It was written in the stars, or rather the rumourmill, and today, Renault F1 has confirmed that Fernando Alonso will return to the team with which he won his two F1 World Championships with.
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I'd imagine they have something very quick on standby in case he is only cleared Thursday or Friday. As there's nothing riding on the race for him he can probably even forego friday practice if necessary.
Does he have to be declared as the driver before Friday? Not sure whether they can just decide to substitute him back in on Saturday morning.
Genuinely don’t know! I’m very hazy on the rules for that actually. I was musing really, I suppose.
I understand that the rule is you have to run in one practice session to race. This includes qualifying as it is technically "qualifying practice" in the rules.
Does he have to be declared as the driver before Friday? Not sure whether they can just decide to substitute him back in on Saturday morning.
Genuinely don’t know! I’m very hazy on the rules for that actually. I was musing really, I suppose.
I understand that the rule is you have to run in one practice session to race. This includes qualifying as it is technically "qualifying practice" in the rules.
Ah interesting! Thanks. So they could potentially get him in the car for qualifying only and it would still be enough. Then use his car for some testing (if there's anything to test) in the FP sessions with another driver.
If I owned a team I wouldn't dare to put two rookies in it
Jaguar put Webber and Pizzonia in. It saved them a lot of money compared to Irvine's salary, and arguably made little difference to Jaguar's on-track performance.
Why Jaguar didn't keep de la Rosa, who knows? But the near-rookie plus rookie lineup really didn't cause any issues.
Sauber in 2001 had Kimi and Heidfeld, Nick with one season in F1 and Kimi a rookie and they managed to be #4 in WCC. So sometimes it works out, but with Perez and Hulk available (but maybe not keen in joining Haas) I sure would have liked to have one of them and one rookie. But I'm not a team manager so what do I know about these things?
So I said so many times RedBull would keep Albon.... But wow what a race from Perez. However it's up to only 2 people who takes that seat. If they don't take Perez I think RedBull Will miss on a great driver. Max with Perez next to him could win the Championship. I dont doubt that Perez is a great driver. But I do doubt that RedBull has the balls to take Perez.
My crystal ball again. This season isn't over for the silly season.
Id suggest Hamilton won't be ready for next weekend, so George gets a second stab at it next weekend, Jack Aitken will get a second stab as well.
Big brain time... Hamilton and Russell next year at Mercedes. George on a small ~€8m contract, Hamilton will see his pay reduced from the ~$55m deal he is wanting down to the $35m-$40m mark. Bottas will go back to Williams id suggest, Mercedes will pay his wages, and a sizeable deduction in Williams bill.
As for Sergio, Alex and the Red Bull second seat. Red Bull have some serious questions, they now have a proven race winner, a finished article, a driver who can point out what's actually wrong, then give Alex the second seat?? Im thinking Helmut Marko is going to change his mind, I'm thinking Sergio will now have some contact, Alex is going to be benched for next year, act as the reserve at every race. Same way Danil will be at Alpha Tauri with Buemi as the reserve for both.
As ive said, COVID hasn't gone, it won't be gone for 2021, the F1 paddock still won't have a F1 Paddock Club in it as they won't want bubbles crossed. F1 isn't going to go to Pfizer and ask for enough doses for10,000 folk that get the show on the road, as they will want to supply governments millions of doses. Teams are going to still have reserve drivers. I think that next years season will be blighted with COVID+ tests with team personnel from drivers ton pit crews. I think drivers like Magnussen, Aitken, Fitapaldi, Vandoorne, Buemi, Kvijat and some others. If 3 drivers in 20 can catch it in 17 races, and with people getting a Covid Malaise next year, it's only fair to suggest we will have more drivers with a COVID+ outlook.
My crystal ball again. This season isn't over for the silly season.
Id suggest Hamilton won't be ready for next weekend, so George gets a second stab at it next weekend, Jack Aitken will get a second stab as well.
Big brain time... Hamilton and Russell next year at Mercedes. George on a small ~€8m contract, Hamilton will see his pay reduced from the ~$55m deal he is wanting down to the $35m-$40m mark. Bottas will go back to Williams id suggest, Mercedes will pay his wages, and a sizeable deduction in Williams bill.
