Official Formula One and General Motorsport Thread for 2024!

[floydfreak]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/japanese-gp-f1-street-race-osaka-suzuka/

Absolutely just F off, like seriously. Liberty would lap yet another street track up as well so if Suzuka only gets a couple of years extension on its contract I’ll be worried.

Edit, also seen that Leclerc has signed an extension with Ferrari, rumoured to be till the end of 2026 which is sensible I guess, he's not going to get in elsewhere before the new regs and this way he can see how everyone starts the new rules. I can't help but wonder if he has a bit of Stockholm syndrome with Ferrari though

WRC gets underway this weekend too.

F1 will be like FE eventually all on crappy street tracks

[Robbo-92]

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/japanese-gp-f1-street-race-osaka-suzuka/

Absolutely just F off, like seriously. Liberty would lap yet another street track up as well so if Suzuka only gets a couple of years extension on its contract I’ll be worried.

Edit, also seen that Leclerc has signed an extension with Ferrari, rumoured to be till the end of 2026 which is sensible I guess, he's not going to get in elsewhere before the new regs and this way he can see how everyone starts the new rules. I can't help but wonder if he has a bit of Stockholm syndrome with Ferrari though

WRC gets underway this weekend too.

F1 will be like FE eventually all on crappy street tracks

It’s going that way slowly but surely? Liberty know they can charge more for street tracks as they’re easier to get to, no idea how the hosting fees compare to a proper track though.

[Vermilion]

Edit, also seen that Leclerc has signed an extension with Ferrari, rumoured to be till the end of 2026 which is sensible I guess, he's not going to get in elsewhere before the new regs and this way he can see how everyone starts the new rules. I can't help but wonder if he has a bit of Stockholm syndrome with Ferrari though

There's not really anywhere else he can go though without falling further down the grid.

Merc has Lewis and George as long term drivers, and, well, why would he want to go to Red Bull when he sees how Checo is treated?

[floydfreak]

[Memento Mori]

Edit, also seen that Leclerc has signed an extension with Ferrari, rumoured to be till the end of 2026 which is sensible I guess, he's not going to get in elsewhere before the new regs and this way he can see how everyone starts the new rules. I can't help but wonder if he has a bit of Stockholm syndrome with Ferrari though

There's not really anywhere else he can go though without falling further down the grid.

Merc has Lewis and George as long term drivers, and, well, why would he want to go to Red Bull when he sees how Checo is treated?

How long term is Lewis though? I would guess he retires within the next five years, probably would have done so already if he hadn't been strawberry floated over by Masi.

[Victor Mildew]

Edit, also seen that Leclerc has signed an extension with Ferrari, rumoured to be till the end of 2026 which is sensible I guess, he's not going to get in elsewhere before the new regs and this way he can see how everyone starts the new rules. I can't help but wonder if he has a bit of Stockholm syndrome with Ferrari though

There's not really anywhere else he can go though without falling further down the grid.

Merc has Lewis and George as long term drivers, and, well, why would he want to go to Red Bull when he sees how Checo is treated?

How long term is Lewis though? I would guess he retires within the next five years, probably would have done so already if he hadn't been strawberry floated over by Masi.

He would have retired on the podium if they hadn't fixed the race and he got his 8th. What a way to have gone out it would have been too

[Robbo-92]

If Mercedes get their act together either this year or next, Hamilton will retire before the new rules come into play, much like Alonso, if they don’t have success before 2026 they’ll hang on just in case their respective team nails it in 2026.

[Drumstick]

Norris has extended to 2026.

[Victor Mildew]

I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't rate Norris.

[Robbo-92]

I’d rate him slightly behind Leclerc, both very fast drivers but I’m not sure unless they have a properly dominant car they’ll win a WDC. I know motorsport is a pressure filled sport, but these two put themselves under immense pressure on their own before any external factors come into play, which doesn’t help their performances at all, obviously this is something that’s very tricky to overcome for them. It’ll be very interesting to see how Piastri does now he has his feet under the table at McLaren, he finished the year pretty well, had a very good rookie season. Alpine must still be absolutely kicking themselves though, could have had Alonso/Piastri and they have the very solid pairing of Ocon/Gasly

Top 3 are still a way out in front really and I don’t see they changing either this year.

I’d say Norris is better than Russell, Russell thinks he’s the best there ever was and he’s just not.

[floydfreak]

A Live Stream of this race

[Robbo-92]

Been watching that since it got underway at 9am, 5 classes is very hard to keep on top of when the cars don't look hugely dissimilar from a distance and at a quick glance! Commentators doing a good job. At least the track has cleaned up, looked like it had been started in the middle of a sandstorm at the very start.

[Robbo-92]

Forgot to post this once we'd had them all confirmed as well, the 2024 launches for the F1 cars (though I bet a couple will just be livery reveals rather than anything physical),

twitter.com/F1/status/1750886752078713091

[floydfreak]

Daytona 24 hours live stream with Radio Le Mans commentary
https://www.imsa.com/tvlive/

[Robbo-92]

Going to watch the last few hours of that now, gutted I missed the night segment, but it’s no Le Mans anyway, that track is immense at night.

Saw this retweeted too

twitter.com/rbr_daily/status/1751377073317261628

Feels like this sport is not going to be for me in a handful of years. Really hope it’s just a huge just in case from F1…… but another street track is just what they want.

[Cuttooth]

Constantly giving new fans the exact opposite of what got them into the sport doesn't seem like the best long term strategy.

[floydfreak]

F1 is def in its NASCAR era

[Robbo-92]

Whelp, Andretti's bid to enter F1 has been rejected. Possibly the most prepared new team in 14 years and they say no

[Rawrgna]

Maybe this will get Andretti to just buy out Haas

[Robbo-92]

The reason it was rejected is even worse, they probably wouldn't be competitive. When we've had Haas who have been awful for half of their seasons in the sport.