[Team] … begat Alfa Romeo begat Audi: is their best ever season coming?

[steve_r]

https://twitter.com/ValtteriBottas/s...64938813984782

Bottas is my new favourite driver.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by steve_r

https://twitter.com/ValtteriBottas/s...64938813984782

Bottas is my new favourite driver.

[chillibowl]

hahaha amazing!

[Greem]

That's BRILLIANT. Especially the "I'm very rich already"

[GTRMagic]

Why would a team such as Sauber come all the way to Australia without a spare front wing of the same spec as the two race cars.

Mr Zhou is starting RoG for needing to swap to an older spec front wing..

Is this caused by the cost cap?

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Why would a team such as Sauber come all the way to Australia without a spare front wing of the same spec as the two race cars.

Mr Zhou is starting RoG for needing to swap to an older spec front wing..

Is this caused by the cost cap?

It may be the reason although I think that unlikely. I think the reason is that the season has started so early with only 3 days of testing, followed a few days later by the first race of the year, a week's break before the next race and now two weeks later, the third race taking place on the other side of the world from your base.

Teams only have a limited space on the 747 freighters and so they would usually send things such as spares by sea, but with the time pressures this season, it is quite possible that there was just an insufficient period in which to create spares. This may also have affected Williams as well with their lack of a spare tub.

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Why would a team such as Sauber come all the way to Australia without a spare front wing of the same spec as the two race cars.

Mr Zhou is starting RoG for needing to swap to an older spec front wing..

Is this caused by the cost cap?

We have seen this before from other teams when new upgraded parts are introduced at quite short notice. These are flyaway races, so perhaps understandable, although of course not ideal.

The bigger issue is the wheel nut problems which keep causing lengthy delays during the pitstops, which makes the potential 0.05 seconds per lap from any new upgraded lightweight left hand flange adapter rather redundant.

[Skam85]

I had the privilege of being in the Oath Lounge (VB's gin brand) all weekend, met Valtteri all three days, great bloke.

I said on Sunday to him, "Points today I reckon, P8". He gave me a little smirk and said thanks.

Without the lengthy pit stop, I reckon P8 would not have been far off. Bottas and that Sauber would have finished ahead of the Haas' at least.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Skam85

I had the privilege of being in the Oath Lounge (VB's gin brand) all weekend, met Valtteri all three days, great bloke.

I said on Sunday to him, "Points today I reckon, P8". He gave me a little smirk and said thanks.

Without the lengthy pit stop, I reckon P8 would not have been far off. Bottas and that Sauber would have finished ahead of the Haas' at least.

Sounds like you had a great time!!

Hmm VB not too chuffed with the pitstop aggro. There are suggestions that Audi may not be as interested in employing him as he is in wanting a drive.

However he would still be a solid banker for them in the first couple of years development. After all when he was at Merc,they had winning equipment, systems and procedures...

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

It may be the reason although I think that unlikely. I think the reason is that the season has started so early with only 3 days of testing, followed a few days later by the first race of the year, a week's break before the next race and now two weeks later, the third race taking place on the other side of the world from your base.

Teams only have a limited space on the 747 freighters and so they would usually send things such as spares by sea, but with the time pressures this season, it is quite possible that there was just an insufficient period in which to create spares. This may also have affected Williams as well with their lack of a spare tub.

The challenge is made simpler by having a drop dead date.
In these new fangled production scheduling softwares, a signed off piece of kit should be able to be reasonably forecast for the various stage gates so the issue doesn’t happen.

I am interested that the team put in a 2023 wing into the spares cache.
The logical me would wonder how it might fit if the front nose bulkhead seems to change in size and shape more often than not from season to season.

Unless of course Sauber evolved last seasons chassis instead of swinging for the fences….

[GTRMagic]

What is the attraction of Mr Hulkenberg?
Stake Sauber Audi clearly sees something beyond this season and last’s outcomes..

[steve_r]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

What is the attraction of Mr Hulkenberg?
Stake Sauber Audi clearly sees something beyond this season and last’s outcomes..

German driver for a German team. He's a solid performer. Dragged what seems to be a rather mediocre Haas into the points this season. Generally out performed his teammate. I would say that it is an upgrade on at least one of the two current Sauber drivers.

But it is not a signing that particularly gets the pulse racing. If they can get Sainz alongside him, then that is a good, solid line-up. But I would expect that Sainz would have more appealing options elsewhere?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

What is the attraction of Mr Hulkenberg?
Stake Sauber Audi clearly sees something beyond this season and last’s outcomes..

