All I want is Button to go to Williams I think vettel is going to be to strong at ferrari for the second driver to get a chance. Bottas should be careful considering his move. With ferrari and Williams being direct competitors I would hope Williams could charge them a lot for Bottas.
It might be a sideways move now, but as an engine manufacturer, Ferrari have more chance of toppling Mercedes.
Yes, a Williams-Mercedes is never going to beat a Mercedes-Mercedes, so his only realistic chance is to move away from Williams. Mat be a sideways step now, but Ferrari have the budget to potentially make them better. Williams have probably reached the level of what they can achieve with the budget they have. Until Bernie dies and the everyone can be put back on a level playing field, nothing will change.
I don't think Bottas is worth the supposed 12 million investment - with a salary that would make him expensive.
Well Ferrari do like useless Finnish drivers don't they! He's barely beating Massa, who has been proven to be very average nowadays. If Bottas wants to go there he needs to improve massively, or he will be thrashed by Vettel. There's so many better options out there, yet Ferrari always get one of the worst possible answers every time! But hey, at least it's not that little arrogant kid who doesn't do anything..
Ferrari's a big step forward from Williams, they've had seven podiums and a race win this year, not to mention more prestige and history and no doubt a better salary, plus a bigger budget going forward. It's all positive for Bottas if it goes through. €12m is a lot of money for him from Ferrari's perspective. Nasr and Massa will be a nightmare for viewers, especially as "Crofty" insists on pronouncing it NASA. Hopefully Massa's on his way out, could be pretty lucrative for Williams though, all that Banco do Brasil money on top of their Martini sponsorship.
Massa is solid this year. Not sure his time is up yet. But you have to remember it's probably best to replace him sooner, than leaving it right till his performance goes off the cliff.
Ferrari have JEV working in the simulator, Gutierrez as a reserve driver and Marciello learning the ropes at Sauber. Is there a chance Marciello (even though he's not been great in GP2) may be "loaned" to Manor as Bianchi was as part of his development and also provide Manor with some kind of discount on the 2016 engines thus helping their financial situation? Could it also be possible that either JEV or Gutierrez go to Haas as part of the partnership between the Scuderia and the American outfit? If they take Gutierrez then they have a North American driver thus opening up the second seat to a wider pool, or they could take JEV as an experienced driver to go alongside Alex Rossi. Gutierrez is less likely as Ferrari display both Telcel and Claro branding thus probably want to keep the Mexican driver for the nice fat wad of cash he brings, although any cash strapped smaller team would just love to get their hands on some of that. None of these drivers are realistic candidates to replace Raikkonen so Ferrari would still have them all on the books not doing much (skills becoming less sharp basically) next season, may as well farm them out to keep them racing and develop partnerships with other teams similar to the relationship they had/have with Sauber.
Agreed, AG. I also agree with your reference to Sky's irritating and conceited lead commentator – which prompts this response. He is far less funny and far less important than he thinks… Actually, apart from his attempted humour, he's pretty close to the bottom with the worst commentator of all time: Legard. The biggest difference is that one of them has an interest in motor-sport whilst the other is an alien who, finding himself on planet Earth, is so detached from the human species that one feels sorry for his total inability to communicate. Some sound thinking there, R92…
That's a bold statement because he was legardary for being utterly awful, but Mr Croft is certainly the weakest out of the BBC and Sky teams. Maybe for the good of my ears Massa needs to go, as Nasr has been confirmed for 2016.
You're right. Perhaps an apology is in order. To be fair to the irritating human still in employment, I should not have compared him with Legard. On the rare occasions I've had to endure moments of his commentary, there is an overwhelming sense of conceit. It goes hand in hand with an opinionated, 'argumentative for the sake of making a pointless point' self-righteousness – but at least these are human traits. Thankfully though, Planet Zlod has so far sent only one of their kind to Earth…
I loved Legard, pretty sure he's in the Guiness book of records for most words uttered in a single breath.
You're right, usually very pointless. This weekend, for example, he said at the end of the race he was happy Kvyat was 2nd not Ricciardo because RB swapped them over earlier in the race and that was swapping them back, comparing the situation to Monaco. The situation wasn't even close to being the same, in Monaco Kvyat let Ricciardo through but as DR couldn't make progress he gave it back whereas this weekend DR was immediately able to overtake Hulkenberg and Bottas and got within a couple of seconds of the lead before his lunge. In no way did DR not deserve to get ahead of DK, just a combination of being overzealous and an unkind Rosberg put them both behind the Russian driver.
As a result of two more races being added to the calendar, and the season-opening Australian GP being delayed until April, there will be no in-season testing next year and the first of only two pre-season events has been put back until March. It means the sport will stay off track for three full months and the teams will be limited to just eight days of running ahead of the new campaign. Although the schedule has been agreed by the teams, it’s understood that the decision wasn’t unanimous. .......yet....... Newcomers Haas are permitted to unlimited testing until the year they enter the sport. However, along with the rest of the field, they will also be restricted to eight days of pre-season testing in 2016, a restraint which is expected to persuade the team towards appointing two experienced drivers for their first season in F1. On a seperate note Alonso’s frustration is such that he admitted at the weekend that he was considering a future outside of F1 when his McLaren-Honda contract expires in two years' time. "I love motorsport, all categories, and F1 is not as exciting as it was in the past – at least to me to drive the cars just two or three seconds faster than a GP2 car,” he said.
Haas really need to take advantage of this, when the new teams came in during 2010 they were really unprepared and actually missed most of pre season testing. If Haas can get their car through some shakedowns before testing then they have a chance to begin to fix some of the inevitable problems they'll face, hopefully meaning they'll only be on the tails of the established teams rather than seconds adrift as the new teams were in 2010. On that note, here's hoping Manor get their stuff sorted and can also catch the field up. With the huge budgetary problems they have been subjected to this season, chances are the 2016 car won't be amazing despite being worked on for a long time but would still be nice to see Q1 be more than Haas, Manor and 2 others. At least both Manor and Haas will be running the 2016 Ferrari PU which should remain competitive, giving them a better chance than the new teams with the Cosworth in 2010.
I think that current formula is pure powertrain, so assuming Manor can put an up to date competitive system in their car from the beginning of next year (same as Hass) then they will surely be closer than in the past?
