2025 Formula 1 Drivers threadFormula 1

[toastet]

Left RB because he didn't want to be 2nd to Max, rejoins as 3rd.

More like rejoins as demo driver.


Helmut Marko at Sky Germany before FP1:

"Ricciardo wird dritter Fahrer bei uns. Wir haben so viele Sponsoren, wir müssen Show-Runs machen und dergleichen."

"Und da ist das natürlich einer der Profiliertesten und Bestens-Geeigneten"

"Ricciardo will be third driver for us. We do have so many sponsors, we need to do show runs and things like that."

"And there he is one of the ones who made a mark and fits excellently"

 

[Fezzik]

Also clears the way now for Mick to join the Merc family - a decent chance he'd get an emergency appearance for one of their customer teams, like de Vries.

 

[Liquid]

So he's a Red Bull driver very much in the same way that David Coulthard and Christian Klien still are.

 

[MagpieRacer]

So he's a Red Bull driver very much in the same way that David Coulthard and Christian Klien still are.

Exactly that. This is nothing to get excited about for DR3 fans. The only way he gets a seat at Max' table is if Perez decides he's had enough of the toxic environment and ditches them after Abu Dhabi, and honestly I wouldn't blame him if he did.

A year out now for Ricciardo is dangerous for his future F1 career. Yes Hulkenberg has managed to come back and is 2 years older than Daniel, but he didn't leave F1 on quite such a dramatic downturn of career form either. Especially if he wants to come back in race winning machinery.

 

[GingerBredMan]

Why do I get the impression that Checo was threatened to be replaced by Danny Ric. Max didn’t seem very apologetic for Brazil, while Checo “regrets” some of his comments. I would imagine they would make a change the second Checo stops helping Max

 

[PorscheFan91]

Why do I get the impression that Checo was threatened to be replaced by Danny Ric. Max didn’t seem very apologetic for Brazil, while Checo “regrets” some of his comments. I would imagine they would make a change the second Checo stops helping Max

Yeah, wouldn’t surprise me if there is some potential for RB musical chairs. However Perez is delivering the goods and I don’t think Danny Ric is guaranteed to be as good as him anymore. If he gets the chance to race if Max or Checo have to sit out a race I’m sure he’ll be amazing to watch as he’ll have a point to prove.

On The Race podcast, they were musing that perhaps Daniel just wouldn’t get on with any of the new spec cars rather than it being a specific McLaren issue. Hoping we get to see him in some practice sessions to see whether that’s the case.

 

[Fezzik]

Solid F2 sprint race for Sergeant in his quest for the superlicence points. Only Lawson made up ground in the standing. Still looking good for Logan to secure the Williams #2 seat.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Solid F2 sprint race for Sergeant in his quest for the superlicence points. Only Lawson made up ground in the standing. Still looking good for Logan to secure the Williams #2 seat.

Yeah strong drive for him, kept his nose clean, no silly moves. Only starts 1 place lower tomorrow than he did today. Just needs to do the same again really and he's all good, though I fancy he'll get a podium.

 

[sillybilly]

Exactly that. This is nothing to get excited about for DR3 fans. The only way he gets a seat at Max' table is if Perez decides he's had enough of the toxic environment and ditches them after Abu Dhabi, and honestly I wouldn't blame him if he did.

A year out now for Ricciardo is dangerous for his future F1 career. Yes Hulkenberg has managed to come back and is 2 years older than Daniel, but he didn't leave F1 on quite such a dramatic downturn of career form either. Especially if he wants to come back in race winning machinery.

I think it's a big insurance policy for RB management to hold over Perez to try to keep him in line...

My guess is Perez will want to continue as it's still his best chance in a competitive car,


However sometime in the middle third of next year I think they will swap Perez and Ric so there is no internal challenger to RB aiming for a triple title for Max.

They are deadset on getting Perez 2nd in the WDC as they still never managed WDC1-2, next year they won't really care for repeating that because it's a nice to do once.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Final F2 race underway. Sargeant can't finish lower than 8th in the standings which will confirm his F1 seat, IF he can keep it clean. He would have almost been safer to not race 😅

 

[Fezzik]

Superlicence secured. That should lock up the final seat on the grid (barring any unforeseen weirdness). An American driver back in F1, that should please the owners.

 

[Fezzik]

Also clears the way now for Mick to join the Merc family - a decent chance he'd get an emergency appearance for one of their customer teams, like de Vries.

that was inevitable

Mercedes signs Schumacher as F1 reserve driver for 2023

Mercedes has announced the signing of Mick Schumacher as its Formula 1 reserve driver for the 2023 season.

www.autosport.com

 

[TheElbows]

Other than the name, genuinely curious what Mercedes see in Mick (unless he's a genuine budget option). A guy who's not a threat and had just enough relevant seat time to be useful for simulator stuff?

 

[Jimlaad43]

He's an available driver. Tbh that's it. They have lost both Vandoorne and De Vries as reserve drivers, and Vesti isn't really up to F1 scratch yet to be a viable reserve driver option. Mick has a Superlicense and enough sense and speed to be a reserve call up if required. But I don't see any full time promotion options available from this appointment.

 

[05XR8]

First time I’ve looked at F1 driver salaries in a looooong time.

F1 driver salaries revealed

Max Verstappen tops the list when it comes to F1 driver salaries Max Verstappen is the highest-paid driver on the

www.speedcafe.com

Wasn’t Schumacher making that much at Ferrari? I remember Jordan and Schumacher making those numbers in the ‘90s. Regardless of inflation, it seems like nothing changed.

 

[shoemaker]

First time I’ve looked at F1 driver salaries in a looooong time.

