Silly Season 2013/14

[Jonnycraig]

Care to you know, actually present a counter argument

I raise your with a

Malaysia he drove into the back of Vettel and crashed out of a race he would've likely won. Outqualified by the often derided Massa in Australia & Germany.

[sennafan24]

Care to you know, actually present a counter argument

I raise your with a

Malaysia he drove into the back of Vettel and crashed out of a race he would've likely won. Outqualified by the often derided Massa in Australia & Germany.

Still 8-2 to Alonso in qualifying though. So it would seem you are really digging up stuff.

Fair enough about Malaysia, but coupled with Monaco where I myself felt he underperformed that is not exactly damming evidence of him being sub-par this year.

You could find a few weekends for Lewis, Vettel and Kimi where their performances were not up to par, but on the whole all 4 have done a sterling job so far.

[raymondu999]

7-3 actually. Massa out qualified Alonso in Malaysia too

[sennafan24]

7-3 actually. Massa out qualified Alonso in Malaysia too

I stand corrected.

I still do not think that should be held against Alonso.

[natehall]

I havent been through all 33 pages, but has anybody considered Kubica...

Either straight webber replacement, or to replace raikkonen at renault / alonso at ferrari...

surely theres enough time to design the car to be a little more guided to one side for the dexterity.. a 90% Kubica is better than a 100% Ricciardo who has only come out of his shell and started to try 100% now he has sniffed a red bull seat.

[Websta]

I havent been through all 33 pages, but has anybody considered Kubica...

Either straight webber replacement, or to replace raikkonen at renault / alonso at ferrari...

surely theres enough time to design the car to be a little more guided to one side for the dexterity.. a 90% Kubica is better than a 100% Ricciardo who has only come out of his shell and started to try 100% now he has sniffed a red bull seat.

I really don't think he would be a better option than pretty much any driver in the current field, right down to Chilton. There's too much risk, although I assume the team would first test him in a simulator. Then the team would have to compromise the car to make a wider cockpit. But really, I just don't see him being 100% yet. If you lose a couple of hundredths in every corner, you end up losing 4 tenths around a circuit like Abu Dhabi for example. How many hundredths do you think Kubica would be losing around every corner (relative to his pre-2011 form), especially tight corners? Hard to say really, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a lot.

[xDama]

People still thinking about Kubica... Get real. He'll never drive F1 again, ever.

[natehall]

People still thinking about Kubica... Get real. He'll never drive F1 again, ever.

I am doubtful if he will ever drive F1 again, but it would never surprise me.

Only one person truly knows if he has what it takes to hustle a F1 car around a track at speed, and that is the man himself.

The only other person I would like to see in the car next to vettel will never happen, Schumacher at his peak

I would have loved to see Fangio, Prost, Senna, against schumacher / vettel - but the cars are just that much to different to the cars those guys drove, being a F1 driver is a different game now than it was 20+ years ago.

[sennafan24]

People still thinking about Kubica... Get real. He'll never drive F1 again, ever.

Sadly I think this is correct.

I really hope I am wrong though, 2008 was a year he could have won the WDC if BMW would have concentrated efforts on the 2008 car, instead of the 2009 car (which turned out to be a dog of a car)

[WhiteBlue]

People still thinking about Kubica... Get real. He'll never drive F1 again, ever.

Yes he probably paid that price for his rally adventure far away from F1. I'm still amazed to see him driving now considering the accident scene and how the car looked like with that guard rail rammed all the way through it. Amazing how two kind of motor sport disciplines can be so different in driver safety.

[raymondu999]

What an intriguing twist.

Tost: Ricciardo not ready for Red Bull

Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost thinks that Daniel Ricciardo is not yet ready to drive for Red Bull, the Austrian maintaining that his driver requires another year at the Faenza-based outfit to gain the necessary experience to successfully make the step-up.

Tost drew comparisons with the career of Sebastian Vettel, who is currently the only driver from the Red Bull junior programme to be promoted to the senior team. As well as mentioning that the German’s apprenticeship was made easier by the more relaxed testing rules of the era, he also noted that the goalposts have been moved since Vettel made the move to the Milton Keynes-based outfit; with the future-champion scoring the squad’s first-ever pole and race win at the Chinese Grand Prix in 2009.

“He is not far away from the young Vettel,” Tost told Speed Week. “But one must not forget that Sebastian had the opportunity to get a lot of testing at BMW-Sauber, not only during the winter tests, but later in Friday practice as well.

