As much as I'd love to see Gasly get into a better car, RB now has Perez and he not only deserves some love for his performance throughout his career but also a whole lot of respect for his performance at RB in particular in such a short amount of time. Firing him in favor of Gasly would be utterly repulsive, as understandable as that move would be.
Albon or Kvyat
It took him a bit to get accustomed to the car, but Perez did everything RB could hope for from a second driver. He kept Hamilton out of Max' hair throughout the majority of the race and then baited Hamilton into a mistake during the restart, carrying his lead to the finishing line on a car that had barely enough juice left to drive (in the pneumatic system iirc). It's not a coincidence he stopped the car almost immediately after crossing the finishing line, that car was completely done and yet Perez managed to perform so well. I feel like he can draw out the last drop of performance, turn the car upside down and shake some more out of it... and he does so while keeping up with Max and cockblocking Hamilton. Like last year: If a driver of this raw talent finds himself out of a cockpit for some team fuckery, it would be a burning beacon of destitution within F1. If you can't retain your cockpit by performing so well, something is really, really, really messed up in the sport.
Alpine feels like a step back tbh, but then again, that might be due to Gasly being so good with a weaker AT? If he switches teams, it should be a significant step upwards (unless he gets kicked out of AT). I wouldn't mind Russel/Gasly at Mercedes though.
I seriously doubt any of the "top 3" teams coming for him, no way he'll go to Merc even if Bottas and Hambone leave they'll go for someone like Ocon or even grab one of the Aston Martin drivers since wolff is a part owner and they're practically a sister team at this point. I would expect Merc would want a more senior driver to partner Russell in the short term then they have someone to develop him further.
Well, Lance did pretty good last race until his tyre blew up. After his start from last row, he managed to get back to 5th place within 30 laps and even after his pitstop, he would have ended up in the top ten. If his tyre hadn't failed, I guess he'd easily gotten some points. His race sorta made up for his accident during Qualifying if you ask me.
I hope Mick moves on to a better team and the Affirmative Action Quota Negro will be paired with Mazepin. Comedy genius.
In theory, the new rules should allow closer racing, ie: Cars can now follow other cars more tightly and thus gain an advantage even going into or coming out of corners. As of now, the last place you want to be when going towards a fast corner with current aero is anywhere near another car, cause the loss of downforce right behind another car makes it impossible to make the corner. Unless you have absurdly long straights like in Baku, the distance between two cars going through a corner is so big, the second car can not catch up with the other car even when it's using slipstream, unless it closes the gap via DRS, which feels artificial and is only a work-around to deal with dirty air and shitty aero. Mercedes can now freely drive away and no one can even take advantage of using their slipstream. The playing field has become more level this season, if the new rules help with that, it would be very welcome. As of now, Mercedes found the sweet spot to be most effective and as long as nothing large changes, this will remain the status quo. With a drastic new rulechange after FIA established a maximum for car developement, it has at least some potential to shake things up in theory.
I have to say, Attack Mode in Formula E and DRS are completely different entities in how they function, and how they impact the racing. Attack mode increases the allowed power output, but doesn't increase charge at all, so you've still got to manage it - it's mostly middle of straights where it becomes effective, okay like DRS somewhat in that regard - however given the nature of the tracks that FE runs at they are so narrow that you still have to get alongside to take advantage.
Welcome to Le Mans Hypercar, then. Where there's the Toyota TS010 which is all technology hybrid Japanese magic, the grandfathered LMP1 chassis and engine from Alpine, and the old-fashioned angry, normally aspirated, SCG 007.
I can see Mick moving to Alfa Romeo if Kimi decides to retire at the end of the season. AR doesn't have the greatest cars (still considerably less bad than Haas tho), but they'd give Mick a chance to shine in the midfield.
Tsunoda has only a 1 year contract with Alpha Tauri? That doesn't seem right. Or is that a Red Bull thing where they givbe their drivers only 1 year contracts to put more pressure on them?