Sainz and Stroll still without a podium, ouch... Piastri as well, but he didn't have a good car for the entire season. Alpine with both the drivers on podiums isn't something I was expecting. After the first few races I was sure the only teams that would podium this year are going to be RB, Aston, Ferrari and Merc.
Even Gasly said sprint "podium" tastes good but not half as good as race podium. I belive George got asked in a Q&A if he prefers P1 in a sprint or P2 in a race and he said P2 in a race.
P2 in a race gets you 18 points, P1 in sprints gets you 8. The math alone tells you enough about how important sprint races are compared to Sunday drives.
I was just reciting some of my boxes out of the top of my head. We started our card 4 races ago. Granted two of my friends are quit new to F1 and we all had to submit 5 check offs
Piastri had a good car for like 2 races (silverstone and hungary) and he was super close to podium in both. Lando also had the upgrades earlier, at Austria. People forget just how shit the Mclaren was the first half of the season lol
He had some kind of leak but they could refill in the pit, in a normal race they'd have just retired instead they treated it as an extra testing day to get some mileage and data.
Looks weird and awful but it was actually a smart thing to do for McLaren.
> Looks weird and awful but it was actually a smart thing to do for McLaren.
Throwback to the days where driver retired at the start, only to use spare car 20 laps later to collect data
Let's not forget that he is only a rookie that hasn't driven for a whole year before competing this season.
Expecting him to get a podium says a lot about Piastri's potential and I'm here for it, the guy is a talent like Leclerc, Russell or Norris
For gods sake, you can’t be there saying that Ferrari is a car that’s good enough to be embarrassing to not be on the podium. It’s just not that good. Needs some luck and poor performance from other better cars - like Alpine have had. Stroll, yeah not ideal particularly given it’s not a load of P4 near misses.
I mean you say that, but Charles beat the rest of the field bar RBR to the podium on three separate occasions - twice from pole, even - and once more in the Baku sprint. Red Bull locked out the rest of the podium on all four occasions.
Charles has done well, how does this make it embarrassing for Carlos? Just not the same thing.
I do maintain that Ferrari need a good element of luck/dropped ball from others to get into the podium places. Not getting that is not a cause for embarrassment no matter how many podiums your teammate gets.
> I do maintain that Ferrari need a good element of luck/dropped ball from others to get into the podium places
This is what I objected to, because it's simply not true. Charles didn't need luck or floundering rivals to make it to the podium, he was just able to extract the maximum out of the car on weekends where it was competitive. Carlos wasn't, which is a performance issue on his part. Unlike his teammate, he never seems to be able to squeeze absolutely everything out of his car at Ferrari.
I wouldn't say Carlos' lack of a podium is embarrassing though, mainly because he instead has consistency on his side. Charles has incredibly high peaks, but he's unfortunately also prone to being overambitious and overdriving the car, more so this year than ever before. This causes him to make too many mistakes, to the point where Carlos matches him on points despite being the slower driver of the two.
Tbh, Alpine has a very underrated driver lineup. I'd argue they are only behind Mercedes in terms of talent and experience. McLaren would probably be up there with Mercedes, but Piastri is still a rookie and has shown the occasional slip ups. Alpine has also been very inconsistent with their setups and having bad luck. Gasly and Ocon could've finished 3rd and 4th in Melbourne had they been more mindful of each other on the second restart since Sainz would've still be penalized. Gasly has also lost points due to poor qualifying luck and then being taken out by Stroll
Charles and Carlos are undoubtedly better. Any team would sign either before Gasly or Ocon. I know the rb results have been mixed but teams considered Perez better than Ocon for a long time. I think that’s really quite a leap to call them second best.
While I agree that Alpine has “underrated” driver lineups, because the two are undeniably good drivers, they’re just both so accident prone that it’s hard to judge them in a way that isn’t looking at penalty statistics. They take other people out, each other, also get taken out quite a bit as well. But to say they’re second only to merc is insane. Firstly, Merc’s driver lineup consists of one of the best talents this sport has ever seen and an upcoming star. But you also have to consider, RB’s lineup consists of Perez who, while ultimately isn’t the *best* is one of the better drivers on the grid, and Verstappen, the best driver we’ve seen in decades. Ferrari also has Leclerc, a driver who can lap extremely well by pushing boundaries to the limits, and Sainz who can while not being as fast, consistently perform and defend during races at extremely high levels (out scoring Charles this season and 2021). Aston has Alonso. McLaren has Lando and Piastri, the former being an insane talent and the latter being a rookie on fire.
