New regulations new season....
Can redbull keep up the pace
Best Silly season one I have read is Gasly to Suddenly move to Alpine ( the all french Line up ) . MickSch to Alpha Tauri as Redbull grab him.
and Ricciardo to HAAS as the Americans seem to like him his sponsorship money covering the cost of brining him .
At the half way point /summer break I kinda agree with how it is ranking them.
Not that I would agree with the Driver ratings given by most press places after each race the average rating over the year does kinda pan out .
They could be, but if they thought Piastri was ready then they would have announced him by now. I think they prefer experience at this point as they develop the car. There might still be engineers from his Renault days that felt he was a good influence while he was there.
And I think any deal between Alpine and McLaren for him would include right of first refusal for Alpine after the initial contract ends, because I agree they’d be mad to let him go permanently to have Ricciardo for a couple of years.
....
I'd argue Alpine are losers in that situation if they lose Piastri and end up with Ricciardo. Ocon has been around long enough for them not to need someone with more experience to partner him.
I read a good comment on twitter, Ricciardo and Alpine are awkwardly looking at eachother because everyone else they've shown interest in keeps telling them they'd make a good couple together.
Stroll does not have one of the fastest drivers in the world as a teammate. He had a driver who was once a top driver and is a shadow of his former self and ready for retirement.
Stroll isn't a good driver. He has had a couple of huge performances over his years in f1 alright. But that's not the same thing as being a very solid driver. He's poor. But he's a special category of pay driver because his dad owns the team so his seat is safe.
Completely agree, and tbh when I was thinking of any possible exit strategy for Ricciardo I didn’t include Alpine because of how he left Renault.
Ricciardo gets a new car and a reboot for his career, McLaren get rid of him while getting a talented up and comer, Alpine get an experienced driver while they continue their car development and their preferred young driver gets a seat in F1.
The only losers would be any young McLaren drivers, but Piastri is a reserve driver for them this season anyway.
Stroll has had an unfair advantage in the opportunities he's had, but he has used that opportunity and has learned with experience and become a very solid driver over time, far better than he gets credit for.
He's not been able to show it recently because he's had arguably the worst car on the grid and one of the fastest drivers in the world as a teammate, but people forget he wasn't that far off Perez previously, earning a pole position and podiums in the process in a car that wasn't that amazing. Of his other teammates he matched Massa as a rookie, was far faster than Sirotkin, and he's also a champion in every open seater category he entered prior to F1. He's no Alonso sure, but he's also not a Mazepin or a Latifi.
Ricciardo might be delighted with a new contract for 2 years with Alpine. It might not be a step forward but a change and a chance to reboot is exactly hat he needs. He's not improving significantly against Norris. It's just staying terrible at mclaren and he's damaging his brand every race. Another season of that damage might be irreparable.
A change of team and a chance to start again wirhout going to Williams is the best thing he could hope for.
Well then it really sounds like it depends on what Ricciardo wants to do. I had assumed McLaren wanted him out as he’s not performing but as it was said yesterday, McLaren essentially have to buy him out of his contract to get someone new in.
So either he stays at McLaren one more year, or he’s back to Alpine again while Piastri drives the McLaren.
Youd have to imagine Alpine would be his preferred choice assuming he can get a 2 year seat out of it.
Alonso's exit means Alpine will undoubtedly be eager to sign the youngster who took F2 and F3 by storm, winning both championships as a rookie.
However, the delay in securing Piastri a seat could complicate things for the French squad.
AutoHebdo suggests that McLaren is interested in Piastri, with potential talks taking place between the two parties. Ricciardo's future with McLaren should be secure for the next 18 months, but everything is to play for when his contract expires at the end of 2023.
Again.... that aged well....
"Piastri and his manager Mark Webber are understood to have agreed a deal to go to Mclaren it appeared that Aplines’s only choice was to place the youngster at Williams for a year."
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/alpine-says-piastri-cant-leave-for-mclaren/10347657/
It's really doubtful in general that such an old driver apild be performing well. But Alonso has had pretty good form in spite of his age. He's defying the odds. He's definitely not the aggressive monster he once was, bit still very respectable. I wouldn't rule him out.
I think interest and hunger is a big thing that changes as drivers get older. Vettel got old in his early-mid thirties. Hamilton is older than vettel and still has great form. I would say getting married and having children is one example of a big factor. Being a husband and a dad are big jobs. They take from the ruthless focus on being an f1 driver. Hamilton and Alonso don't have those additional parts of their lives.
Vettel said he never saw himself as primarily an F1 driver. He has lots of parts to himself such as husband and father. Alonso might be able to keep a very respectable level of performance for another few years. I'd be happy for him if he can.
I never support a driver staying on after their performance falls away just because they're a familiar name like kimi or Seb. But alonso is still well worth his place on the grid.
No, still in charge of T-shirts, the strategy role is only part-time
Alonso is hardly going to stick around more than two years is he ? Couldn't see another team signing when he's 43 or 44
Williams are already babysitting a driver for Red Bull, I can't see them wanting to do the same for Alpine at the same time. Unless there's a new engine deal in the mix.
