Arena FIA Formula 1 Racing

Great to have him in f1 for another two years!

It won't damage his legacy at all. The fact that he has chosen to go back to the team that he started f1 with, enhances his legacy if anything. No doubt Sauber will be getting an monetary increase from Alfa Romeo in this to. I expect Giovinazzi to take the other seat now.

This has to be the craziest silly season I can remember.

 

Giovinazzi confirmed as Sauber's 2nd driver. They look set to become Alfa Romeo proper, Ferrari B team.

 

Yep. Good move though it spells the end for Stoffel Vandoorne I'd say (unless Toro Rosso grab him).

 

**** Mercedes and **** Hamilton.

 

You have to give them credit, Hamilton has been almost flawless these last few races and Mercedes have obviously worked very hard after it looked like Ferrari were ahead on pace earlier in the year. It is a bit ridiculous how much faster the top three teams are now. Watching Verstappen cut through the field was like watching a LMP1 car overtake GTE cars.

 

I'm not giving them credit for giving Lewis a win he didn't deserve, no.

 

Even Hamilton said he felt bad about that, like he hadn't deserved it. And we saw how apologetic he was to Valteri. But Mercedes did what any team in that situation would do. I think Bottas gained a lot of respect also at handling it so well and understanding the situation. No doubt he got a sizable pay bonus for this race.

 

Ok but if Hamilton didn't actually want it why wasn't there a radio call to give it back or an attempt to? Lewis has all the bargaining power in that team. He told Paddy and Toto to basically sod off in 2016 at Abu Dhabi, when they were telling him to speed up to avoid backing Nico up. He could have given it back, but chose not to. So he only feels a bit bad. Like, this <> much.

 

Ugh I hate Ferrari. They announce that they have a new livery to reveal, and then they actually reveal...... A new "Sponsor logo" which is so obviously just a new way to get the Marlboro chevron on the car and avoid the tobacco advertising laws. It will totally ruin the look of the car too.

 

No, it's not Marlboro. This is this "Mission Winnow" thing, where Philip Morris are trying to invest in business lines that aren't smoking (we trust them, totally):



See?

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/139328/russell-secures-williams-f1-seat-for-2019

George Russell to Williams for 2019

 

That means the teams are as follows. Italics indicate a new driver for that team (new to F1 or a move):

MERCEDES BENZ
Lewis Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas

FERRARI
Sebastian Vettel
Charles Leclerc

RED BULL
Max Verstappen
Pierre Gasly

RENAULT
Daniel Ricciardo
Nico Hulkenberg

FORCE INDIA
{TBC}
{TBC}

HAAS
Romain Grosjean
Kevin Magnussen

SAUBER
Kimi Raikkonen
Antoinio Giovannazi

McLAREN
Carlos Sainz
Lando Norris

TORO ROSSO
Daniil Kyvat

WILLIAMS
George Russell
{TBC}

That leaves:
Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Brendon Hartley, Lance Stroll, Sergei Sirotkin, Stoffel Vandoorne

And, possibly, Robert Kubica.

My suggested outcomes are:
* Racing Point Force India will get Lance Stroll and Checo Perez;
* Toro Rosso might retain Hartley because Dan Ticktum is a plum sack and won't get a superlicence
* Williams will have to chose between SMP Racing money from Sergei, or the technical skills of Kubica (I'd go latter)
* Ocon ends up as a reserve driver at Mercedes and replaces Bottas for 2020.
* Vandoorne is out

 

Meanwhile, W Series. What is Coulthard thinking?

The only upside I can see is if Juju Noda gets in without needing to qualify for a Japanese licence and wins everything; because a 13 year old destroying everyone else the FIA lines up for it would be both hilarious and ruinous for the series.

 

W series will be an absolute joke.

 

W series is absolutely necessary and a good thing.

 

I must have missed something. What is W series?

 

Urmm I can't tell if that is sarcasm or not. I hope it is.

Just listen to what female drivers think of this.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/45808413

 

Not sarcasm. I'm also not interested in the views of people from an era so distant from now they cant possibly know. If people like Susie Wolff can appreciate the need to get girls' profile up in racing and start, with Claire Williams, foundations to promote it I'll take their word thanks.

 

I finally had the time to look it up. I think it has the capability to be a good thing, but it depends on how it is handled, and the jury will probably be out on that for several years. If it actually leads to advanced opportunities for the top drivers, then it's good. But if it ends up just being overlooked and a dead end, then it ought to be scrapped. However, we won't know which for quite a while.

 

The main problem to my main is what's going to be a lack of competitiveness. It looks like the series is going to be run to F3 specifications. If we look around all the series' to find female drivers currently in F3 or above, we're looking at Sophia Flörsch, Ai Miura, Angelique Germann, Jamie Chadwick, Tatiana Calderon, and Pippa Mann. That's based on Wikipedia and a few national F3 championships don't have current season pages. Even if they started looking around F4 and closed-wheel series', the jump to F3 may be too much too soon. And whilst it'll be fine if it's an even spread, or if a proven race winner dominates; if say Tatiana Calderon wins every race it'll make the series look weak as she's not exactly competitive in GP3.

Whilst the idea of improving sponsorship and opportunities for female drivers is great; I can't see how this will work.

 

I don't know who's view you are referring to there. Pippa Mann is not from a distant era.
Susie Wolff is also against segregation in Motorsport.

 

Right, and what do you think this is? This W series, if not an opportunity to "should continue to encourage and create opportunities for women to compete on the same level as men"? How else do you get women onto the radar, so "more women can compete and rise to the top in a mixed competition on equal terms?"

Put another way; if you think that if Lewis Hamilton is Louise Hamilton, and says to Ron Dennis that she'll race for him one day when aged 11 or whatever it was, and that still happens - you've missed some important conversations in recent years.

 

How can a woman compete at the same level as men in a series that excludes men from racing?

Another good article on the subject here. https://formulaspy.com/features/w-series-well-intentioned-but-could-do-more-harm-than-good-56954

 

Oh, you're one of those people that doesn't believe F1 is for male racers only. Got it.

Same as there's no gender discrimination in the workplace, anyone can become a CEO it's just how the cookie has crumbled that more men are?