Restoration-Mini

Starting a new thread for the 2024 season. 

All of the drivers are confirmed for next season and they are exactly the same as this season after Logan Sargeant was confirmed at Williams.  Not sure if there has never been any rookies at the start of a season.

Now just waiting for the new names of the second Red Bull team (rumored to be Racing Bulls as the logo was leaked on Reddit) and what the Sauber team will be called after the Alfa Romeo naming agreement came to an end.

I thought Sauber signed Hugo Boss as the title sponsor?  :017:

So many talented drivers waiting for their shot in F1, that's why we need more teams - they need to let Andretti and one other into the sandbox - 4 new drivers right there.....

https://youtu.be/5z_qf4WBUIA

Quote from: Scargo on February 01, 2024, 01:50:27 PMhttps://youtu.be/5z_qf4WBUIA

It's such a special team that is at the very core of F1.  I can't see how any driver wouldn't want to join them.

Especially when they give you $100 million a year!

I'm convinced that's why he left - the $$$$$. MBZ wouldn't give him what he wanted, that's why talks went on so long.......so they forced him to play his trump card.

But now that he's made his move all sorts of other dominoes are ready to fall, the silly season for '25 will be crazy. Most people think Sainz will go straight to Sauber/Audi but several other contracts are up at the end of 24 too. Rumor has it that Red Bull has already signed Albon to a 3 year deal, if that one is true then what happens to Ricky Racer? He was supposed to have his breakout year this year with Stake/Kicks/Toro Rosso/Racing Bulls and then move to the varsity team in 25.....now what? Ocon is free the end of 24 too, and since he was "on loan" from Mercedes to start with, will he end up at Benz with George? Gonna be wild next year.....

One article said that Merc offered Hamilton 1 year with a 1 year option and no other stuff he wanted.  He wanted a multi year deal with an ambassador add on (I assume that just means more money).  So he entertained the approach with Ferrari and they offered him everything he wanted and some more.

Williams team principal confirmed that Albon is contracted to them for 2025 - wonder if they exercised an option recently so they can be bought out. Maybe the Red Bull deal will help the Williams finances.

Toto has said that George is ready to lead the Merc team - so they are not looking for a lead driver.  That could limit who wants to be number 2 to him, contract may say different things.  Would not be surprised if George is renegotiating his contract as he gets paid a lot less than others, but his bonus scheme is much greater.

There are a lot of drivers available next year:
Sainz - rumored to have signed a letter of intent with Audi for 2026, unsure how that will impact his options for next year.  Didn't his dad drive for Audi in the Dakar?
Gasly - I suspect he will get extended with Alpine
Ocon - As Dave pointed out, was a Merc Jnr driver.  Not sure if that ended with the works drive with Alpine/Renault, but he is managed by Toto Wolff. Personally I do not rate him. Will probably get extended by Alpine.
Alonso - Could be a great partner for Merc and would keep the link of having an F1 champion in the team.  Could be a drive at the twilight of his career whilst Merc get their preferred junior ready.
Stroll - cannot see him being anywhere else but Aston Martin.
Ricciardo - I believe he will replace Checo has a dependable number 2. If he had not broken his hand, might already have been in the Red Bull.
Tsunoda - He is a Honda supported driver, could end up at Aston Martin as they will have a Honda works deal in 2026.
Checo - Considering how dominant Verstappen was, he under performed last year scrambling to make it into 2nd place by the end of season.  He should have had that sown up much earlier than he did.  He could be an option as Merc number 2.
Bottas - He could end up back at Merc, Toto likes him and did say that not having him in the team was just unfortunate as George was ready to take the seat next to Hamilton.

The rest of the drivers will probably either move on from F1 or stay in the seat they already occupy.

In answer to your above question about Sainz Sr., he never drove for Audi in WRC competition or in the Dakar.

Quote from: Scargo on February 06, 2024, 05:04:35 PMIn answer to your above question about Sainz Sr., he never drove for Audi in WRC competition or in the Dakar.

I read this last night, he won this years Dakar with Audi

https://www.audi.com/en/sport/motorsport/dakar/dakar-rally-2024-event.html (https://www.audi.com/en/sport/motorsport/dakar/dakar-rally-2024-event.html)

I stand corrected, thanks for that!

The ole man's still got it.

With all of the teams launching their 2024 cars (well at least the liveries) and official testing due to start next week. The F1 season is almost here!

One unique thing for this year, there will be no rookies on the grid. 

I have absolutely no idea how this season is going, but a few observations on the teams:

Red Bull - Adrian Newey said that this is another evolution of their car, so may give hope to the other teams that they can close the gap. Potential for some off track drama with Christian Horner being investigated for inappropriate behavior, but given Helmut Marko's racist comments resulting in nothing more than a slap on the wrist I am cynical about whether anything meaningful will come out of this.

Mercedes - Meant to be an all new car and they have abandoned all previous design ideas and are fully going in on the Red Bull "downwash" approach that every other team has done. Hamilton is leaving at the end of the year, so they will be focusing developments on Russell.

Ferrari - Already secured the biggest shock of the year by signing Hamilton.  Rumor is that Adrian Newey could be heading that way.  This year they need more consistent car and team strategy performance.

Alpine - Have to be hoping for a climb up the grid, but they were inconsistent last year. They lost a lot of good people last year, so it remains to be seen if they will make progress.

Aston Martin - Started so well last year, but then struggled in the second half of the year.  Alonso is still a master, but he needs support of the team and a teammate.

Williams - Had a great season last year with Vowles has the new TP.  They are investing heavily and Albon really could wring better results out of the car than it deserved.  Be great to see them make another step forwards - maybe a podium this season. I think Albon could be the key to the silly season - I will be surprised if he is still in a Williams next year.

Sauber - Alfa Romeo sponsorship was not renewed, so they are back to Sauber.  This is a transition 2 years for them, before they become Audi.  I just don't think they will have made the steps forward they need.

McLaren - I am a big fan, and really hope they have made a step forward to compete for podiums all season.  Zak Brown has cleverly (or lucky) managed to secure both of drivers before the silly season really starts.

RBVisaCashApp AKA AlphaTauri AKA Torro Rosso - in the off season they have moved some of the team to the UK to be closer to Red Bull Racing. And I are taking the maximum number of components from Red Bull. There is a lot of talk that they have made a step forward etc etc.

Haas - they fired their biggest asset (Gunter) and have made the technical director the TP.  I cannot see them being anywhere but at the back, as the reports after Gunter was fired, said that Haas was not investing in technology to help them move forwards. They take as many components from Ferrari as they are allowed, so they should have a decent foundation to build a car.

I am really hoping for a more competitive season with teams (I honestly do not care who) challenging Red Bull. Or at the very least Checo challenging Max to make it more interesting!

I'm glad football is done so we can get back to racing!

I think this could be a good season with some possible winners other than Red Bull....but then I say that every year!   :grin:

Craig, thanks for your take on this. I tend to completely ignore F1 during the off-season and then always have to get myself up to speed before the new season starts. Your insight is helpful. Thanks. 

Quote from: MiniDave on February 13, 2024, 03:30:20 PMI'm glad football is done so we can get back to racing!

At least the Chiefs won!

Yes they did! They're expecting a million people downtown at the parade today. Don was thinking of riding his bicycle down just to see the craziness......me, I'll watch it on TV, TYVM.

Everything I've read recently looks like every car on the grid will be running body work similar to Red Bull, which is fine but to me F1 more and more resembles a spec series. What happened to crazy wings and noses, 4,6, 8, 10, 12 cylinder engines, with and without turbos?

I love that the innovations have made the cars so reliable and fast, but you can't see or hear any of it......might as well be electric cars......oh wait, they have those too!  :rolleyes:

Testing has finished and unsurprisingly it looks like Red Bull are fastest, but the gap appears to have closed a little bit.  Some debate based from Reddit on who is following, but Ferrari, Merc and McLaren look like they are all in the mix.  Some analysis I read, suggested that Ferrari may have better race pace than Red Bull, but we will see this weekend.

At the other end of the field, Haas look slow, but so do Alpine and Sauber.

Red Bull's investigation of Christian Horner is taking longer than some of their partners (Ford being the most vocal) would like. Should be concluded before the season opener this weekend.

And just so you do not miss the race live, the first two races of the season are taking place on Saturday.  You can ready why here (https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-2024-why-bahrain-saudi-gp-on-saturday/10574517/)

Some say if they were going to can him they would have done so long before now.

No matter which way the decision comes down there will be an uproar - this is a typical no-win situation.

I think it's going to be in his favor, and I wonder if Ford has had any influence in the final say so?

This is fun!!!!

Quote from: MiniDave on February 27, 2024, 11:22:17 AMSome say if they were going to can him they would have done so long before now.

No matter which way the decision comes down there will be an uproar - this is a typical no-win situation.

I think it's going to be in his favor, and I wonder if Ford has had any influence in the final say so?

With the reports saying he is travelling to the first GP of the year, it feels that he will not be getting fired. Ford is a major partner now, so I assume they will have some influence.  If they are not satisfied they could probably pull their support.

Yeah, I'm betting on a fine of some sort and a reprimand at best......he'll be on the pit wall for tomorrow's practice....I'm looking forward to seeing whether anyone has anything for Max this year......

And allegations against Horner have been dismissed.

Be interesting to see if any details from the investigation are "leaked" in the next few days.

Well, he said he hadn't done anything wrong.....I guess we'll just have to believe him. So, on with the business at hand

They say the Red Bull looks smooth, composed over the bumps as well as fast in both slow and medium corners, it's also easy to drive on the limit.....all things that make a car a race winner in the right hands.....

In the hands of Max, Checo is struggling.

So, whadya think" Did Red Bull only have the engine turned up to 7 or 8? I guess we'll know tomorrow, but it does look like Mercedes is planning to tak e it to them this season - could be interesting!

One thing they speculated was that the Merc drops off in race pace and the Red bull just gets faster.

We'll know more tomorrow in qually when they turn them up to 11!

Well, that answers that!

Max pulls it out again, Charles was a tick faster in Q2 than Max's pole lap in Q3, so it's clear the Ferrari has got the pace, whether they can keep it up is the question.