He's had seasons where he's out preformed Perez and Sainz. They got chances in top teams, Hulk has not. So I'd say it's worth a shot in a factory team.

[Richard C]

I had written Hulkenberg off prior to him driving for Haas. And I was proven wrong. As posted above, German driver for German team and he may surprise in a good car. Question is... Can Sauber/Audi provide that car? Right now they seem to be generally stinking it up.

Richard

[chillibowl]

funny coincidence!

https://x.com/PHortonF1/status/1783776063656435753

Every time Lewis Hamilton changes teams in #F1, Nico Hulkenberg joins Sauber.

[GTRMagic]

Seidl, Hoffmann Out, Binotto In



These two didn’t seem to play well together.
Takes some balls to turf both…

[Greem]

Crikey. They're playing a serious game now!

[Tourer]

Something clearly needed to change at senior management level, so not surprised - the performance of the current team would be a significant concern for Audi.

I am however surprised at Seidl going - always rated him at Porsche and at McLaren & I'm also surprised at the choice of Binotto - particularly as (I think) he himself said that covering the technical and operational roles didn't really work and led to job dissatisfaction at Ferrari.

With such significant change, the team effectively starts over - but it's already done that, so now there is less time to pull all the pieces together - they're taking on a significant mountain, that's for sure.

[GTRMagic]

Shall Mr Sainz be joining soon?

[Richard C]

delete (sorry, didnt see it was already posted above)

Richard

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Shall Mr Sainz be joining soon?

Maybe this is exactly why he isn't joining

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Shall Mr Sainz be joining soon?

Originally Posted by Skam85

Maybe this is exactly why he isn't joining

Could be said that there's a lot at Stake...

[steve_r]

I always have a bit of a grim fascination with whichever team currently has the worst car on the grid. That honour is no longer with Williams, but sadly perennial midfielders and sometime in the past giant killers Sauber. The giant killers label will of course be dropped soon and it will be hard to look at them as a minnow fighting against better resourced teams when they have the might of Audi behind them.

Anyway, they still have a seat available beside the evergreen Hulkenburg. Who would you take on of the drivers available if you were their team manager?

Bottas - The better of their 2 current drivers

Zhou - who I cant really remember ever doing anything noteworthy in his time on the grid, and who has been thoroughly outscored by his teammate.

KMag - reunite this seasons Haas line-up. Hardly an inspiring choice, but he is a sold if slightly feisty driver.

Ricciardo - Can they revive his flagging career?

Colapinto - Who already seems nearly as fast as Albon.

Or some other f2 driver? Bearman and Colapinto have proven that the step up is achievable for plenty of them I would think.


Bottas seems like the obvious choice. Unless they significantly improve the car, they may as well get Mazepin in.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Who would you take on of the drivers available if you were their team manager?...

Zhou - who I cant really remember ever doing anything noteworthy in his time on the grid, and who has been thoroughly outscored by his teammate.

cant disagree with that assessment but he does seem to keep is nose clean for the most part. would be curious to know what kind of feed back he gives tho.

so while not fast and doesnt seem to be getting any faster, still not a bad hand to have around for a driver who i imagine brings with him a nice budget.

[Richard C]

I would assume that Audi's long term goals is to win the championship. And that they have a multi year plan or strategy to achieve this. So what are their short term needs to help facilitate that long term goal? The car is crap, it is likely to be crap next year, and frankly the 2026 car is likely to be no better than mid-field at best. Are they looking for funding (pay driver), a low repair bill (steady hands of a journeyman), someone to help develop the car (experienced driver), a growth for the future (a new hot prospect).

If it were me, I think in the short term they need an experienced driver to help term to help the team get back on it's feet and to develop the car as well as not crash the car on a regular basis and drain funds that would be better spent on development. I "think" that is what Hulkenberg is meant to do. If they feel they need more than Hulkenberg, then I guess keep Bottas. But frankly the second seat would either go to a pay driver or someone who they think might be a star and they can lock into a longer term contract if he works out.

Zhou seems like a nice guy. But he hasn't been setting the world on fire. But then again, with such a bad car, it's hard to tell. But it does seem like he is always quite a bit behind Bottas. I think Colapinto makes sense even if they can't tie him up long term. I have no idea otherwise as to what the pipeline shows for new young drivers that they might use.

Richard