Silly Season 2020/2021 (starting with silliness in 2019)

[Just_a_fan]

If you have the most successful driver of his generation in your car, he's happy and happy to stay for a while, why get the next "big thing" too? Whilst Mercedes will want a replacement for Hamilton, if the replacement isn't required for, say, three years, there's no point setting up a disharmonious environment in the team with that "young big thing" too early. Wait two years when they see who's available.

[Phil]

Because 'the best' only stays the best when he is motivated and is challenged. If he isn't, everyone gets bored eventually; more over, you don't have a good benchmark to measure his performance against. IMO Vettel would be / will become a better driver because of the challenge he is facing in Leclerc. Hamilton is as good as he is, because he has been challenged through the years by strong team-mates, starting with Alonso, continuing with Button, later Rosberg.

If you don't have that, you stagnate. Toto pretty much said the same on the "season review talk". Bottas wasn't hired to be a wingman to Lewis.

to make Leclerc WC with Ferrari ....

I think Ferrari just wants to win a WC, I very much doubt they care more for which driver achieves it for them. You'd have to be mad to think otherwise.

[Jolle]

If teams like to push you get the best driver in your car, so why isn't Verstappen beside Hamilton (they could had easily bought him out of his contract) or why isn't Leclerc there ?
of course Teams like Haas, Racing Point, etc. needs to get drivers to be as close together as possible, even RB does (that's why they demoted Gasly) but when it come shove to push, Mercedes, Ferrari and RB always wanna see a clear #1 driver and a 2nd driver that pushes the first but not to hard .... and Ricciardo and Sainz will be pushing to hard which can cost points for the #1 driver

Mercedes did not differentiate between Lewis and Rosberg, who were the preferred pair of drivers at Mercedes. Bottas was the "best of the available" options for 2017 and not the desired option as Rosberg chose to quit without a warning.

I have a feeling that, Toto has stopped chasing Verstappen, due to which both Max and Jos have been making comments about Lewis that he did not have "challenge from team mate", "more drivers could have achieved what he did", "Lewis is rattled by max" etc., in an effort to push Toto to consider pairing Max with Lewis by breaking the bank, even if Lewis continue at Mercedes for 2021/22. Probably, Toto is confident of retaining Lewis beyond 2020 and is now more focused on various options to find another talented driver alongside Lewis and is probably willing to wait for another 3 to 4 years before re-considering the Verstappen option, which is not what Verstappens want.

mhoa, well... first off, I don't think you'll need the best two racing drivers in your team for maximum result. It all depends how your team vision is. For teams like Mercedes and Ferrari, paying 30+ mln dollars for their senior drivers, the aim is of course that they have to win and everything within the team should be aimed to have Vettel or Hamilton win. The perfect "junior" driver then is a guy who had a similar driving style, can test and give feedback on Friday tire testing and is able to do stable lap times to compare with the sim. For racepace, ideal is that they are fast enough to fall within the gap of the teams (so if Ferrari is .4 behind Mercedes, the Mercedes driver shouldn't be more then .3 behind Hamilton, etc etc.

Good chance if you have a combination of Verstappen and Hamilton in one team, the team as a whole will be slower because they run two different cars instead of the whole team focused on one car.

This is all in an ideal world of course. In practice they divide a ton of work on Friday between two cars and on Saturday they start to get busy with their own race.

[Capharol]

to make Leclerc WC with Ferrari ....

I think Ferrari just wants to win a WC, I very much doubt they care more for which driver achieves it for them. You'd have to be mad to think otherwise.

but if you have 2 drivers that wants to take that title, they can get in eachothers way and a 3rd driver of another team can snatch it away in front of they're noses, rosberg/hamilton battle is a good example, they could be glad they had a dominant car so no one else could interfer in they're battle but the Barcelona '16 incident showed Toto & Mercedes clear they had to act

[Phil]

to make Leclerc WC with Ferrari ....

I think Ferrari just wants to win a WC, I very much doubt they care more for which driver achieves it for them. You'd have to be mad to think otherwise.

but if you have 2 drivers that wants to take that title, they can get in eachothers way and a 3rd driver of another team can snatch it away in front of they're noses, rosberg/hamilton battle is a good example, they could be glad they had a dominant car so no one else could interfer in they're battle but the Barcelona '16 incident showed Toto & Mercedes clear they had to act

But it’s still manageable and better to be faced with that “problem” than having one of your best drivers driving for another team. If he is driving for your team, he aint driving against you.

