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

[swogerino]

He prolly doesn't want to give his seat away to some German who wants to return to F1. 

Do you think Sebastian Vettel would like a seat at Aston Martin even if he decides to return? I'm not sure about that after having really bad memories with the team.    He wouldn't like to be the teammate of Stroll in the first place.    Stroll isn't the worst driver on the grid maybe but he still needs to put a lot more into his effort.

If Vettel makes such decision I would expect him to eye the Mercedes seat which will be empty after Hamilton joins Ferrari. I guess the German team would lean towards such deal also.

However I don't think he will return as a driver anymore.

I think when someone doing a certain job for many years retires from it and find himself enjoying life for a certain amount of time,carefree I mean the desire to return to do what he used to in life,driving a F1 car will only increase in him and seeing an empty spot at Mercedes can be a big motivation to come back,sure for the last 2 seasons Mercedes has gone ashtray and is not the team we used to see in performance the past years where they completely dominated the sport yet it still has the possibility to start already working for next year car as up until now things do not look good and maybe they convince Vettel to drive for them,a thing I believe all of us F1 fans want to see it happen.

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[boty]

Marquez at Ducatti will have his chance to win again a World Cup title and I think after all his suffering he deserves to get it,I also think it would be great to the title fight,to add some more emotions to it,not that emotions are missing here from what I remember yet it would be a great thing if many riders fight for the title.

Even though Marquez is already in a satellite team that uses a Ducati motorbike, that doesn't mean it will be easy for him to win another title this season. Because from what I have seen in the two series that have taken place and there will also be a third series today, Marquez still has to struggle with so many obstacles on the track. This was seen in yesterday's Sprint Race where he was under pressure from this year's rookie Pedro Acosta and was also unable to catch up with Vinales who started the Sprint Race from first on the grid. In fact, the Austin circuit in Texas is Marquez's favorite circuit with so many wins there when Marquez was still with the Honda manufacturer.

That's right, it's not easy for Marquez to win the title this year. From the two races that have taken place, we can see that the opponents he has to beat are not just Pecco and Martin, in fact many other racers are giving strong resistance, so that's not a problem. It's easy for Marquez to win the title this year. In fact, this year we can see other manufacturers who have developed well, such as KTM and Aprilia, so it's not just fellow Ducatis that Marquez has to fight against.

[tokeweed]

He prolly doesn't want to give his seat away to some German who wants to return to F1. 

Do you think Sebastian Vettel would like a seat at Aston Martin even if he decides to return? I'm not sure about that after having really bad memories with the team.    He wouldn't like to be the teammate of Stroll in the first place.    Stroll isn't the worst driver on the grid maybe but he still needs to put a lot more into his effort.

If Vettel makes such decision I would expect him to eye the Mercedes seat which will be empty after Hamilton joins Ferrari. I guess the German team would lean towards such deal also.

However I don't think he will return as a driver anymore.

Did he really have bad memories with Aston Martin?  He left with mutual undertanding with the team.  And afaik he just retired as he felt like he didn't have it in him to race anymore.  And as for Stroll being his teammate, any old F1 driver who couldn't get a seat with a top team would looove to have Stroll as a teammate because Stroll sucks.  It would be easy to out qualify him and out point him.  :/

I think another reason why it would make sense for Mercedes to get Vettel is he would make a good mentor for Mick Shumacher.

[alegotardo]

In my opinion, it will be great to see Lewis in the red outfit in the red car. His fans will certainly be very excited about this event and I hope he can have a very competitive car as Ferrari has not yet managed to develop the right car to fight against Red Bull.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Lewis will be like driving for Ferrari together with Charles... we will have a good battle between them.

Hamilton is now in his third season but despite fighting valiantly, he has a Mercedes in his hands that is clearly well below average. Hamilton needs his eighth title and I believe he made the right decision by activating the "escape clause" in his contract with Mercedes and going to Ferrari.... let's see how that goes!

[panjul07]

The sprint race in the US has been completed
Strong win for Viniales followd by Macquez.

Marc is getting better and better, race after race with his new Ducati.

Disaster for Bagnaia and decent result for my favorite of the season, Martin.

I'm so surprised with the performance of Vinales and his Aprilia bike since the qualification.
He managed to break the record with a significant time difference and no other riders can get too close time to him.
The sprint race result also show that he is unstoppable, even the Ducati GP24 could not get closer to him.
I'm wondering how if MM93 is given the GP24, I think he can be better than Pecco

[swogerino]

In my opinion, it will be great to see Lewis in the red outfit in the red car. His fans will certainly be very excited about this event and I hope he can have a very competitive car as Ferrari has not yet managed to develop the right car to fight against Red Bull.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Lewis will be like driving for Ferrari together with Charles... we will have a good battle between them.

