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2023 Formula 1 Season thread
- Thread starter Apple fanboy
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Yes he had a demonstrably worse 2022 than Lando and that did contribute to McLaren falling from 4th in 2021 to 5th in 2022. But his 2021 results were generally comparable to Lando and he still finished 11th out of 22 drivers (21 of whom scored points) in the 2022 WDC
But it seems pretty clear McLaren did not let him go for being a "bad" driver, but because they wanted a second young driver to pair with Norris (Daniel was in his 30s) and they had to take Piastri right then to secure his services for 2023 rather than him signing a long-term contract with Alpine.
That last part had me smiling because it made me think of the movie Rush where there is a scene in which Nikki Lauda has just recently been signed to Ferrari and he is testing one of their cars round a track with Enzo Ferrari looking on and at some point Lauda stops the car and start talking with one of the engineers and tells him that basically the car is crap and the engineer says he cannot say that because it is Ferrari !!! lol.
I wonder if Ricciardo would have the same type of guts if he finds the car to be crap lol.
aka Ford!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.
aka Ford!
Ford is providing technical assistance, but as I understand it, the majority of the engine was designed by Red Bull themselves. They have had that "secret" engine division since the Renault days.
That’s probably true. But the resulting company is named Red Bull Ford Powertrains and I’d imagine that the Ford name will be the most visible one in media etc.
The way I look at it is that it is going to be a Ford engine with some slight changes here and there and will be stamped as being Red Bull designed. What's the betting when the engine is released that there will be those that are in the know about all things F1 engine wise will say 'the engine looks like a version Ford did back in x' or 'the engine is using designs taken from a Ford x engine'.
We have seen over the years that an engine can make or break a team. RBR need to get their engine right first time because they can ill afford to use an engine that has problems and then try fixing them throughout the season.
It’s no secret that I’m a red bull racing and Max Verstappen fan. But unrelated to that I’m so proud that my eldest daughter has just been offered a job with their F1 team as a mechanic in their 2026 team. So proud of her, and glad I’ve been building cars with her from a young age.
I read an article this morning that suggested Charles LeClerc has had a meeting with Red Bull, no idea if it’s true. Might be spicy if he’s Checo’s replacement next year as we know an F1 contract is never water tight. Might make F1 exciting again if Red Bull maintain their dominance and Max has some competition from a driver of similar talent. Let’s hope there is some truth in this!
Congrats. So are you able to hook us up with some VIP tickets at Red Bull in 2026?
Charles makes too many mistakes under pressure to be honest. It's better to get Alonso in that Red Bull. Even at 41 years old, I'm sure he will do a better job then Charles in that #2 Red Bull.
Lewis would be the best choice obviously, but there is no way in hell Max, Marko and Christian will allow Lewis to drive a Red Bull.
Daniel in his prime was able to beat Max and Vettel during the time they spent together. It's 2-1 in favour of Daniel against Max, and Vettel quit Red Bull after Daniel spanked him.
So don't underestimate Daniel.
He had a rough period, but if he gets back to his old self, he's extremely good.
The biggest problem of Daniel is, he hasn't driven these 2023 cars so he will need some time to adept. It would make more sense to replace the DeVries with Daniel in 2024 so that Daniel has more time to adapt to the new cars. But it is what it is.
Charles has made a few mistakes that I can remember, but he's also a very capable driver and one that used to often beat Max in their younger racing days in comparable equipment. I don't think Ferrari have been good enough for the past 14 years and have not exactly supported him and enabled him to be consistent during his time there. I think it would be good to see him in a British team and regularly in with a chance of winning a race. Ferrari have evolved into a team that is living off its history and far too disorganised to compete at the top in a sport that seems to have become a lot more competitive over the last decade IMO.
The reason I believe Ford is providing mostly technical support is because their previous F1 and CART engines were designed by Cosworth and I cannot see much of anything from their FR9 NASCAR engine as being suitable for use in an F1 powerplant.
I just do not see why Charles would want to go to Red Bull, nor do I see why Red Bull themselves would want Charles. RBR are focused around supporting Max and I see Charles just upsetting that chemistry (as I don't think he would be content with the idea that wins would be primarily only when Max drops out).
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Congrats for your daughter. Does this mean she will be hobknobbing (mixing) with RBR elite in the employee canteen then? lol
I don't think it makes sense either, but I didn't think Lewis going to Mercedes did either and going into a team built around Nico. Sometimes teams evolve and focus will shift depending on who is bringing in the better results. Look at Ferrari in 2008, current WDC Raikkonen was demoted to number 2 once he was being regularly beaten by Massa. I know Red Bull are very focused on Max and may be very different however. It would be interesting to see him face a teammate capable of beating him consistently though as no other team looks close enough right now in regards to performance.
