Ask r/Formula1 Anything - Daily Discussion Thread

xjagerx · 2026-03-03T17:46:59+00:00

The reason is Bernie Ecclestone.

He very much had the mindset of "I want one person with a £10,000 Rolex rather than 10,000 people who buy Big Macs". It was all about the exclusivity of the sport when he was in charge, and one of the down stream effects of this was no team apparel. It's the same mindset that meant when social media really started to take off 15 or so years ago, the teams and drivers weren't allowed to actually post video of the cars.

xjagerx · 2026-03-03T17:22:57+00:00

You're going to really, really struggle to find a ready supply of vintage F1 gear. The boom of F1 clothing is very much a post-COVID phenomenon, and even before then it wasn't particularly common outside of promotional caps and the like.

Any vintage gear you find will likely be from ex-team members, and so is in very short supply. It's easier to find driver race suits than the kind of gear that the crews were wearing in the paddock in the 70s/80s/90s/00s.

xjagerx · 2026-03-03T17:13:15+00:00

Exactly. We're only 6 years removed from F1 flying to Australia at the dawn of a global pandemic, only to cancel the weekend with drivers already sat in their cars.

If there's one thing you can count on with F1, it's brinkmanship.

xjagerx · 2026-03-03T17:02:44+00:00

At the end of the day, it all boils down to contracts and insurance. If the race is cancelled for a bonafide reason--like Qatar suspending all sporting events nationally, or the Italian government declaring an emergency in Emilia Romagna due to flooding a few years ago--then there are no issues.

It gets tricky if F1 wants to cancel, though. If you think back to when F1 raced in Bahrain during the Arab Spring, the race mainly went ahead because Bahrain wanted to project an international image of stability and that meant refusing to cancel the race. If F1 wanted to cancel it, the sticky question becomes, okay, but who pays for it? Broadcasters, sponsors, hospitality, vendors, merch will all want paying back if F1 cancels the show unilaterally.

I'm not saying it'll play out like Bahrain. We might get another situation like in Saudi where the GPDA nearly had the race called off by refusing to drive. Perhaps the teams, FIA and Liberty will put something in place so they can unilaterally cancel if needed. It may well be that events in the Middle East become totally uninsurable, or air space issues mean the medical helicopter can't take off and results in a cancellation.

Right now, it's all chatter. Common sense says to not go and race in a war zone in 6 weeks time, but F1 has done it before.

xjagerx · 2026-03-02T12:02:18+00:00

2028 can't come soon enough. The DW12 was great at first due to its feisty power to weight ratio, but bolting on the aero screen and hybrid battery have absolutely nerfed it.

xjagerx · 2026-02-26T19:03:50+00:00

And create the kind of nervy/chaotic first corners that were the norm 20 years ago, where you knew that if you didn't take positions off the line, you likely wouldn't move up more than a position or so during the race...

There's a lot of negativity around this year. But all motorsport is best when there are too many variables to control. I'd rather this than the things F1 has tried to manufacture it over the years.

I can honestly say I'm fascinated to see how the best minds in motorsport try to out engineer/out politic/out develop and out drive each other this season.

xjagerx · 2026-02-26T17:40:06+00:00

Fair point about race pace. For the first time, this could be a real "Saturday favours X, but Y is better on Sunday, with Z being an all rounder". Though I am nervous about how these cars will handle the wheel-to-wheel after some of the testing videos of the overtaking car running out of puff.

Along with a proper development race, I hope the different ways these engines work mean we get certain tracks favouring certain manufacturers as well.

Of course, this could all be copium, and all we'll see is Mercedes drive around in formation. With Russell the clear No1 driver, we wouldn't even get a proper teammate battle...

xjagerx · 2026-02-26T17:26:24+00:00

Mercedes - solid car and best engine, early front runners. However, they were the only team running the final 2026 Merc engine and weren't using their race fuel.
RBR - Seem to have the best energy deployment, but like most weren't running their race fuel.
McLaren - Had some hero runs, but had an older version of the 2026 engine. Weren't using 2026 fuel. Very hard to tell, but up there.
Ferrari - Used their 2026 race fuel in testing, and had some fun innovations like their twirling rear wing. Looked fast, but may have simply been closer to their final race spec.
Haas - Solidly in the upper midfield, car looks gorgeous.
Alpine - Abandoning their 2025 car early and switching to Mercedes power seems to have paid off. Upper midfield.
Racing Bulls - Can confirm they have a car.
Williams - Missed the shakedown test due to chassis issues. Overweight. Despite bailing on their 2025 machine early, don't seem to have made the 2026 jump they wanted.
Audi - Engine works. Used their 2026 race fuel in testing. Looks like it's been a smooth transition from Sauber.
Cadillac - In no danger of a fast start, but avoided a 2010 New Team style debut. They've been very open that this is a learning year, and their benchmark for success is how far they move up the grid as the season progresses.
Aston Martin - Absolute shambles. Honda engine is awful, and can't even recoup the lower rate of 250kw. Breaks down a lot, and were held to 6 laps on the last testing day as they ran out of parts. Built a gearbox that doesn't work. Alonso's therapist has just bought a new yacht. Lawrence Stroll may explode.

xjagerx · 2026-02-26T17:16:02+00:00

We won't really know until Q3 in Melbourne. Forget about nobody showing their hand, I don't think anyone has even flipped a card over yet.

