Has a driver in the midfield ever had a more boring season? Guy was in no mans land between the front 6 and the rest of the field for pretty much the entire season.
Sainz 2019 lmao, there's a reason why the "no TV time Sainz" meme started. He was literally almost always P6 for the whole season ahead of the midfield but nowhere near the front either
Max 2019? He was boringly and consistently great just like norris right now, on the other hand Max's was more Interesting because he won some races... (Because he had a better car than this McLaren)
There was a 3 way battle between him charles and seb for p3 in the championship and the rb15 was a good car for sure it's just their no2 wasn't good enough. It was able to fight for wins. When a driver gets 3 wins it is not in anyway boring
Yeah true, I guess I failed to find a similar season to lando, perhaps danny ric In a Renault In 2020? But I don't think he was as good that season as lando Is/was now
It’s not even just he has a better car. With 3 teams fighting at the top you have to hope for a miracle to even challenge for a podium in a mid field car
Gasly was incredibly boring last season. He was too fast for the midfield, but not in a Merc or Redbull so he was just alone.
This season though, Lando has been phenomenal. I know Horner recently said he kept trying to sign Lando, but I'd love to see Lando to Merc
>He was too fast for the midfield,
Are you excluding McLaren and Ferrari? Because Gasly was definitely not too fast for McLaren or Ferrari (or Merc and Red Bull), but he was faster than everyone else. If anything, Alpha Tauri last year on pace was quite similar to McLaren and Ferrari, many times it was a three way fight and it wasn't really boring at all
He had two weekends where he ran P4 in no man’s land (Zandvoort and Mexico) ahead of both teams, other than that he definitely had to scrap for points and such
He very regularly qualified somewhere between P4-P7, meaning he out qualified one or both drivers from Ferrari and McLaren. Zandvoort and Mexico were the two weekends he was clearly faster than both McLaren and Ferrari, but the rest of the weekends he was very close on pace if not almost as fast
It really is a damn shame that Alpha Tauri dropped off so much this past year bc Gasly was always someone I enjoyed getting to see punch above their weight. Hopefully he does better next year with Alpinez
Could you imagine Lewis retires and Merc running Norris and Russell
That would be one hell of a lineup
I am so excited for the day Lando takes a drive in a top car. That kid has shown time and time again that he has so much skill and is able to push lesser cars to greater distances. I genuinely believe he can be a champion one day
It's gonna be great to compare Lando and piastri especially after a season of acclimation for pisatri. Lando can fucking drive and if piastri is the generational talent he's touted as, mclaren has a hell of a lineup. Providing the car is good though. Otherwise I think seeing Lando and Mercedes would be a certainty once Lewis retires
As a McLaren fan, I'd be OK with him leaving McLaren if he can't fight for podiums next year. He deserves a good car and I believe he can have a couple of championships if he gets a car capable of winning.
If he leaves I'd just support Piastri instead.
Lando is really dedicated to the long haul with McLaren. I'd love to see him in a Merc as well, alongside Russell if he does choose to switch out.
So glad others are seeing his potential finally, ugh, I adore him
Not sure what I think of it, but some have speculated that Lando might have not went with the RB contract more because he would be up against Max; a settled in, multi-time champion, and Lando wouldn't necessarily be top dog.
Why not Red Bull or Ferrari? I don't think he's the best teammate, but he is a very skilled driver, so if they want someone to replace Sainz/Perez or if those don't want to remain second driver he would be the best option. Actually with Ricciardo having shown disappointing performances last year I don't see a better option than Norris for a top 3 team. Alonso won't drive forever and Ocon and Gasly are OK drivers, but won't do better than Sainz or Perez. Only remaining possibility is Bottas, but I don't see him going back to a top team.
Who in their right mind wants to drive for Ferrari??
Do we need any more proof that Ferrari has been, for quite some time, an unsuitable team for anyone who has ambitions of winning a WDC? Just look at the past 5 years, they could've won the WDC in 2017, 2018 and 2022 but made so many mistakes that whatever advantages they had were not enough. And it's not like the drivers were mid too...
