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I fear that Vegas was very exciting not entirely due to its layout but also due to lack of data and general experience. Once the experience builds up, we can expect more boredom. Until then, let's enjoy, though

Yes, good point. I hope you're wrong though.

One race to go, Abu Dhabi this Sunday.

So what is left to fight for?

Top three driver's positions are set. Max, Checo, Lewis take top three spots and this cannot change no matter the results on Sunday

The battle for fourth is a good one. 12 points separate Sainz/Alonso (tied for fourth on 200 points) and Leclerc in seventh on 188. All to play for.

The battle for ninth is still up for grabs, with Stroll 16 points behind Piastri. Stroll would have to finish on the podium while Piastri finishes outside the points.

Albon will finish 13th. The remainder is up for grabs since all of these drivers have so few points but it is unlikely of course that any of them take a big haul. So fourth spot is the best battle still left.

On the Constructor's side we have a fantastic battle for second place, with Merc leading Fez by just four points. This is the best battle still to be decided.

The race for fourth is also coming down to the wire. It had looked a few races ago that McLaren would drive off in to the distance, but Aston has hit back at the last two races and just 11 points separate these two teams. Good battle and worth millions to the teams.

Seventh through tenth could end up any which way since again, these teams have so few points. A big result could catapult any of them to seventh, however unlikely it is.

Willams 28
Alpha Tauri 21
Alfa Romeo 16
Haas 12.

One to go!

I don't care much for rankings, bar who's first and who's not.

So it's been all set up since pretty much last year.

Let's just hope it's a good race behind Max, and pray we have a fight for first next season !!!

Bar Max's ultra domination, it's been a good year imho, plenty action, surprises, good fights, backmarkers not always in the back, teammates rivalries, it had it all.

Good post. There has been much I have enjoyed this season. But one thing that stands out for me is the variability in the order. Yeah, yeah, Max won too often. But beyond that we have seen a lot of intermixing.

there have been seasons in the past where qualifying and race results were often a mirror of the table for the teams. So the two Mercedes, followed by both Ferraris, followed by both Red Bulls and right on down the order. like Noah's Ark

But this year it's all mixed up. I think we had eight different marques in the top ten for Vegas qualifying and this stands out for me as one of the best parts of this season as it has been like this all year. Like last season, every team has scored points and this hasn't always been the case, such was the gap from top to bottom and even from team to team, which gave us those Noah's Ark grids and race results. The 2022 regulations aren't perfect, and there's been some divergence from the spirit of those regulations, like how the cars are producing more wake off the rear wings due to creatively interpreting the rules. Overall though this car formula and cost cap has been a success I think in making for better racing up and down the grid. Hopefully we see more narrowing of the gaps, which we should, and a proper fight at the top in 2024.

I've been playing Abu Dhabi a bit yesterday on F1 22 (never was hyped on it prior, probably because late season, arab country, mostly flat), it has a nice flow, and I can see one or two overtake opportunities, in addition to the DRS zones. We could have a fun race, if not for the win.

Quali is over, and I can't use my final fix chip, why oh why ??????

Well in nay case, I hope for an exciting race, and that max ends 2nd. Slim hope , but hey, end of season, why not ?

Sintax ran in to the same thing. Looks like there is a limit of 1 chip per race event.

Quali was bad for me. Williams let me down in a big way today. Hoping for a good race.

Ah well, too bad for chips. Let's hope indeed, that Max doesn't run with the money 40 secs ahead of everyone else

Verstappen is out of this world. Kimi led about 1,100 laps in his entire twenty-year career, and Max just led nearly that many in a single season. The RB19 was clearly the best car, but that doesn't automatically make it win 19 races (plus two for Checo, which maybe harpoons my argument haha)). Max is relentless. Every race he shows up and goes fast right off the transporter. What mistakes did he make this season? So few I struggle to think of any other than Singapore, and even there he's in the top five. It's this relentless flawlessness combined with such desire to compete and win that makes him maybe the best F1 driver ever. That's an argument for the ages, but I've been around for more than half of Formula 1's lifetime and who would I say is a better race car driver? I can more easily make arguments about careers, but as a driver?

