Bottas To Haas?

[Insider 0]

Did anyone figure that Gene Haas's perfectly manicured entry into F1 via Ferrari may have prompted the Scuderia to retain the services of Valteri Bottas for the future. In certain respects, Haas will be Ferrari's junior team and if Ferrari retain Kimi or sign someone like Button for 2016/7 to bulk up the points tally and fully support an assault on the WCC, Bottas could get his feet wet at Haas in 2017. To be more clear, I do not think Seb needs or wants a super fast team mate until he's had his shot at the title. Kimi is highly erratic and not a real threat, Jenson will keep him honest but Bottas will unnerve him as much as Ricciardo did at RBR. The smart play for Ferrari is to keep Valteri on ice for as long as possible. They won't pay Frank William's ransom [which he probably needs to pay Button] and a season at Haas in 2017 would give them [Haas] the required lift in their sophomore year and Seb the elbow room for another WDC.

[KoolMonkey 0]

I think Bottas should stay at Williams one more year. With the way the rules are now, they are still going to have the best engine next year in their car. Haas, I'm not so sure is a good move if you want to goto Ferrari, unless it's simply to sit out a year and then get the Ferrari seat. If that's the case, then staying at Wililams one more year makes more sense to me as he'd be in a better car and hone his skills further rather than tolling around the back of the grid.

[Emmcee 0]

Nah Bottas and Ferrari are a done deal. Kimi has recently said he would concider driving for someone else and if button stays at Mclaren it will leave kimi the chance to go to Williams or possibly haas. But if button goes to Williams it could leave kimi open to Mclaren. But the more I think about it and the more people say haas is basically a Ferrari b team, kimi could very well end up there.

[Insider 0]

This whole Kimi replacement thing has taken a new turn with the heavy rumours that Mercedes want Pascal Wehrlein on the grid next year in a Merc-engined car. Though it is more likely to be the struggling Force India with Perez getting the boot, cheaper engines would appeal to Williams too. It is almost certain that Sauber will switch to Renault as Ferrari resource Haas and RBR and STR head for Mercedes lumps. The alternatives are Hulk to Ferrari or Haas and PW to FI, PW to FI and Perez at Haas or Bottas to Ferrari and PW to Williams. It would seem the engines have the last word perhaps.

[spiral.out 0]

KR is staying at Ferrari

[Jem of the Shire 0]

According to planetf1 Haas is mostly looking at Vergne, Gutierrez and Hulkenberg...

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/534588/Haas_reveals_driver_shortlist/

[KoolMonkey 0]

It does seem a little more positive in the vibe that Ferrari will retain Kimi. What I find odd is that I've seen articles saying they will also retain Allison. Duuurrr, really? It was that hard a decision for them to keep on Allison? He's the best thing they had in years. Anyway, if they do keep Kimi at Ferrari, seriously the happy happy joy joy is going to explode over the webisphere!

[Insider 0]

[quote name='spiral.out' timestamp='1438594035' post='372205']
KR is staying at Ferrari
[/quote]Yes, that was my point. It is re-inforced by the engine shuffles and no doubt, Williams's 'transfer fee' for Bottas. Nice try, Frank. However, I would not want to keep a driver who had been looking elsewhere. Massa has been re-signed but Bottas hasn't. Next move? Pascal Wehrlein to Williams or Force India ? Bottas to Haas to learn the systems???????

[Jem of the Shire 0]

I cant see Bottas at Haas, they'll be mooching around at the back scrapping with the Manors and I just cant picture Bottas signing up for that

[KoolMonkey 0]

Bottas will do it, if he's got a guaranteed seat for 2017 at Ferrari, but F1 doesn't work that way anymore. Only the top tier drivers can book a seat 2 years in advance, and Bottas isn't top tier.

At best the current model of F1 sees drivers signing up 6 months ahead so to speak. So unless Bottas is going to Ferrari in 2016, I'm not sure he will be going there at all this far out from 2017.

Alonso is the only driver that comes to mind who signed up for a new team so far back from the new season starting. But there could be more. At any rate, my fingers are cold and I'm going to sleep.

[Massa 0]

Haas is a bad deal.

Haas is applying a NASCAR model to F1 and while that is a smart way to get on the grid, it will not work in the long-run.

