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Jaxson:
Lawson well and truly stuck, forever on the sidelines hoping the next year is the year.
Yeah I can't see it now.
Jaxson:
Lawson well and truly stuck, forever on the sidelines hoping the next year is the year.
I still hold out some hope though, as an old work colleague used to say, "hope is not a strategy". You have to think Sargeant, Zhou, Magnussen and possibly Ocon are 50/50 prospects to get a drive next year. The Frenchman probably deserves a seat on a speed basis but he just doesn't get on with teammates. He has worse red mist than Yuki I think, despite coming across as very personable in the media.
I don't think Lawson was helped by the stuff in the media purported to be coming from his management that he would be replacing Ricciardo imminently. That certainly appeared to raise the ire of Marko, though his feelings seem to swing with the breeze most of the time. With the Perez situation you do wonder how much real sway Marko has over driver selection at the moment anyway.
From a Lawson perspective I'd think you'd be hoping that Horner is ousted at Red Bull and the power balance changes as a result. Horner favours Ricciardo for whatever reason and it's difficult to know how much non-performance from the Aussie will be tolerated before they are forced into a change. Given that F1 seems more and more like WWE-style "sports entertainment" everyday, just who is driving appears relegated to a secondary consideration so long as the books balance nicely.
At this point in time Sainz, Bottas, Bearman and possibly Doohan and Antonelli are likely to secure drives for next year. Tsunoda might hold the key. There's been a suggestion on the motorsport forums that Perez got his deal because Yuki has told RB he's off to Haas. The Japanese connection with Komatsu might play into that. Whether that would afford Lawson the opportunity to take his seat is anyone's guess though. Replacing Ricciardo last year was a right place-right time situation I think. If Red Bull have more time to consider options I wonder if Lawson would come out on top of the pile.
Hope his people are talking to the other teams at any rate.
thermonuclear:
Given that F1 seems more and more like WWE-style "sports entertainment" everyday, just who is driving appears relegated to a secondary consideration so long as the books balance nicely.
100% on that
Yuki has a long time link with Honda and there's talk of hASS adopting them at some stage. Honda was pulling out but Aston has a link to them soon too.
hASS and Williams (and Alpine) look like horrible places to drop into. Williams has a nice family vibe but are losing regularly and are way behind the times (inventory was run on spreadsheets etc).
hASS is a barely profitable team where the pressure is on. It broke Mick for example and you wouldn't want to start a drivers career there. Alpine are a works team but a failing spectacularly.
The various driver programmes have hit a problem where there are no available seats. They aren't feeders unless a team lets go of a driver.
hASS are fed vai Ferrari as feeders and RB is supposed to be that. F2 is not a feeder into F1 anymore.
More and more the programmes are about locking out talent so the competition can't get their hands on them.
Lawson isn't alone, there are plenty lining up to get in.
Just watching the FP1 replay now, great to see Lawson sitting out front of the RB hospitality thing with Horner having a chat. Not that you can read anything into it I suppose, Horner strikes as a bit of a wannabe politician ... lots of words come out of his mouth but they mean very little when it comes right down to it.
Probably more for Ricciardo and his team's benefit I think.
thermonuclear:
Just watching the FP1 replay now, great to see Lawson sitting out front of the RB hospitality thing with Horner having a chat. Not that you can read anything into it I suppose, Horner strikes as a bit of a wannabe politician ... lots of words come out of his mouth but they mean very little when it comes right down to it.
Probably more for Ricciardo and his team's benefit I think.
As a previous poster posted, its not really about drivers its about sportstainment and profit. Assuming Lawson is out in the cold despite Marko saying he will get a seat (somewhere I assumed) I hope he is free to try elsewhere, as a loaner or not. There are a couple of other sports I've lost interest in, F1 is heading the same way. Along as no one calls it the pinnacle of motorsport or focuses on Drivers Championship, I can live with that. Its a Constructors Championship, always has been. The way its going its about the car, miscellaneous issues such as drivers is a minor side issue. Cynical, yes, factual, probably.
