Posts by crimsonhawk23

Q: Hamilton, Bottas, Leclerc, Vettel

R: Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel

DNF: Ricciardo

Timothy Castillo6 said:Wait, what are all these girls from the US Grand Prix doing here?

Yeah, you aren't really going to find them hanging out in the crowd👎 I suppose you'll be lucky if you even catch a glimpse of an ankle👎 Once the other countries show up, maybe we'll see some local girls popping up in the relevant threads.

Timothy Castillo6 said:p.s.
Did they actually fix the engine in Maranello, or are we looking at another safe-mode situation?

😍😂

Honestly, that might have been the best race we've seen in the last 20 seasons—I guess. 🙏

😁

One really has to distinguish between professional and amateur photography. If a fit girl with a toned physique looks like a high-end plastic replica, I suppose that’s just proof the photographer is doing their job exceptionally well. 😁

☕

Come on, someone get the stream link up! 🤣

Richard Ross11 said:Russia will probably move to Red Bull Racing before Los Angeles...

I can't tell if you're joking or being serious—though, honestly, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it actually happened. 😃

stormyviper2 said:To be fair, Daniel Ricciardo might just have an absolute beast of a weekend and tear through the midfield. 😉 I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Honestly, I don't see him outperforming Nico Hülkenberg—🤷 so maybe P6 for Hulk and P7 for Daniel Ricciardo at best, since they can't really touch the top five given they're a full lap down.🤷

(Pierre Gasly isn't even in the conversation for me; he'd actually surprise me if he managed to finally get past Daniil Kvyat by the time we hit the Bahrain Grand Prix.)

Regarding "tomorrow's" race, I'm expecting another DNF Ricciardo—when it rains, it pours, I guess. 🙃

Haha. 🤣 Someone should probably start a thread for Monza 😬

Besides, why is there zero visual material in this thread? 🤨 Just a small contribution to help save what can be saved:

ruggedhawk20 said:I’ll make sure the spear doesn't slip while he's measuring it.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

stormyviper2 said:I'm still sticking to my guns—Alonso's decisions are driven by the paycheck, nothing else. 😉

And that’s fine, I suppose—standing your ground is one thing—but all the data we have so far suggests that isn't quite the case here. 😬

stormyviper2 said:I could swear I read somewhere a while back that Alonso was actually taking a pay cut. I'm pretty sure I saw that somewhere.

He’d be looking at $45 million for 2019. Zak Brown mentioned—not word for word, obviously—that he'd be the highest-paid driver in Formula 1 for 2019, nearing $50 million, especially since Lewis Hamilton is sitting at $40 million... He also noted he understands why the move makes sense given where McLaren is at right now, and that Alonso will stay closely involved with them—he's still their reserve driver and helping with car development for the time being.

At this point, Alonso might just head to Toyota, Cadillac, or something similar—taking much less money, perhaps, but gaining a far better shot at what actually matters to him: winning.

Well, looks like I have to fix the info under my name because Pirelli keeps messing with the naming conventions. 🙄

stormyviper2 said:McLaren has some depth, though—it won't last forever, I suppose. 😉

In case you missed it, who sponsors Coca-Cola? Is it Mercedes-Benz? Or... McLaren? 🤔 McLaren seems to be doing quite well financially. Need proof? Just look at their sponsor list—they aren't just there for decoration.

As for Richard, I'd love to see him finally grab those trophies—maybe then he could actually compete with Hulk. For now, Hulk is up 1:0 and 1:0 (qualifying and race), and it’ll likely be 2:0 and 2:0 by the second weekend. Though, honestly, neither of them will end up on the podium anyway. 🙄

stormyviper2 said:There’s no such thing as McLaren money—and there’s no more Honda either.

Honda was at McLaren back in 2018? That sounds like total fiction—I won't even bother with the rest of that statement.🙄

And since we're talking about cash, wasn't Richard asking Ferrari for 50 million last year? 😆 I guess if they're lying, then I'm lying too, because multiple sources were pointing to that exact figure. At least 20 million was a certainty. In the end, since even Red Bull didn't want to cough up 20-ish million a year, he jumped ship to Renault—where he'll likely never see a podium again.🙄

stormyviper2 said:Not likely. He’d probably drive for McLaren if they were willing to cut him a $40 million annual check—I guess.
He's just in it for the money—honestly, I think everyone knows that by now. 😉

Is money really that much of a driver for Alonso? I mean—he essentially walked away from $40 million at McLaren over those two years—just to chase much smaller paychecks in IMSA or other series. Even combined, those wouldn't come close to a quarter of what he was pulling at McLaren. Maybe money isn't the primary motivator after all.

