In re: Mercedes
What's happening with J. Allison? He was touted as a second Newey, yet cars are not even close. I think both men actually received the same education at the same college. One can clearly see that FiA can force teams to account in an audit last Euro what team spent, but they had not found equalisation tools for human brains. (Replacing designers with AI robot just around the corner?)
Allison wasn't working on the 22 or 23 cars was he? Wasn't he brought back in to replace the zero-pod concept designer?
I seem to remember he was apparently going to fix the car, and Mercedes were going to make some kind of monster this year that would destroy the field. Well, that's what CultLH were saying.
So much hype for JA
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MonteCristo wrote: ↑2 years agoVettel: Not a fan at all on track. But off track, good guy.
There's talk on Twitter/X that RB have given Daniel Ricciardo an ultimatum. If he doesn't do better in the next two races, they are apparently thinking of replacing him with Liam Lawson. I wouldn't blame them to be honest, give him a chance and see how well he goes, he did really well last year.
If that is the case, Sergio Perez certainly doesn't need to worry about being replaced by Ricciardo next season does he?
DoubleFart wrote: ↑1 month ago
Allison wasn't working on the 22 or 23 cars was he? Wasn't he brought back in to replace the zero-pod concept designer?
I seem to remember he was apparently going to fix the car, and Mercedes were going to make some kind of monster this year that would destroy the field. Well, that's what CultLH were saying.
So much hype for JA
You might be correct about timing of his return. It's rather scary that future of whole organisation is on the shoulders of one man. Hard to say if they can salvage this year (and they aren't going to design a new car from scratch for next year only).
Yes even Yuki Tsunoda was being asked to pick up on his race performances. There was no question of his qualifying abilities, with one 11th place start and the other two ending in Q3, against Danny's 2 x 14th place starts and then this last weekends q1 exit thanks to a massive track limits breach.
Yuki's weakness was his overall performance on raceday which fell short of his qualifying. He was told to step up to the plate and finished with 6 points, benefitting from Alonso's post race penalty, but having been in the points all day other than for a couple of laps in the first stop cycle.
Danny on the other hand looked somewhat out of his depth for pretty much the whole weekend and a Q1 exit makes raceday challenging att best.
From what I understand Danny only got the seat at RB over Lawson because of Horner's influence and demands. Marko wasnt impressed with Danny and wanted Lawson. Danny ultimately got the gig based on his development and set up experience.
Rumours here suggested he had until Miami, after Japan and China so pretty much the same sort of deadline to perform. Danny's problem now seems to be that given Lawson's performances when he stood in for Danny, scoring points and being generally impressive given his lack of experience.
I felt right from end last year that I thought Lawson should get the race seat with Danny using his skills and experience doing the development and set up thing using the sim.
I have no doubt that Danny has to perform in Japan and China, match Yuki in qualifying, and get some points or show some form or be shown the door by the time they get to Europe.... Imola in what, 7 or 8 weeks time
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
Star wrote: ↑1 month ago
There's talk on Twitter/X that RB have given Daniel Ricciardo an ultimatum. If he doesn't do better in the next two races, they are apparently thinking of replacing him with Liam Lawson. I wouldn't blame them to be honest, give him a chance and see how well he goes, he did really well last year.
If that is the case, Sergio Perez certainly doesn't need to worry about being replaced by Ricciardo next season does he?
No, he is going to be replaced by Yuki, unless Red Bull can convince a someone more established (like Sainz or Albon) to come over and serve as the butt-boy for Verstappen.
Star wrote: ↑1 month ago
There's talk on Twitter/X that RB have given Daniel Ricciardo an ultimatum. If he doesn't do better in the next two races, they are apparently thinking of replacing him with Liam Lawson. I wouldn't blame them to be honest, give him a chance and see how well he goes, he did really well last year.
If that is the case, Sergio Perez certainly doesn't need to worry about being replaced by Ricciardo next season does he?