Hamster says his P9 qually was due to setting his car up for the race, so will George fall back from P3 and Hamster move forward?

The Hulk has been out-driving Kmag ever since he joined the team, 10th today was major for him! But, will he be able to run there or simply drop thru the order like last season?

The Alpines look dismal, the rest of the bottom of the order are pretty much as expected. The Stake/Sauber cars are the easiest to see on the track with the day glo green livery!

Should be a fun race tomorrow!

Well, the more things change the more they stay the same.......Max walks away from the crowd, Checo follows thru tho by the end he was 22 sec back of Max. Carlos Sainz made some great passes and finished only a couple of seconds behind Checo, Charles had brake problems all race long and did well to come home 4th. As usual these days, the real race to watch was from 2nd on back!

The Mercs had overheating issues, the big Macs pretty much held station and finished in the points too.

The rest don't really matter.....

So
Max
Checo
Carlos
Charles
George
Lando
Lewis
Oscar
Alonso
Stroll

Stroll actually had a tough race and did well to finish in the points after he got punted by the Hulk in the first lap and came back from dead last.

So the first race is in the books, next up Jedda - in a week......and also on Saturday.

Alpine gets some more bad news......

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/f1-news-alpine-horror-as-technical-director-steps-down-alongside-head-of-aerodynamics/ar-BB1jdCbJ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=33e449f30f36412fad0569ec9485e1ef&ei=18 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/f1-news-alpine-horror-as-technical-director-steps-down-alongside-head-of-aerodynamics/ar-BB1jdCbJ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=33e449f30f36412fad0569ec9485e1ef&ei=18)

Definitely not a "classic"!

It was good to see that the gap to Red Bull has been closed in qualifying, but Max just has phenomenal race pace.  He was obviously managing the pace through the race as his fastest lap was 1.4 seconds faster than anyone else.

The other off track story was the drama around Christian Horner, with evidence against him sent to lot of F1 Paddock Pass holders and rumors that Jos Verstappen (Max's dad) was having direct meeting with Toto about the free Mercedes seat.

Quote from: MiniDave on March 02, 2024, 09:21:16 PMAlpine gets some more bad news......

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/f1-news-alpine-horror-as-technical-director-steps-down-alongside-head-of-aerodynamics/ar-BB1jdCbJ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=33e449f30f36412fad0569ec9485e1ef&ei=18 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/f1-news-alpine-horror-as-technical-director-steps-down-alongside-head-of-aerodynamics/ar-BB1jdCbJ?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=33e449f30f36412fad0569ec9485e1ef&ei=18)

Looks like this was coming for a while as the announced a new structure and had people already in role for the announcement. The new team principal is looking for people to blame.  In my opinion he did not come across well in the latest season of Drive to Survive as he undermined Otmar Szafnauer.

Otmar's comments after the race were to the point (https://www.planetf1.com/news/otmar-szafnauer-blames-alpine-decisions-bahrain-gp)!

I don't know if having Max go to Mercedes is a great idea, it's clear that their car is improving, but Red Bull clearly has designed their car around him.....would he be able to just get in and go to the front the way he does now?

And......I think he supports Christian.

This summer/fall will see the greatest "silly season" in recent memory! Lots of musical chairs, it will be fun to see who's where when the music stops.

Jos Verstappen has said that Horner should leave and him staying is tearing the team apart.

The rumor is that if Horner leaves it could trigger a release clause in a lot of other contracts - the main one being Adrian Newey.

Agree it will be a brilliant silly season - I think there are a couple of drivers that hold the key positions - Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. 

Jos is the one who needs to vacate the scene. In my opinion, he's probably been knock'n the hair off Horner's sexting pal, so Jos is wanting him out of the scene an off the team in order to clear the way from himself. Max has been at a point in his stellar career where he no longer needs daddy to be wiping his nose and changing his diapers. Jos needs to get out of the way so Max can get a real manager.

Enuf of the Peyton Place crap, let's get back to the rac'n.

PS: The other daddy I do not care for is Lawrence (money-bags) Stroll.

end of rant

I think you're right about both those guys, but at least Daddy Bigbucks is putting his money where his mouth is, investing billions in Aston Martin, as well as keeping his son employed.

I read there were emails and texts released but I haven't seen them - a couple of guys have and told the gist of what was in them, but I think they have since been taken back off the net. At least I can't find them anywhere......

And I agree, time to hit the track and stop with the BS. I understand this track favors the McLarens so I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do.

There is definitely more drama off track at the beginning of the season than I remember!

Jos Verstappen thinks he has more influence than he really does.

Lawrence Stroll needs to fire his son to be taken seriously.  Having said that Lance had a great recovery drive after he last at the end of the first lap in Bahrain and finished 10th one place behind Alonso.

I also like that F1 has added the F1 Academy to the support races in Saudi Arabia.  Women in Saudi Arabia have only had the right to drive since 2018 and is well know for repressing women.

Very interesting perspective in this article, written by a female journalist who covers bicycle racing (Tour De France sort of stuff) and how she viewed the incredible display of wealth involved in F1 at last year's Austiin race. It was a bit preachy but I thought she had a point......


https://web.archive.org/web/20240301170542/https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a46975496/behind-f1-velvet-curtain/

And the Horner scandal rumbles on.  Today there has been stories in the media that Red Bull has suspended the complainant against Horner, who has been widely reported to be one of his PAs.  There was also the release of a bunch of text messages that are meant to be from Horner to this person.

The reason this is big is that in the UK it is being reported on the front page of mainstream media.  It has moved from a sport based drama to a full on mainstream. 

The UK has some strict employment laws about retaliation against employees that raise good faith concerns.  So this could run and run.

Carlos Sainz will not be taking part in the Saudi GP this weekend as he has appendicitis.  He is being replaced by Oliver Bearman who is an 18 year old Briton who is part of the Ferrari Academy and was named as the Ferrari reserve driver this weekend.

It's always sumthin at Ferrari, isn't it? I thought Swartzman was their backup driver? Talk about being thrown right into the fire - no practice, straight to quallifying!

And speaking of Qually.....Alonso on top in Practice 2? Who expected that? Or the Al pee-ings up from dead last like last week? Qually in about 30 minutes.....

Ooops....my bad.....Olly did get to practice in P3

So, qually went pretty much as expected with Max easily on pole, Charles chasing him but still a half second back (which is a lot these days in F1), Pez third, Alonso 4th and feeling pretty good about his chances for a podium tomorrow.

Bearman did pretty well for his first time in an F1 car in anger, finishing 11th and only 7/100s of a second behind Stroll in 10th in Q2, well above 9 other drivers who aren't rookies!

I think this could be a fun race - certainly for 2nd on back, and if Max gets away well that's where the race will be. I hope The Bear man doesn't take anyone out in the first corner and has a good, even if unspectacular, first F1 race. If he can finish in the top 10 that will really cement Ferrari's faith in him as a future prospect. I don't know how quickly Sainz can come back from his appendectomy, and whether he'll miss any more races or not.

I don't know what to think about DannyRickyBobby......Tsunoda (9th to DRB's 14th) has been out-qualifying and out-racing him. I think with every race his chances of moving back up  to the varsity team grow dimmer.

Alpeeen fell back into their new normal, the only folks they beat were the Sarge and a guy who DNF'd before he even got to qually. Well, that's not fair to the team, they did get him on track and only missed getting to try in Q1 by  seconds.

In Q2 only .4 sec between Max in 1st and 10th place, in Q3 there was a whole second.......

Quote from: MiniDave on March 08, 2024, 09:24:00 AMIt's always sumthin at Ferrari, isn't it? I thought Swartzman was their backup driver?

They have 3 named reserve drivers for the season Antonio Giovinazzi, Schwartzman and Bearman. Just depends which one of them is nominated/present at the track that weekend.  Bearman was the nominated reserve driver this weekend, he was already present for the F2 race (which he qualified on pole position for and had to withdraw as there is a regulation that prevents drivers competing in both on the same weekend).

Well, once again Max makes it look easy, and Perez did his part too to come home second, 8 sec  behind Max. Charles came 3rd and well done to him.

It was interesting to see Carlos in the pits watching the race after having his appendix out the night before!

Lots of interesting tactics in the rest of the pack including Kmag holding the pack back so that the Hulk could take 10th.

And the real story - Ollie Bearman taking 7th in his debut for Ferrari. It was a bit of a nail biter with both Norris and Hamster chasing him down hard on the last 10 laps, but he held them off!

Alonso did a masterful job holding off Russel too.

All in all a fun race to watch, if not for the winner. Charles also got fastest lap on the last lap of the race, so well done to him too!

Stroll had his usual race, clipping the wall, breaking his front end and driving straight into the wall.The safety car he caused made a number of teams go for different tire strategies, Hamster was not happy with the choice they made for him, but given the fact that he's leaving the team at the end of the season, they're going to maximize George's chances at his expense.

Australia:

Well, after Max took pole again I expected more of the same, but it was not to be. 2 of the "names" out with mechanical issues early in the race left it all to play for.

Carlos was uncertain for this race due to having his appendix out two weeks ago, but he suited up and ran strong all weekend. He even beat Charles in Q3.

Checo got a penalty for impeding and started in 6th instead of 3rd.

The McLarens looked strong all weekend, and at times the Mercedes looked pretty good too.

I won't spoil the finish, but it was nice to hear a different anthem being played on the podium!

Follow up: the stewards decided that Russel's crash on the last lap was due to Alonso braking and slowing down erratically, so he got a 20 sec penalty, which moved him back two places on the final grid, promoting his teammate and Tsunoda forward.

HAAS has now scored 4 points, finishing this race in 9th and 10th, and are NOT in last place!

Alpine had another miserable qually, Albon took Sargeant's car for the race and Liam Lawson may find himself on the grid yet if Ricciardo can't improve quickly.

Sauber and Alpine just seem lost, RB V-card seem like they can fight for points at least, with Yuki finishing 7th and DannyRickyBobby down in 12th

Riccardo is not having a good time.  Perhaps it was not the McLaren after all. 

