2024 F1 General Discussion Thread

New Red Bull motto: Better the devil you know than the other devil you know.

Very surprised that Checo is staying, perhaps the payout was too big to give him the boot?

Hahaha, you make a terrifyingly valid point there.

I get the impression from Vowles that they are focused on 2026 rule changes and making major changes to everything in their structure to ensure they get a clear run at it next year. Kinda similar to Haas in 2021.

Its not just factory etc. Personnel are key too. Aston Martin seem to be in a similar mode now too with their new factory/2026 taking precedence but they both have one similar problem... A crap driver (Stroll/Sargeant)

Mclaren and Merc have made huge strides, Ferrari, no idea what's going on with them. They seem to be drifting a little. The Mclaren issue is still under investigation so be interesting to see what comes of that.

Merc would have caught up in latter half of 2022 but for the budget cap.

Aston need to nail it in 2026 after the investments in the factory etc. Could make 2026 intriguing.

RedBull losing some of the wind tunnel time over the budget cap issue might be biting them bit too.

I wonder of it's more difficult to reach a consensus since the ownership parts of Red Bull turned on each other.

I also have been wondering if Max has anything to say about this? In one sense - he's not being challenged, the team is his entirely, his driver's championship looks like it will be secure. But on the other hand he has no support at the front and the team championship (and apparently £1,000s of bonuses each for all of the staff in Red Bull) are on the line.

There is no dought one of the two Mclaren's drivers will win the championship next year. The upward curve of that team this year reminds me of '91 when Williams started to challenge the mighty McLaren's. I personally think Max is in the third best car over the last four races. It's a downward trend. I still think he will win the Championship, but the Constructors is gone since they give Perez their full backing yesterday. Just shows how f*+ked up internally that team is at the minute.

McLaren's problem, and Red Bull's saving grace, is that Merc have recently made a resurgence. Mercedes are too far behind to realistically challenge for the title, but they could take enough points from McLaren to prevent them winning it.

I fancy his driving style but he's fallen off the track and missed his pit mark once or twice this year. His wide lines and the speed he carries wide is class, I hope his management coach him to not do that to Lewis or Max they'll put him in the dirt.

Another take on this table is that you might assume as Red Bull is on the backfoot, the driver championship heats up. But in reality Max extends his advantage as the hunters take the points away from themselves.

I've been saying this for ages. It's not like Perez has suddenly forgotten how to drive and he's always been a great driver at multiple different teams. Just to put it in laptime context, the previous two drivers in that seat were 0.592s and 0.625s slower than Verstappen on average in qualifying. Perez has been 0.520s slower on average (as of stats collated on July 3rd so not counting the last couple of races) and I'd argue Max himself has gotten better with each passing year as he is 26 years old now and at his peak, making Checo's job all the more difficult compared to the guys he replaced.

So on average Perez has been better than other drivers they've put in that seat and you have to go back to when Verstappen was still a teenager learning the ropes to find the last time a driver was closer. What's different between now and previous seasons is that the field is closer than ever and half a second can mean a dozen grid spots whereas in the past the second driver at a top team, someone like Bottas for example, could be half a second off and still be 2nd on the grid.

Meanwhile it's obvious that the development time handicap Red Bull are facing has massively hindered their development. They've been well off the pace of McLaren for all but the first few races of the season, they've been behind Mercedes since Merc's upgrade package at Canada, and their pace relative to Ferrari has ebbed and flowed with different tracks (though Ferrari themselves have been on the back foot for the last while) and really it's Max that's been carrying the team. Perez is generally better in the race than in qualifying and is usually there or there abouts fighting for 6th or 7th come the chequered flag which is about as good as the Red Bull is right now.

I don't think there is any other driver available who they could drop in and would do much better, while they could potentially do worse, they would certainly bring less money, and they could possibly upset the relationships in the team. They've made it clear a few times that they see Norris as a target but he instead chose to tie his future to McLaren which seemed crazy at the time but now looks like it was the right choice. They didn't go for Sainz for whatever reason and outside of that there is maybe Leclerc or Piastri, Alonso is too old now, I just don't see anyone else on the grid who you could say would be a certain improvement. And all of those drivers mentioned have existing contracts in place. It would be a very big gamble to drop in someone unproven like Lawson or someone who's proven they no longer have what it takes like Ricciardo.

I wonder where Hamilton would have finished this year had Merc sorted itself out at the season?

As good a driver as he is I cant see him getting that elusive 8th title with Ferrari.

this feels like the start of silly season

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/new-usa-f1-project-revealed-involving-former-alpine-boss-szafnauer/10640481/

There is one thing to note. Back in Imola it was announced that Perez had a new multi year deal. As of yesterday, that's down to the rest of this year.