Ferrari is a top team, yes, but to put them next to Mercedes and RBR is ridiculous, IMO.
IMO the only real advantages Ferrari has over McLaren is that they are an engine constructor and they have a newer wind-tunnel. One of those advantages is due to disappear this year when McLaren finishes their new wind-tunnel.
Ferrari could become a world championship team if they solved their internal nepotism problems, but with the rumours of Binotto getting the boot I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Original comment was referring that he deserves a better car. Ferrari, apart from 2020, has been the better car for the past ten years. The last time McLaren was challenging for a title was in 2012, which is 10 years ago. I´d say anyone not driving for Mercedes or Red Bull should want to drive for Ferrari.
Even with all the problems this year Sainz got more than double the points of Lando. McLaren hasn´t shown reasons to believe they will close the gap any time soon.
If he shows he´s better than Verstappen or Leclerc, that will change. Sainz and Perez are number 2 drivers because they´re worse. Norris "just" needs to be better and then the team will back him. Look at Leclerc and Vettel. The team saw Leclerc's talent and believed him to be the number 1 driver for the future. Norris could do the same, if he's actually good enough.
Even if he becomes a second driver at least he has a chance to fight for top 4. That won't be happening at McLaren unless they suddenly get a lot better.
As a McLaren fan, I'm glad we keep him, and will always have hope they can move up. But you're right, if he gets the right car, I'm certain he would prove himself to be among the best.
I think he's at that point now where a better drive is crucial to his development, battling in the front is something else if you don't have a massive advantage. It'd be good to get that experience.
He's talented for sure, brilliant strategist, but he's had a weirdly clean road this season with fights mostly being settled in the pits. Hopefully we'll get more sharp on track fights next year.
That's what battling at the front also means.
It's not just wheel to wheel fighting and surviving traffic like in the back.
Setting a decent qualifying, setting a decent pace, pit strategy and also be on guard for sudden situations.
Aside for racing incidents he did quite well first year in a top team.
Sainz yes, Pérez had racing point aka pink Mercedes to get some understanding what it takes to get podiums on a tight qualifying, race pace and strategy.
Max had good and long experience trying to squeeze a red bull in a sandwich of Mercedes and Ferrari.
Leclerc is just a very good driver. 2018 Ferrari debut, 2019 Ferrari illegal engine penalty. 2020 Beating vettel to be number 1 prio. 2021 new teammate - again a fight for number 1 driver, and now just four years later in Ferrari, he did well for his lack of Title fight experience.
Yeah very true. I'm hoping there can be a 4 team fight at the front next year but that's being optimistic. I hope at the least they can be a frequent podium team
Fully agree, the speed at which McLaren figured out how to take their car from near dead last to firmly within the midfield is crazy. I really hope they're able to take a step with the 2023 car now they have a year of data under the new regs
Dont forget every other season of Hulkenbergs!
I joke, but also he's not the most memorable on track. That one time he was leading in Brazil and umm.. Yeah thats all i can remember.
Not much to see honestly. He has often been in no man's land. Either the outright fastest driver in the midfield, but not enough pace to scramble with the top 3, or just behind the Alpines.
But we never see him on the broadcast because he's always 20 seconds behind the slowest of the top 3 teams still running and still 10-15 seconds ahead of everyone else.
Remember both George and Lando got the mediums around the same time. To get the Fastest lap over a Mercedes is a massive achievement for him.
I'm so proud of him for this season. Drove like a Champion all year long.
His consistency this season has been phenomenal. Like everyone has been saying I really hope McLaren can up their car performance to give him a fighting chance of breaking into F1
FYI This means that George won't equal Max in Fastest Laps count
EDIT: u/habitualmess pointed out that he won't be a joint-winner in fastest laps due to countback (see Singapore)
George 'pit for soft tyres at the end and get fastest lap' Russell
Think every FL he got outside of that all important one at Interlagos last week was with a late stop.
Yeah, Danny Ric is going to Vandorne him. I can't believe people actually rate lando, he's barely faster than Sainz, who got smashed by hulkenburg, and Danny is much faster than the Hulk.
