re: 2023 Formula 1 season Thread

Some people paid $245, including the “locals discount” for both practice sessions last night and got 9 minutes of fp1

This race sounds like it is going to be exactly the shite show I was expecting.

F1 is going to kill itself chasing the dollar. Just go racing on racetracks designed for this kind of racing. Street races are just awful.

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F1 is going to kill itself chasing the dollar. Just go racing on racetracks designed for this kind of racing. Street races are just awful.

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To me it's more about the money grab of charging extremely high ticket prices for entry. If newer fans from the middle class can't afford to attend your events then why continue being a fan of that sport? How do expand into a market for long term growth if you just build boring street circuits in expensive cities?

Man, I haven't seen FP2 yet but watching this Press conference with the 4 team principals is fricking hilarious. Major quotes from Toto brushing off the importance of FP1 in general and stating that no one in Europe is watching FP1 anyway. Toto licking Liberty's boots about the Cadillac entry. Zach bucking the Liberty/F1 narrative welcoming Cadillac in as a engine manufacturer.

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Yeah, it's asinine. But they don't care. Personally I've paid very little attention all season since the races have been extremely predictable and boring. I mean, how am I supposed to care when I know who's going to win before it even starts?

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if F1 really wants to take over America, they need to make it like 1990s CART + indy 500

F1 will remain niche and probably correct 25-40% from current viewership if parity doesnt increase

If I ever do attend a race in person, it'll be Belgium, Monaco or COTA. It damn sure won't be Las Vegas or Miami.

It's a shame the car plays so much of a role in F1 these days. That's something Nascar has done a better job of for the most part, albeit it most of it might stem from simply the difference in cars and technology.

Maybe it's biased hindsight, but I feel like even when Lewis was winning 20 titles in a row, it was at least more competitive. The last two years have just been awful since red bull has the most dominant car by far. Max is the best driver IMO, but he should at least be able to be challenged.

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It's a shame the car plays so much of a role in F1 these days.

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I disagree. If you want close cars, watch a spec series. Most of the fun is in the engineering. It's an entire team coming together to solve a problem.

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Maybe it's biased hindsight, but I feel like even when Lewis was winning 20 titles in a row, it was at least more competitive. The last two years have just been awful since red bull has the most dominant car by far. Max is the best driver IMO, but he should at least be able to be challenged.

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It's for sure rose colored hindsight. Merc dominance was real. It was only ever close when Ferrari were not-cheating-but-cheating.

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Lawrence Stroll has sold a minority stake in the Aston Martin team to US private equity firm Arctos Partners.

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It still cracks me up that this dude has been basically buying his kid an F1 seat for years now.

Also, is this finally a race that Verstappen isn't going to win?

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I disagree. If you want close cars, watch a spec series. Most of the fun is in the engineering. It's an entire team coming together to solve a problem.

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Yea but it rarely works, with Mclaren this season being the main outlier.

F1 needs to have multiple chassis manufacturers and powerplants that can be purchased on a yearly basis - Similar to the cart model i.e. In the late 90s when Team Penske’s proprietary chassis were rendered uncompetitive, they were able to purchase Reynards (and add their own aero mods) mid season and eventually became competitive again.

F1 is too restrictive in this regard- the budget cap has also hamstrung parity and competition as there is limited resources that can be thrown at paradigm shifting aero improvements

CART at its peak was the pinnacle of motorsports with 4-5 different chassic mfgs and 4-5 different power plants