Official 2023 Australian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[Jasandjules]

LuckyThirteen said:

I'd like to see Perez turn up absolutely wired and prepared to take no s*it.

Let's face it, he has ONE chance to win the WDC. That is this year. Because if he can match Max in any way then he will be out of the car next season... So he has to fight tooth and nail, fail to hear team orders etc... That is assuming he can in fact match Max..

[TheDeuce]

Jasandjules said:

LuckyThirteen said:

I'd like to see Perez turn up absolutely wired and prepared to take no s*it.

Let's face it, he has ONE chance to win the WDC. That is this year. Because if he can match Max in any way then he will be out of the car next season... So he has to fight tooth and nail, fail to hear team orders etc... That is assuming he can in fact match Max..

Dreamers! They'd have him out the car by the summer break - same as they (for different reasons..) booted Gasly mid season. If they want Max to win, and they do because a Max win is commercially far more valuable, then there are endless ways they can ensure that is what happens.

DR was able to match Max consistently but he knew he would never be allowed to win a Title ahead of Max so he walked... I can only assume Checo is aware of that same reality, and is happy to reluctantly accept it - for now at least. Although in fairness the RB seat was his best option and at least he's seeing regular podiums now.

[Fundoreen]

Why is max so valuable? 100k hysterical dutch people is not much of a market,just noisy as they have had nothing to shout about since the earth cooled.
If rb ditch Perez they will probably loose the whole of the central and south american drink market. Anyone/everyone makes a similar fizzy drink.
They will win the title anyway so the will look better letting them do as they please like the extreme sports image they try and project.

[andburg]

Fundoreen said:

Why is max so valuable? 100k hysterical dutch people is not much of a market,just noisy as they have had nothing to shout about since the earth cooled.
If rb ditch Perez they will probably loose the whole of the central and south american drink market. Anyone/everyone makes a similar fizzy drink.
They will win the title anyway so the will look better letting them do as they please like the extreme sports image they try and project.

Because Max in a rival car anywhere close to the Red Bull will be a huge thorn.
Just because you don't need the best driver to win this year doesn't mean you want your rivals to have them.

Look at 2021....would anybody other RBR affiliated driver have "beaten" Lewis?

[Drew106]

LuckyThirteen said:

I'd like to see Perez turn up absolutely wired and prepared to take no s*it.

Me too. Perez needs to go full 2016 Rosberg and get the claws out!

[suffolk009]

Jasandjules said:

Let's face it, he has ONE chance to win the WDC. That is this year. Because if he can match Max in any way then he will be out of the car next season... So he has to fight tooth and nail, fail to hear team orders etc... That is assuming he can in fact match Max..

I'm reminded of a story about Bernie when he was a team owner. He asked one of his drivers to let his team mate have the win. The driver said, "oh, no. I couldn't do that". So, Bernie instructed the mechanic to take a few gallons of fuel out of the car. Guess who won?

[Super Sonic]

Chamon_Lee said:

?? what the fk is even the point in voting lol

It doesn't say vote for winner, so you can vote for whatever you want, best dressed, nicest hair, biggest watch, whatever.

[Sandpit Steve]

Drew106 said:

LuckyThirteen said:

I'd like to see Perez turn up absolutely wired and prepared to take no s*it.

Me too. Perez needs to go full 2016 Rosberg and get the claws out!

+1.

It’s going to be a crap season, if we see a repeat of the worst of the Schumacher years. At least Mercedes let their drivers fight it out between themselves.

[HustleRussell]

suffolk009 said:

Jasandjules said:

Let's face it, he has ONE chance to win the WDC. That is this year. Because if he can match Max in any way then he will be out of the car next season... So he has to fight tooth and nail, fail to hear team orders etc... That is assuming he can in fact match Max..

I'm reminded of a story about Bernie when he was a team owner. He asked one of his drivers to let his team mate have the win. The driver said, "oh, no. I couldn't do that". So, Bernie instructed the mechanic to take a few gallons of fuel out of the car. Guess who won?

I'm guessing Bernie because that seems to be the way it usually went

[Speed Badger]

I reckon Stroll will be quick when he is fully recovered from his injuries.

[TheDeuce]

Fundoreen said:

Why is max so valuable? 100k hysterical dutch people is not much of a market,just noisy as they have had nothing to shout about since the earth cooled.
If rb ditch Perez they will probably loose the whole of the central and south american drink market. Anyone/everyone makes a similar fizzy drink.
They will win the title anyway so the will look better letting them do as they please like the extreme sports image they try and project.

