notagrumpyfan, your comments about "incompetence of others" and suggesting that they "need a better team boss and lawyer to make the agreement and write the contract" indicates you don't understand what Palou's legal team were saying in court.

The statement they have made in court openly stated that Palou “renounced his contractual obligations” with McLaren in a way that "entitled them to sue for damages". The statements they've been making in court indicate that Palou did not really intend to ever follow through with the contract with McLaren - it's that attitude that is the problem, and why teams are more wary of dealing with him now.

OK, sure. And, for better or worse, we the viewers can be less interested in F1 as a "World" championship, because, really, it isn't.

They need a better team boss and lawyer to make the agreement and write the contract.
Any contract can be broken, and the non breaking party should be relatively happy with the penalty payment (or should’ve negotiated better).
Incompetence of others should not stop the next one to pursue his interests.

I disagree, if anything verstappen proved you don't need to be 18 to race in f1 and was a pretty good driver from the start, he actually only made a considerable amount of mistakes early on in 2018, before and after that he was barely making mistakes.

notagrumpyfan, the way in which Palou backed out of his contract with McLaren does seem to have made teams think that he can't be trusted to abide by a deal.

In the ongoing lawsuit by McLaren, Palou has said in his submissions to the court that McLaren had every right to sue him for breach of contract - it's just the amount of money that he owes them that he disputes. If you're a team boss looking at that legal case, would you want to open negotiations with Palou?

HAL, was Red Bull necessarily all that interested in Herta to begin with? Or were there ulterior motives at play?

Herta himself seemed to be rather confused about why Red Bull had, out of nowhere, suddenly shown interest in him, given he'd had no contact and no clear links with Red Bull until then. However, Red Bull's interest in Herta coincided with them engaging in protracted talks with Alpine over Gasly moving to them, with Red Bull stating that they'd only let Gasly go if Herta was given approval to take his seat.

Maybe the real interest Red Bull had was in getting a bigger payout from Alpine to release Gasly early? They knew that Alpine was in a weak negotiating position, and courting Herta might let Red Bull say "well, we'd like to hire a new driver in Gasly's place, but unfortunately the FIA is not letting us replace him and so we won't release Gasly. However, if you pay us a larger fee, then maybe we can reconsider the matter…".

Certainly, once Alpine agreed on compensation to Red Bull for releasing Gasly early, Red Bull's interest in Herta seemed to dry up remarkably quickly, with the only real thing that Marko has said since then is that Herta is now no longer the sort of driver that suits their needs. Similarly, they've not said anything about the superlicence points system since then or shown any interest in Herta's career subsequent to the initial talks.

Indycar is the second highest rated series in the entire scheme, and there are half a dozen F1-qualified people in Indycar - not counting the former F1 drivers. While there are certainly some issues with the point system, the reason Herta doesn't have enough points is because his results are bad, and have been for years.

Comparing Palou to Senna is definitely an exaggeration. But using his time in GP3 to knock him isn’t a good example either. It maybe a spec series but teams do matter. He was with Campos one of the worst run teams and scored all their points.

Whereas in Indycar he has been given the best team and is making the most of it, but if he was stuck with one of the worst team he would not ve winning like he has been.

Point being he’s not as good as some think and better than his junior career suggested.

As for just going and racing in F2, the problem with that is it’s super expensive. You can only do it if you are rich, have wealthy backers, or are already part of an F1 junior programme. Most drivers get to F1 now either by paying their way (Stroll, Latifi, Mazepin) or being a junior early in their careers. These are not options for the like of Herta and Palou.

Palou has been qualified to race in F1 for years, and everyone in F1 knows he's doing good in Indycar.

But the teams he might care to drive for evidently don't want him, and why would he change his great spot in Indycar for a seat alongside Albon or something like that at the back of the grid?

Herta I'm not as convinced by. He's had a few good results.

Herta can have the excuse that he's american and the point system rewards more being in europe, but not Palou, he had his chance and wasn't F1 material.

Just because somebody is good in indycar now doesn't mean that will translate to F1, and seriously if they want F1 so much just take the payment hit and go do F2, if they are so good they should dominate from the get go right?

But I do: If it's a world championship, then everyone should be allowed to compete; which means both teams and/or drivers.
They should then all compete according to the racing rules set by the FiA, which is about all they should govern.

And Herta… Herta needs to start talking with his results, not words.

I do think that Piastri coming available was part of the puzzle too. But yeah, in essence Palou made his choice for a solid place in Indycar instead of the hope of having an F1 shot in the future. Hard to fault him for the choice really, although the way he came to it was rather messy!

It certainly puts IndyCar at a big disadvantage compared with other series. Herta would probably already been an Alpha Tauri driver.

It was a problem for Herta

Then maybe he wasn't a 'real talent' ;)

I would drop (or drastically change) the points system as well, but that won't resolve the biggest hurdle (for real talents) to get into F1: contracts and financial implications.

If the offer was on the table Herta would be better off leaving Andretti for one of those teams to have the chance of getting those superlicense points and to prove a point up against the likes of Palou, Dixon and Pato. But then Andretti is probably his last real hope of making it to F1 if they somehow do manage to convince F1 to let them in as the 11th team, and I can understand him not wanting to spurn them by leaving for another team.

They really need to get rid of the point system already.

They really don't.
For all the perceived negatives, there are several pretty important positives too - not least of which is the automatic exclusion of anyone who has not demonstrated that they are suitably qualified, prepared and responsible enough to drive such high performance machinery in competition in F1's unique (financial/marketing/prestigious) environment.
Verstappen is a prime example as he really wasn't ready to enter F1 when he did - clearly evidenced by his inconsistency, repeated lack of control and irresponsible (often dangerous) racecraft during those early years. He really did race like a teenager with an air of invincibility and lack of respect (for himself and others). Arguably, he still does…

For those who think that F1 is, or should be, about the 'best' drivers in the 'best' cars in the 'best' racing series in the world - this is the chosen method of qualification for that.
It's a system based on sustained quality of performance which isn't simply for sale to the highest bidder.
F1 would do well to apply this to the teams as well as the drivers…

F1 is becoming such a closed shop & so overly restrictive now that i'm no longer sure it deserves to be called the pinnacle of the sport any longer.

It doesn't want from outside the F1 system, It doesn't want new teams, It wants all the cars to look/perform the same, It wants all the engines to perform the same…. The whole thing is completely broken and it all goes against the very spirit of what F1 as a SPORT used to be.

F1 is a show now, A very tightly controlled increasingly Americanised show.