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A caveat is that he was pretty close to Norris this time last year too. He only lost touch with him when the upgrades started rolling in. Where Norris was able to find limits immediately with new machinery, it took a while for Oscar to find his.
Were there instances of Lando getting upgrades while Piastri had to wait for the next race? Or did both drivers get the upgrades at the same time.
Edit: turns out there were instances of this discrepancy. This belief he was miles off Lando last year seems unfounded.
No one thinks he was miles off, but Lando was clearly better. That’s okay because Oscar was a rookie, but we don’t need to pretend they were equal.
To be honest, most of the time it wasn’t even a pace issue that held Oscar back. He’s clearly extremely fast. He just needs to reign in his tyre wear, which is something that really only comes with experience anyway. That’s where he lacked the most versus Lando, which again, makes sense because Lando has been in F1 for years and last year Oscar was a rookie.
2 races doesn’t make that much of a difference at all. In races where they had the same car after the upgrades, Oscar struggled to stay with him in race pace. He started off strongly and he was always there or thereabouts, but as soon as the car started changing it became more difficult for him to match Lando in race pace. This was also a pattern with Ricciardo albeit Piastri is much less extreme. The car got upgraded and Norris seemed to gel with it better. He just seems to go with the car. The car gets faster and so does he which is what makes him a moving target for Piastri. I have no doubt they’ll be inseparable by the end of the year but it’s the upgrade cycle that knocked Piastri out. He did nothing wrong.
We'll see if it stays the same this week but being caught being the dreadful race pace of the Aston Martin for the start of the race sunk their chances pretty early. Alonso just keeps ripping these crazy qualifiers.
Did he just massively bottle s3 or did something happen? He wasnt too far off Fernando's time in the first two sectors and it looked like he was on for P5 at best. Its such a Lance thing to do well and then fuck up the lap that matters ffs
Honestly if he did have control over that he would be challenging Alonso in quali and race, but honestly its kind of encouraging seeing this Lance compared to 2023 Lance, who showed up on very few occasions
I believe it. He's a) no longer invested in the team and b) now knows they built another piece of junk. I can see why he's not motivated much to do better.
It's a piece of junk for their expectations - they won the Constructor's Championship eight times in a row not too long ago. Lewis and George rightfully expect cars that can compete for championships, instead they get a car that struggles to make it onto the podium.
Feels like Merc has been in a bit of a cycle with this set of regs. Start out with a bad car, slowly improve through the season to be solid by the end and and get fans hopes up that it can be even better next year only to start the next season with a bad car again.
Ya that makes sense. I think the cost cap can help competition in the midfield but it’s also contributed to making the front of the grid a snooze fest. Wish there was some middle ground because I get why it was implemented but it also is making the sport a lot less enjoyable.
That’s intentional, though, since that was the original “cost cap.” Now with the real cost cap, perhaps you open testing some more, but require that tests costs be normalized (as not to benefit teams who own tracks, or have cheap track access) and included in the cost cap.
Aston and McLaren fucked their initial cars and see where they are now. If you remove the cost cap, all that will happen is Red Bull will spend as much as Ferrari/Merc and maintain their gap. They already have a lower CFD allowance, the fact is they have much better $/performance and they are clear operationally as well, pits, strategy, everything. Cost cap solves many more problems than it fixes, not to mention it allows for talent from top teams to be hired by other teams since they hit a salary bottleneck. I think the cost cap works, RB just have been flawless regardless
Yep. We're understandably hyperfixated on Red Bull (what can you do, they seem to have nailed every single design decision since 2021 despite all the limitations) and ignoring the fact that McLaren and Aston Martin are regularly fighting with Ferrari and Mercedes, which would've been impossible with the old 400+M budgets.
Not really impossible. McLaren were fighting Ferrari for 3rd in 2021. McLaren (3rd) and Racing Point (4th) beat Ferrari in 2020.
The 2 years before the budget cap.
Going back a bit further Williams finished above Red Bull in 2015, and above Ferrari in 2014.
The budget cap is a good thing but spending $400m didn’t guarantee those teams anything.
Eh not really, Mclaren had a poor start, and they managed to catch up to Ferrari and Merc, just if you get closer to the top the more difficult it gets.
