Things ... Welcome to the Future (2018 - 2019 Silly Season)

Sauber are now looking even more like a Ferrari B team with Giovinazzi driving for them as well in 2019. Or is it a C team? Aren't Haas supposed to be the B team?
 
Well, good to see Giovanazzi get a chance. I was impressed with him in the couple of races he ran in 2017. There has been a shortage of Italian drivers in F1 in recent times.

In defense of Ericsson, he proved by hard work and focus that he could get better. He clearly got there due to $$$ and stayed there due to $$$, but he did improve over time and almost deserved to be in F1.
 
Angel Haas is suppsed to be Ferrari's B team while Sauber was meant to be linked in some sort of way with Alfa Romeo. That was planned when Ferrari and Alfa Romeo shared the same boss, now that things have changed I really wonder what will happen to Sauber, because if FCA really is for sale then the new owners might want to think again at being involved with F1. When I asked who pays Kimi's salary next year I wasn't implying that Ferrari is sort of bribing him so that he doesn't misbehave in the last few races of this season, my question is much broader than that as I guess that Sauber's link with Ferrari isn't as strong as it looks
 
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Sauber are now looking even more like a Ferrari B team with Giovinazzi driving for them as well in 2019. Or is it a C team? Aren't Haas supposed to be the B team?

Well, if one B team is helpful...then are two B teams even more helpful? So are we down to really only five teams?

1. Ferrari + Sauber + Haas?
2. Red Bull + Toro Rosso
3. Mercedes + Force India? + Williams?
4. Renault
5. McLaren
 
Well, good to see Giovanazzi get a chance. I was impressed with him in the couple of races he ran in 2017. There has been a shortage of Italian drivers in F1 in recent times.

In defense of Ericsson, he proved by hard work and focus that he could get better. He clearly got there due to $$$ and stayed there due to $$$, but he did improve over time and almost deserved to be in F1.

Sorry mate but I have to ask: what bit of Giovinazzi crashing his car twice in the same place did you find so impressive? :) I mean I'd love if an Italians driver had a good chance of success in F1 but in fairness I really don't think that this is Giovinazzi

Besiders my guess is that he's there only because Ferrari is coming up with the $$$, they can't lose their face with Giovinazzi, they were supposed to bring a young Italian to F1 and so far they haven't delivered (I'm not impressed by neither Giovinazzi, Marciello or Fuoco, even though I recently saw Fuoco drive a 458 at an amateur race at Imola and I was impressed)
 
Giovanzzi was impressive in his first race and I think I've said before but everytime be enters a series I predict him to do average and he makes me look silly. If you think he was in his rookie year and really piled pressure on the more experience Gasly in F2 then you have to think he is at least worth a chance in F1 seeing as Gasly is the talk of the town where Red Bull is concerned. Unless you don't rate Gasly.....which there is a really good argument for too.

Anyways he is a likeable fellow and I'd rather see Sauber give a chance to someone new than run Kimi or Marcus.

Food for thought. Sauber are keeping Ericsson as 3rd driver. There in case Kimi gets a few races in and decides he really can't be bothered with the midfield? Very rare at any point in his career Kimi has been in a team that has to fight to get top 10.
 
Personally, i’m very dubious about Ticktum... he should never have been allowed back into a racing car, let alone be a Red Bull protege. Frankly, Mick Schumacher’s form has been scintillating- it seems to me that he’s basically got on top of the cars and how to set them up- and now he is reaping the rewards!
He was 15 at the time of the incident. Banning a driver for life for a one off incident is too harsh. He's served his time for that incident. I did read his replies to people commenting on his original statement that Schumacher is cheating and I have to admit that he and his girlfriend have embarrassed themselves on social media, they've been calling out people saying they're sexually frustrated, unsuccessful in life, commenting on phallus sizes and all sorts of other nonsense which doesn't shine any good light on either of them. Ferucci Lite.

Schumacher has always been good in the races. He only lacked qualifying pace and in F3, if a driver doesn't qualify at the front he won't win the race or get near a podium. Now he's sorted out his qualifying problems and qualifies at the front, it naturally leads to better results. The top 2 also got away because they weren't tangled up in on track fights for position unlike the rest behind them including Ticktum. Ticktum wasn't just slower than the two Prema cars that he suspects of cheating, but also slower than his teammates. He's been too far ahead of himself since the reports of him potentially joining Toro Rosso for next season. He should focus on the next three races as he's not lost the championship yet.
 
So Arrivabene completes his master plan by stopping Mercedes dominating the driver market ....by guess what lets field the drivers market with Ferrari associated drivers you've got 4 on confirmed on the grid plus Kyvat who is a Ferrari tester that makes up 25% of the entries :whistle:

What a ridiculous role for Ericsson - 3rd driver and team ambassador :o
 
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I hope for good things for giovinanzzi because in gp2 as it was then he more than match for gasly who moved up to main red bull team. He was rookie up against a teammate with multiple years expierence, effectively gave him 4 race head start. & still was very nearly the champion. Had a 3 point lead going into final round, but just had no pace

Also because of the bad chinese gp display people forget how good he was in austraila
 
So Arrivabene completes his master plan by stopping Mercedes dominating the driver market

See much has been made of this after some throwaway comments and rumours in the media but what's not been pointed out is that Arrivabene is responding to Toto Wolff basically trying to dictate the drivers market himself. Think to that interview he gave about Ocon nearly driving for McLaren and how he was basically negotiating half the fields line up to get what he wants. Think back to all the rumours about Werhlein linked with every job going. Remember the nice chunky signing on fees he's got from having Bottas at Williams and Merc. Let's throw in him going down the pit lane prior to the start at Monaco to ensure Force India moved out the way for Hamilton so they could run the undercut. The guy thinks he runs F1.

