Many thanks Ched, always appreciate these threads and a chance to discuss and/or vent! Haha. Merry Christmas to you all and enjoy tomorrow- will we see a first McLaren WCC since 1998?!
There should be some charges through the field given the make up of the grid- Haas will have zero race pace, same with Aston, Bottas is miles ahead of his usual pace- I think anyone who has a good race set up will come through very well- Hamilton and Le Clerc should be a great watch. He will need a clean start and some fortune, but Hamilton was the quickest long run on Friday on the mediums and was one of the very very few who was strong on a second push lap on the softs. Could he sign off with one final Merc podium?
I wonder how Ron Dennis feels about it all. I suspect, after a difficult exit, his emotion will be subdued.
It could be a good watch. Not prejudging next season changes. I suspect the first race will be upon us before we know it.
I’m actually wanting both Mac’s to blow their engines up and Sainz to finish first so Ferrari win the constructors in readiness for Lewis next year….
Now that Max will be starting 4th I wonder how the first corner will go. Max might go for a dive up the inside to mess with the McLaren's. I hope he keeps it clean and we have a decent race.
As predicted, Max diving up the inside and taking out a McLaren! If Perez wasn't already out of a job he will be now.
It's been 15 years since a team other than Merc or Red Bull have won the constructors championship! Nice to see McLaren win.
Not the best race, but it’s been an excellent season overall. McLaren fully deserved their constructors championship and for all the things not to like around the management of F1 at the moment - you have to say that a customer team being able to come up with the best car indicates that the 2022 rules have been successful in terms of reigniting the possibility to compete in the sport.
Was that when they went from Renault V10 to a “Mecachrome” - some sort of customer engine was it? I just remember it not being fast in 1998 when McLaren dominated in amongst some Schumacher Ferrari wins
I remember that Renault announced its withdrawal from Formula One after the 1997 season, but Mecachrome paid Renault for the development work so that the relationship could continue and Frank decided to use the Mecachrome.I may be wrong,it was a long time ago.
