MJB Posted December 3, 2016 Report Share Posted December 3, 2016 Except he's already beaten Nico to two titles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted December 11, 2016 Author Admin Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Williams have rejected Mercedes' first offer for Bottas. Apparently, if they don't get Bottas, it's probably going to be Sainz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 I hope Williams hold firm. It's all well and good offering a big reduction on the engines but if they had to run Wehrlein and Stroll it's a very inexperienced line-up and they'll want to get every bit of performance they can out of the car with the new regs. Bottas would be a superb option for Mercedes, much better than Sainz or Wehrlein. One of them should chuck a small island at Button just to keep him around, I'd love that so much . Or even Di Resta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 Bring back Fisichella :@ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted December 11, 2016 Author Admin Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 1 hour ago, MDK said: Bring back Fisichella :@ Or drag Panis out of ice racing? I do agree with @Adam . Sainz would be a fine choice. Would open up a space for Gasly too at STR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDK Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 1 minute ago, Lineklaus said: Or drag Panis out of ice racing? Daddy or Jnr? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 I mean, all joking aside, why wouldn't William put di Resta in as Bottas' replacement? I don't massively rate him and he's not on Bottas' level, certainly, but he had a bit of a career revival back in DTM this year at least. Would be a yardstick against Stroll anyway. Plenty of F1 experience too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted December 11, 2016 Report Share Posted December 11, 2016 In other interesting news, Paddy Lowe looks set to leave Mercedes and join Williams, whilst the currently unemployed James Allison will replace him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonM Posted December 12, 2016 Report Share Posted December 12, 2016 13 hours ago, Katsuya loves Oslo said: I mean, all joking aside, why wouldn't William put di Resta in as Bottas' replacement? I don't massively rate him and he's not on Bottas' level, certainly, but he had a bit of a career revival back in DTM this year at least. Would be a yardstick against Stroll anyway. Plenty of F1 experience too. Yeah, reports about Williams wanting to hold on to Bottas are mostly related to their Martini sponsorsing. With Martini not wanting two 'kids' championing a brand that's trying to hit an older 'more refined' demographic. Valtteri is only 27 himself, but his level headed calm personality is something that would undoubtedly work in Martini's favour. But like Kats said, Williams could take the deal and not neccesarily go with Wehrlein next to Stroll. There are a bunch of established names that could possibly return to F1, if only on a year-to-year deal. Examples being, Jean-Eric Vergne, Sebastian Buemi (dominates FE), Adrian Sutil (classy solid driver), Kamui Kobayashi, Andre Lotterer, Paul di Resta (current reserve), Gutierrez (Maybe a tad too youngish), or even Van Der Garde who seems to be the poster boy of distinguished eligible gentleman. Or at an even bigger stretch, Pastor Maldonado. Going back even further than those, you could even go with a guy like Bruno Senna to lock down that rabid Brazilian fandom by sporting the only Brazilian on the grid (if Nasr doesnt return). And Williams' mentality has always been that the car is infinitely more important than the guy driving it, and if you get a good car, the results will follow even with average drivers. With the Mercedes deal, they could save a lot of money they need, and focus on getting the car and the team to where it needs to be, whilst building Stroll up as their next #1 guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 12, 2016 Report Share Posted December 12, 2016 1 hour ago, Jasonmufc said: Yeah, reports about Williams wanting to hold on to Bottas are mostly related to their Martini sponsorsing. With Martini not wanting two 'kids' championing a brand that's trying to hit an older 'more refined' demographic. Valtteri is only 27 himself, but his level headed calm personality is something that would undoubtedly work in Martini's favour. But like Kats said, Williams could take the deal and not neccesarily go with Wehrlein next to Stroll. There are a bunch of established names that could possibly return to F1, if only on a year-to-year deal. Examples being, Jean-Eric Vergne, Sebastian Buemi (dominates FE), Adrian Sutil (classy solid driver), Kamui Kobayashi, Andre Lotterer, Paul di Resta (current reserve), Gutierrez (Maybe a tad too youngish), or even Van Der Garde who seems to be the poster boy of distinguished eligible gentleman. Or at an even bigger stretch, Pastor Maldonado. Going back even further than those, you could even go with a guy like Bruno Senna to lock down that rabid Brazilian fandom by sporting the only Brazilian on the grid (if Nasr doesnt return). And Williams' mentality has always been that the car is infinitely more important than the guy driving it, and if you get a good car, the results will follow even with average drivers. With the Mercedes deal, they could save a lot of money they need, and focus on getting the car and the team to where it needs to be, whilst building Stroll up as their next #1 guy. Buemi and JEV are still under 30. Such a shame that guys so relatively young are now considered old news in F1 terms. Also Sutil would be an interesting choice considering he got done for assault whilst drunk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 12, 2016 Report Share Posted December 12, 2016 http://www.formula1.com/en/video/2016/12/8-Bit_F1_2016_Season_Review.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted December 13, 2016 Author Admin Report Share Posted December 13, 2016 Alonso has committed to McLaren. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 15, 2016 Report Share Posted December 15, 2016 Reportedly Massa is now in talks to come back for another year, so that could be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted December 15, 2016 Author Admin Report Share Posted December 15, 2016 Man, I really hope he doesn't. I think he was past his best years, finished on 250 grand prix which is a nice round figure () but most of all, he got that amazing send-off walking down the Interlagos pitlane. You can't recreate that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 15, 2016 Report Share Posted December 15, 2016 10 hours ago, Lineklaus said: Man, I really hope he doesn't. I think he was past his best years, finished on 250 grand prix which is a nice round figure () but most of all, he got that amazing send-off walking down the Interlagos pitlane. You can't recreate that. Latest news seems to suggest that it's more or less a done deal. di Resta unlikely to be promoted anyway, and the Martini deal requires a 25+ driver. Massa didn't want to retire particularly either, only after they made it clear to him it would be Bottas/Stroll in 2017. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonM Posted December 17, 2016 Report Share Posted December 17, 2016 Yeah, according to rumours Williams is offering Massa 6 million to return for one last season with Bottas being all but confirmed to go to Mercedes. Which is no doubt due to Martini's demands for an older driver being part of the team. Although after Massa's terrible season, I'd personally feel that a guy like di Resta couldn't really do worse than him, and would probably bring a lot more desire to impress with him. But I am pretty sure the reason di Resta isn't going to be the guy is because at Force India he's shown himself to be a terrible PR guy, always slagging off the team in some way or the other when he was on the mic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted December 18, 2016 Report Share Posted December 18, 2016 Liberty apparently want to try a budget cap again. Because that's gone so well every time it's been suggested before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted December 20, 2016 Author Admin Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 Pat Symonds is leaving Williams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted December 20, 2016 Report Share Posted December 20, 2016 Looks like the Bottas-Mercedes/Massa-Williams deal is as good as done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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