It's an imperfect science trying to compare drivers, how can it be done? Was Jim Clark better than Hamilton, or Fangio better than Senna? Prost or Vettel? All of these drivers are in the top echelon, but none of them had a season like we just saw from Verstappen. And many of those men had better cars relative to the field than this year's Red Bull had.

And it must be said that the Red Bull team was nearly flawless too, and none of this happens if they are getting it wrong. Tire choice, pitstops, strategy, reliability, and just building a fantastic Formula 1 car, they just get it right. Fully deserved. First one-two in their history. What a season.

Piastri had a fantastic rookie year. I was skeptical he would live up to the hype and pressure of the contentious move to McLaren. But this kid is the real deal and well done to him. He is ice cool and very likely a future world champion. It's rare for me to say this about any rookie, but he has pace, racecraft and seems utterly calm at all times. That's a good mix to be a top driver. He was so good in fact that he gave Lando a battle all season. Lando came out well on top, but I didn't expect him to push so hard, and I bet Lando didn't either. I have Norris marked out as a future champ too, but he needs to clean it up, particularly in qualifying, and he's said so himself. He is missing that precision that makes Max so good. Still time and having Piastri pushing him so hard in the intra-team will help both drivers.

Good season for Williams after spending so long at the bottom. Seventh is not where they want to be, but it has to be considered a successful season. With a different second driver they likely would have been farther up the order or at least knocking on the door. Sargeant didn't impress enough for me. As an American I wanted him to have success. He wasn't wrecking too many cars or making big mistakes more than any other rookie does, but he fails to outdrive his machinery. Albon does it. But Sargeant didn't have the ability to extract the maximum. You could argue he deserves a second season, but if I were Williams I'd look at options.

Ferrari should have taken second this season and have only themselves to blame. Too many mistakes from the team and the drivers. Too much bad luck. So much of the current formula comes down to the rear end. Red Bull nailed it, and their aero efficiency meant they could run more rear wing than the other cars, and especially so compared to Ferrari who needed run less wing to turn competitive laptimes. This leads to more sliding, which eats the rears faster and this was their achilles heel all season. Fast over one lap, but no chance to move forward during the grand prix as their deg built faster than their rivals. Vasseur gets a second, full season now and let's see if they can dial it in for a real fight in '24. They need improved driver performance, a better car, and a better performance operationally. That's a tall order but I feel like they are right there. Just need to nail kit.

So that left Mercedes to swoop in and take second. You have to hand it to them to have such a result in a season that felt so difficult. It seemed like every race weekend they were struggling, but at the checkered flag they're pulling in good points, and so it proved that over the long haul they were right there to take it. They'll be happy with the result, but not the performance as a football manager would say. Need a better final ball. Well done to Lewis as well for handily winning the intra-team after not doing so the year before. Merc don't feel as close as I think McLaren and Ferrari are, but I wouldn't count them out for next year. The margins are as tight as ever across the field. We're talking a second and half at some circuits in qualifying from pole to last and I can recall when that would be the gap to sixth, not the entire field. Austria was eight tenths pole to De Vries. So minor gains with the car can mean big gains in the order next year. Third year of the regulations should see some compression I would expect.

Of the bottom three I feel like Alpha Tauri were on the rise at the tail end of the season, whilst Alfa and Haas are sort of nowhere. All of this could bounce around for next year, but AT feel primed to make some gains.

Aston Martin will feel torn. Such a good start, such a bad second half. It's not possible -- is it? -- but it felt like they sort of lucked in to their initial design for 2023, but didn't quite understand why, so that when they attempted to develop it they went off the rails. Probably some truth to this as they actually reverted some parts of the car and saw some improvement over the final few races. They'll be scratching their heads over their season I think.

And finally, Alpine. What a stormy year. Congrats to Gasly for coming in to this vortex of a Formula 1 team and winning the battle with Ocon. There's dysfunction here away from the track and it feels like they are near implosion. They complained they were down on power and sought to have some help from F1 and I'm glad that came to nothing. And despite all of this they were competitive on track. Australia was a disaster with Ocon and Gasly taking each other out on the final restart, which seemed to set the tone. They had good points wrapped up and threw it away with only themselves to blame. So it feels like their season probably wasn't too bad all things considered and if they can find some smooth waters in which to operate they might give the top three a run next season.