William's giving Albon Sargent's car was a bit of a gut punch for him.  I am still surprised that he got a second year.  There gamble did not work out though as Albon did not score points.

It was interesting that Checo said he thought the two Ferraris would have finished ahead of him and Max both in this race even if Max's brakes hadn't locked up on him.

Encouraging to see that at least on some tracks other cars are competitive with the Red Bulls, and like I said - it was nice to hear some new anthems played at the podium ceremony. Fun to hear the Italians singing theirs with real gusto too!

Fred Vasseur is getting a lot of credit for the improvement this season, and that may be justified, but then I wonder why he couldn't do any better at Alfa when he was running them?

Max thinks they'll be back in front at Suzuka, but then so does Sainz - we'll see. By then he should be fully healed up at least. Norris joked that he was going to have his appendix out for the next race, to make him "lighter"  :grin:

Liberty Media (the owners of Formula 1) have bought MotoGP.  I wonder if this will finally result in a joint F1 and MotoGP weekend, it has been talked about on and off for years.

That would seem to me to dilute the market for both series.....

Rumor has it that Horner has formed a coalition with the Thais who own 51% of Red Bull to oust all of the Austrian members from F1 - so not only Marko but also young Mateshitzloadofmoney too. This will put him over both Red Bull and the RB junior F1 teams as well as RB powertrain.

I wonder how Honda is going to do in 2026 after "selling" all of their F1 engine/power unit guys to Red Bull in 2023, when Red Bull hired them all to continue their efforts for the Red Bull team only?

2025 will be a fascinating year if even a small percentage of the driver changes that have been prognosticated come to be!

Sounds like your F1 "silly season" is starting early and covering more topics.

Quote from: MiniDave on April 01, 2024, 12:26:33 PMRumor has it that Horner has formed a coalition with the Thais who own 51% of Red Bull to oust all of the Austrian members from F1 - so not only Marko but also young Mateshitzloadofmoney too. This will put him over both Red Bull and the RB junior F1 teams as well as RB powertrain.

The interesting outcome of that is that Max said that if Marko leaves Red Bull, so will he.

Yeah, I'm not buying that......

One thing that I predicted may be coming true - Alpine is taking offers for its F1 team, and the #1 buyer - Andretti. I've said all along that that's the simplest, quickest, easiest way for them to get on the grid, especially since they were planning to use Renault motors.....although Alpine say they're not for sale, the rumors just keep getting stronger that that's exactly what they are.

We'll see what happens.

Another thing that happened today......Alonso resigned with Aston. I wonder what they're going to do with the underperforming Stroll the younger? I read one suggestion that they hire Yuki to pair with Fred, since they're going to be the defacto Honda team next year, and Yuki is sponsored by Honda - seems like a good match all around.

The only issue for the Andretti buying Alpine, is the deal they have with GM (Cadillac) for engines in the future.  The motorsport.com article said that any sale of the "Enstone" team would include a commitment to use Renault engines for a minimum period of time.

Alonso resigning settles one of the seats for next year.  I agree that they need to start looking for an alternative for the 2nd seat at Aston.  Whilst I could see Yuki going as part of the Honda deal, he looks like he is in the prime spot to take over for the 2nd Red Bull seat.  Pretty sure he would prefer to be the second driver at Red Bull than at Aston. 

In other Red Bull driver news, Danny Ric's seat is under pressure.  Rumor on Reddit is he has been given a timeline to get on par with Yuki, otherwise they are going to replace him with Liam Lawson.

And final Reddit rumor, that Carlos Sainz has signed with Mercedes.  The same publication that broke the Hamilton to Ferrari story is saying that it is a done deal and they are working out the best time to announce.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Carlos sign with Mercedes now that Alonso has re-signed with Aston - it's really the only top-ish team  he can go to right away, but I also wouldn't be surprised to find it's a short term contract, with their Kimi Antonelli waiting in the wings and Wolff wanting to get him behind the wheel of an F1 car ASAP.

Carlos in a 2 year contract, Kimi goes to Williams and replaces Carlos at Mercedes in 26 as he goes to Audi?

I don't think anyone wants to go to Alpine, so those two guys are pretty much stuck if they want to stay on the grid. I had Yuki going to replace Baby Stroller, but I'm just not sure Daddy Bigbux would let that happen, no matter how poorly he does. Made sense to put Yuki in a more high profile Honda team, and I believe Aston (at least in Alonso's hands) will continue to improve - it may wind up dragging Stroll Jr. up the order too, who knows?

I think Perez will get another 1 year contract at Red Bull as long as he drives as well as he has been this year.....so I doubt either Yuki or DannyRickyBobby will be going there next year. So where does that leave both of those guys? Right where they are, except if Danny doesn't really get going, Liam will be replacing him for sure. Danny could be "retired" again.....and this time it will be permanent.

Quote from: MiniDave on April 12, 2024, 12:27:04 PMI wouldn't be surprised to see Carlos sign with Mercedes now that Alonso has re-signed with Aston - it's really the only top-ish team  he can go to right away, but I also wouldn't be surprised to find it's a short term contract, with their Kimi Antonelli waiting in the wings and Wolff wanting to get him behind the wheel of an F1 car ASAP.

Carlos in a 2 year contract, Kimi goes to Williams and replaces Carlos at Mercedes in 26 as he goes to Audi?

I don't think anyone wants to go to Alpine, so those two guys are pretty much stuck if they want to stay on the grid. I had Yuki going to replace Baby Stroller, but I'm just not sure Daddy Bigbux would let that happen, no matter how poorly he does. Made sense to put Yuki in a more high profile Honda team, and I believe Aston (at least in Alonso's hands) will continue to improve - it may wind up dragging Stroll Jr. up the order too, who knows?

I think Perez will get another 1 year contract at Red Bull as long as he drives as well as he has been this year.....so I doubt either Yuki or DannyRickyBobby will be going there next year. So where does that leave both of those guys? Right where they are, except if Danny doesn't really get going, Liam will be replacing him for sure. Danny could be "retired" again.....and this time it will be permanent.

Agree with everything you said.  There are still 12 seats available, so a lot of dancing until the music stops.

So, did Max wrap up the 2024 Championships in China - 5th race of the year?

He finished 16 sec ahead of the field, he's only 15 pts ahead of his teammate but Red Bull is 45 pts ahead of Ferrari in P2....but at the rate their going can Ferrari catch them?

I don't think so unless something dramatic happens.....and I can't imagine what that would be other than the two
Red Bulls taking each other out.

Alonso had a record day, even tho his strategy wasn't the best. Once again his teammate lets the squad down, finishing last and wrecking two other cars and putting one of them (Ricciardo - of course) out of the race.

The Ferraris did what they could but they still finished well back of the front 3 in 4th and 5th. I don't know if this track just wasn't suited to them or what.......

Hamilton was pretty down about his car during most of the race but still managed to finish in the points.

Next up - Miami.

I have no idea who will feature there, other than Max of course.

Adrian Newey is leaving Red Bull! And some how he has negotiated that he join another team next year.

I read that he still needs to negotiate some terms to avoid gardening leave.....speculation is that Ferrari is #1 in line to get his services, but I think ANY team would love to have him onboard.

If he actually gets to go to work in 2025, I wonder if that's quick enough to have an effect for 2026? Actually, I'd like to see him at one of the lesser teams like Williams (he's linked with them too) or even McLaren or Aston to get them over the finish line a few times - but my best place to see him is at Audi!

Maybe it's just damage limitation and spin, but Red Bull quickly trotted out Verstappen to say that they have a LOT of good people in their team and that their success is not just down to one person......uh-huh.

Speaking of F1. I managed to end up in Miami this weekend and was invited out to some special F1 event with a group of people.  Anyway, I met a guy who represents Nascar drivers here doing something for f1 and we got talking cars, so long story short I have access to Nascar races now hanging with the drivers and garages. 

You're one of the jet setters now!   :celebrate:  :great:

The NASCAR race is here this weekend - I could have gone as some of the car clubs had a special deal for $40 seats (compare that to F1!!!) but I think it's going to be rained out. Nothing more miserable to me than paying to sit on metal benches in the pouring rain while nothing happens on track.

So, are you going to hit up some of the races now? Are you going to see the F1 race while you're there? Can he get you in?

I couldn't stay for the races but looked at several cars. He probably could have gotten me in though.  I need to look at the Nascar schedule and actually take advantage of his offer.

Well, that was an interesting Sprint race - yes Max won again, and Charles was pretty close at the end, only about 3 seconds back but as usual the real fun was happening further back - where Sainz could not get around DannyRickyBobby no matter how hard he tried and Kmag was refining his technique of keeping others behind while the Hulk built up a gap and stayed in the points. Lap after lap he would force the Hamster off line or even off the track - accumulating penalties along the way. Folks said it was "dirty racing", but......it sure was fun to watch. Hamilton to his credit said it was fun racing that hard.
Also - as usual - Stroll was out at the first corner of the first lap. I realize it's his daddy's team, but they aren't going to win any championships with only one driver scoring - who isn't Verstappen.

Big race is this afternoon - it's kinda frustrating to have to wait to watch the race, when they're in Europe it's already recorded when I get up in the am.

Well, Red Bull did not get their sums right this time! Although Max might have been able to hold them off, but the safety car changed all that and Lando was in the exact right place at the right time to take advantage of it, then simply drove away from the pack to win his first one for Big Mac!

It was interesting to see that Max could not gain on him at all - in fact by the end of the race he was 7 seconds behind Lando - and neither of the Ferraris seemed able to get there either - they both closed up within 2 seconds of Max but that was it.

Back in the pack they were going at it hammer and tongs, and Sainz and Piastri had a coming together which broke Piastri's wing - the net result was he finished in 13th instead of 3rd or 4th and Sainz got a 5 sec penalty that dropped him from 4th to 5th, moving Perez up a notch.

So, the win definitely brought McLaren and Lando up in the points - it's no longer a runaway but there is significant separation between the top teams. Long way to go in this season still tho.....

One other small detail - Red Bull have already replaced Newey - giving a long term contract to Pierre Wache' till 2028 - so he'll be the one to design the new cars for when the regs change in 2026. Newey now has a clear field to choose from, the big money is still on him going to Ferrari, but it's not a sure thing just yet.

Quote from: 94touring on May 04, 2024, 04:16:12 AMSpeaking of F1. I managed to end up in Miami this weekend and was invited out to some special F1 event with a group of people.  Anyway, I met a guy who represents Nascar drivers here doing something for f1 and we got talking cars, so long story short I have access to Nascar races now hanging with the drivers and garages. 

Well if you can share the joy, I would love that for the NASCAR race at Circuit of the Americas.

I was so happy for Lando, even if I did get a spoiler as they were showing the race in the bar at the furniture store. He has missed out a number of times and really deserved for the luck to come with him. I remember the race in Russia where he could have won but it rained!

Quote from: Brit_in_TX on May 06, 2024, 10:07:23 AM

Quote from: 94touring on May 04, 2024, 04:16:12 AMSpeaking of F1. I managed to end up in Miami this weekend and was invited out to some special F1 event with a group of people.  Anyway, I met a guy who represents Nascar drivers here doing something for f1 and we got talking cars, so long story short I have access to Nascar races now hanging with the drivers and garages. 

Well if you can share the joy, I would love that for the NASCAR race at Circuit of the Americas.

Ha!  Yeah I need to look up the schedule. I've been dealing with a ton of stuff at home, being pulled 20 different directions. Part of the reason for me going to Miami was to undwind!  I need to go back to my day job for downtime lol. 

Well, this is F1 and it's 2024, so I'll post this here.

Here's a live stream of beautiful old historic F1 cars racing on the current Monaco circuit.  Includes, of course Coopers.

I have always wanted to see F1 race a Monaco, but with the chaos and cost that is a modern F1 race, this would be the event to go and see!

I had a friend who went to the historics, and the thing I remember is the complete lack of crowds compared to the modern F1 race - they could go anywhere, sit anywhere they wanted, everything was more moderately priced and so on.

So this weekend is Imola, and it's supposed to be the weekend where both Ferrari and McLaren show what they've got and take it to the Red Bulls.......could be a fun race - or they (and us) could all be dreaming and last race was a complete fluke and Max will hi off into the distance again.

The one thing that's been interesting is watching the silly season ramp up so early.....with the Hamster committing to Ferrari this early, putting Sainz out of his seat, he's started a real set of dominos falling. Nobody knows where Sainz will land but the big money is saying NOT Audi, which surprises me only a little bit - he's hot right now and doesn't want to waste 2 or 3 years for Audi to become a contender - if they even do.

I think what he really wants is for Max to go to Mercedes, and then he can take Max's seat at Red Bull.

And of course, the real sweepstakes is for Adrian Newey!

The other big question mark revolves around rookies - who will get the nod to go to the big show - Kimi, Ollie, or some of the guys who graduated from F2 with race wins in their pockets and got sat down when there wasn't an opening for them?

A couple of people who are almost guaranteed NOT to be in a seat next year - Kmag and the Sargeant. But Bottas and Guanyu are also real question marks.

With Albon signing a longer term deal with Williams (which is a surprise to me) he is locked in there for a few years.  I think he was already committed to 2025 with them, but this could be a play by Williams to "lock" him in with a view that a bigger team will come knocking and buy him out, Williams have done it before.

I really cannot see Mercedes putting a complete rookie in their second car, even with the extensive testing program they are doing.  There was rumor during the Miami weekend that Williams had requested an exception from the FIA for him to race with them (he is only 17 and needs to be 18 for a super license) and replace Sargeant.  This could be the test to see how he performs in an F1 race setting, I do not think he has done any testing in an F1 car in the free practices.

I cannot see Max going anywhere right now. 

Sainz is not going to go and be Max's teammate.  He wants to be in a team where he is the number 1 or equal driver, at Red Bull he would number 2. Audi have offered him big money, like equal to Max and Hamilton, to drive for them.  But as Dave says, is he going to have success there, or is he going to have to wait years for a chance at podiums. What I read is that Merc only want to offer him a short term contract (1 year) whilst they place Kimi Antontelli at Williams, but he does not want that he wants a longer term deal. However, where else does he go?

Audi/Sauber have already signed Hulkenberg, which is great for him to secure a seat so early in the season.

Looks like Ollie Bearman will be placed at Haas for 2025. 

Other drivers and where they could potentially land:
Tsounda - He is a Honda driver, could land at Aston Martin as they will be a Honda team.
Gasly - Could be a surprise, but I think he will end up staying at Alpine.
Ocon - Could end up at Mercedes as he was a Merc Junior, but only if Sainz does not sign with them.
Bottas - Maybe at Williams, but as a proven race winner he could also stay with Sauber/Audi if Sainz does not go there.
Perez - could do enough to secure another year with Red Bull, especially if Riccardo does not up his game.
Lawson - must be cert for RB.
Riccardo - will remain with Red Bull, but probably at RB rather than the main team.

Sainz is key to alot of these moves.

Well, all sorts of interesting things happening in F1, not the least of which is the wheels seem to be falling off the Red Bull effort. Newey has signed with Ferrari - who look pretty strong so far this weekend, at least LeClerc does as he's topped both practice sessions so far and Max says they're "just nowhere"

McLaren, even Mercedes seem likely to feature in this race....Sainz will have to up his game tho as he's not quite on the same page as LeClerc. One thing's for sure, a tenth can take you from 1st place to 5th these days, and a thousandth of a second can take you out of qually!

Tsunoda has been having a good year and seems to have really upped his game this season, I would like to see him with Fred at Aston, but unless daddy Bigbux changes his mind or somehow Honda can persuade him, Lance will have the #2 seat.

HAAS have improved enough that the Hulk is showing other drivers that they are no longer the last place team and could be a good place to start or even enhance your career. It sure worked for him! He's consistently made it into the top 10, race after race both in qually and in finishing order. The potential seems to be there again at HAAS.

It way early in the season to be talking driver's seats, so Ima let that rest for now.

Quote from: MiniDave on May 17, 2024, 10:00:41 AMHAAS have improved enough that the Hulk is showing other drivers that they are no longer the last place team and could be a good place to start or even enhance your career. It sure worked for him! He's consistently made it into the top 10, race after race both in qually and in finishing order. The potential seems to be there again at HAAS.

Helps when your team mate drives off the circuit to keep their competitors behind them.  Did it in Saudi and again in Miami.

Well, when Max headed off into the distance in the early going I thought this was just going to be another Red Bull romp, but it got real exciting in the last 10 laps or so as Norris chased him down - one or two more laps would have done it I think.....and so did Max!

At any rate, while McLaren has shown the ability to fight for wins, the rest are pretty much falling into line. A few bright spots tho as Tsunoda is showing real improvement this year, and really getting after it. I would like to see him at Aston instead of Stroll, but to his credit Lance finished 9th, one ahead of Yuki.

Everyone but Sauber, Aston, Alpine and Williams are having a pretty good year so far.

There is a strong contingent that think Ollie should be at HAAS next season instead of KMag. And there don't seem to be a line at the door looking for either Zhou or Bottas' services.....

The silly season will really get going after the summer break I'll bet. Still interested to see how the Hamster will fare against LeClerc.

The wheels would pretty much have to fall off of Max's season for him to not win the driver's championship this year, but who knows? Right now LeClerc is in 2nd, although he's almost 50 pts back of Max.

Monaco this weekend - should be an interesting race - whoever gets pole is usually good to go to the end, but there can always be surprises. Good opportunity for one of the Ferrari or big Mac boys to steal a race win.

All the internet rumor sites have Bottas going home to Williams next season, if he does where does that leave Mercedes and their wonderkinder Antonelli?

And who will want to race for Alpine next season? They really should just sell the team to Andretti and be done with it.....then they can go back to focusing their efforts on the motor power unit.

Monaco - the race that wasn't really a race. It was a 78 lap parade.....LeClerc could have done the "queen wave" all around the track as once the obligatory first lap wreck was cleaned up they were all in tire management mode. So, the first six finished in the order they started.....in fact, I think the top 10 finished in their starting order! Finishers 8-10 were a lap down, and 11-16 were two laps behind.

Sainz got lucky as he cut a tire very early on, and the wreck between the two HAAS cars and Perez meant they restarted the race in the original starting order as the back of the que hadn't completed one section of the track. Rules, ya know.

Once they turned him loose LeClerc put 8-9 seconds on second place Pastry in about the last 5 laps of the race, and that was it.

One highlight, we got to hear the Monaco Anthem, followed by the Italian - which is always a hit......such a happy sounding anthem compared to most, which sound like funeral dirges. Also, it was played by a real live band....none of this poxy recorded crap for the Prince! It was nice that Fred got to accept the trophy for Ferrari too.....

Because of Perez' poor performance, even tho Red Bull has won 5 races to Ferrari's 2, they are only 24 pts ahead in the constructor's, last year by this time they were running away with it.

Ha!

So some driver news for 2025 in the last week or so.

Alpine have announced Ocon will leave at the end of 2024. Seems sudden if it is the result of his Monaco crash with Gasly. Not sure where Ocon will land, if at all in an F1 seat.  What is for him, he is a race winner - so has some value in terms of marketing. However, he has the reputation that he does not get on with his team mates, which is looking like a problem. Do you want an experienced driver in your team that does not support the team mate, especially if they are rookie? 

Red Bull have extended Perez for 2 years, this probably means that Danny Ric's ambitions of returning to Red Bull are over. And I don't know if it makes sense for them to continue with him at the Red Bull Jnr team, given his age.

Following on from the driver news mentioned above, I am excited that there are a number of rookies that could be joining the grid next year:

Ollie Bearman - after subbing for Sainz earlier this year, he is likely to be placed at Haas through the Ferrari Academy.
Liam Lawson - subbed for Danny Ric, and Red Bull need to get him into a race seat for 2025 - if they don't there is a good chance they will lose him to another team.
Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes Jnr and has been testing older F1 machinery in private tests this year (and been very impressive).  However, he only turns 18 this year and question whether he is right for Mercedes and needs some time (like George Russell) at a team further down the grid like Williams.

