1188 replies to this topic

[Anja]

Will Giovinazzi keep improving and challenging Kimi? Will Kimi keep finding motivation to race even longer? Will Kubica's arrival help in developing the car? Here's a thread for all your non-car Alfa-related discussions.

[andyz]

Yes!

[hansmann]

Will Giovinazzi keep improving and challenging Kimi? 

 

He better .
He made fairly decent improvements in late 2019, let's see  how it goes .

 

 

 

 

Will Kimi keep finding motivation to race even longer?

 

You'd have to ask Kimi .
You are suggesting he isn't motivated, what are you basing that on ?

 

 

 

 

Will Kubica's arrival help in developing the car?

 

Not even a little bit .

Kubica couldn't assist in developing his own car at Williams, let alone help the team - quite the opposite .

He's a cash cow .

Edited by hansmann, 12 February 2020 - 22:39.

[Anja]

You are suggesting he isn't motivated, what are you basing that on ?

 

Not at all. If anything I'm surprised he's still motivated to drive for a midfield team - a few years ago I'd never have thought he would continue without a top car. I just wonder how much longer will he want to stay. 

Edited by Anja, 12 February 2020 - 22:39.

[pitlanepalpatine]

Has Kimi ever been motivated? I'm pretty sure he's only shown up to work the last 20 years because he thought driving the cars was fun.

 

I think the most interesting part of the Sauber campaign is the silly season question over the Ferrari juniors.

[JRodrigues]

And so it begins.. Kubia will be the only test driver to get mileage on this week tests, taking lead driver's track time.

[Gemini]

And so it begins.. Kubia will be the only test driver to get mileage on this week tests, taking lead driver's track time.

 

 

Did you missed your morning coffe? He is going to be in car for 4 hours, before morning till lunch tomorrow. I doubt they will do any serious work during first 4 hours of six day test. It's just the PR time to please sponsor...

[kumo7]

Still Nico Rosberg did what he did at Carting because Kubica set his car up.

Good thing that Kubica drives for the team with lesser motivated young drivers.

[JRodrigues]

Did you missed your morning coffe? He is going to be in car for 4 hours, before morning till lunch tomorrow. I doubt they will do any serious work during first 4 hours of six day test. It's just the PR time to please sponsor...

 

With 2 days less for testing, it is fundamental that LEAD drivers get more time in the car.

[pitlanepalpatine]

What'll be concerning is if there's an issue will they go overboard trying to facilitate the sponsor or will that be the end of it.

[Baddoer]

Come on, don't plague this thread with Kubica non-sense.

 

It's now vodka time. Presumably with some pasta.

[Vesuvius]

Did you missed your morning coffe? He is going to be in car for 4 hours, before morning till lunch tomorrow. I doubt they will do any serious work during first 4 hours of six day test. It's just the PR time to please sponsor...

He will likely do a session next week as well and some friday running during season.

[Vesuvius]

Has Kimi ever been motivated? I'm pretty sure he's only shown up to work the last 20 years because he thought driving the cars was fun.

I think the most interesting part of the Sauber campaign is the silly season question over the Ferrari juniors.

He has.

[Victor_RO]

Livery teaser: https://twitter.com/...756911777714176

 

With a special message to all fans who tried to blow up brightness/luminosity on the picture to try to see more of it.   

 

Masterful trolling. I tip my hat to Alfa's PR person. 

[Beri]

Haha well done Alfa

[derstatic]

Prediction based on OP. Gio will make it close in qualifying. Old man will score 70%+ of Alfa's points. 

[messy]

I think Giovinazzi will do much better this year. The underlying pace was always there last season but in other ways he had a bit of a disaster and was quite lucky to keep his drive - but the rate of improvement late in the season and skill he clearly showed in GP2 tells me that he’s quite likely to eclipse Kimi soon. I suspect he’ll be ahead of Kimi more often than not in 2020.

[TheGoldenStoffel]

Livery teaser: https://twitter.com/...756911777714176

 

With a special message to all fans who tried to blow up brightness/luminosity on the picture to try to see more of it. 

 

Masterful trolling. I tip my hat to Alfa's PR person. 

Nice one! 

 

Would expect the livery to be the same as last year but black instead of the white

[Starish]

I really hope the team improves from a management stand point also, a lot of silly mistakes such as putting wrong tyres on and getting penalties and clutch issues cost the team. 

[hansmann]

I think Giovinazzi will do much better this year. The underlying pace was always there last season but in other ways he had a bit of a disaster and was quite lucky to keep his drive - but the rate of improvement late in the season and skill he clearly showed in GP2 tells me that he’s quite likely to eclipse Kimi soon. I suspect he’ll be ahead of Kimi more often than not in 2020.

 

I'm not so sure about Giovinazzi getting the better of Kimi in 2020, I fully agree on his significant improvements in 2019 though .