As for Sergio, Alex and the Red Bull second seat. Red Bull have some serious questions, they now have a proven race winner, a finished article, a driver who can point out what's actually wrong, then give Alex the second seat?? Im thinking Helmut Marko is going to change his mind, I'm thinking Sergio will now have some contact, Alex is going to be benched for next year, act as the reserve at every race. Same way Danil will be at Alpha Tauri with Buemi as the reserve for both.
As ive said, COVID hasn't gone, it won't be gone for 2021, the F1 paddock still won't have a F1 Paddock Club in it as they won't want bubbles crossed. F1 isn't going to go to Pfizer and ask for enough doses for10,000 folk that get the show on the road, as they will want to supply governments millions of doses. Teams are going to still have reserve drivers. I think that next years season will be blighted with COVID+ tests with team personnel from drivers ton pit crews. I think drivers like Magnussen, Aitken, Fitapaldi, Vandoorne, Buemi, Kvijat and some others. If 3 drivers in 20 can catch it in 17 races, and with people getting a Covid Malaise next year, it's only fair to suggest we will have more drivers with a COVID+ outlook.
I still feel there's life in this silly season.
I suspect ti would be too much for every one to swap for next year, but I would not be surprised to see George getting a few practice sessions in the Merc.
Bottas has a contract, which he would not really want to surrender with the options he would have. Williams have a contract and wil not release George, well, not without a few million waved in their direction anyway .
Had this been last year there may have been several options, such as Bottas going to the pink Mercs, but there is no seat Bottas would even consider free, so I can not see him giving up his drive.
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.
I'm a big Alonso fan, but I'm not super-enthusiastic about his 2021 Renault return. I'd prefer to see Checo there, but his history with Ocon isn't particularly great...
Perez to RedBull for 2021, Albon gets a huge boot from Marko back to Thailand.
Tsunoda get the AT seat.
Unfortunately i see no possibility where Bottas will not drive for Merc in 2021 due to his contract.
I also very much doubt that Mercedes is willing to pay enough to 'buy off' Bottas' seat so they can get Russell in,
despite it being something i'd really love to see. They'd not only have to pay Bottas what Bottas likely would manage to get in the season by racing,
then add some on top of that as compensation, but then they'd most certainly lose Wihuri as a sponsor aswell.
And it's still likely Bottas would be 'more' then enough to get Mercedes to be WCC for 2021 anyway,
and Hamilton is their guarantee to get the WDC in the bag too.
However, despite it being most reasonable to believe Hamilton will sign for 2021 with Mercedes anyway,
there's still the shock possibility that Hamilton calls it quits, which would lead Russell to get his seat for 2021.
Who knows.
"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"
Newly crowned WDC was left without a seat for 1997 until Arrows took pity on him
7xWDC retired to make room for new talent
Highly regarded driver was paid to sit out the remainder of his contract in 2010
And none of those were really the drivers choice
Yep! "Williams Racing is proud to announce Valterri Bottas driver for the 2021 season." "Mercedes GP Petronas is proud to annouce George Russell as driver for the 2021 season."
As ive said, COVID hasn't gone, it won't be gone for 2021, the F1 paddock still won't have a F1 Paddock Club in it as they won't want bubbles crossed. F1 isn't going to go to Pfizer and ask for enough doses for10,000 folk that get the show on the road, as they will want to supply governments millions of doses. Teams are going to still have reserve drivers. I think that next years season will be blighted with COVID+ tests with team personnel from drivers ton pit crews. I think drivers like Magnussen, Aitken, Fitapaldi, Vandoorne, Buemi, Kvijat and some others. If 3 drivers in 20 can catch it in 17 races, and with people getting a Covid Malaise next year, it's only fair to suggest we will have more drivers with a COVID+ outlook.
I still feel there's life in this silly season.
I think you're absolutely right that Covid will affect next season. I've read quite a few articles from experts who suggest it will be 2022 at the earliest before the global situation starts to settle even though individual countries may well be getting back to normal by mid to late 2021.
So yeah, while we may have fans back at more races next season, I strongly suspect the Paddock will still be made up of the same bubble system as this season.
Favourite driver: Lando Norris
Favourite team: McLaren
Turned down the chance to meet Vettel at Silverstone in 2007. He was a test driver at the time and I didn't think it was worth queuing!! 🤦🏻♂️
