At this rate anyone could do better than Perez
If Lawson continues to drive well and learn I would put him in the Red Bull, and grab Colopinto for the Lawson/Ric seat @RB. Two young drivers that are doing well

I think Max was trained from a very early age to be aggressive and never give up . In the same mould as Senna and Schumacher . S&S were also ruthless and very aggressive from what I remember. Modern rules and mindsets are more polite in my opinion , that may or may not be a good thing . Ultimately for me driver safety has to be part of the discussion . And to follow the rules . Ultimately Max will either alter his style or leave the series .

Who replaces Perez ? I don't think it will be Yuki . Why ? I think his close ties with Honda will have him heading to Aston Martin in 2026 . I think Liam gets moved up and Colapinto gets loaned to Vcarb . I also think Mick signs with Sauber/Audi . All just guesses on my part . If nothing else it's fun to discuss :D

I think Max sees red very quickly, just an angry dude who never gets told to knock it off. I remember watching video of him in esports racing even just slamming into people and rage-quitting races if he were slighted by other drivers.

The math for the championship is not as relevant as pundits make it to be... All it'll take is one of the 3 contenders (mostly NOR / VER) to not finish once and then it's super close again... Cars have been super reliable thus far, but sooner or later someone will eat a piston or a KERS unit mid race... If not that, someone will start midfield due to an engine change penalty (Max in Brazil, possibly?) and be caught in another Gasly/Tsunoda Sandwich, or maybe Lance will forget to brake ;-) I'm not buying the "points average" - something will happen one way of another! Ideally, NOR/VER continue their feud and take each other out of contention and (as I joked before) LEC beats them both on the final race by one point, Kimi style. LOL. Just to mess with all the british media

So, Colapinto (Or Gallo pinto as I call him as I find costa rican gallo pinto delicious).
Had never heard of the guy, nothing special in F2. In the top 12 every race, scores points, not afraid to fight anyone.. In every interview, comes off not as a shy rookie but has more assurance in the way he talks and explains things than most veterans.. Embarrassing Albon so far.. It will be a shame if he doesn't get a decent seat next year - and I am sure Argentina is a good market for F1.. Time to dump some dead weight (Zhou, Perez, Bottas, Stroll - I know)

Apparently, Lewis Hamilton saw something happening at Ferrari.
Much like his historic switch from McLaren to Mercedes.

Quick note on Verstappen's race antics: At some point dangerous driving should lead to a disqualification. Somehow the stewards have to get his attention.

Another huge financial supporter of Perez is DISNEY!
Owners of ESPN who pays F1 a huge amount for the rights
to broadcast the races.
They also generate a giant pile of money from
commercials in latin america, where Perez is very popular.

it is a business and businesses are all about money.
F1 NEEDS Perez in F1.

I should be a huge Perez fan but he's lost me a constructors championship this year so he needs to go :mad:

F1 is about the fastest/best drivers battling it out on track with hard but fair driving in the world's most technically advanced car's :cool:

What F1 needs is a fast Latin American driver, a fast African driver, a fast American driver and a fast Asian driver to balance out the UK/European centric grid :cool:

Not a subsidised slow Mexican driver! :mad:

Will be interesting to see how Colapinto finishes out these last four races . If he does well does that translate to a grid spot next year ? And where would that be ? Sauber are saying they will make their 2nd driver announcement mid November . If that is accurate and if they don't go with Colapinto then the only open spot is in the Red Bull family .

If they let Perez go he gets backfilled by Lawson or Yuki . That open spot could be filled by Colapinto . He is young , has talent , from Argentina and has quickly become a popular driver . He checks off several boxes .

I read RB are not interested in Colapinto as he has a long contract with Williams

RB don't want to waste time, effort and money on training him up only for him to return to Williams

Shame, as he really has shown he deserves a place on next year's grid

Ricardo’s available 😁, just saying. Would he be better than Perez in his car?

We will never know

Interesting times in F1...