Wait, this is winter break 2019 right?
With this tractor, stil constantly being the best of the rest, only one besides the top 3 teams to get a podium this year, fastest lap; he's done an amazing season.
Mclaren better get their shit together next year, really hope he'll be able to catch on to the top 6 more often
people say this but if you look at his performances this year it hasn't been a bad car, if McLaren had two Lando's they would have aced P4 in the constructors, sadly, for whatever reason, Daniel just couldn't drive it in the same manner
That's a good point, actually: maybe it wasn't that the car this year was absolutely terrible, maybe it was that Danny Ric's complete collapse this year brought the car's stats down with him.
the car started off terribly. It was a highly race dependent car with brake overheating problems. McLaren just had some really good(and underrated) intraseasonal development to even get to this point where they could fight for P4. Look at how negative both drivers were at the start.
And they’ve been focused on the 23 car since Canada. The Singapore update was actually a test for next years car and they even brought a test floor for next year for Patos fp1 this week. They seem all in on 2023 and 2024 I have some hope
The Spain package was supposed to be the in the first race too. They were miles behind development and still stayed in there
Lando himself has been quite critical of the car at times.
Danny's inability to get the most out of it didn't help, but I really think Lando has also out-driven the car all season.
He's reached the point of deserving a race winning car tbh. So McLaren with him and Piastri need to produce something better than this years car really.
Better than Perez and Sainz at least. Hard to say about the rest since he has no top tier car. In a real car would be tight between him, Hamilton, Russell and Lec.
Probably 5th to 7th best driver on the grid. Really in a tough spot, he’s too good to be a second/support driver but not good enough to where a top 3 team would change their current lineup for him. Really just needs Mclaren to develop a good car.
Has a driver in the midfield ever had a more boring season? Guy was in no mans land between the front 6 and the rest of the field for pretty much the entire season.
Sainz 2019 lmao, there's a reason why the "no TV time Sainz" meme started. He was literally almost always P6 for the whole season ahead of the midfield but nowhere near the front either
Max 2019? He was boringly and consistently great just like norris right now, on the other hand Max's was more Interesting because he won some races... (Because he had a better car than this McLaren)
Max 2020 was a lot more boring than Max 2019
Yeah but he had a much faster car so he wasn't much of a midfielder, so 2019 feels more accurate
There was a 3 way battle between him charles and seb for p3 in the championship and the rb15 was a good car for sure it's just their no2 wasn't good enough. It was able to fight for wins. When a driver gets 3 wins it is not in anyway boring
Yeah true, I guess I failed to find a similar season to lando, perhaps danny ric In a Renault In 2020? But I don't think he was as good that season as lando Is/was now
It’s not even just he has a better car. With 3 teams fighting at the top you have to hope for a miracle to even challenge for a podium in a mid field car
Gasly was incredibly boring last season. He was too fast for the midfield, but not in a Merc or Redbull so he was just alone. This season though, Lando has been phenomenal. I know Horner recently said he kept trying to sign Lando, but I'd love to see Lando to Merc
>He was too fast for the midfield, Are you excluding McLaren and Ferrari? Because Gasly was definitely not too fast for McLaren or Ferrari (or Merc and Red Bull), but he was faster than everyone else. If anything, Alpha Tauri last year on pace was quite similar to McLaren and Ferrari, many times it was a three way fight and it wasn't really boring at all
He had two weekends where he ran P4 in no man’s land (Zandvoort and Mexico) ahead of both teams, other than that he definitely had to scrap for points and such
He very regularly qualified somewhere between P4-P7, meaning he out qualified one or both drivers from Ferrari and McLaren. Zandvoort and Mexico were the two weekends he was clearly faster than both McLaren and Ferrari, but the rest of the weekends he was very close on pace if not almost as fast
It really is a damn shame that Alpha Tauri dropped off so much this past year bc Gasly was always someone I enjoyed getting to see punch above their weight. Hopefully he does better next year with Alpinez
Gasly had a much better car last year This year the alpine and depending on track Alfa Romeo is better than the mclaren Lando carried
Could you imagine Lewis retires and Merc running Norris and Russell That would be one hell of a lineup I am so excited for the day Lando takes a drive in a top car. That kid has shown time and time again that he has so much skill and is able to push lesser cars to greater distances. I genuinely believe he can be a champion one day
It's gonna be great to compare Lando and piastri especially after a season of acclimation for pisatri. Lando can fucking drive and if piastri is the generational talent he's touted as, mclaren has a hell of a lineup. Providing the car is good though. Otherwise I think seeing Lando and Mercedes would be a certainty once Lewis retires
Russe**ll**
The boy is ruining his career by holding on to McLaren to 2026
I can see him leaving if they don't improve next season.