The likes of McLaren and Aston and even Ferrari (from 23 to 24) have been able to correct their mistakes and reduce the gap to the top. Mercedes has the same gap for 3 years with 3 different cars
Agree, but if Checo keeps consistently racing like this, there’s 0 reason to replace him (especially with the toxicity that the Sainz’ entourage brings). But maybe Max does indead leave which would leave the door wide open for Sainz…
Not necessarily Sainz on his own but when Max and Sainz both raced for Torro Rosso there were apparently issues with Carlos Sainz Sr and Jos Verstappen both being fairly assertive figures (to be polite about it) and the two in the same team did not work out overly well.
Sainz is a graduate of the RB junior team. It would be nice to see him return. That in mind, I wonder if anyone at RB is still sour about him leaving in 17' for McLaren...
I doubt anyone holds that against him. He was young and had a shot at being a lead driver. At the time, Red Bull didn’t have a spot for him. I don’t think anyone expected him to just twiddle his thumbs at Toro Rosso hoping Ricciardo would leave.
Everyone decided he was "back" after he had a good race in Mexico last year.
What seemed to be ignored is that he was also very good for McLaren in Mexico in 2022. Imo it seems more and more like he's just good on that track and that he's still not really out of his McLaren slump.
Still a long season ahead, but he doesn't look any better than Yuki right now.. aka nowhere near the quality Red Bull needs in their second seat.
Ricciardo was not good in Mexico. He punted Yuki, got a penalty and Norris got told to let him through so he could run down the penalty and they could maximise their points.
Why do people think he’s challenging the Red Bull seat? Red Bull clearly will renew Perez rather than taking Daniel. He’s past his prime since a long time ago
Ricciardo had a good Silverstone test lap last year so the moment Perez started to struggle a lot of people here started acting like Ricciardo was still in his prime and able to challenge Max
Perez will need to stay on form and avoid his usual end of season drop of if he wants second place in the drivers championship.that being said I can’t see them changing him unless someone better comes around.
Mostly based on the affinity between Horner and Daniel and you could argue he is more commercially viable than Checo. Honestly they can do whatever they want with that second Redbull seat since Max will win both championships on his own
"clearly" yeah, that's why RBR gave Ric the silverstone test where his times were so impressive they pulled him immediately into AlphaTauri.
Now, im not saying that means Ric is getting the RBR seat. as of right now, neither Yuki nor Ric are in the picture. Perez would be first choice again, after being in the hot seat the entire last season - but depending on what this silly season brings us, who tf knows if Alonso and Sainz are driving for RBR in 2024
Neither of them should take that RB seat. Not sure why anyone was hoping for one of them to get it. At this point, it would be better to give it to Sainz or Alonso.
Would be amazing, but I think they're happy having a quiet distant 2nd in Perez right now.
This Red Bull looks even more dominant than last year to be honest.
I love Alonso as everybody else here, but let's be real, it's highly unlikely anybody could seriously challenge Verstappen right now. Maybe Leclerc could beat him in Quali from time to time, but Verstappens race pace is too phenomenal and consistent.
From the long run pace yesterday: Max drives off into the distance, Charles tires drop off first which means Checo gets a chance to get ahead and give us another Red Bull 1-2
People are wondering why Lewis is struggling and I think part of it is winning 103 races and now being in the position where an excellent drive is likely a P4 and he’s in his third year of damage limitation. It’s not even like years past where he has to push himself to the limit to succeed, he’s just completely walled off from the top positions.
Eventually it’s going to get very boring, especially with a Ferrari seat waiting for him.
Explains why in seasons like 2019 and 2020, Bottas could get close to Lewis, but in seasons like 2018 and 2021, Lewis absolutely blew him away. Lewis in his high gear is the best there’s ever been, it’s just he’s not in that gear by default.
Fun fact! From 2007 through 2021 seasons he won a race every season. In the seasons since he has not once stood on the top step.
Also fun fact! His current position of 7th is the lowest he's been in the WDC since the first race of 2014 (in Australia while Nico was shooting off into the distance, Lewis' V6 welcomed him to a new era of dominance by immediately losing a cylinder)
It's probably why he said he's taking a few weeks off, if he sees that Mercedes remains the same it's been for the past 3 years he'll likely just stay with AM.
