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Wham, bam, thank you ma’m

Posted on May 18, 2020 by driverjohn

So Seb has gone, Carlos and Danny have shuffled and Renault have a spare seat, all for next year. And we haven’t started this year yet. Talk about silly season.

The speed of these announcements suggest that the deal was sorted in advance and that Seb’s departure was, in effect, a firing. The way that it was done is brutal, but Ferrari have done the right thing.

The Vettel you get in the car is not the one you see out of it. There is a red mist that descends and he lacks reason. Multi 21, Turkey and many more incidents point to a problem that few team managers can afford and whilst he clearly has talent, the dark side is coming through too often.

If you can remember his qualifying performance for Red Bull, emerging in Q3 with just enough time for one flying lap and bagging pole race after race. That skill was a major factor in those four consecutive world titles. That record shows that he was something special and it is a record that will endure.

But like the equally talented Alonso before him there is that corrosive aspect that can ruin a team. Ferrari could see that and had no desire to keep him. They have a potential world champion in the team and in Carlos Sainz they have a very strong support driver with the potential to pick up wins. A classic number one and two situation.

That is why Danny Ric would not have been a good choice even if a lot of us would have loved to see him, with his Italian heritage, in one of the red cars. Instead we will have him in a McLaren and that should be an interesting combination. It will do Lando no harm either.

What happens to Seb remains to be seen, but I am not sure that there is room for him anywhere. Maybe his time has come to walk away, for certainly he deserves better than tooling around in midfield. He is pretty toxic though and who would take a chance?

The short 2020 season is going to be interesting though. If I were running Ferrari I would bench Seb and bring in Hulkenberg to see out the year in the second Ferrari. But it isn’t my decision.

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please steer clear of Ferrari Lewis

Posted on July 19, 2017 by driverjohn

Lewis and Seb to swap places at the end of the season is a good story as are the hot denials that it might happen. It could be pure speculation, as could the one about Lewis walking away from the sport at the end of the year, but we are well into Silly Season and there will be all sorts of tosh floating about. That said, if we are to speculate, would a move to the Prancing Horse be a good one for Lewis? Continue reading →

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Stewart Haas to move to Ford in 2017

Posted on February 24, 2016 by driverjohn

News that SHR are moving over to the Blue Oval comes as a bit of a shock, but with Smoke retired by then I suppose the one true objector will be out of the way. Continue reading →

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Is the #NASCAR Charter good news?

Posted on February 10, 2016 by driverjohn

So NASCAR have, unsurprisingly, brought in a charter system for their premier series. This was widely expected, but is it good news for the fans? Continue reading →

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Dummy Pit Stops in #F1

Posted on July 12, 2015 by truckertoggle

So what if Mercedes did try to sucker Williams during the British GP? That sort of thing has been going on since the early days of motor sport and we don’t see the problem.

Yes there could be an H&S issue; people in the pit lane are always at risk, but here we are talking about an empty pit lane anyway so let’s not be silly.

The only time that such a tactic might be inadvisable is if one of the teams in an adjacent garage was pitting, both from the risk of getting hit and also from the dummy crew impeding the other vehicle, so this is one rule that we think they don’t need. A bit of kidology is a Fair part of the game and if they really think that there is a safety issue then let them implement something else that we have advocated here before as a cost saving measure; limit the number of people over the wall during pit stops.

 

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