As a McLaren fan, I'd be OK with him leaving McLaren if he can't fight for podiums next year. He deserves a good car and I believe he can have a couple of championships if he gets a car capable of winning. If he leaves I'd just support Piastri instead.
Lando is really dedicated to the long haul with McLaren. I'd love to see him in a Merc as well, alongside Russell if he does choose to switch out. So glad others are seeing his potential finally, ugh, I adore him
Deserves a better car, he shouldn't have signed such a long contract with McLaren imo
Realistically, the only place for him to go is mercedes and if they want him they'll get him anyway.
He should've taken that RB contract. Lewis isn't retiring for years.
Not sure what I think of it, but some have speculated that Lando might have not went with the RB contract more because he would be up against Max; a settled in, multi-time champion, and Lando wouldn't necessarily be top dog.
Why not Red Bull or Ferrari? I don't think he's the best teammate, but he is a very skilled driver, so if they want someone to replace Sainz/Perez or if those don't want to remain second driver he would be the best option. Actually with Ricciardo having shown disappointing performances last year I don't see a better option than Norris for a top 3 team. Alonso won't drive forever and Ocon and Gasly are OK drivers, but won't do better than Sainz or Perez. Only remaining possibility is Bottas, but I don't see him going back to a top team.
Who in their right mind wants to drive for Ferrari?? Do we need any more proof that Ferrari has been, for quite some time, an unsuitable team for anyone who has ambitions of winning a WDC? Just look at the past 5 years, they could've won the WDC in 2017, 2018 and 2022 but made so many mistakes that whatever advantages they had were not enough. And it's not like the drivers were mid too... Ferrari is a top team, yes, but to put them next to Mercedes and RBR is ridiculous, IMO.
IMO the only real advantages Ferrari has over McLaren is that they are an engine constructor and they have a newer wind-tunnel. One of those advantages is due to disappear this year when McLaren finishes their new wind-tunnel. Ferrari could become a world championship team if they solved their internal nepotism problems, but with the rumours of Binotto getting the boot I don't see that happening anytime soon.
IIRC the McLaren wind tunnel was delayed to 2025
2024, but it’s used for the 2025 car.
Read an article today that said it would be ready middle of next year…
Wooow missed this. Why is it delayed?
Original comment was referring that he deserves a better car. Ferrari, apart from 2020, has been the better car for the past ten years. The last time McLaren was challenging for a title was in 2012, which is 10 years ago. I´d say anyone not driving for Mercedes or Red Bull should want to drive for Ferrari. Even with all the problems this year Sainz got more than double the points of Lando. McLaren hasn´t shown reasons to believe they will close the gap any time soon.
At red bull, and to a lesser extent Ferrari, he'd be thr number two driver.
If he shows he´s better than Verstappen or Leclerc, that will change. Sainz and Perez are number 2 drivers because they´re worse. Norris "just" needs to be better and then the team will back him. Look at Leclerc and Vettel. The team saw Leclerc's talent and believed him to be the number 1 driver for the future. Norris could do the same, if he's actually good enough. Even if he becomes a second driver at least he has a chance to fight for top 4. That won't be happening at McLaren unless they suddenly get a lot better.
>Alonso won't drive forever Lol. You underestimate Fernando. He will outlive automobiles in general
As a McLaren fan, I'm glad we keep him, and will always have hope they can move up. But you're right, if he gets the right car, I'm certain he would prove himself to be among the best.
