re: 2024 Formula 1 season Thread

f1 rumor mill has been bullshite lately, but this is an interdasting one. i could live with max at AM:

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Sergio Rodríguez ??
@sergiorf97
Rumours coming from the paddock regarding a Verstappen shock move to Aston Martin.

Remember Honda is “coming back” to #F1 in 2026

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this would be the biggest teammate mismatch in history.

honda engine plus papa stroll $$$. AM has a brand new factory, they are not playing around (except for keeping lance as 2nd driver).

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this would be the biggest teammate mismatch in history.

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Nicholas Latifi has entered the chat...

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This would be the biggest teammate mismatch in history.

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I was trying to think back to big mismatches betwween a tier 1 driver and his mediocre or worse teammate, and the first thing that came to mind was Senna and Nakajima, 1987 Lotus Honda. Yes, Honda has been doing this a long time. But Lotus was the Honda B team, the championship-winning Williams Honda was the A team. Senna didn't make it to a top team until 1988.



This was back when only the top 6 finishers scored points

Senna scored points in 11 of 16 races, with 8 podiums and 2 wins
Nakajima scored points in 4 races with 0 podiums

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honda engine plus papa stroll $$$. AM has a brand new factory, they are not playing around (except for keeping lance as 2nd driver).

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Can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I can't believe Honda would sign on with Lawrence Stroll's team without the stipulation that Lance retires or moves to another team by the time Honda comes on board. Since so many people are convinced Yuki is tied to Honda, you know the chances of pairing Yuki and Lance on a Honda team are exceedingly low. Yuki is seen as a #2 driver (destroying other drivers' F1 careers at VCARB apparently isn't convincing people otherwise) so they will be looking hard for a #1 driver to pair with him. For the record, Yuki has said that Honda has not spoken to him about the future, and he has publicly stated that he wants his future to be with Red Bull.

Why would Lawrence agree to this? Lance has been in F1 for something like eight years, surely they know he will never be an F1 champion. Lawrence wouldn't pass up an opportunity to become a works team over his son who has had more than enough opportunity to improve and prove that he can become a champion. I expect Lance to announce his retirement from F1 at the end of this year or the end of the 2025 season. There's no point in him going to another team because no race-winning team will want him, and I think he'll have had enough of driving around with no chance at winning a race.

Holy cow this racing thread has turned into a soap opera.

Max is not leaving nor is Horner. Max is on a historical run and no way he leaves. I’ve said it tons of times.

It seems F1 is trying to create created drama to get viewers, since they are down this year.

Imagine if Tom Brady left after his 2nd title.

What interests me this year is the amazing (in my eyes) improvement in Haas. I enjoyed Gunther but as a TP he had run his course some years ago.

Never showing the leader of the race from about lap 2 until the last lap, because he's got the SuperCruise turned on, isn't great for ratings.

It's Aussie GP race week!

Which means the lights are going to be glaring down on Danny Ric even brighter. But it's not just Danny himself being interviewed. Eddie Jordan and 1980 Aussie F1 champ Alan Jones have weighed in. But first, I only just learned what loudmouth Jacques Villeneuve said about Danny before the season even started...

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Jacques Villeneuve before the season:
"Ricciardo is a pure product of image and modern social media. You can’t base his long career on results. You just can’t. They don’t stack up. It is amazing. He can thank Netflix and all that kind of stuff. His smile, his attitude in the paddock in front of the camera. Ultimately even against Tsunoda he doesn’t do brilliantly. But he brings value to F1 and that’s why he is there.”

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Alan Jones:
“I hate to say it, but I think we have seen the best days (from Ricciardo).”
“He has had his bum in a few decent cars, irrespective of what people say. The Alpine or the McLaren, the car that he is in right now... at the end of the day he has got to start beating his teammate for a start."
“At the end of the day, we can’t be blaming the car all the time, which has been a bit of a tendency in the past."

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Eddie Jordan:
"I don’t think there is a more loved personality in Formula 1, certainly got the best smile that I’ve ever seen in Formula 1. But you know, that doesn’t give you the right to be the driver in the team. I’m just worried that the end of McLaren era was really something that stood out and I couldn’t see where he’d lost it. There has been nothing since then that convinces me that I would want to invest my hard-earned sponsorship cash to keep Daniel. He needs a result more than anyone perhaps, and he needs to get it together. Because otherwise he is going to be replaced and he can understand why he would be replaced because the performance is just not there. I mean, he shouldn’t be spinning the car, he shouldn’t be getting himself out of sequence in a pit stop. You don’t see other people doing that. So, Daniel as much as we absolutely adore him and I think he’s a huge asset for Formula 1, the stopwatch never lies and the stopwatch in terms of Daniel, the question marks are out there. When we see people like Oliver Bearman coming in like the way he did, people like Daniel Ricciardo will have to look over his shoulders and say, ‘How much time have I left here?’”

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Of course the most important thing someone has said came from Marko: “Yuki’s performance in qualifying was impressive, but Ricciardo needs to step up soon. Tsunoda, at least, excels in qualifying and manages to be near the points in the early stages of the race, only to gradually fall behind. They can’t maintain the pace in the long run. Whether it’s due to excessive strain on the tires or other reasons, they need to figure it out.”