In all, the Max dominance takes some shine off what was otherwise a fantastic season. The intervals from second in the driver's to seventh are pretty tight, and every race threw up a mixed grid and mixed results. We have a final order, but it was anything but over the course of the year, from race to race.

Race of the Year -- Las Vegas
Surprise of the Year -- Piastri
Biggest Disappointment -- Imola cancelled

Hallo Gene. Günther. Ya der race is over and we finish season foking last. Yes, we loook like f…. W….., - again.

Listen, you wanna think about selling the team to Michael? Maybe he is interested and he won’t have to pay those greedy teamowners like Toto and Christian a dilution fee. He’ll save at least 200, no 600 millions because those FOCA’s will make him wait till the new Concorde agreement is in effect.

Max can't be compared to anyone but Perez, and he's better no question. Having the better car and better team leads to fewer mistakes, and his car was good enough to have him spin on track, collide, get penalties, start from the back and still win by a margin.

Exchange car AND team between Max and Lewis, Max and Charles, Max and Oscar, and expect results to be exchanged the same. I rate George, Alex and Lando as slightly inferior to this quatuor (right now I mean), but the result would also be almost the same.

Put the other great drivers in the same RB as himself and he probably would win, being a dirty driver with FIA and RB blessing. If he's penalized when driving dirty, and isn't given priority in car development, it's unsure he'd win. Can't say he'd lose either, but we'll never know.

Performances were indeed pretty close, so let's hope it's even closer next year, and that Vasseur can finally kill Fez's strategy problem. I think they improved a bit over last few races, maybe Carlos gave them a lesson they finally understood ?

I already trust Merc and Mac Laren, if they have a good enough car, to play good srats, but RB is mostly flawless in this department, so it's more car and pilot in the end.

Alpine, Aston, Alpha Tauri, Williams are quite unpredictable, only Haas I still expect to end last, unless Fez parts are so good that no dev is needed throughout the season.



Now I hope that next year, or one day at least, when a driver forces another off the track, he HAS to give the position back within one lap or get DISQUALIFIED (if it's 10 position to give back because the other car has lost 10 positions, then give back 10 positions). A few dirty drivers will have to change their driving style quite a bit then, and hopefully there will be less post race controversy.

If position cannot be given back due to the other car being retired, then penalty should be a drive through+30secs in pit, to make sure even an UFO car cannot win the race after such a move. Drive as a loser, end race as a loser.

Still, a good season due to Perez being Perez after the few first races.

Bring up 2024 !

Oh, and grats to Sintax for fantasy victory, and Dbond for a great comeback mid season.

Yeah, fantasy was a lot of fun this season, and thanks for taking part rollnloop. Great to have you involved. I had dug too deep a hole by mid-season, at one point trailing by more than 200. Made a nice comeback over the final third, but came up with a dud in the final race which I had entered just 3 points off the pace. Congrats to Sintax for the win. I offered congrats in person this morning and he wasn't too smug about it. He won this season by basically never making any changes. Lesson to be learned probably lol.

My top three races were

Qatar 410
Zandvoort 393
Austria 390

My worst three races were

Monaco 164
Singapore 188
Monza 229

I outbraked myself too often, when leaving it as it was would have been the better play. But I have fun with this and like to try to follow the splashes, as it were, and make changes to suit the specifics of the event. Got it wrong too much I guess in the end. But I made some inspired changes too. See you next year!

Hear hear !

Another street circuit might be coming. A move from Barcelona to Madrid after 2026.

Not a fan of street circuits myself, usually. Depends on the layout. Jeddah, Baku and Vegas are street circuits too. Too bad about Catalunya though, and just after they made those changes to the final sector that restored it as a great racing track.

Sargeant is retained for 2024. Good for him. Now take it with both hands.

Both Alpha and Alfa are getting new names, and they have been very tight-lipped.

2024 Sprint tracks have been named

China
Miami
Albert Park
COTA
Interlagos
Qatar

The hype and anticipation have been building to a fever pitch as the announcement for Sauber's new name drew near.

And it has been revealed to be.....

Stake

LOL.

No, that's not it, entirely.

It is actually

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Another F1 venue possibly on the chopping block. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/mo...05089f7e34d268633f5254b3d1683&ei=101 Real race tracks are disappearing for mickey mouse street circuits.