How did they sabotage sainz? His pace wasn't good enough to score points on a regular strategy and he set the weekend on a bad trajectory by crashing in fp2 with a moment similar to one that the fp1 rookie driver had caught.. that he then failed to qualify well was also on Carlos, no?
People should stop giving Merc credit they don't deserve. They have as little understanding of these cars as Ferrari, they fired their own technical director and since the budget cap was introduced they've only been going backwards. The past is the past.Vinlarr89 wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 19:06Have to say the SF23 was a horrible car to endure. But it also needs to be said that it’s improved significantly over the course of the season. The Suzuka package really helped Charles and I just hope that this will be learning for 2024 as it will be a big season. My biggest fear is the leap I feel MB will make, so FER need to have a step in the locker. Let’s hope 676 is everything we want it to be
I just wonder how much of that was them "unlocking" Leclerc and how much was actually the car... probably both of course, but as you say, they managed to improve the car over the season which hasn't happened in a VERY long time.Vanja #66 wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 17:04Unlike all cars since 2009, SF-23 was consistently and substantially improved since its launch. The pace since Japan is by far the best since launch and the tyre management didn't suffer for it. Valuable lessons (re)learned for 676 project and easily the most room for improvement of the top 5 cars. Good job by the engineers, good job by Cardille!
But wouldn't more DF help with the tires? I thought those two are directly relatednico5 wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 19:24People should stop giving Merc credit they don't deserve. They have as little understanding of these cars as Ferrari, they fired their own technical director and since the budget cap was introduced they've only been going backwards. The past is the past.Vinlarr89 wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 19:06Have to say the SF23 was a horrible car to endure. But it also needs to be said that it’s improved significantly over the course of the season. The Suzuka package really helped Charles and I just hope that this will be learning for 2024 as it will be a big season. My biggest fear is the leap I feel MB will make, so FER need to have a step in the locker. Let’s hope 676 is everything we want it to be
Ferrari have made step forwards but ultimately they're still having to massively compromise with setup and that either costs them on raw performance or tyre performance. They've been lacking downforce in the high speed all season, even after the Suzuka upgrade, where they were dropping 0.6 in S1 alone all weekend. Same in Qatar. Those are the real high speed tracks where you can run the car low and absolute df makes the difference. Austin less so with the bumps and the higher ride. I guess their priority is having a more manageable window for the car to work setup-wise to help with consistency and the tires, and then adding peak df, but catching RB is science fiction tbh.
Minor point but Leclerc got 5th in WDC. Alonso got 4th. They tied on points (206 each), but Alonso had more on the countback.
From a supporters perspective it's somewhat better, yes, Ferrari will still comfortably reach the budget cap without those 10mil, and there's a couple of windtunnel runs more.f1316 wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 21:36Very pleased to see Leclerc secure 4th in the drivers as he deserved to be ahead of Sainz et al this year. With the DQ in Austin and DNF in Bahrain (followed by the grid penalty), he lost a lot of points but more often than not he was the stronger driver.
Losing 2nd in WCC isn’t ideal but honestly I’ve said all along that from a sporting (rather than financial) perspective, having the extra wind tunnel and CFD time might be better anyway. The fastest Ferrari was generally faster than the fastest Mercedes at the end of the year so they can still feel pretty satisfied with the turn around. Hopefully they can start better next year and at least be thereabouts to give RB something to think about.
Do we know what happened with the pit lane infringements for Verstappen et al? Didn’t see any follow up on that.
It's been the case since quite a long time if we exclude tracks with very high radius corners. Merc can thank Hamilton really because otherwise - and without some bad luck on these last few races (Lec DNS was the worst) - they would've packed P2 certainly.f1316 wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 21:36Very pleased to see Leclerc secure 4th in the drivers as he deserved to be ahead of Sainz et al this year. With the DQ in Austin and DNF in Bahrain (followed by the grid penalty), he lost a lot of points but more often than not he was the stronger driver.
Losing 2nd in WCC isn’t ideal but honestly I’ve said all along that from a sporting (rather than financial) perspective, having the extra wind tunnel and CFD time might be better anyway. The fastest Ferrari was generally faster than the fastest Mercedes at the end of the year so they can still feel pretty satisfied with the turn around. Hopefully they can start better next year and at least be thereabouts to give RB something to think about.
Do we know what happened with the pit lane infringements for Verstappen et al? Didn’t see any follow up on that.
Not sure what happened to Sainz this weekend but that war really poor timing to have a performance drop like thatcodetower wrote: ↑26 Nov 2023, 22:10Great to see Leclerc finish the season strong. Not sure how to feel about missing out on P2 in the WCC and proper P4 in the WDC, but considering how the first half of the season went, I guess it’s a decent finish. Considering Charles had 3 retirements, a DNS and a disqualification, I think he did a spectacular job with this car.
What happened to Sainz at the end? Why didnt he finish the race?
