Hamilton 5x World Champion ?

[wes4dbt]

I guess it's official, Red Bull is going with Lawson. Sort of feel bad for Tsunoda. He had a really good year. Max probably likes have a such a junior driver as a partner, it should prevent any interteam competition.

[OptionBase1]

I guess it's official, Red Bull is going with Lawson. Sort of feel bad for Tsunoda. He had a really good year. Max probably likes have a such a junior driver as a partner, it should prevent any interteam competition.

I think we've seen Tsunoda's ceiling. He's a very capable driver. We haven't seen much of Lawson, but they must think he has the potential to be better than Tsunoda is now.

I really wish Red Bull had had the stones to swap out Perez during the summer break. The worst that would have happened is that they still finish 3rd in the constructor's championship.

Having pondered all the possible scenarios at great length, I still think their best option would have been to steal Carlos from Williams and pair him with Max for 1 year and keep Lawson at VCARB for a full season, and then re-evaluate in 1 year. I think Max/Carlos as a team have a higher point ceiling potential in 2025 than Max/Lawson. And, let's be honest, Sainz deserves a better seat than a Williams.

[wes4dbt]

Yeah, Carlos definitely deserves better than Williams. I wish HAAS would have grabbed him.

Red Bull might have been worried about to MUCH competition between Max and Carlos. It's a lot easier when you have a clear number 1 driver.

[ChrisE]

looks like Mick Schumacher is going empty next year, wonder if he will ever get another chance again in a cockpit.
certainly does not look like it

[OptionBase1]

looks like Mick Schumacher is going empty next year, wonder if he will ever get another chance again in a cockpit.
certainly does not look like it

Yeah, each passing year makes it even less likely. There will always be new talent coming out of F2 each year, so being out of a seat for 3+ years pretty much guarantees he won't be coming back. It is somewhat of a shame, it would have been nice to see him in a car that was more competitive than Haas was when he was there.

[OptionBase1]

You know it is the "slow F1 news offseason" when PlanetF1 posts an article speculating that Max Verstappen may go to Williams in a year or two.

[OptionBase1]

Rolex 24 starts tomorrow on NBC, then switches to USA, then pretty much only on Peacock until the final hour or two when it is back on NBC. Such a grind of a race, I always feel terrible for the cars that have mechanical issues in the last hour or two.

[ChrisE]

just seen Lewis Ham. in Red with the old 2023 Ferrari
what a funny sight, wonder if this will be his last F1 Season
he will be 40 this year

[Shaggy Hiker]

If so, we'd have to change the title of the thread.

Or at least mark it resolved

[OptionBase1]

just seen Lewis Ham. in Red with the old 2023 Ferrari
what a funny sight, wonder if this will be his last F1 Season
he will be 40 this year

I hope he does well at Ferrari. It is a shame that the Mercedes went from mostly untouchable for years to struggling for the occasional podium once the new regulations went into effect a few years ago. I hope doesn't retire after just 1 year at Ferrari.

[wes4dbt]

Rolex 24 starts tomorrow on NBC, then switches to USA, then pretty much only on Peacock until the final hour or two when it is back on NBC. Such a grind of a race, I always feel terrible for the cars that have mechanical issues in the last hour or two.

Wasn't that the race that Dale Jr's car caught on fire and he came real close to being seriously hurt.

[ChrisE]

If so, we'd have to change the title of the thread.

Or at least mark it resolved

well he is 7xWorld Champion, I do hope he does well with Ferrari but I will be rooting for Lando Norris.... go Lando go

[ChrisE]

I hope he does well at Ferrari. It is a shame that the Mercedes went from mostly untouchable for years to struggling for the occasional podium once the new regulations went into effect a few years ago. I hope doesn't retire after just 1 year at Ferrari.

well I think Lewis with 40 is Fit, look at Fenando Alonso(43) and still going strong

[wes4dbt]

I caught the late 1 1/2hrs of the Rolex 24. Really good finishes. Amazed it was that close after 24hrs.

[OptionBase1]

I caught the late 1 1/2hrs of the Rolex 24. Really good finishes. Amazed it was that close after 24hrs.

Absolutely. It was the best finish I've ever seen where all 4 classes had close finishes for the class win.

[wes4dbt]

It was fun to watch the racing at the Bowman Gray track. I though Hamlin would win once he got the lead but Elliot came back.

Next stop Daytona. Looking forward to it.

[OptionBase1]

It was fun to watch the racing at the Bowman Gray track. I though Hamlin would win once he got the lead but Elliot came back.

Next stop Daytona. Looking forward to it.

I liked the rule that only Green flag laps count.

