ROUND 17: 🇯🇵 FORMULA 1 LENOVO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2023
| Circuit stats | |
|---|---|
| First Grand Prix | 1987 |
| Number of laps | 53 |
| Circuit Length | 5.807 km |
| Race Distance | 307.471 km |
| Lap record | 1:30.983 Lewis Hamilton (2019) |
| 2022 winner | Max Verstappen |
Williams needs to be bold and get rid of Sargeant asap. I have nothing against the guy, but he’s constantly crashing, sometimes more than once in a weekend. Mechanics must be fed up of constantly having to rebuild the car, and it’s costing a lot of money. Amazing he’s got a seat, and Lawson doesn’t.
Edit: and their reserve is Mick? Ouch!
To be fair, Mick Schumacher did show improvement in the second half of the season, scoring points, reducing crashes, and closely competing with Magnussen.
Logan Sargeant’s did nothing of these.
While Lawson shows promise, it’s doubtful he’ll secure the Williams seat. Red Bull’s decision to keep him in their development program after just three races suggests they’re avoiding a “de Vries moment.” Ricciardo’s selection for AlphaTauri’s race seat might be due to his marketability, crucial during the rebranding. Lawson’s role as a reserve driver for two teams positions him for future opportunities in 2025.
Yes, I’m not suggesting Lawson should replace him. It’s pretty clear he’ll stay in RB’s orbit, just in case.
Williams has Mick as reserve, but I’m not sure he’s the best option for them.
I don’t know what other options they have. Maybe asking for a loan from another team, but that’s a risk for the team loaning the driver, if something happens to one of their drivers. Or taking a gamble with a rookie.
But it’s clear they won’t improve and develop the car with Logan.
Now that I think of it… what if they ask Sebastian Vettel to help them? His experience could be great to try to make a competitive car.
Nah, it's time for Mansell to make a grand comeback. He and Bottas can fight for best mustache.
Is this like a mazepin type situation where he brings in a lot of money?
I have no idea about money. I was under the impression that he was there mostly so Americans had someone to cheer for. But maybe he has some financial support. But with current rules, that’s not as important as it was in the past, considering the caps.
James made it quite clear that the number of crashes were having a detrimental impact on the teams ability to develop the car
Yeah, he's like a Mazepin or Mick level of driver. And I had no idea Mick was their reserve! I assume he's shared with Mercedes, kinda like how DeVries was last year.
Like I get he's a rookie. Rookies make mistakes and should be allowed to. But this is too much.
I wonder who could get that seat. The Williams Drivers Academy is pretty thin. Mostly F3 drivers, none in F2. Their most experienced Academy driver seems to be their F1 development driver, Jamie Chadwick. She won W Series twice and now is in Indy NXT. (part of IndyCar's ladder). If not her, they'd have to look outside their organization. Would Mick really make a come back? Seems less than ideal.
The thing is, you expect rookies to make mistakes at the beginning, but keep improving as the season progresses and they adapt to the category.
But in my opinion, he’s getting worse, making more mistakes than he should at this point, constantly making excuses, and looking totally defeated.
It’s similar to what happened to Mick at Hass. And I think the only reason why Mick is still at F1 is because of Toto’s support.
If I was Vowles, I’d ask McLaren to loan Alex Palou, considering he won’t have an opportunity to get a McLaren seat for a long time.
What a time to be a papaya simp! Terrific turnaround from the beginning of the season to now.
Gratz to Max and RB I guess. Checo though...yikes
They started the season admitting they were not where they wanted, and slowly improved to be at the front. Great for them! They have good drivers and it’s nice seeing them at the podium.
Dunno about slowly, more like nowhere for ages then the huge Silverstone upgrade. The most recent upgrade seems to be keeping them in position, at least on these circuits.
Cautiously optimistic for next season though, we could see a RB, Merc, McLaren fight, with the odd Ferrari pop up. Or maybe Aston will take another step. They'd need another driver though.
Lawson to RB to replace Checo I'd be up for that
Hamilton can go 2nd on WDC. 33 points between him and Perez.
If Perez stays busy taking out backmarkers it should be smooth sailing for Hamilton.
He is taking gaps that don't exist.
honestly at this point I'm rooting for him to get it
edit: or rather what I meant to say is that at this point I'm rooting for anyone who can take #2 from perez
Perez has obviously been told his '24 drive is in question unless he improves. And he's not responding well to that kind of pressure.
Perez keeps fucking up Albon's weekends. Like, I'm sure that Checo is simply under pressure and making dumb mistakes - but I fully understand that Albon seems to think it's personal.
Perez is gone no matter what I think. I hope Hamilton gets the p2 in the championship it would so funny
Got a chuckle out of the idiosyncrasy of Bottas getting screwed up by both Williams within a couple of laps.
McLaren is the new Aston Martin
And Aston Martin is the new McLaren
And Perez is the new Kvyat
Red Bull double DNF....Max still wins.
Safe bet, Sargeant is gone.
My thoughts:
Perez is done. By far his worst race I think and really stupid mistakes. Plus getting out of a perfectly good car half way though the race is inexcusable. Do you know how much it costs the team to bring him and the car to a race? To have it just sit there when it has no issues is a massive financial drain.
Max pretty much single handedly won the Constructors Title for Red Bull. His performances for them the title with little help from Perez. I'm sure Max is getting a nice bonus after this.
Sargeant sealed his fate: he's definitely out soon. He's costing Williams much needed cash and simply can't keep it together. Lawson and Piastri are making him look really bad.
Mercedes is stronger than Ferrari. They've really bounced back in a big way and Ferrari needs to up their game.
Ferrari are still the worst of the front four for tire wear, until they fix that they can not compete at enough circuits to have a decent run at the title. They were faster than Merc when they had a small tire advantage (like Carlos with his 4 lap newer hards) but it went off way sooner than the other three teams.
If it gets closer between the top four teams next season then Red Bull are going to really struggle for the constructors as Merc, McLaren and Ferrari all have two high performing drivers each. I really cannot see Red Bull signing another top driver to sit next to Max, that's not Max's choice, but I just cannot see Red Bull wanting the drama or the potential for lost points to a team mate.
Red Bull really need to wangle Lawson into that second Williams seat, they have their own data for Albon vs. enough of their own drivers so they can use this to more accurately benchmark Lawson. I just do not see Danny or Yuki being the right replacement for Perez and there isn't many options further down the field right now.
I agree with you. Except I think there is probably a large pool of drivers waiting to get into F1 to choose from.
Also all terms have reserve drivers that would be very happy to sign with Red Bull.
I don't think RB are interested in unproven drivers otherwise we would not see their continued ownership of AT and its use as a proving ground for RB drivers. Even Danny is having to go back round the AT loop before they would consider him to replace Checo.
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