In the round-up: Lando Norris believes former team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr should have held out for a potential seat at Red Bull
In brief
Sainz “should have gone to Red Bull” – Norris
After Williams announced that it had signed Carlos Sainz Jnr to partner Alexander Albon at the team for the 2025 season, Lando Norris said he would have liked to have seen his former McLaren team mate move to the Red Bull seat currently occupied by Sergio Perez instead.
“I don’t know what their [Williams] plans are,” Norris told Sky.
“Honestly, the easy one is just to say Red Bull – he should have gone there, in in my eyes. Obviously, I’m biased – I know Carlos more than I know Checo, but Carlos deserves a lot. He’s one of the best drivers in Formula 1. He’s proven that countless times. And I’m a good friend of his. I’m happy for him that he’s still in Formula 1, I’m still happy that he got a drive and that he can try and bring Williams back up.
“Him partnering Alex, I think it would be good for Formula 1 at the same time – so that’s a good thing. But I’m sure a lot of people would love to say that he should have gone to Red Bull, potentially. But that’s, not my decision to make.”
High upgrade rate sign of Mercedes’ improvement – Shovlin
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, says the team’s increased rate of bringing upgrades to their car in 2024 reflects the team’s improvement this season.“The rate of them [upgrades] is really high at the moment, Shovlin said. “Which is just a feature of how well the organisation’s working.
“A lot of success in Formula 1 is about learning and it’s about ideas and at the moment the rate of learning has been high this year, the generation of ideas has been good. And ultimately that’s where all the new parts and new developments come from.”
Crawford craving more consistency
Aston Martin development driver Jak Crawford says he wants to find more consistency over the final four rounds of the Formula 2 season.
The DAMS driver sits fifth in the championship after the Spa-Francorchamps round on 100 points. He says he wants to score more regularly than he has been and that will be his focus over the summer break.
“From my side, I think it’ll be about about how can we be more consistent over the rounds,” he said.
“We have a bad round where we score zero points and then we have a round where we’re fighting for a win in the feature race and then we have a bad round and so on. So it’s been quite up and down, to be honest. So we need to find a way to be more consistent, especially in qualifying. And from my side, just preparing myself for these final races which are very crucial. I think I want to be on it and learn from my mistakes this year and make sure that I never let them happen again.”
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Stanek only ''50-50'' on continuing F2 season beyond Monza (Formula Scout)
''Basically, we had a contract only for 11 rounds, so it looks like I’m not going to race after Monza. Now it’s fully open. I don’t know. It’s up to my management also, so in this period of summer break, we will try to decide.''
1997: Karting star Lewis Hamilton set for F1? | Black Britain (BBC Archives via YouTube)
'Black Britain caught up with Lewis Hamilton and his dad Anthony as the 12-year-old was making waves on the UK's karting circuit. Could he possibly become a star in Formula 1? Many challenges remained on the road to stardom, but McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Formula 1 scout Bill Sisley were both confident he would make it. Clip taken from Black Britain, originally broadcast on BBC Two, Wednesday 19th November 1997.'
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Comment of the day
Was Red Bull right to back Sergio Perez over promoting Daniel Ricciardo back into their senior team? Yes, says Asd…
What has been shown in recent years about Ricciardo is that he requires a very particular car characteristic in order to be fast. Anything else and he struggles and is slow.
So, if I was Red Bull, I wouldn’t want to risk a situation where their car simply doesn’t suit Ricciardo and he is slower than Perez without any one-off good performances even possible.
Asd
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Daniel, Nefer, Gilles De Wilde and Manox!
The Dolphins
2nd August 2024, 1:44
No way would Carlos want to be #2 to Max and you know he’s good enough they would need to write that clearly into his contract.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd August 2024, 6:56
I really really doubt sainz is good enough to challenge verstappen in a situation where they are allowed to fight it out, he can only beat leclerc when the car isn’t very good, when the car is good you get a 2022 situation and verstappen is more complete than leclerc.