New track, a new story. Its becoming a fun year
Ferrari out of it, maybe their car is very track specific?
RBR, hanging on, cannot be considered the best car now, but still right there.
McLaren, every week they perform, 21ms from pole
Mercedes, wow. Seems the new front wing has been a game changer. if so you would expect that to continue race on race
It "could" be a season of Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren every race, in any order, with Ferrari popping up from time to time. A bit negative perhaps but Ferrari were so far off in Quali.
Prediction time, I'm excluding wet weather
I feel Max and RBR have the edge, was fastest on used softs in Q3 and a late weather change went against him, so stiff not to be P1, but it still would have been close
Mercedes have been great all weekend, will be hard to beat in the race.
McLaren right there 1/6 of a blink of an eye off P1. But they have two cars, while RBR and Mercedes have no rear gunner. That will hurt on strategy calls while McLaren has the luxury of having two strategy options being P3 and P4, they can use Oscar as the sacrificial lamb to help Lando
Lando
Max
George
Oscar
Yuki signing again is another nail in Lawson's coffin I suspect. I was quite surprised (and biasedly disappointed) to see Ricciardo's good performance in Quali this morning, but I had been avoiding the forums this weekend due to watching the running sessions on delay and didn't realize Villeneuve had launched a scathing attack on the Aussie. I reckon he's been stung and this is the knee-jerk result of that. Expect the poor performances to return to the number three car once his anger has subsided.
My predictions for the race in the morning
1/. Verstappen
2/. Norris
3/. Piastri
Expect Russell to bottle it again, he has a history of doing dumb things when the pressure is on for the win. I can't see him holding out for the victory regardless of what the weather does.
It's going to be a long year for Red Bull in respect of the Perez decision. Death by a thousand cuts as the poor Perez returns now that his future is secured.
Wonder how long it is before Red Bull abandon the upgrades and go back to the car they started the year with. They have been pants since they bolted those new parts on.
Got to work at 5:45 and watched the race with a coffee. Really thought Lando had the pace to reel Max in but just didn't eventuate. Good race with the weather issues too.
Great to see some good racing and tactics
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Was interesting to see how quickly the Mclaren burnt through its tyres once the track had dried; I think 2 more laps and both Mercedes would have had Norris. The safety car killed Norris' chance as he was so far ahead by the time it came it out and just in the wrong piece of track but I think he would still have lost to Verstappen in the end.
No word on the Piastri/Russell incident.
If they penalise Piastri for being fully alongside then you can take it as a de facto rule that you have to get out of GR's way.
The fact it has even got to this point is absurd.
Benoire:
The safety car killed Norris' chance as he was so far ahead by the time it came it out and just in the wrong piece of track but I think he would still have lost to Verstappen in the end.
i don't understand how Norris comes out behind Verstappen, one of them was driving too fast or one of them was driving too slow.
Benoire:
Was interesting to see how quickly the Mclaren burnt through its tyres once the track had dried; I think 2 more laps and both Mercedes would have had Norris.
if Russell doesn't make all the mistakes he usually makes, i think he would have won
Batman:
Benoire:
The safety car killed Norris' chance as he was so far ahead by the time it came it out and just in the wrong piece of track but I think he would still have lost to Verstappen in the end.
i don't understand how Norris comes out behind Verstappen, one of them was driving too fast or one of them was driving too slow.
When the crash first happened Lando was past the pit lane entry so had to do a second lap whilst MV, Both mercs and Oscar went in and made a change. Then the SC picked up Lando and slowed him down whilst Max was able to close the pit delta and then when Lando did pit Max had the time advantage and track position.
Panasonic 65GZ1000, Onkyo RZ730, Atmos 5.1.2, AppleTV 4K, Nest Mini's, PS5, PS3, MacbookPro, iPad Pro, Apple watch SE2, iPhone 15+
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