2023 Aston Martin | Aramco | Cognizant F1 Team

[organic]

https://racingnews365.com/more-details- ... -accident/

This article quotes a source which alleges that 'light' surgery could rule out stroll for 1-2 races

So he will be backu by Baku

[AR3-GP]

This reeks of Montoya "tennis accident"

I don't understand the secrecy. When Alonso was hit while cycling he was fairly open about it that he fractured his jaw and had to have screws put in.

[Redragon]

Having that low degradation is a very very good sign ( and specially Alo can take good advantage of that in race strategies ) but perhaps it can hurt in Qualy if you can not put enough heat in the tyres ...

This is exactly one thing I'm worried about. In fact it feels similar to last year's Aston. Having that great tyre deg might mean difficulty getting heat into the tyres for qualifying.

Second thing I'm worried about: pit stops. They already botched one in testing pretty badly and It could happen again considering it's a young team and there will be pressure if Aston really performs well during the race.

Alonso with a car that qualify 5th but has a great low degradation on race could do wonders, similar to 2012, and this AM looks much better and planted that 2012 Ferrari. With his great starts and in control of multiple strategies possibilities that low degradation will allow him and a bit of luck on reliability ( hopefully is not as unlucky as last few years on this area). He can easily be on podiums and scoring constantly, Challenging the top 3. I think the car and team so far has been praised by Newey, Horner and Toto, so they might be up there otherwise why this 3 would bother to mention them at all. That's why the hype. I think, in my opinion they might be ahead of Mercedes this weekend but behind of Ferrari and Redbull, could they sustain over the whole season? that's the real challenge and question. But if they want to go for wins on next few years is the task in hand.

[AR3-GP]

The last time the big 3 teams hyped a midfield team during pre-season was 2020....this very team and their pink Mercedes.

[604gtir]

The last time the big 3 teams hyped a midfield team during pre-season was 2020....this very team and their pink Mercedes.

except they didnt have dan fallows then

[AR3-GP]

The last time the big 3 teams hyped a midfield team during pre-season was 2020....this very team and their pink Mercedes.

except they didnt have dan fallows then

Which is all the more ominous isn't it!

Krack has said 2/3rds of this car will change during the season

[NAPI10]

https://racingnews365.com/more-details- ... -accident/

This article quotes a source which alleges that 'light' surgery could rule out stroll for 1-2 races

So he will be backu by Baku

If Lance is indeed out for 2-3 races; why team didn’t consider Seb over Filipe.
I am happy for Filipe & it’s a right thing to do but the thought of having 2 world champions driving ur car is tooooo tempting.
Seb has driven last year's car so his technical feedback will be extremely valuable, Alonso won’t mind since it’s a temporary arrangement and team gets a solid & reliable driver to represent a competitive car.
Unless Seb doesn’t want to return or both parted on a bitter note; why not go for him?

[max_speed]

Agree, all about the marketing now.

That smug grin is unbearable. Can’t stand the bloke. Glad that AM are moving in the right direction, but Alonso is just incredibly unlikeable.

Just wish this year willy old fox Alonso gets car to be in the hunt. I promise that by the end of season you will hate him more but as F1 fan you will get races to remember forever. Just thinking about Alonso going against verstappen gives me goosebumps. He might teach verstappen some clean racing tactics as well.

[AR3-GP]

Agree, all about the marketing now.

That smug grin is unbearable. Can’t stand the bloke. Glad that AM are moving in the right direction, but Alonso is just incredibly unlikeable.

I promise that by the end of season you will hate him more

behave.

[Marble]

Just my two cents :

I've watching the race sim last Saturday and like a lot of us, comparing with Ferrari because Sainz goes out just a little bit after. What we know is that AM has made the full race distance and Barhain is one of those tracks where you need high fuel load ( is not Monaco or Singapur ).

Fernando made 57 laps, Carlos for whatever reason made only 37 both with quick tyre changes and no fuel refill. Degradation in the Ferrari didn't look good at all and looks pretty good in the AM, that's a fact.

In the second stint Alo was in C1 and Carlos in C2 and that quick change to C1 in Ferrari perhaps was because the lap times with the C1 in the AM was quite consistent, and perhaps ( again ) they want to check if the C1 was the right tyre .

Let's suppose, both cars start with a "race fuel load for 57 laps", carlos put the C1 with 27 laps made, starting in 37.3 laptime, some laps later he made 36.8 before pit in, and yes, he made some 37's before but you know, you can add more perhaps here, traffic, engine map tests, etc ... And Alo in those same laps, was clearly slower ( also he have more laps on the tyres )...

Too much perhaps, and the reality is that we have only partial data. But what we cant ignore, is that the race sim in the AM looks promising and the car behaviour in the track looks quite well, braking seems very good, turning in slow corners and traction also seems very good, but medium and high speed corners not that much.

The train of hype is difficult to stop, I really like the interview to Mike Krack because we can't forget this year target : "be the best of the rest".

We will have to wait not only this first race, we have to wait at least 3 races to see each car and where we are. Having that low degradation is a very very good sign ( and specially Alo can take good advantage of that in race strategies ) but perhaps it can hurt in Qualy if you can not put enough heat in the tyres ...

We dont know where Mercedes are, we dont know if Ferrari is struggling that much with degradation, and Alpine has been hiding with high fuel loads too. The only thing we know is that RedBull looks 3 steps in front of everybody.

