TBK-Light.com

Regarding the calendar: nice try to group some races together, but they need to go all in. Group races close together as double or triple headers. And per continent. Start with all the midle eastern and Asian races, after those crown an Asian champion. Then do Europe, crown an European champion. Then do the America's and crown an American champion. 3 trophies, and 1 world champion. Would keep the season interesting like this year. If Ferrari get there stuff together, they could still challenge to win the American trophy later this year.

I was cleaning up the basement a couple of days ago, and I found the binders in which I collected all sorts of F1 articles and pictures when I was a kid. Mostly from Autosport magazine. On the back of a picture I had cut out, I found the following interesting news article from February 18 1999:

MOSLEY RETREAT ON 20-RACE CALENDAR

FIA president Max Mosley has backpedalled on his belief that the Grand Prix calendar will expand to 20 races in the next millennium.
Mosley has championed the idea of an increased number of races with reduced testing. However, he has now accepted that it is unlikely to happen.
"I woukd like to see 20 races", he said. "It makes life easier to bring in new Grand Prix without cancelling old ones, which is never a good thing to do. However, it must be said that the teams and Bernie Ecclestone want to keep the calendar at more or less 16.
"They say that anything above that number and they´d have to think in terms of running two separate teams which would immediately double the costs.
"I think the number will probably stay more or less as it is now. It might one day go to 17 or 18, but will generally stay in the order of 16 - a pity, but that´s how it is."
Ecclestone has already said he thinks the calendar will stay at 16 races to stop F1 suffering the overexposure he says afflicts football.

Joe's Award believes that Marko is considering the idea of Palou replacing de Vries immediately after the end of the Indycar season.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

So testing Ricciardo would be pointless, unless they are lining him up to replace Perez?

I wonder why right after summer break, that could prevent Ganassi from winning bring more excitement to the championship

about bringing new teams, perhaps they could enter an agreement that if they hire pay drivers, half of the money they brought should be given to the older teams

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

It's a German-speaking source but of course Red Bull comes from a German-speaking country

https://f1-insider.com/formel-1-ricciar ... atz-57875/

[tweet]https://twitter.com/junaidsamodien_/status/1678410763688370178[/tweet]

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07.04.1968 - Flower of Scotland when will we see your like again?
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Dutch media are reporting that Ricciardo is replacing De Vries with immediate effect.

It´s not that the car is performing so well. Tsunoda is invisible in every race too, and has only scored 2 points.
Alpha and Alfa are two teams that you would forget they´re there every weekend. Haas isn´t performing well either, but at least they get noticed.

Red Bull could've been waiting for that Villeneuve in Hockenheim moment, when a driver error prompted enough is enough

but driver errors and crashes are quite rare this season so far

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Seems a bit harsh given that he has been closing the gap to Tsunoda, but I guess anybody signing a contract within range of Helmut Marko must expect to be chewed up and spat out at some point. What's more surprising is that Ricciardo has willingly gone back to that.

Aaaannd it is official. Ricciardo at Alpha Tauri for the remainder of the season.

Now it's official.

happy for Danny but sad to see the Marko meatgrinder working like clockwork

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Incredibly harsh for an F2 and FE champ to be given only half a season to perform in a shitty ass car.

But I feel like this is less about Nyck and more of a political game by Marko to 1) Apply pressure on Perez and keep him on the hot seat if Ricciardo does well at AT and 2) Evaluate Tsunoda against an experienced driver and see if it's worth keeping him or dumping him for another Red Bull junior driver.

Nyck was often closer to Tsunoda than sargeant to Albon for example.

Having that said, I’m not surprised at all. Expected one of the 2 AT drivers to get the boot before the season was over

His field as an F2 champ wasn't exactly great. He beat Latifi and Ghiotto for the title. And his title in F-E was quite lucky as well.

I like him and he does look like to be quite the hard worker. However, as sad as it is to see him leaving F1 right now, he wasn't at the level to be there and showed few progress during his spell.

Looks like Ricciardo had a familiar visitor at his tire test today...



[tweet]https://twitter.com/FormulaReaction/status/1678806012944318474[/tweet]

Who himself had a bit of fun on track...

So the alpha tauri rebrand, it will be from junior team to a senior team then. Ricciardo is there now, Perez will join him for 2024 surely. Tsunoda next to Verstappen then. And Verstappen to alpha tauri in a couple of years young red bull talent will go straigth to the second red bull seat from now on

I can see Checo replacing Zhou or Sargeant and Lawson taking the AT seat, if Ricciardo goes back to RB.

As much as I want to see Ricciardo do well, he just hasn't been the same driver over the last few years. No idea if it's the latest cars not suiting his driving style, or a massive confidence issue at McLaren. Hopefully he will go well at Alpha Tauri, but it's a terrible car.

I feel sorry for De Vries. He was within a few tenths of Tsunoda. Yes, he'd be running around in 16th place, but Yuki isn't regularly scoring points or anything. Sergeant, Stroll, and even Perez, are equally slower than their team mates. It would have been fair to give him until the end of the season. That being said, I expected a little bit more, given his impressive run at Monza and his junior career record.