Max's draw to the sport in general and to RB as a team and a brand is massive. I don't know where you got '100k dutch' from, I would imagine the number of people who support Max are in the area of many tens of millions, at least. He's a hugely popular driver and will forever raise headlines higher than Checo does around the world in general - I accept your point about specifically central+south Americas and Checo.

Max is today F1's most popular driver around the world and and his appeal covers a very broad demographic - according to this report carried out by F1: https://cdn-1.motorsportnetwork.com/survey/2021/20...

Global survey, Max got over 14% of the vote, the sport has at least 1bn fans globally... It's definitely more than 100k drunk dutchies

I suspect that with Max doing so much to draw attention and new viewers to the sport, the powers that be might just look more fondly on him and his hot headed moments and questionable on track behavior, which I'm sure he and RBR see some value/leverage in too.

[HustleRussell]

Aston is quite draggy / high DF isn't it?

Ferrari to resume their position as 2nd fastest car and Aston to duke it out with Mercedes for fourth place. Maybe we'll finally get Alpine joining in with those at long last.

We're due a high profile mistake aren't we, Leclerc or Russell I reckon.

[Stealthracer]

I predict (yet) another borefest.

You'd think I'd be happy being right every time but really, I'm not.

I never thought I'd long for the days of Mercedes domination, but at least they allowed their drivers to race each other.

[thegreenhell]

TheDeuce said:

Max's draw to the sport in general and to RB as a team and a brand is massive. I don't know where you got '100k dutch' from, I would imagine the number of people who support Max are in the area of many tens of millions, at least. He's a hugely popular driver and will forever raise headlines higher than Checo does around the world in general - I accept your point about specifically central+south Americas and Checo.

Max is today F1's most popular driver around the world and and his appeal covers a very broad demographic - according to this report carried out by F1: https://cdn-1.motorsportnetwork.com/survey/2021/20...

Global survey, Max got over 14% of the vote, the sport has at least 1bn fans globally... It's definitely more than 100k drunk dutchies

I suspect that with Max doing so much to draw attention and new viewers to the sport, the powers that be might just look more fondly on him and his hot headed moments and questionable on track behavior, which I'm sure he and RBR see some value/leverage in too.

But that's like one of those anti-aging cream ads on the TV where it says something like 87% of 76 people agreed. It's such a tiny sample that it's statistically almost meaningless.

That survey has 175k respondents out of a claimed 1bn viewers. That represents 0.0175% of the viewership, and if it's anything like the driver of the day vote in the races then it's mostly Max fans voting en masse to ensure their driver wins no matter what kind of race he had.

[TheDeuce]

thegreenhell said:

TheDeuce said:

Max's draw to the sport in general and to RB as a team and a brand is massive. I don't know where you got '100k dutch' from, I would imagine the number of people who support Max are in the area of many tens of millions, at least. He's a hugely popular driver and will forever raise headlines higher than Checo does around the world in general - I accept your point about specifically central+south Americas and Checo.

Max is today F1's most popular driver around the world and and his appeal covers a very broad demographic - according to this report carried out by F1: https://cdn-1.motorsportnetwork.com/survey/2021/20...

Global survey, Max got over 14% of the vote, the sport has at least 1bn fans globally... It's definitely more than 100k drunk dutchies

I suspect that with Max doing so much to draw attention and new viewers to the sport, the powers that be might just look more fondly on him and his hot headed moments and questionable on track behavior, which I'm sure he and RBR see some value/leverage in too.

But that's like one of those anti-aging cream ads on the TV where it says something like 87% of 76 people agreed. It's such a tiny sample that it's statistically almost meaningless.

That survey has 175k respondents out of a claimed 1bn viewers. That represents 0.0175% of the viewership, and if it's anything like the driver of the day vote in the races then it's mostly Max fans voting en masse to ensure their driver wins no matter what kind of race he had.

The purpose of the report is to assist F1 in becoming more popular and to sustain what people like, re-work what people don't like - therefore when F1 commissioned the report it was to seek out true data and opinions. It's completely different to consumer product 'market research' commissioned simply to ensure the right people are asked the right questions in the right way to give the right answer.