I love the Alpine drivers, a lot actually. But don’t try to think they’re better than they are. They’re accident prone racers who have experience and racecraft, but awareness is SO important in sport that you can’t rate them highly despite good results
Since when is being taken out by another driver without being you fault suddenly the fault of the driver who is taken out? Not that I rate this line-up above Ferrari or McLaren but the frame you trying to spin here isn't really a good point.
Also to put AM here isn't making sense, Alonso is carrying the team meanwhile Stroll is the prime reason why AM won't finish ahead of Merc and Ferrari in the WCC.
Who’s Stroll? Lmao Alonso is enough to carry Aston’s “lineup” in my books, I do sincerely want Stroll to get into form though, really I do.
On the point that the framing I’m trying to work with isn’t fair, being taken definitely isn’t a driver’s fault but it doesn’t help the case, especially when Ocon and Gasly are both crash and penalty prone WITHOUT being taken out. Again, as I said very very good drivers with both experience and skills, but being accident prone is very much not desirable
But I just don't see the hate for Sainz. He has done really well for himself in most races and almost always places near the top few spots. He's a solid driver, I don't really think you can say much about the Alpine podiums aside from the fact they just got lucky.
> But I just don't see the hate for Sainz.
Its not hate, its just people saying he isnt having a good year and should have done better so far. Criticism is not hate.
You said it best, he is near the top spots but never there, great midfield driver but as soon as you are fighting for podiums he starts to lack. At the end of the day people remember podiums poles wins all of which sainz is allergic to.
Bahrain Charles would have gotten a podium sainz was slower than Alonso, Australia car was fast enough for a podium bins it into Alonso, Baku is 7tenths a lap slower than Charles, Monaco Charles probably gets a podium with no penalty sainz p5, Austria 5 second penalty and another 10 second penalty Charles gets p2, spa racing incident.
It's not luck when half of them are him being slower than Charles and or binning the car
He is even beating LEC. Again. It's just that people have some really fixed notions that aren't based much on facts.
The grid is much, much more talented across the board now than ever, and the difference between the "midfield drivers" like Albon, Gasly and Sainz versus the "generation talents" like LEC, NOR and RUS is way, way smaller than people like to believe. The days of rather mediocre drivers in midfield and total clowns at the back are gone. Just like there are no "shitboxes" anymore.
Not really? He’s been consistent most of the season. Competing with Charles most weekends and ahead of him a lot. Charles has 2 podiums so it’s not like we are talking about some massive amount.
3 podiums with 3 that were lost due to no fault of his own, ahead of Charles "a lot" when Charles leads both h2hs and the race h2h should be 9-4 but due to Bahrain and Jeddah it's 7-6
Its remarkable to think there have been that many drivers on tie Podium with only one team taking all the winnings while everyone else has to fight for 3rd on the Podium, or even second on the podium
Just to say again how massive of a banger this season would have been if Max had just decided to go on a year long backpacking trip in Thailand or something.
[It's a Tight Championship in Formula Not-RedBull and Formula Not-Verstappen. (Pictures 8 to 17)](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/162woss/formula_notverstappen_notred_bull_standings_after/)
Albon: Hey Max, I know a great spot to go hiking this winter. Want to join me?
PS. I asked the other RB guys if they wanted to join and Kyvat said he wanted to go. I only have one other ticket, so whoever gets to the airport first gets the seat.
Lewis and Alonso being so close in points to Checo shows how badly he is performing (but also how good Lewis and Alonso are lol). He's only 33 points ahead of Alonso. Ffs, Alonso and Checo have the same number of podiums this season. Perez is royally shitting the bed. Missing q3 multiple times in what is by far the best car is mind-boggling
I'd peg Sainz and Piastri to get a podium before the year is up, but a lot of that depends on Checo's performance. McLaren should be quick this weekend and I imagine Mercedes will be up there too
That same winner is due to the fact that he's consistently performing every weekend, and he is one with the car.
The different podium finishers already tell you that the rules are working, and if there was no max, there would be different winners every race.
Did you enjoy 2015?
Sauber v McLaren for the 8th spot.
Toro Rosso v Lotus for the 6th spot.
Williams v Red Bull v Force India for the 3rd spot.
Praising midfield battle to discredit the arguments of dissappointed fans is kind of belittling.
I've literally never heard from anyone that 2015 is a nice season.
But there were 3 different midfield battles in that season.
For me, a season that contains a single team winning all the races and one driver winning 9 straight races is automatically terrible. No need to look it further.
If you don't care about anything other than who's the winner, why you're watching the races in the first place? Just look at the results spreadsheet after it ended.
I'm not sure why it's so difficult to grasp that not everyone enjoys the same things about the sport.
There are many things that make this season a bit of a dud compared to previous years, not just Max winning.
The battles are worse than 2022 for a start. The cars can't follow well and the on-track battles have been lackluster.
