New regulations new season....
Can redbull keep up the pace
What writing? Would being no.2 to the best driver on the grid, winning the occasional race, regularly on the podium, winning constructors championships be a bad thing?
Leaving Renault to go to Mclaren was a mistake too. He was doing OK at Renault and there car suited him unlike the Mclaren.
If he wanted to win championships, then yes. He would have been signing himself up to be in the right team but the wrong side of the garage to ever win the WDC. Can't blame him for his ambition. Didn't work out but he had to take a risk if he ever wanted to be a champion.
Doubt you reach that level without thinking your no. 1 driver on the planet.
Daniel probably thinks all his problems in the last two seasons are entirely the cars fault.
Yeah I don't disagree with wanting a move away to try and be champion, or at least a no.1 driver, but I'm saying his decision has backfired in the worst possible way imaginable. Instead of, worst case scenario being no. 2 to Max, his career has gone into sharp decline and now he has no seat. Easy to say in hindsight of course.
He will probably end up at Williams at this rate.
It really is a shame, at one point at RB he was just stellar. Even crazier that he is the one that gave McLaren their only win in the past 10 years too.
How about Daniel Ricciardo to Haas, Mick Schumacher to Sauber so Audi would be happy as they would have a German driver in the team and Zho to Alpine.
There would be nothing wrong with any if that. Haas is not the worst place to go and they need experienced drivers. It might just be what Daniel Ricciardo needs and him and Kevin Magnussen would be good together. I think they would make a good team.
Interesting T1 development at Spa
Right but it was still a dreadful decision. He'd much rather be in Sergio Perez's shoes right now
You must be a very close friend of Daniel for him to have told you that.
Ah Jesus, do we honestly think he wouldn't rather be competing to win races and third in the championship over being 12th and dropped by McClaren?
His career choices have been consistently poor and yet some will always defend them
I’m sure he would. But you’re using todays circumstances to cast doubt on a decision that was made years ago in completely different circumstances so it’s not really a valid point. In hindsight his career decisions look bad but if you look at the context in which those decisions were made, it’s not so bad. When he left RB he was probably in the top 5 drivers on the grid.
His career choices have been poor alright. Renault was a massive gamble - Cyril talked a big game but they were very much mid tier and it was really difficult to see them being able to have the ability to significantly improve.
McLaren was surprising but it looked to make sense on paper, with Sainz gone it was the best available seat on the grid, but he really had zero consistency during his time there.
Easy to say with hindsight but he would have been better off staying with a car that was practically guaranteed to be more competitive than any other available one, then wait to see what happens in future. It wouldn’t have been too outlandish to see him get the Ferrari seat instead of Sainz, and if that was the case we might be having a completely different conversation.
Its probably worth noting too though that he’s probably earned a lot more money through his Renault and McLaren contracts than he would have at RB so it’s not all bad for him.
Apparently it cost them at least $12mil to buy him out of his last year.
He could offer to drive for free next year at another team, and still be $12mil up for the year.
Surely the likes of Haas, Alpine or Williams wouldnt mind having him for free for a year, with a second paid year dependent on performance in the first year.
If he is that desperate to stay in F1.
That's sounds like a Barcelona football contract, deferred payment until second year fo contract :p
If I were in his shoes, I would rather have taken the gamble and lost than forever be remembered as another Perez/Bottas/Barrichello.
As the old saying goes “you'll never regret what you do more than you’ll regret what you didn’t do”
Separate thread for Danny. Let's keep that talk in there please.
Mercedes to run with different looking numbers this weekend:
Last time they ran a special livery…it didn’t go very well for them.
Michael Andretti. Would you like to see him enter a team in F1? I would.
Why not? More the merrier as far as I'm concerned. Worst case scenario is that we have 2 uncompetitive cars on the grid, but sure so what. It was normal to have a heap of ****-boxes at the back of the grid when I started watching in the 90s. Plenty of drivers got their break in them. Even recently, Russell managed to prove himself in a horribly uncompetitive Williams.
Could this be the last F1 GP at Spa? I certainly hope not.
Just what they need to make there car more competitive lol new style numbers.
It'd be great having more visible numbers on the cars tbf. Still have to wait for the commentator to distinguish between teammates most of the time!
Yeah I agree. The Mercedes solution is clear and a nice retro touch. I like it.
Finally confirmed -Audi joining as a supplier in 2026
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-audi-to-join-formula-1-from-2026.yr9pFVd5nSQBbZ7EZZDLJ.html
Yellow camera at the top of the car is a giveaway. Most teams have their nominal first driver with a black camera and second driver is yellow (so Max is black, Checo is yellow; LeClerc is black, Sainz is yellow). Mercedes are the opposite though - Lewis is Yellow, George is Black.
But I'd agree, bigger numbers (like NASCAR, but not as huge) would be good...
Anything that attracts new PU suppliers is to be celebrated imo. With so few of them on the grid, it really restricts the amount of teams that could really push to the top.
I think the team it probably hurts most is McLaren? An Audi team with their own PU development could leapfrog them pretty quickly.
Absolutely agree! Also, hope another German manufacturer and a bit of progress from Mick might make it more financially viable to have an annual German GP
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