Sainz and Norris? Or will Vandoorne keep his job. Then 2 seats at Toro Rosso assuming Hartley gets the boot
And 1 at Williams if richboy goes to his dad's new team
Just seen on BBC Sainz to join McLaren - sorry can't do links.
So it's Sainz in one of the McLaren seats, but no confirmation of Vandoorne yet. Guess that means Gasly's filling the RBR seat too.
Sainz to replace Alonso, so maybe Vandoorne will stay...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/45208471
Oops, beaten to it.
Ironic that Renault, McLaren, and Ferrari all have ex-Red Bull drivers. Love to be a fly on the wall in the RB debriefs if Verstappen doesn't comprehensively beat both Ricciardo and Sainz next year.
So if Alonso's luck runs true then Saintz for world champ next year.
Id love more parity in the cars as some of the drivers out there really seem great racers.I think I'm going to start following F2 instead.
So if Alonso’s luck runs true then Saintz for world champ next year.
Nah, Vandoorne for WDC.
Think Verstappen / RB will blame the Honda engine.
Id love more parity in the cars as some of the drivers out there really seem great racers
Yes, there seem to be a lot of drivers capable of winning races or even championships in a decent car. Ricciardo, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Gasly, and Leclerk all strike me as deserving of a top drive as Bottas and Raikkonen.
For there to be more parity between the cars would mean closing down either the development of the cars, or some sort of capping. IMHO of course, would make it closer tho
Its very rare in F1 that a good driver can win (consistently) in a not so good car. Alonso springs to mind as one of the few who have done that in recent years.
There was no other choice for them really.
I do like all these driver movements though - it was all getting a bit stale.
I read Webber's biography recently, he was very scathing of the way he was treated compared to Vettel as a Red Bull product - I wonder if Ricciardo's biog will have a similar theme at some point?
On similar note i read Adrian Newey's book and it came across that a lot was not said about the redbull era. The Webber front wing incident was described as his decision and misunderstanding.
Edit: though he was very complimentrary on the feedback Mark could give on aero developments.
All of Webber's criticism was based around Marko, and that whilst Horner might say the right things, he was still ultimately ruled by Marko.
Was really looking forward to the Newey book, but it's left me a bit 'meh', still not finished it. I'll give it another go. 🙂
F1 have posted a short video of the German GP from the TV Director's perspective.
PSA - Monday @9pm on Channel 4 - Guy Martin in an FW08 takes on Button in the never-raced Williams 6 wheeler.
That sounds fantastic, I’ll definitely watch that.
Lots of speculation as to McLaren’s next move with Vandoorne, the fact that he’s dating Gil de Ferran’s daughter helps his case, but he’s been a non-event for some time now. Meanwhile Norris hasn’t done quite enough yet to guarantee a place in F1, it’s possible that we’ll see Norris in a Toro Rossi next year in exchange for James Key being given an early exit from gardening leave.
Williams no longer last in constructors' championship.
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12477/11457389/force-india-reborn-as-racing-point
Ironic that Ocon is probably the most promising of all the drivers involved in the current musical chairs, but looks like he might not have a drive next year.
Williams no longer last in constructors’ championship.
Probably only until the end of the weekend!
Did anyone actually think about this name?
Racing Point - WTF! That's not the name of a team you follow. And why keep the Force India bit? It's essentially a new team so just drop it and it's associations.
It's not a great name is it? Shows a lack of ambition, at the very least it should be "Racing points". Brave move to effectively start from scratch too, think that means they lose any FIA revenue for 3 years - though obviously in 2021 the commercial arrangements may change.
Many of the trad F1 teams are named after an individual but seems there's 2 named owners of the new team - Silas Chou and Lawrence Stoll/Strulovitch. It's tough to come up with anything half decent from them and a lot of other ideas end up soundling like they come from The Apprentice. Any suggestions STW?
ForcIn RacPo?
Pretty catchy.
why keep the Force India bit?
I assume it's because sponsors signed up to Force India and won't want to have to rebrand everything, but it will race under a different name next year.
So on the face of it Norris is 1/10th quicker than Vandoorne. Stoffel had a bunch of problems during the session so lost a bit of track time but being beaten by a rookie isn't a great way to keep your seat...
IIRC, Vandoorne beat Button on debut and was tipped to be the next big thing.
Bored & Demotivated Vs keen newbie...
