[Official] Team of the Grand Prix: Mexican Grand Prix 2023

[Born Racer]

Who gets it?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Mercedes. Hamilton and Russell started 6th and 8th but finished 2nd and 6th.

[Richard C]

Agree that Mercedes is on top. They didn't qualify spectacularly or poorly, but they did move up significantly and while not a threat for the win, was racy.

Ferrari went backwards, so can't give it to them. Red Bull continues to be a one driver team. So can't give it to them.

Richard

[Aysedasi]

Yes, Merc for me.

[steve_r]

Merc, but its hard to pick one team really.

[GT6]

Well i voted for alpha Turi, by far there best performance in ages so they got my vote today

[rika]

Alpha Tauri



I can not vote for Mercedes, Russell race was pretty poor

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by rika

Alpha Tauri



I can not vote for Mercedes, Russell race was pretty poor

I wouldn’t exactly say Tsunoda’s race was great since he threw away good points, but there you are

[rika]

No the result was not good but he was competitive and fighting withe other cars that should normally in front. Just like Ricciardo.


So for everything except result that was a good race for the 2 cars.




But not for Russell I think. 1 more lap and he would even be behind Alpha Tauri of Ricciardo.




That is difference I feel.

[Teretonga]

I said Ferrari because the highest placed team over both entries.
The were lower than their grid positions but they were outliers and may have simply been because of the track temperatures on their first run. Not many could replicate their first Q3 run.

[E.B]

I went for Alpha Tauri because they have showed the best increase in pace of all in recent events since their upgrades. That Tsunoda was actually faster than Danny Ric was blotted by clumsiness, but prior to that he had gone from an engine penalty enforced last row start to have caught up to within a second or so and a car of Danny when he had his clumsy moment with the almost as clumsy Piastri. To me the team have showed a great turnaround of late from wooden spooners to regular points getters, and have dragged themselves from a comfortable last in the WCC to now being a regular points contender with both cars.

[AndreasDavour]

Alpha Tauri is an odd one. It's very hard from where I'm coming from to judge how their drivers are actually delivering. But, it's a good point that they have indeed shown some late progress, which is nice to see.


Ferrari I think was kind of lucky to get both cars up there in the points. I know I heard one commentator say team radio had told their driver to lift and coast for 200 meters on the straight! But, what matters is how you finish. They have two very equally matched drivers, so if only the team get on top of the car...

[Skam85]

They should put Max in the Alpha Tauri, he will get the points they need for P7 and then Daniel and Checo can have a shootout in the Rb seat for 2024 in the last 3 races.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Skam85

They should put Max in the Alpha Tauri, he will get the points they need for P7 and then Daniel and Checo can have a shootout in the Rb seat for 2024 in the last 3 races.

That I would like to see.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Skam85

They should put Max in the Alpha Tauri, he will get the points they need for P7 and then Daniel and Checo can have a shootout in the Rb seat for 2024 in the last 3 races.

This is beautiful.

[chillibowl]

but surely the real test is to see who can stand up to Max as a team mate. you cant do that if Max isnt sitting in the other seat.

this is no doubt way too harsh but whats the value in determining who the better journeyman is when neither one of them can deliver anywhere near close to what Max is currently putting on the table?

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

but surely the real test is to see who can stand up to Max as a team mate. you cant do that if Max isnt sitting in the other seat.

this is no doubt way too harsh but whats the value in determining who the better journeyman is when neither one of them can deliver anywhere near close to what Max is currently putting on the table?

Good question.
If this is true then why are so many demanding that Perez be replaced by another journeyman who may prove to be equally incapable over a season, when Perez was clearly not incapable over the early races of the season.

And the same reasoning is used against Stroll when he outqualified Fred and was third overall in Brazil.

So much of the driver criticism is either ill-founded or based on indicators that arent true.
Ricciardo was 4th in Mexico but out in Q3 in Brazil and beaten by Tsunoda.
Does this make Horner's comments about him untrue?
Or is there far more to it than simple indicators and uneven reasoning.

[E.B]

I believe that Danny is not really the quickest driver in the shed... as pointed out Yuki outqualified Danny here and is (more ?)often the quicker of the two albeit a tad erratic.

Perhaps Danny's strength and greatest contribution is his experience helping with feedback to the engineers helping to unlock and optimise the updates and driving set up direction.

Without doubt Alpha Tauri's updates package intro'd at Singapore have been further fine tuned and what was a tail ender is now, in both Yuki and Danny's hands a regular 'midfield' point scorer. 13 of their total 16 points have come from the last 5 events, 11 in the last two with Yukis 5 from USA and Danny 6 last week.

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

but surely the real test is to see who can stand up to Max as a team mate. you cant do that if Max isnt sitting in the other seat.

this is no doubt way too harsh but whats the value in determining who the better journeyman is when neither one of them can deliver anywhere near close to what Max is currently putting on the table?

They already have that data for Dan (2016-18) and Checo (2021-23)