Motorsport Off Topic Thread

You would think that when it comes to the 2026 car that the design philosophy will be different anyway, not only are the rules significantly different but with Newey no longer around the Tech Team will have their own ideas
 
I really think the driver swap is the right choice. Lawson isn't as slow as the difficult car is making him look, and Yuki needs to make the jump, to show he's got what it takes in bigger teams.
If it doesn't work out for him, then so be it.
If Lawson doesn't have a seat afterwards, then he'll just have to accept that he's had his time... ;)
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
I really think the driver swap is the right choice. Lawson isn't as slow as the difficult car is making him look, and Yuki needs to make the jump, to show he's got what it takes in bigger teams.
If it doesn't work out for him, then so be it.
If Lawson doesn't have a seat afterwards, then he'll just have to accept that he's had his time... ;)
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Have to remember that for testing for rookies isnt it FAR more limited how much time they are allowed to be in the car before the season etc?
Cant think of a way round it either though thinking about it, cant give them more time as they would game the system so certain teams get to test their car far more over other pre season etc.
 
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I see BBC are reporting it as done, they are usually very good with the F1 news stuff.
If Yuki cant get that car where they need it to be, after being essentially on the team for a while now, safe to say they built the care purely on Max's feedback and Max being that good but has left nothing for any other type of driver to have a chance in it.
 
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imtoooldforthis said:
I can't read the article as the URL is invalid but perhaps they are waiting on the £10m Honda payment to be finalised/completed before announcing!
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Honda did say they back a Japanese driver regardless of whether they're with a Honda team or not so could very well be a money thing. Pretty funny that they'd get money with no real leverage.
 
imtoooldforthis said:
I can't read the article as the URL is invalid but perhaps they are waiting on the £10m Honda payment to be finalised/completed before announcing!
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Huh, works for me? It's the top story on racefans.net if you want to find it.

cu3ed said:
I see BBC are reporting it as done, they are usually very good with the F1 news stuff.
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Yeah, it's coming from a lot of people I'd normally consider reliable, but we saw last season there were multiple normally reliable sources saying that Pérez was getting binned midseason and that didn't happen in the end. I get the impression that there are a lot of factions within Red Bull who are briefing against one another.
 
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Mr Jack said:
Yeah, it's coming from a lot of people I'd normally consider reliable, but we saw last season there were multiple normally reliable sources saying that Pérez was getting binned midseason and that didn't happen in the end. I get the impression that there are a lot of factions within Red Bull who are briefing against one another.
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Oh god yea I forgot about the absolute **** show power grab personalities in RB politics.
Yea....anything could be happening then lol.
 
cu3ed said:
If Yuki can't get that car to work RB are in serious trouble if Max it thr literal only driver to make them race worthy. When he leaves that will leave them nowhere for a very long time.
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I just wonder when all of the RB fans that insisted the car wasn’t built around Max are going to eat their words. If no other driver can drive it then that’s simply has to be the case. Albon and others have already said as much. Yuki has finished 12th and 16th so far this year. If he can’t equal that in the main car then clearly the car is at fault.

Certainly going to be interesting.
 
www.bbc.co.uk

Liam Lawson: Red Bull set to replace New Zealander with Yuki Tsunoda for Japanese Grand Prix

Red Bull are set to drop Liam Lawson after just two races and replace him for the Japanese Grand Prix with Yuki Tsunoda.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Just sums up Red Bull for me... a total one man team.... All about Max, just like it was all about Seb back in the day.

There's being ruthless in the pursuit of victory/top stop, but to boot Lawson after 2 races is just ridiculous.

Yuki is a good quick driver but he's not going to suddenly be in terms with/race against Max. What happens if Yuki finishes say outside top 10 for 3 or 4 of the next races - Who's next in line for the seat.

Just ridiculous politics/team strategy...
 
Scam said:
I just wonder when all of the RB fans that insisted the car wasn’t built around Max are going to eat their words. If no other driver can drive it then that’s simply has to be the case. Albon and others have already said as much. Yuki has finished 12th and 16th so far this year. If he can’t equal that in the main car then clearly the car is at fault.

Certainly going to be interesting.
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Well Max is a great driver, but I cant believe even the very best can be getting that much from a "okay car" under them to warrant such a difference in all the team mates RB have burnt though once they are in the second car.
If Yuki after a few races cant keep within range of Max in the grid, its pretty much proof in the pudding that the car was built solely with Max's feedbacks and wants from the car in mind.
 
cu3ed said:
If Yuki can't get that car to work RB are in serious trouble if Max it thr literal only driver to make them race worthy. When he leaves that will leave them nowhere for a very long time.
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Yeah, it pretty ridiculous. You think they would engineer it so that it’s easy for good drivers to get the most out of it instead of just for one extremely talented driver.

I think Hadjar was saying for example that the Racing Bull was very easy to drive.
 
This line from the BBC article I think is the most telling.

"It smacks of a team in denial about the size of the problem they have with their car. And a lack of understanding of what to expect when picking drivers who are yet to prove they are world class as the team-mate of a champion of genius level and expecting them to perform in a car with fundamental problems."

If Yuki struggles, it's going to really highlight that the car has fundamental issues and that it's only Max's extraordinary talent that makes him capable of dragging it to the places he can. If Yuki succeeds, then it's going to highlight that Red Bull have made multiple poor decisions with drivers (renewing Checo for a 2 year contract mid 2024 despite him having a terrible season, opting for Lawson over Tsunoda etc.) and it's a much less appealing place to go.

I like Tsunoda a lot and hope he does well - but I'm not expecting much...
 
cu3ed said:
If Yuki after a few races cant keep within range of Max in the grid, its pretty much proof in the pudding that the car was built solely with Max's feedbacks and wants from the car in mind.
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Albon mentioned in a few interviews that the RB is geared more towards Verstappen's style of driving, he compared it turning up the mouse sensitivity in a game to max with how 'sharp' the car is, and it's was a difficult drive for him (i posted the articles and YT interview in the China thread - here) and it seems to be continuing with the other second seat drivers.

I think if Yuki can pull it off then it'll be amazing but imo it's highly likely he'll go the same way as the others unfortunately which won't help his F1 career.
He probably would have been better to have stayed where he was but i suspect he didn't have much choice in the matter sadly.
 
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