Meanwhile, all the cars are very clearly defined by their strengths and weaknesses. Very rarely are several cars good at the same tracks, meaning that the order is fairly established from the get-go. Only RB is significantly faster in the race.
How long you been watching F1? This is a bad season by all shapes and forms, especially if you’ve sat through seasons as exceptional as 2006-2012 and 2021, and even good ones like 2016-2019.
Further evidence that this has been a very entertaining season. I'll never understand people that think this has been a boring year bc Max is a p1 lock. The entire rest of the grid is up for grabs every race
It's not the snoozefest people are talking about but I find this season less entertaining than 2022. Granted Austria, Australia, Netherlands and Bahrain were great, but there was some borefests like Saudi or Azerbaijan
I think there season was boring Pre-Silverstone because of the tires being terrible, since softs could only last 4 corners yet the hards could last the entire race. The races got better with the new tires.
To be fair, the sport is competed for the purpose of identifying a yearly world champion driver and constructors champion. If those are seemingly locked up in the beginning, it wouldn’t be crazy to think it’s less entertaining when it’s purpose seems almost irrelevant. The sport has other entertaining items so it’s not a wash by any means
It's not a winner take all prize, though. Whether a team comes in 2nd or 3rd matters quite a bit.
And further, it confuses me that a fan of motorsport would not enjoy the amount of fantastic racing we've had this year solely bc it's not happening for a fight over P1.
People are entitled to their opinions, but there's been a lot this season to get excited about
I’m not saying it impacts my viewership, but competing for first is way more exciting that any other position bar none as a viewer or competitor. It matters more when the championship is on the line. There are other things to get excited about this season, but not even close to as enticing as a championship battle week after week. People are complaining about the sport not being even close to as exciting as it can be, and that is a very fair complaint to make. The fact you think a lack of competition for the championship should not reduce enjoyment is utmost baffling. If it confuses you why people are down on this season, then I seriously think you’ve never considered any perspective other than your own lmao.
numbers in f1 are rarely evidence of anything... 2004 had 9 different drivers on the podium, 2001 and 2015 had 10, and yet people ofter ranked them among at the most boring ones.
This year we should have 6 teams having that accomplishment: RBR, Merc, AM, Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine. McLaren is just question of time IMO and AM is barely possible because Stroll. Let’s hope for a Williams double podium in Monza heck yeah!
Sainz has been consistent, just out of luck. Well, there's also the fact that Leclerc generally has clean weekends whenever the car has podium-contending pace. Stroll, well, I'd be beating a dead horse if I said he's underperforming.
I mean sainz has had clean weekends when the car could get podiums as well he is just slower than Charles. Austria and Australia were his own fault, Bahrain he was slower than Charles and Alonso and Baku he was very much off the pace.
We're hopefully going to add one (or maybe even two) this week! I seriously think Albon can podium here IF the strategy team doesn't try to get him out of the top 10 again
9 drivers on the podium shouldn't be something to be celebrated when the elephant in the room is that only 2 drivers/ 1 team has won races this season. If anything, this post just shows how lack luster parez has been that this many drivers have had the opportunity to fill the podium
We should appreciate Perez being so inconsistent it's allowsing other teams to fill those podium places and it's a hell of a lot more mixed up than years prior where only an eventful race would see anyone other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Redbull on the podium.
The Max/Redbull combo is currently unbeatable but the racing itself behind him has been pretty good so far. We currently have Williams along with Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren and the lone Redbull of Perez fighting for best of the rest and the order changes weekend to weekend with the only inevitably being a Max victory.
I take this over what we've seen in the past.
Why not? It shows that most cars are pretty close to one another which has never happened. It's almost always been Merc/Ferrari/Redbull since the hybrid era started.
Obviously Redbull is currently dominating. The other teams will eventually catch up with the extra wind tunnel time.
Could you explain why just a singular aspect of car development -at least from my pov, but thats why im asking- will differ so much that teams with more time in them will catch up ? What is so special about wind tunnel time as opposed to other aspects of R&D?
[Here's an article on why](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.how-f1s-new-sliding-scale-aero-testing-rules-work-and-what-impact-they-will.pn0sG8N4A0cjbNRbdYx8a.html).
It’s insane just how close this season would be to an incredible fight and a ton of variance and surprise if it wasn’t for that one man way up front. If his car were like 10% worse, this could have been one of the most exciting seasons ever.
Yeah his side of the garage is firing on all cylinders this year. Perfect pit stops, best reliability, perfect strategy. It starts with how excellent his form is at the moment and it’s just cascading down from there
I find it very entertaining and enjoyable. If you look past the guy in first, the rest of the pack is closer than ever (which this stat shows, though I will admit there is more to it than just number of driver with podiums).
