Happened to Hamilton last season as well at I want to say Hungary
Might not make Japan
https://x.com/formularacers_/status/1903743629262233683?s=46
Sure you’re not thinking of him being promoted to winner in Belgium after Russell was DQ’d?
EDIT: oh, US 2023, forgot that. Leclerc got disqualified from that too for worn skid blocks.
Even by their usual high standards that was an impressively Ferrari performance from Ferrari. Sprint race pole and win followed by double DSQ. Amazing turnaround!
It’s amazing that this isn’t prompting more introspection at Red Bull about how they’ve spent the last few years creating iterations on an underivable monster of a car, failed to fix it, and keep spaffing respectable drivers’ careers up the wall to mask the fact.
It’s not even like it’s the fastest on the grid in the hands of wonderkid Verstappen any more - you could arguably justify them making it impossible to drive while he’s winning everything around, but there’s no point expecting anyone except the next generational talent to do anything with it, and perhaps if you’re not winning races, you might need to tune it a bit more in the direction of drivability and what the teams ahead of you are doing.
The counter-argument is we don’t know how someone other than Max would do in it, given in testing it was about the same level as, maybe even slightly behind, the Ferrari and they’re not really challenging McLaren even when not completely fucking it up, whilst Verstappen has basically had to make two recovery drives. You’d be tempted to wait it out until May and the first upgrades, except Red Bull messed them up and spent months trying to fix it, arguable they never did (having their design genius with a foot out the door followed mid-season by both feet didn’t help, obviously) and it was Max’s drive in Brazil covering for them.
Imagine if Verstappen did end up changing teams - they’d potentially then be left with a car that two drivers end up at the back of the grid with. Poor Christian.
And he’ll still think that everyone dislikes him for being successful instead of everything else about him.
I’m guessing Jos is a source here
Is he going to RB or is he actually been binned? Can’t find anything anywhere about what is going to happen to him. Unless it’s in that article and google translate just gave up.
Canal Plus are saying it’s a swap.
The second seat at Red Bull must indirectly be one of the most highly ‘paid’ in F1 when you factor in the amount of money that’s been either lost or spent trying to fill it. Red Bull senior management show no signs of learning from their mistakes. Its one hell of a strong negotiating hand they are giving to camp Verstappen.
If Verstappen’s interested in sticking around.
The fact that Horner’s backing a switch to V10s makes me wonder if they’re struggling with their engine build for next year, and what’s missing in all of this driver mess is any admission from the team itself that even Verstappen hasn’t been happy with the car’s characteristics for a while. It could be that he’s willing to see what other options are available when his current deal’s up.
This now has to happen
Feels a bit like when the stories of Ricciardo being dropped after the next race emerged and every single pundit went “BUT WHAT IF HE FINISHES ON THE PODIUM???” (he went out in Q1 and finished outside the points)
feels like a poisoned chalice for yuki, hope he can make something of it but he could def get done dirty here. are other teams gonna cry foul about this? seems like yet another advantage they have by having two teams on the grid.
They did the same with Gasly and Albon in 2019.
Kvyat got demoted four races into the 2016 season (for Max, ironically), but he’d already had enough time in the seat to find his level. This feels way more egregious given Lawson hasn’t had a full campaign in either camp. Expectations on Tsunoda going to be raised to silly levels, and in front of an home crowd too.
heard craig slater was saying there might be a duty of care issue at play so bit gonna withold judgement for now though it does seem harsh as is.