2y ago

QUALIFYING

2023 British GP [QUALIFYING] discussion thread

FORMULA 1 ARAMCO BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2023

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This is starting to get embarrassing for Checo. I thought people were exaggerating how precarious his position was but if he keeps performing like this RB might actually be forced to take action.
Imagine if RB had an actual competitor, Checo couldn't support Max at the front at all if he keeps going like this.
- I also thought the "Checo washed" comments and discussion about his seat being in jeopardy were an overreaction a few weeks ago. At this point though, I'm expecting Redbull to drop him any moment.
  
  I’m still thinking he’s going to end out his contract, but he’s not getting a new one
  
  The Red Bull 2nd driver position seems to be cursed.
- Just compare him to Bottas at Mercedes--never missing Q3 during his time there. And how many times has Checo not made it to Q1 this season?
- Ricciardo must be grinning
  
  When is Ricciardo not grinning? 😁
  That lad deserves an emoji of his own!
- Yuki to RB please
  
  My hot take is that Yuki is pretty much set to take the second RB seat pending Perez’s overall performance. If Perez continues to be abysmal, I’m sure that RB will drop him using a performance clause in his contract.
  Everyone likes to rag on Yuki but since Gasly has left, Yuki stepped out tremendously. Not to mention that he’s been dragging that shit box to mid-field a handful of times. Helmut Marko even commented on Yuki’s performance and Marko never compliments anyone unless you’re Max and Vettel.
  De Vries is going to get dropped to make way for Liam Lawson.
  RB/AT seats is going to make silly season fun.
  
  I really don't think Yuki would be an improvement. He's been inconsistent and his highs haven't exactly been amazing. They'd be better going for Riccardo or the Hulk or Sainz imo.
- Perez was leading the pack on a damp track. It was a bad call to put him at the front. And the gap between him and tenth shows it.
  
  He was .5s slower than Albon, the car right behind him
- EL PLAN
- Insane how great Max has been running it’s really overshadowed how poorly Checo has been
- Makes you wonder how fast the racing point actually was in 2020 lol

Norris: "Max ruins everything for everyone"
Ahahaha preach it
- Max drinking his water during that section of the interview to stop from smiling that shit-eating grin of his 😂

McLaren wtf Zack is so fucking pumped, proud of that guy. What a performance from Norris and Piastri.
- Haha, yeah, he's really excited, understandably so.
- He put a shit eating grin on my face watching him charge around the garage damn near punching everyone with those high fives!
  
  I'm right there with you, I was grinning the whole time watching him. So happy to see those upgrades coming through for McLaren. Lando deserves a good car.

Really impressed by Piastri, magnificent for a rookie

Perez, come on, dude..
- Danny Ric trying to hide a smirk
- Absolutely rediciulous. That red flag gave him a second chance and he blew it
- He seems completely out of it currently.
  Hopefully he can somehow recover during the summer break. They gave Albon the boot for less
- He’s just not looked impressive recently. Even his race pace when you take into consideration the performance of the car. I’m not sure I want to see Albon back in given how well he’s doing at Williams, but I feel like we need to see someone else in there sooner rather than later.
- What happened?
  
  Nothing and everything. He's 14th, 1,5 seconds behind his teammate.
- This comment was relevant for the whole of Q1!

Perez, what the hell man
- Lol 5 times in a row missing Q3
- Danny Ricc rock hard atm..
- This time, I honestly can't blame him. Being put completely at the front was the worst position to be in, and that is on the team.
  The previous 4 races though, those are on him, and are embarrassing as fuck.
  
  Albon was directly behind Perez, like crossed the line within a couple seconds at most, and was .5 of a second faster. Half a second. I'm sorry for Perez fans because he has shown before that he can do ok at qualy, enough to keep up, and he's shown he can defend like a lion. But there's no excuse here. He got beaten by Sergeant in a Williams FFS, who was right behind Albon. They all drove the track in the same conditions.
  
  Curious, how do you know the team put him on that spot at the front? Maybe Checo is so nervous and anxious he 'asks' for those kind of actions as he thinks that will help him? I have seen panic in people before and they make the wrong calls all the time. And I have seen some that get worse when it just keeps on getting bad for them; they will force others in the team to make mistakes because he will 'demand' the action for he thinks it will help him.
  I see this as a typical panicky move by a guy who has lost his way and the team is starting to give in because there is no helping a panicked man that will trust none from where the help might come. Classic mistake to make and that is all on Checo.

Petition to make Max drive a formula 2 car to keep races competitive.
We can leave Perez in the Red Bull, it’ll be fine.
- Just make him swap with DEV
- Or maybe give perez a F2004

Norris and Piastri going 2-3, just as we all expected.
- Just as expected...

Lol How does that happen. Facepalm moment for Max
- Given the turning radius on these cars, and the sometimes very narrow pitlanes, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.
- I'm excited to see how DTS will portray this catastrophic blunder by Max. Perhaps it's him and not Checo whose really at risk for losing his seat
- It's uh the injury from simracing... haha how bizarre

LET'S GO LANDO
- Those guys are so horrible it's marvelous.
- Lando is ok 🎵

Love to see McLaren back at the front, very interesting to see so many teams getting competitive. Just ignore Max and it’s a bloody interesting season.

