Scuderia Toro Rosso has announced that Carlos Sainz will join the team with immediate effect. It means that our driver line-up for the 2015 season is now established as Max Verstappen and Carlo Sainz.
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.
SectorOne wrote:Magnussen needs to beat Button in points first and foremost. Why on earth would you get rid of the guy that bags more points then the other?
That´s handicapping yourself for no reason. Instead you wait until Mag beats Button regularly, then you get rid of Button because at that point he´s overpaid, dead weight.
Is it possible like in football to loan out a player/driver? For instance Mclaren will loan out Magnussen to Force India for a season with an option for FI to sign Magnussen after 2015 for example.
Benefits:
- Mclaren save money, because they don't have to pay his salary and the costs that goes with managing Magnussen.
- FI get's a driver with experience to drive their car with an option of signing them.
Cam wrote:Personally, Ferrari's shakeup should go deep and far. Two new drivers. One young brash cocky SOB who's got nothing to loose and everything to prove, side by side with a solid performer who understands setup, won't waste time screaming into the radio and isn't hungup on a WDC..
Oh yeah, let's party like it's 1992. How well did it work out with Alesi and Berger, again? They won, what, 3 races together in 5 years? IMHO, the only reason Ferrari may have to fire Alonso is if he's become toxic, and seriously inducing underperformance of his teammates (engineers and mechanics, not just Kimi).
I am not amazed by F1 cars in Monaco. I want to see them driving in the A8 highway: Variable radius corners, negative banking, and extreme narrowings that Tilke has never dreamed off. Oh, yes, and "beautiful" weather tops it all.
"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." Niels Bohr
ESPImperium wrote:People suggesting I'm mad for putting GRO at McLaren, but my theory is this; He is managed by Boullier, and has done good as a #2 to RAI and would be a good base line for ALO at McLaren, however stronger than he was when ALO/GRO paired for 7 races at the end of 2009. Also GRO isn't the first lap nutcase he was, he is a far better driver now. I think he is what Mclaren need with Alonso, a strong competent driver who can run in the upper end of the grid to take points off off of Rivals of Alonso and also contribute significantly toward the constructors title.
Looking at it now, Ferrari will be looking at a 27 - HUL/17 - BIA pairing as RAI looks to be starting to take a hissy fit and may be paid like 2010 to sit at home for €20m a season. ALO is earning €24m, which would be nicely split between HUL/BIA.
Lotus will have Nasr and his €20m+ from Brazil, and a driver who can bring serious money as well as MAL is gone from what i am hearing from South America as PDVSA will be done with Motorsport at the end of this year. Maybes a driver like Van Der Garde who can bring money will be involved?
I will also be called nuts for saying Simona De Silvestro will take GUT seat at Sauber, she has one more test in the C31 in the summer break at Barcelona i think, that will lead to a drive at the end of the year at Abu Dhabi for one or two days of that test. Im thinking Sutil may just be safe for one more season.
I think there will be a general pardagram shift in the grid for 2015 again, lets see what happens as i think the fun is just about to start in the next few weeks.
I kind off agree i mean Grosjean could do well in McLaren he has skill and speed and money... What more could you want?!
SectorOne wrote:
Well first of all i have to thank you for reading my response and copied some of it from the MotoGP thread
Well, two can play the name calling game champ.
SectorOne wrote:
You needed Button to figure that out? this was clear long before Button even stepped into Formula 1.
And also, what does that say about Button? You pretty much degraded him in one sentence without knowing it.
Basically what you are saying is that if Button can, anyone can given the right car.
Not sure that´s the highest form of flattery.
I´m not saying Alonso transcends the car, i´m saying he can handle cars Button wish he could handle.
bhall wrote:And that's why it's always the car.
I might disagree with bhall on a lot of things - even intentionally go against him in debates, when I agree with him, but he said it perfectly. Whole thread on the subject. Knock yourself out.
