Sieper wrote: ↑12 Aug 2019, 17:30
Ground Effect wrote: ↑12 Aug 2019, 17:16
What amuses me the most on this forum is how a lot of folks deliver what is clearly their opinion, as fact. Saying why Ricciardo did this, why Max did that. They even know what colour of socks Ricciardo was wearing when he called Horner to say he was leaving. For me, I feel Gasly disappointed himself, he should have been more consistent and closer to Max. But Red Bull brought this on themselves, they are a bit too political and play games with the drivers that they like less. They are anything but transparent in their dealings. Perhaps this time they took the decision for the right reasons, but they have a worrisome past. Max is a phenomenal driver, a once in a generation talent, so there was eagerness to put him in a Red Bull, or risk loosing him in the near future. But was Kvyat doing so badly? How many mistakes did he make before being demoted? He had secured a podium in China, had a bad race in Russia, and that was it. Let's remember, which ever way you look at it, Kvyat finished ahead of Ricciardo in the 2015 Championship. He secured Red Bull's first podium of 2016, but a bad race weekend gave Red Bull the opportunity and excuse to do what they had wanted to do for a while. I can't imagine a Toto Wolff or most other team bosses saying a driver won't be replaced mid season and turning around and replacing him.
The biggest looser in all this for me is Toro Rosso, once again, it appears they have 2 disappointed drivers. Kvyat may be disappointed for not being prompted, Gasly for being demoted. This could affect their points haul.
You spent the first two sentences chastising others for giving their opinion (everybody knows that, just opinion, this is an opne forum we don't need to type imho, imho, imho imho after every sentence to make that clear, do we? I feel that Imho that is not needed. Even going as far as to ridicule that (what colour socks) and then you simply continue onwards to give YOUR own opinion. I for one highly disagree with your opinion that RB is highly political and plays games with drivers. They are highly about talent. But they have just two seats in the main team. Their young drivers program is always more then 2 seats. But look at how many ex RBR youth program talents are now in F1.
Obviously, I have no issues with Anyone giving an opinion, we do that everyday, like you said, I just gave my opinion. But when someone comes on hear and says Ricciardo left Red Bull because he wanted more money, that doesn't sound like an opinion.
The reason why I tend to believe there's politics in Red Bull is that if it was all about talent and performance, it would have been Max and Carlos in Red Bull at the start of 2019. There wasn't anything to suggest Gasly would be better, though Christian claimed they believed Gasly had a higher ceiling than Carlos, looked how that turned out.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.