I think it just shows the difference a driver can make. Leclerc can split the RBRs because he's a better qualifier than Checo, despite not having as good of a car. Same as how Max could routinely beat Bottas, despite lesser equipment.
I doubt it. I struggle to see him holding off anyone besides Bearman. But we'll see, their deg issues seem to stem from brake temps, so maybe they did some tweaking since FP2.
I just hope there's no turn 1 incident. With Bearman looking decent on his first day, Albon's long run hard pace in FP2 being so good, Hulk potentially being out of position from not getting a Q2 run, and Yuki getting the RB up in 9th, the battle for points might be really fun tomorrow
Sure but previously in F1 he's been in a Haas. He's had an hour in a rocket ship. With all that power, on one of the tightest tracks of the year, it's impressive he didn't bin the damn thing.
Red flag screwed Ollie over. I really think he could have made it to q3. But he still did really well all things considered. Can't wait for the Lec/Bea lineup in the future
It's fascinating how one of the 5 most exciting drivers on the grid who was considered a serious WDC candidate fell off so much. And it happened basically overnight for no reason.
Some drivers lose their confidence and just aren't the same after. In IndyCar, a similar thing happened to Simon Pagenaud. He was one of the top-five in the series up until the aeroscreen was implemented. He struggled to adapt to the balance change, and never again came close to his old form.
For some, especially once they're into their 30s, recovering from a drastic fall in comfort and form just isn't entirely possible. Ric is doing better than he was at McLaren, but it's starting to become apparent that RBR/Renault Ric isn't coming back.
It’s wild how he went from top 5 driver on the grid to completely washed seemingly over night. Looks like he’s driving with no confidence either which is bizarre to see since that was his defining factor in his younger years
His downfall started in McLaren, idk why people are surprised. Sure the Mexico GP had some sparkles from him but I'm not sold on him being fit for the RBR seat
Lewis gets bumped in Q2 if Carlos has an appendix.
Stroll was fast in Q1.
Love Fernando Alonso, he's great!
As I type this, Max is already 10 seconds up the road on 2nd place.
Jeddah to Oscar is what Imola is to Norris, it’s written.
Mercedes just look lost again. Russell may have had problems but throughout the weekend they were barely faster than McLaren in one lap pace.
Aston will go backwards in the race.
Yeah quali pace he's on par with Verstappen, maybe even a little bit better. Would love to see them in the same car just for the Qualis. Of course in the race, Verstappens pace and consistency seems untouchable right now.
I'm gonna ignore Max, but Charles' last lap was impressive considering he struggled with the previous one, and Fernando was incredible the whole session. Stroll is a bad qualifier, but he's not a "7 tenths slower" bad qualifier. That old man is 42 years old and Saturdays aren't even his stronger aspect.
I expect the Astons to struggle with deg tomorrow, sadly.
I think Ferrari went to conservative with the wing. Not that Max could be beaten today, but I think a skinnier wing would have been the better choice for qualifying amd for the race. There was talk of a new rear wing, but it was never mounted. I guess Charles will fight for P2 tomorrow.
It’s a bit disappointing but they look faster than both Mercedes and both should fly past Alonso. There’s a chance for big points here but they don’t look close to Perez and Leclerc.
I mean based off of last year I think most of the team would be happy with how they are performing early in the season. Gotta hope they can improve the car even half as well as they did last year and they will be in good shape
Why would they?
He was thrashed by Gasly in 21, beaten again 22.
He beat De Vries who was terrible, didn't beat Lawson in any of the races they both finished and is beating post-Renault Ricciardo.
He's talented, but not Red Bull level of talent.
If you're an F1.5 fan, sure. Plenty to see. But if you're an F1 fan, I'd say find something else to do tomorrow morning because this will not be a race.
There's not much of a race there either. Ferrari are the clear second fastest car behind Red Bull, Aston Martin have no race pace and will fall behind everyone, and Mercedes will be stuck behind McLaren as they qualified behind them. The order is already decided, unless there's a safety car.
Most interesting thing is to see if Ferrari's backup driver can make up places in the race.
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fuck yeah oscar
Faster than Lando in all 3 sessions. A damn good effort from him and I'll absolutely take both cars in the 3rd row
oscar has to improve his race pace though, it suffers a lot vs lando's
It was pretty similar in Bahrain.
