Formula 1 2020 - General Discussion Thread (See MOD warning on first post)

pyramuid man

Top Dog wrote: »

I thought there was talk of Rokit moving their sponsorship to Mercedes? No sign of it on the race suits

I heard about that and was wondering why it wasn't on the new car livery. Seems to have been a non story.

New livery and suits look a lot better.

Inquitus

LIGHTNING wrote: »

He will have one or two great races and people will say "this year!" and then he will fall off as usual.

Agreed, he doesn't have what it takes unfortunately for him! Can't wait for tomorrow, be nice to see how the various teams shake out with their first laps since Barcelona oh soo long ago!

Rodney Bathgate

10 million gets you title sponsor on Williams, for Mercedes it is one of a dozen mid / low level sponsors, so if it happens it will be a small logo somewhere that works with the Mercedes colour scheme.

Inquitus

Last year's Austrian GP Rewind, to get you in the mood:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaXJahjW0u8

Charlie-Bravo

LIGHTNING wrote: »

He will have one or two great races and people will say "this year!" and then he will fall off as usual.

He's no match for Lewis, agreed. But Merc don't help his case either. If he frustrates Lewis by qualifying better than him, we could see maybe an interesting top battle with other teams. Fantasy I know.

g1983d

astrofluff wrote: »

Bottas is going full robot mode this year - I can't read him at all!!

I'm hoping he's a bad robot!!

If Bottas wanted to start the mind games with Hamilton he shoudlve insisted on a white race suit, Hamilton would lose the plot
#itsajoke before anyone loses the plot with me

Joeface

are they photo shopped into the suits , or photoshopped to be standing beside each other ........Way to much touch up on that .

pyramuid man

Joeface wrote: »

are they photo shopped into the suits , or photoshopped to be standing beside each other ........Way to much touch up on that .

I would say they are photoshopped together. Looking at the light on their face it looks like they are standing in the same spot. Makes sense given the social distancing and all that craic.

BikeRacer

OSI wrote: »

The race suite promo shots always look like they've photoshopped on a head and hands, the edges are far too clean.

Bottas hands in particular look like they're straight out of an all-priests five-a-side over-75s indoor challenge football match.

pjohnson

Ferrari gotta Ferrari part two.


Apparently Seb has said he was surprised when Mattia called him to say they weren't going to continue with him. Supposedly Seb explicitly said that there was never an offer to him.



Ferrari's announcement said it was a mutual decision to part ways. Seb has just completely shãt all over that which I doubt will please the team.

Jordan 199

On the Ferrari:

AMKC

Jordan 199 wrote: »

On the Ferrari:

Well at least Ferrari will have that. They might be fecking up everywhere else but at least they have the decency to remember former drivers on there cars.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/29399978/leclerc-99-sure-ferrari-worse-2019

Charles Leclerc has downplayed Ferrari's chances of challenging for the Formula One title in 2020, saying he is all but certain its current car is a step down on its predecessor.

Save the money on Ferrari lads.

PukkaStukka

Gintonious wrote: »

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/29399978/leclerc-99-sure-ferrari-worse-2019



Save the money on Ferrari lads.

There's a part of me that thinks Ferrari wants to call it a day. Since Sergio passed away, the team has come asunder

Well today’s the day you get to see the cars on the track.

Will someone post updates for us?

Harika

Opened a race thread

ELM327

It's so great to be watching live F1 again!

Joeface

working from home today ...........some how my schedule aligned for this . dual screens so work is open and so is Practrice .

ELM327

Joeface wrote: »

working from home today ...........some how my schedule aligned for this . dual screens so work is open and so is Practrice .

Yup, same here :D:D

pjohnson

Horner heavily hinting Red Bull have DAS. Condraticts what he said earlier in the year so may just be trolling but something to look out for.