At the moment I wonder if Audi will even be on the grid at all... Not only have they seen management turmoil, but the current VW plant closures and layoffs are going to make it tricky to spend Billions in F1. They have already heavily invested into building, R&D and personnel. Tricky now, sink more $ in while you lay off or pull the plug and also lose $$$.. Resell ?

I was reading an interesting interview of the Ex-renault manager guy Bruno Famin... He was explaining that the math does not work for engine manufacturers anymore. Teams get $$$ reward but engine manufacturers get nothing, AND they are both obligated to supply at least one more team if asked to, and at the same time capped to selling engines for $17 mil per season. He was explaining that doesn't even cover manufacturing costs in most cases.. in parallel to that the token system in place prevented Renault from fixing their 15-20hp deficit for the duration, in the name of cost savings... They spent billions with a B in development, and could not fix what they knew was wrong... Within the current limitations, you are essentially stuck fixing either the KERS side or the ICE side each year, you aren't allowed to do both.... Also the new model may cause trouble - How long will Ferrari be happy with a competitor badged car (Haas - Toyota) if they do well... How long will Mercedes happily "sponsor" McLaren (with their engines) likely at a financial loss, to watch them beat their own team ? Some teams are entering via a side door for cheap while engine makers are spending $$$$... Anyway, interesting shakeups ahead probably.. I could see the "few" engine makers decide to renegociate this arrangement sooner than later, and they have power!

It would be even closer now but for Hungary and Italy where Piastri caused Norris to lose out on points. Hungary was on the team. Italy, PIA made a stupid move that cost them both.

If perez goes, so does the money.
Unless Colapinto ...

One could assume that Red Bull doesn't like being
held hostage over Perez so they signed with telemex's
biggest rival so that if they lost the telemex and
disney money they would be OK.

If they were smart they'd sign colapinto to retain
the latin american sponsors AND AT&T.
win win $$$$$$$$$$


https://www.planetf1.com/news/sergio-perez-not-definite-renewing-red-bull-sponsorship
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1730224803.jpg

watching this, my head 'sploded

<iframe width="923" height="519" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m91v8HNZtTw" title="What If Formula 1 Had No Rules?" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Honda fined 600k and Alpine fined 400k . Cost cap related .

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/articles/ckg083g1xl5o

Max picks up two penalty points on his super license .

https://www.si.com/fannation/racing/f1briefings/news/f1-news-max-verstappen-receives-further-punishment-following-mexican-grand-prix-disaster-01jb82wh2ynz

You Captain, are exactly correct and we are all better off for your expertise and "inside information" provided here.

Regarding the bolded, however, as a admittedly low-level amateur, I am continually frustrated by the extreme delta between F1 qually times and race lap pace. I know it's a result of the current rules package; largely the no-refueling and battery charging impacts, but the current situation (tire mgt) results in the drivers running at significantly less than full-out battles for most of the race. How many times must we hear radio coms telling drivers to increase/decrease pace to a target. Flat-out should be the best way to a victory. SmileWavy

World Endurance can run near continuous hot (full capability) laps, as can IndyCar, MotoGP, and others. F1 needs to do better IMO.

Tire management is the problem, its always about tire management.

Tyres, tires, tyres, can't tell you how many race debriefs I've sat through where the main topic was tyres, tires, tyres

Think the problem is F1 cars are so quick now, with a huge increase in aero loads with the ground effect era, chassis weight increase due to improved safety and with the heavy hybrid PU's being so heavy with high regeneration cycles the tyres during the race are easily the weakest link to flat out racing

Not sure how F1 cornering/braking loads or tyre compounds compare to WEC, IMSA, MotoGP or Indy but I'd imagine the performance envelope F1 tyres have to survive is a much harsher world

Teams and drivers have no choice but to manage tyre wear so carefully to avoid one pit stop too many which puts them out of the race

Sorry, don't have any answers but I miss the V10, unlimited testing, no budget constraints, tyre war era, life was much simpler and racing more exciting back then

Count myself very lucky to have experienced 8yrs of working in this golden era of F1

FIA are doing their best to steer the technical regs back to smaller, lighter weight cars. Really hoping synthetic fuel advances will get F1 back to IC only engines as EV only F1 will be the death of F1