Motorsport Off Topic Thread

This isn't something I'll say lightly, and as good as Verstappen Jr appears, 17 is too young for F1. That is absolutely nuts.

Toro Rosso's most experienced driver next season is aged 20.

Somewhat ironically Jos's F1 career was damaged before it even started by being hurtled in too early. He was undoubtedly an excellent driver, as he showed more than a few times, but he jumped in the most poisonous seat available at the time (as the second Benetton driver against a teammate's car of questionable legality) and it was severely damaging in the long run.

Given the record of the current youngest driver in F1 (who was ousted somewhat harshly in my opinion), I wouldn't be surprised if history repeated itself once more.
 
Crazy! But, as the saying goes, if you're good enough you're old enough.

Let's see if he is good enough. I bet Sainz is more than a little peeved. Maybe Red Bull need a third team...
 
First year out of go-karts and he's already getting an F1 seat?

What a farce. So many deserving drivers out there who actually have results in lower formulas who get ****ed over.
 
Duke said:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/08/18/max-verstappen-drive-toro-rosso-2015/



That is just a joke.
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MooMoo444 said:
First year out of go-karts and he's already getting an F1 seat?

What a farce. So many deserving drivers out there who actually have results in lower formulas who get ****ed over.
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My initial reaction was this, but it seems Max may be the driver of his generation. Hence everyone trying to sign him recently, Helmut Marko had the trump card of an F1 seat.

I thought Kyvat was too young, yet he's been one of the best drivers this season. I'm going to hold judgement for now.
 
He would have been snapped up by someone else if they didn't offer him a seat.. I suspect he will be given a degree of protection for a while to allow him to build his craft, something that Torro Rosso (as a number 2/driver development team) can offer that other teams simply cannot!

Its a shame, as I really thing he should be allowed to mature through the ranks, but Red Bull are really keen to get all the best young talent on the books, and take their pick and dump out the chaff to everyone else :p Will they give him any Friday runs this year? Can they do that? Does he have the correct licenses?
 
He'll probably get a superlicence since he's 2nd in European F3 right now...

The other Red Bull juniors at the front of Formula Renault 3.5\GP3 must be wondering why they bothered turning up this year :p
 
It just seems crazy to have someone in F1 who has only done a year in single seaters. They should build their race craft and awareness in a few lower formulas first.
 
Duke said:
It just seems crazy to have someone in F1 who has only done a year in single seaters. They should build their race craft and awareness in a few lower formulas first.
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Other teams were interested in Verstappen Jr. Helmut Marko reportedly offered him the 2015 F1 seat as a trump card.
 
I don't understand why he/his people are so keen to get him in F1 so quick, it's a great opportunity no doubt, but why not have a guaranteed seat after another 1-2 years... It's a hell of a risk.
 
Guerrilla said:
I don't understand why he/his people are so keen to get him in F1 so quick, it's a great opportunity no doubt, but why not have a guaranteed seat after another 1-2 years... It's a hell of a risk.
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A number of teams were looking to sign him as a test/reserve driver, which would get him on their books for the future. Helmut didn't want to let him go, so offered him a race seat so that he would chose Red Bull (STR).

I can't imagine the plan was for him to be in F1 so soon, but Red Bulls hand was forced by the chance they might lose him to another team.

I can see him doing a Grosjean: being pushed into F1 too early, struggling, dropping back into GP2/etc for a couple of years and then coming back a better driver.
 
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Skeeter said:
A number of teams were looking to sign him as a test/reserve driver, which would get him on their books for the future. Helmut didn't want to let him go, so offered him a race seat so that he would chose Red Bull (STR).

I can't imagine the plan was for him to be in F1 so soon, but Red Bulls hand was forced by the chance they might lose him to another team.

I can see him doing a Grosjean: being pushed into F1 too early, struggling, dropping back into GP2/etc for a couple of years and then coming back a better driver.
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Well you can understand RBs motives, after all they do have TR for this type of reason it just seems a bit much, but then I guess even if he had a contract guaranteeing him a TR seat in 2016 there is always the worry it wouldn't happen, contracts are never quite as binding as they seem to be!

Think it'd be a shame if it ends up like Grosjean, he did himself no favours in his first F1 stint and was lucky to get another chance, many drivers don't even get one chance let alone two... would be made all the worse if this kid does turn out to be the talent people think he is!
 
Do we know if Lotterer is a rest of the season replacement for Kobayashi, or a single race sponsorship earning drive?
I can find lots of articles saying he is racing at Spa, but nothing about the rest of the season, and just comments that Kobayashi is still part of the team..
Can anyone clarify?

There were rumours that Kobayashi would not finish up the season a while ago, but it just seems odd that no media outlets are giving any details...
 
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