2022-2023 Silly Season Thread

[bathurst77]

Whispers on the wings that one driver who has been nickle-less all season, be taking his final bow at his home race, so an Australian pastry can take over at Silverstone.
You mapleleaf it or not.

[Tourer]

Speculative story here. Let's see what comes.

[GreenMachine]

It has much legs as most rumours.

Latifi is clearly out of his depth in F1, so he is already in the departure lounge. Doohan is not setting the world on fire, but is looking rather solid, so Piastri is the go-to driver, and maybe able to get a few points for Team Willie, while getting his feet wet in a real, if uncompetitive, F1 team. Two years would be good, giving Alpine a semi-experienced driver for 2025.

That's assuming Ferdy sticks around for another year or two. Presumably the deal with TW would allow his release if Alpine needed him in 2023 ...

[chillibowl]

did Latifi's money run out?

[GreenMachine]

Looks like it is on for 2023.

https://the-race.com/formula-1/piast...ms-in-f1-2023/

[Skam85]

Before opening this thread I thought it was in relation to the performance LH put in getting out of his car on the weekend..

But yes - Latifi's time is surely up.

Nice bit of symmetry if Piastri debuts with a backmarker team at Silverstone 11yrs after the last Aussie did.

[bathurst77]

Piastri shared an image of the iconic Silverstone racetrack to his Instagram Story, captioning the post: “Driving here soon.”

[E.B]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Piastri shared an image of the iconic Silverstone racetrack to his Instagram Story, captioning the post: “Driving here soon.”

Likely a Friday morning session with Alpine (or Williams even). Every team now must run a junior/rookie driver in at least two Friday sessions per season. Silverstone is not a Sprint round makes it an easier round to run a rookie Friday am. (Cant run a rookie on a Friday under Sprint format due to Friday pm qualy.)

So yes every likleyhood he will drive there if only to tick one of the team's commitment to run rookie driver boxes. Not saying he will be racing though.....

Just sayin'....

[P38 in workshop]

Originally Posted by Skam85

Before opening this thread I thought it was in relation to the performance LH put in getting out of his car on the weekend..
.

Looked more like a Nigel than an Oscar to my eyes....

[bathurst77]

https://www.speedcafe.com/2022/06/14...ZgiGZSCUDy2ijY

[GreenMachine]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

https://www.speedcafe.com/2022/06/14...ZgiGZSCUDy2ijY

I wouldn't be betting the house on him replacing Latifi at Silverstone, as that article seems to be saying. That would require Team Willi to be quite brutal about sacking Latifi, and while it could be expected of Frank, I think the current owners/managers may be more circumspect.

On the other hand, if the sponsorship he brought is gone, why not ...

[S griffin]

I don't see them replacing Latifi at this time either, but you never know, although I would think it would be unlikely. Latifi has been quite good to them, especially in these troubling times for the team. As good as Albon is, Latifi has been a loyal servant for them. However the problem is they can't run the team on fresh air, so Latifi might have to look elsewhere if they need the money.

[GT6]

yep i thought this was going to be about LH. But i do think some teams might make changes before long

[GTRMagic]

The 2nd McLaren seat?

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The 2nd McLaren seat?

Dan certainly did nothing today to help his cause