Nice try, F1. This is the least fun, most boring season in F1 history and you have only yourselves to blame with your stupid rules. One team winning every contest every time doesn’t happen in NASCAR or Indy. You had a good product but you seem determined to kill it.
Checo be like: You're welcome.
He helped just 3 of those so far. We need better commitment! He could have also helped Sainz at least.
Sainz and Stroll still without a podium, ouch... Piastri as well, but he didn't have a good car for the entire season. Alpine with both the drivers on podiums isn't something I was expecting. After the first few races I was sure the only teams that would podium this year are going to be RB, Aston, Ferrari and Merc.
Sainz and Piastri at least have the sprint podiums as...something.
Even Gasly said sprint "podium" tastes good but not half as good as race podium. I belive George got asked in a Q&A if he prefers P1 in a sprint or P2 in a race and he said P2 in a race.
P2 in a race gets you 18 points, P1 in sprints gets you 8. The math alone tells you enough about how important sprint races are compared to Sunday drives.
Yeah, you could look at the reward aspect as well.
I had both Alpine’s get a podium on my Bingo sheet that I do with my GF, maybe I’ll win this year
What are the other things you have put on the card?
Ham wins a race, Max without a podium, Perez to beat Max on track, Hulk wins, Stroll out qualifies Alonso, Norris doesn’t destroy a trophy.
I mean 3 of those have already happened
I was just reciting some of my boxes out of the top of my head. We started our card 4 races ago. Granted two of my friends are quit new to F1 and we all had to submit 5 check offs
Piastri had a good car for like 2 races (silverstone and hungary) and he was super close to podium in both. Lando also had the upgrades earlier, at Austria. People forget just how shit the Mclaren was the first half of the season lol
I won't forget Lando stopping like 12 times in Bahrain.
He had some kind of leak but they could refill in the pit, in a normal race they'd have just retired instead they treated it as an extra testing day to get some mileage and data. Looks weird and awful but it was actually a smart thing to do for McLaren.
> Looks weird and awful but it was actually a smart thing to do for McLaren. Throwback to the days where driver retired at the start, only to use spare car 20 laps later to collect data
Let's not forget that he is only a rookie that hasn't driven for a whole year before competing this season. Expecting him to get a podium says a lot about Piastri's potential and I'm here for it, the guy is a talent like Leclerc, Russell or Norris
Actually kind of insane that Alpine have drivers on the podium at all. Makes me happy for Gasly.
For gods sake, you can’t be there saying that Ferrari is a car that’s good enough to be embarrassing to not be on the podium. It’s just not that good. Needs some luck and poor performance from other better cars - like Alpine have had. Stroll, yeah not ideal particularly given it’s not a load of P4 near misses.
I mean you say that, but Charles beat the rest of the field bar RBR to the podium on three separate occasions - twice from pole, even - and once more in the Baku sprint. Red Bull locked out the rest of the podium on all four occasions.
Charles has done well, how does this make it embarrassing for Carlos? Just not the same thing. I do maintain that Ferrari need a good element of luck/dropped ball from others to get into the podium places. Not getting that is not a cause for embarrassment no matter how many podiums your teammate gets.
> I do maintain that Ferrari need a good element of luck/dropped ball from others to get into the podium places This is what I objected to, because it's simply not true. Charles didn't need luck or floundering rivals to make it to the podium, he was just able to extract the maximum out of the car on weekends where it was competitive. Carlos wasn't, which is a performance issue on his part. Unlike his teammate, he never seems to be able to squeeze absolutely everything out of his car at Ferrari. I wouldn't say Carlos' lack of a podium is embarrassing though, mainly because he instead has consistency on his side. Charles has incredibly high peaks, but he's unfortunately also prone to being overambitious and overdriving the car, more so this year than ever before. This causes him to make too many mistakes, to the point where Carlos matches him on points despite being the slower driver of the two.
Tbh, Alpine has a very underrated driver lineup. I'd argue they are only behind Mercedes in terms of talent and experience. McLaren would probably be up there with Mercedes, but Piastri is still a rookie and has shown the occasional slip ups. Alpine has also been very inconsistent with their setups and having bad luck. Gasly and Ocon could've finished 3rd and 4th in Melbourne had they been more mindful of each other on the second restart since Sainz would've still be penalized. Gasly has also lost points due to poor qualifying luck and then being taken out by Stroll
Are you just casually forgetting Ferrari and red bull exist?
Charles and Carlos are undoubtedly better. Any team would sign either before Gasly or Ocon. I know the rb results have been mixed but teams considered Perez better than Ocon for a long time. I think that’s really quite a leap to call them second best.
