F1 2022 thread - see post 1 for rules

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561653#Comment_119561653

Will be an extra busy winter for him so. Here's a decent vid he released, even thanks Alpine too. 😎

https://fb.watch/fi37tgmEwL/

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561691#Comment_119561691

Yeah but he's a rookie. I think people are setting the bar too high, hoping he falls short.

Mclaren will know he's a talent, but he's also a rookie. Show potebtial in 2022, make some rookie errors, and a decent performance in the second half of the season and a proper season in 2024 will be a good result. He'll need to be close to Norris in 2024 to make it a success.

mickdw

I'm stunned by that CRB result.

I will take back what I said about Piastri.

If it was so clear that he was free to sign for another team and Alpine were trying to strong arm him publicly into driving for them, and furthermore publicly called him out on not honouring his commitments, well that alpine management should be stepping down cause it would appear they are not only incompetent but they have also defamed Piastri in an attempt to cover their own asses

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561881#Comment_119561881

Ah, it's not that bad. They were just chancing their arm. Naughty behaviour but if it worked then it would have been called clever contract management. I don't expect anyone in F1 to behave honourably. It's ruthless.

Mark Webber looking a lot more shrewd now than this time last week.

mickdw

Well it is that bad unless the contract decision was close run thing.

Alpine came out and said piastri was not honouring his commitments and should know what he had signed with alpine. That's damaging whatever way you cut it.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561708#Comment_119561708

He hasn’t even driven a car in 2022 though, and he probably won’t get the FP outing he would have gotten with Alpine now.

the expectations are there, I think at Alpine the pressure might have been a bit less and he had been taken care of by the team. Going to McLaren now will bring extra pressure, he is a relatively unknown to them, granted he has the CV from lower formula to go in his favour.

Hijpo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561691#Comment_119561691

And we know how Norris feels about team mates that struggle, he's not there to coach and hold their hand, he's wearing big boy pants now.

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/EngineMode11/status/1565804845390598144?t=m6p9HlVOGUy6TIrMd6ApdQ&s=19

Alpine seem to be taking legal advice from the Ferrari strategists

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119562226#Comment_119562226

Sure. He'll be expected to perform well, as a rookie.

It's not like he's fudged his CV to pretend he has years of F1 experience. Mclaren knows he's a rookie, they know how much driving he's done and they know he's only 21.

Mclaren aren't buying him under ideal circumstances as their preferred option. Their preferred option was Ricciardo but that didn't work out. They're changing tack so they know there's compromise involved in getting a rookie. Nobody expects a rookie to be near Norris' pace or points in the first year.

He'd need to perform better than Ricciardo but he's on about a quarter of Norris points so that's a pretty low bar. But I think it's likely you're setting the bar too high in the hope he'll fail to clear it.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563117#Comment_119563117

I don’t care if he fails or succeeds. I suppose my only gripe with it all is the high mantle he is on already without having turned a wheel in anger in F1, and has already turned down a team that were effectively helping him to F1 with having him test with them and do simulator duties.

Time will tell, McLaren aren’t a “top” team at present and are restructuring. They have a clear leader in Norris so at least they have that part covered.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563128#Comment_119563128

When he was negotiating with mclaren, he was turning down a year or 2 at Williams, not Alpine.

Mclaren know what they have bought. They'll give him time. Once he's an improvement on Ricciardo in his first year, they'll count themselves lucky to be shot of Ric and focus on Piastri's second year.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563139#Comment_119563139

Can’t say I agree, time will tell.

dulpit

Alpine look like a joke shop, have a read of this...

https://racingnews365.com/crb-ruling-details-alpine-failings-in-handling-piastri-contract

Can't blame Piastri at all here...

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563218#Comment_119563218

With the same hindsight, the lack of usefulness or necessity to Piastri tweeting has been highlighted. Called it at the time, the way he (and Alonso) left hinted at significant issues with management. Now it’s more understandable at least.

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1565960341061861376?t=9RNaUefQuXvuu8Z06zeu8g&s=19

Yikes

Captain_Crash

Someone’s head is on the chopping board at Alpine! Absolute clusterf**k all of their own making. I still think Piastri’s tweet was unprofessional (as was Alpines) but it’s clear to see the frustration he must have had with them was boiling over! Trying to strongarm him after he’d signed with McLaren didn’t help matters in the slightest either!

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563430#Comment_119563430

Those two links above and the one below paint Alpine in a very bad light - they knew full well they didn't have a proper contract with him, repeatedly delayed sending one to Piastri and had been told twice by Piastri's team that he wouldn't be continuing with them. Then Otmar telling him in front of others that he would be racing for them next season when he had already been told that would not be the case - slimey behaviour that is. I had said his tweet was silly but knowing more of the details now - it wasn't silly, Piastri was forced to release it to counter Alpine's underhanded antics. As you say - they were trying to strongarm him into driving for them when they were the ones who didn't make it happen all along. No wonder Alonso left too.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/how-mclaren-did-its-piastri-f1-deal-and-what-alpine-knew/

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563568#Comment_119563568

Yeah that's a good summary. I fear Piastri has been cast as an asshole in some people's minds and that is sticking even after the details emerge.

I'll just see how he goes. He'll have a rookie season in a good team fighting for best of the rest this season (and would be winning that battle if Ricciardo were preforming decently).

