French GP Chat & Predictions
- Thread starter Big Ern
- Start date
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How fantastic to see McLaren back in and among the big boys!
Love to see McLaren on form. 9 thousandths away from 4th must hurt a bit though. Classic Alonso making the wrong call to leave the team. I do wonder what he could have achieved in this car.
Was Vettel having reliability issue on that last lap?
Was Vettel having reliability issue on that last lap?
P
Just need Williams to get their poop in a pile now.
Let's hope they can keep it up.
Just need Williams to get their poop in a pile now.
Sorry chap. On the bright side, I'd say Williams have the car with the best development potential... So it's not all doom and gloom.
Just looked at the results, impressive to see Mclaren up with Max (the boy). Lando in particular, he is having an impressive season. The Renault engine is a match for the Honda it seems, the Honda is an upgrade too. Renault team need to do more work on the chassis. I am not focused on the Mercs, going to enjoy the race behind them. Might yet be a DNF for Merc, just to shake it up a bit.
Hamilton DNFing would tighten the race at the front, but is it worth the internet conspiracy fall-out after?
Mercedes desperately need to sign Alonso so that he can drag them into oblivion and let someone else win.
1st go in Q3 he just pushed too much, I think the 2nd go was more about the wind, as a few struggled to better their first runs
Probably not much more, McLarens attention can now be on its car, rather than constantly trying to placate their former no.1 driver.
At what point does it become just coincidence that when he leaves a team they get better shortly after?
Coincendently,
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/144325/alonso-no-longer-part-of-mclaren-testing-plans
"We are very happy with Lando [Norris] and Carlos [Sainz]. They are doing a great job and they're the future for us - and that is also my focus."
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Pure coincidence.
Last year's car was a dog
The year before it was a bad joke.
The Honda introduction was abysmal.
People forget the few moments where it was possible to wrestle a bit of a good day out of the rubbish.
The fact is Renault ain't great yet, really struggling so do we blame ricciardo for it?
The fact is McLaren may be competitive in the non top 6 cars division but it's a giant leap to podiums still. We need cars pushing forward not stagnant so I wish them well
Alonso had some great drives, but I don't think Sainz and Norris are getting due credit because everyone thinks Alonso 'could' have done better. McLaren are on the up and their future is with their current line up so they can be a settled team again too.
McLaren are now free of his day-to-day antics and can concentrate on racing again. Alonso was a pain in the ass behind the scenes (bit like Mansell) and probably took a lot of management time to deal with, which is now freed up.
No idea what your Ricciardo reference is there, Renault are about at the same level as they were last year. McLaren have taken a decent step forward.
It's not alonso fault though. he didn't stand up and say hed be winning with that car.
as for "antics" he was handed a dog of an engine, a team implosion and engine that could barely be started before it vibrated to bits... a few deck chair moments aside I fail to see many antics... honestly I don't see it. my view on that is an f1 team is a massive organisation, to think that soothing a driver's ego or not would make all that difference to the level of effort and resources required..... well I just don't buy it.
my point on ricciardo is this, he's a top driver gone to a new team and that team is a major engine developer but they've not kicked on.... but is that ricciardo fault? nope. no more than its alonso fault at McLaren.
McLaren are better cos they changed a lot of things and invested.. and dumped honda and are starting to get more and more out of what they have. it's a massive change around thst takes years to achieve.
They dumped Honda to keep Alonso............
Conincedently Honda got better