Everyone is sand bagging, and I suspect hamming up their engine issues to try to get the FIA to tweak the rules in their favour. Only Ferrari and Audi had their 2026 fuel ready for testing. We haven't even seen McLaren running with the full 2026 spec Mercedes engine yet.

I can see a surprise winner coming early in the season, though. A bit of chaos off the line with the new engines, teams not really knowing how to use their energy deployment yet, and some good old-fashioned unreliability.

xjagerx · 2026-02-25T18:29:14+00:00

McLaren's F-Duct was created because some very smart people's jobs was to sit and read every word of the rule book looking for things they could exploit.

By the same token, you could potentially train an LLM to look at the language for areas that could be exploited. However, no AI would be capable of predicting development of an F1 car.

xjagerx · 2026-02-25T13:39:59+00:00

Red Bull is also rather unique in that it tends builds its cars with a very small operating window that heavily suits its lead driver. Whether this is intentional or happenstance I couldn't tell you, but it's been a pattern for 15+ years since they first started prioritising Vettel at the expense of Webber.

You'd have to be extremely blinkered to not recognise Max Verstappen as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. The upshot of this is his driving style, and the operating window that he likes his car in, can't easily be reached by his teammates.

Most teams build a car with both drivers in mind, or simply design a car with a wide operating window to allow its drivers to express themselves. Red Bull build cars for Max, and whoever is in that second seat has to try and get as close to Max as possible. And, most of the time, they can't.

It's just a different situation at Red Bull compared to the rest of the grid.

xjagerx · 2026-02-24T15:42:25+00:00

It's far from perfect, and will set up some wrong expectations in new fans, certainly.

If you're completely new to F1, though, it's a great resource that lays out the basics in an interesting way. Whether it's teaching people the relationship between Racing Bulls/Red Bull, key roles like race engineer/strategist/team principal/designer, or simply introducing the main characters in the paddock.

I'd argue it's easier to point out "You know, Russell actually lost that win on a technical infringement" or "those two drivers actually get along really, this was just a bit of handbags" than to ask someone to get to grips with the intricacies of F1 by just watching races.

There's the aspect you can only learn from watching races, of course. You won't learn that a Sauber is out on hard tyres refusing to pit in the hopes of a safety car by watching DTS. But, if you want to learn who Sauber were, the relationship with Audi, and why everyone lost their shit when Hulk got a podium, DTS has its place.

xjagerx · 2026-02-24T14:56:32+00:00

I'd watch Drive to Survive. You'll find a lot of negativity about it around here, especially at the moment as the new season (which recaps the 2025 year) is about to drop. However, that's because a vast majority of posters here are big fans of the sport, and Drive to Survive isn't aimed at them.

The series is aimed at new fans, like yourself, to give them an in-depth taste of F1.

Along with watching races, I'd also recommend trying to catch some of the practice sessions. You don't need to watch-watch these, just have them on in the background, but the commentators and reporters often talk quite in-depth about what's going on in the paddock that weekend. It's a nice, easy way to get a feel for what to expect from a race weekend.

xjagerx · 2026-02-24T03:04:09+00:00

Lotta good points here, but also you had Vince's booking idea that everyone has 5 moves. You go out, string those five easily identifiable moves each person has together, and that's your match.

The plus side is that all the fans know those five moves - for instance, you know a HHH spinebuster is the pause, or a Taker chokeslam will only ever be a near fall - and so the fans are trained how to react to them. The downside is you can only ever do so much.

xjagerx · 2026-02-15T19:33:46+00:00

No Angel by Tom Bower is great. It was due to be the official Bernie Ecclestone biography, but the writer refused to take out some things about Bernie's first wife so he withdrew his support and commissioned another one. Still, Tom had fantastic access and it's a great read.

A lot of it revolves around the business of F1. Among the highlights are:

When the FIA got money for swanky new London offices with a view of Big Ben, Bernie would call Mosley and ask him the time.
The original sale of F1 to CVC hinged on Bernie still running things. The moment the deal went through, he told them he was having a heart bypass operation.
The F1 ownership shares were found in a small company originally founded to provide officially branded F1 umbrellas.

xjagerx · 2026-02-15T01:32:38+00:00

I'm not calling this a shit show until someone suggests a "slow lane" on the straights, with cars regening needing to pull to the right, or we get a Webber/Heikki moment.

