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.
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GPR-A wrote:
The rumours also indicate that the forthcoming F1 entrant Haas, which is being widely referred to as a Ferrari B-team, could house Raikkonen next year, as the Finn is pushing for the 2016 ‘option’ in his contract to be signed.
Now that's the thing says its out of Reality in my view. If Ferrari did indeed Signed Bottas then why kimi will continue in F1, He will retire very soon. Haas need a young driver to stay to guide the team for a few years.
George-Jung wrote:Why not park Bottas @Haas? and than when the 2nd seat @Ferrari comes available they can slot Bottas in?
2nd Seat @Ferrari is in fact being made available. Mercedes is chasing Hamilton to sign the contract, because he is IMPORTANT to them. Last year, McLaren kept both their drivers on notice, because they were looking for THE BEST available in the market. Ferrari is doing a McLaren with Kimi, may be they don't see Kimi in the GRAND scheme of things for the future.
Kimi is an expansive and a bit old driver that may not be good enough to be in the same level of his team-mate.
So, Ferrari already have a championship-winner for many year ahead, they could find a younger, cheaper and easier driver to them, like Bottas, for example.
Of course Kimi is great, but I think Ferrari can get similar results with a much younger and cheaper driver. And, of course, a young driver is easier to obey team rules. What do you think would be Kimi's reaction to "Sebastian is faster than you"?
George-Jung wrote:Why not park Bottas @Haas? and than when the 2nd seat @Ferrari comes available they can slot Bottas in?
?? Who would park him there and why? Why would he allow to be parked there instead of driving for Williams? Seat is available.
Weird that those rumours are so early, after only four races and I don't mean that from perspective of the current Ferrari line-up, it would still be 2 seasons too late. Timing and driver choice - maybe it's another sign of new Ferrari-Mercedes friendship.
I read that rather with a grain of salt and tactics.
Ferrari has the option to keep Kimi for 2016. However, it seemed they're not too pleased with him. Don't ask me why because compared to last year he's doing great. There could be a variety of reasons, from simply deciding the entire Ferrari lineup must be changed [Raikkonen was the only one not to get 'axed'], to losing confidence in his future and motivation due to having a kiddo and all sorts of.
either way, that's not really important.
Thing is, they can find a way to 'easily' get rid of Kimi if they wish.
There is the option to keep Kimi, yes. Probably, there are some contractual agreements there too in the form of performance clauses. Read it like this; If kimi underperforms, they can boot him withouy saying in it. If he performs well, they can keep him [can't they always?] but, there's the big possibility the contract states that if Kimi performs 'within' a certain 'window', Ferrari is contractually bound to keep him = they MUST keep him.
Here's where it becomes interesting; IF Ferrari really has such a nifty agreement with Haas, then Ferrari can simply dump Kimi @ HAAS because 'officialy', HAAS is a Ferrari-team and thus Ferrari keeps their contract agreement with Kimster yet free up a seat at the real scuderia and house the driver they want.
Like, for example, Hamilton. [Or bottas for that matter].
They even can get kimi out easier like this becuase there's no way kimi will drive @ haas so he'll himself chooses to say bye-bye. I find it thoroughly interesting that Arrivabene stated he sees kimi laughing, then kimi improves his performance to sort of 'guarantee himself' of the seat for 2016 [as kimi seems to desire], yet Arrivabene seems to keep him at bay/don't promise him anything for 2016.
Ask me, and i say it's between this:
Ferrari really wants Hamilton and Hamilton wants to go to Ferrari but they haven't finalised everything. To house hamilton, somebody has to go; that'll be Kimi. So no matter how good Kimi performance, they won't promise him the 2016
as long as there is a chance Lewis will fill that seat.
I think of this as the biggest possibility yet.
Either that, or:
Ferrari 'simply' has decided Kimi has to go, end of story for him, no matter how he performs.
