2024 F1 General Discussion Thread

McLaren have had the fastest car for the majority of the season, bar a couple of races at the start for Red Bull and a few races where Mercedes were fastest (and McLaren were still ahead of Red Bull in those ones), but none of that has stopped Max building a comfortable championship lead.

Even at Zandvoort where McLaren's advantage was probably the largest we've seen from any car since 2020, Max still got ahead of Lando at the start and led for most of the first stint. If Red Bull had better straight line speed he might have been able to hold him behind the way Leclerc could with Piastri. Oscar for his part has outperformed Lando in a number of recent races too so if he can get stuck outside the podium like that in this race, Norris could just as easily in the next one.

I just don't see a scenario where Norris comes out and wins every event to the end of the season. He's not consistent enough. Max will almost certainly manage to grab another win or two as he always gets better starts, he makes fewer mistakes, and Red Bull often make better strategy calls than McLaren. Meanwhile Mercedes will be in the mix for wins too as they've had the fastest car at a number of tracks layouts recently. Even Ferrari may get in there with a car well suited to Singapore.

The championship isn't over, two or three DNFs for Max could turn it around. But I don't see us making it to the end of the season without Norris losing a bunch more races through bad starts or mistakes - after all he's only actually managed to win 2 races all season so far.

McLaren should have the constructor's championship in the bag on the other hand. Perez can't make up the deficit in machinery the way Max can.

Mathematically he can. It won't happen, but if he wins every race, every sprint and gets fastest lap in every race he wins the championship regardless of what Max does.

If RB want to win the constructors, they very much have two drivers to focus on.

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I suppose it was probably between him and Zak O Sullivan, Colapinto is having the better season. Sargeant surely was warned if things don't change he'd be gone. Like De Vries, Sargeant just wasn't good enough and probably shouldn't have got a second season

Am I the only one who never heard of him. What's in it for Williams? Does he bring money, funding or a big sponsor?

He's part of the Williams academy. You'd be familiar with the name if you watch F2

Isn't he supported by Alonso as well?

Alonso supported him in the Spanish F4 championship in 2019

One is a FIA championship and the other (Indycar) isn't.........

Sargeant was not good enough to get an indycar drive and then somehow get picked up by Williams , had an average F2 season and got a super licence, no surprise he didn't perform particularly well in F1.

There are drivers in Indycar ,Palou,O' Ward,Dixon ,Kirkwood, Herta ,Malukas, Power , Newgaedwn to name but a few who would give a F1 driver a run for their money.

Rumours floating around Vowles wanted Lawson but Horner wanted to keep him incase they needed him. Unless Lawson is guaranteed a seat for 2025 he needs to get away from RedBull ASAP

Is Colapinto a pay driver?

They don't have pay drivers for next season and, by all accounts, Dorilton don't need the money..

You would have to say their pay driver model changed when they signed Sainz alongside albon.

This one nearly got me

Colapinto also has experience with the team and the car as well. Probably why they picked him over Schumacher.

Also sounds like Mercedes want Kimi to complete his pretty extensive racing program, and putting him in too early was probably seen as a risk.

There are some stories that Schumacher could end up at Sauber alongside Hulkenberg.