My biggest beef when Nascar went with the stage system was the wasted laps between stages under caution. Especially at road courses, where there can be something like 60 laps to begin with. They end up burning at least 4 laps of caution between stages, which ends up being over 10% of the scheduled race duration. I thought they tried out not throwing a caution flag at the end of stages specifically for road courses at some point. That would be a permanent change I would be in favor of. Or just not counting the laps between stages towards the total race duration.

[OptionBase1]

Opening race weekend! Looking ahead at the TV schedule, I don't even see what channel if any the practice sessions are on. Qualifying is on ESPNU at midnight Saturday morning. Race starts at midnight Sunday morning on ESPN. I'm definitely staying up late to watch it live.

I honestly have no idea what to expect. If it is anything like the end of last year, then there's 7 or 8 drivers that could potentially win. I guess we'll know more after the practice sessions and qualifying what to expect.

If Max wins the championship this year again, it will likely be a hard fought win. I hope Liam Lawson catches on quickly in the second seat.

If I had to pick a constructor's champion for this year, I'd have to go with McLaren. Of the top 4 teams, they are the only one to have the same driver pairing this year. And of course they won last year, so they have the momentum and experience of how to get it done.

[wes4dbt]

Opening race weekend! Looking ahead at the TV schedule, I don't even see what channel if any the practice sessions are on. Qualifying is on ESPNU at midnight Saturday morning. Race starts at midnight Sunday morning on ESPN. I'm definitely staying up late to watch it live.

I honestly have no idea what to expect. If it is anything like the end of last year, then there's 7 or 8 drivers that could potentially win. I guess we'll know more after the practice sessions and qualifying what to expect.

If Max wins the championship this year again, it will likely be a hard fought win. I hope Liam Lawson catches on quickly in the second seat.

If I had to pick a constructor's champion for this year, I'd have to go with McLaren. Of the top 4 teams, they are the only one to have the same driver pairing this year. And of course they won last year, so they have the momentum and experience of how to get it done.

I saw one practice listed. I use this site for racing schedules,

https://www.tvracer.com/

You really don't know what cars are going to be the strongest. It'll be interesting to see. I've noticed the last couple of years that McLaren has gotten off to very slow starts and Aston Martin got off to good starts. Lots of unknowns this year, should be fun.

[OptionBase1]

I saw one practice listed. I use this site for racing schedules,

https://www.tvracer.com/

You really don't know what cars are going to be the strongest. It'll be interesting to see. I've noticed the last couple of years that McLaren has gotten off to very slow starts and Aston Martin got off to good starts. Lots of unknowns this year, should be fun.

Yeah, now my onscreen TV listings shows Practice 2 tonight on ESPN2 at 11:55. Sometimes the listings that are more than 1 day into the future aren't accurate.

[OptionBase1]

Yay! The 2025 season is officially underway.

[OptionBase1]

If I were a betting person (which I'm not), I would bet $1000 to anyone else's $1000 that Hamilton will accidentally stop in the Mercedes pits at least once this year, whether in Practice, Qualifying, Sprint, or Race.

[OptionBase1]

My qualifying opinions:

-Not at all surprised to see McLaren take the front row
-Not at all surprised to see Max and George get the second row
-Very surprised to see a Williams and Racing Bull in the third row
-Disappointing to see both Ferrari's all the way down in row 4
-Disappointing to see Alonso and Stroll in 12th and 13th. Apparently Adrian Newey hasn't had a meaningful performance impact on the car yet.
-Disappointing to see both Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson knocked out in Q1.

I think it should be very obvious that Liam Lawson absolutely needs to perform in order to keep his seat in the second Red Bull car. If Yuki Tsunoda in the Racing Bull consistently outperforms Liam in the Red Bull, expect a seat swap after 6 races or so.

[wes4dbt]

I thought Yuki should have gotten that seat to begin with. He had a very good year.

HAAS is off to a terrible start. Disappointed to see that.

[OptionBase1]

Not a great first race for most of the rookies. Obviously Kimi had the best day of the rookies, and Oliver salvaged what had been a disastrous weekend to finish the race on the lead lap.

The Ferrari engineer <--> Hamilton radio messages show that there is a lot to learn there.

Oscar's spinout was a bummer, but at least he was able to finish in the points.

It was a pretty chaotic first race.

[wes4dbt]

Yeah, fun to watch. If three more cars would have wrecked HAAS would have scored points.

Man, HAAS performance was terrible. They never came close to challenging anyone.

Was impressed by the poise of Norris.

[OptionBase1]

I was very happy for Lewis to get the Sprint pole. Hopefully he can hang on and take home the win. I'm guessing Max might be vulnerable in second place, but maybe he can hold on to that position as well.

Liam Lawson qualifying dead last for the Sprint is another strike against him for keeping his Red Bull seat. He's nowhere near Max. I bet Sergio Perez is thinking "Hey Marko, miss me yet?"

