2016-17 Silly Season. Drivers Market

[Il_leone]

Well at the moment if you're looking to replacing any driver at Renault then Palmer would be the obvious choice.

At the moment the Renault car is too far down the grid and the only measure is beating your own teammate. Palmer is inching closer to KMag but needs to make them count

SO far we've heard Bottas, Perez, Vandoorne, Ocon and Sainz as drivers touted for the seats.

Bottas career is going nowhere ditto with Perez so joining Renault where the team would expect to move up and possibly overtake their current teams is worth a shot. History suggests by year 3 Renault start to show competitiveness and year 5 challenging for success

 

[FB]

I feel pretty certain Van Doom will be in a McLaren next year, the question is whether he will replace Button or Alonso. If Button goes to Williams then I think we have our answer.

I suspect Renault will have two new drivers next year as neither Palmer or Magnusson have shown any real pace or passion.

 

[Il_leone]

All sorts of names linked with Renault drive I would go for Sainz if they want someone with proven potential.

The only reason I can think Button is holding out is that there are sponsors and people within Mclaren not Ron Dennis fighting his corner ... I don't expect Alonso to quit now he sees the potential in Mclaren Honda

 

[RasputinLives]

OK so I've been away for a whole month and Il_leone is still saying Sainz will get the Renault drive despite the fact he signed a new contract with Red Bull less than two months ago.

 

[Olivier]

... And so the dance continues ...

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives I 'd say if Renault were looking for a driver to build on then Sainz would be a good choice.. yes he and Red Bull have said they've got a contract for next season BUT we all know contracts can be broken as long as someone will stump up the pay off in the past

It just seems at the moment Sergio Perez is the one making noises saying this is not in my hands and I need to think about moving up whilst Force India are desperately trying to cling on to him

I thought you might have had a chuckle yesterday when Perez had an interview with SKY about his future... it was Paul Di Resta interviewing him about where he is going ( and whilst I won't forgive you for taking my seat / can I have my drive back? )

 

[Il_leone]

What annoys me is now Williams have come out saying they will wait until the end of year for drivers line up?

Alex Lynn has come out and said he does not want another season of GP2 so if he does not send a season as WIlliams 3rd driver I don;t see how he can get into F1

 

[RasputinLives]

Alex Lynn is involved in the driver shoot out for the Jaguar seat in Formula E so I would suggest he knows an F1 seat is a not happening.

As for Sainz. Unless your name is Jean Alesi or Jenson Button you Don't sign multiple contracts in one year.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Ayrton Senna I think did the same back in 1984 and he got himself suspended from Toleman after seeing a contract with Lotus

Eddie Irvine got bought out by Ferrari for 1996 after Jordan confirmed he was their driver

The news about Lynn is news to me so I don't see how Formula E would help get into F1 unless he's got a similar contract that Montoya had with Williams that he will be loaned out with a view of an f1 seat in 2018 when possibly 2 seats are up for grabs

 

[Il_leone]

It seems like this is making noises and would explain Williams' stance recently

News (Sky Sports)

Button to retire and now Williams would consider Nasr who has not done anything special BUT is there to no doubt keep the sponsors happy in replacing Massa

 

[RasputinLives]

Lynn and Mitch Evans both ran for Jaguar at the Formula E testing just gone along with Adam Carroll. It's between those three for the drive.

 

[Il_leone]

I can only think Lynn has got some agreement with Williams to do the series then if he gets the opportunity otherwise he will have to look for a drive in Indy series

 

[Il_leone]

Another rubbish race by Felipe Nasr seriously if Williams take him I don't see them beating Force India next year

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

It is hard to tell how good Nasr is actually doing, since we can only judge him relative to Ericsson and Ericsson himself can only be judged by his rookie season alongside Kobayashi.

Kobayashi generally had the edge on Ericsson early in the season, but by the end of the season the pair looked quite equal. Does that mean we can treat Ercisson in 2015/2016 as a Kobayashi-level driver? If so, Nasr's rookie season in 2015 must have been extremely good seeing as he scored 3 times as many points as Ericsson. Nasr hasn't been as impressive this year, but you would think that Ericsson himself has also gotten better, perhaps making Nasr look worse than he has actually been.

So just where do those two stand? I think they are likely somewhere in the midfield, but whether they are towards the bottom of it (like Massa) or towards the front of it (like Bottas) I don't know.
Overall Nasr leads Ericsson 16-15 in qualifying and 13-10 in races, and if recent form is anything to go by then that gap is only going to get bigger. He had a poor start to the 2016 season but Nasr has been beating Ericsson quite frequently in recent races. Under my modified points system Ericsson has scored 0.174 points per race this season while Nasr has scored 0.170 points per race; he has essentially drawn level with Ericsson after trailing him early on (their PPR scores were 0.220 and 0.134 after the first 7 races).

If he can keep up this form I think he could do a solid job at Williams in place of Massa, although Button would obviously be preferable.

 

[Il_leone]

Well Massa is gone so 1 Williams seat up for grabs

Grosejean set to stay at Haas but second driver not confirmed

 

[RasputinLives]

Haas are waiting to see if Charles Leclerc wins GP3 and earns a super licence

 

[Il_leone]

Interesting that Haas are not making such noises about their other driver needing to have sponsorship appeal which I guess means someone like Rossi is not considered

Le Clerc would be an interesting choice given that would potentially add another candidate for the Ferrari seats in 2018

It looks Button is going for Mclaren or bust seeing Williams seems to have decided to look elsewhere I guess this is not 1990 when Frank Williams managed to persuade Mansell that the team is not there to make the numbers but fight for the championship

 

[Bill Boddy]

During the FP3 session this morning there was an interview on BBC5 Live with the head honcho of FI. He was adamant that Perez will be with them next season. When the interviewer said about Perez saying he was still looking the response was "I have a piece of paper with his signature on. Drivers sometimes like to up their reputations but he will be with us".

Sounds pretty definite to me,

 

[Il_leone]

I think his backers would happily take their money and invest elsewhere and if they are paying Perez' salary as well then it seems to me Force India are not in any position to bargain

But it seems Force India is still his first option.

Now back to Williams now Lance Stroll is considered who would be only 18 or 19 years old but it is a big jump from Euro F3 to F1 with very little testing

 

[Road of Bones]

Il_leone - Lance Stroll has been testing though, at undisclosed locations diving a 2014 Williams, bankrolled by his dad.