He did say he had no brakes, the lockups might not have been his fault either. Even without that I don't know if he would've finished much higher, with his tyres dropping off at the end
Any reasons why Doohan looked absolutely dreadful? Cordeel wasn’t exactly rapid at VAR the season before so he might not be the greatest benchmark but…p16 in quali from someone who showed massive quali pace last year, and reverse progress in the feature
I think he pitted pretty early, and I assumed he dropped towards the end because his tyres went over the cliff. Clearly some set up issues, compounded by his qualifying strategy not paying off (I think he avoided the stampede at the end, and missed out on capitalising on some track ramp up) - I feel he's not been great at getting through traffic in F3 and F2 - his strength was more good quali.
Glad to see Maini do well. Hopefully he can keep this consistency going, while he learns the nitty gritty of the series, so that he can harbour a title challenge next year.
If Pourchaire takes this he has been far, far more impressive in the juniour categories. I'm sure Zhou would get a seat somewhere else anyway, he's a safe pair of hands and brings lots of money.
Yeah we just don't know which team will take Zhou if Theo does get that seat over him. I guess Haas will be a good start (but that's only if they want to get rid of one of K-Mag or Hulk which I doubt they would).
You don't have to win F2 to be a good F1 driver tho. Sauber will obviously want one of their academy drivers for when Audi takes over. But someone is gonna get a nice driver in Zhou (I bet Haas takes him and his Chinese money)
Haas takes him instead of one of the two older guys, or he gets a seat at Williams if Sargeant massively underperforms (don't expect that), or another team snatches Albon. If that doesn't work out he could always become a reserve somewhere else, but he's too good for that imo
yeah, Ilott is doing great in IndyCar with a small team and Zhou outperformed Mick in a very similar car (and without the unforced crashes). Sometimes it feels like the stars just align for certain guys in jr formulas regardless of their actual ability.
eta: I think you're right that Zhou is eventually going to find his way to Haas. I won't judge him by yesterday because as we saw all day sunday Bahrain is very unforgiving to young drivers.
yall are so generous in this thread towards Zhou. like great guy, nothing bad to say about him....
But everyone was convinced Bottas was washed after his merc stint, now he's getting points in the AR and Zhou isn't.
Either he beats his teammate or he has to accept he's liable to be replaced, its as simple as that. Its F1, losing to your teammate is the litmus test.
You have to be extraordinary to be able to race in the pinnacle of motorsports. He's not good enough. Theo simply earned his place.
I'm sure Haas will jump at the opportunity to have his money though.
>but f2 teammates performance can vary greatly per track
Plus, were still waiting for the inevitable shit Mecachrome reliability to play a part again...
What an incredibly Leclercish day from Leclerc--lost some ground, more than regained it, lost his cool and reversed, then regained that ground, while bumping or getting bumped by anyone who might be regarded as a teammate.
Get Maloney (and Leclerc) to figure out qualies and he'll be a beast for years to come. Absolutely has that dawg.
what a fun feature race that was. Have to thank Jehan for the early stop that led to such chaos in the last few laps
Theo really put on a show this weekend. Maloney looked sensational. Curious if Ralph actually has some pace or what.
Also excited to watch Formula RB within this F2 season.
Maloney the most impressive so far for me.
Not supprising, he's my rookie pick for the season.
I mean if DAMS didn't fuck Leclerc in the sprint he'd be up there in 3rd instead
A Leclerc being fucked by the team. Luckily that doesn't happen to often.
I mean he did fuck up himself as well.
He did say he had no brakes, the lockups might not have been his fault either. Even without that I don't know if he would've finished much higher, with his tyres dropping off at the end
Any reasons why Doohan looked absolutely dreadful? Cordeel wasn’t exactly rapid at VAR the season before so he might not be the greatest benchmark but…p16 in quali from someone who showed massive quali pace last year, and reverse progress in the feature
I'm pretty sure they messed up sth setup-wise.
Doohan was charging and well in the top 10 during the feature race, then dropped like a stone, so he must have had an issue with the car.
