F1 2023

[Username]

Perez gets a lot of hate but he still came second yesterday

Nearly 2 pitstops behind at the 3qtr race distance is pretty embarrassing to be honest. He's saved only by the fact that the competition just aren't quick enough to show him up, yet.

[Cold]

He gets judged harshly for a very underwhelming stint at McLaren, but anyone who's been watching F1 for a while knows what he was like in RedBull after replacing Webber. He was sticking it to world champ Seb Vettel on many a track. RedBull know very well that he's a great driver, hence why they took him back as a 3rd driver in 2023, despite their access to loads of the up and coming rookies.

I think he's more than a decent fraction better than Perez and there lies the point. Perez is a midfield driver at best and doesn't deserve the best car on the grid.

No [I think] the point is that Ricciardo doesn't want to be no 2 and can't handle being no 2. Perez can. There is a trade-off to be had. RB has presumably calculated that they can win both championships with Verstappen and Perez will do enough if he comes somewhere around 2-5 in races and he'll be happy doing just that.

[Username]

No [I think] the point is that Ricciardo doesn't want to be no 2 and can't handle being no 2. Perez can. There is a trade-off to be had. RB has presumably calculated that they can win both championships with Verstappen and Perez will do enough if he comes somewhere around 2-5 in races and he'll be happy doing just that.

I get the idea, but I'm simply saying Perez is not good enough in the number 2 slot. I don't agree on Ricciardo not handling being a second driver though. He was basically no.2 to Norris and he's gone to RedBull backup driver, knowing there's no chance he's taking Verstappen's seat.

Perez for me is pretty much exactly like Bottas. Merc had to get rid of him, as the big performance advantage that cloaked him in previous years had gone away. We're only at race 1 and RedBull isn't guaranteed to be gapping everyone else.

[Cold]

I think Ricciardo left RB because he couldn't hack being beaten by Verstappen? That was early days perhaps and he's learnt his place by now. It's a tricky one, though. They obviously tried the up-and-coming-rookie approach, which is a fair way of doing things, but they didn't seem to hack it. Now RB are seemingly happy with the steady-does-it older guy who is there and thereabouts.

I think the Mercedes situation is a bit different as Mercedes needs to have backup plan to Hamilton and won't mind if Hamilton is beaten from now on. RB won't have that problem for a good few years with Verstappen.

[Smythy411]

Nearly 2 pitstops behind at the 3qtr race distance is pretty embarrassing to be honest. He's saved only by the fact that the competition just aren't quick enough to show him up, yet.

Not sure where your getting the 2 pitstops behind from?? On the race I watched, Checo overtook Leclerc on like lap 25/26 and the gap to Max pretty much stayed at 10-15 seconds the whole way to the end (with the exception of when the 2 cars pitted for the last time). He finished 11 seconds behind Max and they both had the same amount of pit stops 🤔

[Saints]

Nearly 2 pitstops behind at the 3qtr race distance is pretty embarrassing to be honest. He's saved only by the fact that the competition just aren't quick enough to show him up, yet.

Did we watch the same race? The only point when Checo was that far behind Max was when he had made his second pitstop and Max hadn't yet made his second. As evident by the fact he finished 11 seconds or so behind Max, I'm not sure how he would have made up 25-30 seconds.

[hi-rev]

There is a chart showing distance to race leader here:
https://www.racefans.net/2023/03/07/...ller-strategy/

Note that Verstappen pulled away from Leclerc and Perez who stayed together until the first pit stop round, after which Leclerc dropped off (having hard tires, while both Red Bulls had softs) and Perez kept the same distance to Verstappen (ca. 12sec) throughout.

The one who was two pit stops behind was Sainz. In fairness, it was only the first soft stint that he did worse than Leclerc though.

[Smythy411]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpZ83...d=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Cool video here showing a comparison between Max and Checo on their final Q1 runs using the new in-car GPS. Only for Checo touching the curb on the way out of the last corner, they would have been neck on neck

[cdiv]

If anyone wants to watch an action filled race, find the f2 bahrain feature race. It’s on sky catchup, not sure where else it might be. Winner won by 19 secs, but action all the way down the rest of the grid.

[ozy]

Eddie Jordan told BBC ‘get stuffed’ as he talked to Michael Fassbender ‘as gaeilge’

[ozy]

In the article it mentions that Coulthard and Jordan have a podcast called formula for success
lol FFS

[ozy]

They're on Spotify

[hi-rev]

Eddie Jordan told BBC ‘get stuffed’ as he talked to Michael Fassbender ‘as gaeilge’

The article does not mention if this happened "on air" or elsewhere..
I mean, its nice to speak as gaeilge.. but BBC is.. ahem... British Broadcast Cooperation. They have a right to ask that conversations happen in their language on their channel.

[ozy]

Ep 1 of the podcast Eddie says he was on his grid walk so I presume being filmed.
but I'd be in the camp of get effed BBC for what was likely a 5 to 10 second thing. I wonder if Eddie spoke itslian and bumped into Mr Ferraris relatives if the world couldn't forgive respecting another minor chit chat in another language. .. for a few seconds?

But edit... hey a new podcast
edit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BU6Usu67GM
its even funnier, 4min onwards, for about 3 seconds

[Cold]

Oh how I love after the fact penalties. Good work F1.

This season is beginning to look a tad one sided. So one sided that RB doesn’t seem bothered about team orders. Alonso is doing a cracking job so there’s that but he knows and we know that his fight is with Mercedes and Ferrari (if they decide to get their act together at some stage).