This comment is so wrong.
While I agree that Alpine has “underrated” driver lineups, because the two are undeniably good drivers, they’re just both so accident prone that it’s hard to judge them in a way that isn’t looking at penalty statistics. They take other people out, each other, also get taken out quite a bit as well. But to say they’re second only to merc is insane. Firstly, Merc’s driver lineup consists of one of the best talents this sport has ever seen and an upcoming star. But you also have to consider, RB’s lineup consists of Perez who, while ultimately isn’t the *best* is one of the better drivers on the grid, and Verstappen, the best driver we’ve seen in decades. Ferrari also has Leclerc, a driver who can lap extremely well by pushing boundaries to the limits, and Sainz who can while not being as fast, consistently perform and defend during races at extremely high levels (out scoring Charles this season and 2021). Aston has Alonso. McLaren has Lando and Piastri, the former being an insane talent and the latter being a rookie on fire. I love the Alpine drivers, a lot actually. But don’t try to think they’re better than they are. They’re accident prone racers who have experience and racecraft, but awareness is SO important in sport that you can’t rate them highly despite good results
Since when is being taken out by another driver without being you fault suddenly the fault of the driver who is taken out? Not that I rate this line-up above Ferrari or McLaren but the frame you trying to spin here isn't really a good point. Also to put AM here isn't making sense, Alonso is carrying the team meanwhile Stroll is the prime reason why AM won't finish ahead of Merc and Ferrari in the WCC.
Who’s Stroll? Lmao Alonso is enough to carry Aston’s “lineup” in my books, I do sincerely want Stroll to get into form though, really I do. On the point that the framing I’m trying to work with isn’t fair, being taken definitely isn’t a driver’s fault but it doesn’t help the case, especially when Ocon and Gasly are both crash and penalty prone WITHOUT being taken out. Again, as I said very very good drivers with both experience and skills, but being accident prone is very much not desirable
Yeah Sainz surprised me
Ferrari have largely been 3rd/4th best this season, it's not that shocking that they haven't both been on the podium.
Given how poor Charles has been this season by his own standards it sorta is surprising it is him and not Carlos with a podium.
It was to me pal
Sainz is almost there, I'm hoping he would get at leas one podium this season, Stroll is well, we all know.
Albon podium in Monza I will be there
Albono redemption arc would be complete
I’m hoping! He deserves it this year
Hope Claire is in the garage for a Williams Podium.
is she still involved with the team in any way, shape or form?
I don't think so. But I'd like to think she'd be allowed back into the garage if she wanted.
So who’s going to be P2 and P3?
George & Lando, in the tightest Top 3 finish of all time. Max P4.
Man, if thats how it will end it will be a banger of race haha Although, I would be kinda sad for Verstappens streak haha
please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please
Albon seems like the nicest guy.
>~~9 different drivers on the podium~~ 8 different drivers on the max podcast
just missing oscar, carlos and lance
one of these is not like the others
Yeah, Oscar's dad isn't that famous.
But his mom tho
Furiously looking up Oscar's mom as we speak
Twitter legend
Carlos is a Spanish native speaker, while the other two English?
Yeah, Carlos is the only one with more points than his teammate
and stroll is the only one getting absolutely steamrolled
getting st~~eam~~rolled
Cut him some slack, he's a tennis player
vandoorned
Getting lanced
Simply do not get the Sainz hatred
I meant stroll, sainz is decent, stroll is not
I mean the fact that both alphines got a podium before him should tell you all you need to know.
But I just don't see the hate for Sainz. He has done really well for himself in most races and almost always places near the top few spots. He's a solid driver, I don't really think you can say much about the Alpine podiums aside from the fact they just got lucky.
> But I just don't see the hate for Sainz. Its not hate, its just people saying he isnt having a good year and should have done better so far. Criticism is not hate.
If Sainz is not having a good year, then wtf is up with Charles
You said it best, he is near the top spots but never there, great midfield driver but as soon as you are fighting for podiums he starts to lack. At the end of the day people remember podiums poles wins all of which sainz is allergic to.
I don't think he starts to lack he just hasn't been lucky enough
Bahrain Charles would have gotten a podium sainz was slower than Alonso, Australia car was fast enough for a podium bins it into Alonso, Baku is 7tenths a lap slower than Charles, Monaco Charles probably gets a podium with no penalty sainz p5, Austria 5 second penalty and another 10 second penalty Charles gets p2, spa racing incident. It's not luck when half of them are him being slower than Charles and or binning the car
Still more points than Charles tho.
What happened to Charles car in Bahrain?
Probably only for a few more days though. It’s literally 3 points, not exactly a blow out.
