Formula 1 2026 Season Discussion

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#3467473 7-Mar-2026 09:21

thermonuclear:

Half a second off the rookie in both practice sessions, Lawson will be lucky to survive beyond the summer break unless he pulls his finger out. Very disappointing on Day 1 against the new kid on his first day of school.

Followed Lawson in the car for both sessions. The new engineer he has seems a lot more chatty, was feeding him plenty of info it seemed. The sound of the engine revs dropping occasionally on the straights was pretty crap. If that was intentional (rather than driver error) then this is going to be an issue for the die-hard fans.

Lawson failed on three occasions in FP1 to set a hot lap time on softs. Also pretty disappointing, if he doesn't sort that out pretty quickly the drums will start beating for his replacement.

If you have takeaways on drivers ability after the first free practice sessions of a season - then you're no different to the YouTube F1 click-baiters.

FP1 / FP2 = waste of time unless a team accidentally brings a horse & cart, not a race car (Aston).

FP3 some things can be understood.

Qualifying - go for it, form an opinion!

Race Day is the only part that actually matters to the teams, everything else is for on-line creators and click farming.

tdgeek

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#3467528 7-Mar-2026 13:58

Watching a Team principal presser. Aston Martin have 4 batteries they cannot now use 2 of them, they have no more to fly in.

Honda wise, AM are pretty much screwed IMO. Newey etc went to Tokyo Nov 2025, and found that 70% of the expertise doesnt now work there. Its one thing to have a vibration issue, its another when the majority of engine expertise isnt there.

vexxxboy

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#3467647 7-Mar-2026 18:57

Wow that was close , Lindblad is grateful that lawson was so far left so he could get pass, just about the end of Racing Bulls

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Jaxson

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#3467650 7-Mar-2026 19:22

Is this the season decided. Damn near a second a lap faster?!

vexxxboy

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#3467651 7-Mar-2026 19:31

Jaxson:

Is this the season decided. Damn near a second a lap faster?!

It would have been interesting to see what Max would have done, so i guess we will have to wait to next race .

Common sense is not as common as you think.

tdgeek

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#3467652 7-Mar-2026 19:42

Dunnersfella:

thermonuclear:

Half a second off the rookie in both practice sessions, Lawson will be lucky to survive beyond the summer break unless he pulls his finger out. Very disappointing on Day 1 against the new kid on his first day of school.

Followed Lawson in the car for both sessions. The new engineer he has seems a lot more chatty, was feeding him plenty of info it seemed. The sound of the engine revs dropping occasionally on the straights was pretty crap. If that was intentional (rather than driver error) then this is going to be an issue for the die-hard fans.

Lawson failed on three occasions in FP1 to set a hot lap time on softs. Also pretty disappointing, if he doesn't sort that out pretty quickly the drums will start beating for his replacement.

If you have takeaways on drivers ability after the first free practice sessions of a season - then you're no different to the YouTube F1 click-baiters.

FP1 / FP2 = waste of time unless a team accidentally brings a horse & cart, not a race car (Aston).

FP3 some things can be understood.

Qualifying - go for it, form an opinion!

Race Day is the only part that actually matters to the teams, everything else is for on-line creators and click farming.

I just watched recorded FP3, I'm not peeking at later posts as about to watch Quali

Lindblad beat Liam again... except Liam was on Hards, Lindblad on Softs, half a tenth.

In a weird way Im sorta liking the new regs. F1 is ALL about Constructors, yet for the public its all about the driver. Yet the driver feeds off the best car, i.e. Constructors. However, I hate jeopardy, when anyone can succeed if jeopardy helps them. With this regs changes, it appears to me that the driver matters more, which Im happy with

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vexxxboy

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#3467653 7-Mar-2026 20:00

Lawson was a second quicker in Q3

Common sense is not as common as you think.

