because There are limits though to national relatability vis-a-vis market penetration, see Logan Sargeant and Esteban Ocon. Yuki needs to be replaced as well, RB's happy to have him there as long as Honda pays for the Japanese face riding Honda engines. I doubt he'll be around after Honda moves to Aston. Zhou is there to connect with a billion wallets. Maybe those fans will punch his ticket for 2025? Accounts would need to show how much Zhou hats are being sold. Who knows. Bottas is freaking hilarious with his personality, always liked all 3 second stringers, but as Highlander said, "there can be only one."
Thank goodness to Ric fiasco is finally over. He’s been in decline for years. If only Perez were fired at the same time. That would have been perfect.
Danny Ric was prime V8 era driver. He didn’t want to be Max’s prisoner at Red Bull and took a gamble at McLaren. Unfortunately, the miserable team they were seemed to brake his spirit. Compounding the issues is the fact that he’s never been able to drive these V6 cars.
No Verstappen team mate will look good enough, IMO. Max has exceptional talent that nobody can match.
Wow, You are correct. I thought those early years were v8 for him. Had to look this up. Glad you said something. My point is that as the formula has changed in F1 over the years his driving style hasn’t seemed to suit the later formulas as it did the earlier formulas. It’s a bit disappointing. If he stayed at Red Bull he would have been destroyed by Max and prisoner. He took a gamble and it was at the wrong team. If he had gone to a team with a culture that fit him better he would have possibly performed better and had a better career.
+1 After the fiasco at Baku where RBR management defended Max, it was clear to Danny that RBR was Max's team. If he were to have a shot at a WDC he knew that it wouldn't happen at Red Bull. Unfortunately he went to Renault.
I think Renault was better for him than McLaren. He fled Red Bull to McLaren in order to save his soul and ironically McLaren destroyed it. He then goes to Renault and unfortunately shows that he just doesn’t get on well with this current formula. Now at RB’s he should have been able to out perform Yuki.
I can only assume the 'unfair' part is in regards to how it was handled, not him being released. I'm one who thinks RB/RBR handled it very poorly, Daniel should have received a proper chance to say bye in Singapore.
If only... I'm guessing that every driver on the grid looks in the mirror and see a WDC. We look at the grid and see 6 or 7 maybe (three already have that status). I don't see any scenario where Ricciardo was going to become world champion. I like Daniel as a personality but he hasn't been good for years. Liam Lawson will now get the chance to show what he can do and I hope he does well.
It doesn’t matter. The point is all the teams he went to after Red Bull accomplished one of two things, 1: they broke his soul or 2: they revealed that he doesn’t drive the newer formulas well.
What happens in the crazy possibility he won? Then RB will be trashed for letting him go at his cusp of greatness. There are no gracious exits of being fired in F1. I get people love the guy, but this ain’t a dating show.
People seem to overlook that he's being fired. He isn't retiring. Who gets a glorified farewell for being fired?
If he was fired (in the normal sense) why did RBR offer him a reserve seat? Again, not suggesting removing him was wrong, simply the manner in which they did so.
Especially stings when Mclaren paid him 18 million to go away, lots of gnashing of teeth, Oscar seems like genius move by Brown and co, they are after all now #1. It's a tough sport, and in the immortal words of Ricky Bobby, if you ain't first, you're last.