Hamilton is now in his third season but despite fighting valiantly, he has a Mercedes in his hands that is clearly well below average. Hamilton needs his eighth title and I believe he made the right decision by activating the "escape clause" in his contract with Mercedes and going to Ferrari.... let's see how that goes!

That will depend a lot on Ferrari rather than him.I doubt he will lose his powers as we have a living legend who hasn't and that is Alonso who despite his age if given a competitive car he makes wonders out of it,the same I assume for Hamilton.Ferrari is still a better car than Mercedes in these last 2 seasons and who knows what type of car they give to Hamilton but I think that they have always had a good driver,a world Champion racing for them like Vettel,Alonso and Raikkonen the last three,so another world Champion joining them is great news,from the last three only Raikonnen managed to get a title in the distant year of 2007 and the other ones couldn't,let's hope Hamilton writes history with an 8th title.

[coinlocket$]

bad season so far for Bagnania.

As said several times, for me the favorite this year is Martin and he will have no rivals.

Bastianini in second place is another surprise as far as I'm surprised.
Marquez continues to grow race after race and today he even managed to become the leader for few laps.

[retreat]

In my opinion, it will be great to see Lewis in the red outfit in the red car. His fans will certainly be very excited about this event and I hope he can have a very competitive car as Ferrari has not yet managed to develop the right car to fight against Red Bull.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Lewis will be like driving for Ferrari together with Charles... we will have a good battle between them.

Hamilton is now in his third season but despite fighting valiantly, he has a Mercedes in his hands that is clearly well below average. Hamilton needs his eighth title and I believe he made the right decision by activating the "escape clause" in his contract with Mercedes and going to Ferrari.... let's see how that goes!

Hamilton's decision to join Ferrari is probably the best decision for him (for now) because Ferrari is the best constructor after the RB team at the moment and with the presence of Vasseur who has the ability to communicate with drivers well, it could improve Hamilton's performance. At the moment we don't know what car Ferrari will give Hamilton, but it is likely that it will be better than the current season and this will further boost Hamilton's performance. Yeah, maybe we will be able to see the best duo from Ferrari in the 2025 season.

[joniboini]

That's right, it's not easy for Marquez to win the title this year. From the two races that have taken place, we can see that the opponents he has to beat are not just Pecco and Martin, in fact many other racers are giving strong resistance, so that's not a problem. It's easy for Marquez to win the title this year.

It is quite surreal seeing Marquez struggle and new exceptional riders showing up at the same time. Kinda reminds me of when Rossi was being threatened by the rise of Marquez and other riders in his latter years. The drama it brings is interesting, but Rossi didn't compete with his teammate directly. While I no longer follow MotoGP closely, seeing new riders that I've never heard of suddenly in the top 5 shows that the competition is still strong, as long as you ride the best manufacturer that is.

[Republikcoin.com]

That's right, it's not easy for Marquez to win the title this year. From the two races that have taken place, we can see that the opponents he has to beat are not just Pecco and Martin, in fact many other racers are giving strong resistance, so that's not a problem. It's easy for Marquez to win the title this year.

In yesterday's race, Marquez also fell after overtaking Pedro Acosta who was in the front row. I was so amazed when I saw a rookie who could immediately disturb the front row this year and compete with the senior riders. And this will certainly be an obstacle for Marquez to win easily, especially since Marquez himself is in a team that is not a manufacturer, so this could also make it a little difficult for him to win the championship again this season.

It is quite surreal seeing Marquez struggle and new exceptional riders showing up at the same time. Kinda reminds me of when Rossi was being threatened by the rise of Marquez and other riders in his latter years. The drama it brings is interesting, but Rossi didn't compete with his teammate directly. While I no longer follow MotoGP closely, seeing new riders that I've never heard of suddenly in the top 5 shows that the competition is still strong, as long as you ride the best manufacturer that is.

Marquez and Pedro Acosta are both in satellite teams this season with different engine brands. But I have to give two thumbs up to Pedro Acosta because he was able to immediately make extraordinary improvements with the motorbike in his Gasgas team even though he used the KTM engine brand. Meanwhile, Marquez is on the Gresini team using a Ducati engine but has to compete fiercely with a rookie who has just entered the MotoGP class this season. Obviously this was extraordinary even though Marquez had to go home without any points because he fell in the race.