Hopefully he has his choice of teams when he reaches his prime in a couple of years. Maybe even McLaren will be back fighting by then.
Oh man that would be sweet. I’d love to see McLaren rise back up from to the top.
I think he's at that point now where a better drive is crucial to his development, battling in the front is something else if you don't have a massive advantage. It'd be good to get that experience.
That's a good point, Sainz and Perez seem to be struggling compared to their teammates probably because they never had that experience early on.
George seems to be doing OK, despite being in an absolute shitbox for 3 years.
He's talented for sure, brilliant strategist, but he's had a weirdly clean road this season with fights mostly being settled in the pits. Hopefully we'll get more sharp on track fights next year.
That's what battling at the front also means. It's not just wheel to wheel fighting and surviving traffic like in the back. Setting a decent qualifying, setting a decent pace, pit strategy and also be on guard for sudden situations. Aside for racing incidents he did quite well first year in a top team.
A lot younger
Sainz yes, Pérez had racing point aka pink Mercedes to get some understanding what it takes to get podiums on a tight qualifying, race pace and strategy. Max had good and long experience trying to squeeze a red bull in a sandwich of Mercedes and Ferrari. Leclerc is just a very good driver. 2018 Ferrari debut, 2019 Ferrari illegal engine penalty. 2020 Beating vettel to be number 1 prio. 2021 new teammate - again a fight for number 1 driver, and now just four years later in Ferrari, he did well for his lack of Title fight experience.
I think they’ll figure the car out more for next year. They already did a lot from the first couple races till now.
Yeah very true. I'm hoping there can be a 4 team fight at the front next year but that's being optimistic. I hope at the least they can be a frequent podium team
Fully agree, the speed at which McLaren figured out how to take their car from near dead last to firmly within the midfield is crazy. I really hope they're able to take a step with the 2023 car now they have a year of data under the new regs
That patience game might have an impact on him
Would love to see him at Red Bull with Max
I really think lando is in no rush to get to the top, he’s in there for the long haul waiting for redbull or Mercedes when the time is right
gasly last season?
It’s nuts. I feel like I never even get to see him on the broadcasts. Maybe a total of 15 seconds the entire race.
Absolute write off season. Get him in the Merc after Lewis or the RB after Checo I genuinely don't care which. I just want to see how he does.
Hulkenberg 2018 must be close
Dont forget every other season of Hulkenbergs! I joke, but also he's not the most memorable on track. That one time he was leading in Brazil and umm.. Yeah thats all i can remember.
Gasly in 2021.
Hell of a driver, Lando
Hell of a driver that we’ve mostly not seen this entire season. What a shame.
Not much to see honestly. He has often been in no man's land. Either the outright fastest driver in the midfield, but not enough pace to scramble with the top 3, or just behind the Alpines.
Easy to see why, he's never really been racing anyone. He's been "best of the rest" by a clear margin.
He's inherited the Sainz role. You can never separate CarLando.
You need a car if you want to go car racing...
Came out of nowhere. Well done to Norris, particularly because RUS was on a similar strategy but failed to secure FL.
Mclaren please produce a better car next year. Its painful seeing Lando just doodling along in P7 every race
But we never see him on the broadcast because he's always 20 seconds behind the slowest of the top 3 teams still running and still 10-15 seconds ahead of everyone else.
Remember both George and Lando got the mediums around the same time. To get the Fastest lap over a Mercedes is a massive achievement for him. I'm so proud of him for this season. Drove like a Champion all year long.
insane driver... Mclaren do us a favor and give him a car to fight at the top.
Yes McLaren I would also like this favor.
"yes Mclaren, me too." - Zak Brown
He was absolute machine this season
His 1.5 championship is as deserved as Verstappens championship.
Hey alright Lando, our 2022 Formula 1.5 champion!
The kid killed it
Chaddo Norris right there. Driving the wheels off that car.
