2016-17 Silly Season. Drivers Market

[Rutherford]

Perez has gone from next Ferrari #2 to the scrapheap in about 15 seconds flat.

I don't think Ferrari has ever considered him since he was released by McLaren; there was too much noise about his attitude after he had to leave the team.
However, he does keep wondering why he hasn't landed a seat at a top team; he provided some very insightful answers today, the only question is, has he got the introspection to answer his question?

Spoiler

NO. He won't have it until he is forced to leave.

 

[gethinceri]

Perez has never been top level, he's on his way out.

 

[Il_leone]

It did look rosy earlier in the season when Perez was making noises his future looks promising. It appears not even Carlos Slim's money can sway Ferrari to get him a seat

He said he did not fancy the Renault seat because they lacked leadership but he did not see the long term potential of the team and it looks like Hulkenberg his ex teammate is beginning to benefit

To Perez ' s credit he admitted the first incident was his fault for not giving room but the second one was just ridiculous. To me his actions have actually cost Force India more points this season

It will be interesting to see who the management sides with because it appears the situation might give Pascal Wehrlein a lifeline if Perez is the one being forced out but it appears Wehrlein's previous experience ( and attitude) with the team has got people at Force India not wanting him if this could be avoided


With Perez's money he brings he would be attractive to both Renault and Williams

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The noises seems to be Alonso has pretty much said to Mclaren its me or Honda because I will not be surprised if he fancies going to Renault or Williams

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Has Vettel got in his new contract a clause to determine who his teammate appears to be ? Its easy to beat a laggard then


Now Hamilton is considering to get another 3 years on his contract which sort of leaves Max Verstappen stuck to where he is given his impatience

 

[The Artist.....]

I do think that there are two things that could get Alonso to Williams:

1. Mercedes engines
2. Paddy Lowe as technical director

Both of these are proven winners- so there is every reason to believe they can do well. On another thread, someone pointed out (apologies, I can't remember right now) that Pat Symonds was not a bad technical director- but I would suggest that he's nowhere near the level of Lowe; symonds had not been involved in a team that was genuinely fighting for the championship since 2006; he spent 3 years with Virgin/Marussia - effectively working as technical director after Nick Wirth was disposed of; yes he had experience, but not enough recent experience to lead the team. Lowe, on the other hand, has had success everywhere he's been! Williams may be a step too far though....

 

[Il_leone]

i know Williams aint doing great partly due to the last minute disruption caused by having Bottas go to Mercedes when he probably would have had a lot of input on the car design from a driver view but also picking an inexperienced driver like Lance Stroll


but maybe they need someone like Alonso to motivate the team and also get a real sense of direction and purpose

 

[The Artist.....]

I do get the impression that Williams are rather treading water, with a somewhat compromised design. They didn't make the best of the change to the new regs at the beginning of the season, and have struggled. A new design philosophy would be beneficial to the overall speed, but that might mean playing catch-up next season as well!

 

[Il_leone]

Williams will need their driver line up sorted now because it helps them to get an earlier start on developing the car for next season

For me the problem has been the driver pairing..because Williams are effectively starting at the bottom with a rookie and a driver who is past his sell by date to be honest so you can't expect to build a team around Massa long term

 

[F1Brits_90]

im.pretty sure alonso will be back for his 3rd Enstone spell in 2018

i was reading something about max verstappen about considering his future if red bull keep up poor reliableity. & it was a similar discussion i had with my dad as soon as maxs car packed up & wouldnt go beyond 4th gear. max verstappen to mercedes because we know how much mercedes & ferrari are desperate to have him. now with Bottas on 1 yr deal but doing a fine job if he was tell mercedes that he was available. mercedes would jump at the chance to sign him also with sainz impatiently in the wings it would solve 2 issues

 

[F1Brits_90]

actually thinking about it, similar to the pre season predictions we should try our 2018 grid predictions for every team & to see how well or more likely badly we done come melbourne

 

[Il_leone]

If Verstappen and Ricciardo have another tangle it will be interesting to see if Red Bull back Max like they have done in the past

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If Max (and Jos) can their mouths with action lets see if they have the balls to break contracts and get themselves with another team other than Red Bull

As they anything can happen in F1 and they usually do... I go back to Alonso in 2007 having a supposedly watertight contract with Mclaren but pretty much every manufacturer team wanted him and in the end he went to Enstone.

