2024 F1 General Discussion Thread

Good to see KMAG finished in F1, Not a hope he'll be picked up by another team. Hopefully more of the dead wood to follow soon.

I'm not sure how further downhill Checo can go

Exactly.

It’s quite common for a car’s development to diverge from a driver’s comfort zone, especially when a team’s performance starts to decline. Given that Red Bull is likely nearing its peak performance, they can’t simply take an overperforming car and adjust it for Perez anymore where he can sit comfortably a few tenths ahead of the rest. I imagine the current car is extremely rigid and challenging to drive as they try to maintain their lead against McLaren and Mercedes. Perez is essentially driving Maxes car now and no longer an adapted version to suit his driving style. Riccardo might have a better go at it in those circumstances but who knows.

At this point they have nothing to loose by swapping Perez out, a 1-2 in the drivers championship for Red Bull is already dead and he is becoming a serious threat to their winning the constructors.

Ye, maybe stick him in the bumper car championship and he'd drive for a top team

Ricciardo failed at McLaren and at VCARB, why would you put him in the best car to proof something?

Formula 1 is a complex sport, and success often depends on having a team built around a driver. Unfortunately, Ricciardo hasn’t experienced that within the 2022 regulations because he hasn't adjusted to the new cars. As a result, he found it challenging to fully understand and integrate into what has essentially been Lando Norris’s and Yuki Tsunoda’s teams.

Moreover, Ricciardo’s performance in the newer F1 cars introduced after 2022 hasn’t been as strong as in the pre-2022 cars. These modern cars are larger and heavier, which might not align well with his driving style.

Ricciardo performed well during testing sessions with Verstappen’s Red Bull. If he were to drive a better car, it could potentially address some of the nuances he dislikes and allow him to make significant progress. In fact, I believe he could outperform Sergio Perez, making the risk of signing him for half a season worthwhile. He's raced at the front and he was once a brilliant driver. Perez has always been a mid-field shoe in behind Verstappen.

As for Perez, it seems his time in F1 may be coming to an end. While he’s a good driver, similar to Valtteri Bottas, it might be time for him to explore other opportunities beyond Formula 1.

Seen an Interesting comment about Mick Schumacher to either Alpine or Audi could be made soon.

Based on...?

If Ricciardo wasn't popular off the track he would be out of the sport a few years now. He failed badly at McLaren, both pre- and post- ground effect, and he's done nothing of note at RB where Yuki has consistently looked the better driver. The idea of promoting him to the parent team on the back of his performances just seems crazy to me. I agree that he will be out and Lawson will be in.

Whether Perez keeps his seat or they promote Yuki or Lawson leapfrogs all the way up or they go outside their stable I don't know. I honestly have doubts anyone available will do meaningfully better than Checo in that seat, people forget how good he has always been through his career and he's not that old yet.

"There was fresh talk of Ricciardo to Red Bull and Lawson to RB."

Wait a minute. How can they both go to the same team? Unless Sergio and Max both leave that is not going to happen.

. I honestly have doubts anyone available will do meaningfully better than Checo in that seat, people forget how good he has always been through his career and he's not that old yet.

He has lost his confidence and Red Bull badly need a driver there who can perform. I think Perez will be gone after next weekends race in Spa and Ricciardo will be in for the rest of the season.

I don't see what swapping Perez for Ricciardo gets you.
If its just to fill the seat in for 6 months til the season ends…. just stick with Perez. I see no reason to think DR does much better.

Agreed. I have a suspicion all is not well in the RedBull camp at the moment.

Max sounds seriously pi**ed off, Horner doesn't get on with Marko, Jos hates Horner. Checo can't qualify for ****. Newey gone/going. McClaren quicker

Max will win the world title this year but they'll lose the constructors title

McLaren caught up 27 points to RedBull this race alone. They are now 2nd, 16 points ahead of Ferrari, and only 51 points behind RedBull. 2 more races like this and they are ahead of RedBull.

Verstappen has a 76 point cushion over Norris in second place so that will take a bit longer to catch up, if at all. 11 rounds left, on average Norris need to score 7 points per weekend more than Verstappen to catch him. Not outside the realms of possibilities, but gap might be just a bit too big.

7 different race winners in the first 13 rounds.

3 top teams separated by 67 points, Mercedes another 81 points behind and could also catch up to have 4 teams in the mix by end of season.

Many many driver moves being made (even if at end of season, but its all playing out during this season).

This season is turning into a great one.

I think there’s a lot of talk about Max taking engine penalties soon as they’ve used up their allowance already for some components already, the Red Bull definitely isn’t as racey this year and it’s no guarantee he’d cut through the field as fast he normally does, and when he does the mercs/ferraris and McLarens are no gimmes for overtakes these days so chance for McLaren to reel in redbull whenever those chances pop up.

The competitiveness this year is great, hopefully it will carry into next season before the reg changes.