The king is dead, long live the king.
Only 102 days to lights out for 2023..
Sorry I wasn't having a pop at Russells talent, he it top class and fits in well at Merc. I just find him a bit drab and script-written, not sure he has a joke in him at all.
Ocon didn't beat Alonso to that race win, in fact Ocon wouldn't have gotten that race win if it weren't for Alonso playing wide load with Hamilton.
There's nothing commendable about sitting at Williams and waiting his turn - he didn't achieve anything and was just preordained as the automatic successor at Mercedes without particularly working for it. Look at the performances guys like Norris put in race in race out, or Gasly winning in an Alpha Tauri or Ocon winning in an Alpine and beating Alonso as teammates. All Russell did was finish behind a teammate with one functioning arm in the championship in his first season, then after that beating the slowest driver on the grid by far, by what on average was a much smaller margin than Albon went on to beat him by.
Just to put some numbers behind that, Albon was an average of 0.472% faster than Latifi while Russell was an average of 0.319% faster than Latifi the year before. Albon was outqualified by Latifi once, while Russell was outqualified by Latifi three times the year before.
Russell never did anything special at Williams, he just looked good relative to the slowest driver in the field in the other car, and had the sycophantic media fawning over him for being British, for being good at the PR game and for being Mercedes' chosen one. His reward for that was getting a seat in what was the fastest car in the sport by default, while other drivers push and push and push fighting hard in the midfield for years putting in far better performances than George ever has with nothing of the sort to show for it. So I wouldn't be too quick to praise his patience for being in such a privileged position.
Makes sense, I always thought it was strange they’d use Sky F1 when they have their own broadcasting team.
Now give me the option to subscribe to F1TV and I’m all set!
Bit of broadcasting news Alex Jacques has returned to the F1 TV team as their lead F1 commentator. No word yet as to what's going to happen on Channel 4 however there's speculation that C4 won't produce their own commentary anymore and just edit their package using F1TV commentary.
What has been confirmed though is that Sky Sports commentary won't be used on F1 social media or YouTube anymore. The highlights will all be F1 TV.
Well they're certainly no strangers to complaining, but arguably in a less whiney manner. With Max especially it often manifests as an outburst of anger.
I don't know. Obviously my opinion is subjective and I was just outlining reasons why I think I like certain drivers more than others.
So will you be happier and dislike him less when he whinges less?
At least the footage these days goes further down the field. As much as I appreciated Schumacher cameras tracking him while he was half a lap ahead did get tedious.
They all whine. They're top level sportsmen.
I don’t think Max wines much at all or Alonso.
I do think Merc drivers are forever whining. Surprised with Russell considering how he was with Williams. I think Merc seem to have a whining culture. Look how happy Bottas is in himself now since leaving
The big difference (for me) is that Alonso and Max just seem more genuine. Yes they whine and can be dicks at times (especially Max), but I get the impression with them that it's what-you-see-is-what-you-get. George reminds me a lot of Hamilton, in that he seems very concerned with how he's perceived. A lot of what he says is guarded media speak. He even commented recently about how he plans to be more careful what he says over the radio so that he doesn't appear so whiney to the audience.
Fair enough. I suppose if that's your standard then you must also dislike Alonso and Max. They're pretty prolific complainers too.
Bring Back V10s is the best out there, the research that goes into it is awesome. Outside that, I listen to The Race and (don't shoot me) Missed Apex. The host is a bit of a dose but there is a nice community, amateur-y feel to it, like mates sitting round chatting. They also have some good guests sporadically through the year, Matt Carter (former Lotus TP) Joe Saward (I know, I know) Alex Brundle, and Mike Caulfield (former Haas strategy head).
and if last year is anything to go by he aint a half bad driver...
I don't get the reasons to dislike Russell. He's a bit wallpaper, but lots of the drivers are a bit meh.
He sat at Williams and waited his turn, didn't make a fuss even though he must have been frustrated. Can't begrudge him a decent car now.
