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Sakae

Silly Season

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Mercedes: Hamilton and Rosberg

Red Bull: Ricciardo and Verstappen

Ferrari: Vettel and Räikkönen

Williams: Pérez and Bottas

Force India: Hülkenberg and Wehrlein

Toro Rosso: Sainz and Gasly ("y tho" as the kids would say)

McLaren: Alonso and Button

Renault: Magnussen and TBD

Haas: Grosjean and TBD

Manor-Honda: Vandoorne and Rossi (Bold prediction to give them a Honda motor, but why not?  Vandoorne needs a home, McLaren's sponsors love Button too much, Manor's deal with Mercedes is only one year.  Rossi, meanwhile, is absolutely loved by the Honda racing execs in America and has strong ties to Manor still).

Sauber: Ericsson and the heir of a multinational commercial real estate developer

The two TBDs: one could be Nasr and one could be Kvyat, I believe.  Both Renault and Haas will need drivers with some financing, but will want drivers better than Palmer and Gutiérrez.  I think Nasr and Kvyat both fit that description.  And with one of our Presidential nominees inviting Russia to hack our State Department, it would be downright patriotic of Mr. Haas to hire Kvyat, you know. ;)

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Nasr is very quick though and always goes undetected, need Murray walkers excitement for these drivers to stand out.

 

"Look at this, look at this"

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Nah I doubt it, all this talk about Perez joining Williams, wasn't he confirmed with FI already along with hulk like a few months ago?

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In one of interviews with Massa he has admitted, that this might be his last season, thus I gather, that about a month ago he had no offer to continue. Serious decisions will play themselves out usually in September.

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I think massa will go as he's son is getting older and has a serious interest in racing himself. Massa will focus on his career and go racing something less full on, his appearance at the lambo factory with old pal dominicalli might say just that.

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Massa has been photographed with Dom just recently. If my memory serves me, Dom is heading Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A (VW/Audi).

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Rossi is saying he has been approached by another F1 team besides Manor (where I gather he can have a ride next year if he wants it). Wonder who that other team is? Haas?

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I have it on authority I trust that Haas has not approached Rossi.

Haas is looking for a well-funded driver better than Gutiérrez.  Rossi...might not be either, no matter how much I like him.  I'd still not be shocked to see Nasr at Haas; he's an upgrade in driving without a major loss of funding, and for Nasr and his backers, Haas is an upgrade over Sauber.

Plainly, Haas sees nothing in Rossi, and never has.  And Haas sees no value in an American driver because he deals with the American market through his NASCAR teams and the business relationships there.  He entered F1 because Haas has big competition with DMG Mori for control of Asian markets, and having an American driver just for the sake of it is pretty irrelevant to that.  Positioning Haas as the Ferrari B-team, however, is very valuable.  They aren't going to put someone like Rossi in the way of their relationship with Ferrari when some of Ferrari's young drivers could be race-seat-ready in 2018 (Charles Leclerc).

The other thing I'll say about the team that approached Rossi..."approached" is an interesting word.  It doesn't tell you what they approached him with.  Context suggests a race seat, but don't rule out Rossi being an IndyCar driver and an F1 reserve in 2017 again (even if a reserve for a team that isn't Manor).  Likewise, its still "approached" if they said, "Hey, if you bring us $15,000,000, we have an open seat."  So, while it may seem like the other teams with open seats are both (1) too good for Rossi and (2) considering options much better than Rossi, there is no harm for a team like Renault that still lacks financial support to put out a call to Rossi and ask him what kind of backing he might have...and he'll tell them, "None," and they'll move on down the list...

...but you tell the media you were "approached" so that you have bargaining power to get a better deal in IndyCar (e.g., Honda really likes him, and so he'll try to get Honda to pay him a salary to drive for the Andretti Honda team) or to try to get your name back in the F1 media so teams there don't forget about you.

Finally, the fact Rossi chose to drive for a backmarking IndyCar team instead of a backmarking F1 team for the rest of the year tells a lot.  If you have a race seat in 2017 for F1, you absolutely want to get back into an F1 race seat for the end of 2016 to get back to those circuits and reacclimated to those cars.  That he decided not to tells me he (1) has no good F1 options (again, he was approached by Manor and Renault, and both approached him with a, "pay us and you can race" deal that he can't afford) and/or (2) has something really good down the line in IndyCar (extremely unlikely that this has happened, but I think if Penske offered him the seat of the departing Juan Pablo Montoya, he'd let F1 go).

