The F1 thread

Boromedic

Verstappen should've never been on the podium, let alone top step so fair play to him, especially given the spin, it was a great drive. I absolutely think he is a cock, but he's in the same league as Hamilton, Alonso, Senna and Schumacher and I've thought that since his first couple of seasons. Massive bell end though, and he's chilled as you say because he's got zero competition.

It seems that after the FIA gifted him his first title, Ferrari will gift him his second. Utterly atrocious from the Modena boys, clowns! Good on Lewis and George for grabbing the podiums, Lewis looks dangerous in races again, fingers crossed he can get a win in the second half of the year.

Cols

That's a shock.  Fernando doesn't need the money, nor does he appear to be particularly motivated by it.

I can only imagine that the sticking point with Alpine was the length of the contract; reports were that they had a 1 year deal on the table, but Alonso wanted a longer contract.

Ocon's defensive driving at the weekend wouldn’t have helped Alonso’s mood; not once but twice it resulted in another car getting past the pair of them.

markr76

Maybe Alonso also sees that AM could be bigger than alpine . Although they’re not performing at the minute. I think they have the potential over the next few years to be right up there. Which may be too long off for Alonso. But they’ve employed a load of Redbull’s top technical people. Dan Fallows being the main one. But he’s taken some top brains with him. They have a brand new facility being built and are offering very good packages to tempt the best workers to go there. It could take years though if at all. 

chillidoggy

I can't see Danny Ric in F1 next year.

stickyfiddle

chillidoggy said:

I can't see Danny Ric in F1 next year.

I thought he'd cracked it with the latest MCL upgrades but he ended up 8 places behind Lando again

chillidoggy

He must be the highest paid driver on the grid, but with the worst results. It must be embarrassing for MCL, and the sooner he realises his F1 days are over, the better.

Boromedic

chillidoggy said:

He must be the highest paid driver on the grid, but with the worst results. It must be embarrassing for MCL, and the sooner he realises his F1 days are over, the better.

It would be a shame but I agree he's had his moment now, he needs to move on and let a young charge take his seat along with Lando who continues to impress.

sweepy

Aston/Audi tie up ? Might be another way for Alonso to have a crack at LeMans again but on the face of it, it’s a huge backwards step 

stickyfiddle

sweepy said:

Aston/Audi tie up ? Might be another way for Alonso to have a crack at LeMans again but on the face of it, it’s a huge backwards step 

Not the first time it's been mooted, but there's zero chance that deal will get done AND make a significant impact on AM's performance before Alonso is too old to benefit. 

stickyfiddle

Boromedic said:

chillidoggy said:

He must be the highest paid driver on the grid, but with the worst results. It must be embarrassing for MCL, and the sooner he realises his F1 days are over, the better.

It would be a shame but I agree he's had his moment now, he needs to move on and let a young charge take his seat along with Lando who continues to impress.

Yeah, can't argue sadly. I still think DannyRic is a really great driver, but the Mclaren is tricky to drive and Lando is an absolute Alonso/Ham/Max level talent so still gets results. 

skullfunkerry

stickyfiddle said:

Boromedic said:

chillidoggy said:

He must be the highest paid driver on the grid, but with the worst results. It must be embarrassing for MCL, and the sooner he realises his F1 days are over, the better.

It would be a shame but I agree he's had his moment now, he needs to move on and let a young charge take his seat along with Lando who continues to impress.

Yeah, can't argue sadly. I still think DannyRic is a really great driver, but the Mclaren is tricky to drive and Lando is an absolute Alonso/Ham/Max level talent so still gets results. 

Yeah, Danny Ric feels like a definite case of what might have been, to me. I wonder how he'd have got on at Red Bull if Max hadn't shown up? Or how he would have stacked up against Max if he'd stayed, and they'd had equal treatment.

He still reckons he's going to see out his McLaren contract, which runs until the end of 2023 though, so based on that we'll see him again next year. I read somewhere recently (I think it was Joe Saward, but I can't 100% remember) that the performance clauses in the McLaren contract are all in Daniel's favour, so they can't get rid of him based on underperforming, but he can leave early if the car doesn't deliver.

sinbaadi

stickyfiddle said:

Boromedic said:

chillidoggy said:

He must be the highest paid driver on the grid, but with the worst results. It must be embarrassing for MCL, and the sooner he realises his F1 days are over, the better.

It would be a shame but I agree he's had his moment now, he needs to move on and let a young charge take his seat along with Lando who continues to impress.

Yeah, can't argue sadly. I still think DannyRic is a really great driver, but the Mclaren is tricky to drive and Lando is an absolute Alonso/Ham/Max level talent so still gets results. 

He's definitely a journeyman.  Had lots of opportunities to demonstrate his ability against some decent teammates and never really managed it.
Even if he found himself in a winning car, it's hard to imagine him not being the Mark Webber or Rubens Barrichello to whoever was his teammate.

