2024 Formula One Random Discussion Thread

Juihi · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 3:45 am

webbsy wrote:

peterohanrahanrahan wrote:

Fabs wrote:

Surprised by that. No one else wanted him?

Had a great run last year and has some bad luck with team choice, but a reminder, he'll be 43 years old next year, it's been 11 years since he won a race and coming up on 18 years since he won a championship.

Aston Martin has Carlos Sainz there fore the taking and they chose Fernando? Dumb move.

No Aston choosing Lance is the dumb move. This isn't bloody FRECA where daddy has a team for his son. It is supposedly the pinicle of motorsport. Aston will never win anything as long as they have Lance in the team and choose him over a driver like Sainz.

At what point do the teams sponsors/partners start putting pressure on Lawrence? Ultimately he's a businessman, and a very successful one, he surely must see the writing on the wall that if Aston want to be taken seriously as a title contender they need replace Lance. Carlos Sainz would be the perfect candidate.

Soul Reaver · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:15 am

Once again Autoracing does a nice article, not fooling around, using reliable sources. I'll highlight the most important parts.

Quote:

At the beginning of February I published that Antonelli was the strongest for the place that Hamilton will leave at Mercedes. Sainz is also strong, he is second favorite and with his recent performances, he has become even stronger, but he needs to wait at least a few more F2 weekends.

Sainz's problem is that Audi is pressuring him to sign the contract, which is “ready”. So he needs to be able to “delegate” Audi for a few more months (I would say until mid-July) to see what will happen with Antonelli in F2.

Piastri, Mercedes' third option, is increasingly further away because he is unable to keep up with Norris' pace in the races.

Alonso was rejected. Briatore spoke to Toto, who didn't even want to schedule a meeting with Alonso about the matter. Other drivers, except Verstappen, have no chance of taking Hamilton's place at Mercedes and it is all pure speculation by the press and/or their managers.

And even Verstappen, if he wants to go to Mercedes, Dude (his Mercedes source) – and I agree with him – doesn't see Helmut Marko working at Mercedes alongside Toto. Only Max current engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, would be immediately accepted at Mercedes.

The case of Adrian Newey is curious because there is no hot information about his future. The Dude has his suspicions, but they are just suspicions…

peterohanrahanrahan · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 6:11 am

Soul Reaver wrote:

Maybe he is being a good teacher for Lance.

Lance is arguably going backwards though, from what I've seen. I'm working off memory here but Lance was closer in performance to Seb than he was to Fernando?

Omega · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 6:17 am

peterohanrahanrahan wrote:

Soul Reaver wrote:

Maybe he is being a good teacher for Lance.

Lance is arguably going backwards though, from what I've seen. I'm working off memory here but Lance was closer in performance to Seb than he was to Fernando?

Is Lance going backwards, or is Alonso better than Vettel?
I see Alonso as one of the best drivers of the last 25 years, and Vettel as a champion who had the luck to be in the best car at the right time.

peterohanrahanrahan · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 6:23 am

Juihi wrote:

At what point do the teams sponsors/partners start putting pressure on Lawrence? Ultimately he's a businessman, and a very successful one, he surely must see the writing on the wall that if Aston want to be taken seriously as a title contender they need replace Lance. Carlos Sainz would be the perfect candidate.

You have to remember, Lawrence is the Executive Chairman of Aston Martin, the car company, with the F1 team being a subsidiary of the car company. AM itself has been very profitable, so as long as Lawrence is steering the car side of the business positively he can afford to write off losses which may occur from his dumb son's crashing habits.

peterohanrahanrahan · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 6:58 am

Omega wrote:

I see Alonso as one of the best drivers of the last 25 years, and Vettel as a champion who had the luck to be in the best car at the right time.

Wasn't Alonso arguably in the best car at the right time?

It's all a matter of opinion we're getting into, one opinion we can all agree on is Lance fucking sucks.

Soul Reaver · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 8:58 am

peterohanrahanrahan wrote:

Omega wrote:

I see Alonso as one of the best drivers of the last 25 years, and Vettel as a champion who had the luck to be in the best car at the right time.

Wasn't Alonso arguably in the best car at the right time?
.

That depends, for Renault? YES!!!

McLaren - Not sure if it fitted his driving style.

All other 15 teams he ran for? Surely not. Oh dear Lord no it wasn't.

Meanwhile Vettel and (that) Raikkonen may have made the worst top team pair for a long long time.

JJ · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 9:43 am

Omega wrote:

Vettel as a champion who had the luck to be in the best car at the right time.

