#i just don't think the maxiel line up can match the 1644 one

[valyrfia]

The big loser in all of this is Daniel. He came into Alphatauri thinking he had a good shot at the RB seat. But now with the Lewis move, opening up a seat at Merc and filling Ferrari with an extremely strong pairing - RB might not be able to give Daniel that seat anymore, because they need to sign someone better, before Merc does.

And sadly there's always the what if Daniel hadn't broken his hand last year? Because if he had performed very well last year he might have gotten the RB seat for 2024 with Checo out a year early. But now it looks like he may never get the RB seat he wanted. On one hand, at least he has a seat in F1 at all, so not much to complain about there. But he really better hope VCARB are going to be fast because it's a dead end for him otherwise.

Honestly I think he's on his way out of F1 anyway in the next few years. But I do feel for him that if not for the Lewis move, he would have been almost guaranteed the RB seat.

I'll be honest anon, I agree with every point you said, but I don't feel so sorry for Daniel Ricciardo. It's the nature of the sport, and while what happened at McLaren garners sympathy, he made some bad overall decisions in the management of his career. I think the team-jumping also seriously damaged Daniel's form, and I'm a little scared that everyone is overestimating his abilities by having these crazy high expectations for him being able to challenge Max for a title in a Red Bull when realistically he will be able to perform as a good second driver, but not be able to match a Max Verstappen in the prime of his career.

Red Bull will also be shitting themselves over this Lewis to Ferrari move. Max is likely to retire in 2028 and Red Bull put all their eggs so strongly in Max's basket that they have NO real fightback against the Charles/Lewis line up, and the subsequent Charles Leclerc in his career prime in what will likely be the strongest team in the sport. Red Bull need to be looking to the future, and I see them being more likely trying to bring on another driver in their career prime (like Alex Albon, even though I don't think he'll sign a contract with them again, or they might even try and buy Oscar out of his McLaren contract) than bet on the Daniel/Max line-up. If all else fails, I think they will bring Daniel up for a couple of years to make space at Alpha Tauri for Liam Lawson and also with it being written very clearly in Daniel's contract that he is the clear n2 who is there to help Max win championships against Charles/Lewis, and then I think they'll invest in Liam Lawson, and/or maybe try and bring in Oscar Piastri. But yeah, I honestly don't see Daniel's career in the Red Bull family lasting past 2026, whatever the outcome. The shake-up of Lewis to Ferrari has just thrown everyone's medium-term plans out of the window and Red Bull have to stop resting on their laurels of the insane Max dominance if they want any chance of beating what's starting to look like an extremely powerful Scuderia Ferrari.