I think Mclaren should focus on the car and worry less about the drivers, they have good drivers but they have not produced a car capable of winning the WDC for a long time (2012 reliability in the hands of Lewis was it's crux). There are many drivers who can win a championship in a good car, and I am certain that Mag and Button are capable - but the simple fact is they don't have the car.
Mclaren should maintain their current driver lineup, keep Button, reduce his salary if you have strong feelings, and pump that money into development. They need to stop worrying about the drivers, and worry more about the car.
If you produce the right car, the championships will follow.
agreed. You could just see the championship slip away from Hamilton, it should have been in the bag. How different it would have made the RBR domination. Instead, technical issues and team errors killed any prospect. Remember that cooler a team member left in the sidepod of Button in Monaco?
The repetitive wheelnut problems both for hamilton and button?
RBR setting pitstop errors and Mclaren sometimes having the longest pit stops ever?
In any case, mclaren dropped the ball for the past 3 years hugely. I don't know where it started, what it started, and how,
but it should be fixed. My guess would be the Mercedes - stepback. Since the ties with mercedes slowly faded and faded,
results did too. Ron Dennis back seemed like improvement, and, remembering the first race, did improve, but -
still doesn't see too much of it now.
I'm inclined to expect a much more focused 2015 and 2016 for Mclaren, because of the Honda partnership. But if they want that, then everybody needs to dive in to make it work. I think that's what button responded when he got called out by Dennis needing to 'do better'. I've got the feeling there's work being done at Mclaren, but as a grey office routine. To extremes, redbull seemed like everybody went in like a bull (no pun intended) to make an effort. I feel like Mclaren's more like everybody just sitting back in the office chair and drinking coffee because 'everybody's doing it.'
While the thing is - everybody should be running their *ss off.
Motivation. Frankly, Button seems to have lost it. Paired with Hamilton he still seemed hungry for performance, but nowadays, he's like he just couldn't care less. His body pose when getting interviews, his reactions to questions, like "yeah whatever". Not arrogant, just indifferent.
A shame, because Button is a class act when he's got the right material.
And that Mclaren hasn't been the right material for the past 3 years.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
lio007 wrote:Are there any rumors about "management-staff"?
e.g. Stefano Domenicali, Martin Whitmarsh, Bob Bell, replacement for Adrian Newey,...
Not yet, but I feel there could be a big shuffle coming, particularly at Ferrari. I think Marco M really means business. And James Alison is making all the right noises about creativity etc
If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari.
Thunders wrote:So there's now confirmed 1 Insane Person at McLaren....
It may mean they are not expecting to lead and lose 20 s advantage during re-starts Alonso I think didn't mind either.
Is McLaren now Whiting's favourite team co-creating rules? Firstly standing re-starts, although I still think it was Ecclestone's idea and Whiting is just taking the blame , and now they are the first to remove FRIC and yap about it. Big team so dedicated to cost-cutting, so touching.
Like i said in the FRIC Thread, Merc and RB were reported to drive without FRICS days ago, McLaren is just the first Team to officially confirm it. So i have my doubts it roots from Macca. Also ith their Honda Money and Whitmarsh gone i don't think they care about cost cutting at all.
Gentlemen, this topic is about the silly season, meaning that we talk and share rumours and confirmations of driver moves across teams.
This is NOT the place to make idiotic claims about who we think is the best driver, and who sucks (although I cannot believe any sane mind here can think any F1 driver is crap).
A bunch of posts have been properly moved to the notorious fanboy yin-yang thread.
Rosberg is going to stay at Merc for at least 3 more seasons according to Bild!
I couldn't find an article in English or an official confirmation by Merc so far.
The Bild article says he replaced his previous contract, that ran till end of 2015 with an option for 2016 by a new contract till the end of 2017 with options, that are not disclosed. He'll get 55 million € for the three seasons 2015-2017. The contract was signed on Monday.
