Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[dothebeats]

Leclerc so-called wants to play a big role in Ferrari to return to their old days. But is this really worth the risk of not being champions in his career for many more years? But on the other hand I'm trying to understand his choice as well. Because currently the only place in which he could have a chance to be competitive for the title is Red Bull.

But would Red Bull like to have Leclerc while in presence of Verstappen? I don't think so. Red Bull just want a second driver who can comply with the team well and who doesn't fall too far behind their first driver. Leclerc can't fit that description as he wants to be competitive for the title.

If he leaves Ferrari he needs to go to a team that he will be cared about as much as the other driver of that team.

People are reacting as if he has a choice. The only team that has a big chance to win the title is Red Bull right now, that is very much obvious and they have Max as their first driver who gets the wins, the best chance Charles would have could be becoming the second driver and takes Checos place, do you think Charles would give up first seat at Ferrari and go be the second driver at Red Bull?

Mclaren got better only recently, Aston Martin started great became worse, Mercedes does alright but not that much better than Ferrari right now, there isn2t a team that Charles could leave and start winning. This is literally his best position right now, there is no offer on the table for him to go to and start winning.

Every other team that is in the top 5 constructors doesn't have a seat to offer Leclerc and that's a fact. Ferrari wouldn't budge either because they know that Charles got no places to go. I guess, the best position Charles can take right now is ride out the storm, suggest ideas that could help the team win, and don't take shit against the management but be firm on his stance. Ferrari doesn't have any better choice other than Charles right now, either, so it's a stalemate between the two parties.

The guy wouldn't also be comfortable being a second driver, too. He's aggressive, so competitive, and wants to win championships.

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[Davian144]

Bezzechi sounds like he is serious in his Championship contender fight this year as he is trying really hard to get on top.I like that honestly as it is a team who is run by Valentino Rossi a legend of the MotoGp and the rain will only make the race much more beautiful.This will also make us see a winner like we have not seen before,I remember the years where Jack Miller was a great guy winning a couple of races in the rain while no one of us before that happening took him seriously,for most of us he was just a normal rider like many others,after we saw him in the rain we saw how great rider he was.Let's hope for some great action tomorrow.

After I saw the WUP session for MotoGp today, the sun was briefly visible around the Silverstone circuit so that made the weather conditions even better although I hoped that today's race could be very different from what happened in the Sprint Race yesterday. Because yesterday I saw all the Asian manufacturers suffering so much that the riders riding the motorbikes from the Asian manufacturers had to finish the Sprint race at the back, including Marc Marquez. Today Marco Bezzechi will probably give his full effort in the race to get a win in order to be able to close the gap in points that still exist with Bagnaia in the temporary standings.

[jakdanyel]

Leclerc so-called wants to play a big role in Ferrari to return to their old days. But is this really worth the risk of not being champions in his career for many more years? But on the other hand I'm trying to understand his choice as well. Because currently the only place in which he could have a chance to be competitive for the title is Red Bull.

But would Red Bull like to have Leclerc while in presence of Verstappen? I don't think so. Red Bull just want a second driver who can comply with the team well and who doesn't fall too far behind their first driver. Leclerc can't fit that description as he wants to be competitive for the title.

If he leaves Ferrari he needs to go to a team that he will be cared about as much as the other driver of that team.

People are reacting as if he has a choice. The only team that has a big chance to win the title is Red Bull right now, that is very much obvious and they have Max as their first driver who gets the wins, the best chance Charles would have could be becoming the second driver and takes Checos place, do you think Charles would give up first seat at Ferrari and go be the second driver at Red Bull?

Mclaren got better only recently, Aston Martin started great became worse, Mercedes does alright but not that much better than Ferrari right now, there isn2t a team that Charles could leave and start winning. This is literally his best position right now, there is no offer on the table for him to go to and start winning.

I also think the same as you already. Because Leclerc wouldn't be okay for acting like Perez when he takes his place at Red Bull. This isn't what Red Bull want clearly otherwise they wouldn't make most of their investments in Verstappen's success. They can't take the risk of Verstappen's leaving the team after such action.