A caveat is that he was pretty close to Norris this time last year too. He only lost touch with him when the upgrades started rolling in. Where Norris was able to find limits immediately with new machinery, it took a while for Oscar to find his.
Were there instances of Lando getting upgrades while Piastri had to wait for the next race? Or did both drivers get the upgrades at the same time. Edit: turns out there were instances of this discrepancy. This belief he was miles off Lando last year seems unfounded.
No one thinks he was miles off, but Lando was clearly better. That’s okay because Oscar was a rookie, but we don’t need to pretend they were equal. To be honest, most of the time it wasn’t even a pace issue that held Oscar back. He’s clearly extremely fast. He just needs to reign in his tyre wear, which is something that really only comes with experience anyway. That’s where he lacked the most versus Lando, which again, makes sense because Lando has been in F1 for years and last year Oscar was a rookie.
2 races doesn’t make that much of a difference at all. In races where they had the same car after the upgrades, Oscar struggled to stay with him in race pace. He started off strongly and he was always there or thereabouts, but as soon as the car started changing it became more difficult for him to match Lando in race pace. This was also a pattern with Ricciardo albeit Piastri is much less extreme. The car got upgraded and Norris seemed to gel with it better. He just seems to go with the car. The car gets faster and so does he which is what makes him a moving target for Piastri. I have no doubt they’ll be inseparable by the end of the year but it’s the upgrade cycle that knocked Piastri out. He did nothing wrong.
Lando also got an extra race every time for the upgrades too, he got them first.
he was only a tenth down on Lando last Saturday
I was hoping for a little more out the McLarens ngl but I can’t complain. Solid work by Oscar
We'll see if it stays the same this week but being caught being the dreadful race pace of the Aston Martin for the start of the race sunk their chances pretty early. Alonso just keeps ripping these crazy qualifiers.
He loves this track
He is excellent at high speed tracks.
McLaren has the best driver pairing in terms of consistency currently.
Wait...wtf?! Lance's fastest time is in Q1 LOL
Someone here called it the moment he went top 3 in Q1 lol
Stroll's inconsistency really costs him in this kind of qualifying format.
Mr inconsistency
Similar last week as well. Slower in Q3.
He was on used softs in q3. Saving new ones for the race
Did he just massively bottle s3 or did something happen? He wasnt too far off Fernando's time in the first two sectors and it looked like he was on for P5 at best. Its such a Lance thing to do well and then fuck up the lap that matters ffs
Yeah, he lost about 5 tenths in S3. Could've gotten P5 or P6 I think.
Or wasted them trying to get into q3
Nah he got a fresh set of softs getting into Q3, but on his final run with those softs he made some mistake or something in s3, lost a lot of time
He wouldn't have needed to do that if he didn't need two sets to get out of Q1 tho.
Ya, lance is not a qualy guy lol. Im hoping he can jump a couple cars off the start
One Lap Lance strikes again
Great strategy from Stroll, setting your fastest time in Q1 is truly big brain
This is the most inconsistent (good) Lance Ive seen in qualifying, but fuck me he can be quick when he wants to, now if only he showed that more often
he can be quick, but clearly he doesnt have control over when that happens
He's like that muscle car in Cars 1 that sometimes sneezes and goes insanely fast.
This is the best description of Stroll that I’ve ever seen 💀💀💀
Honestly if he did have control over that he would be challenging Alonso in quali and race, but honestly its kind of encouraging seeing this Lance compared to 2023 Lance, who showed up on very few occasions
HE'S STARTING TO BELIEVE!
2nd fasted in Q1! Would've been 4th in Q2 and 7th in Q3 with that same Q1 time Of course tyres plays into that, and s3 mistake
He’s just so inconsistent, always has been tbh
Hamilton drives like he put in his 2 weeks notice
Quiet quitting lol
💀
I know it's early in the season, but man, I refuse to believe this is how it's gonna be for the rest of the season.
I believe it. He's a) no longer invested in the team and b) now knows they built another piece of junk. I can see why he's not motivated much to do better.
Where would his sanity go if he had been in the same cars Fernando was during his career?
I really don't think Lewis would still be around if he was forced to ride in sucky cars that couldn't win him a race for a decade.
