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Things have moved very quickly after the German spat the dummy or Ferrari offered a significantly reduced contract beyond 2020. Carlos Sainz won the prized seat and Daniel has taken his seat at McLaren who were probably the biggest improvers in 2019. I’d say these deals were done long ago. Daniel will move to McLaren in 2021.

But when will we see F1 return? Can they run without crowds? It’s a mega expensive sport so they need every cent they can earn.

www.perthnow.com.au/sport/f1/daniel-ricc...rrari-ng-b881548051z

And McLaren will be powered by Mercedes engines from 2021 on. I think they are currently using Renault engines. So when everything is taken into account I think Daniel has made the best move possible.

The only problem is that Pat Fry who is the guy who engineered the improvements in McLaren last year is moving to another team....you guessed it...Renault.

I reckon our boy Dan has either pulled off a master move choosing to sign with McLaren or he’s been kicked in the arse by a rainbow ?.

Ferrari are rooted until 2022 after being forced to turn down their power unit after being found guilty of some illegal downforce measures last year I believe.

And McLaren is already looking strong with the Renault power unit but will switch to Mercedes powered engines from next year.

Great 4th place on the weekend, his best result in a Renault I’m pretty sure. At the very least I expect he’ll be breathing down his old team mate Max Verstapen’s neck next year competing regularly for podiums.

4th on the grid and 4th in the Belgian GP and his team mate Esteban Ocon snatched 5th on the last lap. Ricciardo was absolutely flying in the last 4 or 5 laps coming from about 14 seconds behind Verstappen to within 3 seconds on the last lap and scored an extra point for fastest lap of the race on the final lap. A first for Renault since they returned their factory team to F1.

Hope he's made the right move leaving Renault for McLaren next year, Renault seem to be coming good but Mclaren will be Mercedes powered next year.

How lucky was Grosjean? No HALO and the fence would have taken his head clean off just looking at the vision. Miraculous stuff.

Watched the Bahrain GP last night, great race and so good to see another constructor in Red Bull getting close to matching Mercedes. Pre-race it looked like Verstappen would be the one to beat, comfortably getting pole and it started that way. but we saw just how good a driver Hamilton is. Commentary stated that Verstappen was expected to overtake Hamilton within 6 laps of his last pit stop where he put on fresh tires so had better newer rubber than Hamilton. Verstap gradually closed to within 1 sec where he could use his DRS but struggled to get any closer until making a desperate pass with a few laps to go but had to give the lead back due to all wheels being of the track during the pass. Verstap made the mistake of immediately letting Hamilton pass rather than doing it early on the main straight where he had a better chance to pass with DRS at the first corner but he and his team stuffed it up and Hamilton controlled the rest of the race superbly for the win. 

Should be a great season with these two constructors looking to be evenly Matched.

 

SS...I just have to think back to last year where Hamilton contracted Covid and had to sit out a race. Mercedes got George Russell in from Williams to replace Hamilton and he was on track to win the race when inexplicably they put on the wrong tyres in a pit stop and he had to go straight back in to change them over. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like but it wouldn't suppose me if that was deliberate as Mercedes have never done it before or since. It showed to me that the car is far more important than the driver in F1 where a novice who'd only had 2 practice sessions in the car could easily have won the race if Merc didn't stuff up. Reckon Hamilton was on the phone to Toto Wolff mid race saying Russell better not win it or else it would make all of them look pretty silly.

Hamilton does seem to get kissed on the cock a lot when it comes to luck or good fortune . Critics are saying Hamilton and other driver’s exceeded the track limits at least 20 times during the race but no action was taken.

McLaren found that Ricciardo’s chassis had suffered some damage affecting the car’s downforce which explains his lack of pace compared to team mate Lando Norris who drove a terrific race to finish 4th. All in all 4th and 7th isn’t a bad result to start the season for McLaren.

In contrast Alpine Renault finished 13th for Ocon and a DNF for Alonso so Daniel’s decision has already been vindicated while Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul is still sulking about Daniel leaving.

wrote:

In contrast Alpine Renault finished 13th for Ocon and a DNF for Alonso so Daniel’s decision has already been vindicated while Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul is still sulking about Daniel leaving.

 

Cyril’s more likely sulking about losing his own job.

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