The F1 thread

stickyfiddle

DannyRic is out at McLaren. I'm sad they couldn't make it work but it's so clearly the right move for both parties. 

https://www.racefans.net/2022/08/24/mclaren-confirm-early-exit-for-ricciardo-at-end-of-season/

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Edit: SNAP

Least surprising news of 'silly season' finally confirmed...

BBC News - Formula 1: Australian Daniel Ricciardo to leave McLaren at end of season

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/62663761 ;

Apparently wants to continue in F1. Would love to see him happy and back on form again, as he's such a great character, but not sure whether anyone will take a punt on him after such a miserable time at McLaren.

stickyfiddle

My guess is back to Alpine once the Oscar situation is sorted. Failing to at I think he could have a lot of fun at Haas. 

Cols

Worst kept secret ever.

I hope he soaked them for his full salary, and that he lands a berth at Alpine for next season and rediscovers his mojo.

He’s a proven race winner, and notably none of his wins have been in a class-of-the-field car.  But for whatever reason, McLaren hasn’t worked for him at all.

stickyfiddle

Until proven otherwise I'll maintain my theory that Lando is as good as Max & Ham but the current McLaren is a utter beast to drive. 

Motorsport.com was reporting McLaren will pay DR's salary AND allow him to race for someone else, which is a great deal if he's wangled it.

sinbaadi

Not sure what McLaren are hoping to gain from this.
I think Ricciardo is someone who is definitely in F1 on merit, great driver to watch, brilliant on the brakes.... but he would have needed massive good fortune to win a title.

Cols

sinbaadi said:

Not sure what McLaren are hoping to gain from this.
I think Ricciardo is someone who is definitely in F1 on merit, great driver to watch, brilliant on the brakes.... but he would have needed massive good fortune to win a title.

Currently they’re spending $20 million a year on DR and watching him qualifying and finishing behind his teammate week after week.  Next year they’ll spend $20 million plus Piastri’s salary to hopefully get a driver who can match or surpass Norris.

sinbaadi

Cols said:

sinbaadi said:

Not sure what McLaren are hoping to gain from this.
I think Ricciardo is someone who is definitely in F1 on merit, great driver to watch, brilliant on the brakes.... but he would have needed massive good fortune to win a title.

Currently they’re spending $20 million a year on DR and watching him qualifying and finishing behind his teammate week after week.  Next year they’ll spend $20 million plus Piastri’s salary to hopefully get a driver who can match or surpass Norris.

Yeah.  Maybe they're that confident in Piastri and if it scores them that many more points, good luck to them.   If they're still very much in the midfield it all feels a bit pointless, though.  Keep the guy that puts smiles on people's faces.

euan

McLaren don’t expect to be challengers until 2024 when their first car designed in the new windtunnel is raced. I can understand wanting to get a potential driving pairing for then settled in advance. 

Frankly Ricciardo has been poor, and the “car not built for him” reasoning is outdated. A modern F1 car is set up to be the fastest it can be and the drivers adapt around it. It’s a fundamental skill now. 

Coincidence that todays BtG podcast was Norris, but some interesting tidbits there. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Lando telling it how it is. You never normally think of Norris as having such a ruthless streak, but I guess to get to his level you've got to have it deep down...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/62680865

stickyfiddle

I mean, what else is he meant to say, right? He knows just as well that if it was the other way around they'd have canned Lando and kept DR. This is the way it will always be because it's competition and you need drivers who can deliver with the car you have

Aaaand Audi are officially in. Finally!! 

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/audi-2026-entry-official-announcement/10357429/

Cols

Leclerc and Verstappen to start from the back of the grid (along with a whole rake of other drivers) for being too greedy with engines.  That’ll make for an interesting Sunday.

stickyfiddle

And possibly a wet race (whatever the forecast says, if there’s clouds, there’s a chance of rain at spa..)

aaaand I’m in client meetings all day on Sunday

chillidoggy

Max showing superb pace in FP2. He’s gonna need it, though.

Nitefly

Six drivers starting at the back.  How will that work?

stickyfiddle

Nitefly said:

Six drivers starting at the back.  How will that work?

Penalties get applied in the order they are dished out. So driver A announces their need for parts that lead to a penalty, they go to 20th first, then Driver B comes later and gets pushed to 20th and A shuffled up to 19th. 

I don’t think they still do the thing where Driver A would take 20 places and start “30th” then Driver B gets a different penalty with a 10 place penalty and slots into “23rd”. 

Boromedic

If Masi was still in charge, Max would start wherever he liked....

Nitefly

stickyfiddle said:

Nitefly said:

Six drivers starting at the back.  How will that work?

Penalties get applied in the order they are dished out. So driver A announces their need for parts that lead to a penalty, they go to 20th first, then Driver B comes later and gets pushed to 20th and A shuffled up to 19th. 

I don’t think they still do the thing where Driver A would take 20 places and start “30th” then Driver B gets a different penalty with a 10 place penalty and slots into “23rd”. 

Interesting - so it won't matter how they perform in qualifying?

Cols

Nitefly said:

stickyfiddle said:

Nitefly said:

Six drivers starting at the back.  How will that work?

Penalties get applied in the order they are dished out. So driver A announces their need for parts that lead to a penalty, they go to 20th first, then Driver B comes later and gets pushed to 20th and A shuffled up to 19th. 

I don’t think they still do the thing where Driver A would take 20 places and start “30th” then Driver B gets a different penalty with a 10 place penalty and slots into “23rd”. 

Interesting - so it won't matter how they perform in qualifying?

I believe they still have to set a qualifying time, otherwise they need to appeal to the stewards to be allowed to race.  Normally this happens if someone’s binned their car in FP3 and can’t fix it in time for qualifying, but was demonstrably fast enough in practice.

Cig35

Actually the rules for the starting grid now is that for drivers that have gotten a penalty of >15(?) places that is converted to a “start at the back of the grid” penalty. If there is more than one driver with that penalty they are placed on the grid in the order they qualified. So with 6 drivers with this penalty at Spa Verstappen will start 15 and Leclerc 16. This also explains why 4 penalized drivers continued to push in Q3.