Oh yes, definitely joking. Checo isn’t going anywhere, and whilst I really like Daniel I can’t see him perform better than Checo.
Good point about the engineering feedback. That is likely their main benefit and for Yuki as well. 👍
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2023 Formula 1 Season thread
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Good point about the engineering feedback. That is likely their main benefit and for Yuki as well. 👍
I could see him beating Tsunoda and being more consistent though. That's what they're expecting anyway.
Daniel and Yuki is going to be an amazing combo. The chaos will be insane. 
He'll be fine. He never should have been out of F1.
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Engineers are holding Checo back so RBR doesn't 1-2 every single race and make it obvious how much faster they are than everyone. The Max and Checo finish 10 seconds ahead of a competitive field every week, the powers that be are going to take a very close look at those cars.
Checo is holding Checo back. Although I could possibly go down your conspiracy theory and say Max at times backs off to not be “too” dominant. However, I won’t due to IMO, other teams are bringing good upgrades.
Why is Checo holding Checo back? He's demonstrated he is a very good driver, and RBR clearly has a better car. As much as I mean to jest about the conspiracy, he goes from placing 2-4 to placing 8-10 while Max is still placing 1 every week, even on street tracks where Perez is supposed to be really good.
Now, maybe Perez has a reason for wanting to be in 8th place instead of 2nd, but I do not know it.
And Max is definitely holding something back. He may be choosing to go easy on the car and tires, but RBR is always as fast as it needs to be to get fastest lap and first place. Even when Max didn't get first, he turned it on and got fastest lap.
Oh please, enough with the conspiracies. Checo is, like most, just not consistent enough. Even some of the diehard anti-Max people in this thread are seeing and acknowledging what a talent he is, and how consistently flawless he is. That is pretty unique and not often seen. Checo can be fast, bust simple never has been and never will be like that week in, week out.
And ofcourse at time he is holding back, why go and push and introduce risk when you don't need to. Other drivers do that as well, you've seen several times last weekend where they just don't fight as that is not their fight and by fighting you lose time. And also there is this thing called tyre management
Danny Ric is less deserving of that seat than Nyck at the moment that’s for sure. Nyck has won virtually everything up until now and has a better racing CV than most drivers who make it to F1. He deserved a season in what is the worst car on the grid IMO. I like Danny Ric, but I sort of hope he performs the same as Nyck just to highlight how out of touch Marko is with his ego driven decisions. The criticism started from him after just two races, this was simply a case of the face didn’t fit I think. Not the way to settle a rookie in and build their confidence at all.
LOL On the one hand, you acknowledge he has got a better racing CV than most drivers who make it to the F!, yet then you still pull the rookie card. Sure, he is a 'rookie' in the sense that it is his first seat at the top table, but he is no rookie, he is just not performing at the top level. It is not for everyone, that is why it is the top. It happens everywhere, not just in F1, not just in sport.
I'm certain that Marko will appreciate your free consultancy on how to handle a race driver 😂
It’s not like Yuki is doing that much better though. He did well to score a couple of points in the first races, but in the last five they have been pretty equal in terms of results.
Agreed, but you don't fire both unless you have two replacements, and even then, that would be a terrible strategy. Yuki is not great, but fortunately for him, Nyck de Vries is even worse. And also, we only see the (lack of) on track performance, we don't see what is going on behind the scenes and in practice, and engineering interactions etc.
I'm not expecting miracles from Daniel, but as what was mentioned earlier, he does bring some maturity and experience to the racers in that team, giving them a chance to improve.
OMFG, I can't believe I mentioned Daniel and maturity in the same sentence 😂😂
Question for underperforming is this, is it a driver problem or a car problem? If testing of the car says it can achieve x on x type of track with x tyres and the driver is coming close or matching those test times then it's not a driver problem. Team owners, bosses, who ever, likes to overplay the strength of their car because they are always of the opinion they have the best car on the track. It's an ego thing and when their car does not achieve the glorification that they expect, they blame it on the driver or find excuses to blame it one the driver.