Boromedic

sinbaadi said:

stickyfiddle said:

Boromedic said:

chillidoggy said:

He must be the highest paid driver on the grid, but with the worst results. It must be embarrassing for MCL, and the sooner he realises his F1 days are over, the better.

It would be a shame but I agree he's had his moment now, he needs to move on and let a young charge take his seat along with Lando who continues to impress.

Yeah, can't argue sadly. I still think DannyRic is a really great driver, but the Mclaren is tricky to drive and Lando is an absolute Alonso/Ham/Max level talent so still gets results. 

He's definitely a journeyman.  Had lots of opportunities to demonstrate his ability against some decent teammates and never really managed it.
Even if he found himself in a winning car, it's hard to imagine him not being the Mark Webber or Rubens Barrichello to whoever was his teammate.

Dunno, he showed up Vettel who was well bedded into RB at the time and had great pace, good racecraft and could overtake. He's just gone backwards and now is a journeyman, agreed. He could've been a Rosberg or similar level if he'd kept at it. 

stickyfiddle

DR is no way a journeyman. That's why it's so odd.

• 2014 (RB) - smashed Vettel (reigning 4-time champ at his peak) in his third full year in F1. Won 3 races
• 2015 (RB) -  level with Kvyat in a shitbox RB while Merc won all but 3 races
• 2016 (RB) - beat Max in the championship and the only guy other than Mercs (19) and Max (1) to win a race, and you could argue Max only won his because the Mercs took each other off in Spain
• 2017 (RB) - beat Max over a full season this time. 1 win to Max's 2. 
• 2018 (RB) - lost to Max largely due to a string of retirements. Still won 2 and got 2 poles (Max 2 and 0)
• 2019 (Renault) - backmarker car but still smashed Hulkenberg despite twice as many retirements
• 2020  (Renault) - Smashed Ocon (119 to 62) and got a couple of podiums in still a thoroughly midfield car 

He's the only teammate ever to beat Max, the only teammate ever to beat Vettel, and the only guy to win in a McLaren in the last decade. 

YellowLedBetterMan

I still think Ricciardo has some good drives ahead of him. Whatever it is with Mclaren, he just isn't showing his ability. Perhaps a team change will give him the fresh start he needs.

Cols

YellowLedBetterMan said:

I still think Ricciardo has some good drives ahead of him. Whatever it is with Mclaren, he just isn't showing his ability. Perhaps a team change will give him the fresh start he needs.

I don’t believe for one minute that Ricciardo has forgotten how to drive, but - just like the similarly stellar talent of Montoya - McLaren hasn’t worked out for him.

It would be better for him to jump ship and rebuild than to use up another year of his career getting his arse handed to him on a platter by Norris every weekend, but unfortunately there’s no longer many decent options.

Alonso - I’m now wondering if it was a simple matter of Stroll telling his people “Get on the phone to Alonso immediately and agree to all his demands as long as he signs now” once Vettel announced his retirement.

chillidoggy

Cols said:

YellowLedBetterMan said:

I still think Ricciardo has some good drives ahead of him. Whatever it is with Mclaren, he just isn't showing his ability. Perhaps a team change will give him the fresh start he needs.

I don’t believe for one minute that Ricciardo has forgotten how to drive, but - just like the similarly stellar talent of Montoya - McLaren hasn’t worked out for him.

It would be better for him to jump ship and rebuild than to use up another year of his career getting his arse handed to him on a platter by Norris every weekend, but unfortunately there’s no longer many decent options.

Alonso - I’m now wondering if it was a simple matter of Stroll telling his people “Get on the phone to Alonso immediately and agree to all his demands as long as he signs now” once Vettel announced his retirement.

A highly believable scenario.

boogieman

Alonso is going to make Lance look an even more rubbish driver. Although thinking about it, I don’t remember Lance ever admitting anything being his fault, it’s always “yeah I only qualified 14th because the set up wasn’t right/we couldn’t get the tyres switched on/this track doesn’t really suit the car.”

stickyfiddle

boogieman said:

Alonso is going to make Lance look an even more rubbish driver. Although thinking about it, I don’t remember Lance ever admitting anything being his fault, it’s always “yeah I only qualified 14th because the set up wasn’t right/we couldn’t get the tyres switched on/this track doesn’t really suit the car.”

Well of course. He's the son of a billionaire - how could he ever be less than perfect? It's simply not possible! 

skullfunkerry

stickyfiddle said:

boogieman said:

Alonso is going to make Lance look an even more rubbish driver. Although thinking about it, I don’t remember Lance ever admitting anything being his fault, it’s always “yeah I only qualified 14th because the set up wasn’t right/we couldn’t get the tyres switched on/this track doesn’t really suit the car.”

Well of course. He's the son of a billionaire - how could he ever be less than perfect? It's simply not possible! 

He always comes across as really whiny, like he really doesn't want to be there, even on the car radio. I think too that when Romain Grosjean had that crash in Bahrain every other driver was on the radio asking if he was okay, and Lance was moaning about the red flag because he'd made such a good start.