Leclerc can only race for teams in which he will be the first driver or have the same status with the other driver - just as he has now at Ferrari.

[swogerino]

Bezzechi sounds like he is serious in his Championship contender fight this year as he is trying really hard to get on top.I like that honestly as it is a team who is run by Valentino Rossi a legend of the MotoGp and the rain will only make the race much more beautiful.This will also make us see a winner like we have not seen before,I remember the years where Jack Miller was a great guy winning a couple of races in the rain while no one of us before that happening took him seriously,for most of us he was just a normal rider like many others,after we saw him in the rain we saw how great rider he was.Let's hope for some great action tomorrow.

After I saw the WUP session for MotoGp today, the sun was briefly visible around the Silverstone circuit so that made the weather conditions even better although I hoped that today's race could be very different from what happened in the Sprint Race yesterday. Because yesterday I saw all the Asian manufacturers suffering so much that the riders riding the motorbikes from the Asian manufacturers had to finish the Sprint race at the back, including Marc Marquez. Today Marco Bezzechi will probably give his full effort in the race to get a win in order to be able to close the gap in points that still exist with Bagnaia in the temporary standings.

That is what I like about him,he has always believed in the title fight from his beginning season interviews I have seen but now this is becoming a reality.Bagnaia will start at the back although in the MotoGP much different than F1 from where you start does not impact you that much so it is easy to recover here compared to F1 and I think we are going to see a very beautiful race very soon when it starts.

Bagnaia is a talented rider but I think he crashes more often than Bezzechi does so this can be an advantage to Marco Bezzechi for winning the season in the end,I know he is an underdog as I see the odds for him winning the title but I would love to see him succeed.

[Davian144]

That is what I like about him,he has always believed in the title fight from his beginning season interviews I have seen but now this is becoming a reality.Bagnaia will start at the back although in the MotoGP much different than F1 from where you start does not impact you that much so it is easy to recover here compared to F1 and I think we are going to see a very beautiful race very soon when it starts.

Bagnaia, who had led the race after overtaking Jack Miller and Marco Bezzechi, also had to settle for second place in this race because before the remaining six laps it started raining so the riders in front started to be careful not to replace their motorbikes. As a result, the race this time was won by Aleix Espargaro from the Aprilia factory, followed by Bagnaia from Ducati and Brad Binder from the KTM factory. So the MotoGP podium this time is inhabited by three different manufacturers.

Bagnaia is a talented rider but I think he crashes more often than Bezzechi does so this can be an advantage to Marco Bezzechi for winning the season in the end,I know he is an underdog as I see the odds for him winning the title but I would love to see him succeed.

Today the opposite happened to Marco Bezzechi, where he fell at a fast corner while trying to approach Bagnaia. Apart from that, in today's race Bagnaia also really struggled to stay in front even though in the end he had to be satisfied with the second podium. And even that was enough for him to again make up the points gap in the temporary standings and what's sad is that the Honda factory today didn't get any points at all.

[coinlocket$]

Bagnaia today got a good second spot for the leaderboard purpose but he was winning until the last lap.

The dominance of Ducati continues.

[swogerino]

Bagnaia today got a good second spot for the leaderboard purpose but he was winning until the last lap.

The dominance of Ducati continues.

I don't think we can talk about any other team having a say against them as today race continued to demonstrate that the other ones or the Asian manufacturers continue to suffer a lot and they even finished on low spots and I don't know if they got any point at all in today race.The tire pressure change regulation did not do much in order to bring competition back as we clearly saw that Ducati still continues to completely dominate in every single track,Ducati has come a long way these last years as I remember them many years ago having an advantage only in the big straights thanks to their top speed,now they dominate in every track.

[coinlocket$]

I don't think we can talk about any other team having a say against them as today race continued to demonstrate that the other ones or the Asian manufacturers continue to suffer a lot and they even finished on low spots and I don't know if they got any point at all in today race.The tire pressure change regulation did not do much in order to bring competition back as we clearly saw that Ducati still continues to completely dominate in every single track,Ducati has come a long way these last years as I remember them many years ago having an advantage only in the big straights thanks to their top speed,now they dominate in every track.

