[G30M]

[GuidoK]

So now that the 2024 season is officially over, I opened a new topic for the winter transition period to cover all the gossip and reports that will come to us between now and the first GP of the 2025 season in Melbourne:

https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthr...1#post31693681

I'm sure that during the winter new scandals and other debacles wil arise in the F1 world

[M5Rick]

The MAX/RUS thing is important and while the Brit press continue to look at things through rose tinted specs just one thing keeps coming up, in that RUS could have braked on that slow down lap, so why didn't he .

[wizardofOz]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

So now that the 2024 season is officially over, I opened a new topic for the winter transition period to cover all the gossip and reports that will come to us between now and the first GP of the 2025 season in Melbourne:

https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?p=31693681#post31693681

I'm sure that during the winter new scandals and other debacles wil arise in the F1 world

Looking forward to it!

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

He woke up realising he dreamt that

Daddy MAX

[M5Rick]

Could it just be that LEW is slowly sliding into Checo territory in that the latest cars are more difficult to drive competitively. Older age mixed in also with the newer cars that can only go quicker with more tentative handling as he has already wanted to retire his Merc for apparently unknown reasons and offering a million dollars humorously for anyone that could tell him what's 'wrong' with it. Food for thought understandably for Vasseur as the main owner just counts the money presumably rolling in from the share price.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Yikes that's in four days time, Ben is already asking for his drinks cabinet to be full before interacting with Christian and Max..should be fun

As we know , MAX has still his FIA task penalty (!)

MAX will carry out his FIA task penalty (community-service) in 'Rwanda-East Africa

Can't wait to see that ...

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

As we know , MAX has still his FIA task penalty (!)

MAX will carry out his FIA task penalty (community-service) in 'Rwanda-East Africa

Can't wait to see that ...

If it's something like driving school kids to school on buses then it won't be so bad.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

If it's something like driving school kids to school on buses then it won't be so bad.

Yeah . MAX can drift with the school buses in the African chaotic traffic ...

I'm sure . The kids will love it .

#UnLeashTheAfricanLion

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Yeah . MAX can drift with the school buses in the African chaotic traffic ...

I'm sure . The kids will love it .

#UnLeashTheAfricanLion

As with most things over there he'll have to have some protection afforded, Westerners in that neck of the woods tend to be few and far between.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

As with most things over there he'll have to have some protection afforded, Westerners in that neck of the woods tend to be few and far between.

Yeah . It's pretty wild out there ...

For MAX

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Yeah . It's pretty wild out there ...

For MAX

Only an idiot can forget the great Cassius Clay/M.Ali, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
I'm sure nearly every single person in Rwanda knows who MAX is by now and here's how The Lion left the others in the dust right from the start at Bahrain, easy when you eat, sleep, win and repeat Bang ! 26 points from kick off .

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Only an idiot can forget the great Cassius Clay/M.Ali, float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
I'm sure nearly every single person in Rwanda knows who MAX is by now and here's how The Lion left the others in the dust right from the start at Bahrain, easy when you eat, sleep, win and repeat Bang ! 26 points from kick off .

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Good one my friend but jokes aside MAX gives his take on Serge, of course ''something'' will happen in the next few days as the pressure mounts on him. ''it's very rare having a teammate like him''
https://racingnews365.com/verstappen...ate-preference

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Curious how you think PER is holding RB hostage? Horner and Red Bull messed up when they negotiated and gave PER an extension in the summer thinking it would get better.

PER doesn't have to do anything - he knows his time is pretty much up at Red Bull and no one stays at a place of employment if they know they won't be well received so the question is how much is Red Bull going to give PER to buy out his contract? If any of us were in PER position, we'd all do the same thing - either you buy me out of my contract or I stay and do the job I signed up for regardless if it was going to be performed at the best of my abilities.

Red Bull screwed up - they seem to like jumping to decisions during the season instead of letting things play out like the whole Albon/Gasly situation.

I heard through the grapevine that Red Bull thinks about a soft exit by making Perez 'brand ambassador' for Red Bull Racing. You know, drawing "oohs" and "aahs" from the public when doing donuts at some Red Bull event in an old RB F1 car. This way, Perez still has a "seat" but not in FPs, qualies and races. But no news whether this is acceptable for Perez and Carlos $lim. $lim Jr. was clear about what he wants: Perez remains team mate of Verstappen in 2025, because that was the deal. Bargaining power of $lim is high.

