F1 F1 2023 - The Rise of Oscar

[skam85]

Apt that OP are the initials of the next Aussie world champion and it's the opening line of the F1 2023 thread's OP.

Red Bull - Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez - Launch Date: TBC
Ferrari - Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jnr - Launch Date: Feb 14th
Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton, George Russell - Launch Date: Feb 15th
Alpine - Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly - Launch Date: Feb 16th
McLaren - Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri (R) - Launch Date: Feb 13th
Alfa Romeo - Valterri Bottas, Guanyu Zhou - Launch Date: TBC
Aston Martin - Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll - Launch Date: Feb 13th
Haas - Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg - Launch Date: TBC
Alpha Tauri - Yuki Tsunoda, Nyck de Vries (R) - Launch Date: Feb 11th
Williams - Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant (R) - Launch Date: Feb 6th

23* Races for the 2023 season, China wants to host the 24th race still but the clock is ticking. Qatar returns and Vegas hosts its first race.

2023 Formula 1 calendar revealed: F1 announces 24-race calendar for 2023 | Formula 1®

Formula 1 has announced the calendar for the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, which has been approved by the World Motor Sport Council.

www.formula1.com

2.9 rookies on the grid for 2023 - Piastri, Logan Sargeant becoming the first American driver since 2015, and Nyck de Vries who scored points in his single race for Williams in Monza.

The Hulk returns for Haas, while Mick Schumacher and Danny Ricc are reserves/third driver for Merc and RB respectively.

Six sprint races for F1 - Baku, Austria, Spa, Qatar, USA (COTA) and Brazil.

Formula 1 announces venues for six F1 Sprint events across 2023 season | Formula 1®

Formula 1 has revealed the venues that will play host to the six F1 Sprint weekends during the 2023 campaign, with the number of events doubling from the three staged in 2021 and 2022.

www.formula1.com

Hopefully we get three (or more) teams in the mix, as enjoyable as it was seeing Lulu not win a race last year.

Alpine should improve but it will be interesting to see how much of it was down to Alonso. Gasly should have a new lease on life and motivation to beat his frenemy Ocon.

As much as I wanted to see Mick continue, it will be good to see Hulk back and Alonso vs the Strolls has the potential for fireworks.

Hopefully Aston Martin continue their improvements from the back half of 2022, because if it's half decent we all know Fernando is going to haul that green machine up the grid.

And how can we forget Oscar utterly dominating Lando in a way not seen at McLaren since.... well, 2022.

Let's gooooooo

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

Can Max make it 3 in a row??

 

[Broken]

How will the Melbourne crowd react to Oscar? Key to the axing of RIC/tainted by the McLaren fallout, or the next Aussie hero?

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

How will the Melbourne crowd react to Oscar? Key to the axing of RIC/tainted by the McLaren fallout, or the next Aussie hero?

They will just be happy they can reuse their old McLaren merch.

 

[Black_White]

How will the Melbourne crowd react to Oscar? Key to the axing of RIC/tainted by the McLaren fallout, or the next Aussie hero?

Not sure anyone blames Oscar for the falling out of McLaren and Dan.
If they want to dump their allegiance to the orange machine it will be down to how McLaren treated Dan, not the recruitment of Oscar.

 

[Broken]

Not sure anyone blames Oscar for the falling out of McLaren and Dan.
If they want to dump their allegiance to the orange machine it will be down to how McLaren treated Dan, not the recruitment of Oscar.

You'd be surprised but I agree it'd be more anti-McLaren than anti-Oscar... If Albert Park was Round 1 I'd expect a few boo birds, Round 3 might be a different story.

 

[gaskin]

Oscar is from Melbourne, IIRC. The Vico's will probably give him a heroes welcome.

 

[happy_eagle]

Really hope that Ferrari get their shit together and give Max a legitimate fight for the title.

Torn on whether I want Mercedes up there too. Would be great for racing to have 3 teams vying for the title, but not sure I could be seen barracking for Russell or Hamilton to do well.

 

[gaskin]

Really hope that Ferrari get their s**t together and give Max a legitimate fight for the title.

Torn on whether I want Mercedes up there too. Would be great for racing to have 3 teams vying for the title, but not sure I could be seen barracking for Russell or Hamilton to do well.

I think Merc will be. I doubt they build a shit car 2 years in a row.

 

[happy_eagle]

I think Merc will be. I doubt they build a s**t car 2 years in a row.

In that case, I'd be cheering on Hamilton before Russell.

 

[Black_White]

I think Merc will be. I doubt they build a s**t car 2 years in a row.