Davethechicken
2nd August 2024, 9:46
Not sure why you think Sainz wouldn’t be at Max’s pace.
Even Marko himself stated that Max and Carlos were “very evenly matched” when paired at Toro Rosso.
What makes you think it different now?
Max’s strongest teammate since was Riccardo who is hardly a stellar talent
Mayrton
2nd August 2024, 12:02
Maybe because that was ages ago and Max was still 17? One has 3 WDCs, the other a handful of race wins. I know people don’t like Max as some don’t like Lewis, but it is hard to argue they are not the best in the current field.
Davethechicken
2nd August 2024, 19:56
Yes it was ages ago, but Carlos has as much potential to improve as any other human. They have both had roughly the same number if races. It is quite a supposition to believe only Max can have got better.
I don’t dispute Max is fast, I think Lewis is past his best, but is proven against strong drivers as teammates but Max is unproven against a strong teammate, Red Bull consistently avoiding the scenario. Why do Red Bull avoid this?
It is odd and unprecedented that Max will have 10 seasons and 200 GP starts and likely 4wdcs very soon and not have faced a top driver as teammate.
dan
2nd August 2024, 20:50
Maytron you are completley right about Sainz not challenging Max, no one would imo. What i find amazing is recently i seen a comment from you saying Lewis is not one of the greats of F1, yet when you want to big Max up(rightly so in this case) you claim Lewis is now in in the best of field group. Lewis is absoloutely one of the greats and he will prove how great he is going against yet another younger talent in Leclerc next year. Leclerc retired Vettel. That is why Ham carear looks even better right now, Ham is going vs the guy who made another one of ur favs Lando look very silly in F2. Hamilton does not have the raw pace like he did but he is defo up there with Max over a race i would say behind tho.
Mayrton
3rd August 2024, 10:46
@dan, let’s see how he fares against Leclerc. So far he has not had the upper hand against George. As to your point of Lewis being a great; he surely is. All I have ever been arguing is that 7 WDC is disproportionate and not a reflection of where he sits vs the others. In F1 we can never really assess given it’s a true team sport but a way I use is to discard any WDC title when your team mate came in 2nd. Then I would tend to say it was rather the car. Lewis is at 3 WDC then, which seems about right.
Robbie1
2nd August 2024, 12:42
@davetgechicken
Max in only his 2nd season in single seater Formula cars and without any knowledge of the Pirelli tires and qualifying: 60
Carlos in his 5th or 6th season in single seater Formula cars and with plenty of knowledge about Pirelli and qualifying: 22
Max would do to Carlos what he did to Checo, Alex, Pierre and Daniel.
Eat them up and spit them out.
MichaelN
2nd August 2024, 15:32
The points total is skewed by Sainz’ DNFs from similarly competitive places.
Verstappen was on the whole better and faster, but not by as much as the points suggest.
David BR (@david-br)
2nd August 2024, 16:14
(Hi there Robbie) I agree Verstappen is faster than the whole lot and would win any team mate battle. However, it’s not entirely the point. A better second driver seems to be the issue – or else why do Red Bull even discuss the issue of Pérez’s form? For appearance’s sake? Maybe. But let’s presume not. So if they need a better team mate, I think the original Ricciardo was fine and I suspect Sainz would have been even better, the same level of driver and more resilient and consistent (as he’s shown faced with Leclerc at Ferrari).
TBH I don’t understand why Red Bull didn’t or couldn’t persuade him to join next year.
Bonbonjai
2nd August 2024, 12:16
Even when red bull don’t want him? Silly remarks from Norris. He seems to think driver can pitch fork where ever they want and demand to be hired. When you are good enough you can choose to some extent but even then the teams needs to want you.
Edvaldo
2nd August 2024, 2:22
He should, yes, but Red Bull passing a strong driver yet again is no surprise. Perez is being terrible but a slight improvement from him will be enough for them to be satisfied.