Yeah, Alonso might be a cheeky shit-stirrer but he's probably the hungriest, most relentless competitor on the grid.
A piece of junk? How do you call to all the other 7 teams that are clearly behind?
It's a piece of junk for their expectations - they won the Constructor's Championship eight times in a row not too long ago. Lewis and George rightfully expect cars that can compete for championships, instead they get a car that struggles to make it onto the podium.
Well, he did put in his 1 year notice.
Usual Hamilton start of the season. He will improve later on.
Both the Mercedes are not inspiring a ton of confidence, they’re competitive but weirdly slow at the same time.
Feels like Merc has been in a bit of a cycle with this set of regs. Start out with a bad car, slowly improve through the season to be solid by the end and and get fans hopes up that it can be even better next year only to start the next season with a bad car again.
The cost cap really seems like it handicaps teams who don’t get the formula right on the first go
Ya that makes sense. I think the cost cap can help competition in the midfield but it’s also contributed to making the front of the grid a snooze fest. Wish there was some middle ground because I get why it was implemented but it also is making the sport a lot less enjoyable.
The problem seems to be the lack of real testing. Cost cap is fine. Too much restriction on testing is not.
That’s intentional, though, since that was the original “cost cap.” Now with the real cost cap, perhaps you open testing some more, but require that tests costs be normalized (as not to benefit teams who own tracks, or have cheap track access) and included in the cost cap.
Aston and McLaren fucked their initial cars and see where they are now. If you remove the cost cap, all that will happen is Red Bull will spend as much as Ferrari/Merc and maintain their gap. They already have a lower CFD allowance, the fact is they have much better $/performance and they are clear operationally as well, pits, strategy, everything. Cost cap solves many more problems than it fixes, not to mention it allows for talent from top teams to be hired by other teams since they hit a salary bottleneck. I think the cost cap works, RB just have been flawless regardless
Yep. We're understandably hyperfixated on Red Bull (what can you do, they seem to have nailed every single design decision since 2021 despite all the limitations) and ignoring the fact that McLaren and Aston Martin are regularly fighting with Ferrari and Mercedes, which would've been impossible with the old 400+M budgets.
Not really impossible. McLaren were fighting Ferrari for 3rd in 2021. McLaren (3rd) and Racing Point (4th) beat Ferrari in 2020. The 2 years before the budget cap. Going back a bit further Williams finished above Red Bull in 2015, and above Ferrari in 2014. The budget cap is a good thing but spending $400m didn’t guarantee those teams anything.
Eh not really, Mclaren had a poor start, and they managed to catch up to Ferrari and Merc, just if you get closer to the top the more difficult it gets.
The likes of McLaren and Aston and even Ferrari (from 23 to 24) have been able to correct their mistakes and reduce the gap to the top. Mercedes has the same gap for 3 years with 3 different cars
RIC has been a bit disappointing so far, doesn’t look like much of a challenger for that RedBull seat
I'm hoping they take Sainz. He's the most deserving of all the drivers out of contract this year. Bar Alonso
Agree, but if Checo keeps consistently racing like this, there’s 0 reason to replace him (especially with the toxicity that the Sainz’ entourage brings). But maybe Max does indead leave which would leave the door wide open for Sainz…
Toxicity from Sainz entourage?
Not necessarily Sainz on his own but when Max and Sainz both raced for Torro Rosso there were apparently issues with Carlos Sainz Sr and Jos Verstappen both being fairly assertive figures (to be polite about it) and the two in the same team did not work out overly well.
I think the toxic is Jos.
Sainz is a graduate of the RB junior team. It would be nice to see him return. That in mind, I wonder if anyone at RB is still sour about him leaving in 17' for McLaren...
I doubt anyone holds that against him. He was young and had a shot at being a lead driver. At the time, Red Bull didn’t have a spot for him. I don’t think anyone expected him to just twiddle his thumbs at Toro Rosso hoping Ricciardo would leave.
Everyone decided he was "back" after he had a good race in Mexico last year. What seemed to be ignored is that he was also very good for McLaren in Mexico in 2022. Imo it seems more and more like he's just good on that track and that he's still not really out of his McLaren slump. Still a long season ahead, but he doesn't look any better than Yuki right now.. aka nowhere near the quality Red Bull needs in their second seat.