BBC Chequered Flag podcast just had their preview episode and we got a lovely message from Jennie Gow on how her recovery from her stroke is going. Rosanna Tennant is subbing as reporter for now.
Sadly Channel 4 didn't keep their On The Marbles podcast going. F1 themselves have Beyond the Grid and F1 Nation (Warning, may contain Damon Hill) and that's about it.
On the broadcasting/podcasting side of things, Sky have launched a new podcast. It's on podcasting clients and on youtube:
It would appear that it's replacing Any Driven Monday from last year, which was poor. The first podcast was excellent, and not the usual sky sports British bias. Could listen to Karun all day, and Natalie is great. The host (Matt Baker) is anonymous, but no harm. Ted could have been a bit quieter, but well worth the listen.
Now have 4 f1 podcasts on rotation: The Race, P1 with Matt & Tommy, Sky Sports and Bring Back V10s for the nostalgia.
Anyone have any other podcasts to recommend?
He has more character than Russell, mind you that wouldn't be hard. Russell is like a wax statue of himself, and with Hamilton being towards the ned of his career, Merc will be looking to seal that talent for the future.
As for Audi, they are a few years away from being in as a proper manufacturer, so for Norris he will have to weigh up his options because if he sits idle and McLaren are not really making the gains, he could be doing more damage to his career.
There's also the rumour that Lando might go to Sauber when they become Audi. Andreas Seidl went from McLaren to Sauber and seemingly he and Lando have a great relationship. But big risk for Lando, while Audi have a good Motorsport pedegree, you couldn't really see them competing for championships immediately..
Would love to see him in Mercedes against George, hopefully he'd wipe the floor with him (I don't like Russell).
Jaysus, didn't realise that.
There was a mention on The Races podcast that Merc are courting Norris and Leclerc for a longer term contract. Only a rumour of course.
You can be sure the Norris contract swings both ways for release clause
Verstappen is contracted to 2028 with RB so anyone coming in until then will be a no.2 driver you’d imagine.
Would the RB suit Norris? Obviously he would be going in as No.2 but verstappen did say he didn't want to spend his racing life in F1.
Any driver who can command a 3+ year contract is obviously in a strong position on the negotiating table. Lando will 100% have a number of performance related clauses that allow him to walk away early in certain circumstances. If McLaren are 8th or lower going into the August break this season and Red Bull come knocking the door to replace Perez or Mercedes come knocking if Hamilton decides to retire then I'd imagine there would be clauses to allow him walk away for peanuts.
I agree to a point - but such a long contract could mean that other teams who want him might decide it’s not worth the extra cost and hassle of buying his contract out.
He was young enough in fairness and still has plenty of time left in the sport. Just think you don’t want to be completely unavailable if a seat at a top team opens up.
If you look at the context of when he signed that deal it was probably a good move at the time. There was a bit of a buzz around them then, Zak Brown had just come on board and everyone thought they were on the up.
Obviously that hasn’t been the way it’s turned out. They aren’t off to a great start this season and if this season is like last season for him I can definitely see him looking elsewhere regardless of his contract. If another team wants him enough and he wants to go then an arrangement can surely be made there.
Is Lewis’s contract up at the end of this season? If it is that could get interesting but I think Merc will still want to keep him.
Contracts can always be bought out, there's probably even performance clauses in there should Maclaren not reach certain targets, Lando can go cheap etc.
It's better to have your seat guaranteed for 5 years particularly in the fickle world of F1.
Yeah I can’t blame him at all at looking for what was best for him, Alpine completely dropped the ball there.
It’s a shame the car isn’t there because they have 2 excellent drivers.
I still think it’s mad that Lando agreed to a 5 year deal with McLaren in the first place. He’s highly rated and considering his family’s loaded money isn’t an issue for him, I would have thought he’d want his options a bit more open if a top tier seat opened up.
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