Seb leaving Ferrari. Not necessarily retiring, by the sounds of it.
Danny Ric and Carlos Sainz seem to be the shootout for the seat.
Seb leaving Ferrari. Not necessarily retiring, by the sounds of it.
Danny Ric and Carlos Sainz seem to be the shootout for the seat.
I'd probably favour Ricciardo in that. She shows more aggression so could theoretically drag more out of the car. Or they should just kidnap Verstappen. And Vettel should go to Mercedes to see if he still has it in him.
Verstappen just signed a big new deal so he's going nowhere. Sainz would seem an ideal quick but not too quick partner for Sharl.
Vettel to Nascar.
Hulkenberg in the mix too I would think, Ferrari often go for established drivers. Who's in their youth program? Giovenazzi seems unlikely, too early for Schumi2.0 you would think.
Where Vettel goes is not exactly obvious. Red Bull surely are out, Merc have Russell waiting on the sidelines, which leaves Renault assuming they have a spare seat, Mclaren in the same boat.
The best route in my mind is Sainz. He's 5 years Ricciardos junior and seems a better fit.
Though this is Ferrari so they'll likely fuck it up gloriously.
Sainz is a classic Ferrari second driver fit. He's like a better looking Felipe Massa. Done his time in the midfield, quick but not too quick, dad knows all the right people.
Danny Ric would be a bit more of a maverick, though on the plus side he has the Italian name and is possibly a stronger driver, although I don't think there's a lot in it.
So Sainz to Ferrari.
Ricciardo to Mclaren? That leaves Renault as the only real seat for Vettel, unless he retires.
Martin Brundle earlier speculated either that, or Vettel to retire and the Renault seat to go to Darth Nando, making his 14th and most pointless motorsport comeback yet.
Renault aren't going to get anything together as long as Nice One Cyril is still dragging himself around the paddock, so I personally don't see the point for either party. As for Vettel to Renault, well, unless it's in lieu of reparations from the Franco-Prussian war I don't see the point of that either.
Isn't Hamilton meant to take Vettel's seat?
Only if he wants his 7th and 8th titles to vanish in a conflagration of botched pit spots, broken ERS units and strategy faux pas.
Alonso would do a better job than Vettel but is it worth the inevitable knife in the back?
"Get it on there and send him out!"Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Aren't Renault likely to be first out the door if it isn't all back to normal sooner rather than later?
Probably not, as they won't run out of money, which 2-3 of the others might.
I'm sure there was noise about them being on shaky ground. I can't imagine Chase and Associates (tm) would let an engine supplier wobble like that.
The Renault board 'renewed their commitment' not long ago (including investing a load of money in the engine setup) and they're about to qualify for more prize money. Fuck knows in this climate though, but you'd think they'll be better insulated than other teams (inb4 they sell it back to Flavio for a quid and a box of t-shirts).
This is nice, the big yellow numbers hold serious nostalgia for me as has seeing 'Olivetti' on the timing screens of some of the old races they've been showing.
Did the yellow bars mean anything under the numbers and times?
Sainz confirmed to Ferrari with Danny Ric to McLaren.
My guess is Vettel retires, for some reason I just can't picture him at Renault and there's nowhere else to go.
Going to Renault is like having one of your balls removed. No one has made a successful move there since, what, 2003?
I was going to say Kimi did ok but it was still Lotus at that point.
Kubica didn't do that bad.
Apart from the bit where he lost a hand and had to retire for eight years.
That wasn't the Renault's fault.
Doesn't have to be. It's a curse on your career, like a football move to Newcastle in the last 20 years, Gini Wijnaldum aside.
Lots of rumours flying about regarding Renault. They're apparently quietly looking at either running the team on a reduced (ie non-competitive) budget or selling it to someone. The catch being whoever buys it must run Renault engines as well.
Thwarting their own sale to justify stopping bothering. How French.
Alonso's name is in the frame for the seat. The Santander money might do them some favours.
