Carlos Sainz to Replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Carlos Sainz to Replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on August 16th, 2018 in the Formula One category.

 

[baldgye]

I love that they picked the goofiest picture of Sainz

 

[JockeP22]

Sainz will most likely become the 2019 WDC, knowing Alonso's poor timing with joining and leaving teams.

 

[Joey D]

So honest question, does he have a lazy or fake eye? Or is he just looking rather derpy in that photo?

 

[baldgye]

So honest question, does he have a lazy or fake eye? Or is he just looking rather derpy in that photo?

It's just a derpy photo, he's incredibly handsome

 

[SlipZtrEm]

So honest question, does he have a lazy or fake eye? Or is he just looking rather derpy in that photo?

My guess is he's looking at something out of frame, but which is nonetheless quite close to him.

 

[Interstellar9]

It’s rumored that Charles Leclerc will move to Ferrari in the winter to replace Kimi Raikkonen — who, like Alonso, started his F1 career in 2001 — which would leave another vacuum at Sauber.

I heard of a rumour that Kimi Raikkonen's contract was extended to 2020. Yes, 2020. His great relationship with Sebastian Vettel and recently positive and constant results are the reasons for the new contract.

https://www.sport.de/news/ne3323806/ferrari-verlaengert-wohl-mit-kimi-raeikkoenen/

 

[crooky369]

The day that McLaren officially became a midfield team.

First season since 1981 (John Watson and Andrea De Cesaris) since they’ve not had a superstar driver.

In the other years they’ve had at least one world class driver. Lauda, Prost, Senna, Häkkinen, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button and finally Alonso.

 

[baldgye]

I heard of a rumour that Kimi Raikkonen's contract was extended to 2020. Yes, 2020. His great relationship with Sebastian Vettel and recently positive and constant results are the reasons for the new contract.

https://www.sport.de/news/ne3323806/ferrari-verlaengert-wohl-mit-kimi-raeikkoenen/

The actual reason for any contract extension would be that the new Ferrari management have been thrown into the deep-end. So rather than mixing up a good driver pairing they keep the team constant (as it’s working fairly well) and focus their attention in making sure the next set of regulations are to there favour.

Many aspects of the new regulations will have to be decided before the end of the year and the former CEO was knee deep in positioning Ferrari positively. They have a lot of catching up to do on what he left behind and a lot of work ahead of them.

 

[Whodoyouthink]

The actual reason for any contract extension would be that the new Ferrari management have been thrown into the deep-end. So rather than mixing up a good driver pairing they keep the team constant (as it’s working fairly well) and focus their attention in making sure the next set of regulations are to there favour.

Many aspects of the new regulations will have to be decided before the end of the year and the former CEO was knee deep in positioning Ferrari positively. They have a lot of catching up to do on what he left behind and a lot of work ahead of them.

I'm surprised Kimi still has interest though, he's kinda going in to unknown/unusual territory being he is 38. Still competitive, but also at that typical point consistency starts to fade and interest can dwindle. Kids take bigger priority, other levels of motorsport become easier to be competitive in, etc. I'm happy though that he's sticking around.

I wonder what drew Sainz to Mclaren over staying at Renault. Now that we see Ricciardo joining in, obviously one team over the other is going to have a noticeable advantage. I still really like Mclaren as a team, but it feels like we won't see them properly competitive until 2020/2021, when the regs will possibly scramble things over again. Would be kind of funny if Mercedes keeps their championships going. I do like Mercedes too, although it'd be nice to see someone other than Hamilton take WDC once in a while...

 

[user3392345]

Chameleon eye syndrome? Reminds me on that crazy doc from Cannonball Run Movies
Maybe a good advantage, one eye look on gauges, other look into rear mirror.

 

[baldgye]

I wonder what drew Sainz to Mclaren over staying at Renault. Now that we see Ricciardo joining in, obviously one team over the other is going to have a noticeable advantage. I still really like Mclaren as a team, but it feels like we won't see them properly competitive until 2020/2021, when the regs will possibly scramble things over again. Would be kind of funny if Mercedes keeps their championships going. I do like Mercedes too, although it'd be nice to see someone other than Hamilton take WDC once in a while...

. Renault weren’t going to keep him on, so before Alonso quit it wasn’t looking great for Sainz

 

[mustafur]

The day that McLaren officially became a midfield team.

First season since 1981 (John Watson and Andrea De Cesaris) since they’ve not had a superstar driver.

In the other years they’ve had at least one world class driver. Lauda, Prost, Senna, Häkkinen, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button and finally Alonso.

To be fair Hakkinen wasn't considered a super star driver until atleast '98.

 

[crooky369]

To be fair Hakkinen wasn't considered a super star driver until atleast '98.

True. He did have moments of brilliance before 98 but he didn’t shine until he had a really good car. In retrospect though he was a world class driver. And who knows maybe Sainz or Vandoorne, Norris etc will be in 10 years time.

 

[baldgye]

True. He did have moments of brilliance before 98 but he didn’t shine until he had a really good car. In retrospect though he was a world class driver. And who knows maybe Sainz or Vandoorne, Norris etc will be in 10 years time.

Hakkinen was also considered to be fairly dull... it was really only after he retired that he got a bit looser

 

[Tornado]

I hope Raikkonen drives until he's well into Fangio years, if for no other reason than I know of one former "opinionated" GTP member it would annoy to no end.

 

[mustafur]

I hope Raikkonen drives until he's well into Fangio years, if for no other reason than I know of one former "opinionated" GTP member it would annoy to no end.

Probably his best year in a while I would say, he still has the speed but isn't consistent enough to stay with Vettel over the season.

 

[Dennisch]

I hope Raikkonen drives until he's well into Fangio years, if for no other reason than I know of one former "opinionated" GTP member it would annoy to no end.

Legend tells that if you say his name 3 times he'll come back.

 

[crooky369]

Hakkinen was also considered to be fairly dull... it was really only after he retired that he got a bit looser

Yeah I remember having this parody F1 book that had a load of ‘what’s the difference between’ of drivers and things. There was a picture of Hakkinen taking his helmet off with just his nomex head protection and it had the line ‘what’s the difference between Hakkinen and a sperm’

There was no further explanation lol!

 

[Tired Tyres]

The day that McLaren officially became a midfield team.

First season since 1981 (John Watson and Andrea De Cesaris) since they’ve not had a superstar driver.

In the other years they’ve had at least one world class driver. Lauda, Prost, Senna, Häkkinen, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button and finally Alonso.

They would give anything to be good enough for the midfield.