The F1 Thread

[CityDave94]

Pretty good race behind Verstappen, well done to McLaren that first win for Norris can't be far off and I was impressed with Piastri.

Mercedes could have had a disaster, decent result from them considering, Hamilton he has a bit of form just now and actually outperforming Russell. Hamilton won third place via a fast pitstop.

Ferrari just seem to be going backwards, Leclerc has to be seriously thinking about going to a better team. He should be up there challenging Verstappen for race wins by now in his career.

The Williams team and Albon starting to look a lot more serious, nice opportunist over take from Albon on Sainz. Sargeant although just missed out on a point should gain a lot of confidence out of his performance. Not expecting much from them in Hungary, to many slow corners, but wait until Spa, they will be fastest through the speed trap on the Kemmel Straight and be handy through those fast sweeping turns.

Nothing boring about todays race if you anticipate the next chapter as the story develops.

 

[Mr. Brightside]

The race was tragic, not sure what you were watching, chief. Even the late safety car barely helped.

[Boo Khaki]

A big part of Ferrari's issue is the car can't replicate single lap performance in race conditions, so they can push Max close for pole, which makes everyone think they should be pushing for podiums and the odd win, when in reality they probably have the 3rd, perhaps even 4th fastest car over longer stints.

I don't think they really have a 'now' issue, it's more that they appear to have made no progress since early last season, and don't appear to be on the cusp of making any sort of step forward any time soon either. They're just meandering along in mediocrity.

[scottsdad]

1 hour ago, approximately dave said:

Max Verstappen well on his way to winning the 2023 title potentially with more races to spare than Nigel Mansell in 1992 who won with 5 to go. 11th race out of 16.

Yeah ok there are more races this season but the cars are are a lot closer together in lap times especially over one lap than they were in 1992.

 

 

 

Schumacher won with 6 to spare out of 17 in 2002. Won the title on July 21st. 

This dominance by Verstappen reminds me more of 2004, when Schumacher won 12 of the first 13 races. The reason he didn't win the title until August that year was because his "main challenger" Barrichello had a better season and dragged it out a wee bit. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by scottsdad

[scottsdad]

How long till Perez gets binned, and who will get his seat? 

[The Golden God]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

How long till Perez gets binned, and who will get his seat? 

Doubt it will happen but be good to see him get punted to AT and Tsunoda up and De Vries also punted and replaced by a junior like Iwasa. Ricciardo can stay away 

[V.Aye.R]

19 hours ago, scottsdad said:

How long till Perez gets binned, and who will get his seat? 

As long as Riccairdo doesn't get it, smug b*****d. 

[Boo Khaki]

14 hours ago, V.Aye.R said:

As long as Riccairdo doesn't get it, smug b*****d. 

They have R&D plans to consider and I honestly can't see why they'd promote Tsunoda since he's done nothing notable whatsoever at AT. At worst, I think they might demote Perez temporarily and install Riccardo in the race seat for a few races to give Checo a mental reset. It might become a permanent thing if DR performs.

[V.Aye.R]

Just now, Boo Khaki said:

They have R&D plans to consider and I honestly can't see why they'd promote Tsunoda since he's done nothing notable whatsoever at AT. At worst, I think they might demote Perez temporarily and install Riccardo in the race seat for a few races to give Checo a mental reset. It might become a permanent thing if DR performs.

Yeah I don't disagree, I'm perhaps confusing what should happen with what I want to happen. 

[Ignoramus]

De Vries punted, Ricciardo in for AT. Probably a sigh of relief from Perez at that development.

[flyingscot]

Kinda risky for Ricciardo. The Alphatauri looks a bit of a pup and if he gets beaten by Tsunoda after his last year and a bit with McLaren he'll not have many options. 

I think it's a little harsh on DeVries as he's not that far off Tsunoda but Red Bull have been a little quick before - see Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

De Vries can't have any complaints. Formula E to F1 is a huge step up in quality and he has been miles off the pace 

Unless Riccardo performs miracles for the next few months, then I imagine he is just keeping the seat warm for Liam Lawson

[Ginaro]

[Iminavest]

The swap makes sense given De Vries is pish and Ricciardo was likely earning a wedge for sitting on his hoop anyway.

If he out performs the car and Perez continues the way he has been, could easily be his way back into the second RB.

[Boo Khaki]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when the discussion comes up re why Redbull should employ him as 2nd fiddle to Max, when the whole reason he jumped ship to a crappy Renault team was because his ego wouldn't let him play 2nd fiddle to Max.

[CityDave94]

That's F1 its meant to be tough and unforgiving. I believe De Vries is capable of much better and he has been honest about his own performances falling short. Very dissapointing I expected better from him. However tbf the AlphaTauri has been a bit dogshit this year.

Maybe bringing in Ricciardo with his vast experience might help more in the technical department with better feedback than previous and help develop the car. Tsunoda was saying last Saturday that the upgrades to the AlphaTauri were not working so something needs to be done. AT probably have the worst car on the grid just now, 2 points so far isn't good enough at this point in the season.

[Mr. Brightside]

Struggling to understand the folk saying De Vries was hard done by. Probably the same folk that were raging Ricciardo was punted by McLaren despite being absolute garbage.

[CityDave94]

Just now, Mr. Brightside said:

Struggling to understand the folk saying De Vries was hard done by. Probably the same folk that were raging Ricciardo was punted by McLaren despite being absolute garbage.

See de Vries would have known what he was getting himself into by joining this team and what would happen if it didn't work. Its dissapointing because a lot of people were wanting him in F1 for a few years now and he finally gets a chance and its over after 10 races. Like I said that's F1 and there have been some promising young drivers who were never given an opportunity at the right time or no opportunity at all or simply too few races to shine. The other side of it plenty of drivers who were not really that good but still made a career out of it.

[CityDave94]

2 hours ago, Iminavest said:

The swap makes sense given De Vries is pish and Ricciardo was likely earning a wedge for sitting on his hoop anyway.

If he out performs the car and Perez continues the way he has been, could easily be his way back into the second RB.

Yeah, I heard that Ricciardo was asking for top driver cash. Then someone must have finally convinced him that he wasn't a top driver anymore

Tsunoda and Danny Ric, guaranteed those two are going to try and wind each other up non stop. The banter.

 

[Mackie The Staggie]

Going to get some pelters for this one here.....but binning De Vries after just half a season is bat shit move.

He's barely had any testing going into this season and is playing catch up to his teammate who is now in his third season.  Looking at his results you'll see he has been closing the gap on Tsunoda over the past few races as he got to grips with what is possibly the worst car on the grid at the moment.  

Nick is a good driver whose not really got it going as fast as he needed to, the days of a Taki Inoue or Ricardo Rosset are long gone now and being at the back of the F1 grid doesn't mean you are a terrible driver.  He just got into F1 too late in his driver development process.

There's something mental about that Red Bull program which just chews drivers up, look at Albion who is thriving away from the Red Bull glare and Gasly who has been better since he left.