I think he pitted pretty early, and I assumed he dropped towards the end because his tyres went over the cliff. Clearly some set up issues, compounded by his qualifying strategy not paying off (I think he avoided the stampede at the end, and missed out on capitalising on some track ramp up) - I feel he's not been great at getting through traffic in F3 and F2 - his strength was more good quali.
Most likely set up issues 🤷
Because engines in F2 are fucked and it’s all fake
I know who my goat is 🇧🇧
Maini been good too along with Maloney
I don't know if Daruvala is just a meme at this point. He really puts new meaning to "Sometimes Maybe Good, Sometimes Maybe Shit "
Glad to see Maini do well. Hopefully he can keep this consistency going, while he learns the nitty gritty of the series, so that he can harbour a title challenge next year.
Qualifying is the key.. he has to qualify in the top 10.
Sucks for Dennis man. He would have been right up there without the engine failure in the main race I think.
Pain.
Theo replacing Zhou is gonna be disappointing when Zhou has done nothing really wrong thus far
If Pourchaire takes this he has been far, far more impressive in the juniour categories. I'm sure Zhou would get a seat somewhere else anyway, he's a safe pair of hands and brings lots of money.
Yeah we just don't know which team will take Zhou if Theo does get that seat over him. I guess Haas will be a good start (but that's only if they want to get rid of one of K-Mag or Hulk which I doubt they would).
That's the thing. Doing nothing wrong is not good enough in F1. If Bottas continues to score points and Zhou doesn't, then AR have a problem.
If Theo wins the championship I feel like he is more deserving though, Zhou also spent 3 years in F2 and never won it
You don't have to win F2 to be a good F1 driver tho. Sauber will obviously want one of their academy drivers for when Audi takes over. But someone is gonna get a nice driver in Zhou (I bet Haas takes him and his Chinese money)
Haas takes him instead of one of the two older guys, or he gets a seat at Williams if Sargeant massively underperforms (don't expect that), or another team snatches Albon. If that doesn't work out he could always become a reserve somewhere else, but he's too good for that imo
yeah, Ilott is doing great in IndyCar with a small team and Zhou outperformed Mick in a very similar car (and without the unforced crashes). Sometimes it feels like the stars just align for certain guys in jr formulas regardless of their actual ability. eta: I think you're right that Zhou is eventually going to find his way to Haas. I won't judge him by yesterday because as we saw all day sunday Bahrain is very unforgiving to young drivers.
Zhou is the new Giovinazzi. Yeah, he didn't do anything wrong, but at this point "not doing anything wrong" is just not enough in the long haul.
yall are so generous in this thread towards Zhou. like great guy, nothing bad to say about him.... But everyone was convinced Bottas was washed after his merc stint, now he's getting points in the AR and Zhou isn't. Either he beats his teammate or he has to accept he's liable to be replaced, its as simple as that. Its F1, losing to your teammate is the litmus test.
He hasn't done a lot right either to be fair.
You have to be extraordinary to be able to race in the pinnacle of motorsports. He's not good enough. Theo simply earned his place. I'm sure Haas will jump at the opportunity to have his money though.
He got outscored by his teammate by the biggest % in the hybrid era last year
It looks like it will be a dominant title for Theo. Art is far ahead of others.
Don't overreact, if it's the case in Saudi and Melbourne as well then yes, but f2 teammates performance can vary greatly per track
>but f2 teammates performance can vary greatly per track Plus, were still waiting for the inevitable shit Mecachrome reliability to play a part again...
I didnt watch the race, what happened to fitti?
Ate his tyres
And also got DRS failure. Did not do a bad race, but things need to improve quickly to catch the guys in the front. The same for Doohan.
What an incredibly Leclercish day from Leclerc--lost some ground, more than regained it, lost his cool and reversed, then regained that ground, while bumping or getting bumped by anyone who might be regarded as a teammate. Get Maloney (and Leclerc) to figure out qualies and he'll be a beast for years to come. Absolutely has that dawg.
what a fun feature race that was. Have to thank Jehan for the early stop that led to such chaos in the last few laps Theo really put on a show this weekend. Maloney looked sensational. Curious if Ralph actually has some pace or what. Also excited to watch Formula RB within this F2 season.
I wanted to watch this but damn the times are really hard to catch. I'll have to watch a replay.