Spare Parts (F1 odds and ends)

Well I'm sure Toro Rosso are lining him up for a seat. Max is getting well past it now at Red Bull. Schumacher vs Verstappen pt2

 

Is Kvyat confirmed at TR yet? You'd imagine that they'd have no qualms dropping him after a season if Mick does well enough in F2.

 

No , don't think he is .

 

I am sure he is, just one more seat to fill at TR. Williams have only confirmed Russell. Force India have nobody set in stone yet.
As much as I would like to see MSC on the timing screens in F1, I'd rather he test himself in F2 first.

 

Did not think he was confirmed yet , but ok

 

Not making this up, saw it on the Toro Rosso Official Instagram page!

 

I was not doubting you

 

Yeah there's a few sources saying he has a deal by the looks of it.

Mick can't race in F1 next season even if he wanted to, he doesn't have enough points for a superlicense. I'd presume he'll get offers from F2 for 2019, I guess the question for him will be which leads to an F1 seat most easily.

 

I know haha, just felt the need to cite where I found out.

 

Imagine if STR drop Kvyat before they officially announce him

 

Verstappen WDC confirmed

 

Saw an interesting stat today. Vettel has never won a race when not qualifying in the top 3.

No idea if that's true, but nothing is currently jumping to mind.

 

I checked a stats page and it's true. Had a look at some of the other recent winners for context.

Raikkonen 8/21
Alonso 7/32
Schumacher 7/91
Ricciardo 6/7
Button 5/15
Hamilton 5/71
Verstappen 2/4
Webber 0/9
Massa 0/11
Rosberg 0/23
Vettel 0/52

Now in Vettel's defence, He has started 60% of his races from the top three.

Ricciardo's numbers are also bizarre in that stat for the opposite reason. Doesn't win boring races.

 

Stats for Ricciardo, Verstappen and Button aren't too surprising (other than that I'm astonished Button only won 15 races). None of them have spent that much time in the dominant car on the grid. Other than perhaps Monaco, has there been a single race in this era of F1 where Red Bull would have been considered the favourites?

 

Started looking at random stats and being reminded of recent pasts long forgotten. Biggest championship gap between p1and p2... 155pts in 2013. The good old v8 days where rosey domination never happened.

Then in the early 2000s Schumacher spent 37 consecutive races as championship leader. 3 odd seasons worth.

When you look at it the 2014 to 2016 domination of Mercedes was fairly tame. Shockingly.

 

Can't remember the year off the top of my head . There was one season McLaren won all bar 1 of the races 1980s obviously .

 

Nah the Mercedes dominance is/was the worst ever. Winning 80% of the races has only been done 6 times in history. Mercedes did it three years in a row.

What we didn't have was the dominance of one driver like in 2013, mostly thanks to Rosberg. Imagine the horror of Mercedes running Hamilton-Bottas between 2014 and 2016.

Also weren't the new regulations partly to blame for the death throes of the V8 era being so terrible. Didn't Merc and Ferrari shift development early and pretty much allow Red Bull to win every remaining race?

 

Those were the days !

 

Rob Smedley leaving Williams at the end of the season .

Part of me is sad , part of me wishes he'd never done those Williams TV things .

 

Seems to have been a mixed performance, he is credited with recovery of Williams in the beginning but seems to have lost the grip. His own comments makes me wonder if he will take a break to refocus. There is an untold story I suspect.