Go back last year Rosberg had a 3 year contract with Mercedes and then retired which suddenly opened a seat and the opportunity to Bottas because the Red Bull drivers were not available and nor was Alonso.

At that point I thought Vettel's F1 career could potentially come to a dead end considering the season end he had at Ferrari.

Forward to now - Vettel career has been on the up again and is able to angle himself between the two top teams, Verstappen who Red Bull have fast tracked and protected suddenly finds himself not at the sharp end and trying to look for better options.

So Ferrari - money is not a problem to them to make Kimi redundant and hire Verstappen if it happens . Mercedes - I guess Toto will have to somehow convince his bosses why Verstappen should be jumping ahead of both Ocon and Wehrlein to get a seat at Mercedes to replace Bottas

 

[F1Brits_90]

I'm going to stupidly have ago at predicting 2018 grid. to prove how wrong ill be in 4 months haha

Mercedes Hamilton Bottas
Ferrari Vettel Raikkonen
Red Bull Riccardio Verstappen
Force India Ocon Russell
Williams Stroll Perez
Toro Rosso Sainz Gasly
Haas F1 Grosjean Magussen
Renault Hulkenberg Alonso
McLaren Vandoorne Norris
Sauber Leclerc Ericsson

what i wouldve love to happen
Mercedes Hamilton Verstappen
Ferrari Vettel Leclerc
Red Bull Riccardio Sainz
Force India Ocon Perez
Williams Stroll Bottas
Toro Rosso RB junior - Gasly
Haas F1 Grosjean Magussen
Renault Hulkenberg Rowland
McLaren Vandoorne Alonso
Sauber Giovinazzi Ericsson

 

[RasputinLives]

I still think Verstappen to Merc could happen.

 

[Il_leone]

Lets see how Jos is going to start getting his drums and marching band out and start banging on every pitlane door that his son is the greatest thing since sliced bread

 

[Rutherford]

Norris to McLaren and are you going to tell us, how he'll handle the car. It looks like he's never seen a gym from the inside, I think he has to build some upper body strength.

 

[RasputinLives]

I remember all those things being said about Verstappen.

 

[F1Brits_90]

Norris to McLaren and are you going to tell us, how he'll handle the car. It looks like he's never seen a gym from the inside, I think he has to build some upper body strength.

like RasputinLives says im not making that mistake again, i was hugely against as i said at the time a 16yr old max verstappen in a f1 car, as it felt would be a disaster waiting to happen. as he needs a year a in gp2.

what happened he turned out to be 2015 driver of the year. made us all that questioned him look more stupid every race

 

[Rutherford]

I’m not saying it can’t happen, only that he’ll have to build some strength. Verstappen visibly grew stronger throughout his first season.

 

[The Pits]

To be fair, the training in f1 is about strength without adding too much bulk, and generally improves with practice. I know that the cars are more physically demanding now, but i would suggest most drivers start with a need to improve, but i dont think you can judge performance from appearance.

 

[Il_leone]

I think people are forgetting drivers thought the pirelli era then did not allow them to race at full intensity and now they are getting faster cars with some drivers making the odd error or two

I do believe Lance Stroll in the old Williams might have done a lot better than he is doing now ... the cars this year are physically more demanding and you've got to train yourself for it and that can only be done by doing more rigorous endurance testing in these cars

 

[Bill Boddy]

In my young days drivers didn't need to be fit, just skilful.