[OptionBase1]

Liam Lawson qualifying dead last for the race. Not good. I mean, yes, it is only his second race weekend in the seat. But to be that far off of Max means that even if he cuts the gap from himself to Max in half, he's still going to struggle to earn points each race.

It's early, but I would say there is no chance that Red Bull wins the constructor's championship this year.

Otherwise, I've been really impressed with the other rookies so far this weekend.

[wes4dbt]

Yeah, Max is still very much in the mix for the championship so is Piastri. Actually all the usual suspects are hovering around.

HAAS looks better this race but it is a fairly low speed course. I read last week they were really struggling with the car at high speeds.

[OptionBase1]

Interesting race. I was surprised how many teams pulled off the 1 stop strategy. Too bad for the RB guys that they committed to the 2 stop early.

It is very early, but McLaren look poised to dominate each race. They might win as many as Max did a couple years ago.

It has to be devastating that both Haas's scored in the points, and Liam Lawson was nowhere near them.

[OptionBase1]

Yikes, just seeing that LeClerc, Hamilton, and Gasly were all disqualified from the race. That bumps up lots of people. Ocon finished 5th, Bearman finished 8th for Haas. Great points day for them.

[wes4dbt]

Yikes, just seeing that LeClerc, Hamilton, and Gasly were all disqualified from the race. That bumps up lots of people. Ocon finished 5th, Bearman finished 8th for Haas. Great points day for them.

Wow, really great day for HAAS. Hard to say where they really stand compared to the others, big swing in performance.

What did the Ferrari's get disqualified for? To much red?

[OptionBase1]

LeClerc - car was underweight after the race
Hamilton - skid plate underneath car was not thick enough
Gasly - car was underweight after the race

[OptionBase1]

The unofficial rumor is that Tsunoda and Lawson will swap seats ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in 1.5 weeks.

If so, it could be a win-win move for both. Lawson performed way better in the RB last year than he has in the Red Bull this year.

[wes4dbt]

The unofficial rumor is that Tsunoda and Lawson will swap seats ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix in 1.5 weeks.

If so, it could be a win-win move for both. Lawson performed way better in the RB last year than he has in the Red Bull this year.

I'm curious to see what happens if they do swap. It could take several races for Tsunoda to get use to the Red Bull car. Red Bull might not see immediate gains.

[OptionBase1]

I'm curious to see what happens if they do swap. It could take several races for Tsunoda to get use to the Red Bull car. Red Bull might not see immediate gains.

Great point. Tsunoda may have little to no experience driving the Red Bull car, and his disadvantage is having 4+ years in the RB. If they are substantially different, which it sounds like they are, he might have an even more difficult time adjusting than Lawson.

I've heard rumblings that if things go haywire they might try to poach Botaas (Mercedes backup driver) or even Zhou Guanyu (Ferrari backup driver). They might need to swallow their pride and bring Perez back. At his worst he was still performing better than Liam has in his first two races.

[OptionBase1]

It was officially announced earlier today that Tsunoda and Lawson have swapped seats. I hope Tsunoda performs well enough to keep the seat for the remainder of the season, and that Lawson gets some quality finishes back in the RB.

[wes4dbt]

It was officially announced earlier today that Tsunoda and Lawson have swapped seats. I hope Tsunoda performs well enough to keep the seat for the remainder of the season, and that Lawson gets some quality finishes back in the RB.

If nothing else, it'll make it more interesting to watch.

[Elroy]

I am thrilled that Tsunoda is getting a shot. Personally, I think he should have been chosen for the #2 Red Bull seat at the beginning of the season. Tsunoda turned in a better record than Lawson when they were racing head-to-head in the last six GPs of 2024.

For the last couple of years, I've been a Lando Norris fan, with my wife rooting on Verstappen. But she always takes the "easy" pick. I'm more for an underdog who's got a true shot, and that was definitely Norris a couple of years ago.

However, I seem to be switching to Piastri these days. Norris seems a bit "broken in the head" these days. I hope I'm wrong, as he seems like a nice kid, but I don't know.

I would have loved to see Alonso pick up a couple more wins, but I think he's done. He still frequently outperforms Stroll, but that's not saying much. In fact, so far this year, Stroll has looked better. But, I'm not sure that's him getting better, or Alonso showing his age.

---

Interestingly, this is about the only sport I follow, having paid for the F1 app on Roku for a few years now. I was into NASCAR for quite a few years, but (from my perspective) they've gotten a bit weird as of late.

I'll still watch the highlights of 24 Hours of Lemans, and maybe the Datona or Sebring races, as gosh, those endurance races are just a whole other animal. And the Ford vs Ferrari Matt Damon movie is on my top-ten list.

---

Anyway, enough rambling.

[OptionBase1]

Tsunoda looked fast and comfortable in the Red Bull, Lawson looked fast and comfortable in the Racing Bull. So far, so good on the seat swap.