F1 2022 thread - see post 1 for rules

Piastri isn't under contract with alpine, alpines failure to negotiate on time with him for a new one meant it lapsed

Yeah this is my understanding. I understand that if they didn't find him a drive for next year by the end of July, then he's free to find one for himself. But the rest of the contract is still intact. So he's contracted until the end of the season.

Thinking about it, mclaren would need to buy Ricciardo out of his contract plus buy Piastri out of his contract in order to make a switch this season. It ain't going to happen.

I don't believe Ricciardo has lost his form.

Whatever McLaren are doing, the car is odd to drive and doesn't suit Ricciardo. Added to that, Norris is probably marginally quicker in any machinery and there lies the big gap.

I would hope he would be very competitive with ocon in the alpine still.

I think McLaren and alpine are going to need to talk to get drivers sorted.

If ricciardo doesn't have an offer of a good seat, he will outright refuse to vacate his McLaren seat.

Not sure what people you're talking about - Alonso was clearly still one of the best drivers on the grid being held back by a terrible car at that time. I don't think there was any doubt in most people's minds around 2018 that if you put Alonso in a Merc he'd be winning WDCs easily.

Ricciardo is underperforming and finishing a long way behind his less experienced teammate quite consistently, there's just no reason for any other team to want him right now. Alpine would be doing McLaren a favour by taking him off their hands, I honestly don't think they will and think they'll plump for younger talent instead.

Yeah there's another variable. It's either that he had lost his touch or he just can't drive this car. Hard to tell until we see how he goes in another car.

If he just can't drive this car, it will still be a concern to any other team as he's bloody expensive, but failed to adapt to the mclaren. And we know the mclaren is decent because of how well Norris gets on (he's 20 points ahead of either Alpine driver). So he's not a particularly attractive prospect for anyone at the moment. If he was cheap he'd be worth a gamble but given he's so expensive, I wonder who will want him.

I agree Ricciardo should be looking for the best seat he can but I don't think he can command a huge salary.

I'm sure any new contract for him will be majorly performance based. He really cannot complain about that because he has it all to prove again.

Horner wasn't very complementary towards Eddie Jordan on C4 a few years ago.

Its almost fashionable to make fun of Eddie and I think he plays up to that image abit tbh but Eddie has done it all and walked away with a fortune. The sad thing about Jordan gp is that there is no real collection of Jordan cars. I believe most were sold off at different times and possibly butchered to some degree.

Me too, if not worse for Toto, especially since the team started to be challenged.

Coming out saying the sport is getting boring because of the gaps between between the cars this year was an especially epic facepam moment for me, actually stung a bit🤣

Ah, I never got into the craic of loving or hating team principals. They're just front men. They have no principles, they just put forward the company line about whatever the topic is. I don't love or hate the marketing team for Colgate or Easyjet when they say their company is the best. They're advocates, not honest brokers It's just their job.

It's not Toto's fault that they were so far ahead for a number of years. It was then other teams job to catch up. Now it's Toto's job to catch up. There's no point getting thick with the front men.

When he's talking to us, he's just a front man. It's not his job to tell us anything except whatever suits the team.

It's not his job to tell the truth. Just to advocate for his team.

And how do those 2 behave differently based on the fact that one has a stake in the team and the other doesn't?

Advocating for his team. He's just like a lawyer when he speaks to us. Party line, total war, fight on every front to get the results. There's no thought for what the truth is. They just advocate for their team.

I've no idea why anyone thinks anyone these guys are any different. They're all pret much the same. It's just their job. I've no idea why anyone thinks they know what these people are actually like. They're presenting their teams case and that's all they're supposed to do.