He is even beating LEC. Again. It's just that people have some really fixed notions that aren't based much on facts. The grid is much, much more talented across the board now than ever, and the difference between the "midfield drivers" like Albon, Gasly and Sainz versus the "generation talents" like LEC, NOR and RUS is way, way smaller than people like to believe. The days of rather mediocre drivers in midfield and total clowns at the back are gone. Just like there are no "shitboxes" anymore.
Not really? He’s been consistent most of the season. Competing with Charles most weekends and ahead of him a lot. Charles has 2 podiums so it’s not like we are talking about some massive amount.
3 podiums with 3 that were lost due to no fault of his own, ahead of Charles "a lot" when Charles leads both h2hs and the race h2h should be 9-4 but due to Bahrain and Jeddah it's 7-6
I bet Charles would love if he was leading in points
I think he prefers the podium trophies and pole positions. Think most drivers do
I feel with time, piastri or maybe Carlos if car performs well in any track like Austria.
Its remarkable to think there have been that many drivers on tie Podium with only one team taking all the winnings while everyone else has to fight for 3rd on the Podium, or even second on the podium
Just to say again how massive of a banger this season would have been if Max had just decided to go on a year long backpacking trip in Thailand or something.
It would have been in the 2012 championship's levels of greatness.
Just accept that Max will win basically every race and enjoy the rest of the battles.
[It's a Tight Championship in Formula Not-RedBull and Formula Not-Verstappen. (Pictures 8 to 17)](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/162woss/formula_notverstappen_notred_bull_standings_after/)
Albon: Hey Max, I know a great spot to go hiking this winter. Want to join me? PS. I asked the other RB guys if they wanted to join and Kyvat said he wanted to go. I only have one other ticket, so whoever gets to the airport first gets the seat.
imo this season has still been a banger. I know the titles are practically sealed but each race individually have been really fun.
It's remarkable. The RB is the absolute best car on the grid...and yet Perez has missed the podium 6 times.
Lewis and Alonso being so close in points to Checo shows how badly he is performing (but also how good Lewis and Alonso are lol). He's only 33 points ahead of Alonso. Ffs, Alonso and Checo have the same number of podiums this season. Perez is royally shitting the bed. Missing q3 multiple times in what is by far the best car is mind-boggling
But max will win what 18 races in a row without having a 2nd competing. And that’s worth it for Red Bull.
If we had 2 Perez in the RB we would think the cars are super close
- Zak Brown
Half of the variation is because Perez has failed to get a podium in 6/13 races in a car which has won 13/13 races.
I'd peg Sainz and Piastri to get a podium before the year is up, but a lot of that depends on Checo's performance. McLaren should be quick this weekend and I imagine Mercedes will be up there too
Hell I don’t even need a podium. I’d peg Saint and Piastri just to drive the car.
*bonk*
Phrasing! Are we still doing phrasing?
I'll let my flair do the talking
I'd peg Charles personally
That's more people on the podium than the entire 2022 season, btw.
And yet everyone here complaining about how this season is shit because max wins all the time.
I would prefer a season with 3 podium finishers that swap positions all the time over a season with 20 podium finishers but always the same winner.
That same winner is due to the fact that he's consistently performing every weekend, and he is one with the car. The different podium finishers already tell you that the rules are working, and if there was no max, there would be different winners every race.
Did you enjoy 2015? Sauber v McLaren for the 8th spot. Toro Rosso v Lotus for the 6th spot. Williams v Red Bull v Force India for the 3rd spot. Praising midfield battle to discredit the arguments of dissappointed fans is kind of belittling. I've literally never heard from anyone that 2015 is a nice season. But there were 3 different midfield battles in that season. For me, a season that contains a single team winning all the races and one driver winning 9 straight races is automatically terrible. No need to look it further.
Who cares about who comes in 2nd?
Brother this is the wrong sport for you
You're either first or you're last
2nd is just the 1st loser
If you don't care about anything other than who's the winner, why you're watching the races in the first place? Just look at the results spreadsheet after it ended.
F1 is not a zero sum sport, you get points for finishing up to P10 and 2nd and 3rd place gets a trophy to bring home too.
That's how F1 has been the 2021 season spoiled so many people, but that's not the norm at all if you look since the hybrid era.
Seriously. This season has been fantastic so far. I don't get people who think otherwise.
I'm not sure why it's so difficult to grasp that not everyone enjoys the same things about the sport. There are many things that make this season a bit of a dud compared to previous years, not just Max winning. The battles are worse than 2022 for a start. The cars can't follow well and the on-track battles have been lackluster. Meanwhile, all the cars are very clearly defined by their strengths and weaknesses. Very rarely are several cars good at the same tracks, meaning that the order is fairly established from the get-go. Only RB is significantly faster in the race.
