Interesting perspective. When Daniel Ricciardo arrived at Redbull for his first season there he faced a very entrenched Vettel. Seb had built the team around himself, got the best of everything as befitting a 4 time WDC. Daniel despite being brand new to team and car convincingly outdrove and outpointed him. So I respectfully disagree. He is not deserving of #2 status anywhere. He has also gone on record to say that he is not interested in going to Ferrari to be Sebs bridesmaid.
Neither Vettel nor Hamilton would accept a strong driver as a team mate. Toto Wolf didn't seem to like internal fights either, so he chose Bottas to replace Rosberg. Those Senna vs Prost and Alonso vs Hamilton fights were harmful for the team. Ricciardo deserves a winning car. Max doesn't. His opportunity seems to stay in RedBull and wait for his chance.
@davidporeilly I think bwana meant that the established driver is #1, therefore Dan would be #2. But I also think you're right - an established driver is only #1 as long as they're clearly faster. We saw with Alonso and Hamilton how that can quickly break down. @SPASKIS I'm not sure Toto had many other options at the time. As for liking battles or not, it seems closely related to how much faster the car is than its rivals. Senna and Prost weren't an issue because the team still killed it. With recent form you probably don't want drivers battling too hard because there's no performance gap to the other teams, but Mercedes have shown little interest in favouring a driver and Red Bull haven't had much inclination either. With those two I think it matters little what the existing driver thinks - the team will pick the best driver they can get. Ferrari seems to have as much tendency as its leading driver to have driver rankings, as evidenced by the shambles at China (twice if you include the SC, because I think they would have been ready for Vettel in the same scenario), so they would seem less likely to take him. But if Raikkonen has enough of the circus by year's end they'll need to look for someone anyway.
Rosberg played mind games while Ricciardo and Hamilton do it all on track. I think Hamilton is going to be more accepting of Ricciardo than Vettel is, purely because Hamilton has done all he wants to achieve in F1 and that is match Senna's three titles. Plus I doubt Ferrari would be a place where Dan can be Dan. They're too snooty for all that.
Lot of coloured comments in this thread, Lol Here my perspective, Sure he was way to inpatient trying the outside line on Lewis and after that understeer into Seb, he was also the very first to admit he was after the race and apologized for it personally. (he'd better not in the future) But everybody finds the need to rub it in when they get the slightest chance. Alonso was far from perfect and made a pretty harsh passing move no one seem to have spotted??. Riciardo made the pass on Bottas stick, and laught it away with "sometimes you have to lick the stamp" etc. But in fact that pass was just as risky, or even way more risky than the outside line attempt of Max. Bottas cramped and let him through, if it had been Seb he'd would've closed the gap and it would've also end in tears... It's all about milliseconds, hero or zero, and max was milliseconds off this time. He'll shut up a lot of people in the future, and I love to see it happen Please more drivers like Max and Alonso, and start racing again.
Verstappen is the next Kvyat, wait and see. It's only a matter of Redbull find another good driver to replace him.
Yep exactly my thoughts , kind of like Max coming to red bull and being branded #1 without RBR actually admitting it. The entrenched drivers as in Ham and Vet as multiple champs and team history have to be regarded at #1 .. That should also change if race results reflect itv.. should also say l hate the team ratings for drivers .. doesn’t help the racing ie: kimi at Ferrari
Did Alonso hit Seb? Did Danny Ric hit anyone? This is the difference. Max has a history of hitting people and still does the same thing even though his success rate in the past hasn't been good. It's like trying to launch in a thirty yard screamer into the top corner every time you get the ball in a football match. Not going to work all the time.
Except that they just agreed to keep him on a contract of around 25-30 million per year until 2020. If they had any intention of replacing him, they wouldn't have agreed to pay as much.
The Chinese Grand Prix was a race to forget for Max who was involved in collision with Vettel that took both drivers out of contention. Lauda hits out at Verstappen: "Max is fully to blame for the accident. Seems like reason doesn't get through to him. You normally rise with your mistakes. But he's getting ever smaller. In this case it also seems to be a question of intelligence." Next race is in Baku. The overtakes in China on Hamilton and Vettel really wasn’t on , that wasn’t possible and it was horrible to watch. This can’t happen in Baku. I don’t want to see these kinds of actions. Max needs to have it under control and needs to think but there is nothing which indicates that it wouldn't happen. Max has over 60 F1 starts and it looks like every race is he`s first F1 race and the lack of maturity and his aggression has not changed. Who is going to bite the dust in Baku?
Exactly Ari...Has there been a more talented driver ( at his age) than Max??? Not worth a thing if he can't develop a race brain. We have to stop using the "young" excuse. This is F1..Age is measured in race starts. I'd love to see him switch it on but after 60+ starts and still making the same mistakes......
It had to happen sooner or later. Dan was faster than him all race and the team should really have intervened. Dan got past a few times and max would not yield and I thought something bigger was going to happen. Red bull only have themselves to blame here. If an armchair yobbo like me could see something was going to escalate why couldnt the smart people on the prat perch see it? On their clash dan went right to overtake and max went right to block so dan went left and max came back across, naughty boy!
Knew he’d be involved in a crash He might calm down a bit for the next race or two Then he’ll be crashing again Beg Daniel is totally fedup with him
sigh....What was Dan thinking? Made a huge blunder in assuming Max knows, understands and will abide by the rules of racing! What a pathetic response by RedBull also. Get out of there Dan....
I don't think Dan was faster all race, i think he stayed on the toe on the back straight which made the pace. even the Renault did it the first few laps. max was struggling with tyre temps following lewis and overused the battery. So Dan took advantage of it twice in both scenarios nicely. but Max built a nice 3 second lap before lewis was infront, so imo the pace was similar. this was evident when Dan pitted an had no tyre temps and lost out in the pit stop. Great battle to start with but we all knew it would end this way, Dan lost patience max was being Max. didnt take a cyrstal ball to see he wouldn't yield so easily. its a racing incident with both driver at fault. Dan was never going to make that corner without locking and pushing wide regardless. but max should have given the room and allowed for the error. Racing is racing. the big looser is vettel and bottas. gutted for them and lewis picks up an easy one after having a garbage race.
Dan was all over him all race so I do believe he was quicker, even in clean air he kept at him, I think he would have made that corner, he always does, lol.
