The king is dead, long live the king.
Only 102 days to lights out for 2023..
Di Resta was awful boring but he had improved a fair bit I thought. As a driver he was shocking boring with his answers to media.
I thought with sky, he gave himself abit of freedom to say abit more.
I don't mind any of the ex drivers really. Hard to complain about someone who has been there and done it.
Ah its very easy to complain about the likes of Hill or Herbert.
I really enjoy Button and (obviously) Brundle though...
Coulthard and Webber are good on C4 too. Stephen Jones is a dose and Eddie Jordan was just a spoofer. Threw out a hundred predictions and declard himself a genius when 5 of them turned out to be true.
Most of the former drivers are good. It probably depends on the kind of show the channel want to make. Sky wanted the old school English gent, highly nationalistic, don't trust Jonny Foreigner, plucky old Blighty can overcome all the Foreigner's dirty tricks to come out on top. That character was played by Herbert.
Likewise C4 wanted a joker character, played by Stephen Jones, to bring the bantz, make terrible puns and pretend to trip over on occasion (which was a particularly low point). But they wanted the former drivers to do pretty straight commentary.
I don't mind Steve Jones that much. I can't even remember the name of the Sky Sports anchor. Webber is always entertaining to watch a Grand Prix with.
Need to give Jolyon Palmer some kudos as well, decent handle on the races most of the time and works better alongside Ben Edwards in 2 years then David Coulthard after 9 years.
Orlen has transferred sponsorship from Alfa to Alpha.
Does that suggest they have to trot Kubica out for a few FP1s or are they getting the money without the baggage?
They are getting the sponsorship without Kubica. He has no part in the deal.
Good for them. Time to stop flogging that horse has long passed.
Good that the sponsor stayed without polish involvement in the sport. Bodes well.
They are going up in the Alpha leagues so lol.
Maybe a totally new livery for RB?
I can't imagine it'll be anything other than a variation of blue, yellow and red. As per every other year.
They have teased us in the past with some shakedown liveries that were great.
The change in the actual livery is always really subtle. It's their brand, they would be fools to actually change it. They can't change it any more than Ferrari can change their main colours.
Red Bull can tease because that's all they can do. They might do a cool testing livery like the camouflage ones they've done before, but that's it.
Ah, they have had a few bigger changes over the years like the introduction of purple when Infinity was on the car.
I wouldn't see it like Ferrari which has a much longer history and a road car business that is synonymous with that red. So they have the option to change anyway without changing their band.
Oddly, the closest to the RB brand was never raced, just used for testing.
Maybe that's what they will go for this time then. Would love to see it. They need to make a big livery change. There current one has gotten so dull.
Some of their new team wear has been leaked online and there is a lot of red this time, I think a red and blue and yellow would look neat.
Sauber ran Red Bull sponsored cars that looked similar to the red bull can in the late 90s too.
If I had to bet, I'd bet on them having a small tweak on last year's livery, exactly the same as they have done for years now.
It's unadventurous to people who watch nearly every race every year. But to the casual fan or a new fan, it's clear and consistent branding. Plus, it's branding associated with success.
Changing now would be madness because they're lose the livery connection to so much success. Including 5 world championships, current world driver and constructors champion and Max Verstappen in the current branding.
Can't say I agree with the branding being associated with success.
Just look at Mercedes, went from silver to black. No issues there. A team can change as much as they want. McLaren would be another team that did it back in the day.
Mclaren changed in 1998 because West cigarettes became their title sponsor and they changed to the West branding. Doubt they had much choice in that. They hadn't had a lot of recent success in the white with red stripe. Ron Dennis would use a livery slag ging off his mam if the sponsor paid the money.
Red Bull is the brand and the title sonsor, so they don't have to make choices like that.
The Mercedes change was associated with BLM after George Floyd which was hugely topical during covid and fcuk all else was going on. That was a Lewis Hamilton call ( i think) and he was the hottest driver and multiple drivers champion at the time. Given the context and driver involved, it's not really comparable.
Do you think red bull will make big changes to their livery this year?
My point is that a team can change livery and not take any kind of branding or marketing hit.
As for your point around RB being the title sponsor etc, they aren't, they are the team, the title sponsor is Oracle right now. RB have total control over their brand/look and feel so they can change it whatever way they want.
I think from the leaked team kit photos, they will make a livery change yes.
Like significant livery changes or tweaks like they've done for over a decade. Because I'd only bet on the latter.
A yellow Ferrari for a whole season would be cool.
Rumours are that Red Bull will announce a partnership with Ford on Friday.
The team will be known as Red Bull Fix Or Repair Daily 😉
What because there is no FIAT to slag off now people are slagging poor Ford. Have to say that's the first time I heard that.
Anyway we have Haas reveal there livery tomorrow.
Something to look forward too.
To be fair, most of the car launches are only livery launches anyway because the cars under the covers rarely end up being the cars in the garage at FP1.
Once theres a battle for p1 between 2 or more thats all i want. 2021 season will be hard to top.
If max and leclerc have cars that can compete then we should get that 2 way fight because its hard to see their teammates compete consistently. But if Mercedes can compete then both their drivers could be in contention making it a 4 way fight ad they'reevenly matched.
We'd need 3 relatively equal cars but it would be great gas to watch the 4 of them compete
Just a little bit over three weeks to the pre season test (23rd - 25th of February) and around five weeks or so to the first grand prix of the season. Bring. It. On.
Haas livery:
