The king is dead, long live the king.
Only 102 days to lights out for 2023..
Personally I can't see Hamilton leaving Mercedes, I expect he'll give it another year maybe two and then retire.
I would think the only thing keeping him in the sport now is that the Mercs are starting to look competitive and he's possibly hopeful for next year, but why risk moving to another team and being an also ran in the championship if they can't produce a car.
It worked for Alonso.
The Mercedes-Benz boys were notable absences from this quiz. Alonso was shocking. Some of the go to answers were eye brow raising.
You'd miss Vettel
I suspect Alonso was deliberately tanking, especially at the Ocon answer... I also guess that Nyck de Vries did this, but has been cut - which is sad.
Sainz beat a rookie Norris. The context is pretty important there. And Leclerc beat Vettel on the downswing. How good he had been a number of years before that, wasn't relevant. He spiralled in the second year with Leclerc and lost his seat because he wasn't that good anymore.
That doesn't take from the fact that Sainz and Leclerc are very good drivers and likeable lads too. But the context is relavant. Leclerc might be the second best driver at the moment. I think it's too hard to tell how the drivers rank at the moment because the cars are quite different. Apart from the Red Bull, the other cars have been pretty inconsistent this year. So I think it's too hard to rank the other drivers.
Hamilton normally doesn't do most of that stuff. Norris definitely didn't want to be there anyway! Vettel would probably have gotten every one of them correct
Talks of Haas taking over the Alfa Romeo engine branding from Sauber for next year. Both would still be running Ferrari engines for next two years.
I guess Sauber would go back to be ling Sauber or some other sponsor name until a rebrand and engine change to full works Audi team for 2026.
Hopefully there will be enough of a livery change that we can tell the difference between Sauber Alfa and Haas Alfa. The Williams and Sauber are hard to distinguish from their BMW days.
I see this happening also. I don't see Merc getting back into contention properly for quite some time, by that stage he might have just lost interest in it all and the other teams seats will be filled.
Sure where could he even go that would be a step up? Back to McLaren, I doubt. Ferrari is way too much of a risk. RB is a flat out no. Aston Martin...only if Stroll leaves and that won't happen.
Merc did show some promise a few races back (Spain), but now McLaren and Ferrari are ahead of them again.
Alfa Romeo had really low expectations if there switching from sauber to Haas. Just glad to have ots branding in the sportnor getting a reduced price from Haas, I wonder.
Or they produce a good car but it's not to Hamiltons driving style and he ends up looking like Ricciardo did with his two years at Mclaren.
The only reason Hamilton can keep these negotiations going on so long is because he knows there is no up and coming driver like the next Max that Mercedes could hire to replace him and who will do better than him.
If that was the case you can be sure the negotiations would not be dragged out as long as they are.
Well yeah, but his negotiations have always dragged on. It's also because he's a top driver and a recent multiple world champion and the most successful driver ever by lots of metrics and a really marketable driver with lots of appeal outside of F1 and Mercedes really really want to keep him.
Apart from that the only reason it's dragging on is because there's nobody to replace him.
Well if this is true, no wonder Dani Ric went back!
I was watching that podcast where the quote supposedly comes from the other day but had to turn it off after a few minutes of listening to Croft - the chap is insufferable these days. Anyway, for sure Alpha can't just "run this years Red Bull next year", he knows that. First comment on that thread links to an article from April this year that mentions Alpha plan to use the RB front suspension next year along with the rear they already use.
Tbh Alpha should be using as much as they legally can from RB to gain any sort of improvement. We've already seen other teams copy as best they can from the Red Bull so you'd think Alpha would be doing a better job of it.
Danny needs to just focus on beating Tsunoda for the remainder of the season, then see what options are available to him.
I know there's lots of giving out about F1 commentators but I really like Coulthard. YouTube had been showing me cpis like this recently and I think it shows that he's a genuinely decent guy with normal humility. Things that a lot of people in and around F1 lack.
Yeah DC seems like a decent chap alright (even if he did take Schumacher out that time at Spa in the rain 😜). Didn’t he survive a plane crash many years ago?
Love this clip from him:
Ha. I know we need controversy to keep the chat going during the break, but going back to 1998 is reaching. I appreciate the effort though.
I was a Schumacher fan back then and i believe that incident was Coulthard's fault too. In hindsight, it was obviously just a racing incident. It's all unimaginable now because the race wouldn't happen under modern conditions. Would never have even started
FIA president visits Craig Breens parents and pays his respects.
Nice touch.
This was impressive from Vettel.
Here's a better link
He missed one of the Schumachers in 2001.
Very iconic car up for auction
I have to wonder who's the seller, Ferrari? The Schumacher family? Someone else?
Another 11 days to go before FP1. 😒
Not as funny as previous ones but still gave me a chuckle, especially Sainz.
Would it come with the engine ?
This is all very undignified by Massa. And the worst part is, it's all based on sh1t stirring by the biggest sh1t stirrer that ever stirred a pot of sh1t, Bernie Eccleston.
Bernie now says he can't remember saying it in the first place. Massa should have more sense.
One week to go to free practice at Zandvoort.
Nothing to win here, stupid boy.
Wishing Jennie Gow the best of luck.
How is it undignified? It’s been outright admitted that the FIA engaged in a deliberate cover up which directly robbed him of that title.
He’s got every right to sue for the millions in lost earnings that would have come of that.
Ha. Where has it been admitted that they engaged in a cover up and how on earth would that give him the right to sue 15 years later?
Sue for what? He hasn't even quantified what it cost him. Should they take the championship from Hamilton and give it to Massa?
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