Who would replace Kimi if he needs to go in that scenario? Good question, i don't know. I would still feel like we could see Hamilton end up there. Bottas seems promising and could be the 'number 2 driver' of choice that Ferrari would like to see [ ala Schumi-Barrichello]. That's the only way i can see Bottas there, otherwise it makes little sense.
There's no way Mercedes plays a 'buddy' game with Ferrari and backing it up with the theory of Bottas going there, that's just rediculous. At most it would be a game of dumping Bottas there to close the door for Lewis to sneak in there and leave Lewis no option but to stay @ Mercedes. Vettel surely isn't going anywhere.
so again; Kimi probably will be kept 'at bay' as long as Hamilton has not signed again at Mercedes. The moment Hamilton decides or signs to stay with Merc, Kimi will be promised to stay 2016.
"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"
IF Hamilton leaves Mercedes to go to Ferrari then Kimi would most likely retire or move elsewhere*
That leaves a spot open at Mercedes for Bottas from Williams (connection from Mercedes power units), who would be able to then have Wehrlein drive the Williams alongside Massa (who may retire soon anyway)
*OR Kimi could have the option to go to Williams if the spot is open and he is up for it.
I doubt Ferrari will be able to manage the aspiration of 2 World Champions. Hamilton to Ferrari is out of question whereas Bothas looks like a good partner for Vettel at Ferrari. Long way to go so till that time let the fun of speculations go on.
It's somewhat interesting that we're back to "Hamilton to Ferrari in 2016" rumours when you think that back in 2011/2012 the exact same date was being speculated, with Hamilton replacing Alonso.
Obviously the players have changed, but the courting process began many years ago...
wickedz50 wrote:I doubt Ferrari will be able to manage the aspiration of 2 World Champions. Hamilton to Ferrari is out of question whereas Bothas looks like a good partner for Vettel at Ferrari. Long way to go so till that time let the fun of speculations go on.
They managed it just fine with Massa and Raikkonen, with Alonso it managed itself most of the time with performance difference, now they hate team orders so I don't expect any problems. Better one wins like at Mercedes and team results come first, right?
Why would this situation be any different in terms of aspirations? Bottas has a lot to prove and his detached from results hype is annoying but if they hire him (or someone else) it should be for the same reason they'd hire Hamilton. Unless there is other logic involved. F1 is like that: you can fail spectacularly two out of three chances for a world championship or your performance can drop like a brick with any sort of competition and everyone pretends it didn't happen as long as you get countless other opportunities. Lack of competition and politics are the major problems with driver's assessment, teams don't pay for bad choices.
Ferrari Hamilton rumours exist only because weak and chaotic mercedes management cannot sign a simple contract for a year and a driver is using negotiations as a tool to get a better position within a team.
wickedz50 wrote:I doubt Ferrari will be able to manage the aspiration of 2 World Champions. Hamilton to Ferrari is out of question whereas Bothas looks like a good partner for Vettel at Ferrari. Long way to go so till that time let the fun of speculations go on.
They managed it just fine with Massa and Raikkonen, with Alonso it managed itself most of the time with performance difference, now they hate team orders so I don't expect any problems. Better one wins like at Mercedes and team results come first, right?
Why would this situation be any different in terms of aspirations? Bottas has a lot to prove and his detached from results hype is annoying but if they hire him (or someone else) it should be for the same reason they'd hire Hamilton. Unless there is other logic involved. F1 is like that: you can fail spectacularly two out of three chances for a world championship or your performance can drop like a brick with any sort of competition and everyone pretends it didn't happen as long as you get countless other opportunities. Lack of competition and politics are the major problems with driver's assessment, teams don't pay for bad choices.
Ferrari Hamilton rumours exist only because weak and chaotic mercedes management cannot sign a simple contract for a year and a driver is using negotiations as a tool to get a better position within a team.
Also wondering if Alonso will be secretly interested in the vacant Mercedes seat if Hamilton sign up with Ferrari!! Mclaren will taken sometime to produce a championship winning car so it wont be bad to jump ship...
