Things ... Musical chairs (2017-2018 Silly Season)

[TR]

I don't think there have been any applications for Superlicenses that did not meet the criteria since the criteria were significantly sharpened after Verstappen was granted a license. So, I am not sure why you presume exceptions will be made easily.

 

[RasputinLives]

Because money talks.

 

[RasputinLives]

Also if appealed it would be hard for the FIA not to have to admit that there are drivers with less success and pedigree prior to F1 on the grid.

 

[Il_leone]

So the silly season has come alive and Vettel decided to play poker with being non committal about 2018 after Alonso said he won't speak to the teams until the end of the season

An early stab at the line up for 2018

Renault - Alonso and Hulkenberg. The only place where Fernando is truly loved and Renault are moving up the grid so with him that could be the difference they need

outside bets Sainz or Rowland

Red Bull - Verstappen and Sainz. I can't see Sainz spending another year to Toro Rosso so either he is promoted or he is singed elsewhere

Ricciardo will stay if either Sainz or Verstappen is signed by another team

Toro Rosso - Kyvat and Gasly only logical promotion seeing Red Bull appear to be short of drivers in the feeder series for once


Mclaren - Button and Vandoorne. Button has an option for 2018 which Mclaren will exercise to continue their tradition of having a world champion driver at least but JB might not be so keen after coming out of a frying pan and jumping back into the fire

Stoffel will get another season as the team try to build a future around him

Ferrari - Ricciardo and Perez. A few reasons Daniel's Italian background for one and Checo because Carlos Slim backing the team whilst he is a handy solid driver

Outside bets Sainz or Verstappen

Kimi will retire - there are just too many young drivers ready to step up


Mercedes - Hamilton and Vettel - the dream team for Toto and finally to answer who is better. I don't see Lewis retiring given how much he enjoyed racing flat out on Sunday and wants more races like that and Vettel could be the man to push him to his limits

Ocon or Wehrlein will have to wait longer for get promoted

Williams - Stroll and Bottas. Stroll - you can't drop him unless someone makes the team management understand how much repair bill he is costing the team.

Bottas back after 1 season whilst Massa will retire now


Haas - Grosjean and Magnussen . Don't see a change in the line up even though Romain is supposedly in with a shout for Ferrari seat

Outside consideration - Alexander Rossi


Force India

Ocon and Wehrlein - a shoot out on who will get promoted to Mercedes perhaps


Sauber

Ericsson because his sponsors finance the team and Matsushita because Honda back him

 

[The Pits]

Lovely.

 

[RasputinLives]

Il_leone no Charles Leclerc?

Edit - I pretty much agree with all of that other than:

Vettel will stay at Ferrari. Kimi will do another year.

Merc will have Hamilton and Verstappen (big daddy Jos has already been seen in their garage)

Alonso will retire. Leclerc to Renault.

As an outside as well I wonder if Vandorne might jump over to Torro Rosso. They've always been a big fan of him and Marko doesn't really like Gasly. Bit of a long shot that one.

 

[FB]

If Ferrari continue to challenge through the year Vettel will stay. If their performance starts to drop back from Merc he will be off. If Vettel goes Kimi will stay, when was the last time Ferrari changed both drivers through choice?

 

[Rutherford]

Because money talks.

Fortunately we have well-prepared and performing drivers that came into F1 on merit after winning the F3 Championship, and not based on the wealth of their fathers. That isn't what I would want, because everyone knows once one has reached F1 one gets shown up, if one was too reliant on money.

 

[Olivier]

If Ferrari continue to challenge through the year Vettel will stay. If their performance starts to drop back from Merc he will be off. If Vettel goes Kimi will stay, when was the last time Ferrari changed both drivers through choice?

I'm usually wrong with predictions, but I think if Vettel stays, Kimi will stay. Ferrari would be interested in just 2 drivers for next year: Riccardo or Hamilton. The former to replace Kimi and the latter to replace Vettel if he decides to leave. They are also interested, like the next team, in Verstappen but only long term.

