New regulations new season....
Can redbull keep up the pace
And there is a huge difference between those two cars.
Ye the Williams is quicker lol at least one was in Spa and got into Q3.
There having no loyalty and there is making a right prick out of your employer.
There can be no argument here. Piastri handled it wrong.
He could have spoken behind closed doors to Alpine and even if it still went to the CRB, at least he wouldn't have publicly embarrassed his boss and employer. That won't be forgotten and to be honest I think he deserves abit of a lesson in the form of another year on the sidelines.
A quiet word behind closed doors wouldn’t work. It was surreptitious for a reason. He must have started the mclaren talks well in advance of Alonso's leaving announcement. So he needed to stretch it out until after the supposed contract deadline.
What was he supposed to tell Alpine? Tell them he's running down the clock so he doesn't have to drive a Williams (which turned out to be an alpine)? What exactly should he have said behind closed doors to Alpine?
The way I see it, Alpine were stringing Alonso on and would only give him a 1 year contract when he wanted two. They did this to give themselves the option of Alonso or Piastri for 2024. They were stringing Piastri along with a chance of a drive in 2024 too, but he could have ended up at Williams for 2023 and 2024. In the end they have looked to pissed off both drivers and lost both.
Yeah the only thing Piastri did wrong was that stupid tweet - heaping unnecessary pressure on himself doing that. But what a fascinating mess it is, I can't wait to see him in a McLaren next year - Norris will be a great test.
In other news, the Porsche / Red Bull partnership not a done deal at all it seems?
He was about to sign for mclaren. Mclaren needed to know he wasn't looking to string them along. He had to publicly say he wasn't driving for Alpine. I doubt he primarily intended to humiliate Alpine, it was mostly about stating his position and committing to mclaren.
Not to mention that, as far as Piastri was concerned, Alpine announced him as thier driver outside the terms of the contract. So he was well within his rights to make his position clear. Well find out who was right when the ruling is made.
Yeah, Alpine didn’t handle it well at all - trying to have their cake and eat it too. Piastri is recognised as a special talent so you can’t keep him on the sidelines forever.
Still think the tweet was an awful idea, just because it shows teams that he’s prepared to publicly throw them under the bus if things aren’t going his way. A statement should have come from his representation saying that Alpines statement is not true and discussions are ongoing, or something to that effect.
I am looking forward to seeing how he does in the McLaren, though, him v Norris could be very interesting.
I'm not saying he will, but many drivers have worked themselves up the lower leagues with equally impressive records as Piastri has yet withered when it comes to getting their seat in formula 1. Again it might not happen, but there's an element that he might not be the F1 driver that is hoped for due to the pressure
Recent examples include Tsnouda and Schumacher
Think Piastri’s F3 and F2 performances eclipsed both of them in fairness but seats are not always performance alone.
It makes you think how many drivers in the past were protected from silly impulse due to lack of social media.
Yeah if he ends up missing an F1 seat next year it's hard to have any sympathy for him and he has only himself to blame. If he does end up at McLaren he better perform because no team is going to want to touch him when they can't trust him to honour his contract or to act professionally, unless his speed is just too good to ignore.
I wonder how much the recent rule change with the floors has to do with Max's outlandish pace, if there is a link?
Horner was adamant all along that this TD didn't impact RB.
There as a rumour doing the rounds too that one or both of the RB’s were running with the new floor for the two races before the summer break! It doesn’t seem to have impacted performance in anyway from what we’ve seen
With Hamiltons engine deciding to eat itself does that mean he will take grid penalties this weekend??
With Hamilton destroying his engine by crashing into Fernando last weekend does that mean he will take grid penalties this weekend??
FYP
Yes I would say it is possible.
Yea I'm going to call bullsh1t and say you havent seen and don't know the terms of Piastri's Alpine contract to back up that statement... we have no way of knowing who was in the wrong until the ruling from the CRB comes out.
I said if he's without a seat - I didn't say he would be without a seat. But if he is without a seat, it will be entirely his own fault, and by definition it will be because he tried to break his contract.
Looks like Gasly is off
Happy for gasley is this is true. He showed great development since the red bull disaster. This season hasn't been brilliant but I think he has great potential.
Hope the deal goes through
I guess we are going to see how Desperate Danial Ric is to stay in F1 now so if that deal does go through and if Williams, Haas or Alpha Tauri will be where he will end up.
Shite... you have a fairly airtight response there. 🤔😅
Would Alpha Tauri be the worst performing team outside of Ferrari, considering they are the sister team to RB, power unit, driver line up and resources etc.
HAAS and Alpha Romeo both ahead of them in the Constructors.
One thing I’m excited for will be how Ocon and Gasly get on…it’s no secret they are far from friends. So we should get some action!
Would Alpha Tauri want Danny Ric? Red Bull's driver academy must have enough drivers coming through to choose from, why would they want to take Riccardo. I'd have thought Red Bull would want to use AT to find a replacement for Perez when his contract is up.
Making friends isn't one of Ocons strong points
He is still pushing for Schumacher as well, it seems.
This actually makes me happy.
I presume there's lots of transfer from works teams to their customers. But I also think a lot of teams buy last years parts. Since this os the first year of a new formula, they can't buy last year's parts so they had to develop their own for this year. That might explain why AT and AM have slipped backwards this year.
Next year I expect AT to make a bit of a jump forward as they get the parts from this year's RB. AT has been reasonably decent the last few years, but this year has been a big step backwards for them.
CRB side with McLaren re Piastri