Oh what a life he must have to be bored driving an F1 car around Spa. (and being paid handsomely for doing it). Wonder how he'd feel after day 3 of wrangling his 2019 work budget spreadsheet...
It's an every day occurrence for him though. I suspect driving that McLaren is the equivalent of you completing a really complex spreadsheet only so find the Save button is greyed out... every other week.
why keep the Force India bit?
Possibly also related to being allowed to keep prize money from previous seasons.
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/11398223/the-formula-1-gossip-column
another cracking lap from mr pole!
Well that was fun! Roll on the race, and yes, Williams will be back to last...
Not a Lewis fan but extraordinary to see someone suddenly put in a lap 3 seconds faster than anyone else. OK, interesting weather, but still. Great performances by the Force India guys.
PSA – Monday @9pm on Channel 4 – Guy Martin in an FW08 takes on Button in the never-raced Williams 6 wheeler.
Interesting! Ex-F1 champ FTW, unless the gig's fixed.
It'll be fixed but still good viewing.
The video above from the tv director is amazing.
Reckon LeClerc owes the halo designers a drink
He certainly does! 11 laps in and a similar amount of replays and I’ve just about worked out what happened in corner 1.. Alonso’s McLaren plucking Ricciardo’s rear wing off mid air was particularly spectacular. Shame about Kimi given his pace this weekend.
So what's this with Lewis stating "they've something in the car that makes them faster on the straights..." ?
Together with the need to cool the "camera" pod it seems he wants to make people aware of something technically different .
What gives?
Kryton57 wrote
So what’s this with Lewis stating “they’ve something in the car that makes them faster on the straights…” ?
Together with the need to cool the “camera” pod it seems he wants to make people aware of something technically different .
What gives?
sore loser nothing more
I think Lewis and Merc are just struggling to believe that Ferrari have managed to out develop them in the engine department. After many years of Merc been the strongest I guess its not something they can accept easily.
No I'm sure they are fairly grown up and understand how development works.
Lewis simply made a comment about something "trick" on the Ferrari. That doesn't mean illegal, it's slang for something pretty clever that we haven't thought of. He isn't accusing anyone of anything. Well, maybe not.
Inevitably this was leapt on as a potential implication that he thought Ferrari might be doing something underhand - not least because governing body the FIA was asking questions about the same thing back in May, only to eventually give the all-clear.
But Hamilton said that was not what he meant.
"We all have trick things on our cars," he said. "Trick is just a word for something special, I guess.
"I'm not saying that there's anything illegal on it. I'm just saying we all have something trick. Trick is just something that helps you bring that extra bit of performance. That's all I mean.
"I don't mean anything to it so please don't read into it and please don't twist my words and say that I say they're doing anything illegal because they're not.
"They just outperformed us today and we've got to work harder, but there are things that they have on the car that we might not have on the car and vice versa and we've got to try and find out what and improve on that. That's it."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/45316836
I guess we all knew this anyway but C4 confirm no highlights next year. Bye F1, it's been great while it lasted but I object to paying $ky
https://twitter.com/4Viewers/status/1034010442648219648?s=09
Didn't realise that. I thought there'd be some kind of F1 highlight show on normal telly.
No way I'm paying for Sky, so goodbye F1, hello Sunday afternoons!
The deal Sky did with Bernie says that they have to offer a highlights package to some channel that is not their F1 channel. Unfortunately it didn't say it had to be FTA so they can bury it on one of their own channels hidden away somewhere.
And yes I am another long-time F1 fan who will be deserting it at the end of this year.
Me too.
Last I heard C4 were trying to do a deal with Sky...I guess they failed. (There was a story a few weeks ago about global F1 audiences...the only place it had declined was Italy, where it has just gone behind a paywall)
I'm another that won't be paying the extra. I already pay enough to Sky. I might actually try the "I'm quiting" ploy and see if I can get it for free.
Another one leaving.
Been missing more and more races lately, not interesting enough watching them pootle about saving tyres and not going to pay for the privilage. 25years of F1 watch coming to an end.
Bugger, I thought a highlights deal had been confirmed for Channel 4. Sky won't be seeing a penny from me.