GV27

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#3467674 7-Mar-2026 21:22

Sky News trying to act like Lawson not being ahead of Lindblaad despite two car teams running different programs for each car in different sessions as a contingency plan to gather as much data as possible isn't how F1 teams operate; i.e. just another excuse to put the boot into Lawson, who we barely saw on screen today.

And then, of course, they have very little to say about Lawson outqualifying Lindblaad in the session that actually counts for something.

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#3467691 8-Mar-2026 07:22

GV27:

Sky News trying to act like Lawson not being ahead of Lindblaad despite two car teams running different programs for each car in different sessions as a contingency plan to gather as much data as possible isn't how F1 teams operate; i.e. just another excuse to put the boot into Lawson, who we barely saw on screen today.

And then, of course, they have very little to say about Lawson outqualifying Lindblaad in the session that actually counts for something.

He is a Brit, 'nuff said. Every session lets talk abut Arvid, as if he is the next big thing.

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#3467695 8-Mar-2026 08:27

Okay the lap times weren't as bad as I thought, but watching cars run out of power before the end of the straights is so sad to watch. Other tracks may not be as badly affected.

Listening to George talk about how hard it was for him... yawn

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#3467700 8-Mar-2026 08:58

I guess not surprisingly, I’m seeing a lot more interest and base F1 awareness from the New Zealand public this year.

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thermonuclear

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#3467773 8-Mar-2026 13:08

Dunnersfella:

If you have takeaways on drivers ability after the first free practice sessions of a season - then you're no different to the YouTube F1 click-baiters.

Click-bait! I may be old but isn't click-bait some kind of sensationalist headline or image taken out of context to fuel clicks to a website? Oh well, I suppose Mauricio will be happy for the extra traffic if anything I've said is trending at the top of web searches, lol.

Look, if Lawson's efforts vs Lindblad on Day One of the season were all we had seen of this battle then I might be inclined to agree with you. But, it isn't. We had a collective nine days of pre-season testing where I believe I'm correct in saying Lawson failed to register a better time than Lindblad. I made no comment at the time because I, like you, thought it was too early to make a judgement with the car in rapid development and the two drivers not being on track at the same time.

I doubt you will find anyone in these forums who is more supportive of Lawson than me. Therefore, the trend of Lindblad recording the better times carrying over from pre-season testing into the first day of free practice was pretty disappointing for me, as I stated. I was the one who suggested Lawson needs to get his foot onto Lindblad's throat and make sure it stays there when the latter driver was named as his team partner for this season.

Lawson doesn't carry a whole lot of goodwill in the general F1 population and it's vital he gets on it and stays on it to ensure his long term career in F1. Lawson was the beneficiary of some misfortune with Lindblad's power deployment in Qualification yesterday and, even with that good luck, all the talk in the general media is about how good the Brit was in the RB on his first weekend.

If we see a repeat of Hadjar last season then Lawson's long term prospects in F1 are diminished. As Lindblad is the "golden one" for Red Bull's future Lawson needs to dominate Lindblad consistantly, end of. I apologise if you found my earlier assessment of Lawson's performance and prospects confronting but Lawson's time is now, this is not a "let's see how it goes and build into it" situation.

Anyhow very pleased to see Lawson qualify P8, his racecraft has always been his strength so I will be hoping he can convert this into a points weekend, that he scores more than Lindblad and that Verstappen isn't able to make up the places to get ahead of him.

Jaxson

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#3467888 8-Mar-2026 18:23

Huge start for Lawson, changed 10 places 👍

Dunnersfella

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#3467891 8-Mar-2026 18:45

It wasn't wheel spin, that much is for sure...

I'm guessing it'll all come out in the wash.

I will say that Piastri didn't get off to a great start either ;-p

Benoire

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#3467892 8-Mar-2026 18:55

Dunnersfella:

It wasn't wheel spin, that much is for sure...

I'm guessing it'll all come out in the wash.

I will say that Piastri didn't get off to a great start either ;-p

Sounds like a battery issue - was complaining no power when the lights went out.

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