Forum menu
There's also Raikkonen, of course, ex-champ coming off contract.
Not sure Sainz will get it - I don't think he's in favour at Red Bull anymore.
Gasly is the obvious one. With Torro Rosso having two new drivers - possibly Lando Norris being one as they've shown interest in him before.
Whatever - the driver market is wide open now.
Sainz to mclaren allegedly, not sure of Vandoorne
Vandoorne has proved to be very average - can't see teams fighting for him as he doesn't come with a bucket load of money either.
Alonso - Sainz for McLaren next year I think.
Ricciardo v Hulk will give an interesting benchmark too - Hulk's never had a properly top drawer team mate & is pretty even with Sainz this year (yes he's ahead in points but in quali & races where both have finished there's not much in it). Hulk clearly has a benefit from his experience with the team but I think most people would expect Ricciardo to dominate in performance terms - if not then it raises Hulk's stock (too late to be of any real benefit) and by assoication Sainz's. Though if Sainz is alongside Alonso that's more than enough of a benchmark for anyone.
Senior moment, ignore me
Apart from two world championships with Alonso!
And countless race wins as an engine supplier.
They have form and are in a rebuilding stage.
EDIT - ingoring a Friday PM senior moment 😀
Nice edit jimster! 🙂
Force India saved by Stroll
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/force-india-bid-stroll-consortium-administration/3155471/?nrt=54
So that means Lance is probably off from Williams taking a chunk of cash with him.
Great news for Force India - and as you say possibly not so good news for Williams.
No Martini sponsorship next year and now Stroll sticking his $$$s elsewhere.
So...who will get Alonso's seat?
Darn. I was just getting to like him.
Sainz, which is a shame as he’s no Alonso. Gasley to RB.
Given Alonso's record of decision making I'm gonna stick a fiver on mclaren to win every race next year...
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.