Will be interesting.
Half way through 2022 there was talk about scrapping the car/design completely and starting from scratch to develop a whole new 2023 car.
But then the car started to show improvement. Question is, behind the scenes how much has been scrapped, if any at all, and how much has been completely new development for 2023.

 

[gaskin]

Will be interesting.
Half way through 2022 there was talk about scrapping the car/design completely and starting from scratch to develop a whole new 2023 car.
But then the car started to show improvement. Question is, behind the scenes how much has been scrapped, if any at all, and how much has been completely new development for 2023.

Apparently they are keeping the same sidepod design.

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

Apparently they are keeping the same sidepod design.

Yes apparently the zero-pod design is less drag, if you forget the car has rear wheels.

 

[Iceman!]

Really hope that Ferrari get their s**t together and give Max a legitimate fight for the title.

Torn on whether I want Mercedes up there too. Would be great for racing to have 3 teams vying for the title, but not sure I could be seen barracking for Russell or Hamilton to do well.

I hope we get a 3 team battle that would be incredible, but i would settle for Leclerc getting a decent run at a championship.

 

[gaskin]

I hope we get a 3 team battle that would be incredible, but i would settle for Leclerc getting a decent run at a championship.

I'd actually settle for Sainz and Checo being a lot more competitive with Max and Charles. Such a big gap in performance at the top teams is not great, IMO, when those drivers are supposed to be the best of the best.

 

[Iceman!]

I'd actually settle for Sainz and Checo being a lot more competitive with Max and Charles. Such a big gap in performance at the top teams is not great, IMO, when those drivers are supposed to be the best of the best.

Sainz i think is more likely to be able to compete, he was okay last year i think. Made some bad mistakes but also was a victim of Ferrari incompetence as well.

Checo i have a lot less confidence in, he left a lot to be desired last year. Happy to be proven wrong though.

 

[gaskin]

Sainz i think is more likely to be able to compete, he was okay last year i think. Made some bad mistakes but also was a victim of Ferrari incompetence as well.

Yeah, his 2nd half of the season gives me hope he can compete with Charles.

 

[gaskin]

McLaren launch on Feb 13th.

 

[Forward Press]

I think it's fair to say that no matter which driver or team you support, you'd want a far closer championship akin to 2021 rather than 2022.

Regarding Piastri and McLaren, I don't think there will be any booing. They replaced an Australian driver that was definitely underperforming and getting older with an Australian driver that has proven his talent in lower formulas and is a rising star. When it gets to Melbourne most will give two-fifths of f*** all about how McLaren engineered the driver swap.

Mercedes to be a smokey as they get a year under their belt with their zero sidepod concept, Ferrari to be Ferrari, but Max should easily make it a hattrick.

 

[skam85]

For me I want more non Merc-Ferrari-RB podium finishers, Lando was the only one in 2022.

 

[Big Papa Ted]

Interesting to see how badly Red Bull get hampered by their wind tunnel restrictions, particularly with the floor reg changes for 2023 which could make more of an impact than people realise (I still think the reg amendments in 2022 were bulls**t but anyways).

As an avid Alpine fan, keen to see them continue to improve and it looks like we've got a solid base.

 

[Not Important]

beginning 2 gain some confidence that mclaren will make some inroads. still think it's a race between the big 3 4 the choccies tho. bring it on.

 

[jabba5114]

beginning 2 gain some confidence that mclaren will make some inroads. still think it's a race between the big 3 4 the choccies tho. bring it on.

2024 will be the year I reckon. New wind tunnel is finished this year some time.

Sent from my motorola edge 30 pro using Tapatalk

 

[DamoESP]

Continuing discussion from the other thread re: another team entering the fold.

Seems the current teams are all against it, and keep moving the goalposts for entry every time Andretti meet the conditions.

This comment stolen from a reddit thread sums it up:

First Andretti needed to be serious about their efforts (as of that was ever actually a concern), then they needed to pay the 200 million dollar fee (which turns out isn't actually enough anyway and is completely arbitrary), then they somehow needed to convince and brand new OEM into their entry to add "value" to it. Andretti manages to bring in GM, one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world...and it still isn't enough.

Even though the original conditions of entry were in the Concorde agreement (that all the current teams signed) and the regulations allow up to 3 new teams to enter, suddenly 8 out of the 10 teams are against it? Bit of a joke really.

 

[Black_White]

Apparently they are keeping the same sidepod design.

Fascinating. Wasn’t the side pod an issue in the porpoising?