Does seem like it’s going to be a thing. Quite odd.
is this confirmed? Or speculation?
If it’s true Yuki is also going to struggle with it.
All teams coalesce their development around the lead driver, I just think that RB takes it to extremes and always has done. We have seen how difficult it was for Seb to drive any other car. The thing with RB is having a second team they should be able to more easily introduce another driver. Not everything will be completely new. Lawson may not be up to the task, but he may realise where he needs to improve and come back stronger.
Interesting!
@bruss I agree with you to a large extent about teams developing cars to match the lead driver. strengths. The problem is when the lead driver drives around the problems rather than working with the team to address them. If you look at MotoGP, this is what happened with Honda and Mark Marquez, in Honda’s case the bike became so difficult to ride that even Mark couldn’t ride it. Red Bull seems to be doing the same with their car, Max hadn’t until mid-season last year worried too much about the car’s drivability. Then the car got too much even for Max to handle for several races and in most of last year Checo was lucky to finish a session. RB would be better off making the car more drivable than throwing another driver at it, at this stage of the season. Max also needs to stop trying to use his undoubted talent to drive around the problems. Lewis, Michael, Alain, Ayrton and Seb were/are all top-tier talents, the difference is they were better development drivers I believe. If Max could develop his skills as a development driver, then he and Red Bull will return to dominating both championships. If he doesn’t then they will have one driver doing significantly better than the other whilst destroying their second drivers’ confidence in themselves. Look at what Alex and Pierre are managing to do in other cars. Carlos I believe had a lucky escape in not getting the poison chalice that the second RB drive is.
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That all makes sense. One of Hamiltons greatest attributes is that he is still a development driver with the team. It is this that I thought would make it difficult for him at Ferrari who have a long history of ignoring their drivers and just expecting them to ‘just drive the blddy thing’. I also think that is why Hamilton has achieved so much, particularly when compared to an equal or perhaps better driver in Alonso who has never developed that ability to work with a team.
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That’s not correct, he had been complaining about it, quite vocally, since the beginning. It seems it was just largely ignored then as he was still winning at that point.
It’s not so much Lawson’s performance as his lack of understanding how the situation can be improved that’s the issue.
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You are right he was complaining, but my point, possibly badly put is that he could drive around the problems. Because of this the car got worse to the point he couldn’t drive around them, in much the same way Mark M in MotoGP had a fast but impossible to ride bike. As with the MotoGP situation, RB have been like Honda a few seasons ago. did not address the problems because they were still winning. Adrian N. has said on the record that RB did not take enough action to address the drivers concerns and this was the same at Honda with their riders. Mark and Max both believed they could manage the problems but it comes to a point where it is beyond even their talents.
I think Vasseur will support his drivers more than Ferarri usually has historically, Todt and Brawn did this with Michael and won a lot. After this trio left I think Ferarri slipped back to old ways to a degree and suffered. Domicelli tried to get the team to take more heed of the driver’s views and this approach was beginning to show signs of working but he got the push before it fully did and Ferrari slipped back again. Hopefully, this weekend’s mishaps with the set-up that led to disqualification will be seen as the team pushing the envelope a bit too much rather than a total disaster and heads rolling. Merc under Toto, focused on learning from mistakes not looking for head to chop, which contributed to the team’s sustained success.
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Another example would be Ducati when Stoner was riding for them, he was able to force the bike to work where a long list of other top class riders found it practically unrideable.
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I think in all 3 cases its the insane talent of the driver/rider they can adapt and drive around anything.
Like driving in the wet too, the talent always carries through. All the utter greats adapt to a new track or conditions quicker, Senna and Schumacher another two.
I think of Jim Clark in his Lotus Cortina, no-one could touch him, those videos on youtube show outstanding car control. You don’t hear them moaning about learning a new car, they just drive or ride the nuts off it.
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Assuming McLaren maintain their dominance all season then I see a Hamilton/Rosberg title fight between Lando & Oscar.
I wonder how long it will be before they run into each other?
From the joint interview after China, Oscar strikes me as having a stronger character than Lando & as Webber is his manager & was not known as a shrinking violet, I suspect that Oscar (probably more talented against Lando than Webber was against Vettel) will already have his sights on the Championship & Lando will have a real fight on his hands.
Hamilton & Rosberg had things all their own way &, of course, did not have Verstappen to add to their problems on top of everything else.
It’s a good point you make.
However, times have changed & the cars are now so complex that even Hamilton/Verstappen etc. can’t simply jump in any other car & ‘drive the nuts off it’.
Hamilton remarked in Australia that his Ferrari still had buttons on its steering wheel that he had no idea what they did.
I also feel that it’s foolish in the extreme to not let drivers, especially rookies, not driven the cars in the wet in private test sessions.
Wet weather produces some farcical accidents & could produce some extremely dangerous situations.
To allow a rookie to drive a car with 10 to 15 times the power to weight ratio of the average family saloon in the wet, with no previous experience, is totally irresponsible to my way of thinking.
The McLaren pace advantage will be quickly eaten up I suspect. McLaren need to make hay for a couple of races to pull ahead before that happens. That means they need to define the number one and two drivers quickly to avoid splitting points for the championship. Will they do that?
Nah, I think the sprint race again showed that Norris really isn’t mentally hard enough. Or how he spoke about being stressed with Verstappen behind him in Australia. He’s very fast, but he doesn’t deal with stress or adversity that well. He might well win more races than Piastri, but Piastri is more likely to make the best of a bad situation, like Verstappen tends to do.
They will likely claim the constructors title though, which for the team is the most important prize anyway.
I think that’s hard for them.
- I don’t think Norris will be able to cope with Piastri being chosen.
- Piastri will not simply lie down, but go down fighting.
In both scenarios the constructors would come at risk.
I think Norris has had his chances. Piastri needs to be moved to number one to test whether he can take the pressure. Much better to do it now at the beginning of the season while they have an advantage.
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Yes I agree, but Hamilton not knowing what buttons do is complete rubbish. You don’t even have to be in the car to learn the buttons, also I am told that he had the buttons on his wheel put where he wanted them. I would leave the team asap if they didn’t have the foresight to tell you the basics.
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I remember watching him as a young teenager riding in the British 125gp championship at Caldwell Park. He finished about half a lap ahead of the field and clearly in a league of his own. His positioning was inch perfect lap after lap, incredibly impressive.
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It’s too soon to decide. They’ve each won a race, and McLaren won’t enforce team orders until mid-season. Your suggestion assumes a number 1 and 2 driver, which likely isn’t in their contracts.
No doubt they will take points off each other, which could ultimately cost them the drivers’ championship. This is a consideration when hiring two top-level drivers.
I didn’t say they would do it. I think they should though. The money is in winning the drivers championship and they need to try and ensure that. The constructors, or coming second doesn’t bring in the advertising revenue.