2025 F1 General Discussion Thread

chicorytip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501400#Comment_123501400

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123501400#Comment_123501400

I'm not prejudiced against the fellah as an individual at all even if he appears to have unlikeable personality traits but you could say that about most drivers and team owners.

My idea of a great team principal and leader was Peter Sauber. No major successes on track but he founded and managed a long lasting team on little money and gave many star drivers their first break in the sport.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508930#Comment_123508930

So your idea of a great principle is someone who's team never even won a race? (They did when BMW owned the team)

I would hedge a bet that Horner cares more about the success he has achieved more than anything.

Ghost Train

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506214#Comment_123506214

Toward the end of the season, if he's secured his and the teams place in the championship, maybe a race ban and a clean slate for next year could be a strategic decision 😬

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509377#Comment_123509377

"Max, you need to get 3 points to clear the slate, crash into George again". 🤣

dulpit

I was listening to a The Race video about Lance Stroll and both Aston Martin reserves (Drugovich and Vandoorne) are due to race at Le Mans same weekend as Canadian GP. The likely option is Drugovich which means he could end up missing Le Mans and, if Stroll is able to race, also miss the f1 race. Aston apparently willing to give Stroll until the Friday of the weekend to decide.

PsychoPete

I was reading earlier on that Ferrari failed the new flex wing test over the weekend, managed to make some adjustments and it passed

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123512703#Comment_123512703

Stroll really shouldn't have that seat. I am well aware why he does, but he shouldn't.

Joeface

Oddly, I am okay with Stroll having a seat, purely on the grounds that Stroll Sr. kind of saved two teams (Williams initially with, what was it, $20 million), and then rescued Force India to create Aston.

They also showed how you should plan bringing in a new team. I know the car is terrible, but the factory investment has been massive, and it is set up to be one of the big teams. Cadillac better have been paying attention.

Lance is better than the Nikitas, Latifis, and Sargeants that were hovering around. He currently is the minimum benchmark for kids with money (even though most drivers come from serious money, not all but most).

Drugovich, hopefully, will do well if he gets to race. It might even be two races, and he is under more pressure than any other reserve drivers or rookies just for himself, given who he is replacing.

If Lance's wrist is messed up, it's probably the triple header and having Monaco in the middle. There are a lot of steering inputs there, and then four days off before going into the Spanish GP.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513828#Comment_123513828

Lance is the 34th most experienced driver of all time in race starts with 174. He can't be a benchmark for kids with money. He's a seasoned driver at this stage. He's not a kid and can't really be used as a benchmark for rookies or drivers with one or 2 years experience.

Joeface

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513882#Comment_123513882

Everything you have said is accurate , but with the way some people speak about the drivers he kinda ends up there as a sort of bench mark . Any new driver can claim to be better than him even with his secure seat , he still gets points in a crap car .

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513914#Comment_123513914

Is it a useful benchmark? Could a driver be better than Stroll and still lose their seat? How do you compare a rookie driver in a Haas to Stroll in an AM? The AM is famously up and down the grid within a season.

Stroll himself is benchmarked to Alonso who is in his 40s. How good is he now? Is he getting absolutely everything out of the AM every week or is he way past his best?

I really don't think it's any kind of usable benchmark

dulpit

Here's the thing about Stroll. If his dad wasn't providing the team and the money and he ended up on the grid and was driving for a back of the grid team (which AM are right now) I don't think there'd be outrage that he's there. He's competent and fine. Not a world beater, but I don't think there's been a season where he's been the worst on the grid.

The fact Aston are shaping up to be a (hopefully for them) title contender in the next few years is the worry though, because while I don't have any serious objections to him being on the grid, if he doesn't prove his worth in a car that can win races then he shouldn't stay in that team.

With the money Stroll Sr has though he should really be paying for a much better driver pairing. But if his son wasn't there would he ever have invested in f1?

