2024 Season Grand Prix Megathread [ Edited ]

[mariohomoh]

I know this is quite the silly take to have, but I genuinely hope this "Red Bull zeropods" talking point gets revisited soon.

I mean, Red Bull still have their iconic ground effect era sidepods with their aggressive undercut/downwash concept:

Full on sidepods.

Oh I know this borders on pedantry. I mean, a misnomer, who cares? 😂

Even I have been guilty of mentioning the zeropods in this context.

That's not what bothers me though. It's just that the Red Bull pulled out what I deem the most interesting design of this pre-season yet, with so many airflow things going on I don't even know where to lock my eyes on. It is a very busy concept and I cannot wait for the proper quality analysis wave to commence.

And that's a Newey signed car! 

Here are true (or truish) zeropods:

And the quasi-zeropods of 2023:

The absolute failure of a refreshing livery from Red bull's part was fully compensated by their delivery of a refreshing aero concept, considering what the regulations entails for the 2024.

In a way I think it's doing Newey dirty calling it a zeropod - besides the misnomer "issue".

Newey 🤌

[TotosHeadphones]

@mariohomoh It'd be interesting if the rumoured true zero pods are incoming. A few analysts have seen the car without the engine cover and noted the radiators would need further work to fully allow for a zeropod car. We shall see but I'd be surprised if they did go that route but they do seem to have the cooling sorted with the inlets behind the halo. Very smart. Also, I wonder how you eliminate the drag caused by the rear tires if there's no sidepods?

I do wonder if the Mercedes has carried on with their zeropod concept, what they would have achieved after learning over the past few years. The downforce levels were meant to very good but with the learning that peak downforce is useless without a car that maintains it's attitude, I think we could have seen a good car (providing that the main contributor to it all, the floor was good).

[TheRagebeard]

I don't think you'll ever see a true zero side pod Red Bull, I think that was the primary fatal flaw in the Merc. As Toto pointed out it creates drag from the rear tires plus it just creates so many other internal packaging issues which is why Hamilton and Russel were always complaining about the car feeling stiff and/or unbalanced.

I think what Red Bull really wanted from the Merc is what we are seeing... a high rear end. This is just speculation and obviously I don't know the specifics but given their previous emphasis on an aggressive undercut to generate a powerful downwash to supply to ground effect downforce... Figuring out a way to move your center of gravity higher would in theory allow you to continue doubling down on the aggressive ground effect theories without risk of inducing porpoising (sp?) or having to raise ride height.

[mariohomoh]

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@TotosHeadphones wrote:
The downforce levels were meant to very good but with the learning that peak downforce is useless without a car that maintains it's attitude, I think we could have seen a good car (providing that the main contributor to it all, the floor was good).

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Now, that's a quote to make Gary Anderson proud if I've ever seen one 👏

James Allison, Dan Fallows, James Key... you all better watch out. Post-xTwitter TotosHeadphones is coming in with the big guns for 2024 🦾

[TheRagebeard]

quick amendment, when I said Toto I meant Totosheadphones, not the actual Toto Wolff. I have not idea what he may or may not have pointed out.

[Hempyjr]

@EA_Vendcera Second day of testing seems to prove the opposite to first day of testing, maybe after all there is some hope that we won't know the champion after the first 3 races 😂 But i don't have too much trust in these lap times from tests, a lot of teams are sandbagging and the real performance of their cars we will see it at the end of Q3 next week or at the end of race. Happily, the reports from Ferrari are positive so far, if they could challenge Redbull it remains to be seen.

[Cpayne32]

When do we start #Draingate? Is it too early 😂

[EA_Vendcera]

@Hempyjr Yeah, you've got a good point. Maybe I got ahead of it there, and I do really hope so.

Might just be Ferrari qualifying pace again though. They were always quick for 1 lap.

[mariohomoh]

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@Hempyjr wrote:
@EA_VendceraSecond day of testing seems to prove the opposite to first day of testing [...]

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I'd say that the second day of pre-season testing reaffirmed precisely the same thing proved by the first day of pre-season testing: that it is just testing – if you pardon my sassiness 😂

Testing concepts under many different parameters to validate data they've got back in the factory and thus establishing a R&D for the future, near and far.

We'll obviously speculate aplenty, and that is part of the fun. But there's a reason every pundit out there leads with a litany of caveats on how they're only able to comment on general aspects of car handling and such, but not on any representative performance or the pecking order of the grid.

How's the "spiteful rear axle" of the Mercedes doing? Does the McLaren performance in low speed corners seem improved? Does it seem likely that the Ferrari will be kinder on the tyres in race trim? Can the Williams finally tackle those high speed corners? These are the sort of questions people hope to get a glimpse of an answer from pre-season testing. Not "oh F1 is dead and this is utterly rubbish, another year of Max Verstappen dominance" kind of precipitated reactions we often see on social media.

[ScarDuck14]

Picture going about off Sainz Snr having a casual meet with Horner and Marko…. Whatever could they have to chat about?  I wonder 

Ferrari decision to sign Hamilton could well make a bad decision whole lot worse for them.   Sainz in a dominant Red Bull.  Then we will consistently see them get Front row lockouts.  But still Max having a teammate that can’t match him on track.   Only hope of a decent season next year is if someone can design a competitive car.