So did anyone not see this coming?
3 Likes
yeah, this is no surprise.
Wow, knew it was coming but didn’t think it would happen this year.
1 Like
I’ll be honest, I thought he already said that this was his last year. I never even thought after this disaster of a year for McLaren that Alonso will stay with them, and we all know he is after the triple crown.
1 Like
It is still sad tho, but ironically I think it will make me watch more kinds of racing, following him when he starts the next part of his life.
This was his message on Insta -
1 Like
And looks like Carlos Sainz is moving to McLaren in Fernando’s seat.
1 Like
Well according to this article Sainz wouldnt have gotten a seat in RBR - Max veto’d that
Danny Ricciardo’s decision to sign for Renault is one of the biggest surprises I have experienced in sixty years of following the sport.
When he phoned to inform Christian Horner, Christian thought that he was joking. After all, Danny had got what he wanted in contractual negotiations. Most drivers want the longest contract they can secure, especially with a top team, Ricciardo wanted just a one year deal so that he could play a role in next year’s driver market. Danny knows his worth.
Not only that, but he had video recorded a statement to be released when ink was finally on a contract.
Some have called Danny’s move a mistake and among them is Jolyon Palmer, who spent two years with Renault and who is now a pundit with BBC radio. To my mind, the person who has made the mistake is Christian Horner.
Danny has used Renault engines for each of his seven wins and he must know the guys there very well. Unlike Horner, Ricciardo has not muddied the water by blaming Renault. More, Danny knows how much Renault have advanced - their engines have given him seven wins and do not fail as often in their own chassis as they do in Red Bull’s. One has to ask whether there are issues with Red Bull’s installation.
Though Red Bull is a top team it is still a customer team whereas Renault is a works outfit which is in the sport to shift metal from showrooms. By securing Ricciardo, Renault has weakened Honda’s thrust with Red Bull which begins next season. Honda cannot be best pleased about that because it will be making a substantial financial input to RBR and must have assumed that Red Bull would be fielding two Grand Prix winners.
Renault has also signed a driver with no other loyalties. Esteban Ocon must have been considered, he being French, but Esteban would have come courtesy of Mercedes, just as Sainz has been courtesy of Red Bull. Ricciardo is unencumbered.
As well as being a star on the track, Danny is one off the track. I have yet to hear anyone say a negative thing about the man. He is sponsorship gold dust in every market whereas Max Verstappen is big only in Belgium and der Nederlands. To many non-partisans, Max comes across as gifted, but also as a spoiled brat.
By contrast, Danny is an asset to any sponsor because millions of us like him. He is mighty in a car and he passes the most basic test of likeability: you would buy him a beer in a pub.
According to one newspaper report, Danny is to receive £20 million a year from Renault and that must have played a part in the negotiations.
Red Bull Racing signed Max Verstappen for a huge salary on a long contract thus promoting him to be team leader. That told Danny that Max was seen as the team’s long-term future, while Mr Ricciardo had to fit in when, or if, it was convenient.
Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive championships with RBR when Ferrari came a-courting in 2014. Der Wunderkind was able to squirm out of his Red Bull contract due to a clause that allowed him release if the team failed to provide him with a competitive car.
It was common wisdom that the Renault powertrain was the least competitive of the three but, with the same equipment, Ricciardo won three races and out-qualified Vettel from Russia on. In 2014, racing on equal terms, Ricciardo scored three wins to Vettel’s zero, and was 3rd in the Championship with 238 points while Vettel was fifth on 167.
Vettel went into whinge mode, his default setting, while Ricciardo got on with the job and produced some epic drives while winning an army of fans.
Alas, on-track achievement is not now the only measure and it would appear that Christian Horner is persuaded by other things, notably performance on a simulator. In these days of limited on-track testing, the arcade game on steroids has become very important.
In terms of speed on the track, the simulator was not wrong about Max, which promoted him from Toro Rosso, but it had no program which would predict or measure Max’s bratishness. When Danny is lining up to overtake a rival, I relax and prepare to enjoy a move that is likely to be both clinical and audacious. Ricciardo really is the last of the late brakers and he is wonderful to watch.
When it is Verstappen, you never know whether you are going to see a breath-taking move or a walk back to the pits with invective and accusations.
As Ron Dennis once said, in a different context, the ability of a driver to overtake is surprisingly rare.
By making Verstappen team leader on a salary way out of line with his actual achievements, Red Bull was taking Ricciardo for granted and that is something you should never do in a relationship. Danny is to go and that means a seat to fill long before RBR expected. I bet Christian Horner did not expect to have to consult Verstappen on who to sign for 2019.
It would seem, though it has been denied, that Max is not keen on Carlos Sainz, from when they were team-mates at Toro Rosso. It appears that Max is prepared to screw Carlos’s career on a whim.
