Motorsport Off Topic Thread

I wonder what they'll do if Tsunoda is also a second off Max. But then I also wonder what they'll do if he's on pace, as Honda are paying for his seat, and they split with RB at the end of this season...

RB have managed to navigate themselves down a driver lineup dead-end.
 
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chrismscotland said:
I can't blame them for acting quickly this time, we've spent 2 years critiscising them for not dropping Perez, and shouting "there has to be a better option" but the same people now seem to be annoyed they've acted quickly.
We don't have access to the inner working of the team or their data to see how bad it really is and exactly where the performance issues are.

Its a ruthless sport, probably more now than its ever been, you only get a couple of chances at best and if you don't perform that's it.

It'll be interesting to see how Lawson gets on in the RB which I'd imagine is going to be much closer to what he drove last season as well, but Hadjar has looked pretty handy so far.
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And probably the best decision for Lawson anyway...
 
GravyMonster said:
I wonder what they'll do if Tsunoda is also a second off Max. But then I also wonder what they'll do if he's on pace, as Honda are paying for his seat, and they split with RB at the end of this season...

RB have managed to navigate themselves down a driver lineup dead-end.
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I don't believe Honda are "paying for his seat" at this point, he's got almost no options elsewhere next year anyway, "if" he performs and RB offer him a new deal he would be mad to refuse it.
Honda already said that as far as F1 goes he's got to fend for himself as they've done as much as they can for him.
 
chrismscotland said:
I don't believe Honda are "paying for his seat" at this point, he's got almost no options elsewhere next year anyway, "if" he performs and RB offer him a new deal he would be mad to refuse it.
Honda already said that as far as F1 goes he's got to fend for himself as they've done as much as they can for him.
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I think Honda meant that Yuki would need to make it happen but they're happy to sponsor him even if he isn't going to a Honda team i.e. Yuki needed to perform and his management needed to push Red Bull.
 
cuke2u said:
And probably the best decision for Lawson anyway...
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Lawson's F1 career is over, it just doesn't know it yet. He'll be out at the end of Racing Bulls at the end of the season, that seat already has Lindblad's name sewn on the back of it, and with his reputation being "so bad he got booted after two races" there's no way he's getting one of the seats up for grabs.

Red Bull have properly done the dirty on him, both in failing to prepare him and in dumping before he even got a chance.
 
SDK^ said:
Reports indicate Honda are paying RB $10m for Yuki's seat
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Just seen that, sorry I had really meant his existing AT/Racing Bulls seat as it was generally understood they were no longer paying for that but I do see there sre suggestions they're forked out to get him in the Red Bull.

Mesai said:
I think Honda meant that Yuki would need to make it happen but they're happy to sponsor him even if he isn't going to a Honda team i.e. Yuki needed to perform and his management needed to push Red Bull.
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Yeah, I took it as "we're not taking you to Aston Martin just because we're Honda" more than anything
 
I've read Honda are putting money in and are happy to do that for him to race in any team but that was comments outside of news articles so might be twaddle.

Red Bull are proving that putting their driver relations in the hands of a senile old bigot is doing their cause a lot of damage now that they aren't in contention. They have the two teams for a reason and Yuki should have been given proper promotion and time to prepare. It's just political nonsense from the top and makes everyone look daft. I couldn't imagine

When you think about an individual drivers fans it's actually awful treatment of them too. Imagine putting all your hard-earned into a drivers expensive replica kit etc and then two races in they switch teams, or worse get booted completely from racing at all. This nonsense needs to be regulated which you hope would then lead to teams treating their drivers with a little more care and respect.
 
Lawson was officially a Red Bull for more days than he was given racing laps to prove himself. Absurd

ezekial said:
Well even if that is true about Lindblad, maybe if he shows competency in the racing bull, there may be a space in another team in 2026/27 for him
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I doubt it - even if he's allowed the whole season. There aren't many seats obviously coming up, even at the lower teams. The only seats not yet confirmed for 2026 are the two Mercedes (no chance of that); the seat alongside Max (no chance of that); the seats at Racing Bulls (one is going to Lindblad and they're likely to keep Hadjar even if Lawson beats him since Lawson has "failed in the Red Bull" now); Doohan's seat at Alpine (Lawson would be behind Colapinto in the queue for that one); and Lance Stroll's seat (lol). After failing at Red Bull, and with only a season and a half of experience, I don't think there will be opportunities opening up in 2027 either - there are always new drivers banging at the door to compete with as well.
 
GravyMonster said:
I wonder what they'll do if Tsunoda is also a second off Max. But then I also wonder what they'll do if he's on pace...
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If Yuki does well then it'll be great and it may even help to save Lawson (to some degree) but, given what other drivers have said about the car i suspect, imo, he'll struggle and RB will have nuked two drivers because of a knee jerk reaction.

It also doesn't help having the liability that is Marko mouthing off; i wish RB would get rid of him.

englishpremier said:
It's not based around Max's driving at all.
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What has given you that impression given past second seat drivers have, near enough, said the opposite?
 
Lawson seemed to hold his own against yuki so I can't for the life of me believe he's become a rubbish driver the very next season. That car is a handful to drive and Max is putting it where it has no right to be, that being said he has obviously underperformed. 2 races is such a small sample size and both tracks he had never driven at, would have been interesting to see what he'd done at the triple header. It's a win-win for Yuki really. Either he performs well and gets himself a big contract elsewhere or he doesn't and everyone will say the car is the issue.
 
SS-89 said:
Lawson seemed to hold his own against yuki so I can't for the life of me believe he's become a rubbish driver the very next season. That car is a handful to drive and Max is putting it where it has no right to be, that being said he has obviously underperformed. 2 races is such a small sample size and both tracks he had never driven at, would have been interesting to see what he'd done at the triple header. It's a win-win for Yuki really. Either he performs well and gets himself a big contract elsewhere or he doesn't and everyone will say the car is the issue.
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That's the thing for me. I don't see how they can have seen anything in these two races that should have fundamentally changed their view on his abilities? I can only presume they'd already decided he wasn't up to it during the winter and pre-season testing otherwise surely they'd wait to see whether he could turn things around at a track like Suzuka that he knows like the back of his hand.
 
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