re: 2023 Formula 1 season Thread

Guenther Steiner: The result wasn’t what we expected – Nico didn’t have a great start losing a front wing endplate and Kevin was, in hindsight, on the wrong tire at the start. I think race pace was better than we expected and that’s what we take away from here – there is good potential in the car. We qualified in the top 10 and maybe could even have been in the top eight if everything went perfectly. In the race it didn’t go our way, but we learned a lot and we now know that we’re in the ballpark on race pace like everybody else.

We go to Jeddah well prepared, and we’ll see what we can do there – I think points are possible.

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Kevin was, in hindsight, on the wrong tire at the start.

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Same song, different chorus.

FML That is all.

Horner on the Aston;

“So, they’ve obviously done a good job over the winter. They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery, and it’s good to see the old car going so well.”

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Alonzo did some amazing driving! That was fun watching him. No idea hiw he didn’t hit that MER car in the corner, great driving skill.

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IIRC Alonzo was on soft and Merc on Hards. Alonzo had much better grip and could go wide into a turn with a LOT more acceleration than Merc because Merc's margin of error would have been tighter than it could handle due to the stickier tires on the Aston Martin.

Alonso took advantage of his good fortune like a boss.

If Aston Martin becomes a consistent front-runner, when does it become awkward that a team named after a car company doesn't actually use the car company's engines? I've always found these car company branding exercises weird, like when Infiniti sponsored Red Bull. Shouldn't these car companies be embarrassed that they are using F1 just for advertising, not to participate in the technology development?

it's a shitload of money to make your own engine, and the profit margins are low if you sell to other teams. According to Toto, they are going to dump some of their customers. so i can certainly see why it's just easier to buy from other teams. will be interesting to see what RBPT and Audi come up with in 2026.

i was always confused on the Aston Martin relationship with the team. isn't it mostly owned by lawrence's consortium? how much of it is just a branding/badging deal like alfa romeo?

AM have never been too big on making their own engines in their road cars, iirc. I know they've made a few engines, but a lot of their stuff comes from other manufacturers.