Motorsport Off Topic Thread

They ought to add in some testing during the gap. Perhaps for Reserve drivers.

China wasn't really on the cards when they released the calendar. Seemed more F1 was just hoping rather than looking at things on the ground.
 
chrismscotland said:
I honestly wish they would just replace it with Malaysia for a season
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100% this. Malaysia is an infinitely better track and I'd gladly swap Shanghai for it.

23 races in a season though.. that's enough for me. The effects of burn-out for the drivers, support staff and crews etc are starting to skyrocket and we ought to look at capping the number.
 
I agree 23 is too many but is kind of needed due to how many crap tracks are visited.

I'd happily take 16 races a year if they were at good tracks that allow a lot of overtaking such as Interlagos.

Spa used to be a favourite of mine and Canada, but I'd cut them. Along with Silverstone until the cars are smaller and more nimble. Remove Monaco or set up a specific time trail event. Bahrain could also go, along with Abu Dhabi. Imola is another rubbish one.
 
So Riciardo is RB’s third driver. I found that language interesting as usually they are known as reserve drivers rather than thirds. Just makes him sound closer to the car than a reserve… I can honestly see a Kyviat situation if RB have closer challengers next year.
 
I can't see them putting Danny Ric back in the RB, unless either Perez or Verstappen get Covid and they need a sub for a race or two. More likely they'll replace Perez with De Vries in 2024/25, depending on how he goes in the AT. Going to be hard to judge his performance given how lacklustre Tsunoda has been though.
 
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I'm pretty certain it's all part of Horner's plan to turn the screw on Perez and make sure it's his (Max's) way or the highway. Just remind Perez he has to do what he's told. Sad really.

For DR it's probably a case of why not take the paycheck and have a graduated step down from being a first/second driver.
 
Let's be real. Danny Ric has been ropey since the introduction of the turbo hybrid era.

Without the RB drive, he was essentially finished in F1 after burning his bridges at Alpine and now he's been booted from McLaren. There's an argument to be made that if they wanted him in RB family, they could have put him in the Alpha Tauri (to replace Tsnouda) but he's obviously happy to take the cash to sit in the simulator and drive the car at the odd test. By the time a seat opens up in a top team he'll have aged-out and there will be better young prospects available.

Unfortunately for him, he's already proven that he hasn't adapted to the new way of driving and whereas he may have been able to hide behind the poor performance of the Renault/Alpine car when he was there, he moved to McLaren where he was then soundly beaten by Norris (19 to 2 in qualifying!) and has shown the whole world that he just wasn't that good anymore.
 
Red Bull are holding a free celebration event afternoon in MK (12-3) on the 10 December if anyone is near and interested.
www.redbullracing.com

What's happening at the Milton Keynes Homerun?

www.redbullracing.com www.redbullracing.com
Max and Checo will be show racing there along with a lot of other RB athletes. Looks like a good event, unfortunately whilst I live 20 minutes away I'm going to be in Manchester that day!
 
KiNgPiN83 said:
So Riciardo is RB’s third driver. I found that language interesting as usually they are known as reserve drivers rather than thirds. Just makes him sound closer to the car than a reserve… I can honestly see a Kyviat situation if RB have closer challengers next year.
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That's because they already have an official reserve driver who is staying on the books. It was mentioned in an article on one of the F1 websites somewhere. Planet F1 I think.

Black Noir said:
Let's be real. Danny Ric has been ropey since the introduction of the turbo hybrid era.
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Isn't the turbo-hybrid era where all 8 of his wins have come from? ;)
 
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KiNgPiN83 said:
So Riciardo is RB’s third driver. I found that language interesting as usually they are known as reserve drivers rather than thirds. Just makes him sound closer to the car than a reserve… I can honestly see a Kyviat situation if RB have closer challengers next year.
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I think Red Bull have mostly hired him to a marketing role. He'll be a good brand ambassador for them. If he can also do a bit of car development and be a stand-in if they need one so much the better. But I think they're also thinking he might surprise them: Dani Ric at his best is a much better driver than anyone else in their current stable bar Max, if they can figure out how to get that driver back then maybe they can make good use of him somewhere and maybe the Dani Ric whose been through two seasons of humiliation at McLaren will be willing to play the good second driver role.
 
Black Noir said:
Let's be real. Danny Ric has been ropey since the introduction of the turbo hybrid era.
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The introduction of the turbo hybrid era is when he first showed how good he was, finishing 3rd in the championship, beating his 4 time World Champion team mate in the process. He did it again 2 seasons later when Max was being introduced to the team.

Even when he went to Renault he dragged that to a 5th place finish in 2020, while Ocon mustered a disappointing 12th.

Being 'real', I'd say he has been far from ropey since 2014, he's actually delivered a lot of very good seasons and could perhaps only have 2019 and 2022 levelled at him as genuinely bad seasons in that era.
 
Ropey was definitely the wrong word but inconsistent is probably a fairer reflection.

The last few years have definitely tarnished his legacy as someone that was often mentioned in the same breath as other great race winners. I also forgot the early RB years, so yeaaaaah :p
 
Kenai said:
Being 'real', I'd say he has been far from ropey since 2014, he's actually delivered a lot of very good seasons and could perhaps only have 2019 and 2022 levelled at him as genuinely bad seasons in that era.
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2019 he comprehensively outperformed Hülkenburg so I'm not sure about that. 2021 was where it went wrong, less of a disaster than 2022 largely because of that win in Monza, but he was still comprehensively beaten by his junior teammate and consistently underperformed compared to what was expected from him. 2022 just cemented the impression of that season.

Otherwise, I agree 2014-2018 was where he made his reputation and he cemented it in '19 and '20.
 
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At Renault which was an awful car. He did outperform Hulk who in turn outperformed Sainz. And he outperformed Ocon. He didn't look 'on it' so to speak all the time at Renault but he did perform.

Other than the car supposedly no suiting him, I wonder if we'll ever find out what went wrong at McLaren.
 
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