Joeface

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513992#Comment_123513992

Yeah it can be useful to a certain level, be clean and be closer to you team mate in qual (0.2s ???) than he is to his. Start there . If you have more questions been asked about you as a driver than Lance there are issues , if you have more penalty points than him in your first season your going the wrong way . :D early days in the season I know .

PsychoPete

I don't think stroll would have made it out of F3 if his father didn't buy Prema while lance was in F4

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123515551#Comment_123515551

Nobody gets to f1 without additional support. A meritocracy it is not. You really need money.

PsychoPete

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123515991#Comment_123515991

There's needing money then there's your father buying two teams and throwing millions at another team just so you've a f1 seat. The seat is completely wasted on him

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123516261#Comment_123516261

Yeah Lots of drivers were pay drivers. Alonso famously got a seat in the Minardi because he has Santander money. He stayed on the grid because he was excellent, but he got his chance because he was able to pay for the seat.

Stroll would probably not keep his seat on the grid without paying for it, even now when one of the most experienced drivers ever.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513828#Comment_123513828

"If Lance's wrist is messed up, it's probably the triple header and having Monaco in the middle. There are a lot of steering inputs there, and then four days off before going into the Spanish GP."

Eh you do know that Monaco and Spain were the last two weekends right and they were part of a tribble header? Maybe you have not been following the races lately or even this season and missed it. That's understandable. It has not been a great season so far. One of the worst actually. Hopefully next year mixs things up and puts a spanner in the works.

Spain. Was the race stroll missed out on.

Joeface

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123519501#Comment_123519501

I know Spain is the one he missed, but doing three race weekends in a row is probably a bit too much with a wrist injury, which is why maybe he didn't make the start line. Imola week one, three days of Monaco, and then into Spain, he did the three FP sessions and qualifying. As he participated in all that, it still makes the three race weekends in a row too much in the end, missing the race.

Jacovs

I also understood your last paragraph (especially taking into account your second last paragraph) that you were saying that Drugovich would be replacing him at the Monaco and Spanish F1's. Scratched my head a bit at it too.

But I see now you meant those might have been the cause of his wrist problems.

Joeface

Maybe my rambling was a bit out of sequence. Sorry if I made it confusing

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123519640#Comment_123519640

Awe I get what you meant now. I thought at first you meant with them coming up but you actually meant the fact that he had participated in them might be what caused his wrist injury to resurface. It makes sense now. Maybe it did. All this reminds me of someone I knew when doing my apprenticeship. He done something really stupid over a weekend and same thing happened him. He ended up destroying his wrist so could not finish it. No idea what happened him after that. He was very intelligent though so maybe he done well in something else.

dulpit

Just read an article that suggests that Stroll should be back for Canada, but they'll make a final decision closer to the end of next week. So both Vandoorne and Drugovich are in Le Mans full steam ahead.

One mention I thought was funny though, they said if they need a last minute replacement they can use Bottas, but that he still has a five place grid penalty hanging over him. He'd probably still qualify better than Stroll though...

mickdw

Is it true that the wrist injury was due to lance losing the head in the garage and punching a wall and storming out without fulfilling media duties etc.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123521937#Comment_123521937

There have been rumours/suggestions about this, but I doubt we'll ever know for sure

AMKC

Anyone heading to the Silverstone GP this year?

I seen this,

El_Duderino 09

I've seen some silly-season articles already. Horner to Alpine and Verstappen to Mclaren were two highlights. I'm not saying either is impossible, but beyond the headline, the stories were clearly just made up.

I'd say the summer break will be wild with stupid claims this year above others.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123522273#Comment_123522273

There's a certain cohort of f1 websites that are painful. Articles about drivers being dropped, but they just mean it's an FP1 switch. One line of a rumour with a few paragraphs tacked on. Etc.

mickdw

Ive seen that about drivers being dropped and its only referring to fp1. Stupid click bait.

One that caught me for a few second recently was

ALONSO RETIRES.… Aston release official statement as veteran driver retires.

Of course it referred to him retiring for a race only. Poor muck.

Jordan 199

It's race week!