2024 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[K1Plus]

On the radio the engineer asked Alonso what he thought of the current balance, and Alonso replied “good luck”

Imagine if this backfires and they go to the back of the grid with Sauber. Heads are gonna roll in the team surely.

[vas_04614]

If stroll isn't running upgrades then....donno what to say

EDIT: yes, he isn't
https://x.com/AstonMartinF1/status/1814270100876206507

[-wkst-]

The car will be bad as usual, as everybody has grip problems today, but the negativity of ALO doesn't help too. Moreover he should up his game, the new parts won't be 5 tenths slower.

[RacePaceDemon]

The FIA is in Mercedes' pocket. I found it very strange that there was an entire news cycle targeting Ben Sulayem for some very mild quotes on a personal website from 20+ years ago. Then it comes out that stewards were gonna penalize Alonso for the penalty stop in Jeddah until Ben Sulayem blocked it and it all made sense.

Then Sussie Wolff went on a crusade, enabled by the media, against the FIA (targeting Sulayem) for simply saying "we'll look into it" for the conflict if interest report against her role with the FIA in a tabloid. She didnt target the tabloid for some reason which published the report. If anybody was at fault, it was the tabloid. FIA were asked about it by journalists so they said "we'll look into it" and dismissed the inquiry in two days.

Toto's aide and Mercedes legal advisor, Shaila Ann Rao was working with the FIA. Toto magically knows who is going to get punished for cost cap violations before its made public. Horner even made statements about how this was possible but of course it was all buried under the "cheating" news stories in the media.

For many seasons now, Mercedes is the only team which has been allowed to exploit "loopholes" in the regulations with "pre approvals" from the FIA. AM tootsie roll rear wing was perfectly legal but banned mid season. Mercedes FW slot gap separators, still legal. Mirror stays that don't support the mirror but cause dirty air, legal.

FIA raised the ride height just because Mercedes couldn't get it right completely undermining their own regulations and making racing worse. Their drivers never get penalties. I remember in Brazil'22, even Martin Brundle was convinced Hamilton was at fault for the incident with Verstappen and Croft was trying to convince everyone it was a racing incident. Neither thought it was Verstappen's fault. They gave the penalty to Verstappen and the commentators were speechless as to how to justify it.

Hamilton had 7-8 collisions in '22. He got no penalties AFAIR and definitely no penalty points. Even when he ruined Alonso's race in Belgium, he got no penalty points. Meanwhile Alonso lightly lifts in a corner, makes no contact and gets 3 points and 20 second penalty. Something I cant recall ever seeing in the last 5-6 seasons. Means FIA is saying that was the worse action they have seen in many years. George Russell literally barged into the side of Piastri in Japan and got no penalty.

The Flexi wing fiasco is just the latest in the long list of evidence of clear bias.

I think if any of this had any weight Mercedes would have started winning a lot earlier. Let's not fill this site up with baseless conspiracies

They won for 8 years in a row, 2nd or 3rd best for 3 seasons now and more or less back to race winning pace again. If their lack of success is your argument against the theory, then thats more baseless than all those things I listed as being purely coincidental. Even pro wrestling doesn't have the good guy winning all the time.

Well a lot of your examples were based on post 22 regs so I don't see the winning for 8 years relevance here. And remember, after Ferrari were busted with their illegal engine, it was all dealt with behind closed doors. A bit more suspicious if you ask me. And it's red bull who have likely instigated this investigation into flexi wings.

I'm happy to listen to theories on this but I don't think you really have any solid evidence to back your claims. Only a whistleblower would have any validity.

[RacePaceDemon]

The car will be bad as usual, as everybody has grip problems today, but the negativity of ALO doesn't help too. Moreover he should up his game, the new parts won't be 5 tenths slower.

You'd be surprised

[Nikosar]

If stroll isn't running upgrades then....donno what to say

EDIT: yes, he isn't
https://x.com/AstonMartinF1/status/1814270100876206507

Red bull is doing the same, it is a big risk to update both cars. Any new big package need to find the right set-up therefore they need to put in a lot of laps to find the right balance. And there is the plan B with old spec in case they fail.

Car still look difficult but lets wait they need to put a lot of laps

[Nikosar]

The vanes attached to the Halo are similar to those of Ferrari. Ferrai has a more triangular shape.

[TLof]

The car will be bad as usual, as everybody has grip problems today, but the negativity of ALO doesn't help too. Moreover he should up his game, the new parts won't be 5 tenths slower.

Even the team don't know what difference the parts make, what do you know? Besides, everyone knows that Alonso is rubbish, Stroll would probably have been P1 with the new parts. .

[Rikrikrik]

The car will be bad as usual, as everybody has grip problems today, but the negativity of ALO doesn't help too. Moreover he should up his game, the new parts won't be 5 tenths slower.

Even the team don't know what difference the parts make, what do you know? Besides, everyone knows that Alonso is rubbish, Stroll would probably have been P1 with the new parts. .

We appreciate some fun on friday. thanks

[FNTC]

So Stroll is running the old car and calling it shocking, while Alonso is running the upgrades, and is even slower. Yikes...
Hopefully they will get better throughout the weekend.

[Sedaxel]

The car will be bad as usual, as everybody has grip problems today, but the negativity of ALO doesn't help too. Moreover he should up his game, the new parts won't be 5 tenths slower.

Even the team don't know what difference the parts make, what do you know? Besides, everyone knows that Alonso is rubbish, Stroll would probably have been P1 with the new parts. .

Exactly this.

Now it's going to be Alonso's blame that the upgrades are actually downgrades (for the moment).

[-wkst-]

I certainly do not blame ALO, but I would expect a normal answer when the engineer asks sth...
As I said, the grip was poor for everyone. But only our primadonnas complain in such a tone...

[diffuser]

The car will be bad as usual, as everybody has grip problems today, but the negativity of ALO doesn't help too. Moreover he should up his game, the new parts won't be 5 tenths slower.

Even the team don't know what difference the parts make, what do you know? Besides, everyone knows that Alonso is rubbish, Stroll would probably have been P1 with the new parts. .

Exactly this.

Now it's going to be Alonso's blame that the upgrades are actually downgrades (for the moment).

I'd hold off on that. F1TV said that stroll was complaining about the upgrades and he wasn't even running them.

Alonso frustration was with the traffic not the upgrades. Before the "good luck" he said "or you make the Haas disappear!". After the "good luck" he said he over took 11 cars on the track on his hot lap. Then asked for .4 of front wing adjustment.

[diffuser]

So Stroll is running the old car and calling it shocking, while Alonso is running the upgrades, and is even slower. Yikes...
Hopefully they will get better throughout the weekend.

They have alot of data on the old config, it's easy to dial that in to the track. It's gonna take some work and data collection to dial in the upgrades.

[Sedaxel]

Yeah, I guess it's too soon to say the upgrades don't work.

There'll always be one or two saying that Alonso is a Primmadonna as soon as they can, without knowing more than one radio message.

My god.