As much as I admire Bottas for getting his seat mostly* on talent, right now I have to admit I'm not entirely sure what the grid would be missing if he's not on it next year. Perhaps it's the fact the Williams is a dog not really allowing him to make an impression, but Maldonado's had the measure of him for most of the year, that qualifying performance in Canada aside, which doesn't really make him much of an improvement over Senna (who was capable of flashes of talent himself - Hungary last year he got his Williams consistently in the top 3 every session apart from the one which mattered). Plenty of other drivers I'd rather leave the grid first mind. COUGH ESTEBAN COUGH This of course means that tomorrow is going to be the race where Bottas drags the Williams round for a huge haul of points pulling off several great overtakes and holding off much faster drivers... *He also has connections to a certain Toto Wolff. Williams, eh? Can't get any drivers without his help
Bottas has been great. He's out-qualified Pastor 6-4, he was excellent in Monaco and Canada and he hasn't made any mistakes in terms of crashes. He hadn't raced for two years coming into this season too remember and had never driven in Monaco, whereas Pastor is in his third season at Williams and has a race win under his belt. Maldonado's generally had the upper hand in the races they've both finished but Bottas has looked faster. He's a huge improvement on Senna who was thrashed by Maldonado last year, they 18-2 in qualifying, the difference in points would've been huge too if Maldonado didn't keep crashing.
This guy who says he works for Red Bull says Alonso is trying to force a move with Vettel to trade places! http://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1j9sdt/i_work_for_red_bull_racing_but_cannot_give_my/
What if Alonso takes the 2nd seat at RB? Who the fuk will Ferrari have as a driver option - worrying times for them!
Hulkenberg or Di Resta surely. Although I do not see Alonso going to Red Bull ever, so long as Vettel is there. I think Red Bull are just trying to unsettle Alonso knowing he is going through a tough time with the team. What I do think is that Alonso could end up in a situation like Prost did at Ferrari whereby what seems like a match made in heaven ends up in acrimony, Ferrari rarely depart with drivers on good terms...
I actually think that Alonso is doing more bad than good remianing at Ferrari and he has 2-3 seasons to get it back on track. Ferrari not having a driver with a WDC on their CV could happen and no disrespect to either Di resta or Hulk but for a superbrand that would be a poor line up IMO.
Ferrari starting to grow tired of Alonso's near constant stream of negative comments and downplaying where Ferrari are at? http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109095 Is he trying to talk himself out of Ferrari and into Red Bull?
The only thing he is doing is getting fired and getting him excluded from the championship for a few years for breaking his contract early. Hulk and Bianchi, DONE!
You don't think he'd have some sort of performance clause in his contract? On another note, can you actually be excluded from the championship for violating a contract?
Not by FOM or FIA, but by Ferrari? FK YEAH! they will make him suffer unless Santander pay some stupid money!
I don't think Button will leave McLaren and I would imagine that his last season (if he is good enough) will be the Honda 2015 season. However, if I was Ferrari I would rather have a Button or Webber in one if the seats than 2 drivers who have to date proved very little. So here is my final spanner in the works, Alonso gets sacked by Ferrari and switches to McLaren taking Santander with him, topping up the financial backing that Perez already brings creating a financial and engine powerhouse for the 2015-2018 seasons. Button has the choice of the 2nd RB seat or equal status at Ferrari with Rosberg? I'd guess he would choose Ferrari, just for the CV.
Bit silly of Ferrari to go public with a warning for Alonso... that makes them guilty of the same thing. If they aren't giving him a car to win with, what else is he going to say?
I'm surprised it's taken this long for Ferrari to take issue with Alonso constantly making negative comments about his car. Prost was sacked immediately for criticising the car.
Not sure it was immediately but he even got the boot before the end of the season. Can't say I was too upset by it.
Prost by the time he got to Ferrari was completely paranoid (the Mansell car-swap incident proved that). I'd have been surprised if anyone at Ferrari voted to keep him.
