Deadlines? What Deadlines? Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 Nikita Mazepin likely to lose his seat at Haas. Oh no! Anyway, annoyingly it looks like they can't get an actual top-rated driver, so will be likely to field Fittipaldi instead, who is okay, at best (but anyone would be a leg up on Mazepin). Some suggestions they might use Giovinazzi instead, who has actual recent F1 experience. Obviously, the race in Sochi has been cancelled and Istanbul Park has been drafted in once again. They might as well consider just a permanent switch at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loge Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 Mazepin has been sacked. All future Russian GP have been cancelled. Haas will have to find a new sponsor as well as a driver. Might hire another pay driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 Haas is in a better place financially then it was. I think the deal with Mazepin's father (a very close ally with Putin, and seen in a meeting with him in the Kremlin on the day of the invasion) was actually a much bigger problem for them than Mazepin himself, and they knew that at every single race and in every press briefing, Mazepin would be asked about his father. I believe F1 can fine teams if their driver refuses to take part in press briefings, so it would just turn into a fiasco. Fittipaldi looks like the short-term choice, but there are some rumours that Haas would prefer Giovinazzi (with recent F1 experience and it gives them better terms with Ferrari) or Oscar Piastri as a real talent they can put up against Schumacher. However, Piastri is apparently really bereft of sponsorship and brings almost no money to the table, plus Haas would have to pay Alpine serious bank to borrow him. Interesting speculation today that Kaspersky's logos and sponsorship would also have to be removed from Ferrari. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 13 hours ago, Loge said: Mazepin has been sacked. All future Russian GP have been cancelled. Haas will have to find a new sponsor as well as a driver. Might hire another pay driver. Good riddance. From a driving point of view whoever they hire must be an improvement, he did seem to be the worst F1 driver in many years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 56 minutes ago, williamjm said: Good riddance. From a driving point of view whoever they hire must be an improvement, he did seem to be the worst F1 driver in many years. Correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 Perhaps a bit surprisingly Haas have recruited Kevin Magnussen for their free seat, I hadn't really heard much speculation about him being a candidate although obviously he's got a strong connection with the team. In general, I think having at least one experienced driver rather than two (fairly) new to the sport is a good strategy. Meanwhile Mazepin was whining about Haas being completely unfair in firing him only for the EU to promptly announce that he (and his father) were being put on the oligarch sanctions list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 1 minute ago, williamjm said: Perhaps a bit surprisingly Haas have recruited Kevin Magnussen for their free seat, I hadn't really heard much speculation about him being a candidate although obviously he's got a strong connection with the team. In general, I think having at least one experienced driver rather than two (fairly) new to the sport is a good strategy. Meanwhile Mazepin was whining about Haas being completely unfair in firing him only for the EU to promptly announce that he (and his father) were being put on the oligarch sanctions list. Yup, which would have made it impossible for him to race anyway. I think K-Mag is an odd choice, especially since the obviously superior Hulkenberg and Piastri were available and probably bring about as much money to the team (they would have to buy out Piastri's Alpine contract though, so maybe that's understandable). Hell, I'd have probably picked Giovinazzi over Magnuessen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord of Oop North Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Fittipaldi is too unseasoned for them to risk it with the new car. I think Gene Haas even said this (more or less) himself. Besides, I've watched Fittipaldi in IndyCar and he is average. I read that Hulkenberg was also ruled out because of his contract with Aston Martin (reserve driver), which made him more expensive than Magnussen. Keep in mind when Hulkenberg left F1 he was reported to be making 2-3x Magnussen' salary. With Piastri, there is a chance he goes to Alpine next year, so perhaps Haas was not interested in potentially starting again next year. He is also young, so if Haas was after experience that would be a knock against him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadlines? What Deadlines? Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 "The Williams has a really extreme sidepod design." Mercedes: "Hold my beer." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Christian Horner made a complaint about the Mercedes sidepods, got nowhere, and then angrily asked people to stop talking about him making a complaint. The result is that #KarenHorner is now trending, obviously. Meanwhile, the much classier Mattia Binotto is all, "Wow, that's a clever idea. Damn, we didn't think of that. Good on them." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadlines? What Deadlines? Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 What's even better is the comment from the Mercedes technical director after the Barcelona test, that they thought the Red Bull sidepod design was really interesting and they would be looking into it. Clearly they had no intention of looking into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadlines? What Deadlines? Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 Wrong tempo for Enter Sandman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Early takeaways from Drive to Survive Season 4: Ricciardo took his bad performances really to heart, like far worse than we really saw at the time. Also more tension between him and Norris than I think people thought existed. Some puzzlement from Brown, who assumed with their sense of humour they'd get on better. The relationship does seem to improve a lot over the season though. Christian Horner has become more and more profoundly annoying over the years. Nikita Mazepin is much, much more of a dickhead then we thought he was. Screaming at his engineers, not really listening to anyone, Steiner getting over his shit on Day 1 and just ribbing the fuck out of him to the point Mazepin's dad gets annoyed and threatens to pull funding, which Steiner seems to ignore in favour of then needling him. No regrets about severing that relationship at all, I think. Carlos Sainz has a tremendous attitude and work ethic, and the work he put into building his new connections at Ferrari and with Leclerc (minimising the tension when Sainz does better) is very impressive. Ferrari being a harmonious workplace and McLaren struggling seems really weird, which everyone acknowledges. Possibly a bit too much focus on the Red Bull-Mercedes, Horner-Wolff rivalry. It crops up even in the episodes not really about the championship battle. They can't even really do the Hamilton-Verstappen stuff justice because Verstappen just refused to take part in interviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 Alpine have agreed to loan Oscar Piastri to McLaren if Ricciardo if he can't race next weekend due to his COVID symptoms. Mercedes seem to think they've got a real problem with the car, the other teams, as usual, think they're talking BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord of Oop North Posted March 14, 2022 Share Posted March 14, 2022 On 3/12/2022 at 9:23 AM, Werthead said: Mercedes seem to think they've got a real problem with the car, the other teams, as usual, think they're talking BS. Sounds familiar! Last year was the same. We shall see, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 17, 2022 Share Posted March 17, 2022 Ooh shiny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 Well, that qualifying session looks pretty fucking grim for not just Mercedes but everything powered by their engine. I mean, Russell got beaten by a Haas, an Alpine and an Alfa with Bottas in it. Fucking whoops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 1 hour ago, polishgenius said: Well, that qualifying session looks pretty fucking grim for not just Mercedes but everything powered by their engine. I mean, Russell got beaten by a Haas, an Alpine and an Alfa with Bottas in it. Fucking whoops. I'm sure Bottas was amused by that. Admittedly, I think Russell made a mistake at the start of that final lap so it wasn't particularly representative of the car's pace but Hamilton being over 6/10ths of a second off pole is probably more of a concern. It does look like we could be in for a very competitive year between Ferrari and Red Bull. Haas seem to have made the most dramatic improvement compared to last year, I'm sure having two competent drivers helps as well. Mangussen seemed to be having some technical issues so hopefully they can get cleared up for the race so he can back up his strong qualifying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted March 19, 2022 Share Posted March 19, 2022 Quite a bananas outcome, and surprising given Mercedes' resources. It makes you wonder if the problem is not as fundamental as it appears and they could improve and start fighting for wins later on, though perhaps not soon enough to interfere in a Leclerc/Verstappen championship battle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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