LH44's contract is 2+1 so it takes him 1 year into the new regs, then he decides if he wants to keep going or retire?

This is too much for me this morning.

Silly season started before the actual season started :lawl:

Hoping to see Albon in the Mercedes seat

Did Lewis get a sneak peek of Mercedes' 2026 car and noped out lol.
Ferrari has recently been just been such a disappointment lately since Vettel was there, why go there?

This tweet from 2 days ago did not age well

This is really cool for me as I'm a Lewis fan but disappointed by Mercedes, and a Ferrari fan but disappointed by their performance as well. Can we skip this year and go straight to 2025?

Same, kinda super excited for 2025 now... and losing interest in who is going to be 2nd place after RedBull 2024

please prove me wrong, I don't hate Red Bull or Verstappen per say, but ...
- Red Bull has prevented such a brillant driving Alonso in a shitty Rosso Corsa car from a 3rd world title
- Red Bull has prevented Lewis Hamilton from a 8th world title

Being a huge Ferrari Fan this is big for me~~

It's been most of the day, I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that LH44 will no longer be driving for MB.

This crazy. Lewis has had a Mercedes engine in the back of his car for his ENTIRE F1 career.

Obviously sucks for Sainz, but how is Leclerc feeling right now? He was supposed to be the defacto #1 driver, do you think he'll stick around for long? Or maybe even make a move for 2025?

It will be interesting to see as it seems like every major team builds their car around the primary driver. I was watching some highlights from Vegas and other races this past year and Charles definatelt had some high points, but the. Ferrari as a whole shit the bed so many times as well..

Does it turn into LH taking over as #1 at Ferrari, or does it turn out like so many other retirement gigs where an athlete goes to to another team and never looms right ie. Jordan on the wizards, Orr on the blackhawks etc. lol

Ferrari is like the Rangers of the NHL, everybody wants to go there, at least for a year before you retire lol

Sharl will stay at Ferrari, he lives and bleeds Ferrari.

drama drama drama... didnt see this coming either....

Civil war at Red Bull with Thai vs Austrian....

wtf is with these new liveries?

Ferrari is kinda cool but the rest scaled back color and design, RB looks basic AF

Edit* if you follow the F1 instagram page they have very good side by side comparisons of last years car and this

The RB front end looks wild. They have reduced the intakes substantially and now it looks like there are ground effects IN FRONT of the intakes.. a completely different design than the other cars

I think it's smart of teams to keep mostly the same look. Just make a few tweaks, it's enough. Keep that identity

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGaYk7MbcAAdudW.jpg

Mercedes brought back some silver, which looks really nice. And a big pop of red on the air intake

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGaYn4SbQAAyy3q.jpg

Ferrari brought in some racing stripes and got rid of some of the black/carbon fibre and a new numbers font. Very cool

The RB20 looks like a W13/W14 wtf hahaha. Maybe Mercedes was right but they just couldn't get it to work.

The RB side pods and scoops around the intake look crazy compared to the rest of the field

https://i.imgur.com/HN3h1IU.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/xdKfHiE.jpeg

Does it though? Yes it has a vertical intake but the sidepod design is significantly different. The 2024 RB has a massive undercut which is opposite to the W13/14.

The race for 2nd looks interesting again this year. I feel Hamilton's move is going to make for a whole season of seat hunting drama.

Rich

You are right. At first glance of the grainy photos I didn't see the horizontal intake.

I'm excited to see what Merc can do with their adjustable front suspension and how it can effect their setup options from track to track. It is quite the technological leap forward.

Wow, it's great to see something a little different in FP2. They are still off qualifying pace but seeing a change at the top of the leader boards is a breath of fresh air. From Oscar, to Carlos, or even Lewis, it was nice to see someone not driving a Red Bull in the top 5

Don't get your hopes up about those times. Hulkenberg being 3 hundredths off Max should really tell you everything you need to know about how representative those times are...

RedBull has been sandbagging throughout testing and now FP1 and 2. The real race is still Ferrari v Mercedes vs McLaren vs AMR for 2nd. And it increasingly looks like a competition on who's got the worst car between Alpine, Haas, Sauber.

VCARB (ughh) seems to be doing decent and may potentially be a dark horse for best of rest. I think Williams might be where Alpine was last year in no man's land, zero threat to the top pack but way ahead of the bottom teams. James Vowles has quietly started a revolution.

Yep, Honda specifically instructed that they do not "use the engine at it's maximum" just like last year.

Don't be fooled by the RB times

Horner getting his messages leaked throughout the paddock LOL but apparently they were 'fake'

nvm!