And if you wonder why Verstappen is cautious with criticism for Perez lately: someone got to foot the bill for his pay check of dozens of millions. Not that $lim is the only source of income for RBR of course, but quite understandably it's nice to have a big sponsor on your side. In the dog eat dog world of F1, realities like this help to turn a blind eye.

Only 49 points though in 18 race weekends (all races + Sprint since Imola last May) with a 2024 Red Bull car: that's quite a tailspin that usually no driver at Red Bull survives. Red Bull should have known better when they signed his extension. They ought to be blamed.

Bottas was held on a tight leash, kept in check, by Mercedes with consecutive 1 year contracts - it kept him focused to live up to the expectations of Wolff, Vowles & C°. Once Bottas had left Mercedes, he said that the uncertainty of getting an extension each year, was a tough burden for him: no performance as Mercedes wants = you're out.

[TheBingoBalls]

Originally Posted by Artemis

I heard through the grapevine that Red Bull thinks about a soft exit by making Perez 'brand ambassador' for Red Bull Racing. You know, drawing "oohs" and "aahs" from the public when doing donuts at some Red Bull event in an old RB F1 car. This way, Perez still has a "seat" but not in FPs, qualies and races. But no news whether this is acceptable for Perez and Carlos $lim. $lim Jr. was clear about what he wants: Perez remains team mate of Verstappen in 2025, because that was the deal. Bargaining power of $lim is high.

I think it’s safe to assume that PER is on his way out so all the talk about sponsorship dollars is irrelevant. It might have been the reason why Horner/Red Bull extended PER in the summer but clearly the sponsorships don’t mean that much now if both parties are trying to navigate to go their separate ways.

Lawson will probably get the seat but personally, I think he ends up like Albon and Gasly unless Red Bull changes their ways and actually leaves a driver in that seat to gain experience vs. expecting immediate results and canning them mid-season.

[toxik]

sad really

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

unless Red Bull changes their ways and actually leaves a driver in that seat to gain experience vs. expecting immediate results and canning them mid-season.

They left Checo in that seat for 4 years. Look where that got them...
He got worse and worse by the years.
Last year he got 2nd place in the WDC, but that car was so dominant that Mazepin could've done that. Max still had twice his points.

I think swapping drivers faster gives a better result in getting the real talents in F1 in the long run.
Especially if you have 1 driver that's doing great and another driver in the same car is repeatedly (pretty much always) playing 2nd fiddle.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by toxik

sad really

Once Vasseur jumped the Sauber ship it went into a downwards spiral really fast.

It's always difficult to describe why a certain team or car gets worse or better and give that credit to 1 person, but pretty often big changes follow when one of the head guys comes or leaves.
Like Steiner leaving Haas (or Komatsu taking his place) and this year Haas is doing quite ok compared to previous years.
Lets hope that Audi and HULK can turn Sauber around.

[toxik]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Once Vasseur jumped the Sauber ship it went into a downwards spiral really fast.

It's always difficult to describe why a certain team or car gets worse or better and give that credit to 1 person, but pretty often big changes follow when one of the head guys comes or leaves.
Like Steiner leaving Haas (or Komatsu taking his place) and this year Haas is doing quite ok compared to previous years.
Lets hope that Audi and HULK can turn Sauber around.

probably depressing to be around a team that’s just waiting until Audi takes over, no ambition or motivation.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by toxik

probably depressing to be around a team that’s just waiting until Audi takes over, no ambition or motivation.

True.
But in that regard it's strange how Alpine found itself again.
I mean they started this year worst car on the grid, had those immense management troubles, and Renault announced to stop making engines (and basically Alpine is largely run by Renault)...
And now Gasly is a stable factor in top 10 finishes.
Or has Andretti/Cadillac something to do with this?

[G30M]

Helmut Marko strikes again, he has been quoted as saying

"a “major meeting” will take place on Monday, Marko added: “All the facts will be discussed. At the end of that, a decision will be made.

“Both teams, the line-ups of both teams will be decided tomorrow [Monday].

“When it will be announced? I don’t think it will be Monday. Of course we will wait for the result [of the test] before we make an announcement of the decision.”

now let's see if what is says comes to fruition. by my reckoning 1 in every 5 things he says happens ...

https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-new...z-meeting-exit