yea I do agree that they clearly had no better option, I would really like to see him get a chance at the whole season myself. I can understand what TR and RB want so he does need to step up. but hopefully this decline on norris will keep him there at least until the summer break
Hartley is there on Merit. Red Bull saw his success and realised they didn't burn the bridge completely and totally destroy his confidence.
I really don't think that is true - and considering stories like the Lando one, I don't think RBR think so either. The chap has a great record in sports cars, but 6 races is enough to show at least a glimmer of potential, so far all I've seen is glaring mistakes, lack of confidence (and therefore, pace) and a lot of blue flags waving in front of him. I wouldn't say his errors have been as embarrassing as Grosjeans, nor would I say his outright pace is as bad as Stroll, but I would say he's an Ericsson-level driver at best.
Also - McLaren has said "nope" to the STR approach. That means - either they are unsure about Stoffel, or they don't want to risk their young driver possibly outclassing them with the car that has the engine they snubbed in it.
I thought Hartley was a strange choice from the offset, but assumed they saw some incredible raw talent that would translate well to F1. Maybe it really was an act of desperation borne of a severely depleted young driver pool?
That race was dull, dull, dull. As for Hartley, he doesnt have long left, however I dont think he did anything wrong this time - bit of bad luck and Stroll.
Yea, a bit of a dull one. Stroll managed to find another wall Dusty off line and marble build up off line I can see being the next problem if cars do get to the point of overtaking. Anyone got any links to performance numbers looking at the Engine upgrades or team performance splits? I think any interest from the race will be why Haas didn't do as well as I would expect (Seem to be good in high speed corners) or McLaren for that matter.
In alternative powerplant news, Lucas DiGrassi won the first circuit race held in Switzerland since 1954's F1 Grand Prix was won by Juan Manuel Fangio.
Yea which was a shame as he had a decent qualifying for the first time this year which was great to see. Overall the rest of the race was boring as hell
People were complaining about how boring Monaco was. Monaco was technically a good race, with the tire management and whatnot, just not a lot of overtaking. The only technically interesting bit about this race was that Ricciardo came out the pits in front of Hamilton. Other than that, that was one of the dullest races I've ever seen. Not even the safety car did anything for it.
Who would have thought Canada would be the most boring of the first 7 races, eh?! I was struggling to keep my eyes open around lap 35 when there wasn't a single car in DRS range of the next one in line. A high speed precession is still a precession... I want to beat up on Stroll and Hartley, because I don't think either should have been on the grid in the first place, but that did just look like an unfortunate incident where 1driver loses the rear a little just as another happens to be in the firing line (aka wall). Vandoorne finishing last (I don't count Sirotkin's Williams, frankly) when Alonso was in the top 10 before his car gave up was yet another embarrassing performance. Either Fernando really is as good as he says and is genuinely out-performing that car, or Stoffel is one of those rare drivers that wins every junior championship/formula on the way up, but just doesn't have the extra few % to make it in F1. Bottas Making the mistake just before getting into DRS range was frustrating to see, but I suspect Vettel was well aware of the gap and had plenty in hand if he did get too close.
Stroll was always going into that wall regardless of who was there. Every corner he spun the tires up and was sawing at the wheel. I know the williams car is piss poor but it looked like Jeremy Clarkson driving with a lead weight for a right foot. Agree with you Wakka and Vandoorne's seat is rumoured to be under threat. I wrote that off as Lando and Vyries still have the F2 season to finish and bringing them into F1 at this point is very risky. However, Alonso is head and shoulders above most but Vandoorne just seems nowhere most races and even good races he appears meh. That McLaren should be racing with Force India, Haas and Renault, not tangling with Torro Rosso, Sauber and Williams. Monaco is boring cause it's always boring unless it rains. Canada is usually interesting as it's a circuit you can overtake on yet it had less overtakes than Monaco. This race had barely anything, Hamilton nursing a problem, Bottas and Perez made one mistake, a first lap tangle and routeen pit stops for everyone. Not every race will have drama but Canada you normally expect a bit more. I think the problem comes back to a few fundamental problems, a) Car's couldn't get close to pass. b) The tyres don't wear yet fall apart if pushed (Penalty/risk for pitting too high) c) Penalty for going off line too high due to marbles and dust d) Engine rules. I would like to add that normally the engine rules enforce harsh penalties to shake things up. this time it resulted in damage limitation for Hamilton. for me the big issue was commentary. While nothing exciting was happening they didn't do anything in terms of analysis to lift it. the excitement in this race for me came from analysing lap times and the pre race build up and changes like Haas had new parts and around engine performance yet it feels like it's been glossed over
So someone made a good point about McLaren's decision to split with Honda and how they could have gone about it differently (and set themselves up much better to compete with Ferrari, RBR and Mercedes). They reckon, between the early release fee, having to pay Renault a premium for engines, covering Alonso's salary themselves, the added development of a last-minute engine change and the lost sponsorship and prize money from poor finishing positions, this whole saga could end up costing them close to £500m. While they were getting most of their operational costs bankrolled by Honda, they could have bought Manor for £10-£15m, had another 2 cars to help Honda develop the engine, another 2 seats to either test young drivers or auction out to get their initial investment back AND had a couple of rear gunners in the same vein RBR have Torro Rosso.
That's a scary amount of Money Honda has thrown at the sport when you think about it. It also puts the Alonso McLaren thing into perspective. It isn't a case of what Alonso plans to do but can McLaren really afford to keep him? I can't imagine him wringing the cars neck, personal sponsorship and mercendise etc adding up to that lost £500 million
I reckon Fernando's as good as gone. He knows he's not going to win with McLaren anytime soon, and his clock is ticking if he wants that triple crown. McLaren's last WCC was 20 years ago. Their last WDC 10 years ago. McLaren also can't justify paying him what I would reckon are ever increasing amounts (due to his growing unhappiness), if they're not going to win. My view right now is that next year will see McLaren with Stoffel and Lando.
It’s looking less and less likely that McLaren will be in a position to win anytime soon, cant see any real reason that Alonso would wish to stay any longer unless he wants to top up his pension pot. Also don’t see Ferrari, Mercedes, or RedBull calling - best option would be to go Indycar racing.