As F1 fans we have seen it for decades, we see a car that is crap, we know it's crap, it performs crap but yet the team of the crap car very very rarely acknowledges that their car is crap. Out goes the driver, in comes a new one but the car is still crap.
Sure, ultimately it is actually a team sport. The driver doesn't just have to perform on race day, but also behind the scenes. We only get to see the race parts. It is way more complex than a good car, good racer. There are hundreds/thousands of people involved in making this work.
To add to this, different cars suit drivers differently too. A prime example is Daniel at McLaren. Some drivers are better than others at adapting though.
There is also the point that Danny Ric is more marketable than de Vries due to his likeability. He also has over a decade of F1 experience to bring to the team even if this appeared to make little difference at McLaren when partnering a much younger teammate. His performances have been poor for a number of years now and perhaps this is down to a loss of confidence, but I still think de Vries deserved to get more than a just under half a season to adapt to F1. Yuki is not doing much better this year but has appeal in Asia and like de Vries, has an impressive CV.
If memory serves me right, in one of these type of threads I vaguely remember a number of us having a discussion about a driver who was coming up through the ranks of motorsport ready for F1 because he was that good but he was considered not very marketable due to who his was and we got to talking about how being a very good driver does not mean you will get a spot in F1 if a team does not think they are marketable but I cannot for the life of me think of who we were discussing about.
Sports survives on sponsorships now and sponsors want to have someone they can show off to the media and to the fans which means they have to be somebody that is marketable. They must look right, sound right and act right otherwise they get no where.
Japanese engine supplier means you probably should have at least one Japanese driver. Not a written rule but it seems to be the way it works.
De Vries deserves a second chance for sure but you've got to admit he was less than stellar and this type of move has become modus operandi for RBR/Alpha Tauri.
I'm sure he'll be back. Watch him pop up a Williams next season.
I'm sure we'll see him again next season, even if its resuming one of his test roles at Mercedes or Aston Martin. Stranger thngs have happened and could we see Albon in the second seat at Red Bull next year after his stellar performances and de Vries back at Williams I suppose. You never know
I wonder if Ricciardo is regretting not talking further with Williams and Haas right now?
I read an article on Yahoo sport that wrote about Ricciardo but it's now been heavily edited and no longer includes what it did but what I read was that Ricciardo is RBR's third driver and with that he was doing tyre tests before the British GP and the test times he was recording was impressive. Maybe this is what persuaded Red Bull to have him take the seat of de vries. What the article also mentioned was that the move is a loan move because Ricciardo is still RBR's third driver and thus still under contract with RBR which is why he would not have gone to another team in my opinion. Also maybe he could think doing well in the sister team could get him a seat back in to RBR.I'm sure we'll see him again next season, even if its resuming one of his test roles at Mercedes or Aston Martin. Stranger thngs have happened and could we see Albon in the second seat at Red Bull next year after his stellar performances and de Vries back at Williams I suppose. You never know
I wonder if Ricciardo is regretting not talking further with Williams and Haas right now?
I wasn't aware they had done tyre testing prior to the race but he was involved yesterday I believe. Span the car a number of times but he hasn't driven an F1 car for nearly 9 months so it was to be expected.
As laptech noted, if you have an (F1) rookie driver and a more experienced driver who is still rather erratic in their performance, how does Team Management identify why the overall performance is so poor? Is it the car? Is it the drivers? Is it a combination of both?
Danny's experience should hopefully eliminate the "is it the driver?" variable (at least more effectively than promoting another Red Bull Junior Team member) and if it is the car that is the problem, he should be able to provide solid feedback to the engineering teams to properly tune the chassis and that should hopefully improve Yuki's performance by giving him a more stable and predictable car.
True, but he is backed by Honda so he is not going anywhere until at least the end of 2025 when Red Bull switches from Honda to their own engine.
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I suggested the same thing above too. Ricciardo brings experience, not necessarily performance from experience but I suppose it all depends how he takes to the car and what Red Bull are looking for in regards to feedback.