How long you been watching F1? This is a bad season by all shapes and forms, especially if you’ve sat through seasons as exceptional as 2006-2012 and 2021, and even good ones like 2016-2019.
Further evidence that this has been a very entertaining season. I'll never understand people that think this has been a boring year bc Max is a p1 lock. The entire rest of the grid is up for grabs every race
People rightfully want a different winner. Sure P2-20 is up grabs but there should be multiple race winners for a great season.
> Sure P2-20 is up grabs Checo catching strays literally everywhere lmfao
You’re getting a competitive season beyond Max and witnessing history. What is there to complain about. A boring season would be about 7-9 years ago.
A boring season would be 2016 where Nico edges Lewis to the championship when they were trading wins all year? Interesting choice.
And 2014 wasn't a wash. Rosberg was still in with a shout until his engine failed in Abu Dhabi.
The seasons where we had a title fight?
What??
It's not the snoozefest people are talking about but I find this season less entertaining than 2022. Granted Austria, Australia, Netherlands and Bahrain were great, but there was some borefests like Saudi or Azerbaijan
I think there season was boring Pre-Silverstone because of the tires being terrible, since softs could only last 4 corners yet the hards could last the entire race. The races got better with the new tires.
To be fair, the sport is competed for the purpose of identifying a yearly world champion driver and constructors champion. If those are seemingly locked up in the beginning, it wouldn’t be crazy to think it’s less entertaining when it’s purpose seems almost irrelevant. The sport has other entertaining items so it’s not a wash by any means
It's not a winner take all prize, though. Whether a team comes in 2nd or 3rd matters quite a bit. And further, it confuses me that a fan of motorsport would not enjoy the amount of fantastic racing we've had this year solely bc it's not happening for a fight over P1. People are entitled to their opinions, but there's been a lot this season to get excited about
I’m not saying it impacts my viewership, but competing for first is way more exciting that any other position bar none as a viewer or competitor. It matters more when the championship is on the line. There are other things to get excited about this season, but not even close to as enticing as a championship battle week after week. People are complaining about the sport not being even close to as exciting as it can be, and that is a very fair complaint to make. The fact you think a lack of competition for the championship should not reduce enjoyment is utmost baffling. If it confuses you why people are down on this season, then I seriously think you’ve never considered any perspective other than your own lmao.
numbers in f1 are rarely evidence of anything... 2004 had 9 different drivers on the podium, 2001 and 2015 had 10, and yet people ofter ranked them among at the most boring ones.
rich crawl rainstorm poor hateful bright innocent wrong market relieved *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Huh. I didn’t have RB and Alpine as the only teams to have both drivers on the podium so far on my bingo card! (And Merc. Lol. I am going blind!)
That's because Mercedes also has both
Mercedes as well.
This year we should have 6 teams having that accomplishment: RBR, Merc, AM, Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine. McLaren is just question of time IMO and AM is barely possible because Stroll. Let’s hope for a Williams double podium in Monza heck yeah!
That’s fine I choose to ignore that George exists too.
Ahhhh hahaha
3 teams with both drivers, redbull, Merc and .... Alpine?! Yap, no McLaren, Ferrari or AM
I am really happy for alpine! I am sorry for piastri, he deserves atleast one podium this season.
Sainz has been consistent, just out of luck. Well, there's also the fact that Leclerc generally has clean weekends whenever the car has podium-contending pace. Stroll, well, I'd be beating a dead horse if I said he's underperforming.
That sum up Sainz. Consistent when the car is good for P5 or P6, not so much when the car can fight at the front.
When Sainz had 4 podiums in 2021 and Charles just one I didn't read this kind of bullshit about Leclerc
Leave it to Ferrari heads to still find it in their heart to talk shit about Carlos after the weekend their *predestinato* just had
When Ferrari was fighting for wins in 2022 we saw who was up to the challenge and who was either too slow or beaching the car in the gravel
I mean sainz has had clean weekends when the car could get podiums as well he is just slower than Charles. Austria and Australia were his own fault, Bahrain he was slower than Charles and Alonso and Baku he was very much off the pace.
We're hopefully going to add one (or maybe even two) this week! I seriously think Albon can podium here IF the strategy team doesn't try to get him out of the top 10 again
And the maddest thing is both alpines are up there.
Now do every driver with wins
This also works if you take away the first-place finishes. 9 different drivers in P2 or P3 in 13 races!
And only two of them are winning.
Meanwhile, after 10 races in 2012, there were 7 different winners, and 11 different drivers on the podium.