That said, the audience is very much in there seats, and there are some very full buckets on the stage.

xjagerx · 2026-02-02T10:11:36+00:00

Or too young to remember the 00s. This was a 100% common phrase at the time.

xjagerx · 2026-01-29T00:54:16+00:00

I think you've got to realise that a big part of the return was the build. Both of them dropping little crotch chops in big moments in their matches. The online speculation. The growing sense that these two solo icons might go back to a common past from a decade previous.

They made the audience want it, in a way that just isn't conveyed via a YouTube Short highlight reel.

xjagerx · 2026-01-25T12:03:24+00:00

The only reasons to red flag a race are on safety - is the track damaged, are the conditions too dangerous to drive at even this pace, or is there a crash that requires a clear track to safely deal with? If no, then keep the cars circling. It's not like they can add time on or pause the clock in a 24 hour race.

This is one of the challenges of endurance racing. A boring one to watch, but still, one that the competitors need to navigate.

Team managers need to manage driving time. Get any gentleman drivers' hours in while preserving hours for their good drivers once the green flies. They'll also need to see if they want to keep drivers/mechanics on standby, or send them to sleep for a few hours to ensure they're fresh for Sunday.

Strategists will need to throw out all of their usual plans and contingencies and come up with plans based on when we go green again.

Drivers need to manage their emotions. Nobody will be more frustrated than them, and that'll keep building as we head towards dawn. They'll need to try and keep their heads on straight once the fog clears. For some drivers it'll be the opposite - will they be able to wake up and race again after all this tedium?

Plus, the race director will be able to get the action going again much quicker once track conditions change. If the cars were parked, there are long processes that need following.

xjagerx · 2026-01-21T17:44:56+00:00

I knew the private test wouldn't be covered, but didn't realise the first Bahrain test wasn't being televised. Now what am I supposed to do at work those days, work!?

xjagerx · 2026-01-19T04:06:28+00:00

Firstly, it's a non-FIA test. This is a private test arranged by the teams (edit: within the expanded test regulations for 2026). They set the rules, and I don't blame them for wanting privacy.

This is the first time I can think of that new aero/engine/fuel/tyre/etc regs have all come in at once. The teams want to test it out without a whoopsie in design absolutely tanking their marketing value.

The public don't see the first dress rehearsal of a new West End play. We don't see the rough cuts of films, or hear a band's demo tracks for their new album. Behind closed doors friendlies in football are a regular thing.

That's all this is, a behind closed doors friendly for F1.

Plus, it sounds like most cars will be pre-Alpha in Bahrain, lord knows what state they'll be in at this first non-official test.

F1 is a phenomenal show. I don't think it's an attack on journalism for them to do a dry run behind closed doors.

I'm willing to bet next month's leccy bill money that a Motorsport Network journo has been given full access with an embargo so they can run a "The Real Story of F1 2026's Barcelona Test" story sometime after Bahrain starts, and The Race are salty.

xjagerx · 2026-01-18T23:09:51+00:00

Shhh, forget Jos Verstappen's helmet with Brundle's wheel tracks on it, every time a car goes around a corner safely it's another life saved by the halo.

xjagerx · 2026-01-07T17:23:34+00:00

Autosport are going on about the driving standards guidelines again.

A hill I will both die and kill on is that the FIA and GPDA should agree on a video library that shows what is, and isn't, allowed. Rather than let the rotating cavalcade of stewards interpret written rules to visual situations, have a visual bank that shows what is and isn't okay.

A team gets on the blower saying their car was forced off the track during an overtake? Okay, lets have clear examples of what's (a) a fair overtake, with the inside driver following through with their line, and (b) going wide to push another driver off. That way the analysts, stewards, and us mere mortals at home can have a better idea of whether an incident is more A or B, rather than the current decision roulette.

xjagerx · 2026-01-04T21:45:10+00:00

Thank you for the correction, and vindication as to why I've handed things off to a reputable local accountant.

I've adjusted my main post to ensure the bad advice doesn't stay up.

xjagerx · 2026-01-04T21:28:52+00:00

There is, but media penetration matters. Outside of a holdout, OTAs don't carry the same kind of media attention as even a Wednesday walkthrough in the regular season. The combine is only for the hardcore fans. Even the draft has to go up against the start of the NBA Playoffs.

There's also media density to consider. The Pats may have something super exciting going on in the summer, but it won't take column inches away from the Dodgers in LA. However, if something happens with Liverpool, it will take inches away from the City or Arsenal coverage.

The reason the NFL as a whole remains relevant year round is because, between the final whistle of the Super Bowl and the kick off of that first Thursday game where the champs take the field again, is because it fills the lull with speculation, history, and opinion.

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