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Yea, I was wondering if he was "approached" by Renault.

Anyhow, there is a lot of good young drivers out there (Vandoorne, Werhlien, Nasr, etc.)....the market does seem a little tight to get into. I would be surprised if he was with any team in F1 besides Manor. Manor or Indy Car racing (where you can actually win a race or two)? Suspect that is the trade-off.

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Rumor from Finnish Press is that Bottas has offers from both Williams and Renault. 

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Go to Renault if I was him, with the ground that engine is making and new regs plus the money they will pour in, better place than Williams ATM. It's the closest he will get to any "factory" drive ATM.

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If an old saying "where is smoke there is fire" hold a pint of truth, as mulled in media, than Bottas is not really appreciated at Williams, and in his shoes, I would move out. Staying would be a choice of necessity, because nothing else was available. Williams has really checkered history with their drivers. Never really cared for their poilitics.

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Maybe this was part of a new Mercedes engine deal for next season? Having to Mercedes drivers in NOW irespective of what werhlein does next season, means they can get more of a "strangle hold" on the sport. Or maybe it's to convince Mercedes of a new engine deal?

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I feel like I missed something about Bottas.  Where has it been indicated that Williams want to replace him?  All I've seen is that Williams has a list of drivers other than Button for replacing Massa, not that Williams is trying to hire Button and another driver.  I'd think if Bottas leaves, it's because Bottas thought Renault would be a better team long-term.

Ocon will be interesting.  He won the F3 championship against Verstappen.  He equaled Verstappen's nine race wins that year and was far more consistent.  He also won the GP3 title, but only won one race—his ten second-place finishes (nine of which came in a row) clinched it.

On the other hand, he's been absolutely horrible in DTM.  While he is a rookie, and while Mercedes is easily the weakest manufacturer in DTM, it's not been impressive.  In fact, Ocon is the absolute worst Mercedes driver this year, ranked 23rd of 25 (with the 25th having only run one race).  Mercedes has three wins from three drivers this year; Ocon has scored points once in ten races, from P9.

Then again, Ocon is a rookie right out of F3/GP3 coming into the different DTM cars.  Wehrlein was in the same boat in 2013, and he scored points in three of his first ten races, each from P10.  Wehrlein obviously developed into a DTM champion by 2015, and is now here in F1.

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1 hour ago, Massa said:

I feel like I missed something about Bottas.  Where has it been indicated that Williams want to replace him?  All I've seen is that Williams has a list of drivers other than Button for replacing Massa, not that Williams is trying to hire Button and another driver.  I'd think if Bottas leaves, it's because Bottas thought Renault would be a better team long-term.

Ocon will be interesting.  He won the F3 championship against Verstappen.  He equaled Verstappen's nine race wins that year and was far more consistent.  He also won the GP3 title, but only won one race—his ten second-place finishes (nine of which came in a row) clinched it.

On the other hand, he's been absolutely horrible in DTM.  While he is a rookie, and while Mercedes is easily the weakest manufacturer in DTM, it's not been impressive.  In fact, Ocon is the absolute worst Mercedes driver this year, ranked 23rd of 25 (with the 25th having only run one race).  Mercedes has three wins from three drivers this year; Ocon has scored points once in ten races, from P9.

Then again, Ocon is a rookie right out of F3/GP3 coming into the different DTM cars.  Wehrlein was in the same boat in 2013, and he scored points in three of his first ten races, each from P10.  Wehrlein obviously developed into a DTM champion by 2015, and is now here in F1.

Reports suggest that Williams is considering a full shake-up of its current driver lineup for 2017, with development driver Lance Stroll’s billionaire father said to have put together $35 million in backing.

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Looks like Kvyat is safe at Toro Rosso next year. I don't think he had a place to go to otherwise. If I were him though, I would be looking for a ride outside of Red Bull for 2018.

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I do not recall reading any interview in which Dr. Marko would acknowledge him for 2017 season. Tost was quoted that he would not mind if Kvyat stays, but I am not really sure that he has a final say about it.

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Poor kvyat, he's a broken man, he feels like he's stuck in a corner while others are poking him with sticks. The ever vibrant Russian is now down and you get the sense he feels like he can't trust anyone and this will be affecting his ability to concentrate on the task at hand massively. You look at the picture in hindsight and he greatly didn't do anything wrong at all. One mistake and gone.

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He'll be there as him and his engineer have been suposidly confirmed.

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