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.
Hurrah, it’s back on topic!
Super hard this time to speculate who will come out on top, could be a myriad of reasons that will dictate the order we will see at the first few races of 2022. Firstly as much as the two top teams this year will downplay the effect of the 2021 title battle it must have some downside effect on them. This was a battle fought on all fronts, aerodynamic, engine and suspension by both teams with specific focus on each teams key strengths. Other teams were still busy trying to improve their platforms also, to ether keep championship position earned in 2020 or to improve on it. Some developments introduced during the season were aimed at 2022, Ferrari/ Honda battery upgrade for example. Other teams approached 2021 differently. Alpine for example has not brought anything substantial to the car that will be carried over to 2022. So they will start 2022 with a completely new and untested platform, as a completely new power unit is to be introduced next year, risky? But maybe very developed? Perhaps we will be looking at a team that only has to focus on the chassis and suspension that will capitalise initially, as they only have to take receipt of their power unit, perhaps mclaren or even Williams?
It cannot be dismissed as this is F1 so outfits with dual representation should on paper have a knowledge accumulation advantage with the new cars.
So we’re looking at the two Red bull teams, perhaps Ferrari and Hass also will pool together, due to the sharing of resources, staff and infrastructure there.
Let’s not forget Alfa, who is also under the Fiat umbrella.
This is starting to look like one of the hardest predictions to make for the beginning of an F1 season, and it will probably change throughout the year as the big teams start to fully understand what areas of development bear the most fruit.
So I would favour a larger organisation to initially come out on top, as the accumulation of knowledge spread over multiple teams cannot be ignored.
I would put the Ferrari and it’s satellites as the season opening surprise, then the RB teams. I would guess the merc is a little off in the beginning to come later once the team hit its development stride. Alpine, geez it’s a wildcard!
They are all wild cards. A single homologated "trick" that gives advantage and cant be copied easily could win the season in Bahrain.
Let's hope Q3 has all 10 drivers fighting over the same tenth instead! *pray*
I wish to see a 6 way battle for WDC and a new champion! George or Leclerc or Lando or Ricciardo. We need more champions on the grid. If heavens have repeat plan, may that be Alonso.
Its too soon to have a clue who will be on the top....But as a Williams fan, i`m very optimist. The new season we will have, except the Merc engine, the Merc gearbox. Also our TD and his advisor Willy Rampf have built the faster ground effect car on planet.
Honda’s 2nd PU introduced at Paul Ricard was all of a sudden honda are class of the field. Honda somewhat denied any upgrade but the data didn’t lie.
Redbull fans defended that apparent performance increase by claiming it was there in the first race at Bahrain but reliability issues meant the PU couldn’t be run in that mode for a prolonged period.
That was Hondas “trick”
It would appear Mercedes had performance in reserve but couldn’t reliably run those modes until they themselves made a “reliability” upgrade around monza I believe. This updated PU was something like 600g heavier.
The definitions are quite messy here to call something as "trick". If a manufacturer is introducing a part, other than the original one, it's a performance update, if it is allowed. In a year where there was allowance of one upgrade of different parts, different manufacturers chose different intervals to do upgrades. If a "reliability" upgrade enables unlocking further aggressive engine modes, which they were unable to run, that's not "trick". Reliability upgrades goes through the process of scrutineering and if it is given a go ahead, it's really insane to call it, "trick", regardless if Mercedes does it or Red Bull. This is going to continue happening in 2022, where manufacturers would push certain fragile parts, if they are highly performant as they know, they can roll out reliability upgrades. Good luck calling it, "trick", because Mercedes made some noise mid season this year to rally their fans.
Perhaps you would prefer the term workaround?
If you employ aggressive engine modes with the knowledge it is unsustainable without damaging your PU, then later deploy a reliability upgrade which fixes the reason why you couldn’t run that mode consistently, then I would call that a “workaround” and it would appear both Honda and Mercedes used it this season.
But I fear we are getting off topic and I can sense more downvotes coming my way.
I definitely agree maps should be frozen along with engines, otherwise it's not really a "freeze".
I definitely agree maps should be frozen along with engines, otherwise it's not really a "freeze".
I suspect it can be stopped by freezing engine maps. Manufacturers can still have one or more aggressive maps which are unreliable and push it as part of freeze, but use a different, less aggressive maps in races before reliability upgrades. Once the reliability upgrades are bolted, use the most aggressive one, whichever that can be run due to the upgrades. More upgrades, move up to more aggressive maps.
I definitely agree maps should be frozen along with engines, otherwise it's not really a "freeze".
I suspect it can be stopped by freezing engine maps. Manufacturers can still have one or more aggressive maps which are unreliable and push it as part of freeze, but use a different, less aggressive maps in races before reliability upgrades. Once the reliability upgrades are bolted, use the most aggressive one, whichever that can be run due to the upgrades. More upgrades, move up to more aggressive maps.
It would probably mean tanking 2022 if you got locked into a very aggressive map, by race 10 the team would probably be in the penalties at the rate Mercedes was going through engines in the home stretch of 21, might be worth it for future proofing.
If you are allowed a map and then turn it down because you can't run it reliably, then it's not really locking it.
Heated tunnel boundary layer.
Direct the radiator exhaust down onto the roof of the tunnel... Or even bleed some of that heat into the tunnel why don't you.
