Motorsport Off Topic Thread

weta said:
Is it me or is Alpine run by a bunch of muppets, they seem to make endless mistakes when it comes to drivers?
Hopefully they'll give Doohan a proper opportunity to prove himself.
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There were rumours that Doohan is only on a contract for 6-8 races. Either way it sounds like he's doomed before he's even started the season. Colapinto comes with quite a lot of sponsorship aswell.

He'll have to hit the ground running to stand any chance. Unfortunately for him, with limited testing it looks unlikely.
 
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reef said:
There were rumours that Doohan is only on a contract for 6-8 races. Either way it sounds like he's doomed before he's even started the season. Colapinto comes with quite a lot of sponsorship aswell.

He'll have to hit the ground running to stand any chance. Unfortunately for him, with limited testing it looks unlikely.
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It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for the Australian, he'll need some standout performances to retain his seat, 6-8 races isn't really enough nowadays.
 
reef said:
Unfortunately for him, with limited testing it looks unlikely.
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For most drivers I agree but Doohan has been able to have a decent amount of testing. It's also why it was a little surprising that he finished second to last at the Abu Dhabi GP (only ahead of KMag who stopped for softs/fastest lap) and probably gave Alpine enough of a nudge to have a second thought.

Doohan did the young driver test at Abu Dhabi in 2022 and 2023, and also did Free Practice 1 at Abu Dhabi in both 2022 and 2023. He was also the Alpine driver for the TPC tests in 2024 at Abu Dhabi too. He had something like over 1500km testing at Abu Dhabi alone so he wasn't going into that race without any preparation.

The whole decision making with Alpine is just all over the shop, why did they rush to announce Doohan so quickly?
 
I think people on this forum have stopped being concerned about age in the light of Alonso's comeback and button setting a world record reaction times. Previously they'd often be posts, on how xx is too old and reactions are slower etc..
 
Not so sure on that one. There's still question marks for me over age-related performance drop off of Alonso and Hamilton. You can't say that Alonso disproves that as his only benchmark is Stroll.

Does he still have the ability to consistently deliver decent race performances? Clearly, yes.
Does he have the ability to extract 100% over a qualifying lap, or fight for a tightly contested championship? Jury's still out.
 
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englishpremier said:
I think people on this forum have stopped being concerned about age in the light of Alonso's comeback and button setting a world record reaction times. Previously they'd often be posts, on how xx is too old and reactions are slower etc..
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Age will come for Alonso eventually. Arguably it's already taking the edge off. This is one of the reasons that Hamilton vs Leclerc is going to be so very interesting. What's striking about next year's grid is more youth than age. There will only be two drivers in their 30s, and two in their 40s, the rest are in their 20s or even younger with two teenagers joining the grid. The old guard are mostly gone.
 
englishpremier said:
I think people on this forum have stopped being concerned about age in the light of Alonso's comeback and button setting a world record reaction times. Previously they'd often be posts, on how xx is too old and reactions are slower etc..
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Im still here banging that drum and have seen no evidence to suggest it’s still not accurate.

Neither Alonso or Hamilton have the 1 lap pace they once had and both are now more error prone that they used to be.

That said they are still seemingly on a high level but both would get beaten by their younger self’s.
 
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imtoooldforthis said:
Im still here banging that drum, no one escapes Father Time.

Neither Alonso or Hamilton have the raw 1 lap pace they once had and both are now more error prone that they used to be.
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Hamilton may have lost a slight edge in qualifying, however 2024 was a bit of an anomaly and he was very evenly matched with Russell in 2023 qualifying. I don't believe you drop off the cliff that quickly due to age, so I wouldn't be surprised if he matches or gets the better of Leclerc in 2025 when he's in a new garage without a conflict of business interests.
 
Most pundits (and fans) seem to agree that Leclerc is one of the fastest qualifiers on his day. So honestly I'm expecting Hamilton to often qualify behind him. The race will be the truth in the pudding, it's been that way for Hamilton for a long time to be honest.

Mr Jack said:
Interesting bit of data on the ages of the drivers from Racefans. I had not clocked that Sainz will be the 4th oldest driver on the grid, followed by Gasly in 5th. I still think of both as being pretty young drivers.
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I've always thought of Sainz as a 40yo man because he's looked that way since he joined F1 :D
 
Eddie99 said:
Hamilton may have lost a slight edge in qualifying, however 2024 was a bit of an anomaly and he was very evenly matched with Russell in 2023 qualifying. I don't believe you drop off the cliff that quickly due to age, so I wouldn't be surprised if he matches or gets the better of Leclerc in 2025 when he's in a new garage without a conflict of business interests.
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You rarely drop off a cliff, it’s a natural regression that happens over multiple years, usually starting in your early 30s.

This is why Verstappen has gone on record as saying he wants to compete in other series before he hits his 30s and is past his peak in terms of pure performance.

This drop off in pure speed even occurs in sim racing.
 
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chrismscotland said:
Will Buxton off to Indycar as Fox take over coverage next season; I'm not his biggest fan to be honest but big move for him going from F1TV to full time commentary of Indycar.
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He's pretty much the face of Drive to Survive and thus F1 to a lot of the new audience; that's a serious coup for Indycar. I wonder who Netflix will find to replace him.
 
Shame, be a big loss to F1TV. I find he often grounds the presenting when some others go off the hunt for some sensationalist discussion.

He spent 5 or so years being the NBC Pit Lane Reporter for Indycar before he joined FOM in 2018 for their digital coverage. He will do well over there and is well known.
 
I’m waiting to see how Old Man Hamilton gets on this years as my gut tells me if he gets a car that “talks” to him and he can trust to go where he puts it, he’s going to be a WDC challenger.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
I’m waiting to see how Old Man Hamilton gets on this years as my gut tells me if he gets a car that “talks” to him and he can trust to go where he puts it, he’s going to be a WDC challenger.
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Depends if his "old age" can handle all the different variants of Plans that the strategists come up with... They might need to cut down to just Plan A and B rather than H I J K L M....

:D
 
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Can you imagine if Mercedes are at the top.

Lewis: "Toto, can I drive for you?"

Fred: "Ahhhh Leeeeeewwwweeeesss, just drive the car"
 
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