Further there are a number of drivers that waiting for an opportunity. 

Perez signing is the death knell for Danny Ric I think, as Red Bull should be bringing new drivers on board if they're really going to use RB as a feeder for the varsity team.

Rumor has Sainz already signed up with Williams for two years, with an option for more if things go well.

So if HAAS take on Bearman, they will want an experienced driver to pair him, and if Kmag is out, who will that be? Bottas is in the running for sure....

Ocon? No idea if he'll even be on the grid in the future, but Mercedes could use him in the interim while getting Kimi up to speed somewhere else - tho not Williams now.

Still a lot of craziness to come in the silly season, tho quite a few of the dance cards are getting filled.

Now Sainz says "taint true", he hasn't signed with anyone yet.

Montreal:

Hell of a race! A good rain can really make an F1 race interesting. Max really had to work for this one but he did a great job.

Ferrari had about the worst weekend in 5 years......

I wonder if Mercedes has turned the corner and is now a legit contender, or if this track just favored them?

It is good that Red Bull is not running away with everything. 

Red Bull could also be in trouble as they admitted that they got Perez to drive the car in an unsafe condition to avoid a safety car that would threaten Verstappen's lead.  Be interesting if McLaren protest it. 

The other news was that Tsunoda was extended with RB for 2025.

Well, they do have a healthy lead, but with Perez underperforming as badly as he is, it's keeping the others within reach at least......still he does have 107 pts and is 5th in the Driver's.

It's too bad the wheels have fallen off the Aston effort - at least compared to last year. 6th and 7th in this race is not bad, but you won't win any titles finishing there every race.

McLaren and Ferrari have been the real threat all season so far, but Mercedes seems to have found something.....we'll know for sure at the next race in Barcelona.

One thing that has been interesting over the last few seasons in particular is the reliability of all the cars - if they don't wreck out, chances are very good they at least will finish the race. As recently as the early 2000's that couldn't be said.

Quote from: MiniDave on June 11, 2024, 07:16:40 AMOne thing that has been interesting over the last few seasons in particular is the reliability of all the cars - if they don't wreck out, chances are very good they at least will finish the race. As recently as the early 2000's that couldn't be said.

I feel most of that has come from the requirement to have a few engines and gearboxes (plus other items) last the whole season.  Previously engines and gearboxes were built to make it to the 200 mile mark.  Now the have do maybe over 2000 miles.

It wasn't so long ago that engines, gearboxes blew regularly, suspensions broke over the kerbs, electrics went wonky - they were lucky if half the field made it to the end of the race. Mandating that they last so far into the season has really had an impact on the reliability and durability IMHO, and I wonder what they're doing differently? I mean, they're getting enormous power out of a tiny engine and having to make fuel economy too. I'm sure some of it is down to better materials and design, but still......

It's probably directly proportional to the amount of money and time spent on it, at least as far as the engine stuff goes. If a motor and drive train only needs to last through 1 race, they probably didn't spend near as much "engineering time" on any sort of reliability and just hoped it would last the race. Now that they have no choice but to make one last several races they have to spend a lot more of their effort in that regard, which probably filtered down into the other components too. If your not pulling the entire power plant out and replacing it every race you are probably going to make sure the wiring, etc.. is built to a little higher standard as well.

Great race in Austria up until 7 laps from the end.  Shows Max cannot race fairly and has not learnt anything from 2021.

It was fun once those last 20 laps hit and after Max's slow pitstop, before that Max pretty much had it all to himself. Once Lando got within DRS range it was on like donkeykong! Max on used tires for the last stint vs Lando on new might have had something to do with why Lando caught him so quickly - Max said the tires were shit.....

I was impressed with the HAAS effort once again, they have def staked a place near or at the top of the midfield. RB vcarb whatever is showing signs of life too..

I can't get over Aston's fall to the bottom.......what the heck happened to them? I imagine Alonso is regretting signing that extension to his contract, maybe a one year deal would have been better....

We still don't know what's going to happen with Sainz, but there's really no hurry now. LeClerc had a miserable race too, right down there with Alonso, but I'm thinking he probably had damage from his lap one encounter.

George drove a superb if uneventful race to inherit the win, I think he knew those two were going to come to tears before it was done. Brundle agrees that it was Max's fault BTW.

The Haas effort was outstanding, it makes me hope that they keep KMag next season.  However, I think the option of putting a race winner in the car mean it be the end of the road (again) for KMag.

I agree on the Aston's - however, they have a history of losing pace over the season.  Rumor had they made a BIG money offer to Adrian Newey.

I am surprised at how well Alpine have moved forward, considering how slow they were right at the beginning season it has been a huge step forwards.

Silly season is also still in full swing. Still 7 unfilled seats.

Another one drops......apparently the deal was done months ago but only announced this week at Silverstone - Bearman has been signed to a multi-year deal with HAAS.

Now the question remains, who will be his seatmate? KMag? Bottas? Ocon?

Quote from: MiniDave on July 04, 2024, 10:53:51 AMAnother one drops......apparently the deal was done months ago but only announced this week at Silverstone - Bearman has been signed to a multi-year deal with HAAS.

Now the question remains, who will be his seatmate? KMag? Bottas? Ocon?

I think there is one big blocker to the rest being announced - Sainz.  He is apparently holding out on a number of deals, the delay has caused Williams to start looking at alternatives. 

British GP was a great race, with the pace of the leading 3 teams being variable throughout the race.  And also the changeable weather helped!

I was really happy to see Hamilton win, it obviously meant a lot to him and his immediate team as he was so emotional about it.

Norris and McLaren messed up in the final part of the race, Hamilton even told Norris that in the cooldown room. A couple of things happened, a) they put on softs when they had a new set of mediums - they were copying what Hamilton did. b) Norris was super long in the box for the pit stop so he lost a couple of seconds.

Verstappen had a strange race as he lost a lot of pace early in the dry part of the race, then in the dry at the end he was the fastest of the leading group.

One thing this race also showed, was the importance of timing the move from slicks to wets at the right time.  The Piastri stop really highlighted this, he stayed out one more lap than Norris, and they were close on track when Norris pitted.  After he had done another lap and completed his pitstop he was around 30 seconds behind Norris. It would have been better to lose a some time double stacking in the pit lane than doing another lap.

It's too bad that races are being won or lost in the pits, but that's just part of racing these days.

I'm mystified by what is going on with Perez.....he went from being Max's #2 to not even in the points - hell even Stroll the younger is doing better than he is.

And while they've shown a little improvement Aston still is struggling.....did the other teams just improve right past them? I know Big Mac certainly did.

Sainz is making a mess of LeClerc's year, isn't he? Although they're only four points apart in the driver's now, Sainz has sure looked in better form. Same can be said for the Hulk - I hope he continues to shine, but it won't be happy times at Sauber for him in 2025 based on this year's performance as they are just woeful.

Al Peen seems to be climbing out of the cellar, but I wonder what will happen for Ocon now?

Still waiting in the wings, Kimi, Liam and a whole host of other hopefuls. DannyRickyBobby is doing better - if not great. I think he could stay another year with the junior team based on performance, but Marko says the junior teams is for just that, young upcoming drivers - not seniors. He may not make it on the grid again for 2025 unless another team comes calling - and who would that be?

Lots of interesting scenarios coming up this fall.

Hungary

Lots of interesting plot twists in this one.....with Lando on Pole and Max third you knew there was going to be some sort of kerfuffle going into the first corner, fortunately no one wrecked, but Oscar got a brilliant start and took the lead away from Lando and held it thru the first stint. When it came time to change tires they brought Lando in first and he was able to jump his teammate for the lead.

What they did next was interesting, and I could see both driver's point of view.....but in the end they told Lando he would need Oscar as the rest of the season went along, so he finally decided to let Oscar by two laps from the end. So Oscar got his first grand prix win, Lando came second and the team made up a chunk of points against Red Bull although not as much as I would have expected with Perez starting almost at the back.

Max had a heck of a row with the Hamster and once again the Mercedes showed how strong it was as neither car had to retire after launching Max over Hammy's back wheel. Max was lucky to only lose one place in that one, so he finished 5th and Checo came 7th.

Everyone agrees the rest of the season will be between Red Bull and Big Mac as other than freak weather or crashes, no one else can race at the front with these two - Ferrari seems to have stalled in their move to the front, Mercedes is right there with them and the rest will bring up the back. V-carb seems to have taken a good step forward with Yuki and DannyRickyBobby regularly in the points now.

So Mac attack has a ways to go to beat Red Bull in either championship, but unless Checo falls off the map again, I don't think they can get there with 12 races left. We'll see......

I wonder if the Hamster is re-thinking his move to Ferrari given that the Mercs are finishing ahead of the red Cars these days.......

The McLaren team orders thing, was just an example where team agreements e.g. who ever leads into the first corner gets the win (not fighting between team mates).

Max's ranting on the radio about the strategy etc, was him back in the days of not being comfortable under pressure. Also it was reported that he was doing some online racing late on Friday night and early Saturday morning, so there was a question if he was tired and cranky. His view of the incident with Hamilton was totally wrong, he dive bombed with no hope of making the corner.

And Lewis said so - he said if Max had been in control he would have taken the corner and third place.

I think there may have been something to staying up late and re-engaging in the games in the morning bringing on the crankiness - that can be almost as fatiguing as the real thing. So I wonder if the team will try and curb his online activities?

I don't agree with "first man to the corner wins" team orders, but I think in this case McLaren knew they screwed up and had to try and make it right - the 'you will need Oscar later in the year" comment really brought that home.

I think if Lando had given him the place earlier, then he should have been free to race for the win from that point on.

However, all the shenanigans and various tire/pit strategies did make the race more interesting, but it was clear the Big Macs had this one from the get go

This just in......

Mattia Binotto takes over at Audi F1 (https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/binotto-to-head-audi-f1-project-as-part-of-major-management-shake-up/10637945/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0rexWswz5b-tHaMri0-obsedGbmbYy8O3SDPc-8MhK3kGLXe0svDTKwmk_aem_Ty4tMwxhcf-xofyNytypYg)

This is a surprise to me and I wonder if it will affect Sainz' choice of team, either for or against joining Audi F1?

