The F1 thread

RiftAmps

musicegbdf said:

Lando is making Daniel look very poor. I would love to see McLaren up there . Time for Daniel to go . I know he is a nice guy , but just not worth his 20m.

Actually, DR has been closer than you'd think to LN in the races. It's only been the last two races where DR has dropped behind slightly.

Fretwired

Gasley to replace Ricciardo?

Cols

Unless they wait until the end of 2023, it would be expensive.  Not only would they have to compensate Ricciardo - perhaps for his full 2023 salary - but they'd also have to buy Gasly out of his RB contract which runs for another year.

Realistically, Gasly's future was always going to be outside Red Bull once the contract had expired.  Rumour has it that he seriously upset Adrian Newey during his ill-fated tenure at the top team, to the extent that he was never getting anywhere near another shot no matter how well he drove.  And McLaren would be a great second opportunity for him.

I think Ricciardo's a superb driver, but for whatever reason McLaren isn't working out for him.  The expectation on joining the team was that Norris would be having to sweat in order to get close to him, not the other way around.  And well into the second season of the partnership, there's no indication that things are even close to neck and neck.  I'm not sure a third season with the team is going to be in his best interests, if there's a possibility for him to rebuild elsewhere.

Fretwired

Cols said:

Unless they wait until the end of 2023, it would be expensive.  Not only would they have to compensate Ricciardo - perhaps for his full 2023 salary - but they'd also have to buy Gasly out of his RB contract which runs for another year.

The boss of McLaren indicated they had a 'performance' clause so I doubt it would cost much to get rid of Ricciardo.

euan

That youtuber started posting in September 2021, I'm not sure on their credibility. 

Cols

Fretwired said:

Cols said:

Unless they wait until the end of 2023, it would be expensive.  Not only would they have to compensate Ricciardo - perhaps for his full 2023 salary - but they'd also have to buy Gasly out of his RB contract which runs for another year.

The boss of McLaren indicated they had a 'performance' clause so I doubt it would cost much to get rid of Ricciardo.

Possibly.  

On the other hand, Ricciardo was quite the catch for McLaren and signed just after his first season with Renault, where he’d handily dispatched Hulkenberg.  His reputation was that of one of the fastest drivers out there.  McLaren, on the other hand, were still trying to rebuild into a solid “best of the rest” team.

He would have been in a position to weight any break clauses in his favour.  Whether he did so is another matter...

stickyfiddle

I'm glad Perez has a long extension and has it early in the year as well - he's absolutely earned it and maybe RB are realising the Vettel/Webber model was much better than constantly pushing juniors up to the top team before they're ready and then getting confused when they fail. 

Gasly-Norris would be a hell of a team. Otherwise I could see Merc looking seriously at him to replace Ham when the time comes, though I don't think that would be for another couple of years.

Emiel

A termination of Ricciardos contract would trigger a lot of line up changes elsewhere in F1.

For fun:

McLaren could see another return of... Alonso!
Alpine will properly try to get Gasly alongside Ocon.
Alpha Tauri will be looking at Red Bull junior Jüri Vips alongside Tsunoda (who is still too much hit/miss for me)
Aston Martin will properly stick to Stroll and Vettel (or when he gets out of F1, Ricciardo)
Alfa Romeo will stick to the 2021 lineup of Bottas and Zhou (who is doing a reasonable job)
Williams is sure to retain Albon and finally replace Latifi with someone like De Vries.
Haas keeps Magnussen and Schumacher will properly get another chance. Or maybe another driver with a famous surname, Pietro Fittipaldi.

stickyfiddle

My thoughts:

Vettel to retire because honestly what's the point
Aston will pay loads to get Alonso because Stroll Sr is a lunatic 
Alpine will finally get Piastri in an F1
DeVries in for Latifi at Williams; 
McLaren drop Ricciardo and he goes to Indy or NASCAR. They get Pato O'ward or Gasly
If Gasly moves to McLaren, AT would keep Tsunoda and bring in Vips or Lawson. Otherwise they might drop Tsunoda and try one of those guys
Merc, RB, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo all stay the same
K-Mag is in for at least another year at Haas. Mick I'm not sure is doing enough, but his name must come with chunky $$

chillidoggy

Perez looking good in FP 1

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Some of the porpoising down that long main straight looked horrendous! This year's drivers are going to need good chiropractors in later life...

chillidoggy

If anyone is interested, quali is on C4 at 10.05pm Saturday, race 18.30 Sunday.

I like this race, Baku looks superb, so much better than all the sand pits. A few of the teams have broken out new power units, that straight must be hard on them.

chillidoggy

I predicted Leclerc would be on pole, but never publicised the fact, so it happened! Perez in front of Max. Are we now seeing a shift, or is Max gonna pull something out of the bag for the race? And what happened to the McLaren pair? Miles off the pace.

Boromedic

It would make me chuckle if Perez started to become a threat to Max, like George he seems these new cars seem to suit their driving styles more than the main men.

stickyfiddle

Yeah, good quali and I was surprised nobody binned it at the end of q2 

I don’t think Max is struggling for a second and may have set his car up with more focus on race pace. But I’m very glad to see Perez confident in the car and genuinely challenging MV. I just wish Sainz could do similar

fretmeister

I’d love Checo to win the title ahead of Max.

Max would have a meltdown and finally learn that Horner & Marko couldn’t give a crap which of their drivers win the title as long as one of them does.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

It'll be interesting to see what RB would do if Perez actually nudges level or even ahead of Max in the standings. He's only 15 points behind, so if he finishes strongly here and Max has a DNF.....

chillidoggy

Red Bull will already have crunched those numbers. As long as both drivers keep it clean and bring home some 1 - 2 performances, and win the constructors title, the only thing that will niggle is how much they’ve paid Max!

And kind of a parallel, I think it’s time for Hamster to chuck the towel in. George continues to whip his sorry arse for a lot less money.

DesVegas

That's a tight course. Plenty of crashes and safety cars I'd say so don't pit too early now ya hear

Brio

Go Checo!