Listen to Albon at the end there. His comments about the Mercedes culture embedding itself at Williams. Paddy Lowe could not do that, he could only do what he could copy, hence the disasterous season when they were late to test. Good to see Albon out there fighting.
I believe a little bit more is coming but they did push through a front wing for this weekend right? Budapest should clear up more for us
At least Max had to work for it a bit this week. Superb drive from Lando, particularly around both starts McLaren upgrades looking good two weeks in a row although the suspicion is conditions favoured them on both occasions and so we roll on to Hungary still having to hope they don’t slip back. George unlucky with the safety car, that stint at the start on softs deserved the podium he may otherwise have got.
The team who were looking forward to Hungary were Aston Martin- I’m very intrigued to see how they go there. The only thing is though that I think with modern cars, the F1 paddock seems to say they treat Hungary as more of a medium speed corners circuit than a low speed like Monaco (in comparison to eras gone by), so I maybe that could hinder Aston slightly. It’s certainly a different circuit test for McLaren who appeared to excel through high speed corners of Silverstone. Even if Hungary exposes some of their other weaknesses, it was an impressive performance nontheless. PS really hope a Chrome with papaya flash livery gets chosen next season, it just felt right.
I am looking back at this race with a lot of disappointment. Not that verstappen drove off into the distance, that happens. This is silverstone. high speed, loads of space, different lines through corners are possible here above just about every other track. a) it was a drs or no pass track b) cars were not even attempting to follow any more. Have the aero engineers defeated the regs now? can we no longer really get close? c) perez parked up in 9th pre safety car. he was making no progress in the fastest car. d) aston are going backwards. e) do cars even push hard any more? this felt like a train of cars getting round to the end while saving fuel and engines and tyres. It look a lance stroll spoiled brat incident to sort of liven it up a little for any real action. Finally Ferrari, listening to sainz ask his engineer to clearly just read out what cars are on what tyre to make a call and basically give up as the guy wouldn't and just say do whatever. There's a clear reason they were 9th and 10th
Was their last race win Austria last year? They looked the second best at the start of last year, now, 5th best.
it's like they found a path that initially has potential and it ran into a dead end that everyone is just bypassing. or maybe it was always a compromised concept that they slammed to the floor and bounced about just a bit less than Mercedes. Once red bull stuck a lighter floor on they just sailed away.
Ferrari are in danger of seeing another team overtake them yet, becoming 6th best. One can only assume they will be planning a big upgrade for or before Monza. I hope so and that it is a successful upgrade, we need Ferrari fighting at the front.
I think there is very little chance of them being at the front anytime soon. They came out of the blocks super fast last season and quickly fell back with PU problems and a string of strategy errors, barely clinging on to 2nd in the constructors title, just ahead of a terrible Merc. I only see them stagnating or going backwards at this point. Bleh.
If the Dutch press is to be believed then Ricciardo races for Alpha Tauri in Hungary. De Vries out. The only reason i can think of to pick Daniel over one of the RB juniors is to put Perez on notice
Seems that way. A swap wouldn't be out of the question if he out performs Perez in the Alpha Tauri consistently
Ferrari have ambition. If the rumours are true they have shown that recently in trying to poach Horner, Newey and Lewis. They need a new plan now, there can always be another plan. Likely won't happen soon but Ferrari can't be seen to quit just because they are failing. Other teams are fighting back to the top, as we are seeing, Ferrari can do the same. Who is the better driver, Carlos or Lando?
I don’t see Perez getting replaced this year. RedBull have never done a 1-2 in the drivers, and with the order so fluid behind them they are safe in the Constructor’s and Perez still has a good chance of second. If he does so badly and a consistent challenger emerges such that he’s guaranteed no higher than third at some point, I guess they might try and find out how Daniel would go, but it seems unlikely that situation will arise before the year is out.
I think by now Lando is the better driver, but I think Carlos’ clarity of thought in the race and out of the car is something Ferrari can use, whereas Charles emotive approach is fuel to the flames at Ferrari. So if I was Fred and looking to change drivers, I’d probably be looking to bring Lando in in Charles’ place. Having said that, right now Ferrari need a faster car and the drivers aren’t a problem, they need tech staff, or some team org changes.
I also think without Carlos around Lando has matured and the Danny years gave him confidence, which itself makes him faster. Pleased for Lando. Ferrari need to hatch a plan for a better car.