They want a number 2, not someone to be better than expected.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
2nd August 2024, 8:43
and this number 2 brings in a staggering amount of money one way and another so that makes him even more tolerable to the Management.
macaque (@macaque)
2nd August 2024, 3:47
Maybe Lando is just a bit jealous and is afraid of the end of Carlando and the start of Carlbon(?).
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
2nd August 2024, 8:31
It’s a new Alainz.
dot_com (@dot_com)
2nd August 2024, 13:52
Round of applause for that one.
Cam
2nd August 2024, 3:55
Perhaps if Red Bull had a competitive second driver, Max’s lead wouldn’t be so big. Maybe that’s Lando angle.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
2nd August 2024, 5:09
it certainly isn’t RBR’s angle. I almost wonder if RBR aren’t using Perez to rinse and reward while going thrifty on the other side of the garage. I do know that Repsol-Honda when they were sporting Marquez turned their bike in to a train wreck, so maybe the same thing is happening at RBR where they are just favoring one driver and turning their car in to a specialized vehicle that doesn’t really work well with people who drive at all differently. It does however look like their straight line speed advantage has evaporated though, maybe thats why Max stopped winning after all ? And that could be as easy as putting in the correct fuel flow sensor. wah wah wah waah. Things we will never know.
Roy Beedrill
2nd August 2024, 7:36
With your “logic” (and I put quotation marks here on purpose) we can also assume that such a sudden upswing in McLaren’s form is probably due to someone there has found a very convenient copy machine (again). ;)
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 7:30
I don’t see how you can come to that conclusion.
Put two decent drivers in a good car and the lesser of the two comes second regularly and drivers at other teams are picking up the scraps.
Unless Lando thinks Carlos has similar talent, and can knock Max off his pedestal.
What RBR are doing: The only reasoning in having a good driver and a low-middle driver is to allow the team principal to avoid arguments about who should get preference on the track, who should get preference on upgrades. Box ticked.
notagrumpyfan
2nd August 2024, 8:13
With a stronger driver it would likely be even bigger*.
And no chance at the WCC.
* based on ‘logic’ supporting fans from both sides of the divide. Either you belief that Max will beat any teammate, out you belief that RBR will do anything to make sure the other driver doesn’t beat Max.
David BR (@david-br)
2nd August 2024, 16:17
Red Bull do seem to want the perfect temperature of porridge, fast enough to be finishing 2nd or 3rd consistently when Max wins, not fast enough to challenge Max. I presume they err on the side of caution (slower/colder porridge).
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd August 2024, 3:59
I’m somewhat surprised he was even asked in the first place about something that doesn’t directly concern him.
The BBC archive footage from 1997 is classic & I’d already seen parts of it before, although this particular video is a reupload.
I also recognized most Olympic pictograms correctly.
COTD: Definitely & I wouldn’t be surprised if this factor about him, especially with the current car generation, is something they’ve also considered or would consider as a risk in promoting him.
notagrumpyfan
2nd August 2024, 9:15
Not sure what you’re referring to, but the video was certainly not uploaded to YouTube when it first aired.
You can ‘predict’ why :P
Simon
3rd August 2024, 16:58
Of 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚 you recognised the Olympic pictograms 🙄
Since their introduction in Tokyo 1964, Paris 2024 have the worst designed ones
Mooa42
2nd August 2024, 7:33
Maybe RedBull doesn’t want to move Sergio on until after Mexico. Not sure I’d want to replace Sergio and then rock up in Mexico, not the safest GP with out making the Mexicans angry.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:11
That’s actually a great point and one that hadn’t occurred to me yet.
M2X
2nd August 2024, 8:52
COTD: Except that the car characteristics that Ricciardo likes are in line with what Verstappen likes, and the characteristics that Perez likes are miles apart from what Verstappen likes.
Ofcourse Lando would like to see another destabilizing factor at Red Bull in the form of Sainz’ political games family and media entourage.
