Silly season 2016

[NathanOlder]

Exactly what I was getting at. There are times you need to play the team game. And I feel he was wrong in what he did. If you start pissing your team mate off, there is less chance he will help you in future

[iotar__]

He was in front of his team mate. In the mid-field, that is priority #1 for a driver: beating their team-mate.

So in future if Max or Carlos are asked to move aside for the other who may well be on better tyre, the driver is to say No!
insane.

Sainz pitted 1 lap later than Verstappen and they were both running on the same compound. It's not like they were running on different strategies or were out of synch in any other way.

Although I don't think either of them is going to other teams in F1 in '16 :
1. You're making it sound like Verstappen's decision to ignore his TP and strategists was an informed one based on tyres, pitstop, speed etc., that was not the case, just "I don't care about team's results and I can get away with it".
2. Decision was made by Toro Rosso pitwall crew based on new old tyres difference, I assume it refers to tyres changed during pitstops not pitstop one lap later only

So is it shifting goalposts time or should Verstappen have obeyed TO since there was a reason? The notion that Sainz was not quick enough was later made up - poor rewriting of reality - because at the time he was quick enough for them to tell Verstappen to move over 5 times so either way Tost made a fool out of himself and his engineers.

Both Vettel and Ricciardo has let their teammates through, and i doubt anyone would put them in the same bracket as Coulthard and Barrichello.

I would. What exactly has Ricciardo achieved to be compared with Barrichello? One season quicker than Vettel? That's internal Rb competition in a great car. What about Massa, Button, Kvyat or Bottas, which bracket do they belong to?

Turning it into a driver's virtue (or a failure) is a cheap gimmick, it all depends on team's reaction, in a normal team a driver would face the consequences. TR is not a team that competes but a hype factory, currently M.V's so to make it slightly OT that's why I wouldn't mind them go and their driver looking for seats based on performance.

[sAx]

Would be entertaining, but perhaps the silliest? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0341r4k

He could do a FP1 for Merc at the end of the year when the pressure is off if Ham and Merc clinched both titles... Would be a huge marketing stunt.

Personally would see it as a huge Mansell success if he could get within 0.5s of any current F1 driver, driving any car/driver combo from the grid.

[PlatinumZealot]

An article on who should replace Grosjean: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3310 ... -grosjean/

I have a little objection with the Author's belief that Vandoorne and Magnusen would have to sever ties with Mclaren to race for Renault. I don't think they would necessarily have to do that. Ricciardo certainly didn't sever ties with RedBull to race for HRT and Kimi certainly didn't sever ties with Ferrari! What do you guys think?

[efuloni]

Ppl are talking about 3 cars teams again. I guess, at this point, only Merc and Ferrari would do it. Maybe McL.

Who would drive?

Werlein, Marciello and MAgnussen (Vandoorne?)

[Jolle]

Ppl are talking about 3 cars teams again. I guess, at this point, only Merc and Ferrari would do it. Maybe McL.

Who would drive?

Werlein, Marciello and MAgnussen (Vandoorne?)

The 3 car discussion is a nice pressure tactic for the teams. For Ferrari and Mercedes it's a lot cheaper to buy or support a second team (with extra bodywork for sponsors) then to run a third (very expensive to build and run and no other sponsors) car.

[ringo]

Verstapen to ferrari will not happen unless he drives a car with a ferrari engine for a couple years. He also would need to show loyalty a lot of it.
If you notice the trends ferrari usually go with world championship winning drivers. They dont go for superstar rookies. The last non champion that drove for them fulltime was felipe and he was driving around a sauber ferrari and praising the ferrari engine consistently. For max to get that seat he would have to be really convincing over drivers like massa, button, alonso, hamilton, rosberg, and any other race winner or chamion out there. I call those names becasue you never know with f1. Any of those guys can be knocking on ferrari's door for a drive. Even alonso. Max has a better chance getting a top drive with redbull or mercededs or even mclaren if they come good again. Ferrrari barriers to entry are very high.

[Racer X]

I honestly don't think Gutierrez should be in the new HAAS car even if HAAS is a new and probably bad team. I mean he drove for Sauber could not beat or catch Hulk or that other guy. Can't recall his name anyways My point is Gutierrez is wasted space and a pay driver.


But maybe he proves me wrong...

[Gerhardsa]

I honestly don't think Gutierrez should be in the new HAAS car even if HAAS is a new and probably bad team. I mean he drove for Sauber could not beat or catch Hulk or that other guy. Can't recall his name anyways My point is Gutierrez is wasted space and a pay driver.


But maybe he proves me wrong...

Sutil?
Ferrari will say who gets that seat even though there are tons of better drivers available. Even Kovalainen is a better choice than Gut imho. He is a race winner. That cant be said about either Grosjean or Gutierrez ..

[kptaylor]

Agreed, I would prefer JEV over GUT, but it sounds like Vergne may be going to Renault-Lotus. Besides bringing money, GUT never impressed at Sauber.

[efuloni]

We have an everlasting problem with STR drivers: they compete with 'no one'. Its pretty simple: you put two rookies (or very young drivers, even if not rookies) and the only parameter you have is how they do to each other.

What if STR is really a car as good - or even better - than RBR and we dont know cause the drivers are young and unexperienced? I mean, of course that it's not the case, all I'm saying is that is pretty hard to judge when you dont have a well stablished parameter. How can we know Max and Carlos are somehow doing better than Alguersuari and Buemi, for instance?

So, Im really enjoying watch Max and he seems like a WDC to be, but I wont bet on him until he pairs with a winner driver and keep doing fine.

[Gerhardsa]

I pretty much think Max is the real deal. Remember, he is still incredibly young and has a long career ahead of him, provided he can keep performing.

He seems to have the building blocks of a future champ, and a surprisingly mature head on his shoulders for a lad that is only 18. I suspect that in a few seasons time he will be a force to be reckoned with.

[ME4ME]

Talking about Max, I think it isn't out of the question that he could be promoted to RB at the end of the year.

Kvyat has been out performed by Ricciardo this year, by quite a margin if you ask me. Kvyat has lucked into decent positions when others retired, none the least Ricciardo (SPA etc). I can't think of any weekend when Kvyat has been plain better. In Singapore Kvyat did well, but was again out-performed by his team mate. In Japan Kvyat was a bit of a mess all weekend, very disappointing.

Taking in mind the critism he endured earlier this year from Dr Marko, right now I'm not convinced RB will keep him. (asuming they'll be on the grid..)

[ChrisF1]

It's hilarious how many people on here were saying Kvyat was blowing Ricciardo away only 2 months back, and now Ricciardo is beating Kvyat by some margin.

Guess you're only as good as your last race.

[djos]

It's hilarious how many people on here were saying Kvyat was blowing Ricciardo away only 2 months back, and now Ricciardo is beating Kvyat by some margin.

Guess you're only as good as your last race.

That was pretty funny, 2 qually sessions and some lucky breaks did not make for a better performance.

Tbh I think some Europeans just don't like to see an Aussie clearly doing the better job overall (bit like last year, Seb even had the good grace to admit he was beaten fair and square).