedes, or a Mercedes with a Ferrari, and/or a Red Bull and literally nothing else. 

I'll be royally pissed if I am the current CEO of Red Bull the company, I paid all these money to go racing in F1 yet I get zero TV time even when the team I sponsored is leading the championship and the driver is winning every race. 

In other F1 news.

“I always say, you can’t get nine women pregnant and hope you have a baby in a month.” - Otmar Szafnauer.

Best. Quote. Of. The. Year. 

Be careful for what you wish...I'm not sure I want "spec" cars like Indy cars, or Balance of Performance adjustments like WEC....I like the technology innovation battles that produce the fastest cars!

Don't mind the headline for the video.

Ex-Red Bull race engineer, after looking at data, suspect the Red Bulls have another 20 seconds or so that they left on the table. Max could have won by a full minute over Leclerc. 

That's how dominant the Red Bulls are this season.

964C2:

Be careful for what you wish...I'm not sure I want "spec" cars like Indy cars, or Balance of Performance adjustments like WEC....I like the technology innovation battles that produce the fastest cars!

Playing devil's advocate. 

It is really innovation when all teams are like converging towards the Red Bull design? 

At the start of the ground effects era there was some real innovations with different side pod designs and paths teams takes. But with Red Bull that much faster than everyone else, all the teams are basically trying to copy that now. In the eras before, different teams have completely different car designs, I would say the innovation is less now.

And about the engines. While there are 4 different engine manufacturers, they are all making the same 1.6L 90 degree V6. And all have converged on Mercedes' split turbo design even. Granted there are different engine output between the manufacturers, with the Honda leading the pack and the Renault unit bringing up the rear. 

I would argue WEC has more innovations. 4, 6 and 8 cylinders, with or without turbos and with or without hybrids. And the bodywork are wildly different even, with and without wings in the prototype class. In GT class vastly different body style even.

I actually think currently F1 has too many regulations. Imagine in a world where F1 has fewer regulations. Say a car has to be 1.8m wide, 4.5m long, 1.2m high. Whatever tire spec, then they are given 60 litres of fuel every race, certainly not enough to go fast the whole distance so energy recapture will be needed, thus hybrid system. They can design their own 2,4,6,8, 10 or even 12 cylinder engines at whatever rpm they can make them. Almost like back to the old days where they race what they bring. 

....I do like your idea of basically a "formula libre" with some simple parameters.

If only I am in charge..........lol

Red Bull nailed it.  Even more than Mercedes did the last time the format changed to hybrids.  The exacerbating challenge is with the cost cap, the other big teams cant throw unlimited funds to catch up this time.  Even with the sliding scale of wind tunnel time etc, huge Red Bull advantage will be harder to chip away at.  But agreed, the onus is on competitors, not Red Bull.  Im just shocked how far Checo is from Max.

Ok, this season is hardly surpassable in monotony. What are the chances that the next season will be more exciting and at least 2-3 teams will compete for the World Championship? I suspect that Red Bull has been working on their vehicle for next year for weeks already, which gives them a huge head start and advantage, doesn't it?

What you talking about? we have like 4 teams competing for best of the rest right now 

Well I had to believe Red Bull had shifted their development to the 2024 car a while ago, they would be stupid not to.

But by the same token, I think the other teams had also shifted simply because they can see they aren't catching Red Bull at all this year. Perhaps Mercedes, McLaren might stay the course for longer simply because they are fighting for 2nd place in the standing. For others that are stuck in no man's land like Alpine, they really should if they haven't yet.

Yesterday I was watching a documentary about Brabham and there was a fairly recent interview of Bernie Ecclestone.

They were asking if Brabham had been cheating. Bernies' answer was : in F1 it is not about cheating it is about all about not being caught. 

I wonder how much this is still true. 

Teams aren't concerned about what's written in the rule book. They are more interested on what is NOT written down.

Things that aren't specifically outlawed are legal, until being told otherwise.

It's the job of the Sporting Director to comb through the rule book and find 'loop holes'. It's where innovations comes from.

Blown diffuser, double diffuser, dual axis steering, disappearing side pods, creative wing end plates, slots on front wing, etc. Some works some don't, but that's another story.

Ferrari's fuel delivery trick was also one of those, but it was in the shadiest of grey area. 

Red Bull's accounting trick is another one of those shadiest grey job.

It's not cheating until one get caught. 

--

I like his idea

https://www.planetf1.com/news/mario-andretti-hits-out-at-ferrari/

Maybe we get an eventful weekend. 

1.3 seconds behind in the same car!  Someone might not be returning to RBR next year. 

CGX car nut:

1.3 seconds behind in the same car!  Someone might not be returning to RBR next year. 

you're right --granted conditions were part of it,  but they're always so

1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing 1:10.567
2 Lando NORRIS McLaren +0.537
3 George RUSSELL Mercedes +0.727
4 Alexander ALBON Williams +0.852
5 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +0.939
6 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +1.187
7 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing +1.313
8 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +1.371
9 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +2.098
10 Logan SARGEANT Williams +6.181
11 Lance STROLL Aston Martin 1:20.121
12 Pierre GASLY Alpine +0.007
13 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +0.030
14 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +0.109
15 Nico HULKENBERG Haas +0.129
16 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo 1:22.067
17 Esteban OCON Alpine +0.043
18 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas +0.125
19 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +0.193
20 Liam LAWSON AlphaTauri +1.353

Norris said “It was good, I’m happy, still. P2 is still a good result.

“In these kinds of conditions, every now and then you hope Max makes a mistake and he doesn’t. Frustrating in a little way but I’m very happy.

https://racingnews365.com/norris-rues-lack-of-verstappen-errors-in-pole-quest

What a mighty performance from Lando, wow. Imagine him piloting the Red Bull, he will be lapping the field! 

The young guns are rising to the top, Lando, together with Russell and Albon. Albon is another with a mighty performance, that Williams isn't suppose to do well in corners, yet Albon dragged it all the way to the 2nd row. 

Piastri was also extremely impressive earlier, he is has proven Zak Brown has made the right decision to drop Ricciardo for him. He just need more seasoning and he will be right there.

And we come to Sergeant, wow, is that Williams for real or is Sergeant the real deal? Q3 as a rookie in a Williams! Quite an accomplishment there.

Leclerc oh Leclerc. He is still overdriving the Ferrari, but then again he doesn't really have a choice, that Ferrari just isn't that good. 

Can Alonso single-handedly save Aston Martin's season since Junior just isn't good and not helping? Perhaps Junior should just switch to tennis right now as some earlier reporting been saying? 

I never understood this latest Riccardo craze, is he really a hidden gem, seems mediocre to me.

Sir had a rough day, Georgie did well

watt:

I never understood this latest Riccardo craze, is he really a hidden gem, seems mediocre to me.

Sir had a rough day, Georgie did well

He is an entertaining personality on and off the track. And F1 needed more of those.

Imagine a whole grid full of vegetables like Stroll or Verstappen, there will be zero interesting interviews.

Actually scratch that, Verstappen is entertaining. He has displaced Yuki as the most expletive laden driver ever. I never imagine someone could swear more than Yuki but Max is the champ now.

Hearing his radio messages that's broadcasted is a ray of sunshine. 

Thank god my sons are older now, would be hard to tell them to use Max as an idiot if my kids are like 12 and under and tell them that swearing is not polite and not good and they would be like but Max is doing that all the time on TV. 

marko - cogent explanation of RB laps differential, in second section

https://racingnews365.com/marko-surprised-by-unimaginable-verstappen-performance

Cause he forgot their Red Bulls are like 3/4 to a full second faster than anyone else's car.