2021 might reshuffle the deck with the new regulations, tyres, etc .

 

But this year, a driver of Kimi's experience and skill, in a midfield car, is very hard to beat , I think .

[PedroDiCasttro]

Very nice from Kubica today, he still has the pace.

[Vesuvius]

Very nice from Kubica today, he still has the pace.

Didn't he do his time on softest compound? Anyway his time is ok for his pace and hope it's a good sign that the car is good.

[Balnazzard]

Didn't he do his time on softest compound? Anyway his time is ok for his pace and hope it's a good sign that the car is good.

Well again I wouldnt look at times at all during the testing ( know we all do like to look at them though ), more important that the cars gets as many km under it as possible. I expect the gaps in the midfield to be rather small again so we only know how much pace the car really has in Melbourne.

Ofc Im interested to hear after this first week how the car is handling around the track compared to the others.

As for Gio vs Kimi, hopefully Gio is able to perform atleast on the level he did during 2nd half of 2019, but I would still expect Kimi to be the one brining in most of the points. In quali battle however it might even be possible for Gio to beat Kimi.

[Muppetmad]

Didn't he do his time on softest compound? Anyway his time is ok for his pace and hope it's a good sign that the car is good.

He did his best time on C3, as did Giovinazzi.

[MaGiK]

Its worth to note that RK did 1.18.883 on hards (C1) before launch break.
So theres quite alot more pace in C39 than final results would suggest.
Modfield is gonna be very tight.

[hansmann]

Its worth to note that RK did 1.18.883 on hards (C1) before launch break.
So theres quite alot more pace in C39 than final results would suggest.
Modfield is gonna be very tight.

 

Is it really going to be like that, again ?

Kubica isn't exactly benchmark material, yet here we go ...

[MaGiK]

Like what?

You obviously totally missinterprated my post.

I wasnt trying make any point about Kubica at all.

I only suggested that solid laptimes on hard tyre mean that the C39 has potential.

Whats with your obsession about RK or his fans? <j/k>

[hansmann]

Like what?

You obviously totally missinterprated my post.

I wasnt trying make any point about Kubica at all.

I only suggested that solid laptimes on hard tyre mean that the C39 has potential.

Whats with your obsession about RK or his fans? <j/k>

 

Sorry about that, still recovering from last season ..

[KWSN - DSM]

Has Kimi ever been motivated? I'm pretty sure he's only shown up to work the last 20 years because he thought driving the cars was fun.

 

I think the most interesting part of the Sauber campaign is the silly season question over the Ferrari juniors.

 

That to me is the very definition of motivation, doing it for the fun of it, not for the fortune and fame.

 

[Jovanotti]

Where's my Alfa guys at? Looks like anything between P7-P9 in the team pecking order so far imo. Did someone catch the longruns?

Edited by Jovanotti, 03 July 2020 - 17:19.

[DrF]

Where's my Alfa guys at? Looks like anything between P7-P9 in the team pecking order so far imo. Did someone catch the longruns?

Looking pretty dire

[messy]

Giovinazzi is my favourite GP2/F2 driver in recent years - I thought coming in as a rookie, racing wheel to wheel as well as he did and nearly beating Gasly to the title was a hell of an exciting effort - in a great season - people talk about Russell and Leclerc as the great F2 rookies but I thought Gio was up there. I remember watching the finale at Monza and willing him to beat Gasly (who’d said a few less than charitable things about him in the run-up) but he’d had a problem in qualifying and couldn’t quite do it. Then his Australian GP debut the start of the following year went great, and I thought he was on his way to a sparking career. Last year though, he was pretty rubbish. I know the Alfa was pretty lame after those early few races but he didn’t do a thing to stand out really. I really hope he improves this year and shows he’s worth his spot on the grid. At the moment there’s something slightly Esteban Gutierrez about him, and that’s not a good thing.

Edited by messy, 03 July 2020 - 19:11.

[William Hunt]

Giovinazzi's GP2/F2 season was back in 2016 but in 2017 he only could do 2 races (at Sauber) and in 2018 no races. He did do some Friday test sessions in '17-'18 but you can't compare that to actually racing.
Ideally he should have been promoted to a full time F1 seat in 2017, right after his F2 campaign.

So when he started his Alfa carreer last year he had not raced single seaters for 2 years. So we couldn't expect him to be immediately on the pace, that just wouldn't have been fair, and it was logical that he would need an amount of time to adapt. In the second half of the season he did start to get closer to Kimi and even beat him now and the but frankly after a 2 year break of racing we couldn't expect him to go and beat Kimi.
This year is different: he is now back in the rhythm of racing and with a full season under his belt we can start to judge him.

Edited by William Hunt, 04 July 2020 - 01:11.

