Race 18 - 2023 Qatar GP

[Nitrodaze]

We are back to the "Desert PAW" where the driver's championship is set to conclude what has been a very boring competition. Shaped like the paw print of a giant medieval cat, lit in the dark desert night of Losail, this is another sweatbox of 57 laps of racing. With about 14 corners, a majority of which are slow corners, we should expect Redbull to have the measure of every car on the grid as usual. How well this layout would suit McLaren is yet to be seen.

It was noticed that Ferrari has improved their slow corner performance of late. As such, Mercedes would have their hands full in the fight with Ferrari at this race. What is at stake here is the second-place battles in both the constructors and driver championships. With a mere 24 points between Mercedes and Ferrari, the seven-time world champions are by no means in a comfortable position with six races to go.

Perez continues to be vulnerable in the Verstappen-focused Redbull car. With Hamilton at his heels by a narrowing 33 points behind. There are words in the grapevine that Mercedes has found something that may translate to an improvement in pace at this race. But all eyes are on Mclaren, have they understood and fixed their slow corner issues? Can Ferrari snatch second from Mercedes at this race?

Andretti F1 bid gains momentum as the FIA approves their application. Andretti is now set to seek the approval of the very frosty FOM and a growing disapproval of current teams on the grid. From a fan perspective, we want new blood on the grid in the form of Audi and Andretti, so make it happen FOM.

W-Series racer, Jessica Hawkins drives the Aston Martin F1 car. First female driver to pilot an F1 car since Suzie Woolf in 2018. Next to Jamie Chadwick, her record is unremarkable but nonetheless exciting to see it happen. It made me wonder why Chadwick has not been offered a test drive in F1 with her stellar pedigree. Strange how these things work eh!

[gm99]

[IMG]
W-Series racer, Jessica Hawkins drives the Aston Martin F1 car. First female driver to pilot an F1 car since Suzie Woolf in 2018. Next to Jamie Chadwick, her record is unremarkable but nonetheless exciting to see it happen. It made me wonder why Chadwick has not been offered a test drive in F1 with her stellar pedigree. Strange how these things work eh!

Chadwick's "stellar pedigree" mostly traces back to the her time in the stillborn W series. Her season in Indy Nxt (formerly Indy Lights) this year has been anything but impressive, finishing 12th (and last of the drivers who ran all races) in spite of being with front-running Andretti Autosports. Other female drivers have done much better in that series in the past (Ana Beatriz finished 3rd overall in 2008, Pippa Mann 5th in 2010). Her season in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2020, again with a front-running team (Prema), wasn't much better with a P9 finish (out of 11 who ran all season).

[Nitrodaze]

Chadwick's "stellar pedigree" mostly traces back to the her time in the stillborn W series. Her season in Indy Nxt (formerly Indy Lights) this year has been anything but impressive, finishing 12th (and last of the drivers who ran all races) in spite of being with front-running Andretti Autosports. Other female drivers have done much better in that series in the past (Ana Beatriz finished 3rd overall in 2008, Pippa Mann 5th in 2010). Her season in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2020, again with a front-running team (Prema), wasn't much better with a P9 finish (out of 11 who ran all season).

Transition into Indy car racing takes a season or two. I think you should judge her on what she does next season where l think she would improve greatly. All the other female racers you mention did not achieve those levels at first attempts to be fair. That said, l don't know if Indycat is as cut-throat as F1. She is having a Sargeant-type season and Sargeant seems to be on his way out of F1.

If not, Take this season as a learning season for her. And watch out for improvements next season, l would say.

[airshifter]

Don't forget it's a Sprint weekend, so the schedule will be off accordingly.

Track resurfacing, change to DRS zone detection and activation, and major changes to the runoff curbs. Drivers are reporting just one trip beyond track limits might be very costly on floor damage. With the new track, high temps, and lack of support races they are also expecting track evolution to be very high through race start. It could well be a weekend where we see surprises in the starting and finishing orders, as the proper setup to be fast over one lap vs race distance could be major.

It's supposed to be really hot over the weekend, no relief for the drivers at all.