In Vettel's defense you have to admire his work ethic (and also F1 fanboyism). Compared to someone like Kimi, who basically gave up after 2008 and became a hobby driver, Vettel was still very hungry when he joined Ferrari. If it wasn't for Mercedes domination, he could be a 6- or 7-time champion now. But obviously it didn't happen and those disappointing Ferrari years wore him out.

I still regard Vettel as the same caliber driver as Hamilton, Alonso, Schumi or Max. Today Max seems to be in a league of his own, but I'm willing to argue that if he doesn't retire as a champion but spends his last years driving average cars, hardly even reaching points, then suddenly people start to question his past achivements. For that reason I'd like to see Vettel return, because his last season was almost as bad as that of Damon Hill or Jacques Villeneuve, who kinda ruined their reputation. Vettel is still young enough to reclaim his reputation.

mclaren2008 · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:06 pm

F1 2025 calendar

JJ · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 1:33 pm

So otherwise identical to this year except:
Australia season opener ( :thumbsup:

).
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia moved to April.
China before Japan.
Spain before Canada.
Belgium before Hungary.

EAS · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 2:46 pm

There are rumors emerging that Mercedes is signing Sainz

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 4:08 pm

peterohanrahanrahan wrote:

Omega wrote:

I see Alonso as one of the best drivers of the last 25 years, and Vettel as a champion who had the luck to be in the best car at the right time.

Wasn't Alonso arguably in the best car at the right time?

Alonso main characteristic is that he's not the best driver at any skill, but he's the 2nd best at all skills, which make him an exceptional driver. His problem is outside the car, he burned too many bridges (even causing Montezemolo to be dropped from Ferrari)

Bleu · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 7:06 pm

I hope Aston Martin's Hypercar project would be a way to keep Lance in the organization but not in F1.

Karan · PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2024 8:37 pm

EAS wrote:

There are rumors emerging that Mercedes is signing Sainz

Small correction, but I believe the rumors are referring more to that Mercedes are currently negotiating with the intent of signing Sainz. But we've known that for weeks now and Sainz even admitted at the last GP that he's in talks with multiple teams. The issue with Mercedes sounds like it's hung up on term. Seems like they're only wanting to commit short term whereas Sainz is looking for something longer.

He also seems to have a draft contract from Sauber and possibly other teams. So I think he'll probably be in this phase of commercial negotiations with a few teams to see who lands him the most lucrative deal.

MaTT · PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 12:48 pm

You'd think that Ferrari are getting a bit nervous about the Hamilton signing, right? I mean it's going to be incredibly lucrative commercially, but Lewis would appear to be showing a few signs of being on the post-prime slide now. Well, either that or George Russell is a lot better than we give him credit for. But anyway, it would appear to me that Ferrari have signed a driver who's going to be costing them and their sponsors multitudes more in salary but might prove to be somewhat of a backwards step competitively.

Sainz has more than a few options on the table now. If I were him I'd seriously consider getting myself in that second Red Bull if I can. They're light years ahead at the moment and it's likely that'll still be the case in 2025 at least. Might as well have some time with a huge competitive advantage even if my team mate would be an absolute beast to race against.

Fabs · PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 2:00 pm

Ferrari making a wrong decision right when they seem to be getting back on track towards fighting for wins?
Can't be ... :lol:

De Cesaris fan · PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 2:11 pm

Hamilton's performances have been poor. Difficult to tell if that's age related, lack of motivation, a car that isn't working for him, or Russell being incredibly fast himself. Probably a combination of everything. I hope he finds some form at Ferrari. Drivers like Alonso and Dixon prove that you can still be at a great level into your 40s, but I imagine you would have to work much harder for it. It's not the norm in professional sports. I love to see it, but probably because I'm nearly 40 myself now :lol:

EAS · PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 2:24 pm

I certainly have my questions when I see Hamilton's current level of performance. But I give the benefit of doubt here.

He could be doing badly because he is in post prime zone indeed. However we have Alonso right there showing a top driver can still perform at an incredible level at such an age. And also, this year was set for him to do badly. He won't prove anything by being best of rest, he has no future at the team and his teammate has a lot to prove.

So I don't know if he is doing bad just because he is past his prime or if he has zero incentives to do good is just taking his time.

Meanwhile, this was a great moment for Leclerc to show he is the boss at Ferrari, but he's been unable to beat the very guy who was sacked to give room to Hamilton.

Right now, Ferrari's next year pairing is made of big names with an underwhelming recent form.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 4:08 pm

well Prost had a slump in Ferrari and took a sabbatical before returning to a dominant car (in which he never felt that comfortable) but managed to win anyway

if Ferrari shows up with a new F2004 who knows

Soul Reaver · PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2024 4:46 pm

TBK-Light.com

2024 Formula One Random Discussion Thread

Who is online