Yeah, also consider that in Stoner's time when he won the titles he was racing with another tire compound.

He was the only one or one of the few using the Bridgestone and they give him a huge advantage.

[FanEagle]

Every other team that is in the top 5 constructors doesn't have a seat to offer Leclerc and that's a fact. Ferrari wouldn't budge either because they know that Charles got no places to go. I guess, the best position Charles can take right now is ride out the storm, suggest ideas that could help the team win, and don't take shit against the management but be firm on his stance. Ferrari doesn't have any better choice other than Charles right now, either, so it's a stalemate between the two parties.

The guy wouldn't also be comfortable being a second driver, too. He's aggressive, so competitive, and wants to win championships.

That's literally why he will be stuck at Ferrari probably all his career until he starts to be worse and then go to a smaller team and all. That has been the case for plenty of drivers, be at a decent to good level team and win some races and then start to be worse so they fire you and you go to another team and not win much there and then retire eventually.

I feel like he needs to figure out what's wrong with the car, that's not an easy thing and I am not expecting him to be Niki Lauda but at the very least he could learn a bit of engineering so that he would have better feedbacks and engineer team wouldn't just do whatever they want, instead they would end up working on whatever would be the best for the car instead.

[swogerino]

I don't think we can talk about any other team having a say against them as today race continued to demonstrate that the other ones or the Asian manufacturers continue to suffer a lot and they even finished on low spots and I don't know if they got any point at all in today race.The tire pressure change regulation did not do much in order to bring competition back as we clearly saw that Ducati still continues to completely dominate in every single track,Ducati has come a long way these last years as I remember them many years ago having an advantage only in the big straights thanks to their top speed,now they dominate in every track.

Yeah, also consider that in Stoner's time when he won the titles he was racing with another tire compound.

He was the only one or one of the few using the Bridgestone and they give him a huge advantage.

I will add to that even if that is true in the first place which I assume it is,his riding skills were the only one who kept Ducati winning races,when he moved to another team if I remember to have moved to Honda before retiring he was not able at all to win races despite having a better bike than Ducati at that time,so I clearly understand that more than the tire compound was his riding skills which made him very famous in that time,if I remember well to have been the year 2007 or something similar in that time.

Anyway we need some rider like him capable of riding the competition bike like crazy in order to have some real competition here,for this year is over but let's hope better for the next one.

[moneystery]

Bagnaia today got a good second spot for the leaderboard purpose but he was winning until the last lap.

The dominance of Ducati continues.

I don't think we can talk about any other team having a say against them as today race continued to demonstrate that the other ones or the Asian manufacturers continue to suffer a lot and they even finished on low spots and I don't know if they got any point at all in today race.The tire pressure change regulation did not do much in order to bring competition back as we clearly saw that Ducati still continues to completely dominate in every single track,Ducati has come a long way these last years as I remember them many years ago having an advantage only in the big straights thanks to their top speed,now they dominate in every track.

Actually the dominance of Ducati like this is not good for moto gp because it will make the race uncompetitive and boring, as happened in F1 where RBR dominated almost every race.

but there's nothing we can do because it seems that Asian manufactures are tired enough to catch up with the dominance of European manufactures, compared to the previous year where teams like Yamaha or Suzuki still seem to be at the top and that makes racing more competitive and exciting.

if Dorna doesn't do something about this, it seems that MotoGP will become an unattractive racing event and will lose its fans.

[Koal-84]

Bagnaia today got a good second spot for the leaderboard purpose but he was winning until the last lap.

The dominance of Ducati continues.

I'm happy for A. Espargaro that he was able to overtake Bagnaia in the last lap (even though I'm a Bagnaia fan), very nicely done by Espargaro and also world masterly by Bagnaia who didn't want to get the victory with the crowbar. Even if no racer would admit it, but better a safe second place and the points for the world championship than trying everything and then possibly being there with zero points.

