New regulations new season....
Can redbull keep up the pace
Its only day 2 of the summer break (ish.. technically it starts next week for the teams) and we already have the silly season going mental!
Are things that bad at Alpine, that Alonso is willing to move to a worse car, and their star young driver doesn't want to race there either?
That last line is fairly definitive.
He would want to have something else lined up or it could backfire massively for him.
ATM Alpine look like a right shower of clowns.
That's a clanger and a half from Apline. Surely Piastri goes to McLaren and Ricciardo back to Alpine now?
This is mindblowing but still funny as hell.
Alonso looks like a dick, but sort of on brand anyway. Alpine look inept.
That has to be a massive clustertruck for Alpine.
It's nice of Alpine to take the heat off Ferrari after Sundays race
Nobody is looking good coming out of this. Alonso suddenly signing for Aston without informing Alpine who thought finalising the contract was a formality. Alpine announcing Piastri seemingly without informing him. Piastri apparently signing contradicting contracts with multiple teams and airing dirty laundry in public. Not a great way to start your F1 career.
FDA = Ferrari Driver Academy...
Thats a fantastic twist
Seems to be setting up for Piastri to McLaren and Ricciardo to Alpine perhaps? Alpine look like a right shower of clowns though...
The silly season get sillier! Love it
The hell
This is why F1 is just brilliant. Piastri not happy. F1 and Alpine social media with egg on their faces. Silly season in full swing. 😂
Who is FDA. You mean Haad.
A pity piastri has signed for Alpine.
I have no problem with Piastri in F1 and am happy for him just think him starting at William's or in Mclaren might have been better.
I would have liked to see Ricciardo back there.
Someone said earlier that if Ricciardo had of stayed at Alpine he might not have got a win last year but I disagree. Ocon got a win in the Alpine last year. That could have been Ricciardo.
Piastri's signing apparently not all the straightforward:
Say what you will about the on-track performance, but Aston Martin are making Alpine look very poor from an organisational point of view...
Definitely don't think Mick Sch will be picked up by better seat this year. HAAS is where he will probably still be next year. Unless their ambitions change. Maybe the upgrade parts will suit the remaining tracks . Last year was really a training wheel year. This is more of a rookie year as the car has some performance and he can actually challenge for stuff.
It was only a few races ago that a lot of people didn't seem to think Mick deserved a seat in F1 at all. To go from that to being linked with the best seat on the grid seems a bit far fetched to say the least.
Maybe Porsche would like a German driver?
Apparently Mick is not re signing for FDA this year. So where does that leave him?
Along with Marko Asking if Perez is already on holidays and recently talking up Mick.
Piastri has buckets of talent, he should have got a seat in F1 this year. Hopefully he does well
Alfa's current drivers are already contracted so there shouldn't be any changes there.
The only remaining movements for next year are whatever happens between Alpine and McLaren, then Latifi being shown the door at Williams. I'd bet on de Vries at Williams, Piastri at Alpine, and Ricciardo to stay at McLaren. If McLaren do manage to land Piastri and buy out of the contract with Ricciardo then maybe Alpine would look at Mick Schumacher, that seems a better choice than Daniel to me.
Not convinced Ricciardo has a future in F1 after McLaren. Maybe they can slide him over to their Indy or upcoming Formula E team.
And Piastri has signed for Alpine. Done deal for a race seat.
Piastri confirmed for Alpine
Yeah fair point about pay drivers. Lots of drivers start out as pay drivers because they have strong sponsorship. Alonso and webber both started at Minardi and they got those drives because they had sponsorship money. Alonso has the Santander money for ages so he brought sponsorship to each team he signed for. But he developed into a top driver and was obviously in the sport because of his speed and he also had sponsorship to sweeten the deal.
Perez is similar. He has Carlos Slim's money. But he's also a good driver. Stroll probably wouldn't be in the sport were it not for his special relationship with the team owner. It's fair to say he'd have been dropped from the sport if he relied onntalent alone.
The AM seems to be a better race car than a qualifying car. The Ferrari is the opposite, more like to be fastest on Saturday than Sunday. Red bull was similar last year. They had a better chance of getting pole and being blown away on Sunday pace between engines and tyre wear.
Yeah because he's renowned for coming dead last in good cars 🙄 you're really reaching here...
I’d imagine Schumacher might want to stay in the Ferrari family, so maybe a move to Alfa Romeo if a seat pops up there?
We could have a really different line up of drivers and teams next year, I’d imagine all the agents and managers are working like crazy right now. Gasly probably could do with leaving the RB family, especially if Albon is also still on the RB books.
Ill have some fun and say:
Schumacher to Alfa
Ricciardo to Alpine
Piastri to McLaren
De Fries to Williams
AT to fill their seat with a junior driver.
Just for fun, I don’t expect much of the above to happen with maybe a few, but silly season is silly for a reason.
Not that I want to get dragged into a disscusion on Pay to drive and Paid Drivers . Pay to Drive guys have kept F1 teams alive .
They have always been in it . No body likes the stigma but some of the Greats started this way , and while the current batch are not greats of any sort they are better than some that went before . The Lance Stroll hate is just blown way over the top. He way too much focus on the money buying the seat. He has dragged that Aston into the points 4 times this season. would have been five only for the time loss after Dani Ricc put him out.
If the team have to pay someone thats less money on development. Aston may have money to play with but its still better to have the owners son in the car given that he can actually drive somebit .
I think the driver rating I linked earlier is pretty accurate this season over all and I would have above those that are currently below him. I even believe he will maybe end up ahead of Gasly with the way things are currently going for him .
Hulkenberg is a top class driver? Ah, you're freestyling now.
Couldn't disagree more. When Vettel had Covid and Hulkenberg came in to replace him, he ran dead last and a long way behind Stroll in both races. And we know Nico is a first class driver who produced great performances when stepping in for other drivers with covid last year.
The Aston is a terrible car with one fantastic and one decent driver in it. People who just look at the results and don't recognise the machinery the drivers have to work with might not see that, but we've plenty of evidence over the years that that is the case.