The DRS zone changes might make for more passes, but there aren't many other places for frequent on track passes. These races might well be won in strategy and pit calls. The track overall seems challenging for the drivers, but the lack of off track features makes it easy to lose track of where they are on track at times.

With the combinations of cornering speeds, along with a potentially challenging setup due to the Sprint format, I don't think any single team really stands out as the one to beat. It will be a track where getting it wrong in strategy or the pits can really hurt a team quick. And from initial comments, any adventures off track will pay a high price in some areas, so even drivers on this level will have to keep their head in the game and not push the limits too far.

[Tazio]

'troll.....
Fred is ruining him worse than he ruined Jacques back s few.


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[Tazio]

Ba-bye Boss

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[gm99]

Transition into Indy car racing takes a season or two. I think you should judge her on what she does next season where l think she would improve greatly. All the other female racers you mention did not achieve those levels at first attempts to be fair. That said, l don't know if Indycat is as cut-throat as F1. She is having a Sargeant-type season and Sargeant seems to be on his way out of F1.

If not, Take this season as a learning season for her. And watch out for improvements next season, l would say.

First, it's not the Indy Car series as such, but Indy Nxt, which is a feeder series like GP2. A lot of drivers there are rookies.
As to the other female racers not achieving these results at first attempt: Beatriz did actually finish third overall in her first season of Indy Lights in 2008, which was also her first year racing in North America.

[Nitrodaze]

First, it's not the Indy Car series as such, but Indy Nxt, which is a feeder series like GP2. A lot of drivers there are rookies.
As to the other female racers not achieving these results at first attempt: Beatriz did actually finish third overall in her first season of Indy Lights in 2008, which was also her first year racing in North America.

Fair point

[airshifter]

Interesting race qually, Sprint Shootout, and Sprint as well.

It seems track limits violations are really catching out drivers, and a lot of drivers at that. With two drivers getting penalties in the short Sprint, I wouldn't be shocked at all to see multiple drivers get penalties in the race. I'm really not at all happy with the tires situation, the slight track alterations to avoid the tire problem, and the fact that they might now change the tire lap limits due to it. Essentially the track and Pirelli have managed to toss out some strategy calls and now the race will be run with more of a "luck" factor involved if they are mandated tire changes beyond what was stated at the start of the sessions.

Today showed just how bad the track limits were still catching drivers out, and really shook up the Sprint Shootout. Then the multiple safety cars did the same for the Sprint itself.

Those at the front starting on the softs took off like lightning compared to those on the mediums. But even with the safety cars, those softs wouldn't last long, but did come back alive for a couple laps even after the last safety car where they had the advantage over the mediums for a bit. It was fun watching the red shod cars get past some others, then lose the positions again as the mediums came alive. Overall for such few racing laps there really were a lot of passes, not to mention some close racing as well as some sloppy mistakes. Ocon managed to take out three cars in a single turn. I thought George might have a chance after making a decisive pass for the lead, as it seemed he was hoping to bolt and make it stick. But it wasn't to be, and those in the pack on softs suffered even more and made it easier for Max to overtake them coming through the back.


Great to see Piastri take a win, even if it was a Sprint. That's got to hurt for Lando, especially with Oscar being a rookie and all. But at any rate, I did feel a bit bad for Oscar with the way the post race celebration and interviews were done. It's great that Max got immediate attention for the WDC, but they made it overshadow the fact that Oscar won the race. It seems to me they could do better in that respect.


I think tomorrow could still be interesting, tire issues and new limits or not. Today showed just how much the tires can degrade, and tire strategy could be big. With a number of cars probably out of place on the grid things could get dicey in the race.

[Nitrodaze]

The highlight of the sprint for me was seeing Piastri win it with Verstappen on track. Great drive from Albon from 17th to the last points-earning position. Hamilton showed that there is a good pace in the Mercedes going from 12th to 5th. The longer race on Sunday shall be more interesting, as l am expecting Ferrari to get more in the mix. The start shall be interesting with Russell and Hamilton poised to mug Verstappen. It would be sweet if one of the Mercedes could win the race tomorrow.