Ducati is definitely very dominant this year, even if (it also depends on the track layout) KTM and Aprilia can keep up quite well, Honda and Yamaha are definitely disappointing, Yamaha should maybe borrow the Suzuki from last year

[Pulsar77]

Hamilton is intending to race for a few more years at least. He is still ambitious about getting his 8th world title before his retirement. But there is a big question at this point: Can Mercedes give what he wants?

The answer is no to me for now. In this era Red Bull are the new dominator. Until things change significantly in the 2026 season I don't expect Red Bull to lose their dominance even a bit. Verstappen would continue to win easy championships. But the 2026 season will be really crucial. It might be the turning point for Mercedes maybe. Because it is said that Mercedes are doing better on the engine development than Red Bull already. I wish Mercedes or another team to get to Red Bull's level to fire up the competition.

[swogerino]

Hamilton is intending to race for a few more years at least. He is still ambitious about getting his 8th world title before his retirement. But there is a big question at this point: Can Mercedes give what he wants?

The answer is no to me for now. In this era Red Bull are the new dominator. Until things change significantly in the 2026 season I don't expect Red Bull to lose their dominance even a bit. Verstappen would continue to win easy championships. But the 2026 season will be really crucial. It might be the turning point for Mercedes maybe. Because it is said that Mercedes are doing better on the engine development than Red Bull already. I wish Mercedes or another team to get to Red Bull's level to fire up the competition.

I think there is still hope.I think so because I have seen McLaren huge improvement during this season and if some other teams,mainly Mercedes puts the real effort in there is no reason for them why to not make a winning or at least a car that will allow Hamilton to win races starting from next season as the 2026 season is far far away and I doubt Hamilton at the age of 41-42 to be able to win a Championship.He needs to win his 8th title within this time frame of no more than 2-3 years and for that monumental work from his team is required.As I said McLaren set a clear example that good things can be achieved.

[FanEagle]

A new interview got out saying that Sainz is actually not considering to move. It looks like he wants to stay at Ferrari as long as possible without leaving, if he is fired that's another subject of course but if he is allowed to stay he will stay as long as possible until he retires. That seems like a good thing for Ferrari to have Sainz locked down for the future, they do need drivers like him to make them look better than they actually are.

I think they got worse and worse, I remember on those Vettel years they were doing alright, not that great but they were alright and Vettel of course was exactly who they needed to improve, and slowly by slowly they got worse over time and there is nothing that is good anymore, Sainz would be a good news at least.

[ILuckyGuyI]

I think there is still hope.I think so because I have seen McLaren huge improvement during this season and if some other teams,mainly Mercedes puts the real effort in there is no reason for them why to not make a winning or at least a car that will allow Hamilton to win races starting from next season as the 2026 season is far far away and I doubt Hamilton at the age of 41-42 to be able to win a Championship.He needs to win his 8th title within this time frame of no more than 2-3 years and for that monumental work from his team is required.As I said McLaren set a clear example that good things can be achieved.

The main problem is that the other teams can't make the necessary amount of improvement regularly. This is just causing them to be left behind by Red Bull very easily and they are even getting behind some other teams in terms of power also. We have an Aston Martin example in hand as you know.

Aston Martin started really strong to the season. Alonso benefited from this power a lot by being on podium nearly all the time for many weeks. But after a point Aston Martin started staying slow against their biggest opponents.

I wonder whether the same thing would happen to McLaren also. For now things have been going well for both drivers for a few race weeks.

[retreat]

Hamilton is intending to race for a few more years at least. He is still ambitious about getting his 8th world title before his retirement. But there is a big question at this point: Can Mercedes give what he wants?
-snip-

It's great to see Hamilton still pumped up to compete and chase his eighth title. Even though Max and RBR are dominating right now, it seems that Hamilton is still confident and still believes that there is a chance for him to get his eighth world title.
But from the news I heard that Ferrari is currently approaching him to be able to bring him to the Ferrari team and become Charles's teammate. Even Ferrari are ready to give £ 40m for Hamilton to join their team. But I think Hamilton seems to have rejected this offer because he still believes in what Mercedes is doing, maybe until he can get his eighth world title he will stay at Mercedes, or not(?)

