I am actually a Ricardo fan and bummed he is not in a better car. I think Leclerc is the real deal and can be WDC, he makes mistakes too he got away with a few Sunday. I think he will only get better.

I just laugh at everyone ignoring it is the car when Lewis wins and say it was the car when Vettel was winning. Vettel is inside his own head and screwing the pooch, I do not think he is coming back from that. He is done and I will be surprised if he drives past 2020.

On nearly all of that we agree. I think both Lewis and Vettel have had the better car. But Hamilton has used that car when Vettel has screwed the pooch.

If Ferrari could hire Riccardo and dump Vettel they would be winning a lot more. Certainly they would have plenty of more constructors points.

I like Ricci, but if he replaces Seb, Lec would be Ferrari's #1 driver. Ricci won't want to be 2nd banana to anyone.

Leclerc is my favourite current F1 driver, I'm sure he'll be the next WDC after Hamilton

How about Alonso back at Ferrari next year? no No. 1 driver hierarchy, team lets them duke it out on the track/back at the factory. Never going to happen but it would cause Mercedes a few problems and make good viewing

Do not forget, when Hamilton was not in a winning car he was making a lot of mistakes too and crashing a lot, channeling his inner Senna to force people out of his way.

I hope one day we really hear what happened behind the scenes at Mercedes the year Nico took the WDC from him. You can see to this day Nico is still rattled by that season.

I read online that Riccardo has a clause in his current contract that specifically states if a Ferrari seat becomes available he can get out of the contract . If that is accurate I wonder what the conversations were like a year ago ? Did Ferrari tell him maybe in 2020 ? Or just wishful thinking on his part ? I just find it curious .

I don't want to believe in any stupid conspiracies, but Lewis' engine letting go in Malaysia... I still shake my head at that one :confused:

I heard that too....I don't think he'd ever willingly be a #2 but pretty sure he would jump on a Ferrari seat.

The Honey Badger rules.

When the clause was put in, he probably assumed he would be pared with Vettel if he moved to Ferrari and he already knew how that would turn out...

I have a feeling that every driver on the grid secretly or maybe not so secretly
wants to be in a Ferrari at some point in their career.

That's a great point. Plenty of drivers who turned out good were making lots of mistakes in bad cars, overdriving or what have you. Also some in great cars make bad mistakes or cannot repass the field even in the best car... Bottas comes to mind.

Hamilton (much as I am not a fan) starting dead last in a Mercedes is *still* a threat for a win. I'd say Ricciardo too in a good car... Max might crash in the process but has a shot as well... Not sure I'd put many more drivers in that list... not Magnussen or Grosjean for sure. These days not Vettel either...

Jensen Button was in the right car at the right time. Never did as well after that.

I think avocado is talented but I'm skeptical that ferrari would ever consider hiring a driver who drinks out of his sweaty gross shoe.
I'm surprised that ANY team in F1 would want to be associated with that.

I heard yesterday after the latest team/FIA meeting they are going to stir up qualifying a bit

Next year there will be 4 races with a qualifying race for the top 10 qualifiers. The interesting part is the grid order will be set by reverse championship position order. Great idea as the teams can't strategically position themselves on the grid.

Also the bio % of the fuel will go up to 10%, then later to 20%, can't remember the timeline for this but I didn't know that F1 has been using Bio-fuel for years

Old news but probably the biggest single potential improvement to the racing will be new aero rules specifically written to allow cars to follow closer. The FIA guy in charge of the aero rule program is a well respected ex-F1 chief designer/head of aero. Will be interesting to see how the teams adapt. The cars will also look more F1 less Indy than the recent release photos

Standard brakes make the list in the name of cost saving, 10 yrs ago the team I worked for easily spent $1 million on pads and discs a season. No idea what teams spend now but I guess every little helps. I'm sure the list of standard parts will only get longer.

The best news is the teams seem to all be on board with regards to improving the show, maybe I might start watching it again

UGH! Haas has signed Grosean for 2020 I was really hoping they would sign Hulkenberg.

^I am surprised too, by the Haas decision. Maybe Hulk turned them down, maybe Haas want consistency, we don't know. Whatever the reasons, I hope the team can turn things around, a big part of that being Grosjean creating much less carbon-fiber debris.

Amazing. Does he have embarrassing photos of Gene Haas?

https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/1174578864535871489?s=20

Kubica leaving Williams after 2019, https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/146094/kubica-announces-williams-exit-after-2019

On the surface I'd agree with you guys. But it would seem though that Grosjean is capable of serious speed on occasion (not when he's crashing in a wall or his teammate though MAG is also to blame), gets along well with Magnussen ( no mean feat), but also that his technical feedback is quite good.

He nailed this year's problem when he insisted they went back to the original australia spec car. The data was not showing it, Magnussen didn't have a clue which way the wind blew, but GRO turned out to be right.

Honestly, I'm not sure Hulk is THAT good anyway. Good for sure, but if he was as awesome and unlucky as some say, he wouldn't have been stuck at 2nd tier teams his entire career, nor did he shame any of his team mates like Perez ou RIC. I kinda like that HAAS rewarded loyalty, early results, and the guy that wasn't afraid to tell them the car was $hite and heading nowhere, at the risk of being seen as a whiner.

But yeah, surprising, in F1. And definitely his last chance. For sure he's had a lot more second chances than other drivers, there's got to be a reason we're not aware of (I heard it was his tech feedback and raw pace when all was well). With Hulk you never feel the guy is driving out of his skin or taking a chance, he seem content with a max of 5th place or something. Ok, so he probably asked for too much money ;-)