F1 2023 thread

El_Duderino 09 · 02-08-2023 11:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120929324#Comment_120929324

Yeah red bull is Max's team. He's still young so he's the present and the future now the team if they keep him happy.

Really happy for Piastri. He was brave to break from Alpine when they tried to bully him into the seat after his contract expired. Alpine were stronger than McLaren early in the season and I think some people enjoyed the schadenfreude that he chose the slower car. But McLaren's improvement has allowed Norris and Piastri to express themselves a bit more. Hope he can be a top driver.

AMKC · 02-08-2023 11:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120926387#Comment_120926387

Lol mistake.

I meant Valtari

Andrew76 · 02-08-2023 11:44am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120929411#Comment_120929411

Same. Really hope Oscar gets better and better. Seems like a decent kid and so calm regardless of the situation at hand (even his swearing is calm 😂). Had a rough start to the season but that car is supposedly very difficult to get to grips with. For sure he's coping much better than Danny did, he has some talent.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120929413#Comment_120929413

Valerie Bottas? 😋

(few years old that pic but still)

muckwarrior · 02-08-2023 11:44am

Seems like a no win situation for both Bottas and Zhou. If Bottas beats Zhou it doesn't count for much as people seem to think Zhou is crap. If Zhou finishes ahead then Bottas clearly isn't trying and should retire.

flazio · 02-08-2023 12:27pm

I'm going to be honest and say I don't rate LeClerc as a top tier driver right now. He's a bit too inconsistent. And while much of that might be down to Ferrari, Charles seems to be only able to out drive the car over one qualifying lap. Drivers like Lewis, Fernando, Lando and Max tend to be able to out drive the car over a race distance.

Frank Bullitt · 02-08-2023 4:04pm

https://the-race.com/formula-1/mercedes-is-bouncing-hugely-again-but-its-not-f1s-problem/

It would seem Merc are banging the same drum as last year, but this time they are very alone with that.

quokula · 02-08-2023 5:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120929680#Comment_120929680

The team is certainly doing him no favours, and Sainz is one of the most underrated drivers on the grid. Remember that he beat Norris fairly convincingly at McLaren before moving on. And for his own part Leclerc joined Ferrari and matched Vettel back at a time when Vettel had been comfortably the best performing driver on the grid for most of the prior decade.

Ferrari arguably have the strongest driver pairing on the grid right now but the team is letting them down time and again and making them look worse than they are. Sainz definitely manages the situation better though, making his own strategy calls where appropriate and making the most of a bad situation. Leclerc is definitely the type of driver that excels more when he's out front and in clean air, but with a good car and team behind him he's probably second only to Verstappen on the current grid.

recyclebin · 02-08-2023 7:48pm

Hamilton still hasn't signed a contract for next year as far as we are being told. That's the only potential big question mark about next season. Bottas and maybe Magnussen could decide to bow out, without causing much of a stir.

NinjaTruncs · 02-08-2023 8:01pm

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.

flazio · 02-08-2023 8:04pm

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

https://youtu.be/fE8i247HO8c

dulpit · 02-08-2023 8:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931946#Comment_120931946

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.

El_Duderino 09 · 02-08-2023 8:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931411#Comment_120931411

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.

PsychoPete · 02-08-2023 9:40pm

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

recyclebin · 03-08-2023 11:47am

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.

flazio · 03-08-2023 12:19pm

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.

Frank Bullitt · 03-08-2023 12:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931927#Comment_120931927

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.

El_Duderino 09 · 03-08-2023 12:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934057#Comment_120934057

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.

AMKC · 03-08-2023 12:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931927#Comment_120931927

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.

El_Duderino 09 · 03-08-2023 2:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934276#Comment_120934276

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.

Frank Bullitt · 03-08-2023 7:50pm

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/15hbypd/during_the_sky_sports_f1_podcast_crofty_says/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

Well if this is true, no wonder Dani Ric went back!

Andrew76 · 04-08-2023 9:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120936224#Comment_120936224

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.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/aero-reshuffle-and-more-red-bull-parts-in-2024-for-alphatauri/

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.

El_Duderino 09 · 04-08-2023 11:24am

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.

https://youtube.com/shorts/t9_ATyGbDP4?si=0ooY6d94abp66OZ6

Andrew76 · 04-08-2023 11:09pm

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:

https://youtu.be/s-ReqE4lkAw

El_Duderino 09 · 04-08-2023 11:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120941177#Comment_120941177

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