Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
General discussion thread for the F1 season ahead.
As the race and some team threads are already getting full of comments regarding the competitiveness of the 2024 f1 season or how the FIA can change that (myself included of course), here is a thread to discuss anything F1 2024 related including moaning and bickering!
"The only rule is there are no rules" - Aristotle Onassis
it's really bad IMHO. RBR better be bringing an anchor as an update in Japan and Ferrari a rocketship otherwise this is even worse than last year. Every team bar Ferrari is legitimately worse off than last year against RedBull. Aston is quite far and McL isn't going to bring a mid season mega update that gains 1.5s like last year.
Every other car evolved similar performance strength/weaknesses to RB19 while RB20 improved traction a lot it seems, so TD39 effectively killed any hope to even be possible to catch up at this point or have some match-up races that wouldn't favor them so RBR will be forever ahead in a limited development race compared to rivals. Unless rules make drastic changes to suspension or floor layout and so on, there's really no catching up, at least I don't believe there will be.
it's really bad IMHO. RBR better be bringing an anchor as an update in Japan and Ferrari a rocketship otherwise this is even worse than last year. Every team bar Ferrari is legitimately worse off than last year against RedBull. Aston is quite far and McL isn't going to bring a mid season mega update that gains 1.5s like last year.
Every other car evolved similar performance strength/weaknesses to RB19 while RB20 improved traction a lot it seems, so TD39 effectively killed any hope to even be possible to catch up at this point or have some match-up races that wouldn't favor them so RBR will be forever ahead in a limited development race compared to rivals. Unless rules make drastic changes to suspension or floor layout and so on, there's really no catching up, at least I don't believe there will be.
FIA with the breaking of the budget cap had the perfect excuse to punish RB and close up racing, they decided for one reason or another not to do anything, this after handing the WDC on a plate with braking f1 regulations.
FIA investigated Susie without evidence but in a time when equality is uttermost in agenda, they take a back seat.
F1 is broke.
I think it’s not as bad as most people seem to think.
It’s so bad, you can only laugh. Financially, the sport is flourishing, but on track, it’s in a terrible state. It’s one thing having dominance, but the racing is also crap, just to add insult to injury. Knowing who’s going to be world champion, after the first weekend of any sport, is a terrible look.
There’s so many different areas that need improving, and tweaking, and that’s why it will be such a difficult and time consuming fix, to turn this mess around.
I think it’s not as bad as most people seem to think.
It’s so bad, you can only laugh. Financially, the sport is flourishing, but on track, it’s in a terrible state. It’s one thing having dominance, but the racing is also crap, just to add insult to injury. Knowing who’s going to be world champion, after the first weekend of any sport, is a terrible look.
There’s so many different areas that need improving, and tweaking, and that’s why it will be such a difficult and time consuming fix, to turn this mess around.
One follows the other, if viewership continues to decline, the influx of new, big sponsors will start to tail off, or even reverse.
That’s not to say they should try and manufacture some drama, but we’re essentially staring down the barrel of Max being favourite to win every single race this year, and maybe even next year. Even the orange army are going to get bored!
Perhaps the resource restriction needs some tweaking to not just factor in championship position but points differential, some way to more aggressively reign in a team that’s gotten too far ahead, as there’s a decent chance someone, Red Bull or otherwise, does the same thing for ‘26 and locks in an advantage that the budget cap makes very difficult to negate.
Good to see Ferrari providing some competition to Red Bull but still there is a long way to go for them to be considered as a genuine contender for the Championship.
I understand the urge to post negative comments here (I'm guilty of that myself, admittedly), but just a couple of positive thoughts:
I think part of the issue has been that F1 promised too much, too soon with these series of regulation changes (cost cap, curbing dirty air, more testing limitations, more spec parts, etc.). Few changes in sport have an immediate impact that displays the full potential of the rule changes. It was always going to take time and there were always going to be setbacks. I think F1 shouldn't have promised as much up front as they did.
That being said, we are *so* close to what could be the greatest era F1 has ever seen. We have FIVE teams that are *already* in a position to challenge for wins in terms of their resources and infrastructure (Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin). And no, I'm not saying they *will* win, but they have what they need. Red Bull doesn't have better resources or infrastructure than Aston Martin. It comes down to how each team comes up with ideas and executes on them. It's as close to a pure skill competition as we've ever been. Furthermore, Alpine is still a works team, even if it's easy to forget that, and Audi will be a works team from 2026. That means we will have SEVEN teams who all have ambitions to fight for wins and podiums. And Williams wants to get back to their glory days, so really only Haas and RB are content with fighting for points.
Yes, Red Bull has dominated for the last couple of seasons, but even then, this domination is hardly comparable to previous ones. Are they spending twice the money of everyone else? No. Do they have a huge engine advantage? No. Was it inevitable for them to maintain the technical advantage they had after the switch to the new regs? No, in fact, they had to be extremely innovative and take risks to stay in front. And they still have to work to remain in front this season. The McLaren upgrades seem to have been a bullseye once again, and if Red Bull just did nothing and started working exclusively on next season's car, they wouldn't remain in front much longer.
So, let's all take a breather. If 5 years from now we're still in a situation where one team dominates each season, then we can say that F1 failed their goals. But if in 5 years we will see season after season of multiple teams challenging for wins and championship, then we will look back at this period of Red Bull domination in awe and appreciate just how incredible it truly was.