[Juggy777]

Hamilton is intending to race for a few more years at least. He is still ambitious about getting his 8th world title before his retirement. But there is a big question at this point: Can Mercedes give what he wants?
-snip-

It's great to see Hamilton still pumped up to compete and chase his eighth title. Even though Max and RBR are dominating right now, it seems that Hamilton is still confident and still believes that there is a chance for him to get his eighth world title.
But from the news I heard that Ferrari is currently approaching him to be able to bring him to the Ferrari team and become Charles's teammate. Even Ferrari are ready to give £ 40m for Hamilton to join their team. But I think Hamilton seems to have rejected this offer because he still believes in what Mercedes is doing, maybe until he can get his eighth world title he will stay at Mercedes, or not(?)

@retreat I feel that Hamilton should move on from Mercedes because I sincerely doubt that he can win the record 8th title while racing with Mercedes and with Ferrari he’ll have a better chance. Also I’m surprised that he’s yet keen to race for few more year’s because he’s not performing that well and he could yet retire before constantly losing out to other driver’s and spoiling his reputation of being a serial winner.

[Davian144]

Actually the dominance of Ducati like this is not good for moto gp because it will make the race uncompetitive and boring, as happened in F1 where RBR dominated almost every race.

Now try to look back at least ten years where Honda also dominated MotoGP, and did anyone say something was wrong with the Honda factory at that time? I don't think so, friend, because that is the result of their own development to be competitive in the MotoGP race. Likewise with the current Ducati where Ducati has also made developments for more than ten years or to be precise after Casey Stoner left Ducati, so I think there is nothing wrong with the factory Ducati because the dominance they get is based on what they have developed so far for MotoGP.

but there's nothing we can do because it seems that Asian manufactures are tired enough to catch up with the dominance of European manufactures, compared to the previous year where teams like Yamaha or Suzuki still seem to be at the top and that makes racing more competitive and exciting.

Actually it is not the Asian manufacturers who have become tired of catching up with them in terms of bike development, but there are many independent teams who are currently preferring Ducati bikes over Asian bikes. So that the dominance of Ducati is seen through the number of motorbikes on the MotoGP grid at the moment apart from the factory Ducati itself which has become competitive because their engines are very super power. So the Japanese manufacturer is only left behind in terms of developing the motorbike so that its dominance is no longer visible and the next task for the Japanese manufacturer is to really take advantage of the time on motorbike development when the opportunity arises.

if Dorna doesn't do something about this, it seems that MotoGP will become an unattractive racing event and will lose its fans.

MotoGP fans have indeed disappeared and some of them are fans of Valentino Rossi himself because some MotoGP fans have become very fanatical about the living legend Valentino Rossi, so when Rossi retired from the MotoGP event, some of his fans also disappeared.

[Distraction]

As far as I know Hamilton has stated before that he wants to race for five more years in Formula 1. But this still doesn't guarantee one thing that Hamilton will continue and end his career at Mercedes. He has also been linked with rumours like he might join Ferrari. They are just entering this news on some websites regularly.

On the other hand Hamilton refuted these rumours before by saying that he was in talks with Mercedes for a contract extension already.

In short things are really complicated now as there are rumours saying different things everywhere. 

5 more years?

Well, I guess in this sport you have a longer longevity, especially if you have a good car I guess you can still win at 45 years old.

Look at Alonso, he was very competitive this year when Aston Martin was decent.

Exactly.    Especially the most skilled drivers become more ambitious to race until quite old ages. Hamilton is aiming to be one of them as it seems. Alonso has become 42 years old newly but he is still very competitive for the title. Aston Martin's having a solid start helped him become even more focused on this season.

Now Aston Martin have lost a lot of pace though. But I think Alonso will always be the same until his retirement which would be a couple of years later I guess.