Ocon has signed for Haas on a multi year deal. I have never been a fan of Ocon, and I do not think he is a good teammate for a rookie.

So the 2025 grid is shaping up:
Red Bull
Verstappen and Checo (although we will see if Checo retains his drive)

Merc
Russell and TBC (Rumor is that it will be Merc Jnr Kimi Antonelli, but there are other rumors that Verstappen has exit clauses he can activate and Merc are sniffing around. I think Bottas would be a good fit here, whilst they but Antonelli in the Williams for a couple of seasons like they did with Russell)

Ferrari
Leclerc and Hamilton

McLaren
Norris and Piastri

Aston Martin
Alonso and Stroll

Haas
Bearman and Ocon

VCARB
Tsunoda and TBC (Between Riccardo and Lawson.  Classic Red Bull issue of having to many drivers, but they need to give Lawson a run otherwise he will go elsewhere)

Sauber
Hulkenberg and TBC (Sainz has a big money offer from Audi to go there)

Williams
Albon and TBC (Sainz has been offered a contract, but he has other options on the table, Williams are losing patience so are working with other drivers. Rumor is that Bottas is favorite and it would be a return to Williams for him. Potentially could see Antonelli here so Merc can get him to do a couple of seasons out of the big team spot light.)

Alpine
Gasly and TBC (Alpine have made an offer to Sainz as well. They have a junior driver waiting in the wings as well, Jack Doohan).

Sainz's indecision is frustrating both Williams and Audi.  Audi made a big money offer as they did not want to be in the middle of the driver silly season (that didn't work).  Williams have made a lot of effort in attracting Sainz and he is now going cold on them.  There was another rumor that he is being courted by Red Bull as they want to get rid of Checo (activate performance clauses), but I do not see him partnering Verstappen.  And then Briatore landed back in F1 with Alpine and got them to make a last minute offer to Sainz.

After the Belgium GP there is a one month break, so could see some announcements this weekend as drivers and teams try and get things confirmed.

Belgium - Spa.

I've always enjoyed this race if for no other reason that to watch them climb the hill at full chat into Eau Rouge! This race promised to be interesting because while Max was fastest in Qually, he had a 10 place grip penalty for changing his engine and would be starting 11th. In past years he's always powered thru the field and rolled on to a win, but this season others have caught up to the Red Bull and it wasn't going to go that way this time.

With his demotion to 11th Charles was now on pole, but I didn't think it would last much past the first time someone got their DRS open, and sure enough that happened. However, I think 6 different drivers led this race!

Two things have become evident - Mercedes is def in the hunt, having won 3 of the last 4 races, and they had a good strategy for this one with George doing a one stop and Hammy doing a two stop race. George's instincts proved right and he won - that is until they checked his car after the race and found it light, and he was disqualified and the win handed to the Hamster, promoting LeClerc onto an unexpected podium.

I think the 2nd half of the season is now set up to be a corker, with 4 teams able to run up front and win on a variety of tracks. McLaren is now only 40 some points behind Red Bull and Ferrari only a handful behind them. Max is still well out in front, but others are chipping away at his lead for the driver's championship.

Famin is now leaving Alpine as well, and there is talk of them running someone else's engine next season!

Gutted for George, he drove a stella stint on those tires to win! However, that long stint may have contributed to his disqualification for being 1.5 kilos underweight.  One article suggested that the Pirelli tires can lose up to 1 kilo of tread per tire in a stint, and with his very long stint Mercedes forgot to factor that in.

Summer break now, so no racing for a month. 

BREAKING NEWS - Sainz has signed for Williams. I think this is the best of the options he had available to him.

I do too......Audi would have been a 2-3 year drought for even the mid pack, everything that's happening at Alpine suggests that the team that is not for sale will be sold imminently and that the exodus of top managers and the importation of Flabio is just to do exactly that. So, Andretti will be onboard shortly I assume......

I wonder who will be the Hulk's teammate, but I'm guessing that Zhou and his $30 million Chinese friends will be the one.

So, only the open seat at Mercedes and the possible one at Red Bull (nah, they'll keep Pez or move DannyRickyBobby in, so there's no opening there) remains to be filled now. I'm a little worried about Yuki, they don't usually keep rookie drivers this long, and they have guys they want to move up, including Liam and Kimi.

So, the only thing left is the penalty box at Alpine/Andretti, and I imagine they want to bring their own guys in, so even that might be gone now.

I would not be surprised if all this isn't settled by the time racing resumes in a month.

You know watching Toto's face as they won the race suggests he already knew what was going to happen and was just hoping that somehow they'd skate by....

I don't think Audi need those millions from Zhou!  The new Sauber/Audi boss is a fan of Mick Schumacher, he was the one that brought him into the Ferrari Academy and got him the Haas drive, but is he good enough to be a winner in F1?  Of the drivers with out a drive for next year, I think the best option left is Bottas. Sauber's biggest issue this year is that the owner is squeezing all of the Euros out of it as they know Audi is buying, so Audi has had to accelerate their takeover to stop the drain of people and under investment.

Well Audi took another step today, hiring the guy away from Reds Bull......big money right now is on Newey going to Aston or Williams, but I think it would be great if he wound up at Audi instead!

I don't think Newey will got to Audi as it will be an international move for him.  One of the reasons he turned down the Ferrari move is he would have to have moved to Italy or at least that is what the folks on Reddit think.

Max must be worried with 2 senior leaders from Red Bull leaving in less than a year.  Newey is responsible for the car, but Wheatley is the Sporting Director and is responsible for everything that happens at the track.  Have to wonder if this is the fall out from the Horner story earlier this year about his inappropriate behavior with a female colleague. 

More interesting rumors.....Alpine may get sold after all, but not to Andretti. Having hired Oliver Oakes in place of Bruno Famin....Oakes is principal of Hitech racing. The rumor is that Hitech and Alpine are going to merge. Now for the juicy part, Hitech is partially owned and funded by a Mr. Vladimir Kim. Mr. Kim is bestest buddies with one Mr. Mazepin, whose son was unceremoniously dumped from HAAS when Russia invaded Ukraine......Lil Nikky drove his F3 and F2 career with non other than HiTech, leading to the idea the he might come back to F1 thru the good graces of Mr. Kim's investment and HiTech taking over Alpine. Supposedly his ban was overturned by in March 2024 and he's been driving in the Asian LeMans series and has 2 wins in 3 races.

However, he no longer has an F1 superlicense, so that will present at least a temporary stumbling block.

As usual, follow the money is always the story......

So, summer break is over and we're back to racing!

As predicted, a lot of the driver pieces have fallen into place - Alpine have announced Jack Doohan will be racing for them next season - he is a straight promotion from their F3 and F2 teams, and he's been their reserve driver this year, so that's sort of a no brainer for them.

DannyRickyBobby has decided it's Red Bull or nowhere for him, so Perez needs to have a stunning finish to this season to retain his place in the team. Liam Lawson is all but confirmed for Red Bull Vcarb next season, so either Danny or Yuki will be looking for a ride. Danny said if he's not at Red Bull he's out.

Big money is on Bottas to retain his seat when Audi takes over, which leaves Zhou out too.

The only real question left now is Mercedes, and they seem to run hot/cold on bringing Kimi in next season - he's even said himself that he doesn't think he's quite ready for the big time yet, and this season has not been stellar for him in F2. If they don't bring him in, I wonder who they might sign for a one year deal? Maybe Yuki if Red Bull keep Danny there? Maybe Perez if they let him go?

Dutch GP - Zandvoort.

Lando on pole, Max next to him, but Max got away better and took the lead. 18 laps later Lando breezed by and that was the race - he won by 22 seconds over Max. Deja vu, huh Max?

Charles drove well, starting from 5th and finishing on the podium. He never was going to fight for the lead unless the front two tangled, so that was as much as Ferrari could hope for. Carlos also moved up - he started 10th and finished 5th, Piastri between him and Charles. Then came the two Mercedes, Russell leading the Hamster.

Lots of speculation about what Mercedes will do for their driver - they prefer to put Mick Schumacher in the Williams for the rest of the season, but Red Bull thinks Liam Lawson will be driving for them. Bottom line, after his FP3 shunt, Sargeant will probably be parked, maybe for good tho he may retain a reserve driver status with Williams.

Williams just can't afford to have their cars destroyed like this, they're on one of the smallest budgets as it is and this really sets them back as it also destroys their new upgraded parts. I don't know why Logan hasn't been able to do better and it's sad for him to miss his opportunity.

Kimi keeps saying he's not ready to jump into F1 but it seems Mercedes thinks he is - would it be better if they took Schumy and put him in the car for '25 and let Kimi get some more races under his belt before he jumps into the big time? If Schumy does well maybe he can catch onto another team then? Or maybe he stays at Merc and Kimi comes into Williams first? Of course, that would put Albon out.....could be another major silly season in the works for next year......

Alpine's driver situation is resolved with their reserve driver Jack Doohan coming aboard for 25 with Gastly. I hope they get their house in order quickly.

Going to be an interesting grid next season with all these rookies coming on track.

Williams finally fired Sargeant!  He is being replaced by <drum roll please> Franco Colapinto - who I had never heard of before today.  I googled and he has been racing in F2 this season, was mid field for most of the season and is currently 6th in the championship. 

At face value it seems like an odd decision. The main reason for getting rid of Sargeant is he has not scored any points this year and had expensive crashes.  So giving the seat to a rookie who is doing OK in F2 seem logical to score more points and have less crashes!

The mentioned Liam Lawson as an option, but last time Williams talked about a Red Bull driver in their car - Mercedes got upset about loss of trade secrets about their engine.

Not sure what happened to Mick Schumacher, but he has an Alpine deal for sportscars and as well as Alpine reserve driver.  Also he is hardly know as a safe pair of hands as Haas almost fired him for too many crashes.

I also had never heard of Colapinto, the only thing I read was that he is a "Williams Academy" driver, so that's why they gave him the seat. They sure won't need him next season with Sainz and Albon driving for them. So what, back to F2 or will he become the reserve driver?

With all the talent that's hovering around the edges of F1 you'd think they'd might want to have some one audition......

