Not yet sadly, I'm the kind one making sure the lab doesn't explode as its shut down so am slightly bored/crazy.
Massa's one year deal is the biggest indication that Vettel will join in 2014. There's no other logical reason why they'd pass up the opportunity to put someone like Hulkenberg in there, or allow Perez to join McLaren. They were also looking at Webber for 2013, who only signs one year deals. They definitely have someone lined up and it can only be Vettel. The ball will ultimately be in Vettel's court, he's contracted to both Ferrari and Red Bull for 2014. I can only really see him joining Ferrari, the amount they pay their drivers I know which contract I'd rather buy my way out of.
Well if Forza's right, and Vettel is the long-term target,then I think Hulkenberg will come in 2014, be Alonso's protege (much like Schumi-Massa) then bring in Vettel, one "homegrown" and one obvious talent from another team.
But why not get Hulkenberg in for next season if that's the plan? If Vettel's the long term target there was no point in Ferrari keeping Massa on for another year, unless they believe he's a better driver than Hulkenberg, which they surely can't.
I've never really rated Massa but towards the end of last season he was quicker than Alonso and was actually fairly consistent, something he's never been before. I kept waiting for him to go 'back to normal' but he never did. I actually think if Ferrari have a car next year then we may see the best Massa we've ever seen
Who are you? Give Miggins back please log in to view this image Next you'll be claiming Schumacher did a good job
He was good, but i'm not sure if he was consistently at the Alonso level. Remember, Alonso had pressure to win the title, Massa had already secured his contract.
There's two ways to interpret this, either as Autosport have done or.... Notice how Domenicali talks about how great a dream team line-up could be ("a dream team is something extraordinary if it is well managed and if things work well"), now why would he mention this if he was absolutely sure Alonso and Vettel would never be teammates? That's like saying 'it would be great, but we aren't good enough to make it work'. Also notice how he says "For now, I think that this is not our goal" and "so for the time being, this is not our goal" -- he's talking specifically about Vettel and Alonso in the same team. Two roosters my ass, even Hamilton had talks with Ferrari for 2013.
For me what he says and everything else said in the past is this: 1: Alonso and Seb won't happen now, ever since Monaco last season Seb and Alonso have been pretty ruthless with each other which is weird since Seb acts, some what differently now around Alonso and it's also the same way round. In 2010 I would of considered Alonso was some sort of older brother to Seb, 2 years later their attitudes have changed with each other. Was that Seb's fault or Alonso's? I don't know to be honest but something happend to push Seb into acting the way he did this year. Maybe Ferrari are asking Alonso to go full guns on Seb to prepare him for what's to come so when Seb peaks 2015-?? Ferrari are the ones who benefit the most out of him, of course still going for the title during that "training" before he joins. 2: Alonso is thinking of retirement within the next few years (2014-2016), all this talk from LDM and Stefano of, "Seb will only come to Ferrari when Alonso retires", when Alonso retires. Why mention this more than once if it wasn't meant to happen sooner rather than later? They could use any other excuse to avoid a "dream team" but both of them mention retirement in the text for Alonso as the point of Seb coming in? Alonso could race top level until he is 37-39 in my opinion, so why have all this talk of retirement only for Seb to enter Ferrari? Why not when his contract expires or, when he doesn't want to continue with Ferrari anymore? Is Alonso quitting the sport sooner than we like to think and that is the reason why Ferrari have Seb on hold now? Why have this "Seb on hold until 2014" BS by the journalists that talked this story up with Lewis' management backing up this story? They have nothing to gain for Lewis doing this exposure, since the whole story was about Seb... 3: It's true what they say; "Alonso and Seb wont be in that team together." But just because Seb isn't in their now, doesn't mean Alonso will be in their (when) Seb goes to Ferrari, this is the main point to focus on in my opinion that Alonso will not be there when Seb comes in. Is that 2 years down the line? 3? 4? 1!?! etc... Contracts in F1 are a shady business and I bet Seb has a few loopholes of his own which he can use in his favour and I expect Dr Marko wont tell us everything about it of course. Yeah, it sounds like Seb is at RBR until 2014 is over....maybe not! DM (as I repeated in the past) said he wouldn't stand in his way if Ferrari or Mercedes came calling, so if a sizable enough fee came along Ferrari could buy it out. Since Seb doesn't even get paid as much as Jenson, I'm sure Ferrari could spend 13-16 million to buy it out early if it was a case of money and certain NEW sponsors would pay most of it for the triple world champion to get into one of the biggest brands in motorsport. 4: I don't expect Massa to be there when Seb arrives, Bianchi will probably be the selected choice so Ferrari can start a new direction with their new windtunnel and expansion of their current base of operations that Ferrari should be the leading team of choice and this is what Seb is waiting for I reckon when their foundations are somewhat not 15 years behind and more 10 years ahead now.
I really can't see Alonso leaving before his current contract expires. What would happen, Would he be replaced? Alonso is driving better than ever and voted best driver by the team principals. It would be illogical for Ferrari to replace him. Or would he retire early? Why would he want to do that - he's showing no signs of slowing down and isn't afraid of being teammates with Vettel. I'll just re-post this image (below), from Autosport magazine in June last year: please log in to view this image Benson said back in May that "either party can exercise" the pre-contract, so assuming all performances clauses in the pre-contract are met, Vettel may not have a choice.
Ignore what I said before about him coming in 2014.... That would imply that the performance related clauses were not met, which is odd, because not only did Ferrari finish second in both championships but Benson had previously said (backed up by James Allen as well) that the performance clauses were for 2013. Anyway, if Vettel is now coming to Ferrari in 2015 at the earliest, is it too late for Ferrari to replace Massa with Hulkenburg?