Joeface

Will Vettel not end up at Renault?
Factory Team , new regs for 2021 (or are they suspended) He got all his titles with Renault engines . And currently a Free seat there . Everyone is looking at Mercedes and going back to Redbull cannot really see either of those .
Less of a personality problem than Alonso as far as I can see and people keep mentioning him for Renault. And brings weight and finance as World Champion.

ELM327

Joeface wrote: »

Will Vettel not end up at Renault?
Factory Team , new regs for 2021 (or are they suspended) He got all his titles with Renault engines . And currently a Free seat there . Everyone is looking at Mercedes and going back to Redbull cannot really see either of those .
Less of a personality problem than Alonso as far as I can see and people keep mentioning him for Renault. And brings weight and finance as World Champion.

I think it's a paddock "secret" that Alonso is coming back to renault at this stage.

Dont be at yourself

Could see Vettel end up at Racing Point once they’re rebranded as Aston Martin. Lots of money going in there from Stroll, and he’s a definite upgrade on the current pair. Looking quick in FP1 too!

pjohnson

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Could see Vettel end up at Racing Point once they’re rebranded as Aston Martin. Lots of money going in there from Stroll, and he’s a definite upgrade on the current pair. Looking quick in FP1 too!

Perez is contracted till 2022. It'd have to be Lance cut.

ELM327

pjohnson wrote: »

Perez is contracted till 2022. It'd have to be Lance cut.

Perez could have his contract bought out either

skipper_G

ELM327 wrote: »

I think it's a paddock "secret" that Alonso is coming back to renault at this stage.

I'm a huge Alonso fan, he's a great driver but Renault don't need the toxic influence that comes with him. I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole, if Renault have any sense they will go for Vettel

ELM327

Vettel won't and shouldn't go to renault though.

risteard7

skipper_G wrote: »

I'm a huge Alonso fan, he's a great driver but Renault don't need the toxic influence that comes with him. I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole, if Renault have any sense they will go for Vettel

Is Alonso really that bad? Would he be liked around the paddock? Is Hamilton not as much as a cry baby?

ELM327

Anyone watching the F2 session? Alex brundle on commentary, he sounds like someone doing a really accurate martin brundle impression.

risteard7 wrote: »

Is Alonso really that bad? Would he be liked around the paddock? Is Hamilton not as much as a cry baby?

He has a toxic relationship with a number of teams.


His driving ability even now outweighs it.

quokula

risteard7 wrote: »

Is Alonso really that bad? Would he be liked around the paddock? Is Hamilton not as much as a cry baby?

Yeah I think it's a bit of a myth the media have made up. Alonso made some bad career choices and ended up in the wrong places at the wrong times. But in no way was he "toxic" or inclined to bring a team down.

Remember on the odd occasion when Rosberg was faster than Hamilton and he started spreading conspiracy theories about how the team had swapped mechanics around? Or the whining on the radio every time there's the slightest hint of him having to face challenging conditions in a race? Just imagine what he'd be like if he ever in his career had to drive some of the cars Alonso has.

Same goes for most top drivers, if they were dropped into the dog of a car that was the McLaren Honda they'd be pretty unhappy too. And as much as the media liked to milk it whenever Alonso said something on the radio, it's also a fact that he regularly dragged that car into points scoring positions it shouldn't have been in, and secured McLaren enough prize money to develop going forward.

Remember that he walked into McLaren and scored twice as many points as Button when they were team-mates, making him the only team-mate at McLaren that Button didn't outscore over their time together, after he'd outscored Hamilton across three seasons and then destroyed Perez before Alonso came along. Alonso then went on to effectively end Stoffel Vandoorne's career by vastly outperforming him and almost single handedly dragging McLaren up the championship table by scoring over 80% of their points before retiring.

All that said, a couple of years older and more out of practice, and I'm not convinced he'd have quite so much to bring to a team now. Certainly nowhere near as much as someone like Vettel would. Though it's a pretty depressing thought that a team as lowly as Renault might be the only option for two drivers of their calibre.