2024 Formula One Random Discussion Thread

micha · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:22 am

Honestly I dont see the benefit of having Hulkenberg in that car. 2025 will still be a transition year and he'll be pushing 39 by 2026 (bday in august).

Is this just a lack of a proper German talent?

JJ · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:33 am

Wonder where Bottas will go? Zhou is so important now that the Chinese GP is back, that his seat is certainly secured. Maybe Valtteri will replace Hülkenberg. Or what about Williams? He started his F1 career there, and Sargeant is so slow and causing so much damage that anyone would be an improvement.
Obviously, Bottas may also retire. That would mean 2025 is the first season without Finnish drivers since 1988.

Juihi · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:35 am

Williams would be an excellent choice for both parties with Bottas. I'm not fully convinced about Zhou retaining his seat though

cookie · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 11:52 am

micha wrote:

Honestly I dont see the benefit of having Hulkenberg in that car. 2025 will still be a transition year and he'll be pushing 39 by 2026 (bday in august).

Is this just a lack of a proper German talent?

They want experience, Toyota did the same with hiring older drivers to develop the car. A bottas hulk or sainz hulk line up probably, Zhou lacks the experience. And in a few years they'll replace hulkenberg with a younger talent

RtN · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 11:59 am

JJ wrote:

Wonder where Bottas will go? Zhou is so important now that the Chinese GP is back, that his seat is certainly secured. Maybe Valtteri will replace Hülkenberg. Or what about Williams? He started his F1 career there, and Sargeant is so slow and causing so much damage that anyone would be an improvement.
Obviously, Bottas may also retire. That would mean 2025 is the first season without Finnish drivers since 1988.

Zhou is leaving too. Audi have already offered Sainz a king's ransom and if he says no they are targeting Ocon and Gasly instead.

De Cesaris fan · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:04 pm

To be fair to Hulkenberg, he has put in some decent performances this season and often qualifies well. Definitely a safe choice to begin with.

Omega · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 12:45 pm

Bottas expressed earlier on many occasions his longterm commitment to Sauber AND Audi. He obviously had plans to stay until at least 2026.

micha · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:38 pm

cookie wrote:

micha wrote:

Honestly I dont see the benefit of having Hulkenberg in that car. 2025 will still be a transition year and he'll be pushing 39 by 2026 (bday in august).

Is this just a lack of a proper German talent?

They want experience, Toyota did the same with hiring older drivers to develop the car. A bottas hulk or sainz hulk line up probably, Zhou lacks the experience. And in a few years they'll replace hulkenberg with a younger talent

I can get the experience part but in that case I'd stick with Bottas since he has experience too and even experience in a top team.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:14 pm

and more important Bottas has wins and podiums on his CV, but also Toto Wolff management behind him so who knows

gkmotorsport · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 7:59 pm

LucasWheldon wrote:

and more important Bottas has wins and podiums on his CV, but also Toto Wolff management behind him so who knows

I wonder if Toto has him as a last-resort option to replace Sir Ham if Max stays put and Sainz goes to Audi.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 8:11 pm

Zhou also could fit at Williams like a glove. He's not superb but is miles better than Sargeant, plus the sweet chinese support

Also some insiders are claiming that Miami might be the last one for Logan and Williams is rushing to place Antonelli on his place, but is quite unlikely given he's yet to complete 18 and might rush it all. But again is an available seat so expect a bid war from drivers to fill it in case FIA doesn't let Antonelli in

Vassago · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 8:45 pm

Germans are saying a meeting between Verstappen and Mercedes has been set up to take place after Miami GP already.

https://f1-insider.com/formel-1-verstap ... gen-63046/

codename_47 · PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 11:17 pm

Vassago wrote:

Germans are saying a meeting between Verstappen and Mercedes has been set up to take place after Miami GP already.

https://f1-insider.com/formel-1-verstap ... gen-63046/

That's right Max, walk away from a 100% certain world championship in 2025 to head to a team that can't work out why their car doesn't work and don't have the data to fix it...