I wonder if they gave up the opportunity as he is their academy driver, and has no hope of winning the F2 championship. 

There is a huge blockage in getting rookies into F1.  Before they fired Logan, there was no full time rookie in F1 this year. 3/4s of the grid have done more than 100 GPs.

Today was Kimi Antonelli's debut in the Mercedes in FP1 and it went really well - Toto said his pace was astonishing and it was a case of trying to slow him down rather than have him go faster - right up until he hit the wall coming out of the parabolica corner, slamming George Russel's car into the barriers in a 45G hit.

The good news is that he was OK, and they were able to get George's car ready in time for FP2, and it seemed to have suffered no permanent ill effects.

Rumor in the paddock - someone is funding Colapinto to the tune of $500K per race for the rest of the season. Vowles says it isn't true but that a number of Argentine businesses have been on the horn to discuss getting their brand on the car, so make of it what you will... :grin:

So far Mercedes and McLaren look really strong, but Ferrari is not far behind

Monza:

Yay! A really good race with incredible passes, different strategies and an unexpected win for Ferrari!

The Red Bull domination is clearly over, at least for this year

The championship is looking exciting.

Constructors is looking like a 3 way fight between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.  Mercedes is to far away at this time unless they have a run of good podium finishes.

Lando is 64 points behind Max, which seems like a lot, but he only needs to out score Max by 8 points a race.  Which is very feasible if McLaren are running at the front and Red Bull at the bottom end of the points.

Yes!

Also, it looks like Mercedes has made their decision and Kimi will be driving next to George next year. So, unless Red Bull decide to send Checo packing, pretty much all of the seats are accounted for, the lone exception being Sauber. No idea who will get the second seat there, but Bottas has the lead right now, and Zhou is saying things like he'll look forward to racing in a different series next year with the hope that he can come back to F1 in the future.....however, that strategy hasn't worked for Mick Schumacher. VCarb Red Bull is also a bit of a question mark as they've said all along that they want new drivers in there, not experienced ones and both of their current guys are not newbies.

One big question mark is where Adrian Newey will land.....it seems like Ferrari is out of the running now too.

Newey is probably going to Aston Martin. 

Pretty excited to see at least 3 rookies on the grid. There is a number of average drivers that have retained their seats for too long in my opinion and that is simply due to the lack of testing available to give new drivers a chance to get up to speed.

And the biggest signing of the season is confirmed, with Adrian Newey being confirmed at Aston Martin.  Reportedly on $100 million over  3 years!

Yep, and poor Logan Sargeant is out for the season, and probably for good. Bearman will fill in for Kmag while he serves his one race ban. This will be a real test for him as we all know the HAAS is not the same as the Ferrari.

So, qualli at Baku and a few surprises.....

Norris in P17 to start as he caught a yellow flag at just the wrong moment.

LeClerc on pole is a pleasant surprise - or is it? He's been on pole the last three races here - and made it the fourth time this year. Carlos will start in third, right behind him, and LeClerc says he hopes they can play a team game - meaning keep Piastri behind and don't let him beat LeClerc into turn one....even better if Carlos can get ahead of Piastri too!

Two rookies in the game too - Bearman had a pretty good outing, qualified ahead of the Hulk. And Colapinto beat Albon too - except they sent Albon out for Q3 with a fan stuck in the intake......he managed to get it out just at the end of the pit lane and tossed it to a marshall but he couldn't get his warm up lap done in time to post a time at the end of Q3, so he'll start 10th, with Colapinto in 9th.

Neither Mercedes had a stellar time of it with Russell in 5th and the Haminator in 7th. Red Bull also wasn't setting the time sheets on fire, Max falling behind his teammate at the end so Perez will start 4th and Max 6th. Alonso continues to make the Aston work better than Junior, he'll start 8th and Stroll the Lessor will go from 15th.

This race always has a safety car or two so strategy will play a role, and Ferrari - surprisingly - has done a fair job of it the second half of the season, so hopefully they can get their sums right for LeClerc.

No question the points tallies are getting interesting, it's possible that McLaren can come away from Baku with the lead in the constructors's.....not likely, but possible.

Should be an interesting race, especially if they can all stay out of the walls - but that's not likely either!

Wow! What a race!

Too bad about the finish.....but great racing thru out the whole race....congrats to Oscar for a great run.....

Another terrific finish for both McLarens puts them into lead of the constructor's championship by 20 pts, and Ferrari in third only 21 pts behind Red Bull. Due to the crash between Sainz and Checo, both rookies finished in the points, Colapinto in 8th and Bearman in 10th.

All three drivers cringed watching in the cool down room as they replayed the Sainz and Checo wreck.

And we get to hear yet another new anthem played - Australia this time! Fun to see George standing on the smallest step on the podium yet still taller than Charles.... 

That was an intense race.  The crash at the end, Checo was more at fault than Sainz in my opinion.  Checo was behind and had room to his left to move over and for them both to get to the next corner, you cannot just see some one moving towards you and just let that happen to you.

Oscar really showed he is the real deal!

And Mclaren is leading the Constructors championship for the first time in a decade!

For the drivers championship, it is really whether Max can hang on.  He has a lead of over 60 points and with 7 races to go it is going to be hard for Norris to overhaul that with out winning and Max is significantly down the order. 

Singapore:

Looks like a pretty good fight between McLaren and Ferrari, with Vcarb and Williams as dark horses. Mercedes and Red Bull both are having a miserable weekend so far, but you can never count either team out.

Qually tomorrow should be fun!

Typical race in F1, but with new players - Norris got the lead from pole and never looked back, putting 20 seconds on Max in the #2 spot by the end of the race. The two Ferraris were on the back foot from the start as LeClec's time was deleted for exceeding track limits and Sainz crashed in Q3.....so they started 9th and 10th.

It's interesting to me that Colapinto is driving, as the seat he's in will not be available to him next year, but he's doing a terrific job, far better than Sargeant did in his almost 2 years with Williams. Some one will need to snatch him up but the only seat available is at Sauber, and I don't know if they're wanting a rookie - I think they're going to sign Bottas. But the number of experienced, name-brand drivers that he beat in this race is impressive, and I think he's earned a spot on the grid.

Everyone is saying that DannyRickyBobby is done, and Liam Lawson will take his seat at the next race......that the fastest lap he did in this race was a parting gift from the team.

Mercedes finished better than I expected, but I still don't see them as a front row team - but they're always there if someone makes a mistake or something happens to one of the lead cars. Mercs finished 4th and 6th, Ferraris 5th and 7th.

So, one of the absolute worst kept secrets in F1 came true today as Danny Ric was relieved of his driving duties, to be replaced for the rest of the season by Liam Lawson.

It's possible he could find a drive in 25 or 26, but I think it's very unlikely.....I expect he'll head into sports cars or maybe even NASCAR? A number of F1 drivers had successful careers in other series after their F1 days ended.....

The way it has been handled is a joke by Red Bull's management. However, he has not been performing so they needed to do something. Liam Lawson is getting a lot of shit online, but this decision is nothing to do with him. 

Danny Ric will have plenty of opportunities elsewhere, Indycar, NASCAR or Sports cars.  Red Bull have said they want him to be an ambassador, not sure he will want to do that.

I don't remember another month long break in the schedule after the summer break?

CoTA weather is looking perfect for this year's race, should be dry and warm. Remember the year when it rained so hard the teams were having rowing races up the pit straight?

Unless something drastic happens, it looks like we'll have a split championship, with McLaren winning the constructors and Max the driver's. The only mystery left is whether Ferrari can come 2nd and demote Red Bull to third in the constructors. Who would have thought Red Bull would have this big of a drop off in performance after the start they had? Reminds me of Aston's fall off last season......and they really haven't recovered from it have they?

I know Daddy BigBux wants Junior to play with his race cars, but at what point does he get serious about all the money he's throwing at his son's career and realize that money could be far better spent somewhere else? Either by selling the team or getting a better driver? Especially with Newey coming on board, won't he want to maximize the team's potential behind the wheel too? I think they should be lining up their next drivers now - no disrespect to Alonso, but his final sell by date has to be coming  up soon, and there is a lot of talent already waiting in the wings for a shot at the big show......seems like you'd want to get at least one rookie on board for next season and maybe get a Sainz caliber driver signed up for '26? Point being, I think they're leaving it too late if they're going to make a change, and if they're not - well it seems a waste of Newey's talent and Pop's money.

And what of Alpine? They've scuttled their engine program, but claim they're emphatically NOT selling the team, but switching to Merc engines for 2026. I wonder how all those Hollywood investors feel about throwing so much cash at this team now?

Well, this is interesting.....Toyota tying up with HAAS. Maybe they'll become a motor supplier too?

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/what-toyotas-new-f1-deal-will-offer-haas-that-gene-haas-didnt-want-to-invest-in/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook (https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/what-toyotas-new-f1-deal-will-offer-haas-that-gene-haas-didnt-want-to-invest-in/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook)

Austin......and the beginning of a triple header with Mexico and Brazil to follow each one week apart.

This was a fantastic race, watching Max use all his skills to try and keep Lando behind and Lando using everything he knew to try and pass and get on the podium, only to be undone by getting a track limits 5 sec penalty, and Max finishing only 4 sec behind.

Charles was in the right place at the right time for a change and when the leaders went wide in turn 1 he was there to jump them and take the lead, after that it was just a matter of building his lead. Sainz had a more interesting race, using the undercut strategy to pass Max, tho I think his pace was such that he would have anyway. He pulled within 6 sec of Charles by the end, which was a terrific result for him.

Clearly the Ferrari upgrade has worked - in two ways - they've gone from eating their tires to being able to run long on them. In fact one of their wins this year was because Charles could go so much longer on his tires that he pulled a surprise one stop race. Plus their pace is definitely there.....

HAAS is having a good year also, they are consistently putting at least one driver in the points every race, and the team seems more focused and organized now that Gunter has departed. I think Gene needed Gunter to get the team built and racing, but he was past his sell by date for running the team now.

Lastly a shout out to two rookies, Colapinto and Lawson who not only both finished in the points this race but also well ahead of their teammates - well done to both of them!