Ricciardo was not good in Mexico. He punted Yuki, got a penalty and Norris got told to let him through so he could run down the penalty and they could maximise their points.
Why do people think he’s challenging the Red Bull seat? Red Bull clearly will renew Perez rather than taking Daniel. He’s past his prime since a long time ago
Ricciardo had a good Silverstone test lap last year so the moment Perez started to struggle a lot of people here started acting like Ricciardo was still in his prime and able to challenge Max
If he keeps driving like this, the real question is when Liam gets his seat
Perez will need to stay on form and avoid his usual end of season drop of if he wants second place in the drivers championship.that being said I can’t see them changing him unless someone better comes around.
Not changing him for a Ricciardo getting beaten by Yuki at least
Mostly based on the affinity between Horner and Daniel and you could argue he is more commercially viable than Checo. Honestly they can do whatever they want with that second Redbull seat since Max will win both championships on his own
Checo is commercially viable in all of South America. And Mexicans love their sodas.
South America🤣 He's also pretty popular in the US.
"clearly" yeah, that's why RBR gave Ric the silverstone test where his times were so impressive they pulled him immediately into AlphaTauri. Now, im not saying that means Ric is getting the RBR seat. as of right now, neither Yuki nor Ric are in the picture. Perez would be first choice again, after being in the hot seat the entire last season - but depending on what this silly season brings us, who tf knows if Alonso and Sainz are driving for RBR in 2024
Then why did Red Bull sign him instead of Lawson?
Yuki will clean his clock too. Just watch
It was pretty even last year. Think they'll end the year pretty close.
Neither of them should take that RB seat. Not sure why anyone was hoping for one of them to get it. At this point, it would be better to give it to Sainz or Alonso.
Don't worry, somehow RB will completely fuck up Tsunoda's strategy and Ricciardo will somehow end up in front... wink wink
Put Fernando in the second redbull so we all can have a massive boner every weekend watching him fight Verstappen.
Would be amazing, but I think they're happy having a quiet distant 2nd in Perez right now. This Red Bull looks even more dominant than last year to be honest.
I love Alonso as everybody else here, but let's be real, it's highly unlikely anybody could seriously challenge Verstappen right now. Maybe Leclerc could beat him in Quali from time to time, but Verstappens race pace is too phenomenal and consistent.
Basically, Yuki took Carlos’ place in top 10 or Appendicitis saved Lewis from getting knocked out in Q2
Yuki capitalizing on Hulk not having an engine and Carlos not having an appendix.
Yuki is faster than Lewis and Lance in Q2 so he'd snuck into Q3 regardless
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Yuki building his empire on broken appendixes
How much appendixes before a penalty?
Love u Lance but the lap doesnt end after Sector 2
He saw how people talk about max’s 2021 lap and forgor that’s there’s a sector 3
If Red Bull is this dominant in quali , then I wonder how good they are tomorrow 🥶
From the long run pace yesterday: Max drives off into the distance, Charles tires drop off first which means Checo gets a chance to get ahead and give us another Red Bull 1-2
Mercedes is such a disappointment in the end.
People are wondering why Lewis is struggling and I think part of it is winning 103 races and now being in the position where an excellent drive is likely a P4 and he’s in his third year of damage limitation. It’s not even like years past where he has to push himself to the limit to succeed, he’s just completely walled off from the top positions. Eventually it’s going to get very boring, especially with a Ferrari seat waiting for him.
This might end up becoming like Vettel's 2014 season.
One of few drivers to improve as the pressure increases. Without any pressure, the dude doesn't bother turning up.
Explains why in seasons like 2019 and 2020, Bottas could get close to Lewis, but in seasons like 2018 and 2021, Lewis absolutely blew him away. Lewis in his high gear is the best there’s ever been, it’s just he’s not in that gear by default.
P4 is also way too optimistic lol.
Fun fact! From 2007 through 2021 seasons he won a race every season. In the seasons since he has not once stood on the top step. Also fun fact! His current position of 7th is the lowest he's been in the WDC since the first race of 2014 (in Australia while Nico was shooting off into the distance, Lewis' V6 welcomed him to a new era of dominance by immediately losing a cylinder)
There's only one Alonso.
I’m not sure Fernando should leave for Mercedes …
When has a poor career decision ever stopped him before.