[Jovanotti]

I can't Kimi imagine continuing next year with the same car if they trundle around P15-20 tbh. He might have wanted to try the next gen cars, but with 1 year delay I wonder if he'll just call it a day and stay home with his family.

Edited by Jovanotti, 04 July 2020 - 07:01.

[Trust]

I can't Kimi imagine continuing next year with the same car if they trundle around P15-20 tbh. He might have wanted to try the next gen cars, but with 1 year delay I wonder if he'll just call it a day and stay home with his family.

Or take one year sabbatical and come back to Ferrari the year after just in time when they kick Sainz out. They can't develop car without Iceman.

 

On the other hand, it's looking grim at the moment, but I need him to perform.

[thegamer23]

Car didn't look super fast yesterday, but Kimi said they're more positive for today.

Let's see!

[johnnyw]

I think at the moment alfa is only ahead of williams and maybe haas. Last year ferrari PU masked some of the chassis issues. But now when ferrari had to detune PU it will be very difficult year when chassis doesnt seem very good. Not expecting Q3 or many points this year.

Edited by johnnyw, 04 July 2020 - 10:33.

[johnnyw]

Correction,seems like alfa is slowest car of the grid.

[Vesuvius]

They are like the only team that hasn't done a step forward from yesterday. I still hope we will be a bit more competitive in qualifying and at least make it to q2.

[thegamer23]

Looking bad

[anyeis]

Ferrari engine is not what it used to be

[johnnyw]

I think Mick schumacher will be alongside giovinazzi allready mid this season. I highly doubt kimi will have motivation at this point of career to travel all over the world just to drive slowest car of the grid.

[UreaBorealis]

Expectations for the season deflated quite fast. Shame if this will be the reality of Kimi's last(?) season.

[johnnyw]

I still hope we will be a bit more competitive in qualifying and at least make it to q2.

Not very likely. Would need to find like ,5 to get on Q2.

[Balnazzard]

Unfortunately Kimi's F1 career is likely to end with the slowest car of the grid. I mean they are not THAT far behind from the rest of the lower midfield, but it seems like where last 2 seasons scoring points was entirely possible, this year it will be really difficult for them to climb to points just based on what we have seen thus far. Really a huge shame if Kimi's career comes to its end like this, but unfortunately ever since Ferrari had to make changes to their PUs, this was to be expected.

[Ruusperi]

I think Mick schumacher will be alongside giovinazzi allready mid this season. I highly doubt kimi will have motivation at this point of career to travel all over the world just to drive slowest car of the grid.

I think Mick only has 30 super license points atm, so that can't happen.

[johnnyw]

I think Mick only has 30 super license points atm, so that can't happen.

Well then it will likely be kubica who will get the drive. I cant see how kimi would keep motivated driving car like this whole season. Im sure he would have better things to do ( be with family etc) than circulating tracks round the world when the only realistic goal is finishing P17->.

[Balnazzard]

Well then it will likely be kubica who will get the drive. I cant see how kimi would keep motivated driving car like this whole season. Im sure he would have better things to do ( be with family etc) than circulating tracks round the world when the only realistic goal is finishing P17->.

Kimi is loyal enough guy to see his contract through....after all what is 1 more season (shorter than it was originally intended) compared to the 20 years he has been doing this? Anyhow not the way he would have deserved to retire, but ofc Kimi knew what he was getting into when he moved there and knew that it was also possibility that Alfa might be at the lower end of the grid.

[johnnyw]

Kimi is loyal enough guy to see his contract through....after all what is 1 more season (shorter than it was originally intended) compared to the 20 years he has been doing this? Anyhow not the way he would have deserved to retire, but ofc Kimi knew what he was getting into when he moved there and knew that it was also possibility that Alfa might be at the lower end of the grid.

When Kimi signed with sauber the situation was quite a lot different than its now or even late part of last season. Sauber had quite a decent car allready on 2018 & simone resta as their technical director. 

 

Car must really be piss poor. 1.5s on this short track basicly means that on silverstone, spa etc alfa will be like 2.5-3s/lap slower than front. Basicly on same level as last year williams which is one of the wrost cars on recent history.

Edited by johnnyw, 04 July 2020 - 11:51.

[Balnazzard]

When Kimi signed with sauber the situation was quite a lot different than its now or even late part of last season. Sauber had quite a decent car allready on 2018 & simone resta as their technical director. 

Ye but still Kimi is not the kind of guy who would leave just because things go downhill in middle of the season. Even in 2013 when Lotus didnt pay him, he left prematurely mainly because his back really needed a surgery, although ofc I believe that him getting no money from Lotus did have effect on that as well. Like said, honestly what does few more months really matter one way or another? For sure if Alfa is this bad, there is no way he would even want to sign in for another year, but he will see his contract through, of that Im sure.