As for your 3rd driver being the “lucky winner” - i think if you do the math, you’ll see that it rarely works out that way. Having statistically the two best drivers still means they are likely to finish ahead of the next best team (who then ends up being a maximum 3rd). Even if you count the occasional win for the best driver of the other team, your two drivers will still end up ahead, even if they take points off of each other.

[DChemTech]

Sure, you want the quickest possible second driver, but also one that can accommodate to second place if necessary without much of a hassle. Raikonnen was perfect alongside vettel in that sense, so is Bottas. Pairing the two best but also extremely ambitious drivers together may not be the best option - see Hamilton/Alonso, Senna/Prost. That's why I don't see a Hamilton/verstappen combi happening quickly. RIC may be somewhat more accommodating if he is clearly behind and as such may be a good teammate without being a secondary driver, but I have little doubt he too could cause some friction if he's not behind, like Rosberg did. We'll see what happens. For sure the second seat at Ferrari and Mercedes will be sought after, and for sure the teams would prefer someone as fast as possible - but I am also confident they don't want that at -all- cost; they don't want a troublemaker, hence I think they won't opt for max.

[Jolle]

mhoa, well...

I am trying to understand, what value did this expression added to your post.

It was toward the comment above you that Mercedes should get Verstappen asap. I don't believe it's the right timing.

[nevill3]

I would like to see RIC in the second seat at Mercedes, He is fast, competative and would keep Lewis on his toes without too much danger of him being a disruption and costing Mercedes a championship. He would then be a great team leader once Hamilton hangs up his gloves, with one of the other Mercedes young guns at his side. Wishful thinking on my part because it would be great to see the two Mercedes drivers pushing each other once again.

[GPR-A]

mhoa, well...

I am trying to understand, what value did this expression added to your post.

It was toward the comment above you that Mercedes should get Verstappen asap. I don't believe it's the right timing.

Got it. Thanks.

[selvam_e2002]

Got a news that Alonso will be in F1 Italy race. Not sure for what purpose.

Max will not be with RB beyond 2020. He will join other team in 2021 but not sure about which team Ferrar?Mercedes?Mclaren? He won't waste further time with Honda Project.

Danial Ricardo may also move to some other team from Renault in 2021. I suspect he could end with Lecrec in Ferrari.

Vettel may move to RB in 2021, I don't think he will be with Mercedes till Hamilton driving for them.

[lio007]

Got a news that Alonso will be in F1 Italy race. Not sure for what purpose.

Max will not be with RB beyond 2020. He will join other team in 2021 but not sure about which team Ferrar?Mercedes?Mclaren? He won't waste further time with Honda Project.

Danial Ricardo may also move to some other team from Renault in 2021. I suspect he could end with Lecrec in Ferrari.

Vettel may move to RB in 2021, I don't think he will be with Mercedes till Hamilton driving for them.

May I ask wäre you've got this news?

[roon]

Got a news that Alonso will be in F1 Italy race.

In or at?

If such a thing were to occur:
Sauber w Kimi
Toro Rosso w Kvyat
Renault w Ric
Haas w Mag

[SiLo]

If you are Mercedes and Lewis wants to keep driving, why would you do anything to upset that? The man is still the class of the field and an excellent ambassador for the sport and team. I see no reason for them to bring Max into that second seat right now when they keep winning races and titles.

[roon]

...still the class of the field...

Relative to Rosberg and Bottas, yes.

...an excellent ambassador for the sport...

In what sense?

[Wouter]

Got a news that Alonso will be in F1 Italy race. Not sure for what purpose.

Max will not be with RB beyond 2020. He will join other team in 2021 but not sure about which team Ferrar?Mercedes?Mclaren? He won't waste further time with Honda Project.

Danial Ricardo may also move to some other team from Renault in 2021. I suspect he could end with Lecrec in Ferrari.

Vettel may move to RB in 2021, I don't think he will be with Mercedes till Hamilton driving for them.

May I ask wäre you've got this news?

I read it too.
Alonso said it in a Q and A on his Instagram story last week.
He will be present in Monza, Austin and another I forgot, I believe he said Japan.
And he said maybe in Abu Dhabi.