AMKC wrote: » go to mclaren, That's the choice Riccardo should have made but he took a gamble on Renault and it is not good so far. Would have been interesting go have Riccardo and Lando Norris as team mates at Mclaren. I would say he would have been happier there too.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: » That's fine with hindsight. Mclaren is a customer team. Renault is a factory team. That alone is a big point. It's worth remembering that his chances of becoming WC were very slim. Near zero. The Red Bull was vastly more likely to be the best car he could get but they had chosen max as their guy. So he was betting on either mclaren or Renault becoming a championship competitive car. Neither were great options with very low percentages of producing a championship winning car. I don't criticise him for choosing Renault.
Dont be at yourself wrote: » Pretty clear Ricciardo is betting on Renault for 2021 rather than this year.
AMKC wrote: » Hope they come good for him then. Going to be a bit of a wait for him. Hopefully Renault do improve a bit next year.
Harika wrote: » Riccardo has a get out of jail card. if Mercedes or Ferrari calls,he could swap for free.
meeeeh wrote: » McLaren are paying for their own arrogance. They blamed Honda for everything and made themselves irrelevant instead of looking how to cooperate. I hope they stagnate around midfield with their great Renault engines for long time. Anyway a race in Saudi Arabia is on the horizon which is pretty despicable and not the direction F1 should go. While I don't overly want sport to take political stand it does seem F1 is just becoming a vehicle to legitimize any crack pot dictatorship willing to pay enough to host the race.
H3llR4iser wrote: » Sure they did, it was very clear their chassis wasn't "the best on the grid" and just held back by the Honda engine, as they claimed; It is also fair to say that Honda were absolutely hopeless at the beginning of their cooperation in 2015 and the hyper-proud Japanese mentality of not admitting their concept was wrong and needed an U-turn in terms of management and design didn't help at all. It was the classic case where everyone from the public to the parties involved expected the simple existence of the "McLaren-Honda" moniker to bring back the glory of the late '80s. In reality it was always going to be a long-term task that needed patience on the side of McLaren and cooperation on that of Honda and neither conducted themselves in a constructive fashion.
Indestructable wrote: » If you were going to a GP in Europe which one would you go to? Has anyone been and can recommend one? I'm thinking of going next year and want one that's easy enough to get to in terms of near an airport or town to stay in. Preferably somewhere that can be combined as a city break, to keep herself happy! Thinking of Budapest, added bonus is it's on the bank holiday in August. Thanks for any input
H3llR4iser wrote: » I would second Barcelona if it stays on the calendar (it looks like it will afterall): - The track is about 10 minutes walk from a actual town/small city (Montmelo') with shops, bars etc., rather than in the middle of a field; You can easily grab food & drinks on the way to the track (they had everything in plastic bottles when I was there in 2014) or stop for a pint coming back from the track in the evening - If you want to stay in Barcelona, it's only 45 minutes by train (R3 line) and it's an extremely efficient service, not to mention cheap (the one-way ticket was something like 2 Euro). - Plenty of hotels in Barcelona - if you book early enough you'll get very competitive prices (IIRC, I paid less than 200 Euro for 3 nights near Sants station) - The track itself, while not the most thrilling, is a natural "theater" as it's built at the bottom of a slight valley; From anywhere you can see a good chunk of track rather than just a corner or two - The logistics are surprisingly good, I was on a packed but not unbearable train back to Barcelona less than 2 hours after the race ended - Weather is usually good
g1983d wrote: » This reads as though bottas knows his goose is cookedhttps://www.autosport.com/f1/news/145314/bottas-looking-at-nonmercedes-plan-b
H3llR4iser wrote: » I'd be utterly surprised if Mercedes decides to go any other way than keeping Valterri for at least another season. They have pretty much a picture perfect arrangement: he can deliver solid results and even the occasional win, without being too much of a nuisance to Hamilton. As long as Mercedes delivers a competitive car, Bottas will be 2nd or 3rd in the championsip. People are giving way too much weight to the last couple of bad races he had - also, for some reason I can't fathom, everyone seems in love with Ocon. The only way I see Wolff deciding to run the risk of putting Esteban in the car is if he SERIOUSLY thinks they have a masterclass young driver in their hands and are afraid of losing him. If that turned out to be true, however, they'd have a major headache in the relationship with Hamilton - which would inevitably sour to the point of being unmanageable.
pjohnson wrote: » H3llR4iser wrote: » I'd be utterly surprised if Mercedes decides to go any other way than keeping Valterri for at least another season. They have pretty much a picture perfect arrangement: he can deliver solid results and even the occasional win, without being too much of a nuisance to Hamilton. As long as Mercedes delivers a competitive car, Bottas will be 2nd or 3rd in the championsip. People are giving way too much weight to the last couple of bad races he had - also, for some reason I can't fathom, everyone seems in love with Ocon. The only way I see Wolff deciding to run the risk of putting Esteban in the car is if he SERIOUSLY thinks they have a masterclass young driver in their hands and are afraid of losing him. If that turned out to be true, however, they'd have a major headache in the relationship with Hamilton - which would inevitably sour to the point of being unmanageable. I think if Toto has as much faith in Ocon as he makes out he would have been given the Williams seat instead of Russell.
H3llR4iser wrote: The only way I see Wolff deciding to run the risk of putting Esteban in the car is if he SERIOUSLY thinks they have a masterclass young driver in their hands and are afraid of losing him. If that turned out to be true, however, they'd have a major headache in the relationship with Hamilton - which would inevitably sour to the point of being unmanageable.
chicorytip wrote: » I think we have seen enough of Ocon to come to the conclusion he is a rather ordinary driver, nothing exceptional. I think Mercedes need a stronger number two than Bottas. I don't think Lewis is particularly bothered who that may be. He is the type to take on all comers and feels confident of beating them. If he had a teammate who would be far more competitive than Bottas currently is that in itself would only motivate him further to improve his already exceptional level of performance. Sainz is looking, by far, the best of any realistic candidates for the job presuming Verstappen either stays with Red Bull or joins Ferrari next year.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: What's this now? Sainz and verstappen are midst likely to get the Mercedes drive? I really don't think either is likely to get the seat. I'm pretty sure verstappen was only a rumour snd I've never even heard sainz suggested for the job.
El_Duderino 09 wrote: It's between the two Mercedes (Toto's management company?) boys. Bottas or ocon. I think it depends on how long they think Hamilton will stay. If they think he'll probably leave in 2021, then they'd go with icon. Give him a year in the car to become no1 title Challenger in 2021. If they think Hamilton will stay longer then I think they will keep bottas as a long term No 2
