I miss the v10 grid start. And that goosebumps bit of music that came on when he Formula 1 World Championship came up in black and white. There was Murray Walker, beautiful engine sound, overtakes on straights without DRS, and cars on the limit. I just feel everything is watered down now, including the commentary on Sky.
So wehrlein confirmed at Manor. A good choice. Like a ricciardo at HRT. Also whoever designed the new manor logo should be shot. It's basically the Renault badge chopped in half to make an M
http://thejudge13.com/2016/02/15/manor-f1-plan-to-race-4-drivers-in-2016/? not the best they could find in each continent (looking at stevens who is looking to run a 3rd F1 season shockingly) but an interesting idea
Haryanto confirmed at Manor. Not a bad line up. I for one am looking forward to see how Manor (Mercedes B team) vs Haas (Ferrari B team) goes this year. Both have potential to be mid field and grab points. I presume STR and Sauber will be at the back unless they do something special. Also another battle is Renault vs Red Bull to see who can do the most with that engine block.
I think STR might do better than Red Bull for first few races. Remember they will have latest Ferraei 2015 PU and Red Bull the 2016 Renault. As for Renault vs Red Bull as far as I am aware they will both use same PU as homologation rules don't allow 'same engine' to homologated in different configurations. OK so my guess is Renault will have latest updates and will use more revs and higher power modes. But I think Illmor is working at Renault for the benefit of Renault's PU which Red Bull is a customer, nothing more. Will be interesting though.
I'm fairly sure STR will outdo Red Bull. They'll have the end of 2015 Ferrari PU whilst red bull will have the only partially updated 2016 Renault unit. The end of 2015 Ferrari was pretty good all things considered. If STR can make a stable car I can see them doing well until we return to Europe.
I'm certain Torro Rosso will have a great start because they had a good chassis and now they have a better engine, so their natural evolution early on sees them in good light in the short term. The drawback of that is that everyone will be ****ing off about Max Verstappens 'brilliance' again, the reckless little idiot.
to be fair he's had a lot less accidents per race than Vettel and Hamilton did in their early years. he sees the gap and he goes for it, isn't that what we want? Plus, you can drive around in midfield being careful and picking up points in the hope you'll have a place in F1 in the future, or you can try and shine as brightly as possible. I think he'll find it tougher this year though, I won't be surprised if he has more accidents due to drivers giving him far less room for his moves, though he's probably done enough to earn at least 2 more seasons after 2016 on the strength of last year alone.
He is what you want in terms of style and entertainment- but I think the notion that he is the world champ in waiting is a million miles off when you look at results beneath the surface and overall pace. He was in a very good chassis last year against some regressive midfield cars remember.
Well he's got far less experience racing than anyone else, made some great moves and totally trounced his highly regarded team-mate by scoring almost 3 times as many points.
Beyond that though were various reliability issues for Sainz, right? (EDIT: 7 DNF for Sainz, 4 for Max- not sure what the split on reliability or racing incident is) And a close qualifying battle? EDIT (10-9 to Max) I'm looking forward to watching those two race one another again.
At the moment Max is doing everything right (in the sense that you can never get everything right). He's making a mostly positive impression whilst lacking 10 years of experience compared to the WDC main players. He's exciting and does a pretty good job of treading the controlled aggression line. Controlled aggression will be seen differently by different people, which is why you get the headlines claiming him to be both brilliant and reckless. It'll be at least another year before we see how he handles his racing when the stakes are a bit higher, and the opposition is fighting for something other than mid points. We know several drivers can win, but only a few can win when it matters.
Yes, it'll be interesting to see how he handles being at the sharp end, and how he handles the car when they're more 'unleashed'. What impressed me was his willingness to go for it, and his ability to make it stick. I wouldn't call him 'reckless', he's certainly never tried anything as mad as some of Senna's attempted 'overtakes' (forget Prost, think of poor Johnny Dumfries), but he's certainly more willing to put it on the line compared to his contemporaries.
I remember Kamui Kobayashi first season back in 2009-2010 he was exciting to watch as he made overtaking manoeuvres where other drivers had not seen a reasonable chance. He was not always successful but he was great to watch. Over the next few seasons his aggression tempered and so did his exciting driving. It seemed like he was tempered by the team wanting points without risk. Hopefully Max continues his exciting drive and only tempers a little.
We have such a good mix of fiesty young drivers and seasoned vets this season. Can't wait for the fireworks and see who rises to the top. It could be nearly any driver team combo!