Twenty Two

[teabagyokel]

Every silly season thread has discussed which drivers deserve to be in F1. So, if the world changed and you chose which 22 drivers would be the F1 drivers, without practicalities considered.
To clarify, I will omit Jules Bianchi.

My 22 are:

1. Alonso
2. Hamilton
3. Vettel
4. Button
5. Rosberg
6. Ricciardo
7. Bottas
8. Hülkenburg
9. Perez
10. Vergne
11. Grossman
12. Raikkonen
13. Kvyat
14. Magnussen
15. Palmer
16. Nasr
17. Vandoorne
18. Sainz
19. Gasly
20. Lynn
21. Stoneman
22. Massa

 

[Mephistopheles]

My 22 is Jenson Button..

 

[Titch]

I don't know who some of those are, but I'm not sure that I would want Raikkonen, unless he was on the upper side of his black cloud, and Massa is a bit hit and miss these days.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Don't you mean 18?

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Where's Maldonado?

 

[Titch]

Where's Maldonado?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Sadly, these days I have so little time to watch TV the only motorsport I watch with any real interest is F1 and BTCC. I would have no idea who is waiting in the wings for an F1 seat.

 

[sushifiesta]

No Grosjean teabagyokel ? Or is Grossman a play on words that has gone over my head?

Maybe it's easier to say who I think doesn't deserve their place in F1: Massa, Maldonado, Gutierrez, Sutil and Chilton. And you can add Ericsson and Raikkonen if they don't improve next season. Vergne I think has been harshly treated but I wouldn't miss him either, so he's on the boundary too, and Kobayashi has probably had his day.

I have no idea who should replace them... Vandoorne, Sainz, Verstappen and Palmer are the only names I hear regularly. That leaves one more seat after the removal of my definite 5, so I will take Chilton's place and his money .

 

[teabagyokel]

Grosjean has been autocorrected out...!

 

[P1]

I personally don't understand why you need a grid of 22 cars. I think if you had 16 cars there would be better racing and fewer accidents. The teams at the back are a waste of space and nobody wants to see them. I always watch the races with a 30 minute delay so I can fast forward the back marker footage.

 

[Mephistopheles]

The teams at the back are not a waste of space they serve a purpose and that purpose is or should be to give young talent a chance to show what they've got, drivers like Alonso came into F1 though this method with Minardi which was a great little team full of racing spirit and one who is sadly missed by me at least.

F1 isn't just about what is happening at the front of the grid you know...

 

[cider_and_toast]

By that logic then, 4 time world champions Red Bull would be in trouble because they finished 7th in their first two seasons, McLaren finished second to last with 1 point in their first season, Williams failed to score a point in their first season and finished 9th in their second, Team Lotus finished second to last on 3 points in their debut season.

If you look at some of the drivers who started with those teams and were given the chance to race, for example Graham Hill and Alan Jones, where would they have been if they weren't given that opportunity?

One thing that I can see with the way talent is recruited in F1 these days, by the time a driver wins a second level championship such as GP2, it may be too late for him as most drivers seem to be head hunted from a young age these days and are either placed on driver development programs or, in the case of Max Verstappen, dropped into the team at a seriously young age.

This makes it even more difficult to second guess who would be in line for a drive.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Let us not forget that Damon Hill started his F1 career in a woefully inadequate Brabhams that failed to qualify more often than not.

F1 is elite enough as it is without shafting the small teams who are at least giving it a go...

 

[Titch]

Not for much longer Mephistopheles.

 

[P1]

Let us not forget that Damon Hill started his F1 career in a woefully inadequate Brabhams that failed to qualify more often than not.

F1 is elite enough as it is without shafting the small teams who are at least giving it a go...

Don't agree. Giving it a go doesn't mean you deserve to be in F1. Fuck maybe I should show up at the Circuit of the Americas in my M5 or my F-Type and see how I fair in the grand prix. Why not!

Lower formulae play the role of developing talent. We don't need mobile chicanes on the F1 track for that purpose. Maybe if there were fewer F1 cars, people would actually bother to watch the lower formulae to see where the next talent is coming from.

 

[FB]

Small teams sometimes become big teams, F1 shouldn't preclude anyone from trying if they have the budget, talent and motivation. Also, where would Fernando Alonso be if it weren't for the mobile chicane that was the Minardi entry?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Why not go the whole hog? Mercedes are clearly much faster than the rest of the pack, so get rid of the pack. After all, they only get in the way when the Mercs fail.

 

[Andyoak]

Not last year...

 

[Andyoak]

Actually, that's the solution... ban the Merc's for being back markers last year and we have a championship we can all enjoy this year!