F1 - 2024

[MiniDave]

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.

[MiniDave]

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

[MiniDave]

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?

[Brit_in_TX]

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.

[MiniDave]

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.

[Brit_in_TX]

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.

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.

[MiniDave]

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......

[cstudep]

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.

[Brit_in_TX]

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

[MiniDave]

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.

[Brit_in_TX]

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.

[MiniDave]

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?

[Brit_in_TX]

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?

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. 

[Brit_in_TX]

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.

[MiniDave]

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.

[MiniDave]

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......

[MiniDave]

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.......

[Brit_in_TX]

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.

[MiniDave]

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

[MiniDave]

This just in......

Mattia Binotto takes over at Audi F1

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

[Brit_in_TX]

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.