Rookies always make mistakes and need time to bed in. 2023 will be about being decent without too many mistakes and missed opportunities. 2024 will be his big test. It's not satisfying because we don't want to wait 2 years to see him in full flight, but thsts the reality.

Even Max Verstappen was a bit of a headbanger for his first few years. He turned out alright.

flazio

In the interest of fairness, McLaren didn't handle the transition from Ricciardo to Piastri all that great either. Letting Daniel tweet his commitment while the ink was still drying on Piastri's contract. Basically there's been f ups all round.

Dont be at yourself

Glad it's all sorted. Looking forward to seeing him on the grid in a relatively quick car -- back-to-back F3 and F2 championships puts him in the same world as Leclerc and Russell.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563733#Comment_119563733

Disagree. I think Ricciardo tweeted that because he saw the writing on the wall. He knew they tested Carlton Herta in an old car. And according to The-Race, he knew they were talking to Piastri but they weren't guaranteeing him a race seat for 2023.

Ricciardo's tweet was telling mclaren he was committed to seeing out his contract and if they wanted him out, they'd have to pay handsomely.

Mclaren comes out of this very well. They never sh1t talked Ricciardo's performances and they quietly went about replacing him without embarrassing him publicly or adding to the reputation damages done in the 2 seasons with mclaren. They now have a promising rookie for the next 2 years without violating any contracts and settled their bill with Ricciardo.

Hard to see how they did anything wrong.

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563629#Comment_119563629

Hopefully by the time next season comes around all this will be forgotten and he'll be let get on with it. I'm hoping he does a Hamilton and has a great rookie season but know that's most likely not going to happen - Hamilton was well prepared for his McLaren drive at the time I think. Still, if Piastri is close to Lando in that first season that will be good enough - let's hope the car doesn't go backwards either.

FP3 starting in a few minutes - I wonder will Sky get Otmar for an interview...

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

So it has emerged that Piastri has informed Alpine he didn't want to race for them in 2023, and potentially knew he had signed for McLaren. Despite that they still put out a tweet announcing him as a driver.. Incredible. And Snfauzer was on about integrity in his interviews the past week. The man clearly doesn't understand the definition of the word.

https://racingnews365.com/crb-ruling-details-alpine-failings-in-handling-piastri-contract

In response to this, Mercer stated that she was "the bottleneck" due to a lack of legal resources at the team.

By March 2022, days before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Piastri did not have a contract with Alpine - either for his 2022 reserve driver duties or a race seat.

Piastri received this contract through his lawyers on March 15th, with Mercer stating that this was "an emergency measure" with the season starting just four days later, and no reserve driver agreement in place.Without a contract in place, Piastri could not be granted a super licence for his reserve position, which Mercer was aware of.With no other option, she was forced into treating the Terms Sheet of November 2021 as a binding contract, adding the words "legally binding Heads of Terms" to the document. This phrase was not present on the original document sent to Piastri the previous year.

My stance on the Piastri tweet has changed considerably since seeing those details of the saga. It was unprofessional, but considering Alpine's behaviour I don't really see it in a negative light anymore. I don't really understand how a professional sporting team with an annual budget of nearly €150 million doesn't always retain legal counsel. Even if they were in between counsel, hire external help to bridge the gap. A circus of a team behind the scenes, and not only badly managed, but it verges on gross misconduct.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563844#Comment_119563844

Yeah being anywhere near norris would be a huge win for Piastri. 2 tenths off in quali and within a position or 2 in races (plus a few rookie errors) would be a massive rookie season.

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563733#Comment_119563733

McLaren don’t appear to be smelling of roses after all this either if the below thread is anything to go by

https://twitter.com/sge_hou/status/1565774398056833025?s=21&t=TkLEY9shFvcP4r3ig-QjFg

rock22

I have to admit to reading this all wrong. More importantly , were Mercedes and Red Bull mislead as well.

It seems that Alpine may have unnecessarily embarrassed Wolff and Horner. Both spoke in support of Alpine after Otmar Szafnauer's statement on loyalty and integrity.

https://www.grandprix.com/news/wolff-horner-back-alpine-over-piastri-saga.html

I cannot imagine either Toto or Christian are happy to find that Alpine had no contract with Piastri and they were apparently just trying to frighten off McLaren .

To lose Alonso at the same time does suggest a badly managed team . A legal officer who had no time to deal with this contract from November to March also suggests a level of chaos.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119563976#Comment_119563976

Always wary whenever "a source" gets mentioned.

robinwing

Ricciardo just stamped his premature ejaculation cert today by failing to get out of Q1 while Norris fought hard in Q3 . Piastri will be in that car in a few races time , Alpine will release him early for cash which McLaren will willingly pay. Danni Ric looked like a condemned dog in his interviews today. He confidence has plummeted. He is F1 history

dulpit

This is a really good summary of the whole Piastri affair:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-real-story-behind-piastris-f1-move-to-mclaren/10363197/

Alpine seem like a joke shop. You'd feel for Ricciardo, my reading of it is that McLaren were hoping to have everything tidied up before any announcements but then once Alonso went to Aston Martin it all fell apart.

I was thinking that Piastri was coming across as a tool initially, but sounds like he was totally in the rights.

rameire

Who will be beside Russel next year?

would Riccardo get the seat?