I don't disagree with your statement. James Davison has never been very good and JJ Yeley has not had the level of success his background would lead you to believe (nor has Scott Speed or Scott Pruett). On the other hand, drivers like Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue are successful drivers with an F1 background as is Tony Stewart with an IndyCar background.
Stewart is really the only guy who broke out.
yeh, ok the first half was great - I was just so tired and frustrated after how badly it fizzled out at the end I forgot.
Ricciardo doesn't strike me as the type to just give up and walk away. Especially since the current state of his career is entirely the result of his own actions. I think he'll want to take any contract he can get, hoping that one day he'll be driving for a midfield team that randomly becomes a dominant force.
Within which they go hard on "WELL VERSTAPPEN WAS FINED FOR THIS!".
The problem is moreso that the team orders happened so early in a very long season, and kinda put a damper on an otherwise unusually-exciting Spanish GP. I think there was no doubt that Max was going to pass Checo at some point in the closing laps, but having Max actually go for the pass would've been much more exciting from a spectator standpoint. From a strategy standpoint, the call makes total sense, but it's still a massive buzzkill after what was otherwise a pretty decent race.
The simple truth is that if Perez were able to qualify and show race pace as good or better than Verstappen then there would be no team orders. As it stands only a fool would think Perez has a shot at the WDC title so why wouldn't they maximize the points for the driver who has a great shot at it?
If that were the case then Red Bull would have backed Webber in 2010 and the second half of 2012 when he was ahead of Vettel in both cases. Same case applies to Verstappen vs Ricciardo when Ricciardo beat him in 2017 and 2018 then decided (against your own rules) to back Verstappen. Do you disagree with Red Bull's decisions then?
Yeah that's true, but to do it so early in the season. It would be better for the rookie to do it towards the end of the season. Not to mention the Spanish GP is a track that is won mostly due to tyre deg/strategy in the past.
It's a shame really. The insane amount of money needed to enter F1 both as a driver and as a team nowadays has escalated this.
Eddie Irvine, famously number two driver to Michael Schumacher, once came within two points of the title, actually leading the championship going into the final round at Suzuka (and by the current points system he would have won the title by nearly 20 points).
