Silly Season 2016/2017

[proracketeer]

Sainz or Bottas > Renault
Hulk > AMG

[NathanOlder]

If Merc want Bottas but cant get gim from a team who are officially partners, What chance have Renault got of signing him ?

Merc should open the cheque book and sign Sainz. Easily the best young driver not in a top car.
As a Lewis fan, I'd be more happy with bottas though

[krisfx]

Hamilton is overrated? How'd you get to that ?
They way I see it:

Hamilton has more wins than Senna or Prost,
He has the second best race start to win ratio, only behind Schumacher.
He has 3 titles with 2 different teams
Also the 3rd most Pole Positions and only 7 behind Schumacher's record now

Pfft....yeah, overrated

I think if Grojean has a "big team" clause, it will almost surely be for Ferrari.
I suspect he will be heading there in 2018.

I'm a fan of Lewis, but I do think the number of wins/poles etc stats are unfair because we have more races per season these days.

Starts to win ratio etc however are fair game!!

Subjective they may be, but my reasons for asserting that Lewis is overrated are as follows:
- We've seen Hamilton in perhaps the most dominant car in F1 history, and Nico Rosberg, of all drivers, gave him a run for his money
- We've seen Grojean in a back-marker car from a brand new team, and he did amazing things.

To add some stats to your handbag throwing:

Hamilton has been beaten twice by a teammate in his F1 career,

Button and Rosberg. I believe both were because of reliability (though that's not fact and I'm too busy to check). In his rookie year, Hamilton matched one of the highest regarded drivers in the same car.

On the other hand, one of the highlights of Grosjean's career was wiping out half the grid at Spa...


Overrated by opinion? Probably. Statistically? Not a chance.

[Manoah2u]

So now i'm reading that Mercedes is eyeing Bottas for just a year interim so they can sign Vettel in 2018??

LOL

[basti313]

Overrated by opinion? Probably. Statistically? Not a chance.

True. But it is not statistics that counts. Driver statistics is always dominated by the car and team politics.
In the end there are two things defining which driver drives where: Money and the opinion of the team bosses.

Ham is a good example for that. Money did not play a role for Merc when they were preparing for the rule change and Lauda saw Ham as the best driver. Furthermore they wanted the merchandising revenue, so a plus on the money side.

[hemichromis]

So now i'm reading that Mercedes is eyeing Bottas for just a year interim so they can sign Vettel in 2018??

LOL

I don't think Bottas would want to go for 1 year.

[ME4ME]

I don't think Bottas would want to go for 1 year.

Well, what more can he achieve at Williams?

"Sure it's tricky to, for example, be not able to get to Q3 in normal conditions, it's tough. And when in the race you don't have the pace, it can be pretty challenging mentally - but it's normal in Formula 1.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/botta ... ll-858533/

[namao]

Alonso to Mercedes! https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/808648340644786177

[turbof1]

Alonso to Mercedes!
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/808648340644786177

Even though the message state in big letters he wants to become world champion with McLaren-Honda.

That does mean we can now scrap him from the list.

[Thunder]

Awesome =D> =D>

[Gerhardsa]

Alonso to Mercedes!
https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/808648340644786177

Did I miss something?

[Thunder]

Yes, its called Irony.

[krisfx]

Overrated by opinion? Probably. Statistically? Not a chance.

True. But it is not statistics that counts. Driver statistics is always dominated by the car and team politics.
In the end there are two things defining which driver drives where: Money and the opinion of the team bosses.

Ham is a good example for that. Money did not play a role for Merc when they were preparing for the rule change and Lauda saw Ham as the best driver. Furthermore they wanted the merchandising revenue, so a plus on the money side.

And a teammate comparison nullifies any advantage the car has...

[Manoah2u]

Well that's AntiClimactic.
Better do it then, 'Nando.
Skipping Merc might have been your last chance.

Well damn. No Alonso.

Button please.

[basti313]

Overrated by opinion? Probably. Statistically? Not a chance.

True. But it is not statistics that counts. Driver statistics is always dominated by the car and team politics.
In the end there are two things defining which driver drives where: Money and the opinion of the team bosses.

Ham is a good example for that. Money did not play a role for Merc when they were preparing for the rule change and Lauda saw Ham as the best driver. Furthermore they wanted the merchandising revenue, so a plus on the money side.

And a teammate comparison nullifies any advantage the car has...

No. Webber vs. Vettel is the best example to show, that most teammate comparisons are nonsense.
Most drivers have quite specific needs on their car. This is why I have my doubts about all these Alo and Ham comparisons. It is well known that Alo has a very special "need" or preference on the front axle. Did Kimi look so bad because they gave him the Alonso front axle or could he just not find the correct setup with a different front? How a bout McLaren? Did Alo really get what he needed or did they put both cars on the same axle?
These are questions no one can answer and they would put more than the usual 2 tenth teammate advantage into the system.

Another one this year: Weh vs. Oco. I did not look at it too much, but what I can see is that Weh sometimes put 5 tenth on Ocon during Q. During the race Weh had a lot of first lap incidents and, thus, the statistics look equal. I think in this case the bad car marked any difference between the drivers.