As for the sample pool, sure it's small in % terms but once you get to over 100k people around the world I would say that you will start to see fairly reliable indicators of general opinion that should scale. If I asked 1000 people, selected from across a real world broad demographic to anonymously choose either option 'a' or option 'b' for a simple question and 74% choose option b, I would expect I could later scale the same survey to 1,000,000 people and get a very similar % result.

Max's popularity is huge around the world, it's plain to see even if you don't trust the report. That popularity makes him valuable and to a degree influential to both his team and the sport. Neither will want to lose him.

[snotrag]

Some sort of Red Bull drama/team implosion/multi 21/crashgate will happen, either this weekend or soon. Its bound to.

[5s Alive]

snotrag said:

Some sort of Red Bull drama/team implosion/multi 21/crashgate will happen, either this weekend or soon. Its bound to.

It seems to me that RB have an easier job avoiding any real drama than other teams as they only have to manage the expectations of one driver.

I'd love to see Checo put Max under some pressure but just can't see it happening.

[anonymous-user]

Fundoreen said:

Why is max so valuable? 100k hysterical dutch people is not much of a market,just noisy as they have had nothing to shout about since the earth cooled.
If rb ditch Perez they will probably loose the whole of the central and south american drink market. Anyone/everyone makes a similar fizzy drink.
They will win the title anyway so the will look better letting them do as they please like the extreme sports image they try and project.

I doubt it! Red Bull is so much more than F1, it’s extreme sports, sky diving, wing suits, aerobatics, mountain biking crazy stunts, it’s massive and there is nothing like it for exposure. The likes of Danny MacAskill are just as important to the brand as Checo

And The Deuce is right too, Max brings in millions more spectators than just some kerazee Dutch…. The Americans like him, millions here like him (seemingly just for beating Lewis), they like the bad boy “woe is us” underdog image Red Bill gave created for him and themselves, it’s entertainment if nothing else.

[super7]

thegreenhell said:

TheDeuce said:

Max's draw to the sport in general and to RB as a team and a brand is massive. I don't know where you got '100k dutch' from, I would imagine the number of people who support Max are in the area of many tens of millions, at least. He's a hugely popular driver and will forever raise headlines higher than Checo does around the world in general - I accept your point about specifically central+south Americas and Checo.

Max is today F1's most popular driver around the world and and his appeal covers a very broad demographic - according to this report carried out by F1: https://cdn-1.motorsportnetwork.com/survey/2021/20...

Global survey, Max got over 14% of the vote, the sport has at least 1bn fans globally... It's definitely more than 100k drunk dutchies

I suspect that with Max doing so much to draw attention and new viewers to the sport, the powers that be might just look more fondly on him and his hot headed moments and questionable on track behavior, which I'm sure he and RBR see some value/leverage in too.

But that's like one of those anti-aging cream ads on the TV where it says something like 87% of 76 people agreed. It's such a tiny sample that it's statistically almost meaningless.

That survey has 175k respondents out of a claimed 1bn viewers. That represents 0.0175% of the viewership, and if it's anything like the driver of the day vote in the races then it's mostly Max fans voting en masse to ensure their driver wins no matter what kind of race he had.

Max has personalty traits I would not want in my kids. There's being arrogant, which you need to be WDC, but this a whole new level. Even surpasses Senna. And RBR has morales which I find damaging to the sport. The two were made for each other!!! The way Max swears and criticises the team is just offensive. Theres constructive criticism and then there's being outright rude, offensive and derogatory. And Christian just let's him say it.

Checo has a country of 132m people behind him, Max has 17m. Anyone who thinks that Checo is of no value needs to think of that.

I think Checo needs to view this year as his last at RBR and just go for it. If he gets sacked he can take a morale high ground and i'm sure he's very wealthy now having been backed by Carlos Slim since he started. Stuff Max, stuff Whinger Spice and stuff Marko. Ignore all team orders and set fire to Max's extremely short fuse every weekend and watch the fireworks as he blows himself up at the injustice of someone not playing ball nicely with him.....

[wevster]

snotrag said:

Some sort of Red Bull drama/team implosion/multi 21/crashgate will happen, either this weekend or soon. Its bound to.

I think if that happened the team would side with Max and Perez would be out the door.

The only way Perez will win the championship is if Max has an awful lot of bad luck, similar to Rosberg/Hamilton 2016.

Perez will not be able to match Max for speed over a season, Max is on another level compared Perez.

Having said all that, I do hope there is controversy between the drivers, that would spice things up a bit...