Well Redbull IS already a winning car, at least chassis wise which is still very important. As long as Honda can make similar level power as Renault with reliability (which Honda has shown for this year while Renault has not), then actually the RB Honda can be a winning car again next year. Renault is still quite a significant way behind RB in terms of chassis speed so I'm skeptical if next year they could catch up that much. It looks like Ric's move is more about money.

Normally Sainz should be the replacement BUT he has been upstaged by Hulk while Gasly has ben doing very well, so really not sure who will RB pick. However I think Sainz may still get promoted to see if he can bounce back. If he doesn't perform well enough next year then they can still easily dump him for Gasly.

I don't see Ham wants to move to Ferrari if he can still win in Merc while still getting paid the highest too. If Ham & Seb in the same team (either Merc or Ferrari) also then it will be like Senna & Prost at McLaren back then, hence other teams will just fall into the background coz will be difficult for them to challenge these 2 consistently.

Yeah I think Sainz will still be in F1 no matter what. If RB doesn't want him then he has McLaren as his back up plan. McLaren definitely would get him in that case, just depending on who will partner him. If Alonso chooses to stay then they will kick out Vandoorne but if Alonso leaves then they put Lando Noris to partner Sainz.

Would be great if got promoted to RB though and see if he can bounce back (but I doubt he can match Max like he did in TR).

It's a shame but already very much expected. Hopefully he really joins a good Indy team and can tear it up there.
So now McLaren ahs no solid driver for next year, only hope is to try get Sainz to pair with Lando Noris.

Yup Renault looks more promising and that's why Ric chooses to go there instead.

Yeah, no point languishing in the back-mid field for driver of his caliber. Winning Indy 500 or even the Indy title would be better, something that not everyone can easily get.

As rumored, Sainz signs with McLaren for next year. So Gasly surely would get promoted to RB. So now the only remaining big name still in question mark in Kimi in Ferrari. I think he would get extended 1 more year while Leclerc maybe put in Haas replacing Grosjean.

Well if he goes to Indy, the cars are all the same and he surely wont go to a small team, so he should be be able to shine better there to showcase his driving skill.

Isn't his contract expiring already this year so next year already free agent, no?

Anyway on a slight side news, Alonso was supposed to win his 3rd straight WEC but then both Toyota got disqualified!

They still already got 2 wins previously so even with only this last one taken away, they're still comfortable ahead. With only a 2 car championship and both in just the same 1 team, Alonso would not be too worried about that! I honestly cannot see much prestige anymore in this WEC title, not even the LeMans 24hr anymore coz it's only a 2 car championship! Even the ordinary Nico Hulk managed to win it on his debut LM24hr! No matter how bad F1 is, it's still way better than this WE"Championship"! If Alonso managed to win Indy title and the 500, now that's much more special than WEC & LM24hr. I think if Alonso is able to get the 500, then he should change again to try win WRC!

This post has been edited by 6UE5T: Aug 20 2018, 06:00 PM

Actually it might be too soon for him but who knows maybe he can cope and give Max a bit of a fight too. Talented young gun but if promoted too soon with too much pressure that early, then it might quickly destroy one's career. But I suppose with Ric quitting and Sainz opting out to McLaren, RB doesn't have much choice.

Hopefully they don't promote Leclerc too soon or else he might be destroyed also by Seb.

Only time will tell, we shall see next year.

Probably not so soon, Renault themselves said that they would not yet be able to give a winning car to Ric in 2019.

Ferrari on top in both FP1 & FP2.

Well but Ferrari shot themselves in the foot again by failing to fuel Kimi to get him out while he is actually their best chance to get pole this time! So yeah they might have a good driver line up, they might have a good race car now but they keep making mistakes!

Yeah honestly when raining, I'd always put my money on Ham. Seb actually should be also pretty good in the rain, better than Kimi, but maybe that German GP mistake still haunts him.

Well it's more like he is able to capitalize on others mistakes/misfortunes rather than pure luck.

Yeah, there's a good chance Seb can overtake at the start coz the Ferraris on average have been starting better than the Mercs so far. If he couldn't get Ham at the start then he needs to brave it out to stay very close in Eau Rouge but that's not easy. I hope Kimi can fight back thru the field also coz he has a fast car and he's traditionally very strong in Spa. Seb needs every bit of help form him to steal as many points as possible from Ham.

Yeah it's boring because the other top contenders were taken out (Kimi) and starting from the back (Bottas).
The DRS is also too powerful/activation zone too early.


Well Ham knew he couldn't catch Seb so why risk damaging the engine?

Judging by how his speed was up to Q2 plus his record historically at Spa, Kimi actually had a chance of not just podium but actually winning as well, just for Ferrari to screw up his qualifying and the bad luck of getting hit.

If Ferrari or Seb do not screw up again, and that is still a big possibility especially knowing how Ferrari often did that. They really have no more margin of error now in order to win the title and that's their main challenge now, try got things done cleanly from now on.

Oh and Hulk smash!

Yeah, that's why I'm not as confident yet that Seb can really catch up and win at the end.

Ironic since previously it was the other way around! But from the top speed chart yesterday, Seb is not in the top 5.

It seems Ferrari also wears out their tires well, unlike Mercs suffering from some blisters. So it's not just about engine power but also better chassis now.