[swogerino]

In my opinion, it will be great to see Lewis in the red outfit in the red car. His fans will certainly be very excited about this event and I hope he can have a very competitive car as Ferrari has not yet managed to develop the right car to fight against Red Bull.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Lewis will be like driving for Ferrari together with Charles... we will have a good battle between them.

Hamilton is now in his third season but despite fighting valiantly, he has a Mercedes in his hands that is clearly well below average. Hamilton needs his eighth title and I believe he made the right decision by activating the "escape clause" in his contract with Mercedes and going to Ferrari.... let's see how that goes!

Hamilton's decision to join Ferrari is probably the best decision for him (for now) because Ferrari is the best constructor after the RB team at the moment and with the presence of Vasseur who has the ability to communicate with drivers well, it could improve Hamilton's performance. At the moment we don't know what car Ferrari will give Hamilton, but it is likely that it will be better than the current season and this will further boost Hamilton's performance. Yeah, maybe we will be able to see the best duo from Ferrari in the 2025 season.

That is a big unknown where Hamilton has thrown himself into yet I also think he has made the right decision to join Ferrari as in Mercedes nothing good is happening and this is the 3rd consecutive season where Mercedes is in big trouble so the fact that he joined Ferrari may look like a good option judging how his life went in these 3 lost seasons with Mercedes,no one has time to lose 3 seasons when you are near 40 of age now.

Ferrari be better give him a superb car,even the second fastest in the hands of Hamilton is much different than in the hands of Leclerc and Sainz who are not world Champion drivers despite the media strongly marketing them like that especially Leclerc,I see nothing exceptional from this guy from quite some years now.

[FanEagle]

Alonso signed contract with Aston Martin, which means that Sainz is not moving to Aston Martin after this season. Which leaves only a Mercedes spot left for him that's it. However, there are many other smaller teams that will not have contract with some of their racers, so he could find himself a spot in a team that is not great.

I am not saying that Haas or Williams would be lining up to get him, I just think that we are not going to see any changes or anything for them, I think it should be important to notice that we are going to send up with Sainz having an issue. He is too good of a driver to not be in a team, he should be in a team, he is better than Charles at Ferrari right now and yet he is going to be teamless.

[Distraction]

Did he really have bad memories with Aston Martin?  He left with mutual undertanding with the team.  And afaik he just retired as he felt like he didn't have it in him to race anymore.  And as for Stroll being his teammate, any old F1 driver who couldn't get a seat with a top team would looove to have Stroll as a teammate because Stroll sucks.  It would be easy to out qualify him and out point him.  :/

I think another reason why it would make sense for Mercedes to get Vettel is he would make a good mentor for Mick Shumacher.

I mean Aston Martin was in pain those days as you would also remember. Vettel wasn't a very competitive driver anymore also of course, you are right about it. However it would have still been nice to see Vettel driving a better version of Aston Martin car like the one in the last season. Alonso was really lucky to drive that car and he did a great work with it. 

And yeah, it isn't a difficult job for an experienced and skilled driver to outscore Stroll. However that driver has a really big responsibility to keep the team as high as possible in the standings also.

Last season, Alonso collected 206 points while Stroll had only 74 points... If Stroll was better Aston Martin could have overtaken McLaren too. 

[tokeweed]

^  After the pain of being a Ferrari driver, I don't think Vettel could feel any more pain in F1.    At Aston Martin, at least the team listened to him and appreciated his inputs.  I don't think it was really the case at Ferrari.

Anyway..  Chinese Grand Prix next!  Let's see how Ferrari and Mercedes react after RBR 1 - 2 at Japan.

2024 F1 Chinese GP Schedule
Track:  Shanghai International Circuit



April 19:  Practice 1  11:30 - 12:30
April 19:  Sprint Qualifying  15:30 - 16:15
April 20:  Sprint  11:00 - 12:00
April 20:  Qualifying  15:00 - 16:00
April 21:  Race  15:00

[FanEagle]

Did he really have bad memories with Aston Martin?  He left with mutual undertanding with the team.  And afaik he just retired as he felt like he didn't have it in him to race anymore.  And as for Stroll being his teammate, any old F1 driver who couldn't get a seat with a top team would looove to have Stroll as a teammate because Stroll sucks.  It would be easy to out qualify him and out point him.  :/

I think another reason why it would make sense for Mercedes to get Vettel is he would make a good mentor for Mick Shumacher.

