2023 Japanese GP: Post Race Analysis

I understand the why. Liberty Media's influence, and the huge dollars that come from a large American presence. I am only speaking as a fan. A fan that wants to see F1 cars on the most exciting racing circuits in the world. Being in North America and reasonably close to 2 additional US GP's doesn't help the typical fan as the costs to go are out of this world.[/QUOTE]

 

Monaco deserves to stay on the calendar based on the precision that is required of the drivers and tradition. Qualifying is always exciting.

Miami is terrible and embodies everything bad about American ownership of Formula 1.

I'll reserve judgement on Vegas until after the first weekend. That said, I do not have high hopes for it.

 

+1 Miami is a sh*t show. Vegas might be worse.

 

Too many street circuits on the calendar. Cars are now too fast and powerful to provide good racing in the narrow confines of a city.

Beside, there are existing permanent circuits craving for development that are neglected by Liberty.

 

I wonder how lawson would do at RB? Does he have the maturity that Albon has now? I think Albon did get screwed at RB because of his lost points espeically tangles with Hammy but Albon is a more complete driver now. I think he could succeed at RB but still not beat max

 

I get the feeling F1 ownership is becoming a Ponzi scheme. At some point the valuation of the sport and the teams will reach a wall. Liberty will sell when they see their price...and they'll be gone in a flash. For the team owners, who have been playing their valuations much like dot coms, it will end lucky for a couple, break even for a few, and a long slippery slope for the rest. The young new fans will desert the sport for a variation of the show, with singing drivers performing with in simulators, with possible nudity.

 

Andretti buying in at the peak lol. What can go wrong.

 

I think Lawson would do ok. About the same as Perez currently. Piastri is a rookie too and has done very well so far.

It's a big shame Albon had to be let go but RBR didn't have much choice given the performance gap between the two. They hoped a more mature driver would close the gap but that hasn't happened still.

Perez has proven himself plenty of times before coming to RB.
Gasly has proven himself before and after.
Albon is still proving himself after.

The problem red bull has at the moment is two fold: How much performance is Max bringing to the team? And who can they actually get as a number two? If the performance deficit to B tier drivers is already too big, which A tier driver would actually want to play second fiddle? Leclerc, Lewis, Norris, Alonso...all team leaders. Going to RBR would open up a bigger chance to win but need to beat Max. It's career suicide if they can't beat him.

Out of those 4, Alonso is the only one that can actually risk the ''career suicide'' moniker due to his lack of caring and age being a factor.

Lewis cares too much.
Leclerc can't afford it.
Norris can't afford it but I do believe he would be able to take it on the chin easier than others.

 

That's a nice problem for Red Bull to have, but they have created it for themselves over the years.

They will never be happy with their #2 driver, whoever he is, as long as Max drives for them.

 

Will Max leave RB when they begin to under perform? If so will he team up with a top driver? Getting out of the umbrella of RB and going to another team may expose Max if he can't beat a proper team mate. Why does a top driver have to go in Max's house at RB to be validated? I want to see Max go to somebody else house and team with an A driver.

 

It would help if they didn't screw the second driver on purpose....no need for that, Max is good enough to beat them anyway. But i guess teams like to enhance their n1 drivers performance to claim thei are the real goat.

 

Max was with RedBull when they were underperforming....hello?

He will stay with RedBull. As long as Newey is around, I doubt RedBull will underperform.

 

Anything can happen. Again separate Max from RB to team up with A driver is more interesting to me.

 

Red Bull always set up their #2 to fail, they undermine him and then spit in out.
Apart from their "annointed" driver (it was Vettel, then Ricciardo briefly, now Max), other drivers are just commodities.
That's the way they operate. It's beyond ruthless.

 

RedBull currently:

1) Have the best aerodynamacist.
2) One of the best PU's now.
3) Have one of the best, IF not THEE BEST, strategist on the F1 grid.

I wouldn't leave RedBull and I doubt Max will leave either.

 

Well said, RB is faultless at this point.

 

Who do you think treated drivers worse, Red Bull or Enzo Ferrari?

 

I would say Red Bull.

 

I would agree, i can't remenber Enzo sabotaging anyone, he was ruthless, pushed them to the limit, but i think he gave them the cars and conditions to perform....Checolast year was chalenging max, then, in canada he wa sleft with an old gearbox they knew could fail...and it did, and after that, he had to use a difent fllor to Max for 4 races, that Adrian used to experiment new ideas, and it worked, because then they were unbeatable, but for 5 races, Checo 's acr was useless, and when he got a decent car again, Max was long gone. This year again he started chalenging Max, and sudenly he "forgot" how to drive? Does anyone actualy belieev that Checo (the best guy taking care of tires) was slower, a lot slower than Max on older tires, or with a harder counpound? I know Max is faster, but he's not 1sec per lap faster. of course Checo is not driving well right now, but when you never know what car you're gonna have, and you boss is constantly insulting you and undermining you, it can't be easy!

 

You do know the different floors they were using...Perez had hte new, upgraded floor?

Max has adapted his driving style plenty, perhaps even learned from Perez's data who knows, but how he looks after tyres these days and the speed he manages to carry for as long as he does, far supercedes what Perez is capable of.

 

Enzo Ferrari's tactic was to set his drivers against each other to extract the best of them by boosting their ego.
He would praise them individually in private, telling them they were better than their team-mates, and that he expected the results to show it.
Very few didn't succumb to his flatteries; Fangio was the exception, and that's the reason they didn't get on.

 

Sorry Bas, i have to desagree with you in relation to tyre managment. I remenber just a few years back everyone praising how amazing Elton was on keeping his tyres....He sucked at Mclaren in that regard, he kept sucking at mercedes, than, there was that miraculous tyre test, and all of the sudden elton/Merc were greta on tyre usage!...he doesn't look so good now does he? Sure he improved a lot, heck, he's one of the most experienced drivers, but the car flatered his ability for a long time. Now everyone is amzed by max abilitie to preser tyres, i don't say he's not good at it, but Perez was good from day one, always has been, and he certainly didn't got worse at it! So why is Max able to push the whole race and keep his tyres, and Checo is told (even when his in front) manage tryres, manage, while telling Max, push, push! Camon, do you really belive that's all Max's magic touch? Look at the inside footage from both red bull drivers trough the section after the main straight, Max barely move sthe wheel, while Perez looks like he's drunk, shaking all over it, do you really believe they're driving the same car? There are images that show diferent floors in qualy for both cars, don't know about the race, but the balance between both cars is very, very diferent, and i sincerely doubt it's because Perez doesn't know how to set up his car. As i said before, i have no doubt Max is an amazing talent, far better than Checo, but the diference in speed between them is not as big as Red bull want's to make everyone believe, and max certainly isn't better tahn Checo managing tyres, not him, nor anyone else.

 

About the floors, yes, Perez had the new, but not the finished article, they were trying with it, and kept tunning it, during that time, Checo had a very unstable car, that's why they used Perez as a guinea pig, once it was perfect, they gave it to Max, but untill then, Perez was driving a very unbalanced car.

 

Fangio didn't need any flatterie, he knew he was better than anyone else! I think that in terms of personality he was definetly a match for Enzo.