Tax Cut Now

ruggedhawk20 said:Charisma is about the power of persuasion—not swearing over the team radio, I guess.

This.

Richard Walker38 said:You can't really justify that kind of talk when there aren't any results to back it up—I guess. Alonso is a two-time Formula 1 champion and, frankly, a household name in the sport.

After Schumacher left, he became the second driver in terms of sponsorship revenue—at least by the start of 2005, I guess. 🙂

stormyviper2 said:I'm not quite sure what you're seeing there, but I'd say Alonso's Ferrari is pretty much just an average car at best—basically a bucket. It might sit in the same tier as the Honda, perhaps with a slightly better engine, but when it comes to the chassis and aerodynamics? It's really nothing more than a scrap heap.

Jesus, I guess you might have missed the irony in my entire post—maybe? 😬 Tibi is essentially echoing my exact sentiment—and I think our friend Dakako touched on this too. People talk about Ferrari as if they have some futuristic, unbeatable machine, yet somehow Alonso is framed as this subpar driver who just couldn't clinch those wins. Then, suddenly, once a talent like Vettel arrives—who, let’s be honest, doesn't even come close to Alonso’s pure skill—Ferrari falls into a total tailspin. And apparently, there's nothing they can do about it because, well, everyone else is just better than them, I guess. 😁

I suppose that's one way to put it—though perhaps a bit too brief. [User Name] says:
Just another side note—you seem pretty quick to claim Ferrari was faster back when Sebastian Vettel wasn't driving for them. I mean, since he joined, they’ve been hovering near the top of Formula 1—well, occasionally, anyway—not to mention how everyone there seemed to turn against him, regardless of those massive contracts they were cutting.😂

I guess Ferrari was easily the fastest—by at least double—back when Fernando Alonso was behind the wheel. The car was practically breaking the sound barrier in third gear every single year—but we still didn't see any titles, mostly because Alonso just wasn't up to the task. If anyone else had been in that seat—say, Narain Karthikeyan—we probably would have dominated every race and season through sheer brute force.

All those massive trophies started rolling in once Sebastian Vettel arrived—back when the Ferrari was barely an upgrade over the current Williams—but they only ever contended for the top spot because of Seb’s sheer genius and, I guess, his almost otherworldly talent. 🐔

Nobody really questions anything at Mercedes—they just happened to get lucky when Ferrari stumbled with an incompetent Fernando Alonso. Since then, they haven't quite managed to engineer a car that’s quite as hyper-dominant as the old legendary ones, I guess. The F14 T—well, I suppose it was certainly an interesting chapter in the history books, if one considers that sort of thing. For example.

It seems like the Italian media is a bit of an issue—which might be exactly why Ferrari keeps playing catch-up with Mercedes-Benz. 🐔

Richard Walker38 said:I suppose one might wonder what charisma has to do with any of this—though I'm not entirely sure.

It seems sponsors—even before Fernando Alonso secured his second title—weren't exactly lining up to back uninspiring figures like Pierre Gasly, Heikki Kovalainen, Marcus Ericsson, or Will Stevens. I guess when Fernando Alonso says one thing, it carries massive weight. Those other guys only seem to get any real traction if they pull some kind of stunt on the track—whereas Nando just dominates.

Has anyone ever actually seen an onboard clip in WEC used to highlight someone breaking a track record? Not really—I guess it just doesn't happen. It’s pretty obvious who they're saving those shots for—you know, the one person responsible for boosting WEC viewership by 300% according to those recent stats:

Honestly, I can't stand driving this track—it’s just not my thing. Either I'm being way too slow, or I'm constantly scraping the walls, I guess.

Fernando Alonso is apparently so lacking in charisma that he still pulls in over $80 million annually from sponsors😁 (I caught that figure in Forbes, though I'm not entirely sure how accurate it actually is)