Formula 1 2025 Season Discussion

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#3374923 20-May-2025 11:15

Jaxson:

Red Bull sounds like they've unlocked a wider working setup window.

Looks like it but hard to say as they were nowhere, changing suspension in FP. They may have unlocked in the process of scratching heads, but it worked out.

If so, Max will be hard to bowl, Oscar under pressure, Lando under less pressure as its not a teammate to teammate battle, bound to be fun. And where DNF, off track incidents would grow in significance. IIRC Oscar was the only guy in 2024 who completed every lap

thermonuclear

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#3374929 20-May-2025 12:18

langi27:

Lawson looking very average today,

I followed most of the race via Lawson's car camera, I actually thought he had an okay race all things considered. He made a place off the start line and should have made his move stick on Bortaletto as well if he had positioned the car better. Having started on the medium it seemed to be the wrong move to swap to hards during the first VSC, especially when Hadjar went way longer on the same tire up front. It looked like he was getting dropped off the back in the second stint initially but was able to start clawing his way back. The last SC allowed Alonso and Stroll to bolt on fresh rubber in the upgraded Aston and the Spaniard was able to get past Liam (and then Gasly) within a couple of laps, but he was able to hold Stroll behind him to the chequered.

Lawson's main problem, as it has been all year, is that he's a lousy qualifier by and large. He was making excuses about the red flag in Q1 stuffing his chances of progression but he's got to stop being a victim and get on it from the off. Hadjar was able to put in a good enough lap in his first run of qualifying to ensure he wasn't reliant on the track staying clear until the end of Q1. If Lawson had nailed his first lap also, problem solved. Next up is Monaco, the most qualifying-dependant track on the calendar. If he can't qualify in the top 10 or maybe 12 cars then he can probably write that weekend off as another nil-result. Meanwhile Lindblad has scored points in each of the last six races in F2 as a rookie and has moved up to fifth in that championship.

Louis Sharp had a decent weekend in F3, a decent qualification opened up opportunities for him. A P4 finish in the Sprint and a slightly disappointing 11th in the Feature, having been running in P4 initially and challenging for P3. Seems like he cooked his tires at the start and fell down the field to finish just outside the points. Definite improvement for him over the first two rounds of the championship though, hopefully he can build on this going forward.

tdgeek

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#3376652 26-May-2025 07:55

Good weekend for Liam

Crappiest F1 race ever. Early on that was my conclusion, Brundle agreed a little later, then everyone agreed.

If you want to replace a 20 driver race with a 10 Strategists race, let me know ahead of time!

Benoire

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#3376653 26-May-2025 07:58

Monaco hasn't been fit for purpose for a couple of decades but that was easily the worst in my 30+ years of watching F1! I liked how the FIA heard George and clearly went 'nah bro we're not good with that' about him 'taking the 5s penalty'. But yeah when you get two stops with teams running in order, on a track where overtaking is practically impossible, was never going to lead to a good race.

Monaco needs to bin itself in to the barriers but sadly it won't as its a sponsorship procession and glitz affair.

tdgeek

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#3376660 26-May-2025 08:01

Benoire:

Monaco hasn't been fit for purpose for a couple of decades but that was easily the worst in my 30+ years of watching F1! I liked how the FIA heard George and clearly went 'nah bro we're not good with that' about him 'taking the 5s penalty'. But yeah when you get two stops with teams running in order, on a track where overtaking is practically impossible, was never going to lead to a good race.

Monaco needs to bin itself in to the barriers but sadly it won't as its a sponsorship procession and glitz affair.

Yeah

Maybe they set the tyres that a one stop isn't doable, but off course they will dawdle to eek out a one stop. So, do that and a mandatory two stop. As Brundle suggested, enforce the first stop after x laps but before x laps

Benoire

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#3376661 26-May-2025 08:05

I wonder weather a minimum lap time would also work - clearly we need something to push the cars along as otherwise the drivers use the track as a tactical advantage and the cars / drivers are never truly running at a quick enough pace.

nzkc

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#3376662 26-May-2025 08:11

Considering its basically impossible to overtake on the track, I perversely enjoyed the tactics. Granted I dont want to see it every race.

Was really worried Liam would be out of the points with the strategy RB employed. However; he did great to make it to 8th. Really solid performance by him especially sacrificing his 1st half of the race.

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langi27

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#3376673 26-May-2025 09:11

Lawson can finally breathe a sign of relief, I thought he was going to end up out of the points then Williams gave him a life line.

