Sieper wrote: ↑10 Jul 2019, 00:30
bill shoe wrote: ↑09 Jul 2019, 23:35
You could also read it as Marko making excuses for why they lost the only driver who could roughly keep up with Max (Riccardo out-quailed Max 1/3 of the time in 2018). Easier for Marko to pick apart Gasly's driving than to pick apart RB's inability to keep a pair of top-level drivers like Mercedes.
1/3 of the time you say. 5 qualy wins in 20 races. 1/4 that is. Well that is just grand. And If you drill into those 5 times Max was 2 times not even participating in Q3 and the Kimi after spin tow in Baku was a godsend to Ricci.
Red Bull
Final score: Max Verstappen 15-5 Daniel Ricciardo
Average gap: -0.145 for Verstappen
A surprise head-to-head score? Yes. A thoroughly impressive season from Verstappen? Absolutely.
Ricciardo consistently had no match for Verstappen on a Saturday, although the Australian did notch Red Bull's only two pole positions of the year.
Ha! I checked and we're both off. The FIA thinks the 2018 season had 21 races with qualy results being Max 15-6 Daniel. Let's agree: Over the course of the season Max was quicker but Daniel was quick enough to keep him honest.
Yes, I'll certainly agree to that, within .2 of a second is fully acceptable and for sure Daniel kept the pressure on. I have never once said Daniel is not a good driver, it is just I feel he was comfortably beat (weird that that quote (I was quoting a website on post 2018 result) actually got it wrong with 15-5 (and me not noticing that). should have included a link.
Back to the big-picture-- Merc had two superb drivers in Lewis and Rosberg, and still has a pair almost as good with Lewis and Botas. Ferrari admittedly has a bit of a #1 and #2 driver system, but they still fill seat #2 with top-shelf talent (Raikkonen, LeClerc) that belongs with one of the three winning teams on the grid. In contrast, RB has filled their #2 seat with Gasly, who's a weak and arguably silly choice for a seat in one of the three winning teams on the grid.
I think they possibly overestimated Gasly's results (based on him beating Hartley and coming away with some nice race results (a bit lucky imho)) in 2018 and possibly Gasly has also been underperforming so far? He put himself under quite some pressure (I remember some quotes that sounded quite confident (as you should be of course) and right at the start the pressure was on. In a big way.
You and I could both easily rattle off several names on the grid who are better than Gasly, and hell we could also name 1 or 2 unemployed F1 drivers who are better. So why is RB unable or unwilling to put one of those better talents in their car?
Again I agree that there are quite a lot of choices that could be better (as it turned out). maybe they don't want to admit they made a wrong choice that quickly. Maybe they want to give Gasly a fair chance (sacking now means end of F1 career?) And possibly they want to keep the own junior program alive (by not going for any of the available guys). The most hot opportunities also have not made it easy for themselves to sit next to Max or with a Honda behind them. I even think that at this point both Kvyat and Albon would do a better job, but then again. Preseason I actually thought that at least the qualy battle between Gasly and Verstappen would be tight. Preseason I understood the choice it has just turned out to be disappointing thus far (and to be honoust, likey it is on the verge of too late already nor even likely ever going to change).
originally made a mess with quoting but since received some help (thanks guys) and now it is better!