I mean Aston Martin was in pain those days as you would also remember. Vettel wasn't a very competitive driver anymore also of course, you are right about it. However it would have still been nice to see Vettel driving a better version of Aston Martin car like the one in the last season. Alonso was really lucky to drive that car and he did a great work with it. 

And yeah, it isn't a difficult job for an experienced and skilled driver to outscore Stroll. However that driver has a really big responsibility to keep the team as high as possible in the standings also.

Last season, Alonso collected 206 points while Stroll had only 74 points... If Stroll was better Aston Martin could have overtaken McLaren too. 

The difference was that Aston Martin paid big bucks for some engineers at Red Bull, so when they hired those new designers and engineers from Red Bull they also got all the things that makes Red Bull a better car.

Obviously there are some things even engineers can't handle, no matter how you design the car, if the engine is not as powerful for example, or if the ERS is not as powerful, basically there are so many things that they could, but stuff like the cars shape and all could be worked into it, stolen basically from Newey and put into Aston Martin. Vettel still did as well as he could, and I think he wasn't really caring about it, he could have gone to any other team, he just decided to retire himself there for a bit more last ounce of money.

[joniboini]

But I have to give two thumbs up to Pedro Acosta because he was able to immediately make extraordinary improvements with the motorbike in his Gasgas team even though he used the KTM engine brand. Meanwhile, Marquez is on the Gresini team using a Ducati engine but has to compete fiercely with a rookie who has just entered the MotoGP class this season. Obviously this was extraordinary even though Marquez had to go home without any points because he fell in the race.

Yeah, that's why it feels surprising seeing how I can see similarities between Rossi-Marquez to Marquez-Acosta or whoever showed a lot of promise as a rookie. This is obviously a simplification and I'm not going to call Acosta the next Marquez or something along those lines, it is just interesting to see. I remember reading how Marquez kept struggling after his big injury in 2020, I guess it is impossible to be consistent for 7 straight seasons even if you're still quite young. Sometimes luck also plays a part so it is hard to argue what he can do better to achieve the next world champion.

[coinlocket$]

Journalists started talking about the next Chinese GP with their predictions.

there is talk of a Redbull always at an advantage but with a reduced gap on Ferrari, the track seems very favorable to the Italian team.

Ferrari hasn't won in China for a decade, is this really the right time?

[Republikcoin.com]

Yeah, that's why it feels surprising seeing how I can see similarities between Rossi-Marquez to Marquez-Acosta or whoever showed a lot of promise as a rookie. This is obviously a simplification and I'm not going to call Acosta the next Marquez or something along those lines, it is just interesting to see. I remember reading how Marquez kept struggling after his big injury in 2020, I guess it is impossible to be consistent for 7 straight seasons even if you're still quite young. Sometimes luck also plays a part so it is hard to argue what he can do better to achieve the next world champion.

Every year there are always opponents who will be an obstacle for anyone who wants to win, whether they are opponents from satellite teams or factory teams. This season Acosta raced as if he didn't have any pressure and as if he had enough experience, even though he was still a rookie, but everyone has admitted that he is truly a great rookie because he was able to beat more experienced riders on the MotoGP grid this season. However, to become a champion, of course there are other things that must be looked at as you said, namely the level of luck because not all riders can get it under the same conditions.

[Distraction]

By the way have you heard about the latest news - or should I say rumours? 

- Adrian Newey is in close contact with Ferrari recently and this big transfer could really get real! 
- Red Bull is in talks with Sainz while Audi is also trying to convince him to driver for themselves as of 2026.

Adrian Newey, Hamilton and Bono... If all of these names are seen at Ferrari at the same time then I would be very impatient for next season. 

When it comes to Red Bull - Sainz it would be a really sensible deal if one of the seats get ready for him.

[tokeweed]

Journalists started talking about the next Chinese GP with their predictions.

there is talk of a Redbull always at an advantage but with a reduced gap on Ferrari, the track seems very favorable to the Italian team.

Ferrari hasn't won in China for a decade, is this really the right time?

I hope so...  I'm mostly an RBR fan but I feel like I've been hating them a lot lately and would love to see them lose against Ferrari.  Lol.  But let's see.  

But sports journos usually write something just to get your attention.  Doesn't have to be what they really think.  Some of the time, they're just made up...  I'm guessing the journalists are from Italy?  If yes, that's prolly to make Italian fans more interested in the Chinese GP.

Edit:  Verstappen to win is at 1.05.  :/  Perez next at 17 then Sainz and Leclerc at 31 each.