Formula 1 2018: General Discussion Thread

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Christian Horner told autosport that Alonso would not be a good fit for Red Bull. Said he tends to cause trouble wherever he goes. RB likely to continue to invest in youth

It’s a shame Alonso has spent so much of his career out of a top car, but the fact is he’s a trouble riser. He needs political power at his team do a team boss would be crazy to sign him as he’ll probably try to get rid of that team boss in favour of a boss of his choosing.

He might end up in team management and might be very good at it, but his driving career has been over for the last 4 years.

Horner is correct. He is a bit of a loose canon. He doesn't have the greatest respect for Honda either 😀

Prisoner 6753 wrote: »

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Exactly that. If a young driver was a test driver it might show investment in the future. kubica was given a pre season test with 2 teams and then is only given test driver status behind a rookie like sirotkin.

The evidence we have is not in kubica's favour.

Or where Williams is concerned he couldn’t bring enough cash to the table to get ahead of Sirotkin

Or having kubica around makes sure Williams gets extra publicity without having to give him anything except 3 first practice sessions all season.

We have some evidence : he had 2 tests and got no race seats. This speculation that he's a very fast driver in 2018 is pure wishful thinking. We don't have a clue how fast he actually is. Only Williams and Renault have the data of how he performed in a car that's not very relevant to the 2018 spec

The Williams case is a bit different. They’ve cleared favored a strategy where their drivers bring megabucks to the table. We can’t conclude anything re Kubica not getting a race seat, other than him bringing less money to the table than the other two.

I think the money is significant but the fact remains that we don’t know how capable he is under all conditions and circumstances.

The other teams are free to pick him up. Mercedes and Ferrari have significant means of getting race seats for drivers to see how good they are.

So we can conclude that they have chosen to go with other drivers on speed/potential and he doesn’t have the money to buy a seat.

He could be linked with grosjeans seat if Ferrari were interested. Hartley’s seat if RB were interested and a williams seat if Mercedes were interested.

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

So we can conclude that they have chosen to go with other drivers on speed/potential and he doesn’t have the money to buy a seat.

We can’t conclude that at all. We can conclude he doesn’t bring enough money with him, and that time isn’t on his side being 33, but that’s about it. The big teams have their own up and comers to watch out for, it offers zero conclusive evidence against Kubica’s potential that they’re not interested. You could apply that same argument to Alonso, saying he’s no good because he can’t get a seat in a top team. It’s not always that simple. There are many other factors to consider.

Facts aside, I could see Kubica destroying Stroll and Sirotkin, but isn’t allowed to upset them because of how much they’re paying for their seats.

vectra wrote: »

Don't know how much truth is in this ::

Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen reach agreement for 2019, according to Spanish media

http://scuderiafans.com/ferrari-kimi-raikkonen-reach-agreement-2019-according-spanish-media/

I’d say it’s all but done. The new chief isn’t going to want to upset the team dynamics at this critical phase in the championship. Kimi is doing well enough to retain his seat if he wants it, and Le Clerc could do with another season or two under his belt before stepping up.

Jordan 199 wrote: »

There is a Bruce McLaren documentary on ITV4+1 right now for anyone interested in watching it.

Great doc. Not to be mixed up with the God awful team McLaren doc from last year.

^ Jaguar are part of TATA now. Ford sold Jaguar about 10 years ago.

It's the fine balance of power to weight ratio. They can get all the power they need from the batteries but they need big heavy batteries. Once they've figured out how to make lighter, smaller batteries, we'll get racing with big speeds and a huge amount of torque.

Probably discussed in length, so I do apologise but anyone else getting a bit fed up of Horner's comments regarding Ricciardo?

We all understand there is risk involved, and for me it came as somewhat of a surprise. I do know get where I think Ricciardo is coming from, with Renault has the opportunity to be the lead driver in a team that can challenge for points and potentially make a big leap next year. At 29 he could have two good years with Renault and depending how it goes be free on the market again. I doubt things would go so badly to ruin his appeal and credibility, and he has all the chances in the world to improve it even more by performing with Renault.

Horner however is coming across like someone who has just been dumped. Was it any surprise to him? Renault have made it clear Max is their man and Ricciardo plays second fiddle. I got the same feeling, not the same exact extent but with Webber and Vettel, Webber didn't appear to enjoy himself. The comments Horner is making about how Dani is unhappy with Max, and how it's a huge risk that probably won't pay off, and why would he go to Renault are annoying me a bit. He still drives for you. Wait until he is gone to question the decision and support him while he's still picking up points for you.

I would love nothing more than to see Dani outperform the Red Bulls next year just to see the reaction of Horner, who I normally am a fan of!

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

It’s probably just a matter of time

Without a doubt. As above, it is the future of motor racing. I'd disagree with the notion of it rivaling F1 within a decade though. Technological progress in this field is advancing rapidly, but it's still very early days.

OSI wrote: »

Adamocovic wrote: »

Probably discussed in length, so I do apologise but anyone else getting a bit fed up of Horner's comments regarding Ricciardo?

We all understand there is risk involved, and for me it came as somewhat of a surprise. I do know get where I think Ricciardo is coming from, with Renault has the opportunity to be the lead driver in a team that can challenge for points and potentially make a big leap next year. At 29 he could have two good years with Renault and depending how it goes be free on the market again. I doubt things would go so badly to ruin his appeal and credibility, and he has all the chances in the world to improve it even more by performing with Renault.

Horner however is coming across like someone who has just been dumped. Was it any surprise to him? Renault have made it clear Max is their man and Ricciardo plays second fiddle. I got the same feeling, not the same exact extent but with Webber and Vettel, Webber didn't appear to enjoy himself. The comments Horner is making about how Dani is unhappy with Max, and how it's a huge risk that probably won't pay off, and why would he go to Renault are annoying me a bit. He still drives for you. Wait until he is gone to question the decision and support him while he's still picking up points for you.

I would love nothing more than to see Dani outperform the Red Bulls next year just to see the reaction of Horner, who I normally am a fan of!

From Horner's interview, I got the impression that Ricciardo had pretty much all but signed on the dotted line and gave no impression of not doing so which has likely wrong footed and slightly pissed off Christian.

I actually thought it was very good interview. He made sure not to single out any of the current drivers as best driver that drove for them. The interview was a day or two after Ricciardo informed them he is leaving and I thought reaction was fairly measured. Anyway the bits about Webber/Vettel dynamics were a lot more entertaining and I suspect less guarded.

OSI wrote: »

It won't be the fastest, and therefore premier racing series anymore and so won't attract the top talent and global exposure it currently does.

Fastest isn’t the only metric and I don’t think it’s even the most important one. At the start of the hybrid engine era the cars were slower than before. Since the 2017 rule changes they’re setting track records. I’d challenge any punter to appreciate the difference between cars lapping within 2seconds of each other especially when you consider straight and corner speed. Outright speed is not that big a factor.

I don’t know if F1 is the fastest at the moment. Presumably the Indy 500 is faster than an f1 street circuit like Monaco or Singapore.

F1 is and has been the most technologically advanced. The hybrid cars ensure it’s still the most technologically advanced formula in the world ATM.

Electric cars is the future but it’s not the present yet. As long as F1 is the premier league, it will always be on top.