F1 driver salaries revealed

Max Verstappen tops the list when it comes to F1 driver salaries Max Verstappen is the highest-paid driver on the

www.speedcafe.com

Wasn’t Schumacher making that much at Ferrari? I remember Jordan and Schumacher making those numbers in the ‘90s. Regardless of inflation, it seems like nothing changed.

I wouldn’t believe a word of that.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I wouldn’t believe a word of that.

Why not? There's usually a yearly update of estimated salaries which come from a range of sources close to and within teams. I reckon Fernando is on a little more but looks on par with what other years have been.

 

[McLaren]

Last I saw, Lewis was making at least $40 million and 1 article citing his 2021-2023 2 year deal was worth $147 million which would put him at $73.5 million. And naturally, it’s assumed his next contract will be just as high.

 

[Blitz24]

Nyck is out at AT apparently.


formularacers
@formularacers_

| BREAKING: Daniel Ricciardo will reportedly replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri effective immediately, and take the wheel next week in Hungary. [
@ErikvHaren
]

 

[Liquid]

Putting Ricciardo in the junior team (sister team, whatever) is a complete waste of resources.

 

[AshenGraey]

Reports: Daniel Ricciardo to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri

De Vries' rookie season lasted just 10 races as AlphaTauri has scored just two points all season.

ca.sports.yahoo.com

So they couldn't even let him race for the remainder of the season?? That's just ruthless especially when you have a car that is already underperforming as much as the Alpha Tauri is.

 

[Blitz24]

Perhaps Ricciardo was going to get an offer to race some other principle and RB needed to put him in a seat to keep him? Grasping at straws here.

 

[AshenGraey]

A friend of mine said that they are apparently going to use that time as a test for Ricciardo to see if he could replace Perez in the near future....of course that's just speculation. While I'm happy to see him back, it doesn't really sit well with me how Red Bull decided to cut DeVries out "effective immediately"

 

[xTWiZTED]

 

[MagpieRacer]

A friend of mine said that they are apparently going to use that time as a test for Ricciardo to see if he could replace Perez in the near future....of course that's just speculation. While I'm happy to see him back, it doesn't really sit well with me how Red Bull decided to cut DeVries out "effective immediately"

This is exactly how I see it, easy to get rid of De Vries right now and get Ricciardo in the car, if he dominates Tsunoda and scores some points then he has to be a shoe in for Perez.

Or it'll remind the top teams how good he can be and will replace someone somewhere else..

As for it sitting well, Red Bull are cut throat, he wasn't part of their young driver program and signing him was clearly in reaction to him having one good race (Monza) in a Williams which has decent top speed. If you believe what you hear then Christian Horner never wanted Nyck inside RedBull anyway so he was always going to have an uphill fight to stay. Add to that his performances, which have been poor for someone of his overall racing experience, and he was never going to make it past halfway.

 

[NotThePrez]

For the remainder of the season, eh? Even with Nyck underperforming (though this years AT car is actually dogwater), something tells me that there was something else going on behind the scenes at AT that led to him getting replaced before the summer break.

Still, I'm very happy to see Danny Ric back on the grid, though this will really be put-up-or-shut-up time for him. I have a very hard time seeing Danny get another chance in F1 if he underperforms once again.

 

[GingerBredMan]

A friend of mine said that they are apparently going to use that time as a test for Ricciardo to see if he could replace Perez in the near future....of course that's just speculation. While I'm happy to see him back, it doesn't really sit well with me how Red Bull decided to cut DeVries out "effective immediately"

This is what I’m thinking. RB don’t have a lot of prospects right now, and Perez seems to be getting worse by the week. If Danny Ric can put in a solid performance for the rest of the season, it seems inevitable that he’d replace Perez next year

 

[TheCracker]

While I'm happy to see him back, it doesn't really sit well with me how Red Bull decided to cut DeVries out "effective immediately"

That's the down side of being part of the Redbull driver programme. It can carry you from the very juniorist of formulas to the very pinnicle, but it's cut throat too. It gives Ricciardo an F1 seat again, but unless he out-performs Tsunoda in the rest of the season, it doesn't bode well for his future with any other team.

Perez has had some pretty torrid times in qualifying of late, but his race pace has still been strong. Unless he's clashed behind the scenes with the Redbull big wigs, i don't see them rushing to replace him with Ricciardo if Ricciardo is only going to be adding a handful of points to AlphaTauri's constructors table tally.

But if Van Dries de Vries has fallen out of favour i don't know who else Redbull has lined up from the lower formulas? Iwasa is their best placed at the moment i guess.

 

[TumeK5]

While I'm happy to see him back, it doesn't really sit well with me how Red Bull decided to cut DeVries out "effective immediately"

You must be new to F1. This is how the Red Bull organization does things. I was expecting Perez to be replaced instead, but it could very well happen if he doesn't step up his game.

Van Dries

We will miss you, Van Dries.

 

[AshenGraey]

You must be new to F1. This is how the Red Bull organization does things. I was expecting Perez to be replaced instead, but it could very well happen if he doesn't step up his game.

We will miss you, Van Dries.

I'm not new to F1, been watching on and off since 2010 and full time since 2012 so I know quite a bit about how the red bull machine can make or break F1 driver's careers. My problem is that this move would be understandable if it was the Red Bull team, but no it's not, it's just AlphaTauri, their B-level team that is currently running a ****can of a car for this season. I know DeVries' performance has been terrible for a driver of his supposed caliber but he still deserved to be treated with some "dignity". At least let the guy make it to the summer break

Like I said earlier, I'm really happy to see Dany Ric back. It just really sucks for DeVries.