You can beat Horner was thinking lets put Tsnodoa in the wall or disable his car on track and bring out a safety car while Verstappen had the lead and could have pitted and retained the lead. Seemed like the day for crappy strategy.

Mixed feeling about that race, glad to see Norris take the win, Hadjar making waves, now 10th in standings.

Hamilton-Ferrari relationship doesn't seem to be going well.

tdgeek

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#3376676 26-May-2025 09:49

Im sure the media will come up with some ideas, here a a few of mine

Red Flag becomes a true red flag, car cannot be touched. That avoids Max and others waiting for a free pitstop and tyre change and retaining track position

If you cant pass on the track, you pass in the pits, so make it a multi pitstop race. Mandatory or not, preferably not. BUT, no pitstops in first 10 laps. And set the tyres for the race so that a one stop is a no go. Last night could have been set to softs and mediums only for example. The C6 last night was compared to last year, soft and supersoft, so removes long runs. They "should" drive fast to create a non overcut/undercut margin

Remove chicane after the tunnel so get more DRS effect, make the turn into the tunnel even tighter where better traction can give a passing chance

mdf

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#3376687 26-May-2025 10:08

Clearly wasn't great, but I thought the strategy intrigue made it a bit more interesting than some. Last year's zero stopper, for example (albeit smewhat redeemed by Charles finally winning at home).

But I wouldn't be keen on an exact repeat. Being able to manipulate things such that two back-to-back stops becomes a viable strategy is perverse.

Tyre deltas don't seem to work in Monaco. Too hard to pass (according to George, need to be 5+ seconds a lap faster) and the track isn't abrasive or high enough energy for the tyres to meaningfully degrade.

Monaco is signed up to 2031 so its here to stay for at least a while. Good on the FIA for trying something different, but think they should try something different again for next year.

FWIW, my suggested (non Mario Kart-level radical) solution would be a maximum number of laps on each set of tyres, a la Qatar 2023. The effect of that was to remove any attempts to manage tyres to the end and so it ended up as a bunch of flat out sprints. In this case, it would at least remove the back to back stops. Could keep things (somewhat) more interesting throughout.

GV27

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#3376709 26-May-2025 10:46

mdf:

FWIW, my suggested (non Mario Kart-level radical) solution would be a maximum number of laps on each set of tyres, a la Qatar 2023. The effect of that was to remove any attempts to manage tyres to the end and so it ended up as a bunch of flat out sprints. In this case, it would at least remove the back to back stops. Could keep things (somewhat) more interesting throughout.

My solution is a two hour timed race with safety car periods, mandatory green flag stops and points sprints like the points races in Olympico cycling.

Highest number of overall points wins the race.

tdgeek

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#3376717 26-May-2025 11:00

mdf:

FWIW, my suggested (non Mario Kart-level radical) solution would be a maximum number of laps on each set of tyres, a la Qatar 2023. The effect of that was to remove any attempts to manage tyres to the end and so it ended up as a bunch of flat out sprints. In this case, it would at least remove the back to back stops. Could keep things (somewhat) more interesting throughout.

Good idea

Jvipers2

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#3376719 26-May-2025 11:29

tdgeek:
Remove chicane after the tunnel so get more DRS effect, make the turn into the tunnel even tighter where better traction can give a passing chance

This is a good idea...remove DRS on the main straight for the tunnel exit all the way to Tabac

Then flatten all the bumps scattered from Massenet to Tunnel so there's more lines to take

Hopefully the 2026 "smaller" cars would improve racing...with some track modifications

Jaxson

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#3376721 26-May-2025 11:47

The forced two pitstops had me quite angry really, as there was potential for teams to game this big time, and that's what we saw. Overall dangerously slow at times to allow a team mate a free pitstop up ahead. The reward of pole potentially undermined by false rule giving benefit to those with nothing to lose.

F1 has some fundamentals it needs to address. Size of cars is one of them, but overall they're reducing the opportunities for error, which currently comes mostly from poor pitstops. Refuelling and tyres give the strategy options people want, and allow them to race not constantly save fuel/manage tyres. Tyres at Monaco should be selected to only last 20 laps or so max, so bring super softs and softs. Bring that scary part of will the tyres last to the end etc.

Don't know. Glad to see Lando win, it's a glamour achievement every driver does want. The track is scary fast and closed in, the onboards were epic this year. I feel the race would come alive with smaller cars that were designed and incentivised to race fast.

Jaxson

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#3376722 26-May-2025 11:50

Liam played smart today, blocking traffic like a real team player and finally bringing home some points.

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