Back to Italy, FP2 red flagged as Ericsson's just had a big crash, his DRS didn't close under braking.
eta: 2 videos
F1 audiences…the only place it had declined was Italy, where it has just gone behind a paywall
And the UK next. So the two countries which have hosted F1 races since the very beginning and, more importantly, where most of the teams are based, will see audiences drop (assuming it does in the UK too). Will there be a comensurate drop in people attending the races as the fan base looks elsewhere? If no-one shows up to Silverstone will the teams still want to be based here?
.
Is it possible to watch on the internet anywhere, maybe an irish or Aussie TV channel's iplayer equivalent? Or even a foregn language one and try to sync it with Radio 5? I assume they will all have something in place to stop this sort of thing?
Is it possible to watch on the internet anywhere
Yes. Legally, without paying? No.
No f1 for us next year so instead of paying monthly to sky we’re going to watch the touring cars.
We refuse to pay for Sky/BT so I’ll just have to listen to five live.
RTL had it on their free sat feed. I set my dish up to get RTL a few years ago before C4 stepped in to take over BBC's coverage so haven't used it since then.
I'll check if it still works when I get back to Blighty as away ATM.
I take pride in not giving Murdoch my custom, so I’ll be spending my summer Sunday afternoons on my bike instead.
Am quite enjoying the craziness of the driver market, aside from seeing Ocon turfed out of his seat at whatever Force India is called three days. He doesn’t deserve the ignominious end to his 2018 career, I hope that he winds up in a decent car next year.
Loved the radio broadcast as Vettel thought he’d taken pole position
masterful text book drive from lewis!
made me laugh
That was an enjoyable race. God know what Ricciardo is thinking about Renault engines just now...
Will Vettel be under more pressure from Ferrari management now?
Kimi should stay there imo
That was an enjoyable race. God know what Ricciardo is thinking about Renault engines just now…
can't wait for the "D-spec" probably
Was it definitely the engine that let go? Horner seemed pretty non committal
God know what Ricciardo is thinking about Renault engines just now…
Red Bull use a slightly different spec engine to Renault. Can’t remember which bit(s) but it’s not the same package.
Trouble is for Red Bull they’re changing over to Honda engines next season, SO why would Renault supply a OEM engine?
Cracking race, i managed to stay awake for all of it!
Really enjoyed that one, even if my colleague did decide to tell me the winner as I left work to come home and watch the highlights. Didn't spoil it for me though as I couldn't think of a way both Ferrari's would lose, how wrong was I!!
Would have loved a Kimi victory though.
Well I know it's with hindsight but it seems Ferrari shot themselves in the foot bringing Kimi in so early for tyres. Great racing from Lewis though.
They had to pit Kimi before Lewis or they'd be killed by the undercut. So Merc threw the crew out there and told Lewis to do the opposite of Kimi, and Ferrari took the bait. The real mistake was Kimi blasting up to the back of Bottas when he didn't really need to and that trashed his tyres.
Pretty impressive performance from Ferrari. The two fastest cars, at the fastest track, starting 1 and 2 on the grid.
And didn't even win, let alone get the 1-2 they should have.
More sour grapes from Vettell. He really is an arse, I’n glad he was beaten.
Clutch problem for ricciardo - won't stop horner whining though. And verstappen thinks its "unfair" when he gets penalised for driving into other cars. Hmmm
Yeah, it was a great race - very exciting.
Max V really needs to stop driving into people. I'm sure he's been penalised before for moving in the braking zone, but keeps doing it.
I wonder if he'll change his view that there was enough room, once he sees the footage.
Vettel messed up & then got grumpy. Felt a bit sorry for Raikonnen, but it all worked well for Hamilton!
Kyvat back in F1! Who saw that coming!?...
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/kvyat-moving-closer-to-2019-toro-rosso-f1-seat/3170455/?nrt=54
Perhaps MV was annoyed because his own personal rule was dropped and he wants it reinstated.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/q-amp-a-why-is-formula-one-dropping-the-verstappen-rule-ghpp982nd
And Vandoorne given the boot - no surprise really...
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vandoorne-to-leave-mclaren-after-2018-f1-season/3170528/
Shame though but F1 seems to really be different from other motorsport categories - how many times have amazing drivers from the lower categories failed to succeed in F1 while there are also (far fewer) examples of drivers who were good but not amazing in lower categories really taking to it (Schumacher as a prime example).
And Norris gets the McLaren drive - again no great surprise...
https://www.racefans.net/2018/09/03/norris-handed-f1-debut-with-mclaren-for-2019/
Guess they didn't trade him for James Key then...