This suggests to me a lack of confidence and leadership abilities because it is rare for a top driver to object to a team-mate. The Number One does not have to balance the books or devise race strategy, what he has to do is to drive his Nomex socks off.
Christian Horner made a huge mistake in making Max Verstappen team leader and we can see how big a mistake that was because he has lost Danny Ricciardo, RBR’s actual star driver. Horner is supposed to be an arch-strategist, but he did not see how much Renault would win if they lured the one proven winner who was free of contract.
McLaren would have given Danny a mega-salary as well and Horner apparently did not see that either. It is the reputation of Christian Horner which has taken the biggest knock. He is now the man who lost Danny Ricciardo and who is now learning what a loss that is.
Danny is a seven-time winner and there is not even a one-time winner free of contract. To put Danny into perspective, Keke Rosberg, the 1982 World Champion, won only five Grands Prix in his entire career.
Nico Hulkenberg, Danny’s future team-mate, has effectively been demoted by the newcomer, but he has been admirably upbeat. He is unlikely to be on anywhere near Ricciardo’s salary, but for him the signing shows the seriousness of Renault’s intentions which is good for the Hulk as well. For Nico it is a chance to pit himself against a GP winner in equal equipment.
As we broke for the 2018 summer hols, Nico was 7th in the standings, the best position of a driver outside of the top three teams. After 147 races, Nico has yet to score a podium, but he must believe that he is better than that. From next year he will have an opportunity to prove it during every qualifying session.
Compare Hulkenberg’s response to that of Verstappen who, it is rumoured, does not want Carlos Sainz in the same team. You can almost pity whoever RBR signs to a seat which would be much more attractive were it not for the team leader.
2 Likes
And it seems with Daddy stroll buying Force india, we might see the end of Williams.
It has been revealed that former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was instrumental in the deal which saw a group of billionaires, led by Lawrence Stroll, buy Force India this week.
On Monday, Ecclestone told Forbes that the deal, which was agreed just 24-hours later, was imminent.
“I think Lawrence is the most likely bidder,” he said. "He is going to buy it, I’m pretty sure. It will be sorted out within a few days and I don’t have any fears that it’s not going to be all right.
“I’ve spent all morning with the people on the Force India business,” he added.
Ecclestone is a long-standing associate of Stroll, who at one time was considering making a bid for F1 itself, as well as John McCaw Jr, another member of the Force India consortium.
McCaw is one of four brothers who made their fortunes through the sale of McCaw Cellular to AT&T for $12.6bn in 1994. In 1998, McCaw paid Ecclestone around $40m for eight historic Ferraris to add to his collection.
Along with Stroll, a huge motorsport fan who owns the Mont-Tremblant circuit which hosted the Canadian Grand Prix in 1968 and 1970, and McCaw Jr, the other members of the consortium that now owns Force India are Silas Chou, Canadian entrepreneur Andre Desmarais, Jonathan Dudman of Monaco Sports and Management, financial expert Michael de Picciotto and John Idol the boss of fashion label Michael Kors.
Stroll and Chou made much of their money from buying Michael Kors and taking it public in 2011. They also owned luxury jeweller Asprey which in the 19990s sponsored Ferrari, while Stroll was also the driving force behind the rise of Tommy Hilfiger, which currently sponsors Mercedes.
Although the exact value of the Force India deal is not known, the consortium hasn’t had to fork out the original asking price Vijay Mallya put on the team before it went into administration.
Money issues were nothing new at the Silverstone-based outfit which had somehow consistently punched well above its weight.
In 2016 it reported one of the biggest losses of any F1 team, a nett loss of £11.6m ($14.9m) and only last month, as its problems - exacerbated by Mallya’s own legal problems - mounted, H.M. Revenue & Customs applied to a court in London for the company to be wound up due to an unpaid tax bill.
Had the judge agreed, that would have been that for the Silverstone-based outfit, which would have been forced to shut-up shop and sell its assets in order to pay its debts.
However, a canny move saw Sergio Perez, who was owed around $4m by the team, call on the court to put the team into administration which gave the troubled outfit a much-needed lifeline as this put it in the hands of administrators FRP Advisory who were subsequently able to rescue it, agreeing a deal with Lawrence’s consortium just 11 days after the team had been placed in administration.
However, as is so often the case, good news for one means bad news for another, and Force India’s good fortune will surely come at a cost to Williams which is already set to lose title sponsor Martini and its $25m annual payment.
Lance Stroll, now in his second season with the Grove outfit, and surely heading to his father’s new team, is understood to be paying the team around $20m a year for the privilege, while if the team remains last in the team standings this will result in a further $21m hit.
https://www.pitpass.com/62611/Ecclestone-helped-broker-Force-India-deal
1 Like
this is a bit sad for williams. but very good news for force india. just wondering will force india still get all the prize money this year.