Makes sense... :whistling:

De Cesaris fan · PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2024 6:05 pm

I wonder if you reach a point where winning every race easily becomes boring. It must be more satisfying to win races when you've had wheel to wheel battles and really given 100%. I can understand the appeal of a new challenge. From a fan point of view it would be great to see what Max could achieve in the second or third best car. It would also shut up the "he only wins because he has the best car" social media brigade.

Maybe that winning feeling and chasing records are enough to make Max happy, but he doesn't exactly sound ecstatic when he wins anymore.

LucasWheldon · PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2024 6:34 pm

Max challenges involves him staying awake the whole night on sim racing and then try to win the race after

cookie · PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2024 7:48 am

codename_47 wrote:

Vassago wrote:

Germans are saying a meeting between Verstappen and Mercedes has been set up to take place after Miami GP already.

https://f1-insider.com/formel-1-verstap ... gen-63046/

That's right Max, walk away from a 100% certain world championship in 2025 to head to a team that can't work out why their car doesn't work and don't have the data to fix it...

Makes sense... :whistling:

Or he knows mercedes has better chances to get the 2026 regulations right. Or he takes Adrian Newey with him. Or he thinks he could get that car into championship contention, and just wants to show he can elevate a team. Many reasons why he would choose Mercedes. Also money

codename_47 · PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2024 9:56 am

De Cesaris fan wrote:

I wonder if you reach a point where winning every race easily becomes boring. It must be more satisfying to win races when you've had wheel to wheel battles and really given 100%. I can understand the appeal of a new challenge. From a fan point of view it would be great to see what Max could achieve in the second or third best car. It would also shut up the "he only wins because he has the best car" social media brigade.

I've been through 5 periods of dominance now to know people will say that about whoever is dominating....

We can't do anything about the casual fans surface level opinions, but we know these drivers are phenomenal talents and their skill is as much in testing, feedback and working with engineers to make the car dominant as much as it is just showing up on a Sunday and cruising to a win on the back of other people's hard work.

The drivers they like are super skilled GOATS and the ones they hate are just winning because of the car (until they stop winning then it's all them being washed and not the car at all lol)

Max is the driver that is least likely to give a shit about his reputation

Hell he could be banned, have all his championships nullified and have to spend the rest of his life SIM racing and he'd probably not give a shit about that either
Maybe prefer it in some ways as much as he loves SIM stuff....

(He won't though, he'll probably end up with more wins and titles that Lewis the way he's going and considering how much earlier he started winning)

Juihi · PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2024 10:06 am

It's official, Newey is leaving Red Bull, but seems to be staying in the Red Bull family

Quote:

The Team announces that Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey will leave the Red Bull Technology Group in the first quarter of 2025.
The engineering supremo will step back from Formula 1 design duties to focus on final development and delivery of Red Bull’s first hypercar, the hugely anticipated RB17.
He will remain involved in and committed to this exciting project until its completion.
We’d like to thank Adrian for our achievements in the time that we have worked together so far. He has been instrumental for us in achieving a remarkable seven Formula One Drivers’ and six Constructors’ Championship titles - totalling 118 victories and 101 poles including the STR 2007 pole and victory.

RtN · PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2024 10:24 am

I think that means he's leaving the F1 team immediately and moving to the hypercar project, and then he will leave that next spring.

There are (unverified) reports that there is a 12-month no-compete on top of that, which (if true) would mean he cannot work for anyone else in F1 until Q1 2026.

micha · PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2024 10:49 am

RtN wrote:

I think that means he's leaving the F1 team immediately and moving to the hypercar project, and then he will leave that next spring.

There are (unverified) reports that there is a 12-month no-compete on top of that, which (if true) would mean he cannot work for anyone else in F1 until Q1 2026.

I read he officially has a contract until 2025 and it includes those 12 months. So if they keep him to the contract but move to the hypercar it could mean Q1 2027

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2024 Formula One Random Discussion Thread

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