No, he is going to be replaced by Yuki, unless Red Bull can convince a someone more established (like Sainz or Albon) to come over and serve as the butt-boy for Verstappen.
You could be right, but if Lawson is quicker than Yuki...... It's too early to say anything for sure yet. Albon might go there, not sure if Sainz would want to go back to Red Bull, then again they have the fastest car on the grid, so why not?
I think at the moment there are not really any thoughts for next year, more Danny has to prove himself to be the man for this year. and im talking VCARB not the main team. I would think that for next year obviously if Danny gets dropped from VCARB this year his career is done. Red Bull really need to have someone who can hit the deck running and contribute from day 1 to the constructors title, and that person might be Sainz or at a push Albon Mk 2 (in Red Bull terms).
Realistically Danny's career is Horner dependant. Horner seems to have been the only (RB) person tht waanted him. Marko certainly didnt, and he seems to be the one with more clout on drivers than anyone. Other than he let Horner tlk him into Danny over Lawson for VCARB this year. For the time being.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
Star wrote: ↑1 month ago
There's talk on Twitter/X that RB have given Daniel Ricciardo an ultimatum. If he doesn't do better in the next two races, they are apparently thinking of replacing him with Liam Lawson. I wouldn't blame them to be honest, give him a chance and see how well he goes, he did really well last year.
If that is the case, Sergio Perez certainly doesn't need to worry about being replaced by Ricciardo next season does he?
No, he is going to be replaced by Yuki, unless Red Bull can convince a someone more established (like Sainz or Albon) to come over and serve as the butt-boy for Verstappen.
You could be right, but if Lawson is quicker than Yuki...... It's too early to say anything for sure yet. Albon might go there, not sure if Sainz would want to go back to Red Bull, then again they have the fastest car on the grid, so why not?
Even Verstappen was at Toro Rosso for more than a season (total of 23 races) so I don't think they are going to move Lawson directly to Red Bull. Almost certain he will be with RB Jr. next year along with whoever has not been promoted to RB (assuming anyone is). I do think RB is looking at other options (Sainz, Albon) because they don't really have complete confidence in Tsunoda. But in the end, I think they will end up going with the default option (Tsunoda). It is then kind of up to DR if he wants to stay around for another season with the junior team, knowing that his chance of moving up is not good.
The interesting thing is that their junior driver program is really not working for them (it used to). Tsunoda is not quite the driver they wanted, they weren't ready to move Lawson up, and they don't seem to have another junior driver. Their previous two junior drivers (Gasly and Albon) also didn't work for them. They were forced to hire from outside the Red Bull system (Perez) but now it does not appear that anyone is anxious for that. They can still get someone whose career is dead ended (like a Bottas or Gasly), but they probably need to promote one of the Jr. drivers so they can put Lawson in a seat. So, I think the default choice is Tsunoda.
Star wrote: ↑1 month ago
There's talk on Twitter/X that RB have given Daniel Ricciardo an ultimatum. If he doesn't do better in the next two races, they are apparently thinking of replacing him with Liam Lawson. I wouldn't blame them to be honest, give him a chance and see how well he goes, he did really well last year.
If that is the case, Sergio Perez certainly doesn't need to worry about being replaced by Ricciardo next season does he?
No, he is going to be replaced by Yuki, unless Red Bull can convince a someone more established (like Sainz or Albon) to come over and serve as the butt-boy for Verstappen.
Lol butt-boy.
The Toro Rosso tends to hide their drivers' talents pretty well so it's had to say whether Yuki is the right choice. My feeling is that Max might start looking for another challenge after winning the 2024/25 championships, so they need the kind of butt-boy who's capable of taking over as top.
Yuki was getting his hand slapped by Marko last week. He's not an answer to RBR's 2nd driver problem (or 1st driver...). And Dan certainly isn't either.
Lawson, however, could be.
No idea why they didn't run with him to begin with.
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