âReportedlyâŚâ Sports Bild have been known to âreportâ on unsubstantiated rumours in the past. That said, if true, I donât think Ric will (nor should he) take it.
Heâs not in it for the cash I donât think. He comes from a financially pretty comfortable family background, has some lucrative sponsorship deals in place, and doesnât really strike me as the sort of person who would chase the money.
Rather, he has emphasised in the past that he wants to win the World Driversâ Championship and wants to drive for a team that will help him achieve that goal. As much as I respect and admire Macca and its F1 pedigree and history, I honestly canât see them producing a WDC winning car in the next 3-4 seasons. And itâs the car thatâs lacking, not the driver. Yes, itâs better this season than the previous couple. But if Alonso (the best all-round driver on the grid at the moment, in my opinion) canât manage to do more with it, I doubt Danny Ric will be able to, damn talented driver that he is too.
If the story is true, it must mean that Fernando is leaving, as I canât see McLaren affording 2 premium salaried drivers. In fact, even if Alonso does leave and his salary becomes available to pay a new driver, I seriously think that McLaren should reconsider that approach. Rather put a younger, cheaper driver into the seat (Lando Norris would be ideal!) and pump the money they save on the high profile driver back into developing the car.
Until this story is confirmed I remain sceptical and continue to believe that he is hoping for a decent offer from either Merc or Ferrari. (Maybe the whole McLaren $20-million story is nothing more than a rumour started by his agent in an effort to force the big boys to come to the table with their offers? Yeah, Iâm a cyncial old bastard )
I read that as well, and I have to agree. It sounds pretty unsubstantiated, and even if it turns out to be true, McLaren would not be a good fit for Danny Ric right now, much as it pains me to admit it.
Damn, it hurts to see this team reduced to such a shadow of its former self.
Itâs possible considering how much they spend on Alonso.
If he doesnât get a ferrari or merc drive soon he will be too old. Take the moola is what I would do, buy some nice slippers and retire with a cold beer
Motorsport.com understands that Ferrari considered replacing Raikkonen with current Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo, who is out-of-contract at the end of 2018.
However, it decided that the cost of hiring the Australian would be too high when combined with Vettelâs existing salary.
That left it with a choice between Raikkonen, who is still Ferrariâs most recent world champion but is yet to win a race since rejoining the team in 2014, and Leclerc, who is contesting his rookie F1 season with Sauber.
Leclerc would be awesome at Ferrari. Iâd be sad that itâs not Danny, but a promising young driver is a great option as well. I remember when there were rumours that Checo would go to Ferrari a few years back.
It was a decent race, I felt bad for Vettel, he really didnât have many options - had he breaked earlier, I have a feeling he would have had a redbull up the arse, if he had gone off track to avoid Bottas - the penalty I suspect would have been much worse. I do think it was just a racing incident - it was not done on purpose - you could see the speed he was carrying with those tires. But he did very well to recover and some of his passes was very well done.
I think Alonso is over F1 and being stuck in a car that is underperforming. Leclerk did very well, Kimi was my driver of the day, he actually looked competitive. Overall the race was better than expected.
I watched the first 15 or so laps before I had to bath kids etc.
How fun would F1 be if they just had 10 x first 3 laps and work on a survival system.
Have your qualiâs for grid position.
3 laps sprint race for next grid position - basically it would be 3 corners and a safety car for the remaining 3 laps.
remove damaged cars and start sprint race 2 until no cars remain or maybe a 10 lap 7th sprint race to determine race winner.
Jokes aside, Max is keeping me entertained with his interviews
Vettel, I thought it would be Kimi or Max, I dont think Vettel deserved it. The accident was a racing incident and he kept his racing clean after that. He did well to pass, but once again its a case of crappy cars being passed by a ferrari. Bottas would have done better if he didnt have damage, but he did great as well
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