Things ... Welcome to the Future (2018 - 2019 Silly Season)

From what Andrew Benson is tweeting it's all but official that Kimi has been told his services will no longer be required at Ferrari after this year and Charles Leclerc will be Vettel's new team mate in 2019!!
 
Oh dear. F1will be devoid of two of the big names next season. Please note I said names, not drivers. Although I think both have been great in their day, and both can still pack a punch on occasion, just not all the time.
 
but isn't that evolution of sport & the changing of the guard that big names retire & young drivers take their place. in 90's when we lost big names like Piquet Prost Mansell Senna, in next few years we had Schumacher Hill Coulhard Irvine Barrichello & Hakkinen take their place. then in 2000's as some of them drivers drop away from the top of the sport. then likes of Button, Alonso, Kimi & Massa replace them then Lewis & Vettel added towards it.

so now Massa Button Alonso & maybe Kimi are leaving then it up to the next generation to replace them. like so many before them
 
but isn't that evolution of sport & the changing of the guard that big names retire & young drivers take their place. in 90's ....when we lost big names like Piquet Prost Mansell Senna, in next few years we had Schumacher Hill Coulhard Irvine Barrichello & Hakkinen take their place....

I don't think that Coulhard Irvine Barrichello were quite in the same league as their predecessors.
 
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See I kinda think that's what they want us to believe. The same drivers have dominated the top seats for a decade now which means we've not be able to see if any of the incoming talent was able to compete with them. Some of the old guard dropping out will give access to some of the top seats to the younger guys and put them against the 'big names' whilst it will still be a good fight.

If Ferrari give him free reign too Leclerc taking on Hamilton and Vettel will be fascinating to watch. In In some ways it will give us a way of judging whether they are actually as good as we think they are. All these records mean nothing because there are more races and drivers are in the sport longer. They are superb at beating each other but they've only had each other to race. Throw something new in and see how they react.
 
See I kinda think that's what they want us to believe.

I think I commented several years ago that the Saturday of the 2008 Italian Grand Prix and the Saturday of the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix saw exactly the same thing: an outrageously talented German driver take his first pole position in the wet in a car that should not have been near it. Unfortunately for Hulkenburg, not only did it dry up for Saturday, but so did his opportunities to take a top seat.

2012 saw Maldonado win a race in a Williams. What if they'd kept Hulkenburg? He was a damn sight better than either Maldo or Bruno.

Or say Honda went bust in 2008, and we'd all remember Jenson Button, one-time race-winner. Lovely boy. Motorsport's Henman. They were just rescued so we can remember Jenson Button, 15 wins and a championship. Lovely boy.

Are the 'big 3' the best? I don't know, actually, because F1 is a place where a washed-up has-been can phone in performances in a race-winning car for five ****ing years, stopping all career progression from below...
 
If you compare how many different race winners and world champions (or future race winners or world champions) Alain Prost competed against during his career span to this Alonso competed against it is significantly different.
 
The problem is that today's field is so weak with the plethora of pay drivers that,IMO, it can ill afford to lose those few big names that it has.

very true problem is we dont have anyone but Verstappen from the young guard in a top team unlike 10yrs ago when we had Alonso kimi massa in top team In 2003 - 2006 thats because the best drivers aren't getting in best teams. Bottas is toto wolff managed, no offence but Gasly should be no where near that drive yet . Kimi doing very well now but anomalous for last 3 years & lack of teams 6 more seats would transformed the grid. look at this season Russell the likely F2 champion is outsider of the title rivals to get a f1 drive whereas 2nd 3rd & 4th could be on the grid next season.

we have potential for replacements I think Hulkenburg Ocon Leclerc Perez outside the top team could all be championship challengers in a top 3 team. Ive been Hulkenburg biggest supporter since Williams in my time he is the best driver to never be on the podium
 
Yes but Perez drove really badly at McLaren and even at Force India he's shown that given a chance he would drive his own ream mate into a wall. For me that doesn't make him a great driver I have to admit.

It is sad when the older talented drivers retire but the truth is there are only so many seats in F1 and if no one ever retired there wouldn't be room for new talent to come up and shine would there? Yes we miss the drivers we've enjoyed for so long, but then we get to enjoy watching others take their place. For me, I am enjoying watching Leclerc and I think he's going to be a real talent but he needs a place to show off that new talent so........
 
For me, the problem is that so many seats are taken by drivers with fat wallets and little talent. If all drivers got into F1 based on merit, it would have a far greater validity to claim it is the "pinnacle of racing".
 
I don’t think Perez deserves to be given one of the few coveted good seats. So I hope that some demented logic at the top teams doesn’t give him a chance.
 
For me, the problem is that so many seats are taken by drivers with fat wallets and little talent. If all drivers got into F1 based on merit, it would have a far greater validity to claim it is the "pinnacle of racing".
That is a problem all drivers face. Some can't make progress in karting because their parents can't bring up the funds either themselves or through contacts and plenty don't make it past karting also due to a lack of funds. Apart from there might be people out there who don't take any interest in motor sport but might be extremely talented. We'll just never find out. We've got to take it as it is.
 
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