[Official] Driver of the Grand Prix: Singapore Grand Prix 2024

[Born Racer]

Who earned your vote?

[Greem]

Lando!

[bjohnsonsmith]

I'm going to give that to Franco Colapinto. Only his second GP and he qualified with a respectable 12th place and finished the race in a respectable 11th place.

[GTRMagic]

During a really wonky headspace, with a truly ghastly strategy, off a weird qualifying, and for probably the last time we get to do this… Daniel Ricciardo for DOTR..

Fastest lap in the second string RB against those mighty McLarens is huge.

[chillibowl]

Lando, quali, his start, led all laps, and win!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

During a really wonky headspace, with a truly ghastly strategy, off a weird qualifying, and for probably the last time we get to do this… Daniel Ricciardo for DOTR..

Fastest lap in the second string RB against those mighty McLarens is huge.

That is probably one of the greatest 'location checks out' of all time.....

Lando.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

That is probably one of the greatest 'location checks out' of all time.....

Lando.

Pot / Kettle / Black.

Lando.

[P38 in workshop]

I voted for the absolutely dominant winner but I think Mr Colapinto did another good job.He seems to be more talented than some of the others who are keeping seats warm.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by E.B

Pot / Kettle / Black.

Lando.

Hardly.... Lando won. Easily.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Hardly.... Lando won. Easily.

Totally agree Andrew....I was being very tongue in cheek.

[Lancsbreaker]

Got to be Lando, tho he had me twitching when he nearly did a Russell by tapping his rear wheel against the wall......


I'd agree with hjonourable mentions for Colapinto, and of course Daniel - tho if that lost point for fastest lap costs Lando the Championship I might be less generous

[Alan52]

Lando
Wish I could give half a vote to Colapinto.He deserves to be on the grid more than at least 5 other drivers who will be.

[Akrapovic]

Daniel. Legendary drive.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Daniel. Legendary drive.

[steve_r]

Not Norris who nearly threw away a comfortable win by hitting the wall a couple of times.

LeClerc gets my vote for making progress in the race.

[GT6]

Really wanted to give it to Ricardo but apart from that 1 lap at the end it was not a good day for him so lando rightly got my vote

[TrapezeArtist]

Another no contest: Lando. Even though he gave us a couple of anxious moments with his apparent friendship with the barriers.

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Fastest lap in the second string RB against those mighty McLarens is huge.

Hardly! Fresh tyres up against everyone else on very tired (pun) hards.

[AndreasDavour]

The McLaren fan I am I voted Norris. But, I don't think it was one of his better drives. Sure he was dominant and obliterated all opposition, but I give him my vote for making the Constructor's title more likely. But, sure he was pretty good.


But, Colapinto is the real deal! I am seriously impressed! Lewis also managed some nice moves that entertained.



The driver I was sad to see back was Magnusen. He drives dirty, and then acts like he doesn't understand why he gets penalized. Haas should have kicked his sorry arse and kept Bearman.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Daniel. Legendary drive.

They are rid of him now. Who is the next focus for attention & destruction?

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

They are rid of him now. Who is the next focus for attention & destruction?

Oh come off it, it was clearly time up for Daniel.....

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Oh come off it, it was clearly time up for Daniel.....

That’s not quite the point…

There are any number of other pilots in the F1 field who have a substantially worse recent record than Mr Ricciardo that nobody ever speaks about

The Sauber pilots to start.. the second Haas and second Aston Martin.. all of whom do not have a great 2024 record.. and the poor performance is written off as a difficult car, or lack of budget for upgrades, or another well meaning yet undefinable attribute.

I don’t consider the knives out for Mr Sargeant were loads of fun either.
It’s like the media gets a taste of blood and don’t let it go till the seat is gone.

Yet they are well selective of who they chase down. The 4 above keep being mentioned as retaining their ‘25 seats, or linked elsewhere. Without notable 2024 performances. 2 of them are currently on zero points… in a world where the top 10 get a prize!

For some reason, the General Electric HR strategy of immolating the bottom 5% of their employee base each year is in play in F1 in the media’s minds… yet it’s selective and quite often unnecessary in its targeting.

Take Mr Alonso for a hit. Compared to ‘23 his candle looks to have dimmed.
Yet they treat him with the reverence of a 2 time WDC… forgetting it was 20 years ago..

Can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Understood.
Make it the standard. Not the exception.

[S griffin]

I gave it to Russell for a mature drive in a difficult car

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

That’s not quite the point…

There are any number of other pilots in the F1 field who have a substantially worse recent record than Mr Ricciardo that nobody ever speaks about

The Sauber pilots to start.. the second Haas and second Aston Martin.. all of whom do not have a great 2024 record.. and the poor performance is written off as a difficult car, or lack of budget for upgrades, or another well meaning yet undefinable attribute.

I don’t consider the knives out for Mr Sargeant were loads of fun either.
It’s like the media gets a taste of blood and don’t let it go till the seat is gone.

Yet they are well selective of who they chase down. The 4 above keep being mentioned as retaining their ‘25 seats, or linked elsewhere. Without notable 2024 performances. 2 of them are currently on zero points… in a world where the top 10 get a prize!

For some reason, the General Electric HR strategy of immolating the bottom 5% of their employee base each year is in play in F1 in the media’s minds… yet it’s selective and quite often unnecessary in its targeting.

Take Mr Alonso for a hit. Compared to ‘23 his candle looks to have dimmed.
Yet they treat him with the reverence of a 2 time WDC… forgetting it was 20 years ago..

Can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Understood.
Make it the standard. Not the exception.

Undoubtedly, there are plenty on the current grid who (IMO) are on borrowed time, but for my money, none more so than Ricciardo. Yes, Alonso's season has been lacklustre for sure, but you just know that the 'spark' is still there. Drivers getting the boot from F1 because they're time is up is no big thing, it's been happening for years. I don't think the media had anything much at all to do with Ricciardo's departure.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Yet they are well selective of who they chase down.

My perspective is that more talk is spent on the drivers who are actually vulnerable. For example why beat the drum regarding Lance when his dad owns the team. It sort of a dead horse topic at this point. Lance goes whenever Lance decides he is done. Then you have someone like Zhou. The Sauber is a complete dog. So they could put a fantastic driver in the car and it may make little difference. And as you call out Logan was dumped on regularly. He is gone, so the heat is on the next guy in line.

Sergio and Daniel have been logical choices to question "why are they still in their respective cars" with a likelihood of them actually being replaced and it having some potential impact to finishing order. Daniel was also a special case because some of his fans kept pumping up him as a replacement for Sergio. Right or wrong, I can imagine there is a bit of "dunking on Daniel fans" going on right now due to the history of the Daniel hype train that was going on which irritated some of the people who felt it was unrealistic.

Richard

[GTRMagic]

All well and good… except the Red Bull ‘A’ Team looks likely to torch possibly as much as a 9 figure (plus 2 decimals) number in whatever currency the WCC win is paid in expressly because they won’t make a tactical/strategic decision to make a change.

Arguably in terms of burning platforms… this one should be at the top of the tree without prejudice.