2022 Silly season

If I was Ferrari I'd tell Haas to kick Mazepin out and get Illott in the car. Also for Haas why not brand the Chrysler name for the US market seeing both Chrysler and Ferrari are part of the FCA group now Stellantis

Politically signing Zhou for Haas is bad PR swapping a Russian for a Chinese driver in an American team given the increased tensions between the two countries
Chrysler is almost a dead company. They have only two models - a mini van and a saloon car which is over a decade old. I'm surprised the brand has not been discontinued by Stellantis.

If they were to brand Haas after a Stellantis US brand, it should be Dodge. But I suspect the kind of person who buys a Dodge has never heard of Formula 1 and if they did, they would think it is no NASCAR, I guess with all of Mazepin's off road excursions, they could also brand it Jeep.
 
Well Callum Illott won't get it and his best chance is to do well in Indy and hope he gets his chance via Haas in 2023
i think illott has missed the boat now & indycar isnt the worst 2nd prize

but it would be nice to give this to F2 champion as it would be stupid to have F2 runner up on the grid & winner on sidelines
 
Last edited:
Since the creation of an international level second tier series in the mid 60's, do you know how many F2, F3000, GP2 champions have gone on to become F1 world champions?
 
2. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

My point being, which I've bored people with on here before, is that a second tier champion does not make an F1 world champion.

In fact, very few second tier champions even go on to win races.
 
i think illott has missed the boat now & indycar isnt the worst 2nd prize

but it would be nice to give this to F2 champion as it would be stupid to have F2 runner up on the grid & winner on sidelines
Illott was screwed the moment Binotto hinted Schumacher was the preferred choice even if he did win F2. Winning Indy might give him a chance to be in F1 maybe for 2023 at the earliest
 
2. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

My point being, which I've bored people with on here before, is that a second tier champion does not make an F1 world champion.

In fact, very few second tier champions even go on to win races.
Just because you're good in junior category does not you're going to be in F1 as Murray Walker said

Unfortunately with F1 it does depend on the car they get to prove it

F3000 the series really died and struggled to promote drivers into F1who were opting for Indy. Then you had GP2 which was Bernie's idea to make it closer to F1 but that was rivalled by Nissan WSR 3.5 as it fell into the same problem as F3000. So Todt comes along to rename it F2.. the lazy approach. At the moment F2 champion has yet to be an F1 champion
 
I do think that the move into F1 and a drivers future success might depend on the car. If the car he’s in suits his driving style, and helps him shine then he stands a chance of being picked up by a team with endless money who can build a car around him.
 
Just because you're good in junior category does not you're going to be in F1 as Murray Walker said
And this is my very point

Everyone posts "so and so must be in F1 because he's the reigning F2 champion" but as the stats show and you yourself quoted, just because your reigning F2 champion doesn't count for a hill of beans.

Unfortunately, the big blocker recently are these young driver programs. Much the same happens in Football where clubs hoover up all of the young talent and hope to find a diamond among them and discard the rest.

Drivers are less likely to arrive into F1 from relatively obscure junior formula. They will join a driver program and have their careers mapped out.
 
Young driver programs is nothing new Mercedes have been doing it since the 90,s their plan was to have Schumacher in one of the cars and buy out Sauber before they decided they needed a bigger team.

Red Bull come along it did work at the start but now they have a problem maintaining Verstappen 's ego so all the ther drivers have suffered Vergne, Kyvat, and Gasly.. interesting to see when their F2 guy and Hauger the F3 champ get their chance

Ferrari - they ve always had talented drivers but we re not throwing them into the deep end until Le Clerc

The issue seems to the affiliation with one of the big 3 is hurting a drivers chances - Illott for one

I still think the grid needs to be expanded to 12 teams and I don't have an issue if its a junior team as long as the chassis is its own
 
i agree on the driver program really all starts from Lewis Hamilton & Seb Vettel, as because of the huge success they had which obviously everyone copied. but we have got the issues where we have multiple drivers in going for 1 seat,
Shwartzmann, Ilott & Schumacher at Ferrari
Tsunoda, Lawson, Vips & Daruvala at Red Bull
Lungaard, Zhou, Piastri at Alpine (all overlooked for 40 yr old)

you could say that really only Mercedes & Mclaren have done it right. they backed 1 driver & brought him through & done right like that it can help drivers like lewis hamilton that wouldnt be able to fulfill their potential due to no budget

but cider_and_toast & Il_leone i disagree on the lower formulae of course the F2 champion deserves a spot the whole championship is designed to find out who is the best driver outside of F1. & deserves a chance in F1. you say about it doesnt count for much, since 2015 i would say that they have all deserved a shot on the grid, Vandoorne, Gasly, Leclerc, Russell, De Vries & Schumacher
 
The issue seems to the affiliation with one of the big 3 is hurting a drivers chances - Illott for
So, like I said, being part of a young driver program is hurting drivers chances then.

The team get to pick and choose a driver s path while other opportunities go by the wayside.

I'm with you on expanding the grid as long as the teams coming in are given a fighting chance. The total shambles last time with HRT, Caterham and Manor did sod all for the grid or for any of the drivers saddled with driving those heaps of shite
 
only F1 could bring in 3 new teams under 1 set of rules & then change them after they've committed LOL

but yes we massively need new teams & hopefully under these new budget cap rules, we can get he new generation of Minardi, Jordan, Arrows, Super Aguri Tyrrell back on the grid & give these drivers that deserve a shot a chance
 
Back
Top Bottom