 

[Il_leone]

Well the silly season suddenly starts to get an interesting with

Toto saying he does not rule out signing Alonso

Wolff: Mercedes could make a bid for Alonso for 2018!

Hamilton saying Alonso is playing a chess game

Alonso contract talks like chess says Hamilton > F1 News > Grandprix.com

Then Bottas saying its too early to talk about contract extensions

Too early for contract talks says Bottas > F1 News > Grandprix.com

Interestingly Mercedes in for Sainz seems like an outside bet but interestingly despite being linked with Ferrari there has been no approach from Maranello

Mercedes likes Sainz, but Red Bull holds the cards

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Your man Ocon beat Verstappen before and is probably considered his most hated rival so I don't see why Merc need to consider Max when you have Ocon who is probably the most mature young driver apart from Sainz I've seen

It would take a kings ransom to prize Max away from Red Bull or he has a big fall out with Helmut to make him move

Le Clerc to Ferrari - yes he is hot property in GP2 but Ferrari just can't t risk putting so much pressure on him so maybe farm him off to Haas is an option . The same would apply to Giovinazzi. It would be interesting to see who is nominated as a development driver and who will get a full time race seat.

Would Ferrari lend him to Renault possibly but Rowland is not doing a bad job to be ignored

Alonso will not retire unless he gets no guarantee from either of the teams they will be competitive. I was thinking if he won Indy next week - his phone won;t stop ringning

I don't see Vandoorne going to Toro Rosso for two reasons i) His age at 26 he is considered too old for Red Bull

ii) Its a backward step and I do see if he rides this difficult period out with Mclaren he will come out stronger like Button has many times in his career

Perhaps a move to Williams might be an option

 

[gethinceri]

Nice point, it would be good to see Ocon, Verstappen and Sainz in a close fight.

 

[RasputinLives]

I would love then to sign Ocon but Verstappen is the glamour signing and I think Merc will land him if they can. They tried to before and I think Verstappens loyalty to Red Bull only extends to how competitive they are.

 

[Il_leone]

FB Ferrari last changed both drivers in 1995 because Schumacher signed and swapped with Alesi. I don't know whether this was because Alesi was too much of a hothead and Berger was probably a better political player and negotiator so they would consider keeping him.

Off course Berger was not going to be No 2 to Schumacher having received such treatment at Mclaren by Senna so left for Benetton and Ferrari bought Irvine out of his contract

I just don't see Raikkonen staying because he was suppose to be the back up plan but ended up pretty much a No 2 and just is not consistently fast enough to mount a championship challenge so promoting to No 1 is not going to work

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Yes but I am sure Red Bull have slapped a big get out clause to scare the other teams off for now and Verstappen needs to be careful because they are plenty of capable drivers around from the young brigade and he does not burn too many bridges

Now if Hamilton decides to retire that would throw things up suddenly

Incidentally Helmut decides to threaten to quit again because of the engine rules

Marko: Change the engine rules or Red Bull will quit!
---------------------

I was not aware Helmut had an issue with Gasly but then he did get on the wrong side of Red Bull when someone close to him decided to make rumours he was replacing Kyvat last year

Now Dietrich says

Red Bull driver contracts are watertight - Mateschitz

So Carlos Sainz better start negotiating about moving to other teams if I were him

 

[gethinceri]

What if Hamilton's retirement opens up a return for Rosberg?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Rosberg coming back after his chief rival retired would be laughable.

 

[teabagyokel]

Yep, that would make him look absolutely fucking pathetic.

 

[gethinceri]

Stranger things have happened!

 

[teabagyokel]

Something as strange as someone having the choice between Rosberg and Button, but choosing Rosberg?

Sorry, scratch that, they already did that!

Rosberg is good. Rosberg is very good. But he is not good enough for Mercedes to discard the other drivers in this here thread.