Anyway, the situation looks quite good for this year target, repeat with me "be the best of the rest", if anytime AM can battle with Mercedes or Ferrari in race trim, it will be an incredible step forward for the team this year.

Of course i will love to be wrong and see AM being third in the next week race, but honestly is not what I think. If that's the case, I will pay for my seat in the hype train.

What's the target for this year ??

Spot on !
Everything you said about Sainz's race sim being incomplete is shown here :

[saviour stivala]

The cars configuration during the three days of testing did not have to be scrutineered, meaning they can run non FIA compliant during testing. It is next Friday when the cars are scrutineered for FIA compliance on track. still a lot can change then.

[Bisonas]

From page 17 to 20 i extensively covered the ALO / SAI stints because i watched them lap by lap on live timing. You can find my posts there.

One piece of information though that is not commonly spread out there, because is not easy to know, unless you checked it in live timing in real time, (as i did), is that Alonso started the race sim on a 3 lap old C3 which previously had done an out lap , a push lap and an in lap on it. He did 16 laps on that stint bringing the tire to a total of 19 laps.
Sainz started the stint with a 1 lap old C3 which had only done an out/in lap. He did 18 laps on it bringing the total to 19 laps as well.

So Sainz started the stint with the better conditioned tire and ended the stint with the worst conditioned tire, while Alonso started the stint with the worst conditioned Tire and ended the stint with best conditioned tire.

Alonso not only managed to keep lowering his delta, progressively improving times,but it looked to me capable of putting a series of Delta negative times when ever he wanted to, in all of his stints. He was completely in control of tire deg, meaning he could easily extend if wanted to or needed to, on both C3 and C1 stints.

Overall i think he could have done the race sim even faster. He chose to follow a specific tire management plan and chose to follow specific delta times, but the reality is that we don't really know, how fast he could run the race sim because we never saw his tires and his times declining in order to say, ok, that's the actual limit of the tire.

It was a joy to watch really. That consistency and control of tire deg was astonishing.

I don't know if Alonso will be faster than Mercedes or Ferrari, but i do believe AM in Bahrain will have lowest tire degradation than Mercedes or Ferrari. Yes Ferrari will put a more loaded RW and bring the setup towards Bahrain Spec, but again, i don't believe they will match the AMs tire degradation levels no matter the RW or the setup they will run.

Now we just have to wait to see how fast those 3 are. Aston Martin, Mercedes, Ferrari and what are the gaps between them. I will be really surprised if Alonso is not at least, Best of the Rest, speed wise, in a normal race, but i do actually feeling the hype for Bahrain, and hope that the gaps to Mercedes and Ferrari are not big, and that if Alonso is there or there about, he may put the AM tire degradation to good use, extending the stints, and attacking in the final stint with fresher rubber, who ever is or are the slowest of Mercedes/Ferrari or maybe Perez, in front of him. That's my Hype. But i do expect at least Best of the rest for Alonso in a normal race.

[basti313]

https://racingnews365.com/more-details- ... -accident/

This article quotes a source which alleges that 'light' surgery could rule out stroll for 1-2 races

So he will be backu by Baku

If Lance is indeed out for 2-3 races; why team didn’t consider Seb over Filipe.
I am happy for Filipe & it’s a right thing to do but the thought of having 2 world champions driving ur car is tooooo tempting.
Seb has driven last year's car so his technical feedback will be extremely valuable, Alonso won’t mind since it’s a temporary arrangement and team gets a solid & reliable driver to represent a competitive car.
Unless Seb doesn’t want to return or both parted on a bitter note; why not go for him?

Although I would love to see Seb against Alfonso...it is in my point of view completely out of question:
- Vettel is unprepared. No sim runs, no specific training over the winter. He can not be at 100%.
- Drugovic should be prepared as a driver for AM, they are investing in him. Now getting back Vet would kill this idea.
- Drugovic is now well prepared for the race. He is fit and spend 1.5 days of testing on this track in this car. He must be really slow if any unprepared driver could just step into the car and be faster.

[organic]

It's also very beneficial going forward for the sim driver to have experience in real ground effect cars and the AMR23 itself

[Dextercitox]

Alonso not only managed to keep lowering his delta, progressively improving times,but it looked to me capable of putting a series of Delta negative times when ever he wanted to, in all of his stints. He was completely in control of tire deg, meaning he could easily extend if wanted to or needed to, on both C3 and C1 stints.

Overall i think he could have done the race sim even faster. He chose to follow a specific tire management plan and chose to follow specific delta times, but the reality is that we don't really know, how fast he could run the race sim because we never saw his tires and his times declining in order to say, ok, that's the actual limit of the tire.

It was a joy to watch really. That consistency and control of tire deg was astonishing.

I'm agree.

In one of the Saturday interviews of the spanish journalist Antonio Lobato with Pedro de la Rosa on the pitlane, you can read between lines ( because de la Rosa didn't want to talk more than needed ) that they started the sim with a Delta but they realize that they can push harder because they dont expect to have that low degradation.

Probably they can make a faster race sim, but it's also true that the track conditions in that moment were near perfect with good track temperature and a lot of rubber... It's also true that the conditions were the same for Ferrari ...

We will see, only 3 days to go !