Silly season 2025-2026

[WardenOfTheNorth]

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/oscar- ... pen-links/

Reports of Piastri considering pulling an exit clause too, now.

Multiple outlets reporting that Red Bull aren't sharing all data with GP due to his impending move to McLaren. I wonder if this is affecting Max's race prep etc?

I also wonder whether this is also because Max has yet to commit to the team beyond this season and could leave.

Could we see the suggestion of several people come to fruition, a straight swap between Max and Oscar.

Why McLaren over Mercedes? Well, Toto has publicly stated that he is no longer interested in Max and several reputable pundits have said that the Mercedes door is now shut for him (since Kimi is doing so well). But McLaren offer something else that could interest Max: WEC Hypercar. I could foresee a situation where Max moves to McLaren and they agree a deal that sees his GT team switch to running McLaren's AND Max gets to enter Le Mans and maybe Spa in the McLaren Hypercar.

In fact imagine if McLaren really wanted to up the stakes, they could enter a car at Le Mans with Max, Lando and AN Other driver...!!

[PlatinumZealot]

I am shocked to be reminded that this season marks 20 years since Alonso's last title win.

So imagine you have 20 chances to land in a winning team, but also for the car to have some amount dominance so you can win the title but somehow... Somehow.. You end of short. This is either crappy luck, poor reading of the game, or shutting your self out of a dominant car by burning bridges.

Alonso has actually come close in those twenty years, but not for having a dominant car, just by driving the nuts off of good cars.

2007. Not dominant car, also lost to team politics.
2008 - lost seat to team politics
2009 - Ignored the call up from RedBull. "just a drinks company" a year earlier
2010 - not dominant car, wrung the neck of a good car. Could have been in RedBull too.
2012 - not dominant car, wrung the neck of a good car Could have been in RedBull too.
2013 - Could have been in a RedBull.
2017 - left Ferrari after 2014 season due to impatience. This car not dominant but could have won in Alonso's hands.
2018 - see 2017
2024 - Possibly could have been in a McLaren, but very slim chance he would have stuck around from 2016 due to the travails that occured.
2025 - see 2024

So that's like 9 out of the 20 years he was close to solid championship chances but lost out to wrong reading of team potential or politics.

Looking ahead he has his hopes in Adrian Newey's Aston Martin and I'm hoping we get to see him fighting for the championship in 2028 or 2029.

[madsonit]

[…]
2007. Not dominant car, also lost to team politics.
[…]

You meant - lost to a rookie.

[selvam_e2002]

[…]
2007. Not dominant car, also lost to team politics.
[…]

You meant - lost to a rookie.

Alonso hater......

[Jurgen von Diaz]

[…]
2007. Not dominant car, also lost to team politics.
[…]

You meant - lost to a rookie.

Washed 109 pts—109 pts.

[madsonit]

[…]
2007. Not dominant car, also lost to team politics.
[…]

You meant - lost to a rookie.

Washed 109 pts—109 pts.

Coming in as a reigning world champion and rated as the best… to be matched by your rookie team mate is a failure. Imagine a rookie coming as Max’s team mate and Max had to play games in qualifying just to stop the rookie from doing a faster lap. That’s it for my off topic for the day.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

I'm not saying that Hamilton's rookie season wasn't the greatest of all time, but Dennis did change his favorite straight away to Hamilton, and Alonso was left on his own. And they did score the same amount of points so it wasn't like Alonso was washed.