The king is dead, long live the king.
Only 102 days to lights out for 2023..
My money is still on Alonso, at least this version of him anyway.
De Vries is the second Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri driver to be pointless in his time there.
Anyone remember the first?
The Alpha Tauri is the worst car on the grid. It will be a tough job for Ricciardo to impress, but he at least needs to match Tsunoda to try rebuild his reputation after being dropped by McLaren. I don't really rate Tsunoda that highly, and don't think he would be the grid if he wasn't Japanese and Honda weren't supplying engines. So it's not a really a high benchmark.
Be interesting to see if Tsunoda is still around in 2026 when Honda move to Aston Martin. I can't see Aston Martin giving him a drive at all and Red Bull might not want him either once they cut ties with Honda.
We will see. I am all for Lando and Piastri doing well now and beating Aston just to see the smug smile wiped off Alonsos smug face and I am an Alonso fan.
Fair point, RB will have known more so from the sim work if he still had it or not, and it does point to him making strides towards improvements.
I am happy to see him back, I do hope he performs well.
We also have to be aware that some tracks suit certain cars over others. Even Norris made reference to that with Austria and Silverstone bing tracks what would favour their car more than others. The AM loves slow speed corners, hence why it went well at Monaco and Canada etc. It suffers more in higher speed than the McLaren.
I think we will see it swing back and forth for the teams at each race...with the exception being RB of course.
I'd say the decision was made before the test. It's one thing to set a fast lap on an empty track, another thing entirely to do it during qualifying in changing conditions - silly tweet that from Lawrence. Happy for Danny but RBR have nothing to lose - chuck him back in a car and see how he goes for the remainder of the season, he can't do any worse than the nil points that de Vries has contributed.
Red Bull parent company may not even own Alpha Tauri in 2025.
Technically 2 good races. Norris beat both Mercedes and both Aston Martins in the Austrian GP to finish 4th, he kept Hamilton behind him easily so British GP performance wasn't a flash in the pan. Piastri didn't have the upgrades there (Austria). Plus Norris had a newer front wing than Piastri in British GP.
It is a stretch, Aston Martin currently have a 122 point lead over McLaren but 12 races to go. If both McLarens are in the mix for decent points each race versus Alonso and an underperforming Stroll, it could happen. Will depend on the Aston Martin upgrade schedule.
This is F1 nothing for 2025 is guaranteed at this point, you can be sure that Lawson has nothing in writing to that effect. Ric needs to beat Yuki soundly and based on his form at McLaren that might be a high bar for him, especially if the car doesn't play to his strengths because one thing we learned about him from his stint in orange is that he struggles to adapt to a car that doesn't necessarily suit his driving style.
Is there much pressure on Ricciardo to do well ? A few points finishes and it probably be seen as a good stint for him. The car is a complete donkey, Tsunoda would have scored a good few points if the car wasn't so sh!t. I always thought he peaked at RedBull but I'd like to see him get back to that level. He's a PR goldmine and advertisers will love that! I do wonder will Honda take Tsunoda to Aston Martin replacing Alonso in 2025/26 which would leave a seat open for Lawson. I read Lawson is guaranteed a seat at AT in 2025 as Marko doesn't want to interrupt his development too soon
That's mad, you'd have to feel for DeVries. Not even half way through the season and he's been unceremoniously dumped. At 27 you'd have to wonder if he'll find a way back. The car is rubbish so we'll see what Daniel can do, I'm not expecting much, his McLaren stint suggests he's passed it but I'll be happy to be proved wrong.
The pressure is on now though, he's going to have to wrangle some performance out of a crap car and if he doesn't soundly beat Yuki who is fully embedded in that team then his F1 career is over for good.
I read the sim data had to do with the decision also. Tsunoda set the benchmark and De Vries couldn't match it, I'd say advertising and pr that a lot to play in it aswell
You have to assume Ricciardo is in the Alpha Tauri as an audition for red bull for next year. If he shows obvious pace, they can be more assured in putting him into that car. If he's poor, no great loss with AT. And it will also serve to benchmark Tsunoda's pace too.
I picked up tickets for the Dutch GP on motorsportstickets for this year races, expecting the tickets in the coming weeks so will report back then, I managed to get it all in for me and the wife, Flights, accom and race ticket in a grandstand for a little under 1600 where as cassidys wanted 1780 for one person 🤣
Sounds like RB were convinced by the test this morning.
Tough on DeVries. He hasn’t been great but the car is dreadful.
Interesting to see how Ricciardo gets on with Yuki, though. Hopefully he’s more suited to this car!
How many podiums does Alonso have this year? Bit of a stretch to say McLaren will jump AM after one good race for them.
Even if Checo is terminated it surely won't be Danny Ric coming in. More likely an Ocon or Piastri type character.
But on de Vries, he's a salutory tale for every aspiring driver. F1 is not F4 or even F2. You keep your head down, you earn your stripes, you take your beatings and work on gradual progress and you check your arrogance at the door.....
Like Oscar Piastri for example.
Honey badger back in action! You'd have to feel for De Vries getting the boot after 6 months. Alpha Tauri don't have anything to lose, things couldn't get any worse. Might work out good for Yuki having a proper experienced driver on the team
The Dutch GP is a great experience, was there last season, I was able to get tickets from formula1.com in December 2021 without issue but that might be different now if there’s more demand.
I’m going to Hungary in a couple of weeks and bought tickets from gpticketshop.com as they organise ticketing for the whole event on behalf of f1, and were selling tickets before formula1.com were so it was very handy to get tickets.
Generally though it’s a good idea to sign up to alerts for whatever races you’re interested In on https://tickets.formula1.com and be at the ready when they go on sale!
Unbelievable. Ricciardo is back.
Seems redbull can see he has the speed still.
Junior team for now but I'd imagine Perez will be terminated end of 2023.
That is great. Hopefully Danny can do OK in that car and get back up the grid maybe to Aston Martin beside Alonso maybe. That would be great. Unfortunately I do not see him going back to Alpine or Mclaren anythime soon but Maybe Red Bull next year if Perez does not improve and Danny is doing better. Would be great to see him in a Ferrari but do not think that will ever happen now either.
Confirmed now on F1.com
They'll just paste Danny's head over Nick's head.
Delighted to see Danny Ric back if this is true. Would be very interesting to see if he's the equal to (or better of) Tsunoda.
Also, do they need to change the f1 intro now?
Looks to be happening..
Cheers! I was leaning towards the Dutch one due to what seems to be good organisation and ease of getting to the track, I heard horror stories from a friend who went to Barcelona so want the least hassle.
Any other tracks worth considering that are easy to get to? I’d be looking to do the Saturday and Sunday, fly in on the Friday or Saturday and preferably not camp.
Looks like it's happening.
The Dutch GP is over-subscribed. They could sell more tickets than are available so you have to sign up to the lottery to get the chance to buy tickets for it.
If you have the cash hospitality tickets are on other sites but very expensive. You can also find tickets on some sports travel travel agents but they also make you buy a package of flights/hotel and its expensive.
The best value way of getting tickets is to sign up to the lottery and hope for the best, Other circuits would have more tickets available. Silverstone had 480,000 tickets for the weekend. So you could buy them on the Silverstone website up to the last day.
