2023 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[chrisc90]

Oh, completely didnt even realise that.

[Rikhart]

Perez should no longer be on this team, I would legit put either Tsunoda or Lawson there, when Ricciardo comes back. Maybe even ric, but they have to make sure he is recovered first.

[chrisc90]

Wonder if Checo himself will step down and maybe drop to being reserve drivers for 2024.

I guess only he knows where his head is truly at

[organic]

Alex Albon speculates that Lando has an open invitation to join RB. Given how close Albon is to RB I would deem this to be a pretty good source and hence why I've posted it

"I think if he wants it, yes. But let's see, because I think no one enjoys to be Max's team-mates. It's hard - I have experience with that."

"But if he's confident in himself, which he should be - from what I hear, the invitation has been open for a while."

[Rikhart]

Honestly I think Piastri is already showing he will be better than Norris, pretty soon. His mentality and calm are particularly noteworthy.

[chrisc90]

I think that offer has been there for a couple years now.

If I was Lando - i'd jump ship.

[ME4ME]

I think if Ricciardo can show flashes of his former self once he gets back in that Alpha Tauri and Perez loses P2 in the WDC Horner will pull the trigger and replace Perez for next year. There is no way they'll let this struggle go on into 2024.

[chrisc90]

I think if Ricciardo can show flashes of his former self once he gets back in that Alpha Tauri and Perez loses P2 in the WDC Horner will pull the trigger and replace Perez for next year. There is no way they'll let this struggle go on into 2024.

That's probably Perez' mini target really. Show you have the goods to retain P2 in the WDC or we will replace in the winter period.

With Mclaren, Ferrari and Merc making good progress through the season, Max cant 'run the show' himself. RB are going to NEED a 2nd driver that can run in 2nd or 3rd and challenge for the places on the podium.

I think Marko has already got his mind made up about Checo, and I think he's right.

If Checo has a bad race this time, like he did in Suzuka, he will go. All the mean time you have Lawson sat in a AT giving RB perfect data and promise of how good of a racer he is.

You could almost demote Perez to reserve/sim driver, give him the more family time he seems to need and sort his head out from the stresses/pressure of front line F1, and drop Lawson in to cover him. Worst case you swap Lawson and Danny Ric mid season 2024.

I dont know how many excuses or bad results RB can tolerate really, but it seems to be quite high! I think its only because he's P2, at the minute, in the WDC he's hanging on to his seat.

[Sieper]

A lot of people were struggling here. There was very little grip with the new asphalt and the sand. The tracklimits are very close here as there is no danger to the car and you need to be close to get the laptime. A lot of people struggled and if the grip does not improve there will be struggles again tomorrow with even shorter qualy times. Almost no time for a banker.

I can’t really hold this specific result against Checo, the problem is this happened many times.

Horner was also making sounds along what I am saying here. Ofc he wouldn’t burn Perez (too harshly) but imho, for this set of conditions the reasoning is defendable.

[organic]

I've calculated the average gap between Max and Perez at over 5 tenths in qualifying this year (specifically 0.566s of 13 quali sessions where both posted representative times).

Perez's average pace deficit in the rb19 is significantly worse than the gap that existed between the two in the rb16b which was a car completely opposed to Perez's style: its philosophy was based around being on the nose and designed completely with Max's feedback for years. In the rb16b Perez managed an average delta of around 4 tenths, with again only sessions where each set representative times used

I think the rb19 can be considered a car that suits checo's style more. And yet he struggles to a greater extent. So has Perez's performance declined since his RP days and even 2021 RB? I think it has and measurably so

Maybe there is more nuance to it than that. Perhaps the rb19 is really tricky to set up well and find the limit with. I think difficult setup is certainly true from what we've seen with some dodgy Fridays and heard from Marko in the German media.

Unfortunately it gets tiring having no hope for the second car. It is rinse repeat with the sort of thing Marko and Horner say now. Marko certainly cannot run his mouth anymore however so really we are seeing heavily filtered views as Horner will always walk the PR line.

Obviously the delta between the two of them is difficult to explain at the moment,” Horner told Sky.

we know that he’s a great racer and qualifying is always his Achilles heel. So we’ve just got to try and support him through these difficult moments to make sure that he comes back strong tomorrow and of course in the race on Sunday.

Though interestingly once again Horner mentions the P2 in wdc. Currently it's slipping away and its repeated focus makes me feel perhaps the seat for 2024 could be at risk without it. Checo will need a proper comeback drive on Sunday to prevent Hamilton from storming ever closer.

We just need to support him as a team and try and do the best to get the most out of him and make sure he finishes in that second place in the championship

[Sieper]

The Merc isn’t a poor car here, it is the clear second best car of the season overall as well and at this track, with the difficult conditions it is easier to not do good and then certainly Checo is at risk. That is already the 8th time this season and all, or almost all had the tougher conditions when Checo failed to make Q3.

I actually think Lewis will get that P2, on merit. He hasn’t left much on the table.

.566” isn’t even that out of the ordinary against Max;

Max had -0.433s on Ricciardo in 2018.

-0.739s in 2019 against Gasly and Albon

-0.565 against Albon in 2020.

The gaps between the field now are closer making a deficit having bigger consequences.

[organic]

Against Perez in 2021 his quali advantage was ~0.4s and in 2022 it was about 0.32s taking representative sessions.. so the 0.566s I've calculated for 2023 so far is not looking good to me

He's declining and performance falling off and they want to keep him for another season

[AR3-GP]

Against Perez in 2021 his quali advantage was ~0.4s and in 2022 it was about 0.32s taking representative sessions.. so the 0.566s I've calculated for 2023 so far is not looking good to me

He's declining and performance falling off and they want to keep him for another season

The algorithm for deciding Perez's place has multiple inputs beyond performance. Sponsors, marketing objectives, etc etc. Perez already started to do some press work with Ford's Latin American division.

[Sieper]

Against Perez in 2021 his quali advantage was ~0.4s and in 2022 it was about 0.32s taking representative sessions.. so the 0.566s I've calculated for 2023 so far is not looking good to me

He's declining and performance falling off and they want to keep him for another season

That isn’t sure yet.

I actually think that one interview where Marko got clobbered for he was in fact trying to defend Checo. Poorly worded yes, but that would seem to indicate they want to try keeping him on. IMHO Marko still decides. But ofc he listens to Horner as well.

Max is also just getting faster. Today his first Q3 run you could read from his interview he was keeping to just within the limit. And he can get so awfully close to that. And when he knew he had that lap he took just that bit more risk for an even faster time and then the rear came. Like we saw with others on or just over that limit.

But it is very hard to hang with someone who can do that and is upping his game still too. I think a lot of people take that too much for granted.

[CHT]

Max has once again demonstrated why he is a deserving champion. He is really on top of his game, week after week race after race.