In the cool down room the three drivers all commented on what a great track Austin is to race on, lots of opportunities to pass and a wide enough track that there's room to pass without hitting or forcing someone off. The repairs they did this year made a huge difference too, as the settling in various places made it tough to drive an F1 car here well as the setup had to be compromised so much to accommodate the bumps.

Fun race, lots of action and strategies all down the grid, and well done to Ferrari for a 1-2, and to McLaren too for making this year's championship anything but a walk-off for one team. I think the constructor's could go down to the wire, not sure if anyone can catch Max unless he has a DNF, but it's fun watching them  try and close up on him!

Mexico:

Strong rumors going around that Checo is going to announce his retirement this weekend. I expect it will largely be based on how his weekend goes!

A couple new faces on the grid this weekend - Pato O'Ward will be driving Practice 1 for Big Mac, and Drugovich will stand in for Alonso who's not feeling well. Unknown right now whether Drugo will be driving in the race too. (Edit - Alonso ran FP2, so probably not)

Swartzman filled in for Zhou on Kick Sauber's FP1, and Kimi Antonelli did the same for Mecedes in Hamster's car.....so lots o rookies running this weekend.

I've also read that due to Honda's influence Tsunoda will be driving the post season test in the Red Bull, so that will be his chance to show the varsity team what he can do in the big car.....if he does well and Checo retires, his chances of driving for Red Bull next season will have improved dramatically. That will also open up the junior team to take on some new drivers, which is what they claim the Vcarb team is supposed to be doing, not running experienced drivers like Tsunoda (5 years) and Ricciardo (many more years)

We got to hear another new national anthem this weekend!

Carlos took pole, Max got a tiny bit better start, but Carlos drove deep into turn one and came out ahead. Meanwhile Max and Lando were going at it, Max pushed him off and got a 10 sec penalty and a couple corners later they got into it again, letting Charles get thru into 2nd, and Max gained yet another 10 sec penalty!

Seems there were a lot of guys using Max's "dive the corner and push them off" tactic, I have a feeling there will be a new rule about this kind of driving soon. Everyone points the finger at Max, and he may have been the worst about it, but I saw a lot of that all race and all down the grid.

So, back to the action, the two Ferrari's rolled off into the distance, but they were having to manage their brake temps and as the race wore on, when Lando pitted for hard tires to go the rest of the race his car came back to him and he started closing on Charles. It took him a while but Charles finally made a mistake on his worn tires and Lando was thru for 2nd. He set off for Carlos but he ran out of laps. Charles came in for fresh tires as he had an easy pit stop's distance over the two Mercs and got fastest lap on the last tour.

Piastri started way back since he didn't make it out of Q1, but he had a much better race than Perez who finished well out of the points and Piastri managed to finish 8th.

So Ferrari is now in 2nd in the constructors and can't be ruled out to win it all with 4 races and another Sprint yet to be run. Brazil is next weekend, and it's great seeing four different teams having a shot at the race win this late in the season, and seeing a real fight for the Championships. I don't think anyone can take the driver's from Max, but it's not impossible at this point.

So, McLaren has been sold to an Abu Dhabi investment firm, including the racing divisions.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62761943/mclaren-set-to-be-sold-to-abu-dhabi-based-investment-firm-cyvn-holdings/ (https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62761943/mclaren-set-to-be-sold-to-abu-dhabi-based-investment-firm-cyvn-holdings/)

Oh and good news for Lando, Max will have a grid penalty in Brazil due to getting a new motor. Apparently the one in the car in Mexico was shit (worn out, at the end of its useful life and had "issues" like a leaking intake) and that's why his race was also shit.

Looks like Max will be champion this year.  He has become one of the true greats of the sport.  In Brazil he showed his level when he drove at a level above everyone else in the wet.

Sauber have picked a random rookie for next year to race in their final season before they become Audi.  So both of their current drivers are out of F1 next year, unless something out of left field happens.

Max has pretty much won it all right, and his race in Brazil was both spectacular and due to some good fortune with timing of the safety car - but either way it's been a hell of a season for him and the Red Bull teams. I think the constructors is still a three way race....

I think it's time for a driver shake up......some of these rookies have shown some real talent, and I think it will be interesting to see some new faces on the grid. It's not exactly fair what's happened to some of them - like Drugovich - but that's racing.

I wonder just how long daddy bigbux can justify having sonny boy in the Aston? He spent a ton of money to build a good team, top notch facilities and hired the best race car designer out there - having a driver who's several steps below the others just can't be justified in my mind, but maybe there's something there we just haven't seen yet?

I'm wondering if the Audi F1 project will be stillborn, and Sauber will become what it's mostly been, a backmarker team. Good to get some rookies on track and experienced, but that's about it.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/qatar-poised-for-buy-in-of-audis-f1-team/10671928/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGgjYVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYiwy3ioVDPUrcJOpo4UCV9PrINScdtZWPZ65jUWAguRQKUiI7OU7XQeRw_aem_r7ZV4EwwhDNRmTl0kMs7Ng

Perez stays at Red Bull in 2025 with a lucrative sponsorship deal:
– According to Spanish outlet MARCA, Sergio Perez is set to remain as Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull Racing for the 2025 F1 season. Despite recent performance struggles, Perez has reportedly secured a new, lucrative sponsorship deal, which will support his place in the team.
"It is a kind of agreement that precedes a production process and has received all the approvals from the economic team, after approval by [Christian] Horner."
– Perez is heavily backed by sponsors from Mexico, including companies associated with billionaire Carlos Slim, such as Claro, Telcel, and Infinitum. These partnerships cover his salary and contribute an estimated $30 million annually to Red Bull.
MARCA reports, "Those who consider him written off will have to wait a little longer, as he has a contract through 2025."
– If Perez stays, it could mean Yuki Tsunoda will remain at Visa Cash App RB for 2025, with Liam Lawson likely favored as his teammate. However, unlike Perez, neither Tsunoda nor Lawson brings substantial sponsorship backing, which could influence Red Bull's final decision.

As always.....it all comes down to the money  $$$$$$$

Flavio Briatore 'wants' to sign Colapinto for 2025
Alpine opted to replace Ocon with reserve driver and F1 rookie Jack Doohan, who is the son of racing legend Mick Doohan.

The 21-year-old is all set to get his first taste of a full-time F1 seat with Alpine, partnering Frenchman Pierre Gasly in 2025.

However, recent reports suggested that the move could be in doubt, with Williams star Franco Colapinto instead tipped to replace Doohan before the season has even begun.

Colapinto has excelled in his role with Williams since replacing Logan Sargeant earlier in 2024, scoring five points with the struggling outfit and providing a real challenge to much more experienced team-mate Alex Albon.

Now, Blick are reporting that Alpine F1 boss Flavio Briatore phoned F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone to tell him that he 'wants' Colapinto to sit in the Alpine seat for 2025.

US Grand Prix - Las Vegas.

This was actually a pretty good race, lots of overtaking and strategy changes as the race went along. Mercedes were clearly the class of the field with Hamster in particular having a strong race - I think if he hadn't screwed up in Q3 he would have been in position to win it, as it is he went from 10th to 2nd and was closing fast on George at the end. The funny thing is Mercedes did not think this race would be good for them, and they still don't know why their car works so well at some tracks and so miserably at others.

George had a typical F1 race, get out in front and just manage the pace from there -which he did well and deserved the win.

Things at Ferrari were in their typical crazy state - I think LeClerc was supposed to finish ahead of Sainz for points reasons, but somehow Carlos must not have gotten the message   :grin:   After the race LeClerc quipped "maybe they should have told him in Spanish".....I don't blame Sainz, with two more races to go he doesn't need to make LeClerc look good for the sake of appearances. He took third, fair and square. But anyway you cut it the red cars were the next best class of the field and finished 3rd and 4th, taking some more points out of McLaren's lead in the championship. I think it could come down to the last race this year.....

Verstappen finished ahead of Lando and sealed his 4th straight driver's championship, so well done to Max. They're not out of the constructor's championship either, tho mathematically it's not looking good, especially with Checo only able to contribute one point by finishing 10th. But it could get exciting here at the end.....

Oh, and it looks like Cadillac will be on the grid in 2025 or 2026 - with Ferrari engines! -- til 2028, when they expect to have their own power plants online. Andretti apparently will not be part of the team, or will take a very backseat role.

The announcement from F1 as follows -  Formula 1 announced today that it has reached an agreement in principle with General Motors (GM) to support bringing GM/Cadillac as the 11th team to the Formula 1 grid in 2026.

Abu Dhabi - last race of the season.

McLaren were in the perfect place to win the constructor's and the race with Norris on pole and Piastri 2nd, but Max wasn't having it as he and Piastri came together on the first turn and spun each other out - although both were able to continue - both got a 10 sec penalty.

That left Sainz in 2nd behind Norris....which is where he finished. I think the real story was LeClerc, who went from 19th to finish right behind Carlos. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to win the constructors, and that went to the Big Macs.

The Hamster also had a terrific race to go from 18th to pass Russell on the last lap and finish 4th.

Gasly stayed just ahead of the Hulk so Alpeen finished ahead of HAAS in the championship too. I wonder where Alpine got Gasly the performance these last few races, with a supposedly underpowered engine by over 30 hp?

It's been a long season and next year promises to have a few surprises too, what with new drivers on the grid and new teams in Audi and Cadillac, plus Alpine with Mercedes power and Honda coming back in to power Aston Martin. Should be an interesting grid, but a long wait till March of 25 when things get going again.

Worst kept secret of the season, Checo is out at Red Bull for next year.  Replaced by Liam Lawson.

Did they make Liam official? So, not Yuki?

I really think it's time for Lewis and Alonso both to take their many billions and find something else to do, some new faces will make things more interesting.

I expect the Big Macs to be right at the front again next season, but I'm not sure Liam is ready for prime time with Max.

Time to start the F1 2025 thread?

no comments.....   :grin:

Quote from: MiniDave on December 19, 2024, 04:18:00 PMTime to start the F1 2025 thread?

Or re-name this to be the ongoing F1 thread!