The F1 thread

Fretwired

You can't expect Kubica to get in an F1 car and be competitive day one. Davidson was thrown into an F1 car at short notice when Massa fell ill and did OK - he was at the back of the field though. Commentators said he'd done well. Button didn't do that well when he filled in for Alonso. The cars have changed so much since Kubica was racing.

I can't see him being given a contract to be honest.

steer

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

sweepy

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

You are forgetting DiResta, proven points scorer and knows the team well, also old enough for the Team sponsor

stickyfiddle

sweepy said:

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

You are forgetting DiResta, proven points scorer and knows the team well, also old enough for the Team sponsor

And is a thoroughly average whinger. I can't see Paddy putting up with him

chillidoggy

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

steer

sweepy said:

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

You are forgetting DiResta, proven points scorer and knows the team well, also old enough for the Team sponsor

Mansell, Piquet, Roseberg, Prost, Senna, Hill, Villeneuve,....

...and now potentially a line up of Stroll and Di Resta - which would be the least inspiring driver pairing on the grid bar none. I watched the Williams documentary on netflix the other day, and it really was excellent. But, if they turn up next season with that driver pairing, I cannot see that they could get any lower. 

I am hoping that Kubica is still the driver he was. 

Boromedic

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Yeah Sauber have been like an unofficial Ferrari second team before so it makes sense. If it keeps another team on the grid then thats great, they need to get rid of Ericcson though now and get a promising young driver in, a la Webber or Alonso in the Minardi.

Boromedic

Fretwired said:

You can't expect Kubica to get in an F1 car and be competitive day one. Davidson was thrown into an F1 car at short notice when Massa fell ill and did OK - he was at the back of the field though. Commentators said he'd done well. Button didn't do that well when he filled in for Alonso. The cars have changed so much since Kubica was racing.

I can't see him being given a contract to be honest.

Yeah, fair point to be honest. The only real yardstick is a race I think and I'm not convinced. When he is in at the deep end, turn 1 at Melbourne after the start he is going to come unstuck.

Fretwired

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

There's always Palmer ...

PC_Dave

Fretwired said:

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

There's always Palmer ...

Who?

FX_Munkee

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Fretwired

PC_Dave said:

Fretwired said:

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

There's always Palmer ...

Who?

I knew people would jump in ... :-)

Alain Prost was interviewed about Palmer last week and he refused to criticise him. His racing prior to joining F1 was excellent and he was fast in the tests. He said Palmer didn't get on with the car - it didn't suit his driving style. On top of that he rarely had the new bits and suffered from some awful reliability that limited his track time. Hamilton and Vettel have had similar experiences car wise so its not unique.

I'd have thought he could be worth a test.

Fretwired

FX_Munkee said:

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Good to see another manufacturer. Alpha are building some decent cars - I doubt Ferrari will want them languishing at the back of the field. Could be a good move by Ferrari. Get a team cheap before some of the other players like VW move into F1 and prices rise.

FX_Munkee

Fretwired said:

FX_Munkee said:

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Good to see another manufacturer. Alpha are building some decent cars - I doubt Ferrari will want them languishing at the back of the field. Could be a good move by Ferrari. Get a team cheap before some of the other players like VW move into F1 and prices rise.

But they're not going to be Alfa's are they? They're going to be last years Ferrari with and Alfa badge slapped on it.
Basically nothing at all to do with Alfa Romeo the car manufacturer, except for the image rights.

Oh and please don't spell it Alpha, it makes me twitch

chillidoggy

I hope they’re going to build better Alfa F1 cars than the road cars. Either that, or they’ll need to be followed round the track by a skip lorry to pick up all the bits that fall off.

Garthy

FX_Munkee said:

Fretwired said:

FX_Munkee said:

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Good to see another manufacturer. Alpha are building some decent cars - I doubt Ferrari will want them languishing at the back of the field. Could be a good move by Ferrari. Get a team cheap before some of the other players like VW move into F1 and prices rise.

But they're not going to be Alfa's are they? They're going to be last years Ferrari with and Alfa badge slapped on it.
Basically nothing at all to do with Alfa Romeo the car manufacturer, except for the image rights.

Oh and please don't spell it Alpha, it makes me twitch

Its much more than a branding exercise. 2018 Ferrari engine and technical & financial help being bankrolled by Fiat.

FX_Munkee

Garthy said:

FX_Munkee said:

Fretwired said:

FX_Munkee said:

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Good to see another manufacturer. Alpha are building some decent cars - I doubt Ferrari will want them languishing at the back of the field. Could be a good move by Ferrari. Get a team cheap before some of the other players like VW move into F1 and prices rise.

