Youth versus Experience

FB

Not my cup of cake
Valued Member
Webber's retirement leaves Kimi and Jenson as the two oldest drivers on the grid with Raikkonen just under 100 days older than Button - both will be 34 next birthday. Next up is Massa (33 next birthday) and then Alonso (32 shortly) with Adrian Sutil being the only other driver on the grid in his thirties.

F1 drivers are getting younger and younger when they arrive in the sport. Any thoughts who will be next of the "old guard" to be culled or are they all pretty safe at the moment? Most appear to still be cutting it at the pointy end of the grid.
 
Button I would say has 2/3 years left I would guess, god knows with Kimi as it depends on how long he's motivated for
 
I think Massa will hang around after his Ferrari days are over so he will probably be around for a while.

Kimi would probably call it a day if he ever found himself in an unhappy situation again.

JB will probably be the number 1 at McLaren for a while longer. It's a match made in heaven.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sutil is out again before all these other guys. He's fast, but still pretty erratic.
 
Massa is inconsistent, both in speed and consistency - so I would guess he might be the next to go. Unless Sutil stops getting results - he is the least 'planted' of the four.
 
Of those guys you've mentioned, obviously Alonso is going nowhere for a good while.

Sutil has done more than enough I expect to see him through next year with Force India and Kimi (who may if speculation is correct, not be at Renault/Lotus/Whatever next year) will be around for another season or 3.

That leaves Button and Massa. I have a feeling that both will be in F1 at their respective teams next year but will move on or out the year after. I think Button will head for another series, maybe trying his hand over in America and Massa may get a job with another team or try his luck across the pond as well.
 
If McLaren have another season like this one next year, I suspect Button will call it quits (whether on his terms or not, I don't know).

For me, Massa is the biggest question mark, as he seems to consistently underperform. Because of that, I'm not sure any other team would be interested in him when he leaves Ferrari.
 
as for the old guard I think Massa is next in the firing line

- the number of crashes he's had lately is not helping plus Ferrari need to decide now about their No 2 because they will be in a situation they may need to replace both if they aint careful


I'll give Button till the end of next season as he is not definite for Mclaren's future and I am not sure he wants to be driving around in 10th place for another season unless he really wants the Mclaren Honda challenge

With Kimi it depends which team he joins or stays with

- With Red Bull he's got better chance to be closer to the front whereas with Lotus they may go through a year of transition next year

Webber made his GP debut 2002

Compare to others on the grid

Alonso 2001
Raikkonen 2001
Button 2000
Massa 2002

everyone else on the grid is 2006 or after wow that is a huge gap of 4 seasons at least
 
I was surprised Kimi will become the oldest driver rufus_mcdufus. I suppose all of us have vision of the small boy who made his début for Sauber all those years ago. Agree that Massa looks the most vulnerable, although Ferrari might be happy not to have anyone who will rock the boat with Alonso in the same way Barrichello did for Schumie for quite a few years.
 
Massa is seventh in what is at best the third fastest car which is about where you would expect the number two driver in the team to be.
 
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