“The biggest difference between Vettel and Ricciardo is that when Vettel came to Red Bull it was not a winning team, they have grown together. Today, Ricciardo must immediately reach podium places and challenge for wins. Can he fill the vacancy left by Mark Webber? Perhaps the chance comes a year too early."

Summing up, he said: “I personally would rather see him undertake another year of maturation process at Toro Rosso. I mean, we are talking here of Red Bull Racing, the champions for three consecutive years. Daniel has never been on a Formula 1 podium, he has not won a race.”

Source: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2985 ... -red-bull/

[sandokan83]

Kimi is the strongest candidate to seat but i guess that is a little bit dangerous for him to be in Vettel territory, the guy has a machine working for him so althought Kimi is one of the best he would have trouble in gainning team attention.

Well at leat everyone in Portugal want that kimi stay in Lotus because if Ricciardo were to Redbull that wold open the doors of F1 to the Portuguese driver Da Costa

[Pup]

This is getting silly... Kimi to Ferrari.

http://www.f1pulse.com/news/2013073174/ ... am-in-2014

Ha. Well, that won't happen. I think.

Now, if I were to going to jump off the deep end with a prediction, I think I'd rather go with Alonso and Kimi to Red Bull, and Vettel to Ferrari.

[motorloon1993]

“I personally would rather see him undertake another year of maturation process at Toro Rosso. I mean, we are talking here of Red Bull Racing, the champions for three consecutive years. Daniel has never been on a Formula 1 podium, he has not won a race.”

How can he stick the Toro Rosso of recent years on the podium? Sounds like a case of 'get off he's mine! Just one more season please!!' but I do think he's got a bit of a point, Raikkonen is the safer bet for more points on the board but potentially somefinger elses I mean someone else's points so smiley could be the option that favors Vettel more but then again Kimi is probably the least likeliest driver to derp into his teammate when their 1-2 (or 2-1.)

[JimClarkFan]

“I personally would rather see him undertake another year of maturation process at Toro Rosso. I mean, we are talking here of Red Bull Racing, the champions for three consecutive years. Daniel has never been on a Formula 1 podium, he has not won a race.”

How can he stick the Toro Rosso of recent years on the podium? Sounds like a case of 'get off he's mine! Just one more season please!!' but I do think he's got a bit of a point, Raikkonen is the safer bet for more points on the board but potentially somefinger elses I mean someone else's points so smiley could be the option that favors Vettel more but then again Kimi is probably the least likeliest driver to derp into his teammate when their 1-2 (or 2-1.)

Kimi won't tolerate being told to come home in second position, and as Vettel has proved, neither will he. Any hint of friendship between Kimi and Vettel will disappear when racing side by side, as we seen in Hungary, and if necessary their friendship will break down in the heat of a championship battle.

Putting my team principle thinking cap I can think of two potential lines of thought.

1- I would want a driver to come to score good points with the aim of bringing in a constructors championship. In Vettel, Red Bull know that they have a person whom they can rely upon to win world drivers championships, and provided Red Bull continue to produce good cars he will always be in contention. What is required therefore, is a driver that is fast, fairly consistent but not good enough to pose a serious risk to Vettels charge. By bringing in another world champion they risk in fighting and potentially throwing away one or both championships. The safe bet therefore is Ricciardo.

2 - Mercedes are catching up, poaching technical staff from wherever they can, and are likely to be main contenders in the next few years. Over at Mercedes they have two drivers that are not only very fast, but who have proven that they can both win races and who seem to work well together (thus far) for the benefit of the team. Red Bull, weary of the increased competition from Mercedes, may require a second top class driver to bolster their chances of bringing in another constructors championship. In Ricciardo, they have a driver who is very fast, but unproven, and has the problem of drifting back during the race which threatens their chances of winning another constructors championship. With Alonso or Riakonnen, they have two drivers who have proven speed, shown to be very consistent, and have excellent race craft which could ensure that they are competitive in the constructors championship in future years provided they can work with another world champion. Oddly enough, the only drivers who have shown they can work with another world champion are Hamilton and Button, Hamilton is unlikely to move, but Button has been linked with Red Bull.

In my view it all hinges on Ricciardo, if he can convince Red Bull that he can properly assist in bringing home the constructors championship then it is a done deal imo.