Keithedin
2nd August 2024, 10:26
That was my thoughts re-CoTD. It has been proven that Perez can’t drive the car with the characteristics it currently has, and it has only gotten worse over the years. I like Ricciardo, and though I haven’t seen much from him recently which would suggest he is worthy of promotion to Redbull, the team has more information on what each drivers’ strengths and weaknesses are and what kind of car characteristics they can handle, and they must know that Perez just can’t adapt to the current car. Perhaps then Ricciardo or Tsunoda or maybe even others would be more competitive than Perez is, purely based on the characteristics of the car rather than overall talent.
Regardless, it seems they have made their decision, probably for commercial reasons as much as anything (upcoming Mexico grand prix), so they will stick with Perez until the end of this season. But if Perez doesn’t improve and they lose the constructors championship, I don’t see him staying in the seat for 2025, contract or not.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:14
Exactly. I was really surprised that was the COTD when Daniel always thrived on the same setup as Max. I don’t think Checo staying has anything to do with that idea, especially considering RBR knows that Daniel likes the same setup, is on an upswing, how Checo is down 691-0 in laps led, finished ahead zero times, out qualified max zero times and above all, is averaging about 100 places behind Max.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
2nd August 2024, 9:49
Agree with COTD from Asd.
Perez still brings in a massive amount of sponsorship which must be a factor seen from the corporate headquarters point of view, and I guess they still don’t have anyone who is likely to do better. I think personally the team on the whole may have lost some edge knowing that Newey is on the way out.
As for Carlos Sainz, I would think he’s much better off chancing it with Williams (a team possibly on an upward trend) than going for the number two seat at Red Bull (a team probably on a downward trend).
Williams were doing OK when they had a good & proven driver lineup in 2015 (Bottas + Massa) and finished 3rd in the constructors that year. 2016 with same lineup the team dropped to 5th but still hanging on – Bottas finishing 8th in the drivers table, scoring points in 15 out of 21 races (including one third place) and Massa finishing 11th, scoring points in 13 out of 21 races (two fifth places).
In 2017 Massa again finished 11th in the table, scoring points in 13 races and Lance Stroll bringing home a nice podium in Baku helped them keep the 5th place in 2017 also.
Then in 2018, Felipe Massa had left and Williams went down what must be described as “the pay driver route”. It may have been out of necessity, but the results dropped sharply and they ended up at the back end of the constructors table.
It’s looking better again for them. Albon is doing OK and with Sainz coming in, having several GP wins under his belt, I think Williams will be doing just fine next season. I think they will be back up to at least 5th in the constructors for 2025 and I think they might not be all that far off Red Bull.
Williams = absolutely the right call for Sainz.
Finally, it would not surprise me one bit to see Verstappen going to Mercedes in some “shock move”.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:15
You can only agree with the COTD if you don’t know Daniel’s history honestly and the type of car he likes…
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
3rd August 2024, 20:24
I am pretty sure I can agree with any comment just as I see fit.
That said, I personally think DR could very well find himself in a Red Bull car in the not too distant future – while Perez retains the other Red Bull seat and Verstappen heads off to Mercedes. Time will tell. ;-)
Nick T.
4th August 2024, 0:12
I have a feeling if Max left, RBR would definitely get rid of Checo. They definitely could afford to have an anchor in one of the cars without the best driver in F1 driving the other car. But I agree, I could definitely see Max leaving RBR sooner rather than later. Seems everybody is leaving. Jos really did a number in destabilizing the team.
Harsha Vardhan Maagalam
3rd August 2024, 7:27
Since when Lando is RBR driver manager and Sainz’s manager ?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
3rd August 2024, 22:33
I’m not convinced Red Bull wanted Sainz as such. I think it suited it to string Sainz along to aid their negotiating position with Perez. Given how badly Sainz reacts when he thinks he’s not being treated as #1 (outright or equal), and the unlikelihood of him being able to go to Red Bull and subsequently point to his results as proving he is outright/equal #1, I don’t think it would have worked well for Red Bull.
If Sainz had actually been given a serious offer by Red Bull, I think he’d have taken it with both hands. I think Norris has seen the gap between Sainz’s ambitions and power, without understanding why that gap exists.