Formula E driver Daniel Abt has gone one better than Bubba Wallace (who lost a real world sponsor for rage-quitting an esports event last month) by getting sacked from his real racing job with Audi because he got a sim racer to impersonate him in the FE online races they've been doing.
Sacking him for that is ridiculous.
His results in reality haven't been great either. And he did basically sod off Unicef. In other news, I'm trying to find interviews about the Benetton 194. Mainly because I can't imagine a more controversial and secretive F1 car. Here's the aerodynamicist of the car talking about detox:
Rory, I just want to know why Michael was so quick in it.
Good advice but how like, did that Benetton smash everyone at the start of that season? Like, he's at Newey's level but finding anything from his mouth about it is surprisingly tough.
Last edited by Shindig; 26-05-2020 at 10:30 PM.
I joined this just in time to see the pile-up.
Murray has, at least twice, called Damon Hill the 94 world champion.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/52847040
Williams up for sale. Strangely inevitable.
How is Frank only 78? He was entering privateer cars in the 60s.
Liberty really badly need to find a mechanism to attract new entries, it's far too much of a closed shop to be healthy in the long run at the moment.
He gave Courage that drive when he was 27. That hairline would put years on anyone. Actually, he was in F2 and F3 at 24. Madness considering he funded it as a travelling grocery bloke.
It's like Greg Wallis selling arms on the side.
So when I started watching F1 in '94/'95 he was in his early fifties? Mad, I had him as 65 then and like 90 now.
For comparison sake, I looked at another of South Shields' finest (Ridley Scott) and found out he's 82.
Weren't there a raft of cost cutting measures announced earlier this week? I haven't read them but presumably they're accelerating their plans to save a few teams in the short term and attract more in the longer. That's the only way you'll do it.
Pop quiz: most recent new team (not buying an existing entry or renaming it like FI/Racing Point) that wasn't utter trash? I can only think of two in all the time I've been watching.
The 90s had Jordan, Sauber and Stewart which are all still there in some form or other. The 00s had precious little (RIP Toyota). The 10s have had Gene Haas.
Ferrari (1948)
Mercedes > Brawn > Honda > BAR > Tyrrell (late 60s I think, maybe 1970, bit of overlap with Matra)
Red Bull > Jaguar > Stewart (1997)
McLaren (mid to late 60s)
Williams (mid 70s)
Renault > Lotus > Renault > Benetton > Toleman (1981)
Alfa > Sauber > BMW > Sauber (1993)
Toro Rosso > Minardi (going to say 1986)
Racing Point > Force India > Spyker (lol) > Jordan (1991)
Haas (20...15?)
The Arrows bloodline died with Super Aguri, and proper Lotus went bust in the mid 90s as well. Shame.
Frank will have died weeks ago and they're keeping it secret until any deal gets over the line.
Sauber, I thought there was another one.
We need to return to a point where F2 teams can realistically make the jump, I don't see another route back to proper grids (26 cars). If it means manufacturers have to try rather than just throwing in a big enough budget then so be it.
I don't see why a few aren't trying to take Mercedes down a peg or two. I guess because it's really really hard and involves spending money.
It's a pity the VW empire doesn't have a go, they could enter as Porsche or Audi or whatever and piss their way to the front. No one cares about beating no one at Le Mans.
Last edited by Jimmy Floyd; 29-05-2020 at 02:42 PM.
Volkswagen got a massive return out of their Le Mans dominance, so wouldn't you go into Formula E if you wanted practical applications these days?
In terms of last new teams I can think of, you had the triple threat of Caterham, Hispania and Virgin come in for 2010. Before that you had erm ... Stewart.
Depends which alternative fuel you think is 'the future', nobody is buying electric cars in large numbers yet so at the moment hybrids are still more relevant. But, because they were caught being dirty cheaters VW have steered away from any series with even a whiff of ICE.
People forget about Toyota, although generally speaking they are right to do so.
Yeah, works teams like that tend to go under my radar. If they named it after the team principal, I'd remember it forever. Or if Nissan got in and built the car in Sunderland.
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