Yoh, that soema saddens me
I was actually thinking the exact same thing.
1 Like
And the move is official!
4 Likes
Damn, beat me to it. Here’s an article anyway.
Not sure about this move just yet; unless McLaren make a drastic step forward next year, they’ll be struggling to score without Alonso to drive the wheels off the car.
I guess this means Gasly has that second Red Bull seat all to himself.
3 Likes
Just seen red bull has confirmed gasley as Danny’s replacement
3 Likes
Indeed they have. I wonder if this breaks any records for youngest driver pairing.
2 Likes
I hope they manage him well, I feel the same about him as Leclerc. They both need another year in a lower team to build character and develop more skills.
https://redbullracing.redbull.com/article/going-full-gas-2019
2 Likes
Bienvenue à Spa-Francorchamps pour le Grand Prix de Belgique Formule 1 2018
Welkom bij Spa-Francorchamps voor de Grand Prix Formule 1 België 2018
Willkommen in Spa-Francorchamps für den Formel 1 Belgien Grand Prix 2018
I’m so excited that we’re back to racing after the looooong mid-season break, that I’m using all 3 of Belgium’s official languages to welcome you to the iconic Spa circuit for the 2018 Belgium Grand Prix.
Here’s when the action happens:
And here’s the circuit where all that action happens:
Belgian homeboy Stoffel Vandoorne takes us around the circuit for a virtual lap:
(The F1 2018 game is also being released this weekend, so y’all can start doing your own virtual laps to compare if you want. hint, hint @DieGrootHammer - how about you provide the virtual laps for the rest of the season?)
Pirelli share their tyre thoughts via infographic as usual:
And F1.com provide some pre-race braai talking points:
- This weekend will be Hamilton’s 111th start for Mercedes, surpassing his career total at McLaren (110). He is the only man to make 100 Grand Prix starts for two different teams and the only driver to make 200 starts for one engine manufacturer.
- Vettel is currently tied on wins (51) and podium finishes (106) with Alain Prost, while a top-eight finish this weekend will take the German through the 1,000-point barrier for Ferrari.
- Raikkonen is seeking the 100th podium finish of his career this weekend, something only previously achieved by Schumacher (155), Hamilton (126), Prost (106) and Vettel (106).
- Despite a good finishing record here (with one win and two more podium finishes), Ricciardo has never started in the top four on this track and has only outqualified a team mate once (Daniil Kvyat in 2015).
- Verstappen (below) has never finished higher than eighth in three starts at Spa and has never completed a lap in a top four position here.
- The most successful track of his F1 career so far, Hulkenberg has twice finished fourth twice at Spa (2012, 2016) but only once at any other circuit (Korea 2013), and he’s still never had a podium finish after 147 starts.
- Grosjean finished third for Lotus (Enstone) at the 2015 Belgian GP, which is the Frenchman’s only podium finish in the turbo hybrid era.
- Alonso has never won at Spa, and has failed to finish here six times in his career, more than at any track other than Montreal (8 times).
- Force India’s Perez has only reached Q3 once in the last five races (Hockenheim) - his worst run since mid-2016 - but he has qualified in the top four twice here (2012, 2015) - something he’s never done anywhere else in his F1 career.
- Stroll took one of his 15 European F3 wins at Spa in 2016 on his way to winning the title, a race in which seven of the 12 laps were run behind the Safety Car due to rain (Stroll claimed a hat-trick with pole and the fastest lap).
1 Like
I loved this track on f1 2017.
That turn 2 into 3 became tricky the faster you go, almost feels as if their is no traction as you crest the hill
2 Likes
This will be the first race that I’ll follow this year.
3 Likes
Lol I’ll have to get gud first but I will see how I can record my sessions and try to do the virtual laps for the remainder of the season. That will be an extremely fun challenge to do!!
And yes I am really excited that F1 is back, but there are a couple of negative things hanging over this race weekend.
Firstly, there is a very real possibility that Force India might not race this weekend. The sale of the company to the Stroll group means that they own the hardware but not the entry ticket to F1, while Force India still owns the ticket to race.
https://www.racefans.net/2018/08/23/force-india-seeking-urgent-solution-allow-race-spa/
Then the weather forecast for the weekend is rain. Lots and lots of rain. Might be in for an interesting weekend if it’s going to rain the entire weekend.
2 Likes
The part that worries me the most
According to well-placed sources, once all issues are resolved the Silverstone-based team could be permitted to enter as a new entity starting from scratch. However, this would mean a resultant loss of all points and benefits accrued in the 2018 FIA Formula 1 constructors’ championship thus far.
This would have further knock-on financial consequences over the next two years as teams are required to score in two of three championship seasons in order to qualify for the full range of commercial benefits.
As for weather - its gonna be wet and dark, but sunday seems to be dry…
2 Likes