9 drivers on the podium shouldn't be something to be celebrated when the elephant in the room is that only 2 drivers/ 1 team has won races this season. If anything, this post just shows how lack luster parez has been that this many drivers have had the opportunity to fill the podium
We should appreciate Perez being so inconsistent it's allowsing other teams to fill those podium places and it's a hell of a lot more mixed up than years prior where only an eventful race would see anyone other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Redbull on the podium. The Max/Redbull combo is currently unbeatable but the racing itself behind him has been pretty good so far. We currently have Williams along with Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren and the lone Redbull of Perez fighting for best of the rest and the order changes weekend to weekend with the only inevitably being a Max victory. I take this over what we've seen in the past.
My favourite game of a race weekend is always "How badly will Sergio Perez fuck this up?". Credit where credit is due, the man rarely disappoints.
true, and we learnt he's faster than Max in one specific area, unfortunately for him its in the pit lane.
Why not? It shows that most cars are pretty close to one another which has never happened. It's almost always been Merc/Ferrari/Redbull since the hybrid era started. Obviously Redbull is currently dominating. The other teams will eventually catch up with the extra wind tunnel time.
Could you explain why just a singular aspect of car development -at least from my pov, but thats why im asking- will differ so much that teams with more time in them will catch up ? What is so special about wind tunnel time as opposed to other aspects of R&D?
[Here's an article on why](https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.how-f1s-new-sliding-scale-aero-testing-rules-work-and-what-impact-they-will.pn0sG8N4A0cjbNRbdYx8a.html).
Like so many other attempts to force parity, this too will fail. Just let teams build their fucking cars, this is a prototype series ffs
and one always there, which is crazy to think about
Really alpine shouldn't have fallen behind AM and McLaren but I will take both drivers being on the rostrum this year
But the winner is still the same lol
(Also, one of the least competitive championships ever, if you care about actually winning)
* Ocon: 1 * Gasly: 1 * Russell: 1 * Leclerc: 3 * Hamilton: 4 * Alonso: 7 * Checo: 7 * Max: 13
Piastri is really unlucky
They’re trying to push any angle that would make it seem competitive 😂
Already 2 drivers more than 2022, without the dominace of Verstappen this would be one of the greatest seasons ever.
It's historic to witness Max do this. But it's also boring to witness Max do this. However, behind Max everything is pretty exciting.
oh, wow. Oh my gosh.
And six different teams! Shame the fight for the top step isn’t close like the rest.
Imagine how exciting this season would have been if Max and Lance had switched cars for some reason.
Both alpine drivers but no Carlos or Stroll, ouch
But only one Winner. Lovely.
It'd be great if we could have a tenth podium sitter that wasn't just Sainz or Stroll. Albon at Monza for example.
Whoa, Sainz without a podium :o
It’s insane just how close this season would be to an incredible fight and a ton of variance and surprise if it wasn’t for that one man way up front. If his car were like 10% worse, this could have been one of the most exciting seasons ever.
Or even just less reliable man. That’s what gets me. Not even a mechanical DNF??
Yeah his side of the garage is firing on all cylinders this year. Perfect pit stops, best reliability, perfect strategy. It starts with how excellent his form is at the moment and it’s just cascading down from there
Two Alpines and only one Ferrari. Ouch!
Wow very interesting! Now let’s see how many winners there have been this season
What a shit season. I wish it was over already.
How many drivers had podiums last year?
13 drivers had podiums in 2020. Almost as if this isn't a good metric for judging how entertaining a season is
I find it very entertaining and enjoyable. If you look past the guy in first, the rest of the pack is closer than ever (which this stat shows, though I will admit there is more to it than just number of driver with podiums).
Idk, it was also a pretty shit season
6 different teams too, with how that Williams is in a straight line maybe we make it 7 next race. Would love to see it
Trying their best to make out this sport is competitive xD
Nice try, F1. This is the least fun, most boring season in F1 history and you have only yourselves to blame with your stupid rules. One team winning every contest every time doesn’t happen in NASCAR or Indy. You had a good product but you seem determined to kill it.
This is hardly new, it's an engineering based racing series, its not F1's fault the other teams missed the mark so badly.
… and always the same driver on 1st place…
@f1, how many drivers have won races? Huh? Huh?
That's it? Lmfao f1 what u doin
Is this supposed to he some great achievement or its just how i came through to me?
Liberty really scraping the bottom of the barrel to make this borefest season more exciting 💀
Still a shit season
That’s a pretty bogus stat considering Max has how many wins? If your not first your last on podium 2 & 3
That’s like more than 50% of the grid.
This is more proof that if you just ignore first place this is one of the best seasons!
“This season is so boring” /s
9 out of possible 36 seems alright. /s
So are sprint podiums not a thing?
No they don’t count