No F1 thread?

[Rich B]

No, Perez is just a crap driver, but Red Bull don’t seem to mind. They renewed his contract and for being a team that were happy to bin off a driver every 6 months it’s a bit telling that they’re sticking with him.

from what I read, there's break clauses that could kick in and allow them to bin him. Who would they replace him with though? Danny Ric?

[Mito Man]

No, Perez is just a crap driver, but Red Bull don’t seem to mind. They renewed his contract and for being a team that were happy to bin off a driver every 6 months it’s a bit telling that they’re sticking with him.

from what I read, there's break clauses that could kick in and allow them to bin him. Who would they replace him with though? Danny Ric?

I don’t think Danny would be any better! Tsunoda probably a better bet, and still not at a level to cause Max too much trouble. Seems to be the disliked ginger stepchild for RedBull though - seems to do a solid job most weeks and just completely forgotten about.

[Rich B]

I expect there are MANY meetings in RB about Perez and his position, but if you're just going to make more issues than you solve by ditching him, it's worth trying to fix him.

[Marv]

Apparently they'll ditch Tsunoda when they switch to Ford engines, which is a shame.

What happened to RBRs young driver programme? They even seem to be ignoring Liam Lawson, who would be my pick to replace Perez.

[MikeHunt]

“random”

https://x.com/junaidsamodien_/status/18 ... 8494217489

[nuttinnew]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/ar ... j3rxde52do

[integrale_evo]

Perez did a Perez

[240PP]

[Mito Man]

But of a weird race, can’t help but think if Lando let Oscar by right after his stop he’d have had 20 laps to try and overtake him rather than the awkward shitshow that followed.

[jamcg]

But of a weird race, can’t help but think if Lando let Oscar by right after his stop he’d have had 20 laps to try and overtake him rather than the awkward shitshow that followed.

Think it’s a dumb decision anyway to swap back. Lando is second in the championship, if they can carry this advantage into the next few races they could potentially catch max, so to have (if max doesn’t get a penalty) an 8 point swing instead of 15 is potentially a championship loosing result

Also Maxs engineer sounded sick of his bullshit towards the end

[Swervin_Mervin]

Am away so unable to watch - why did McLaren ask Norris to swap?

A proper champion (or future champion) would, of course, have simply ignored them.

[Mito Man]

Norris, as usual, had a poor start, Piastri took the lead into the first corner and maintained it. Norris then was at risk of an undercut from the guys behind so was boxed first, which combined with a slow stop for Piastri, 2 laps later allowed him to leapfrog him.
Over 20 laps of McLaren begging him to swap for almost every lap then happened which was cringeworthy as hell.

Obviously it was preagreed that both drivers are equal, so Norris should have just let him by immediately and then had 20 laps to try to retake the lead rather than being awkward doing it 2 laps before the end.

[MikeHunt]

Another podium thrown away by mad max.

[DeskJockey]

Good to see Max getting back to his old ways and making silly mistakes, although he could have taken Lewis out.

The McLaren pleading was embarrassing. Fair to swap them if Oscar was right on Lando's tail, but six seconds and dropping was not okay.

[Rich B]

Mclaren are mad not to put the full points on Norris - there’s still time for the lead to change - it would only take a couple of Max retirements (which judging by how desperate he’s getting isn’t beyond reason) for those extra 7 points to make all the difference.

[integrale_evo]

Well that was all a bit shit.

Sure Lando got ahead because of the undercut, but he was consistently quicker, able to hold or build the gap on older tyres, didn’t have a mistake and run into the gravel, and had been told earlier he was allowed to race his team mate.

If Lando had been slower, holding him up, or looked like they might start falling backwards towards the competition then fair enough. But he’s also the strongest championship contender in the team at the moment.

I’m not sure how I’d feel if I was Oscar either. I’d be a bit annoyed at ending second (where I started) after taking the lead at the first corner and holding onto it for the whole first stint.

But at the same time I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable knowing my first ‘win’ was the result of my team mate having to cruise along and drop 6+ seconds to let me have it when I wasn’t able to win it on outright pace.

I guess he’ll be very happy with his first F1 win, his name in the record books, a nice trophy etc. easy to say it from the comfort of my sofa, but I wonder if any part of him was tempted to park it on the final straight and let Lando take it?

They’ll look pretty daft if RB go into full meltdown and those handful of points lost today are all that stops them winning the drivers title.

Nice to see Mad Max showing his true character again. Had to chuckle at his “ are we just driving people off the track now” comment about the first corner incident. What, like you have done most of your career if anyone gets a bit close??

Than criticised Hamilton for not leaving a cars width at turn 2 when he clearly did as he managed to stay beside him and not go off the track, it just massively compromised his line.

Not sure the team will be all that happy about him constantly whinging about how shite the car is which at the same time fighting for podium positions. Wind your neck in son

[DeskJockey]

Quite right. Not sure why McLaren thinks that letting Max off easier is good strategy.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Yeah that seems mental to me. That's not the mindset of a team that wants to win championships. I know Mercedes did it for years with Ham/Ros but they were so far ahead of the competition they could afford to

[Marv]

Yeah, shit call by McLaren on that one. They should have just asked Piastri when he was leading, if he wanted to stop before Norris.

Just pitting Norris then telling Piastri afterwards was kind of shit, then they even left Piastri out another lap to give Norris more of a gap.

[RobYob]

Good result,

Oscar Oscar Oscar!
Oi Oi Oi!