Motors Bit-Tech F1 2017 thread - Season Complete

Wouldn't surprise me, offset the drop in position in the constructors and add the fact they will have two unknowns (OK Pascal has had a season but you cant judge his pace too well)

 

As James Allen points out though, Williams having two young drivers would not go down well with their main sponsor [Martini], hard to use the drivers in promo material for your alcoholic product when neither driver is old enough to drink it [or at least not in the countries you're trying to sell it to].

 

Given Button's age, would have been a perfect opportunity for him to walk into...

Do Williams need an experienced driver to help develop the car? Two newbies would be like becoming Manor.

 

I think William's want to challenge for the constructors. They're certainly aiming to beat Force India and possibly pick up the scraps if Ferrari implode. Stoll is a huge risk being a pay driver without taking a risk over both drivers.
Merc overlooked Pascal in favour of Bottas why would Williams jump at him? Even if he is better, "The devil you know" comes to mind. Nevermind the fact Bottas is a good measuring stick for Stoll.

I do reckon Button is being called by Frank tho after the Williams/BAR fiasco over his contract back in the day, already saying his goodbyes and possible clauses in McHonda's contract, I think it's slim for him to return.

Nasr is a possibility but he hasn't impressed either. I would risk Pascal over him any day.

Sainz is being touted as second in line after Bottas. Wouldn't it be funny if he won the championship before golden boy Max? If he did end up in Merc do team orders rules cover Red Bull asking him to let Max and Riccardo past?

On a side note, have any names been suggested for who is in the running for the Manor seats?

 

The only team Button will un-retire for is Mercedes, Williams can't offer him a realistic shot at the title and I doubt he's interest in anything else in F1.

 

Button's out - As much I would love this to open up another drive for him, he made it pretty clear despite the option on his contract, he's as good as retired.

Yeah, I gathered as much - they'll squeeze Merc for every penny, if they're to be left with a driver pairing with limited experience.

Re: Paddy - I get the picture that he was less than thrilled with Hamilton's tactics and took a stand, costing him his position. I do wonder if the radio call to speed up was a unilateral decision.

 

Paddy made a call, if Nico had stayed maybe Lewis would of gone and paddy stayed.

Bottas or wherlien neither Will challenge Hamilton, If Merc are quick Hamilton is getting a default championship

 

Lowe being annoyed at Lewis is stupid. The fact that an argument arose over the whole thing is stupid. Lewis looked out for his interests, the team looked out for theirs and Romberg's interests, nothing was on the line except for Hamilton and Rosbergs title hopes.
The fact Lowes contract ends in December and Merc haven't renewed it by this point speaks volumes about what they think of him. Maybe they blame him for the driver fewd. Maybe they traced Hamiltons technical problems back to him turning the engine down to give Rosberg a chance.

I wonder if Merc do get Bottas could Williams go with Di Resta? They could be holding out for as close to works status as possible, especially if they're becoming a silver Torro Rosso

 

I'd always assumed that was Manor's job, they get cheap[er] engines in return for Merc having somewhere to put their young drivers...

 

Agree

 

I think there is more to this than Abu Dhabi.

Ultimately that's a storm in a teacup. It was Paddy's job to minimise the risk to Mercedes, not help Lewis or Nico take the title. Even with the constructor's tied up the Mercedes board do not want to end the season with a collision and lost one two finish.

Lewis ignores him, as was his right to try and take the title. They tell Lewis he's a very naughty boy but do nothing material to him, life goes on.

I think this has more to do with the machinations of the two Alpha Austrians. Brawn famously said he felt he couldn't trust them, perhaps Paddy is feeling the same way, after all he has run the team through three seasons of domination, not Toto and not Niki.

As for the driver feud. When two drivers who are capable of winning end up in a position to win, they will end up at odds. Racers want to win, they want to win more than anything, even Button and Barrichello fell out with each other 2009, if it happens to them, nobody is safe. I expect with Rosberg out of F1 they will be friends again in a couple of year's time.

 

I agree with that. Lauda Wolff seem strained with each other. Rosberg's relationship with Hamilton may have taken a hit but I wouldn't be surprised if the relationship with the team was strained too. I know most teams aren't warm cuddly families but Merc looks brutal

 

Not as brutal as Red Bull and Ferrari!

 

When talking about a Williams/Bottas deal, it's important to note that (at least according to Joe Saward), Paddy is still with Merc next year.

That means he could be used to sweeten the deal a bit.

In other news, Wehrlein says that his being overlooked for the Findia seat has to do with how he fit into the team during testing, rather than performance.

 

Who has TV rights this season, pretty much didn't watch last one because no Beeb, and ITV/C4/whoever it was's coverage was awful.

 

Channel 4 has the Free-to-Air rights in the UK... until 2019 when Sky get exclusivity over the lot.

 

Still on SkySportsF1, which is undoubtedly the best coverage out there (at a cost!) but worth it. I watched the Senna vs Brundle 1983 British Formula 3 documentary just the other night. It was absolutely brilliant. Also the Brabham Boys interview was top class, Bernie, Herbie, Charlie, Lauda and Nelsen Piquet reminiscing about the good old days. The content SkyF1 team produces is top stuff!

 

I don't see anything wrong with the C4 coverage.

Steves a bit wooden but he's okay.

 

The C4 coverage is still Whisper Films [the company that produced the BBC coverage]... It also got better as the season went on [imo]...

And I'll take the occasionally awkward DC/Jones combo over the total personality vacuum of the Sky presenting team or the Insomnia-curing Formula-E coverage.

 

Has anyone else watched any of the "proper grown-up" virtual races on GSRC?

It's surprisingly very good and all about the racing. I'm enjoying it far more than F1.

Edit: here's a link to their YouTube channel.

https://m.youtube.com/user/GSRCBroadcasting