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if Mercedes starts the season bad, they'll improve from the halfway to disappoint all of us

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

I think Mercedes might be playing catch up to Red Bull at the start of the season, but it's Mercedes, so they will catch up and probably out-develop Red Bull. Still going to be Hamilton/Mercedes for the titles

Not sure how this Saudi track will suit F1, but I feel F2 other slower spec-car series would be really fun there.

I'm not getting my hopes up at all, Merc will come out and get pole by 2 seconds

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"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

Typical

Still wanna know what the weather was like at racetime for the original-calender races last year.

Bet it rained in Monaco on the Whitsun weekend too

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

I know we missed wet Chinese and Spanish GP. But otherwise quite dry season. Wouldn't have gotten Turkish GP without Covid.

In previous years Red Bull started off bad and then developed the car to a race winning car. if they are actually ahead of Mercedes they might actually pull it off to clinch the title.

But I honestly dont believe any of the pundits that think Red Bull is ahead of Mercedes.

I fear they'll not only rape the entire field come sunday but Merc employees will also spawn in every living room..............

Both in 2019 and 2020 Mercedes were not that impressive in pre season testing. Both times, they chose one day to show their speed, and on the other days they were "struggeling", or they knew perfectly well what they were capable of and were testing as much as possible on long runs, how the tyres worked on heavy fueled cars and so on.
This year we only had 3 testing days, so I'm 99,5% sure they just decided not to go for fast laps but instead used all the available time on long runs. Especially after they lost a lot of time on the first day.

The media has a juicy story when they tell the world that Mercedes was a second off the pace of Red Bull. I'm not buying any of that, on Saturday they will have an easy 1-2 again and probably on Sunday too.

I just wish the FIA had the balls to call out Mercedes for their BS.

Every time they claim they are slower, tyres are beyond gone or have massive lack of power but still rape the field they get 10KG added.

At this point I'd trade the Lewis dominance for a Max dominance even if it means my fellow Dutchies will act out even more annoying.

everything that pisses the fans Mercedes do. Sandbagging, bluffing pit stops

someone should do something like success ballast to make them suffer a bit

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

The only thing that gives me more hope this year is that it wasn't just pace they were "struggling" with, it was instability. Seems to be a problem introduced by the new floor/diffuser rules which have apparently affected the low rake cars (ie. Mercedes & Aston Martin) more. Could just be wishful thinking on my part though, and I'll be happy to stick my hands up and admit my naivety when they stick it on pole by a second

You guys are after the wrong culprits. The other teams have had 7 years to catch up, and they all failed in various fashions at different years. McLaren in the Alonso years, Renault by being Renault, Force India by having people but not the means, Ferrari by having the means but not the people, RedBull by being RedBull (and treating drivers like shit, and arguably losing time changing engine manufacturers or whatever). There was a massive regulation change in the middle that could've been the opportunity to catch up a little, and nobody made profit from it.

The only team who showed consistency and stability in their work 7 years out of 7, organisation and delivery, is Mercedes. I'm tired of them winning as much as anyone, but they're allowed to boast while crossing the finish line, Usain Bolt style. They wouldn't afford that if others were on their tail. We on the other side are allowed to dream up until Q1 this Saturday

You'd be right but what is pissing most fans off is the constant BS coming from Mercedes.
it's already an old meme that Lewis will set a absolute lap record right after claiming the tyres are gone. Its Toto claiming RedBull/Ferrari are the clear favorite after they already won all the previous races.

They dont boast..... they Bullshit us all.

this

if they just kept winning it'd be ok, but they treat the fans who keep this sport alive like idiots. They should tell the truth once in a while

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Pretty candid and well written piece by Gasly for The Players Tribute, worth a read: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts ... one-racing

I think Mercedes are starting to be embarassed with always dominating everywhere. I think it is a logic reaction to start downplaying your achievements, and give the opponents more credit than they actually deserve.
Plus, if they just say that they are the best, everyone will call them arrogant.

I agree with you 100%. Mercedes have just done a phenomenal job. But let's all not forget that if Ferrari hadn't imploded in 2017 and 2018 and Seb not been Seb in both those years then we might have had a closer outcome. I'm in no doubt that Merc would have won in those years even if Ferrari kept it together, but it would have been closer.

But the problem is, those two years aside, there is something fundamentally wrong within the sport when a team can dominate sooo much as Merc has done for such a long period of time. The rules are also broken that it has taken 7 years for other engine manufactures to be somewhat close to Merc on power output (the main difference it seems is now power delivery rather than outright power).

Yep they stole a march on the rest of the field at the start of the regs, but the way they were and currently are written, that initial advantage has been baked in this whole time, rather than Merc enjoying a couple of years advantage, they will be approaching a decade of advantage. And that is the problem.

Apart from 2017 and 2018 with Seb's spinning and choking, remember Ferrari developed a car/engine which won and was really fast? And they banned it. DAS was banned only this season, they used it whole 2020.

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https://www.youtube.com/user/Alonsofanscro

Maybe it's a coincidence, but Mercedes being allowed to run DAS might have been part of the settlement for Ferrari being allowed to run with illegal engines for 3 years

That and Ferrari being punished to under-burn fuel for all the excess fuel they burnt in that period too

Conspiracy theories are everywhere. maybe the FIA should've just been open with how bad Ferrari were cheating, no matter how bad it made them look

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Maybe the FIA should actually prioritize having some competition over keeping Mercedes happy

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