Silly season 2024-2025

[Dunlay]

Ricciardo went for the ridiculous salary of $25m over two years. The Renault & McLaren deals secured him for life, at a time of Mercedes dominance. He knew what he was doing, and what he was getting into.

Specially when he had some access to Honda numbers and progress at Torro Rosso in comparison to the Tag engine

Iirc, Honda ran in the TR for a year before Daniel left, and was still a fairly big unknown. Regardless, I don’t think any top tier F1 driver leaves just for a big pay check. They leave because they hope they can win races and championships at the new team. Renault were a works team that appeared to be on an upward trajectory at the time.

Just ask Fernando how many times he’s been convinced that a team is going to be able to compete for wins and championships, only to be found wanting.

As per Horner, they countered Renault's offer (DM spoke to Daniel), but he still chose to leave as he was not happy with how Max was being treated over him. Honda engines were running on Toto Rosso in the same year when Daniel decided to quit. At that point, both had the same issue of reliability and power. He simply took a gamble. Since then, it's been a miserable time for him in F1, except for money.

[DChemTech]

I would like to see Riccardo and Sainz at Alpine next year.

I think Carlos and Daniel would be mad to go back to Enstone, Daniel left because he could see they weren’t investing enough in the right areas and were politically unstable, and Carlos was probably thinking the same thing.

Carlos would be smart to go to Williams IMO, they have smart leadership who are doing all the right things to make the team competitive.

Personally, I’d run the heck away from any team with James Key in it. Just look at how much MacLaren improved when they fired him. His car concepts were deeply flawed and he kept the brilliant Peter P sidelined.

Sauber might not have the best facilities yet, but the right people are even more important, and Key has got nothing good to show for his time there.

Almost proverbial... "the key to success is to lose the key"

[djos]

Almost proverbial... "the key to success is to lose the key"

Hehe, nice one!

[JordanMugen]

They leave because they hope they can win races and championships at the new team. Renault were a works team that appeared to be on an upward trajectory at the time.

Then why leave after one season, by penning a McLaren contract before the second season even starts? It seemed that Ricciardo quickly lost his faith in Renault/Alpine's WDC aspirations?!

Oh well hopefully Alpine-Renault can convince Sainz of their excellence -- or Ricciardo might choose to go there again, if Ricciardo is rated higher by Alpine than Doohan, Martins, Mini, or Bottas?

IMO, Ocon is an excellent "maximum attack" driver and Alpine losing faith in their long-term contracted driver seems most odd.

[djos]

They leave because they hope they can win races and championships at the new team. Renault were a works team that appeared to be on an upward trajectory at the time.

Then why leave after one season? It seemed that Ricciardo quickly lost his faith in Renault/Alpine's WDC aspirations?!

Oh well hopefully Alpine-Renault can convince Sainz of their excellence -- or Ricciardo might choose to go there again, if Ricciardo is rated higher by Alpine than Doohan, Martins, Mini, or Bottas?

I can only assume that he discovered the political mess and vapour-ware promises that have plagued Renault since it returned to F1.

The hilarity of modern F1 IMO, is that Renault seem to need an Italian to become a winning team, and Ferrari need a Frenchman.

Alpine have re-signed Gasly, so Im guessing they'll save some cash and put Jack Doohan in the second seat. That'll free up some cash to spend on their cars.

[PapayaFan481]

...

Does it also mean whoever drives for Merc in 2025 will likely be a seat warmer?

Ocon will take a one year deal most likely, why isn't Ocon to Mercedes announced?

...

Not exactly a ringing endorsement is it. Toto has a vacant seat to fill and won't put a driver he manages in it...!!

[PlatinumZealot]

Ricciardo races harder when his future is openly discussed by Marko.

[Sieper]

That is true. But motivation should come from true believe in self. Not by others doubts.

[djos]

Ricciardo races harder when his future is openly discussed by Marko.

I don’t think that’s got anything to do with it. I think it’s more to do with Daniel recovering from his confidence crushing time at McLaren, combined with driving the car setup and development direction to suit his style. On top of that, Daniel also knows what a top current gen car should be able to do and how it feels doing it, thanks to his RB19 test at Silverstone.

Even Yuki credits Daniel for his technical feedback and ability to communicate it.

"It's not a thing I can decide or control," Tsunoda told select media including RacingNews365. "I don't mind with any team-mate but, for sure, Daniel is giving a lot of technical feedback and everything and is, of course, an important influence for us.

"There is a lot of positive things that we got, and probably some of the things we were able tp benefit from is because of him. But at the same time, it's up to them really."

Going into more detail regarding his positive relationship with Ricciardo, Tsunoda has outlined his "communication" with the Australian as a key strength.

https://racingnews365.com/tsunoda-highl ... al-control

[PlatinumZealot]

It looks like the writing is on the wall for him nevertheless. It's a rock and a hard place. Beating Yuki convincingly is basically a moving target as Yuki has only gotten stronger. In fact Daniel might even be driving his best driving and beating Yuki on aggregate is probably harder than beating Ocon, but to Yuki's advantage he is underestimated so the whole optics of it is not great if Daniel doesn't destroy him, and that means Daniel could be out of a seat despite being better than half the grid.

[djos]

It looks like the writing is on the wall for him nevertheless. It's a rock and a hard place. Beating Yuki convincingly is basically a moving target as Yuki has only gotten stronger. In fact Daniel might even be driving his best driving and beating Yuki on aggregate is probably harder than beating Ocon, but to Yuki's advantage he is underestimated so the whole optics of it is not great if Daniel doesn't destroy him, and that means Daniel could be out of a seat despite being better than half the grid.

There’s no doubt that Yuki’s speed has been underestimated, but it’s pretty clear that it took Daniel’s arrival to give the team clear direction in the setup and development direction.

That’s not a critique of Yuki at all, he simply has never had a decent team mate to learn from in his previous seasons (Gasly is known for being selfish).

I think it’s worth noting that in the recent races, Daniel has not been beaten by more than a 10th, but when he’s beaten Yuki, it’s been by 3/10ths on average.

[deadhead]

Mattia Binotto and Carlos Sainz to be reunited and form a dream team at Alpine

[djos]

The speculation that Daniel could replace Perez is building:

Notable here is that in the last five races Ricciardo has on average qualified ahead of Pérez with a car that has been something like 0.75 seconds slower per lap. They’ve both made Q3 twice, while the Mexican has been eliminated in Q1 once more than has the Australian.

https://apple.news/AFgOkPCYcSt-0J_l-iEvN5A

[AR3-GP]

The speculation that Daniel could replace Perez is building:

Notable here is that in the last five races Ricciardo has on average qualified ahead of Pérez with a car that has been something like 0.75 seconds slower per lap. They’ve both made Q3 twice, while the Mexican has been eliminated in Q1 once more than has the Australian.

https://apple.news/AFgOkPCYcSt-0J_l-iEvN5A

From australian fox news.

[djos]

The speculation that Daniel could replace Perez is building:

Notable here is that in the last five races Ricciardo has on average qualified ahead of Pérez with a car that has been something like 0.75 seconds slower per lap. They’ve both made Q3 twice, while the Mexican has been eliminated in Q1 once more than has the Australian.

https://apple.news/AFgOkPCYcSt-0J_l-iEvN5A

From australian fox news.

They aren’t the only ones.