2024 British Grand Prix

Doc Austin said:
Imagine how good it could be if Sergio could pull his thumb out. His collapses in form is baffling. How can you be brilliant for a few races and then suddenly turn into Pastor Maldonado? Like I said, I'm not a Checo fan, but I will probably cheer for him from here out. Christian and Marko are probably pretty close to having to make a hard choice, one that could bite them in the ass either way.

If it doesn't go Checo's way, it wouldn't kill us to see him in a good Indycar or WEC ride.
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Throw him in a cup car at COTA or Chicago or something too. F1 guys don’t get to other series too often so it’s cool to see.
 
Efisher131 said:
Throw him in a cup car at COTA or Chicago or something too. F1 guys don’t get to other series too often so it’s cool to see.
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Sergio has only been blisteringly fast a time or two, but he's definitely fast enough to be an endurance driver. Outside of hitting his teammates, Sergio has had very few incidents with other drivers. Not having a teammate to wreck would probably be good for him!

The hypercars are technically advanced enough that he could probably slot right in, and not have nearly the pressure he's under every day now, not to mention having over half as many races and travel. Again, not necessarily a Checo fan, but I hate to see a good driver take the beating Sergio has.

So part of the real beauty of hypercar, and especially P2, one day you won't be in of the top 20 drivers in the world, but you could still be one of the top guys racing fast, swoopy prototypes and still drawing a paycheck.

Current rumor has Ocon signed with Williams, but don't believe it until it's official. This closes one more door for Carlos, so either it's Williams or bust, but Kimi won brilliantly yesterday and may have solidified his position at Mercedes a bit.
 
Doc Austin said:
Great drive for Hulk and fully validates Audi's choice.

The sad part of the weekend is Checo was fast all weekend right up until it counted and then he just didn't show up. You can fully expect the media to have a big two weeks speculating on who will replace him. Checo was never my favorite, but I still respect what he has done, and I also know he's better than this. It's just sad to see such a good driver get beaten down like that.
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Checo just isn’t good anymore. I’d say he for sure fulfilled what he set out to accomplish when he signed with Red Bull at the end of 2020, but he’s just too slow and error-prone these days. Could just be my perception, but he also doesn’t strike me as a guy who’ll race anything other than F1. I could be entirely wrong but that’s just my impression. Reportedly Ganassi has already turned down another active F1 driver who’s reached out about a potential drive next year, so I don’t know how much of a prospect he’d really be elsewhere. Apparently Lawson is testing the RB20 at Silverstone later this week also.

Hulk has been awesome this year for Haas, and I really hope Audi come out strong in 2026. He needs to get that podium at some point.
 
Good for Hamilton for getting the win at his home track and enjoying it.

Much better competion this year and interesting story lines.
 
They need to tell Checo that it is all over and replace him.
Better yet offer him an option to announce his retirememt soon in the ne two or three races and to leave with some dignity.
 
Doc Austin said:
He hasn't been good since the fourth race, but he was pretty mighty the first three. It doesn't make sense he can look so good for a period and then just falls off the cliff.
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The Red Bull went from a car where Verstappen could finish half a minute ahead of 3rd to one where he has to fight for wins and even podiums. For Checo, that distinct equipment advantage going away is apparently the difference between finishing 2nd and struggling to outqualify Logan Sargeant.
 
You may very well have the answer, but now the new question is what happened to Red Bull that caused them to lose that edge?

You gotta wonder what happened to the Checo who was always so solid at Force India and Racing Point. Whenever he wasn't running over Ocon, Checo usually got more out of those cars than they deserved. We all know Sergio is better than this.

I think it's quite possible they give Max the car he wants and develops it the way he wants it, and Checo just has to make it work for him or he falls behind. The way Checo keeps falling off the road in Q1 suggests he just can't deal with the kind of car Max likes.
 
Doc Austin said:
You may very well have the answer, but now the new question is what happened to Red Bull that caused them to lose that edge?

You gotta wonder what happened to the Checo who was always so solid at Force India and Racing Point. Whenever he wasn't running over Ocon, Checo usually got more out of those cars than they deserved. We all know Sergio is better than this.

I think it's quite possible they give Max the car he wants and develops it the way he wants it, and Checo just has to make it work for him or he falls behind. The way Checo keeps falling off the road in Q1 suggests he just can't deal with the kind of car Max likes.
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There's been several attempts at explaining this in general. Here's an interview with Albon about that specific topic:


“Everyone has a driving style, I would say my driving style is a bit more on the smooth side, but I like a car that has a good front-end, so quite sharp, quite direct. Max does too, but his level of sharp and direct is a whole different level – it’s eye-wateringly sharp.

“To give people kind of maybe an explanation of what that might feel like, if you bump up the sensitivity [on a computer game] completely to the max and you move that mouse and it’s just darting across the screen everywhere, that’s kind of how it feels. It becomes so sharp that it makes you a little bit tense.”

Albon went on to explain that, as a season wears on and car developments arrive, a “snowball” effect is created and adds even more pressure to the driver in the opposite car to Verstappen.

“What ended up happening was, especially during my year, you start off being a little bit behind, but not by much, and then as the season goes on, Max wants this front-end in the car, he wants his car to be sharper, sharper,” the Thai-British racer commented.
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virtualbalboa said:
There's been several attempts at explaining this in general. Here's an interview with Albon about that specific topic:

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Verstappen and Leclerc would be fascinating teammates if they ever got together. Charles is probably the greatest equal to Max in terms of preferred setup type and has historically great qualifying pace. I was kinda hoping for that before Leclerc signed his new long-term deal with Ferrari.
 
It was probably the best race in the last couple of seasons. Good competition at the top certainly makes things better.
 
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