Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
I think I prefer the numbers allocated in team order allocated
I don't. Those Bernie-spec numbers were impossible to remember as they changed every season. "Penalty for #14", who's #14?! Well as it turns out it's David Coulthard in the Red Bull - Cosworth.
In Australia a drivers number was retired after his death, 05 belonging to Peter Brock.
It wasn't really retired. 05 and 5 were never both permitted on the same entry list as far as I know. Glenn Seton took over regular 5 after Brock's first touring car retirement. Regular 5 is still used by the ex-Seton team to this day.
Actually let me check, 05 was used by Peter Brock paired with Jason Plato in the 2004 Bathurst 1000. At that race, the Glenn Seton Racing cars carried numbers 5 (Alain Menu/Adam Macrow) and 6 (Craig Lowndes/Glenn Seton), so indeed both 05 and 5 were indeed used in the same race. My mistake.
I think retiring a number is ok if a driver has died racing and is associated with the number, or if a driver is successful and really associated with a certain number like 44 for Hamilton or maybe 14 for Alonso. In MotoGP they retired the number 46 when Rossi retired.
Kimi's 7 didn't mean anything to him, it was just the number he had the previous year so why change it? . Latifi runs no 6 and as far as I know Rosberg is fine with that. I think Vettel runs 5 because he's a big Mansell fan and it was his tribute to carry on the number.
Drivers still associate with their number from before the personal number system, Mansell 5, Button 22, I associate Damon Hill more with the number 0 he ran in 1993 than the 5 he ran in 1996 when he won. Going the other way, I still associate 27 and 28 with Ferrari, if Hulkenberg had ever got a Ferrari drive that would have been perfect .
Ironically, Senna had 27 on his McLaren when he won the 1990 title because Prost had taken the number 1 with him to Ferrari after winning the 89 title with McLaren. One of the vagaries of the old system was that the numbers went with the team except for #1 which went with the champion (and thus #2 went with his team mate).
Few drivers were associated with a number prior to the fairly recent change to allow them to run a chosen number, so retiring a number makes little sense because, in reality, many of the low numbers have been used by many drivers over the years. Latifi uses 6. If he leaves F1, do we retire the number? Why? Keke Rosberg used 6 in 1982 when he won the title so perhaps it's more Keke's number than Latifi's.
And if one decides to only retire ~"special" numbers, how do you define "special"? Multiple titles e.g. Lewis? Dying during a race e.g. Jules? Perhaps just longevity e.g. say Latifi does another 10 seasons, do we then retire #6 as it's "his" number?
Go back to the old days, and the driver's numbers changed from race to race. In 1963, for example, Jim Clark had the numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 18 during the season. Clark is definitely more notable than, for example, Ricciardo (#3), Norris (#4), Latifi (#6), Stroll (#18). Even the winner of the previous year's title didn't get to keep his number 1 through the season - G. Hill had won the year before (1962), for example, and was only allocated #1 three or four times in 1963.
The only reason for having consistent numbers these days is the HALO. It prevents the driver's distinctive helmet being easily seen by spectators - back in the day spectators didn't need numbers because the helmets were all individual. You could tell Senna from Prost in the McLaren, for example, by the helmet alone.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
I think it was a very clever move to go from "numbers for a team" to number for drivers. This is extra an extra and free marketing tool in essence. If you see a 46 somewhere, you think Rossi and MotoGP, 34: Schwantz, 23: Jordan and NBA. All these people invested themselves into their number, just like for instance Hamilton does now. 44 is Hamilton and F1. He uses it other projects and branding. As just a good partner, F1 should retire 44 when Hamilton calls it quits. He invested a lot in this number and F1 is benefiting from this investment.
Oh numbers talk again. I do appreciate why formula 1 wanted to allow driver numbers, but I still miss the days of team numbers. I preferred the 74 to 95 system, but I think the 96 to 13 was probably the best system. I can’t believe formula 1 gave that up. It just felt like the teams gave away their power to the drivers. It meant each year’s marketing paraphernalia belonged to that year. I really appreciated the year being tied to 2 numbers per team. Daniel and Lando being 3&4 brought me some joy. Apart from that, the current system; I couldn’t care less about…
. Latifi runs no 6 and as far as I know Rosberg is fine with that. I think Vettel runs 5 because he's a big Mansell fan and it was his tribute to carry on the number. 
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