But they're not going to be Alfa's are they? They're going to be last years Ferrari with and Alfa badge slapped on it.
Basically nothing at all to do with Alfa Romeo the car manufacturer, except for the image rights.

Oh and please don't spell it Alpha, it makes me twitch

Its much more than a branding exercise. 2018 Ferrari engine and technical & financial help being bankrolled by Fiat.

OK, so this years Ferrari. Apart from that what did I get wrong?
It's not going to be Alfa Romeo, it's going to be Ferrari "Lite". Basically a Ferrari version of Toro Rosso.

Boromedic

Fretwired said:

steer said:

Williams are screwed. There are no good experienced drivers left on the market to go alongside their $lightly unin$piring rookie. 

There's always Palmer ...

I don't think this is a bad shout tbh, although I'd have Wehrlein or Kvyatt over him (obvs not sure where they stand on the sponsor thing).

In other news the tyre test today had Kubica 0.1secs behind Massas quali time. Although fuel and other factors at play, plus a warmer track probably. Although he set that on the new hyper softs which are a grade softer than the ultras, also he was only 0.5secs quicker than Sirotkin who did has quickest lap on softs, 3 grades harder. Hmmm I'm not sure, it was at this point Renault cooled their interest so we will see. I suppose my hesitation with him is that I'd also hate him to come back and embarass himself. We shall see what Williams think after they've gone through all that data.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/42170859

Garthy

FX_Munkee said:

Garthy said:

FX_Munkee said:

Fretwired said:

FX_Munkee said:

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Good to see another manufacturer. Alpha are building some decent cars - I doubt Ferrari will want them languishing at the back of the field. Could be a good move by Ferrari. Get a team cheap before some of the other players like VW move into F1 and prices rise.

But they're not going to be Alfa's are they? They're going to be last years Ferrari with and Alfa badge slapped on it.
Basically nothing at all to do with Alfa Romeo the car manufacturer, except for the image rights.

Oh and please don't spell it Alpha, it makes me twitch

Its much more than a branding exercise. 2018 Ferrari engine and technical & financial help being bankrolled by Fiat.

OK, so this years Ferrari. Apart from that what did I get wrong?
It's not going to be Alfa Romeo, it's going to be Ferrari "Lite". Basically a Ferrari version of Toro Rosso.

Well unless Fiat are going to spend $1.5bn on another engine just for three seasons then what choice do they have but to put a different badge on the one they already have? Alfa will be bringing their own engineers on board so it isn't a branding tie-up like Tag for RBR who really are just paying for a badge on someone else's engine. I suspect Alfa-Sauber will have more independence than Torro Rosso have had.

FX_Munkee

Garthy said:

FX_Munkee said:

Garthy said:

FX_Munkee said:

Fretwired said:

FX_Munkee said:

chillidoggy said:

Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1. New name for Sauber, and as Fiat own both Ferrari and Alfa, it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Am I the only one who feels a little sad that Alfa has become just a branding exercise in F1?

Good to see another manufacturer. Alpha are building some decent cars - I doubt Ferrari will want them languishing at the back of the field. Could be a good move by Ferrari. Get a team cheap before some of the other players like VW move into F1 and prices rise.

But they're not going to be Alfa's are they? They're going to be last years Ferrari with and Alfa badge slapped on it.
Basically nothing at all to do with Alfa Romeo the car manufacturer, except for the image rights.

Oh and please don't spell it Alpha, it makes me twitch

Its much more than a branding exercise. 2018 Ferrari engine and technical & financial help being bankrolled by Fiat.

OK, so this years Ferrari. Apart from that what did I get wrong?
It's not going to be Alfa Romeo, it's going to be Ferrari "Lite". Basically a Ferrari version of Toro Rosso.

Well unless Fiat are going to spend $1.5bn on another engine just for three seasons then what choice do they have but to put a different badge on the one they already have? Alfa will be bringing their own engineers on board so it isn't a branding tie-up like Tag for RBR who really are just paying for a badge on someone else's engine. I suspect Alfa-Sauber will have more independence than Torro Rosso have had.

Alfa don't have any motorsport engineers, they're all dead or retired.
My point is that they are being used in exactly the same way as TAG for RBR, just that FIAT already own them and they're a car manufacturer themselves. The amount of Alfa DNA in the new car will be zero, none.
Which is what makes me sad. Alfa's resurgence into F1 is just a badging exercise.
And, yes, I am irrationally overprotective of Alfa Romeo