Damn McLaren. That was an exciting 2 seconds on Lando on pole lol
- I saw Max with a yellow sector two and I thought Lando had it. So excited for those two seconds before Max ruined it as always.
  
  The same as Monaco. :(

Perez confidence looking like Max's front wing in the pit lane

A very interesting quali, and hopefully an interesting race tomorrow as well.
Delighted by the surprise performance by the two McLarens, happy for Piastri especially. Up until this point I was feeling none of the rookies were making much of an impact. I don't usually root for McLaren but I definitely will tomorrow.
Perez needs to get his shit together or it might be curtains for him...

McLaren and Albon making me really happy right now
- I'm really hoping there's no rain tomorrow. Their dry performance looks great!

Damn McLaren are on it.

Feel like printing some "FREE SAINZ" shirts lol Ferrari have locked him in 2nd place driver spot, but he's looked at least equal to Leclerc this season.
- He's more consistent in delivering results than Leclerc has been, at least so far this season.
  
  That's what I'm saying. Absolutely no reason for Ferrari to favor Leclerc right now

That was a good Quali. Pumped for McLaren.

I'm amazed Albon is still scrapping in the top right now
- Honestly, good for him. He's matured as a driver and it seems like Williams has finally figured out how to make a decently fast car.
- The Williams is legitimitely good this weekend.

Waiting the whole season for Max to make a single mistake and when it finally happens it's in a Q1 that doesn't matter
- “I understeered and there was no traction”
  
  See, people need to cut Checo some slack. Even Max can't drive this car /s

Holy Norris, McLaren is in there today

Can we now bet on Perez's replacement?
- Tsunoda pls

McLaren what???????

Perez out, again lol

After struggling to log in for twenty minutes, the qualifying thread has been pinned! Let's go!
- Would you consider adding a mod or two so someone else can pin threads when you're not here?
  I feel like it would help the community grow a lot if there were multiple mods.
  Thanks
- 👍

Max parking between the two McLaren’s: chef’s kiss

holy shit mclaren!

Zak Brown amped
- Tattoo #2 incoming?

McLaren! Chrome is the way to go!
- See if they chromed the whole car they would have gone 1-2

Lol Sainz and Leclerc are NOT happy with each other, team ordered them to swap places again at the pitlane exit!

Sainz seems so done with Ferrari

Somebody put Perez on suicide watch, mans got the yips bad.

I don't know how sainz hasn't ragequit. If I was red bull I'd be tempted to try and engineer a trade for Perez.
- Horner: We think you need a change of scenery, so we've traded you to Ferrari for Carlos Sainz.
  Checo: Not like this. Please, not like this.
  
  "This is so not right!"
  
  Ferrari: thanks, we'll use him as tyre blanket
  
  Sainz w RB would be devastatingly good. Change my mind.

Would Yuki be better than Perez in a Red Bull?

This season will get spicy if McLaren becomes the second fastest car
- Or Williams (if they can obey track limits).
  
  It's refreshing to see Williams actually turn these good quali's into points this year

Absolutely manic ending to Q1!
- Nothing better than quali on a drying track!
  
  It's insane seeing someone pop up to the very top of the column, and then just watch their name get relentlessly pushed down as driver after driver gets their fast lap in. Gripping stuff.

We all know Norris is great but Piastri looks the real deal too. Exciting future for McLaren if they can build on this, especially with the new wind tunnel coming online soon.

Perez’s saving grace is that he is in the fast car and can come back through the pack to reclaim some points or a podium.
Luckily for RB Max is winning all championships on his own so whilst not great it’s not terrible.
If his race performances were off too he would have been gone before now. RB dropped Gasly and Albon for less however more was at stake then when they were not smashing everyone else.
People need to stop voting him driver of the day though.
Pumped for McLaren. Loved Zak’s reaction in the garage.
- It is really best case scenario for Perez to have an off period. Max is winning everything and there is a large fight for second best so the rest of the available points are being spread around every race. As long as Checo has an occasional good race, there is absolutely no risk for the constructor's for Red Bull.

It's great to see promising McLaren performance a second race in a row!

Lol, Sainz sounds so depressed.

Need to see more Max and Norris up and the front.

Do we think Danny Ricc is able to hide his smile in the pits right now?

I’ve got my hopes up that Williams and Albon are able to translate their top 3 times in the free practices to a good position in this qualifying.
- Doesn't look good. No bueno.
- I really hope Sargent can make it to Q3 too

Wow Williams!

Laaaaaaandooo <3

Come on Max just let us have something.
- You gotta hand it to him, though. He's just incredibly good and I find it a joy to watch him.

I can't believe Lando is still just 23 years old. McLaren better give him a damn good car for the long term, he can put up some exciting championship contending seasons.

Those final 30 seconds of Q1 were crazy!

Damn max really broke that wing

Ffs Checo

Perez washed

265 comments