Join Grace and me as we discuss Toto Wolff, more Toto Wolff, brain damage, the FIA president, which car would have kept us moving on, and which races would we dump to make room for new races in 2023/24.
"You can't take F1 to America, you have to take America to F1."
Negative Camber
Chief Opinion Officer, TPF
Contact Us:
tpf@theparcferme.com
Follow on:
This website is unofficial and is not associated in any way with the Formula 1 companies. F1, FORMULA ONE, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing B.V. Additional information can be found at F1's website at www.formula1.com. We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Akismet anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the User sets up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter's IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself).
Hi Todd and Grace! Your discussion of Toto’s complaints about porpoising and the “two sides of the coin” scenario got me thinking about whether Toto’s expectation for an outcome really is binary: the FIA will either mandate technical changes (raise the cars) or it won’t. By framing this as a health and safety issue, Toto’s painting the FIA into a corner; based solely on sporting terms I think the FIA would prefer to not mandate raising cars to the detriment of the “silent” teams such as Red Bull and Ferrari, but if they don’t act they’ll appear not to take… Read more »
It’s a good point. I agree, suggesting that if the FIA don’t fix a problem that his team is struggling the most with, it may cause brain damage, is really heavy handed. I tend to agree with Ferrari and Red Bull, it’s not up to the FIA to help Mercedes become or remain competitive. Several years ago, I agreed with Ron Dennis who said it is not up to the FIA to hobble Ferrari, it is up to McLaren to get better. I think you have a good point about mandating that teams fix porpoising instead of mandating that all… Read more »
I am following the sport now since the mid 80s, and so far it was always like this: when a team for what ever reason does not want a driver in their car anymore, that driver will not be in the car. No matter what the contract says. And loyalty can only go for a certain way. When your career is on the line, you have to make an egoistic decision. And don’t worry, the teams are doing the same. Or where was that loyalty to Checo, Ottmar? Only question of interest from a fans perspective is now, whether Piastri… Read more »
Indeed, that’s the big question. Many thought Lewis made the wrong decision to go to Merc but it made perfect sense to me as the team were moving forward, the regulations were set to change to hybrid and Ross Brawn had a large role in determining those regulations. Clearly Lewis saw it that way too. On the flip side, Alonso to Ferrari or Renault/Alpine. Valtteri to Sauber, Etc. Has Oscar made the right choice. It’s a tough call. I keep thinking Alpine will turn it around and if they do, then Alonso leaving will be another badly timed move for… Read more »
Problem with Alpine/Renault always was, that the parent company never was willing to make the kind of investment like Merc, Ferrari or Red Bull, which for a full works team always frustrated me. So in a cost cap world my gut feeling would also say I’d rather drive in a McLaren than an Alpine, because they might be able to get more out of the money they have. Biggest looser here actually might be Fernando, because with all the changes going on at Aston I am very sceptical about their future. But then, it would not be the first time… Read more »
The porpoising issue seems simple enough, given the amount of sensors on the car. If Toto is concerned about the frequency, simply mandate an average frequency that teams must meet. Then leave it up to them to figure it out. When thinking of tracks to get rid of, I think, “What track would I drop in favour of bringing Hockenheim or Turkey back?” Paul Ricard Barcelona Bah Rain Mexico Singapore (seriously, make this race 10 laps less if anything) Jeddah (Current circuit only. Let’s see what the new one will look like first) Miami – It’s a parking lot. No,… Read more »