Some background: Haas used to run a NASCAR team called Haas CNC Racing. It was about as bad a team as you could find. They ran terribly, could only attract mediocre-on-a-good-day drivers (well, maybe most NASCAR drivers are mediocre-on-a-good-day, but you know, just let me cling to Jeff Gordon smoking Fernando Alonso and Sébastien Bourdais at the RoC, Jimmie Johnson coming within a tenth of Sébastien Loeb in a rally car at the RoC, and Carl Edwards schooling Michael Schumacher at the RoC...the RoC matters...Heikki Kovalainen won it and went on to be an 8 times WDC in the gorgeous ING Renaults, remember), and kept losing every sucker of a sponsor they could convince to join.

During a dismal 2008 season running a rotation of not-very-good drivers with small-time sponsors and worse results, Gene Haas had a big idea. In the most stereotypical NASCAR story ever, NASCAR star Tony Stewart hated razin' them there Toyoters cuz they ain't 'Murican enough, and it turns out his team had switched from Chevrolet to Toyota for 2008. Stewart's real issue, of course, was that he was running worse than his superior new teammate, Kyle Busch, but nevertheless, he wanted out.

So, Gene made him a pitch: 50% equity in the team and all Stewart has to do is agree to drive. Ridiculous, right? But it worked. Stewart came over and, being one of the best NASCAR drivers of all-time, immediately attracted big-time names in staff, sponsorship, and so forth. So deep were Stewart's ties that he got Haas the ultimate prize in NASCAR: no, not the trophy from the Viagra presents the Cialis 500 extended to 600 miles by Levitra, but a deal to run Hendrick Motorsports engines and chassis.

In 2011 and in 2014, Stewart-Haas, running Hendrick equipment, beat the actual Hendrick team for the title. Hooray! There's also some details about one of Haas' drivers being a domestic abuser and Haas going to federal prison for tax evasion. That doesn't fit the "Haas is America's team!" narrative. No, wait -- that only makes Haas more American in the eyes of a lot of people, I'd guess.

Anyway, Haas formed the initial ties to Hendrick years prior when he sponsored Hendrick's cars.

So, let's look at F1, where Haas is forming the initial ties to Ferrari by sponsoring Ferrari's cars and now running Ferrari's customer engines, more or less how Haas started in NASCAR (when Haas sucked, they had downgraded, detuned Hendrick motors, much like a Ferrari customer one -- Stewart got them the real thing).

That's a nice, cheaper way (paired with outsourcing the chassis to Dallara, which everyone lauds but you guys do know HRT/Campos used a Dallara chassis, right?) to get on the grid. But if he thinks he'll beat his master Ferrari the way he beat his master Hendrick, he's trying to make F1 analogous to NASCAR, where there's a playoff system that resets the points after 26 of 36 races, and where the rules are designed to curb dominance, and where the series throws intentional, random safety car periods for the sake of entertainment.

In other words, analogous to NASCAR, a much purer, less ridiculous form of racing than F1. Oh, dear.

So, what option does that give Haas? Offer 50% of the team to Hamilton the minute after Rosberg beats him in any Grand Prix. Like Stewart (and, coincidentally, Hamilton drove Stewart's Haas Cup car at Watkins Glen a few years ago), Hamilton is just emotional enough to consider it in a moment of weakness. And like Stewart, Hamilton has already proven himself a big enough piece to attract mega-talent around him, as seen in all the folks who joined Mercedes when he did.

And you know, Lewis, Charlotte may not be the envy of the world, but it has an airport and the flights to see the Jenners in California sure would be shorter. And your ski trips in Colorado...no waiting in the international departures security stuff if you're leaving Charlotte (you'll just be waiting in the "angry NASCAR journalists tweeting about delayed flights" zone...but you wanted to be there, right?). Yes, what a deal.

Or not. Because 50% of zero is zero and so far Haas doesn't have anything to offer anyone any fraction of.

Wow. High five if you read the whole thing!

[KoolMonkey 0]

Hamilton to Haas. I like it. Haas should offer him 50% PLUS the hand in marriage to one of the Jenners, and wait there's more... the Momanager as his new manager. Kris would love it. Oh and a sex tape too. You can't make it big in America without any talent unless you have a sex tape. I'm sure Kris has a few in the works for the Jenners ready to be released any day now. Finally, Bruce will need to do the Austin GP podium interviews. Such talent can't go to waste.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go puke.