Edit: autocorrect changed the word ‘shift’ to a naughty word.
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Definitely, from what I learned, they have a very flat organisation structure and mix a lot between the teams to share knowledge and identify talent. The public faces come back to base all the time. She saw the guys from the pit lane in the cafeteria and gym. And Max, Checo, Danielle eat and train there as well.
Not bad for a first job
Is she expected to keep her mouth shut on a number of things, basically things she is not even allowed to tell her own family? because I am sure many in this forum remember the incident with the Apple employee and his daughter with the R&D iphone that she accidently leaked to the world on her social media pages which resulted in her father being fired. Could that happen to you?Definitely, from what I learned, they have a very flat organisation structure and mix a lot between the teams to share knowledge and identify talent. The public faces come back to base all the time. She saw the guys from the pit lane in the cafeteria and gym. And Max, Checo, Danielle eat and train there as well.
Not bad for a first job
Oh definitely. But we are used to that as a family as part of my job. In a way it’s quite nice as we just don’t bring work home, nor talk about it. It’s just not worth it to risk it.
But surely that is going to be very difficult you being an RBR fan and for your daughter knowing your an RBR fan because there is bound to be internal chatter with fellow employee's (as you do) and whilst it maybe just harmless internal chatter within the confines of work, if it were to get outside it could cause problems. I am sure your daughter will find many times there will be 'oh I must tell my dad this, he will love it' and then realize she cannot not. Good times ahead
Edit: I know companies do a 'take your child to work day'. I wonder if they a 'take your parents to work day' because you would love that lol
After how his McLaren experience went, I was not surprised, to be honest. Plus he was going from a Mercedes customer team to the Mercedes factory team. And yes, Mercedes at the time was built around Nico, but I believe that was more because Michael was there just as a "Brand Ambassador" (similar to why Aston hired Alonso) and I could very much see Mercedes telling Lewis that there would be "no pre-ordained team favorites" so Lewis would have felt (correctly) that he could compete on an even level with Nico.
True, but when you have a driver so dominant and winning WDCs and CCs with relative ease, do you want to mess with that chemistry and risk the internal fratricide we saw with Senna-Prost and Alonso-Hamilton? And beyond the drivers, do you want that spilling out into the engineers and mechanics as they "choose sides"?
Yes bring a father to day work would be awesome.But surely that is going to be very difficult you being an RBR fan and for your daughter knowing your an RBR fan because there is bound to be internal chatter with fellow employee's (as you do) and whilst it maybe just harmless internal chatter within the confines of work, if it were to get outside it could cause problems. I am sure your daughter will find many times there will be 'oh I must tell my dad this, he will love it' and then realize she cannot not. Good times ahead
Edit: I know companies do a 'take your child to work day'. I wonder if they a 'take your parents to work day' because you would love that lol
But seriously no risk of that, she grew up being around not able to talk about things. And I’m too professional not to poke and ask. No worries whatsoever.
My friend who walks his dogs son works for RB F1, won’t say which department, he gets told stuff and tells me ‘some’, I don’t repeat it here all the time. But yeah he hears things. You’ll be surprised at what you do hear about the politics, it’s mad.
I haven’t seen him for a while so I hope he’s ok, he is in his 70’s I think? But he showed me the new Red Bull hypercar coming out, as in photos of the model I think. And a fantastic video from the Red Bull base in Milton Keynes where they had orange smoke, banners, cheering as Max and Checo were driven through them after they won, not sure if that was last year or the one before. But they really do celebrate wins, build a lot of team spirit. F1 is a hard graft sport but you get rewarded well.
If you want to be in F1 living near Milton Keynes is the place to be for sure. A few teams in that area. Oh from what I can gather be prepared to be showered with Red Bull merchandise lol, including stuff ONLY the team can get and is meant to wear. Just don’t sell those clothes on eBay haha as she may be in trouble.
Congratulations to her by the way.
Could you just imagine if via his daughter he was invited to a company BBQ? he'd be like 'there is x, oh look there is x, OMG there is x, oh wow look there is x, look!! there is x' and his daughter going, yes dad, i see them everyday, yes dad, again i see them everyday, dad!!! stop it, i see them every day' lol
Does this mean we now know who to go begging to to get the inside scope on RBR's own engine hehe