2016-17 Silly Season. Drivers Market

I'll be honest I don't think either of the two Renault drivers will be with the team next year. I think they are rebuilding this year and next years line up will have a bit of French feeling too it.
 
A strong Renault team with at least one French driver would see louder calls for France to return to the GP calendar as well.

I made it one of my predictions for the season and it was something I picked up on in testing last year, I had a feeling Palmer would struggle. He hasn't yet managed to prove to anyone he's got the brightest of F1 futures. Like father like son perhaps?
 
True but it's still possible to make a dog awful car look slightly better than it is. Plus the fact he's not doing too well against Magnusson at the moment. The first thing he needs to do is regularly beat his teammate, dog awful car or not.
 
KMag is hardly pulling up trees either. Frankly a bit dissapointed in him. Also I'd have been stunned if he wasn't beating Palmer at this point given he has more experience.

Test drivers Ocon and Rowland are better than both of them anyway.
 
Palmer has had to deny his seat is under threat already. Both drivers are on 12 months contract and I would think one driver would be dropped because Renault need a bit of continuity for a start if they are going to succeed

KMag has done a lot better than Palmer since Melbourne you have to say and I don't see how Renault would drop him seeing they were willing to write off Maldonado's millions to place him in the team

So really one seat available and Vasseur is a big fan of Vandoorne but I think Mclaren have got first option on his contract which they will probably exercise

So Renault with either Ocon or Rowland if either has a good season in their category is highly likely. Ocon has various options given Mercedes might want him in the FOrce India or Manor or even do another season of DTM
 
I don't see how Palmer's season can be considered anything other than terrible so far. In qualifying Magnussen is ahead 5-1 with a median gap of 0.276% and a mean gap of 0.298%. For comparison over their time together Hamilton beat Button by a median of 0.272% and Vettel also beat Webber by the exact same margin of 0.272%.

In races it is 2-2 which looks quite even, but if you were to compare points tallies it would not, even the official tally of 6-0 is deceptive.
I've been using an alternate system where positions outside the top 10 are awarded fractional points to allow me to separate drivers in poor cars; 11th is given 25/50 = 0.50 points, 12th is given 18/50 = 0.36 points, 13th is given 15/50 = 0.30 points and so on. Non-finishes are not awarded any points nor are positions 21 and 22.

With this system Palmer has scored 1.10 points to Magnussen's 7.18 - meaning Palmer has only scored 15% of Magnussen's points. Palmer has suffered a mechanical DNF though so if we judge them by points per race instead then Palmer has scored 18% of Magnussen's points, which is a little better but still awful.
The only more one-sided team mate comparisons are Verstappen-Kvyat at Toro Rosso (12%)* and Gutierrez-Grosjean at Haas (6%).
*Verstappen and Kvyat have not been team mates of course but I can still compare their scoring rates in the races they did do in the team, but since that sample is just 2 races so far for Kvyat I don't give it much consideration. At Red Bull Kvyat's points per race tally is 57% of Verstappen's but that still has the 2 race problem.

I expected Palmer to be poor but his performances have even surprised me. It's no wonder that his seat is constantly talked about being under threat.
 
Palmer 's season is not helped that Renault are going through a major transition period but he's certainly not been on the pace of Magnussen for sure
 
What's going on in the 2017 Formula 1 driver market

It could be a free for all next season with so many open seats

Not mentioned at all were Vettel or Hamilton

I see Nico Hulkenberg has made a rather uninspired decision to stay another year with Force India

Interestingly Dieter Zietsch has quoted that Wehrlein is the future of Mercedes as Rosberg is about to come to end his contract:thinking:
 
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Wombcat it depends who's view you want to interpret about Alonso and Ferrari. I am trying to remember Ferrari make mutual decisions to release someone early from their contracts and usually the word " FIRED" is associated with drivers leaving Ferrari
 
Incidentally I've got some vague recollection when I was a wee kid in the eighties of Ferrari being described in the press as the team "that devours its drivers"... In my kidde's mind I was wondering whether they really meant that literally. :)
 
Incubus

I remember James Hunt commenting that Jean Alesi made the worst career move in joining Ferrari after having signed 3 contracts with Ferrari, Williams and Tyrell. He did mention that drivers do end up having not been able to recover from their experience at Ferrari but did not think someone as talented as Alesi would have the same experience

Well lets say he did not really develop into the top driver everyone thought he was suppose to be
 
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