I feel bad for Ocon but it's kind of fun seeing Wolff not get his way and then hearing him moaning about it in the press.
 
Angel Haas is suppsed to be Ferrari's B team while Sauber was meant to be linked in some sort of way with Alfa Romeo. That was planned when Ferrari and Alfa Romeo shared the same boss, now that things have changed I really wonder what will happen to Sauber, because if FCA really is for sale then the new owners might want to think again at being involved with F1. When I asked who pays Kimi's salary next year I wasn't implying that Ferrari is sort of bribing him so that he doesn't misbehave in the last few races of this season, my question is much broader than that as I guess that Sauber's link with Ferrari isn't as strong as it looks


Sauber has been in dire straights and changed hands several times since I've been watching F1, somehow they always survive though so unlike the Garth Brooks song, I am going to suggest they have friends in high places. Quite a number of other teams have come and gone but somehow they endure, which is a good thing.
 
Clay - this was not just an on track misdemeanour, or rush of blood to the head, this was a conscious decision to overtake all the cars behind the safety car (endangering any marshalls who might still have been on the track clearing up after the incident that caused the safety car), and taking out another car. If anyone had been injured, or worse killed, due to his actions, then he could well have spent many years in jail.
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The RFU (for instance) actually take a very harsh view on dangerous activity in young players; i know of one schoolboy rugby player who was handed a lifetime ban for attacking another player on the pitch.
 
Wow, is that what Ticktum did? I knew he'd done something bad but I didn't know exactly what. Sheesh, I'd have banned the guy for life from the sport for something like that, it's pre-meditated and very dangerous on so many levels. How do they know he won't react that way again in the future? That would be my worry anyway.

I guess he and his supporters will say he's learnt his lesson and wouldn't ever do anything like that again and that may well be true, but it would have sent out a strong message to others about how that kind of thing won't be tolerated in motorsport, and rightly so in my view.
 
Schumacher has always been good in the races. He only lacked qualifying pace and in F3, if a driver doesn't qualify at the front he won't win the race or get near a podium. Now he's sorted out his qualifying problems and qualifies at the front, it naturally leads to better results.

...

Ticktum wasn't just slower than the two Prema cars that he suspects of cheating, but also slower than his teammates. He's been too far ahead of himself since the reports of him potentially joining Toro Rosso for next season.

I haven't watched all the F3 races but I have seen on the Italian media (cheering) that on occasion Mick showed signs of "Schumacheresque brilliance", I think that they refer to the fact that on several occasions he slammed the doort in front of his team mate at the start and that he left no more than a few inches to other drivers that he was overtaking. I agree that he is a good racer, in a sense he reminds me of drivers of a previous generation. I'm happy that he's been able to sort out his qualifying and that, according to his team manager, he has been able to overcome the pressure that he had on himself to start winning. In fairness to Mick he did very well in karting where all of the drivers are on very similar machines.

Ticktum is certainly a talented driver, denaying that would be wrong, but he has done the exact opposite of Mick: both were under a lot of pressure, one because of his name the other because of Red Bull, Mick managed to overcome the pressure that the media put on him while it seems as if Ticktum lost his battle with pressure and as a result on track he didn't deliver (as you correctly pointed out he was slower than his team mates, as well as slower than several other drivers) and then he made a fool of himself out of the cockpit.

I think that all these young drivers need to be looked after rather than thrown in the arena when they are too green to handle the pressure, it doesn't really look fair to them and it doesn't make any sense for the people who invest money in their careers (ie. Red Bull in Ticktum's case)
 
He had so much promise but never delivered it. I don't think many will miss him.

Some drivers just don't manage the final step up into F1 despite obvious talent in their junior career.
 
I think some drivers get dealt a bad hand when they get their shot. It's all woulda shoulda coulda but I think the McLaren and Alonso situation really meant Stoff had one arm tied behind his back from the begining.
 
So Arrivabene completes his master plan by stopping Mercedes dominating the driver market ....by guess what lets field the drivers market with Ferrari associated drivers you've got 4 on confirmed on the grid plus Kyvat who is a Ferrari tester that makes up 25% of the entries
Raikkonen when to Sauber on his own volition after receiving news that he'd no longer be driving for Ferrari and he replaces Ericsson at Sauber. Leclerc's seat is owned by Ferrari and as he's moving to Ferrari their replacing him with one of their own. Ferrari isn't stopping Mercedes from dominating the driver market, it's Mercedes themselves because they're unwilling to invest money into a seat for Ocon or Russell.
 
I think some drivers get dealt a bad hand when they get their shot. It's all woulda shoulda coulda but I think the McLaren and Alonso situation really meant Stoff had one arm tied behind his back from the begining.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were driving different cars this season. The gap between them is bigger than last season and it wouldn't suit Matt Adore's image if he were beaten by another driver plus he's the one pulling the strings at McLaren. They bend over and do whatever he wants: Don't want the Honda engine? Fine. We'll go out buy our little darling a Renault one.
 
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