Motorsport Off Topic Thread

I'm pleased Logan is getting a second chance. I've been a fan since he so nearly won F3 the year Piastri won it; but for some terrible luck at the last weekend he would have done. He has had a bad first season, but he was also jumped up from F2 prematurely and the current F1 setup is a nightmare for rookies with the reduced testing and reduced practice. I don't think Williams had any clearly better option which probably decided it.

But those excuses won't cut it next year. He needs to make a major step forward, or his F1 journey will come to an abrupt end.
 
JRS said:
I see the Red Bull fan accounts on the socials are going nutty at the idea of Toto and Susie Wolff being investigated.


Another day, another moment where the alleged pinnacle of motorsport covers itself in glory*.

* - not, in fact, glory but instead something rather closer to hot vomit.
Click to expand...

There's plenty of non-Red Bull fan accounts going nuts about it as well to be fair, no smoke without fire, interesting that the FIA actually felt there was enough to comment on, they usually keep fairly quiet.
 
Mr Jack said:
I'm pleased Logan is getting a second chance. I've been a fan since he so nearly won F3 the year Piastri won it; but for some terrible luck at the last weekend he would have done. He has had a bad first season, but he was also jumped up from F2 prematurely and the current F1 setup is a nightmare for rookies with the reduced testing and reduced practice. I don't think Williams had any clearly better option which probably decided it.

But those excuses won't cut it next year. He needs to make a major step forward, or his F1 journey will come to an abrupt end.
Click to expand...
When I see Sargeant getting another year, it makes me feel bad (again) for Nyck de Vries. He would have been the better driver in that Williams seat too.
I'm not sure how they can fix the problems of younger drivers not getting enough real-world test time. Cost-caps and extremely limited test days are all good and well, but this is what you get. The times the younger drivers will run P1 then it sort of messes the teams up for the actual race.

Season is too long now, so it'd be insanity to put additional test days in during it, but they might need to think of something that works for everyone.
 
Given there is an overall cost cap now, they could relax the rules on testing which were ultimately there to try and rein in the top teams and their far bigger bucket of cash.
 
The FP1 outings for reserve or Rookie drivers was supposed to help with that, but given the majority of teams left it until Abu Dhabi to run drivers it gave little opportunity for anyone to impress and contracts, Sargent aside, had already been signed months ago. I think FOM need to put a time restriction on these Rookie outings. 1 must be completed in the first 8 races, the other by race 18 or something.
 
JRS said:
I see the Red Bull fan accounts on the socials are going nutty at the idea of Toto and Susie Wolff being investigated.
Click to expand...

The thing I'm not clear on is what information, exactly, she's supposed to have passed on. What information does F1 Academy have that is useful to an F1 team?

Emlyn_Dewar said:
When I see Sargeant getting another year, it makes me feel bad (again) for Nyck de Vries. He would have been the better driver in that Williams seat too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think de Vries would have been much better in that Williams seat. Nyck's problem was that he is a lot older than Logan, so he's not seen as likely to substantially develop, and that he was taken by Alpha Tauri on the basis that he just turned up and performed when he was a stand-in. When he couldn't replicate that when put into a full-time seat, his days were always numbered, and DR was just there, waiting in the wings.

Emlyn_Dewar said:
I'm not sure how they can fix the problems of younger drivers not getting enough real-world test time. Cost-caps and extremely limited test days are all good and well, but this is what you get. The times the younger drivers will run P1 then it sort of messes the teams up for the actual race.
Click to expand...

MissChief said:
The FP1 outings for reserve or Rookie drivers was supposed to help with that, but given the majority of teams left it until Abu Dhabi to run drivers it gave little opportunity for anyone to impress and contracts, Sargent aside, had already been signed months ago. I think FOM need to put a time restriction on these Rookie outings. 1 must be completed in the first 8 races, the other by race 18 or something.
Click to expand...

The FP1 runs are good to give potential drivers some time in the window, but they do nothing to help rookies. I think they should run a mid-season test where teams are only allowed drivers with two or less years of experience in F1. Teams with rookies in their line-up get to use them, other teams need to use a potential prospect or their reserve driver. Alternatively they could give them extra practice time - maybe run the Friday sessions 30 minutes longer for rookies or something.
 
chrismscotland said:
There's plenty of non-Red Bull fan accounts going nuts about it as well to be fair
Click to expand...

Yeah, but nowhere near as gleefully.

Mr Jack said:
The thing I'm not clear on is what information, exactly, she's supposed to have passed on. What information does F1 Academy have that is useful to an F1 team?
Click to expand...

Autosport said:
The suggestion is that Toto Wolff has access to confidential knowledge about the activities of FOM, which rival team bosses do not have, while Susie is well briefed on team principal discussions which can be of use to FOM.

This has prompted worries that supposedly secret conversations at team principal level could be being passed on to F1's senior management

A report in BusinessF1 magazine suggested that a comment Wolff made in a recent team principal meeting, based on information that could only have come from FOM, acted as the trigger point for other bosses to complain.
Click to expand...

It's all still a bit light on actual detail.
 
Mr Jack said:
I think they should run a mid-season test where teams are only allowed drivers with two or less years of experience in F1. Teams with rookies in their line-up get to use them, other teams need to use a potential prospect or their reserve driver. Alternatively they could give them extra practice time - maybe run the Friday sessions 30 minutes longer for rookies or something.
Click to expand...
I agree with this, but they've put themselves in to a corner. The season is so long as it is, a mid-season test would just be even more work for the teams.
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
I agree with this, but they've put themselves in to a corner. The season is so long as it is, a mid-season test would just be even more work for the teams.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the ever more bloated calendar is a problem for the idea. I guess you'd want to run the test at a track they're going to anyway. Maybe have testing on a Monday/Tuesday after one of the races with a decent gap after it?
 
Mr Jack said:
Yeah, the ever more bloated calendar is a problem for the idea. I guess you'd want to run the test at a track they're going to anyway. Maybe have testing on a Monday/Tuesday after one of the races with a decent gap after it?
Click to expand...
Given the majority of teams are UK based, the Monday & Tuesday after the British GP in early July makes sense. There's a two week gap to Hungary which most teams will truck to and the time difference isn't awful for jetlag.
 
chrismscotland said:
I see the Formula E coverage is moving to TNT Sport after the Channel 4 deal was cut short. Ex Footballer Jermaine Jenas is to take over as the main presenter....
Click to expand...
Surprised their pay-walling it! Wonder if it will still appear on youtube? Slightly fustrating as enjoyed following it but definitely not going to be subscribing to TNT just for Formula E.
 
hudson86 said:
Seems a bit farcical, do we know what the actual allegations were ?
Click to expand...
That Suzie Wolff's position with the FIA as head of their F1 Academy women's series meant she may be privy to information not available to other F1 Team Principals and that information may have been disclosed by Suzie to Toto. It was all a storm in a Piston Cup TBH, as the speedy investigation showed. The strange thing was that EVERY team said 'Wasn't us' with the exact same statement indicating that the investigation was prompted by someone outside F1 or perhaps even mud-slinging by the F1 Business website
 
MissChief said:
That Suzie Wolff's position with the FIA as head of their F1 Academy women's series meant she may be privy to information not available to other F1 Team Principals and that information may have been disclosed by Suzie to Toto. It was all a storm in a Piston Cup TBH, as the speedy investigation showed. The strange thing was that EVERY team said 'Wasn't us' with the exact same statement indicating that the investigation was prompted by someone outside F1 or perhaps even mud-slinging by the F1 Business website
Click to expand...
Cheers, yes understood that, but wondered what exactly had been shared that was advantageous to Mercedes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom