Good points - they invest a lot of money in young talents.
Bad points - to become one of their young drivers, you have to sign extremely restricting contracts. They hold every rights, you hold none. That’s why everyone who ever got out under them is extremely happy to be away. (That’s also why I would be extremely surprised if VET went back to them). To the best of my knowledge, VER is the first driver ever who had a get out clause.
Thanks. Didn’t know this.
Though I’m sure Vettel would love to have Albon’s seat. Despite the contract. But a Racing Point seat must have his preference either way, as it could remove some of the pressure and will let him race without all the nonsense.
When VET got his last title, there was nothing he had to prove to anyone anymore. His sole motivation was to drive for and into the history books. Winning a championship with FER is something that absolutely ensures this - and getting away when he could from RBR was a big bonus. They didn’t hold up all parts of the contract with him, but there was no legal way to challenge that. This year he wanted a “commitment contract” from FER, making sure they wouldn’t treat him as a #2. Thus he asked for at least two years. But FER didn’t want to commit, and offered only one year, with an option on their side. He didn’t agree, and so they divorced. With HAM breaking records left and right, and his chance at FER fame ultimately gone, there is no more history books for him, so he has two option: retire and be a family man, or drive for fun with a team that appreciates him. Which would also mean to drive with a team whose other driver will be a pay guy, so no internal competition either.
Speaking of pay drivers, Stroll has been fairly decent in quali but his race pace has been mediocre. What happened last weekend? That car should be competing for the top 6 spot.
Or have we hyped the car too much in Hungary and Austria?
Stroll is a bit of a special case. Guy has talent, but I think its fair to say his dads ambition, motivation and bite exceeds his. Regarding last weekend, I think they set the car up more for quali than the race. With higher temps expected for this weekend, I think they have some work to do.
I think Racing Point had engine issues, the other car didn’t even get onto the grid remember!
SICK didn’t expect a F1 thread! this site gets better and better haha. Charles & RIC <3 almost got a bloody RIC podium last weekend which would’ve been nuts. Can’t wait till next weekend, probably going to be a massive change because of the tyres, 2 stop race me thinks for sure.
Last week we had the C1 compound.
Nice, a F1 thread. I’m really satisfied with the F1 TV Pro subscription right now. I have read some opinions about the connection, but after two race weekends I’m really impressed. In Germany Formula 1 will be going behind a Pay Wall after this season, so no more races in free TV. So you have only two choices, either the F1 TV sub or Sky. Sadly there aren’t any apps for Smart TVs or consoles from F1 TV. That would be great.
Lando on P4 in the standings is really great, next year with Ric it will be a even greater (positive meme) team. Is would like to see Bottas as a world champion, but it will be hard. I think this season it would be the right time for him.
According to German rumors Vettel is close to be singing a contract with Aston-Martin/Racing Point. Good to see him staying within F1 to be honest.
Not satisfied with Pirelli at all. Tyres exploding is not the solution when FIA asks them tyre wear. Last weekend was dangerous as hell.
For sure, but I blame the teams as well. Several drivers complained several times about vibrations in the cars, which got basically ignored.
Response from Pirelli:
Remember when they pulled this a couple years back when Vettel had a tyre failure in Hockenheim I think? Minutes before the failure Paul Hembery was explaining on TV how these tyres can last a lot longer than Vettel’s extreme strategy is pushing, then a puncture right after and later they claim “well they told the teams a lower amount of laps”. Once again they said 45 laps or so can be easily done on hards. They did 40, 5 of which under SC. 3 tyres exploded. Now of course it’s the teams’ fault.
Was it confirmed Stroll had problems?
A track F1 hasn’t been on in 14 years, no proper simulation data around and the teams had 0 prior knowledge of this track coming up when designing the car. What could go wrong?
It was certainly alluded to on the broadcast, haven’t seen it confirmed.
Does anyone do the Fantasy Formula 1 on F1.com? If so we should set up a league.
Looks like REN protest against RP cars will be rejected this week. RP used last years MER brake setup, which they officially bought last year with FIA knowledge. This was legal up to Dec 2019. HAAS got denied with a similar request, because they wanted to use this years FER brake setup.
It is expected that REN will appeal this decision first on the FIA appeals court, then in a civil court. They see the brake setup just as an easy example that RP copied the full 2019 MER, and not just from photos but from scans. It is rumored, that they employed some ex-RP engineers who they plan to use as key witnesses.
