F1 - 2024

[MiniDave]

Perez signing is the death knell for Danny Ric I think, as Red Bull should be bringing new drivers on board if they're really going to use RB as a feeder for the varsity team.

Rumor has Sainz already signed up with Williams for two years, with an option for more if things go well.

So if HAAS take on Bearman, they will want an experienced driver to pair him, and if Kmag is out, who will that be? Bottas is in the running for sure....

Ocon? No idea if he'll even be on the grid in the future, but Mercedes could use him in the interim while getting Kimi up to speed somewhere else - tho not Williams now.

Still a lot of craziness to come in the silly season, tho quite a few of the dance cards are getting filled.

[MiniDave]

Now Sainz says "taint true", he hasn't signed with anyone yet.

[MiniDave]

Montreal:

Hell of a race! A good rain can really make an F1 race interesting. Max really had to work for this one but he did a great job.

Ferrari had about the worst weekend in 5 years......

I wonder if Mercedes has turned the corner and is now a legit contender, or if this track just favored them?

[Brit_in_TX]

It is good that Red Bull is not running away with everything. 

Red Bull could also be in trouble as they admitted that they got Perez to drive the car in an unsafe condition to avoid a safety car that would threaten Verstappen's lead.  Be interesting if McLaren protest it. 

The other news was that Tsunoda was extended with RB for 2025.

[MiniDave]

Well, they do have a healthy lead, but with Perez underperforming as badly as he is, it's keeping the others within reach at least......still he does have 107 pts and is 5th in the Driver's.

It's too bad the wheels have fallen off the Aston effort - at least compared to last year. 6th and 7th in this race is not bad, but you won't win any titles finishing there every race.

McLaren and Ferrari have been the real threat all season so far, but Mercedes seems to have found something.....we'll know for sure at the next race in Barcelona.

One thing that has been interesting over the last few seasons in particular is the reliability of all the cars - if they don't wreck out, chances are very good they at least will finish the race. As recently as the early 2000's that couldn't be said.

[Brit_in_TX]

One thing that has been interesting over the last few seasons in particular is the reliability of all the cars - if they don't wreck out, chances are very good they at least will finish the race. As recently as the early 2000's that couldn't be said.

I feel most of that has come from the requirement to have a few engines and gearboxes (plus other items) last the whole season.  Previously engines and gearboxes were built to make it to the 200 mile mark.  Now the have do maybe over 2000 miles.

[MiniDave]

It wasn't so long ago that engines, gearboxes blew regularly, suspensions broke over the kerbs, electrics went wonky - they were lucky if half the field made it to the end of the race. Mandating that they last so far into the season has really had an impact on the reliability and durability IMHO, and I wonder what they're doing differently? I mean, they're getting enormous power out of a tiny engine and having to make fuel economy too. I'm sure some of it is down to better materials and design, but still......

[cstudep]

It's probably directly proportional to the amount of money and time spent on it, at least as far as the engine stuff goes. If a motor and drive train only needs to last through 1 race, they probably didn't spend near as much "engineering time" on any sort of reliability and just hoped it would last the race. Now that they have no choice but to make one last several races they have to spend a lot more of their effort in that regard, which probably filtered down into the other components too. If your not pulling the entire power plant out and replacing it every race you are probably going to make sure the wiring, etc.. is built to a little higher standard as well.

[Brit_in_TX]

Great race in Austria up until 7 laps from the end.  Shows Max cannot race fairly and has not learnt anything from 2021.

[MiniDave]

It was fun once those last 20 laps hit and after Max's slow pitstop, before that Max pretty much had it all to himself. Once Lando got within DRS range it was on like donkeykong! Max on used tires for the last stint vs Lando on new might have had something to do with why Lando caught him so quickly - Max said the tires were shit.....

I was impressed with the HAAS effort once again, they have def staked a place near or at the top of the midfield. RB vcarb whatever is showing signs of life too..

I can't get over Aston's fall to the bottom.......what the heck happened to them? I imagine Alonso is regretting signing that extension to his contract, maybe a one year deal would have been better....

We still don't know what's going to happen with Sainz, but there's really no hurry now. LeClerc had a miserable race too, right down there with Alonso, but I'm thinking he probably had damage from his lap one encounter.

George drove a superb if uneventful race to inherit the win, I think he knew those two were going to come to tears before it was done. Brundle agrees that it was Max's fault BTW.

[Brit_in_TX]

The Haas effort was outstanding, it makes me hope that they keep KMag next season.  However, I think the option of putting a race winner in the car mean it be the end of the road (again) for KMag.

I agree on the Aston's - however, they have a history of losing pace over the season.  Rumor had they made a BIG money offer to Adrian Newey.

I am surprised at how well Alpine have moved forward, considering how slow they were right at the beginning season it has been a huge step forwards.

Silly season is also still in full swing. Still 7 unfilled seats.