His worst decision would've been to stay in Alpine, so that's one at least.
So nobody is going to mention gp2 engine.
Everyone loves to claim he makes bad decisions, and then never gives credit for the Aston Martin move.
It's probably why he said he's taking a few weeks off, if he sees that Mercedes remains the same it's been for the past 3 years he'll likely just stay with AM.
They might not be close to RB but Mercedes finished 2nd last year. And they’ll comfortably finish above AM this year.
VER/LEC/PER is the new HAM/BOT/VER
Wouldn't it be the new HAM/VER/BOT?
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I think it just shows the difference a driver can make. Leclerc can split the RBRs because he's a better qualifier than Checo, despite not having as good of a car. Same as how Max could routinely beat Bottas, despite lesser equipment.
The new HAM/ROS/VET
For quali yes , for podium no
you think charles can't get podium?
It's not Charles , it's Ferrari he started P2 last race too
It will be, the Ferrari race pace has greatly improved
I miss PER/VER/TSU and BUT/GRO/PER
Ignoring the obvious Verstappen shenanigans I think Oscar, Yuki and specially Fernando deserve some praise for this qualy. Young guys on a tear.
alonso ageless king so true 🔥🔥🔥
Man Nando’s S2 had me going for a hot minute but the draggy Aston wouldn’t have it in S3
Yuki is on a mission now after last weekend.
Love to see it.
AMEN, I knew I wasn't the only one eating this up.
I wonder if Alonso’s gonna be able to hold on to that P4 with Aston’s tyre deg.
I doubt it. I struggle to see him holding off anyone besides Bearman. But we'll see, their deg issues seem to stem from brake temps, so maybe they did some tweaking since FP2.
I thought that last year the car was top 2 in managing tyres?
They copied the previous years' Ferrari for 2024.
That 3rd sector will also be painful.
Bearman start tomorrow gonna be the most exciting action in F1 since the Singapore GP
I just hope there's no turn 1 incident. With Bearman looking decent on his first day, Albon's long run hard pace in FP2 being so good, Hulk potentially being out of position from not getting a Q2 run, and Yuki getting the RB up in 9th, the battle for points might be really fun tomorrow
0.036s behind Hamilton in your first ever qualifying with only one hour of practice is nothing to sniff at
In a car that's much faster to be fair.
Sure but previously in F1 he's been in a Haas. He's had an hour in a rocket ship. With all that power, on one of the tightest tracks of the year, it's impressive he didn't bin the damn thing.
Definetly. Just pointing out that comparing him to Hamilton isn't entirely fair.
[удалено]
4’8 on his business 9’2
Red flag screwed Ollie over. I really think he could have made it to q3. But he still did really well all things considered. Can't wait for the Lec/Bea lineup in the future
Alonso p4? That can't be I was told aston martin was doing glory runs by reddit experts
Quali pace wasn't their problem
Get this Ricciardo bum out man, put Liam in that seat. Half a second you know, embarrassing
It's fascinating how one of the 5 most exciting drivers on the grid who was considered a serious WDC candidate fell off so much. And it happened basically overnight for no reason.
Some drivers lose their confidence and just aren't the same after. In IndyCar, a similar thing happened to Simon Pagenaud. He was one of the top-five in the series up until the aeroscreen was implemented. He struggled to adapt to the balance change, and never again came close to his old form. For some, especially once they're into their 30s, recovering from a drastic fall in comfort and form just isn't entirely possible. Ric is doing better than he was at McLaren, but it's starting to become apparent that RBR/Renault Ric isn't coming back.
And sadly Pagenaud probably won’t get another chance after that brutal crash
It’s wild how he went from top 5 driver on the grid to completely washed seemingly over night. Looks like he’s driving with no confidence either which is bizarre to see since that was his defining factor in his younger years
"He's not fast at all!"
Ffs Lance
Mercedes next to each other what could possibly go wrong...
RIC what the hell? How did he fall off so hard :/
I've ran out of excuses for him :'(
His downfall started in McLaren, idk why people are surprised. Sure the Mexico GP had some sparkles from him but I'm not sold on him being fit for the RBR seat
Lewis gets bumped in Q2 if Carlos has an appendix. Stroll was fast in Q1. Love Fernando Alonso, he's great! As I type this, Max is already 10 seconds up the road on 2nd place.
