This would be horrible.

Bearman did an excellent job racing his way to 7th place . Good for him . Happy to see Haas has a chassis that works congrats to Hulk for grabbing a point . Alpine ....... yikes . What's up with Danny Ric ? Sauber struggling . Logan Sargeant better start fighting for his career !

Yeah other than Bearman that was a super boring race. I hope it’s not going to be like this all season…

Bearman great, race no. Danny Ricky needs to retire and go GT racing

It's not just Danny R, there is a bunch of others that better start pickin up the pace. There's too much talent in the reserve role and guys like Bearman that need a shot, Danny is done, so is Logan and both Stake drivers. Something has to happen at Hass and Alpine, the people there just aren't getting it done, Lance needs a promotion to a job he's more qualified for, the seat warmer role doesn't suit him.

I think Danny Ric was toast after he slammed into the back of his team mate (Max)
some years ago when Max was just getting going.

I would like to see Bearman slide over to Haas to replace K Mag . Run there for 2-3 years and be ready ( maybe ) to step up to Ferrari .

Bearman was the race interest for me. Great poise for an 18yr old.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1710109696.jpg

It is sad Williams has fallen so far.

Bearman, what a star, amazingly composed, the under performing drivers on the grid now had better be worried if he is typical of the next generation of drivers trying to get into F1

Paging Mr. Stroll, Mr Ricciardo, Mr Bottas, Mr Sargent, Mr Magnussen, your Uber driver is waiting for you outside the departure lounge :D

Maybe Strollovich could be a pit wall guy.
on second thought,
he'd probably be too slow for that also.
He should just continue kissing up to daddy
for a living.

The worst is at the Japanese grand prix.
One shot of people wearing stupid hats or
costumes would last me a whole season.
Not sure why they would think we need to see
an hour's worth in one weekend.

Can I play Debbie Downer?

Haas? Wait a few races, the have no $ for development, normal service to be resumed soon

Alpine? heavy, slow, underpowered, team in upheaval, who's gonna go work there? Nobody, death spiral until purchase.

Danny Ric? Was he really ever that good or did he have the best car ? Could he beat 2024 Max in a RB? IMO not a chance. Popular and funny, sure? Getting beat by miniature Yuki "swearing" Tsunoda? no bueno. Bye-bye.

Sauber? Have not had a real shot since Leclerc days and the 3 races they managed to do underweight a few years ago, and why are they keeping Valterri honestly? Any new driver could do better nowadays

Sargent: not sure why he got another year, but he's picking up right where he left off. At least he did not crash.

I'd add Stroll - why carry on? Comprehensively mentally destroyed by Alonso who was never gonna be a benevolent teacher.

Thank goodness for Bearman and the cool shots of his dad freaking out. Rescued that race... Indy was boring too.

Second pass for Bearman...

I'm normally not overexcited by young drivers...

But consider the kid only had FP3 before qualifying the car ??? He drove a Haas in FP in mexico I think but still he had to learn all the Ferrari settings/buttons/procedures ?

And then he raced with zero f#cks given, on the scariest track of the year with walls galore and did not stuff it in one, like Stroll ? never even brushed a wall once ? I mean Sargeant+Stroll+Valterri+ Kmag+Ric+Schumi jr etc should re-evaluate their life choices

Some drivers come with big sponsors who PAY the teams.

As long as the driver is there, the money is there.
that's why Perez is in F1, A rich Mexican guy
paid the way for his boy-toy.
HAAS was another example in 2021,
hiring Schumacher and maze-spin because they
both meant big sponsorship money.
In the long run that strategy didn't work because it
only works if the drivers don't stuff the cars into the wall
at every race.
(unless daddy BUYS the team for you).

It's an act of desperation, a band-aid to slow the bleeding.
Getting rid of a slow driver means a pay cut to
teams that really need the $$$, like say Williams for example.
But like I said it only works if the rook doesn't stuff the car at every race.
So they tell him to just putt-putt around the track,
it's OK to finish last as long as you don't crash.
Each crash can cost a half mil or more, doesn't take many of
those to outweigh the sponsor money. Like with HAAS.

Here's a bit of totally unrelated trivia:
Did you know that Sargeant's uncle is billionaire
shipping businessman Harry Sargeant III?


The devil on my shoulder wonders something:
Strollovich senior loves money, power, success,
above "almost" everything else.
How long before his EGO forces him to replace Lance?

^^^Maybe Lance will see the end on his own. Maybe he will be enticed over to sports cars if an opportunity is created.

The one thing I see in red's post is the overwhelming influence of non racing money. Yes, Checo got the seat with the money but he's not that bad a driver. Or at least at one point he showed something. So the money hasn't been all for naught.

Is it really so much the drivers in those back markers, or is it the cars? I don't think we have ever seen a greater disparity in performance in the cars themselves than we are seeing today.

The very, very restrictive technical regulations and cost caps are ostensibly meant to produce more equal performance amongst the teams. I think they have had the opposite affect. The engineering talent in F1 is probably represented by a much higher, sharper pyramid than that of the drivers. I'm sure there are plenty of "90%" engineers to go around, but there are very, very few 98-100%, like Adrian Newey et al. Those guys can work within a very narrow set of parameters, with very little wiggle room, to find every hidden advantage and exploit it. The other guys need more open playing fields, wherein they can try some really creative, "out of the box" solutions in hopes of catching some success. Something really wild, that no one else had thought of. With those opportunities gone, I think the very narrow margins of today give the advantage to a very, very few engineers, and there aren't enough of them to go around.

I bet we are about to see an explosion in engineering as AI comes into the picture. Seems as if air management is about all that is left on the table to work with. I guess suspension comes in 2nd where it is not regulated. AI is going to help with both being able to run countless simulations.

It would be great if the engineering was still done on a drafting table, but that must have stopped half a century ago.

I think Indy Car nipped that in the bud with the spec car. Now racing is about racing, meaning set ups, driving and strategy. Same goes for NASCAR.

Now I know full well how everyone feel about spec racing. But F1 has run away from reason. And as a result, it is a boring circus. Now with alter entertainment.

The exception here being Adrian Newey. Still sits at the drafting board looking for that Eureka! moment using a pencil and a scale.

^^^You're kidding?