Formula 1

[kruddler]

It will be a long long season for Aussie F1 fans, Ricciardo was stitched up by McLaren which naturally favours it's home boy Norris, but Ricciardo was able to make some progress simply because of his record.

Piastri has nothing to offer McLaren in the short term, no traction, no gravitas, and pretty much everything to lose if the team fail to support him. I have some business associates who attended Bahrain and the word is McLaren were using terms like disappointing in regards to Piastri's testing and performance, it shows how cut-throat F1 really is, most of those whispers will be coming from the management of other drivers.

Yet it looks very much to me like it's the car and not the drivers that are the problem. They may have pandered to Norris a bit too much and have as a result formulated a spud of a car, a car that is tuned to Norris's unique skills and flaws but is in effect a dead-end as far as being competitive is concerned.

Norris is going to have to lift McLaren out of the mire, if he can't then white anting Ricciardo might have been the worst decision of his career!

In the meantime, over at RBR they are reaping the benefits from having Ricciardo back in the Testing / R&D train.

McLarens issue has always been the car.
Norris was favoured because he doesn't know any different and has always driven the car. If he went somewhere else, he'd have to relearn how to drive.
Ricciardo had to relearn how to drive and it went against his instincts and you need to rely on your instincts at that level.

Piastri is a good driver with a lot to learn and a lemon to learn it in. Good luck. Mark Webber should hand back a large portion of his wages for such a poor advisement re joining McLaren.

Zac Brown has to be a dead man walking. Has had all the money and resources and top drivers to boot and somehow manages to underperform on a regular basis. Start getting your things in order, because you be looking for a new job in 2024....if not before.