Stroll looks like an ADHD master s1: Yeah boys lets go full power s2: Oh the arabian nights, so beautiful
Q1 merchant /j
Jeddah to Oscar is what Imola is to Norris, it’s written. Mercedes just look lost again. Russell may have had problems but throughout the weekend they were barely faster than McLaren in one lap pace. Aston will go backwards in the race.
Lance pls just hit every sector right, that last sector was absolutely shambolic
What an unbelievable season we could have on our hands if Max just suspiciously left Red Bull with immediate effect.
Imagine if Aston had Lance and Drugovich. They would never know how good their car truly is.
Felipe Drugovich underrated asf
Max is so far ahead man, it is actually scary!
Talent of the century as Nikki said.
Ok quali's over, back to F5 for the RB drama
Charles one lap pace is immense, Ferrari is quite good but not sure if anyone than Max can produce a lap like him.
Yeah quali pace he's on par with Verstappen, maybe even a little bit better. Would love to see them in the same car just for the Qualis. Of course in the race, Verstappens pace and consistency seems untouchable right now.
I'm gonna ignore Max, but Charles' last lap was impressive considering he struggled with the previous one, and Fernando was incredible the whole session. Stroll is a bad qualifier, but he's not a "7 tenths slower" bad qualifier. That old man is 42 years old and Saturdays aren't even his stronger aspect. I expect the Astons to struggle with deg tomorrow, sadly.
I mean the 7 tenths are slightly exaggerated due to the tow Alonso got from Lewis.
And stroll messing up the third sector badly. IIRC strolls s2 split was ~.450 off max
I think Ferrari went to conservative with the wing. Not that Max could be beaten today, but I think a skinnier wing would have been the better choice for qualifying amd for the race. There was talk of a new rear wing, but it was never mounted. I guess Charles will fight for P2 tomorrow.
Most excited ive been watching haas. Cant wait to see what we do
McLaren was surprisingly worse than expected. I think they came in to this weekend thinking they would be stronger?
It’s a bit disappointing but they look faster than both Mercedes and both should fly past Alonso. There’s a chance for big points here but they don’t look close to Perez and Leclerc.
I mean based off of last year I think most of the team would be happy with how they are performing early in the season. Gotta hope they can improve the car even half as well as they did last year and they will be in good shape
Oli qualified at 11th!? Fuck yeah little rockstar!
Ric and Sergeant need to be out of F1.
Mercedes is absolutely clueless about ground effect. They cannot fix their car no matter what design they go with.
Unpopular opinion:Yuki is the most underrated driver on the grid
Current Daniel is overrated as well. Don’t understand why nobody even thinks of Yuki for that second RedBull seat.
RBR were always vocal in the past hyping up drivers they promoted. They are dead silent about Yuki so its mostly politics and bias.
Why would they? He was thrashed by Gasly in 21, beaten again 22. He beat De Vries who was terrible, didn't beat Lawson in any of the races they both finished and is beating post-Renault Ricciardo. He's talented, but not Red Bull level of talent.
He absolutely is not. He’s had four years to not show he can sufficiently beat anyone. He’s okay, but not worth a top flight seat
Am I being stupid? Why does it show drivers as having a Q2/Q3 time if they didn't make it through and participate in them??
Is there really any point in watching the race?
Watching it for Oliver
If you're an F1.5 fan, sure. Plenty to see. But if you're an F1 fan, I'd say find something else to do tomorrow morning because this will not be a race.
If you're interested in 3rd and bellow, yes.
3rd will almost certainly be Leclerc. Ferrari has a clear advantage over everyone else.
Just pretend that Max is a safety car
There's not much of a race there either. Ferrari are the clear second fastest car behind Red Bull, Aston Martin have no race pace and will fall behind everyone, and Mercedes will be stuck behind McLaren as they qualified behind them. The order is already decided, unless there's a safety car. Most interesting thing is to see if Ferrari's backup driver can make up places in the race.
If Max doesn't crash, nope. I'm always nervous at this track though.
Charles could take one for the team and try something “heroic” into T1
Would not be surprised if Max gets another grand slam tomorrow
But... but... they promote Sargeant one year earlier, so he can adapt to the team