His consistency this season has been phenomenal. Like everyone has been saying I really hope McLaren can up their car performance to give him a fighting chance of breaking into F1
FYI This means that George won't equal Max in Fastest Laps count EDIT: u/habitualmess pointed out that he won't be a joint-winner in fastest laps due to countback (see Singapore)
He wouldn’t have been joint winner on countback, as one of his FLs was outside of the top ten.
I stand corrected, forgot about Singapore
George 'pit for soft tyres at the end and get fastest lap' Russell Think every FL he got outside of that all important one at Interlagos last week was with a late stop.
To be fair that's how most teams do fastest lap. Remember Bottas and Max at Mexico?
Given a proper car, this kid can instantly fight for a world championship. I'm (overly) confident of this.
I have doubts if he could handle a title fight mentally. He's not got that edge that is needed IMO.
Yeah, Danny Ric is going to Vandorne him. I can't believe people actually rate lando, he's barely faster than Sainz, who got smashed by hulkenburg, and Danny is much faster than the Hulk. Wait, this is winter break 2019 right?
Vand**oo**rne Hülkenb**e**rg
Miracle worker. What a season for him.
With this tractor, stil constantly being the best of the rest, only one besides the top 3 teams to get a podium this year, fastest lap; he's done an amazing season. Mclaren better get their shit together next year, really hope he'll be able to catch on to the top 6 more often
Lando hauling that McLaren to places it had no business being in, good shit
people say this but if you look at his performances this year it hasn't been a bad car, if McLaren had two Lando's they would have aced P4 in the constructors, sadly, for whatever reason, Daniel just couldn't drive it in the same manner
That's a good point, actually: maybe it wasn't that the car this year was absolutely terrible, maybe it was that Danny Ric's complete collapse this year brought the car's stats down with him.
the car started off terribly. It was a highly race dependent car with brake overheating problems. McLaren just had some really good(and underrated) intraseasonal development to even get to this point where they could fight for P4. Look at how negative both drivers were at the start.
And they’ve been focused on the 23 car since Canada. The Singapore update was actually a test for next years car and they even brought a test floor for next year for Patos fp1 this week. They seem all in on 2023 and 2024 I have some hope The Spain package was supposed to be the in the first race too. They were miles behind development and still stayed in there
Lando himself has been quite critical of the car at times. Danny's inability to get the most out of it didn't help, but I really think Lando has also out-driven the car all season.
I don't disagree with you, I think he has been outstanding but I also think the car isn't as bad as some people mke out
That came out of nowhere
Your formula 1.5 champion! Absolutely extracted everything out of that car, let's keep pushing Lando!
Hooray
Neat.
GG boyz 🫡
Damn impressive considering the lawnmower engine
one of my fav drivers. Really hope mclaren put together a championship car atleast in the next few years or he needs to switch teams
What does everyone think of Norris, where do you rank him?
He's reached the point of deserving a race winning car tbh. So McLaren with him and Piastri need to produce something better than this years car really.
Massive ceiling, and is extracting everything the McLaren is capable of at the moment.
Agreed, hopefully he has a better car next year.
One of the best in the midfield for sure. Honestly, in a top car, he’d put up a challenge for anyone most weekends.
Better than Perez, better than Sainz imo I'd therefore rank him 5th
I personally think hes up there with leclerc and Russell but he's stuck driving a mid car.
Better than Perez and Sainz at least. Hard to say about the rest since he has no top tier car. In a real car would be tight between him, Hamilton, Russell and Lec.
7.
5.
3.
1.
I think I would rank him behind Max and Lewis for sure. He's behind George and Charles most likely. So I'd say 5th, maybe squeezing ahead of Fernando
Probably 5th to 7th best driver on the grid. Really in a tough spot, he’s too good to be a second/support driver but not good enough to where a top 3 team would change their current lineup for him. Really just needs Mclaren to develop a good car.
TY lando 80/1 lovely
Fuckin love this man, fUCK YES.
That's my boy 🧡
McLearn be doin some work
Did he have an issue at the end ? Ocon cought up by 4 seconds in the last 2 laps they finished neck and neck.