The Silverstone outfit doesn't have the greatest reputation as a progressive step for ex world champions. It was the last F1 team for Damon Hill, it's the last F1 team for Vettel. Now what about Alonso?
..... silly season upon us
He did look good in green.
Surprised by this. Alonso could be timing this kinda well with Dan Fallows taking the design reigns for AM next year fully after his leave from RB.
German media are reporting Alpine want Ricciardo on, and would still prefer for Piastri to get his feet wet at Williams.
It's funny how things play out. I bet Danny Ric dreams about being in the red bull now even as a number 2.
No !! They're not going to replace him, are they, either next year or, probably, the year after. He's doing just about enough to hold on to the seat and is content to play second fiddle. Schumacher has done little to justify promotion up the grid.
I think the long term priority is to make AM competitive. But it can't be a short term job because it's a small team. It always got great value for money but it was never a serious championship contender (1999 aside). The investment in the design and production facilities shoes long term ambition and bringing in top people from other teams shows medium term ambition.
Buying in former world champions is about brand building. That's Lawrence Stroll's whole bag. He buys normal brands and makes people think they're premium brands through aggressive marketing. He's visibly doing that with the F1 team by calling it Aston Martin and bringing in some of the biggest driver names in the sport like Vettel and Alonso. None of that is cheap.
Everything about it suggests they're serious. I think they're going about building a serious team. Whether it works or not is another story. But they're laying the groundwork.
Alonso to AM shows another bad business decision by Stroll. Or at least that the priority is not making AM competitive.
I also heard that Lance Stroll on the 63rd most experienced f1 driver of all time (113 starts) and by the end of the season he'll be around the top 50. He'll be 24 by then. Not bad for him given his talent. He could go on to get the most race starts of any driver by the time he retires.
Ah, in that post you say he always gets 100% from the car and also he isn't the driver he was. What was he getting from the car before? More that 100%, presumably.
He was brilliant, and he's still very good but he's not getting 100% from the car. He's about level with Ocon at the moment, poor reliability at the start of the season aside. Still completely worth his place on the grid, but age has caught up with him and slowed him down and he's not going to get any faster.
I think the move to AM makes decent sense, but I doubt it will pay dividends in one or 2 years. Alpine has hit its ceiling. They have set a budget and they're sticking to it. They set their budget at about the level of the originally proposed cost cap. The final cost cap is significantly higher so they aren't going to compete for wins or championships. The renault engine programme is poor and never looks like being a top engine.
AM on the other hand, is investing massive money in the design and production side. That will take time to bear fruit, but AM has a far higher ceiling than Alpine in the medium term.
The person in charge of the t-shirts back then is now head of race strategy.
I don't fully get the comparisons between Alonso and Ricciardo. McLaren completely destroyed Alpine in the championship last year and Daniel even won a race which he'd have had zero chance of doing had he stayed at the Enstone team, so from that point of view he made the perfect move. He's simply underperformed relative to his teammate, which is down to his own performance rather than making a bad career choice.
Alonso always performs 100% and gets the most out of any car he's given, but he's simply made multiple bad moves in his career. Not all of them his fault - joining McLaren in 2007 seemed a good idea and indeed they were far better than the Renault team he just left, but he never could have predicted spy gate and the fall out from that and the fact Ron Dennis would favour his teammate so dramatically after Alonso did the morally correct thing and cooperated with the FIA about the corruption within the team. Alonso only lost that title by 1 point remember, if the team had given him the slightest bit of support instead of working against him at every turn it would have been his third WDC in a row.
He ended up back at Renault for a bit before joining Ferrari which was the correct decision given the bridges were burnt at McLaren and Red Bull were dedicated to their own young drivers. His performances at Ferrari really cemented him as an all time great but the team let him down, just like they did with Prost and Vettel and now Leclerc.
Joining McLaren Honda after that was a huge risk, but nobody knew how bad the Honda engine was going to be and due to the rules it was absolutely guaranteed that no other team had any remote hope of challenging Mercedes at that time so it was probably a worthwhile roll of the dice if he ever wanted another championship.
Joining Alpine has gone about how you'd expect, but it was the only seat he was going to get in F1 at that time so he'd no real choice if he wanted to race. Jumping from them to Aston though, that's just totally inexplicable to me. At some point age is going to catch up with him, he's already clearly not the driver he once was but still better than 80% of the grid, but it's hard to see it staying that way for multiple more years, especially at a team that by most first hand accounts is getting run into the ground by Stroll regardless of the money he's pumped in.
Perhaps Ralph, and.... nobody else on the planet.
No. Why would Red Bull want Mick Schumacher? Yes he is younger than Sergio but that's about it. He is not much better and Sergio is doing good as a no 2 driver.
I think Alonso has done a Ricciardio aka an Alonso. I hope I am wrong and that Aston Martin come good in the next couple of years but I just do not see it.
As long as Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are still in F1 I do not see Aston Martin winning much.
They are not a Factory works team as yet anyway and Mercedes will not allow them to win.
