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Given Aston fired Perez because they wanted someone with “more pedigree” I expect they will throw the table at Alonso. I personally don’t think it’s a good fit culture wise but I’m not in charge.
If you can’t bring him in for ‘23 I’d sign Ricciardo for ‘24; pretty sure McLaren aren’t going to put up a fight and AM have clearly shown they are OK with signing an out-of-form race winner after 2020. Hulkenberg would do a serviceable job for 1 season to bridge the gap.
"You can't argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"
- Mark Twain
It won't happen, but it would be interesting if they took a top driver from another series.
Who is the best Indy driver at the moment (I don't follow, there is also ground effect, right? They must already have some familiarity)
It would definitely attract a lot of attention to AM.
It won't happen, but it would be interesting if they took a top driver from another series.
Who is the best Indy driver at the moment (I don't follow, there is also ground effect, right? They must already have some familiarity)
It would definitely attract a lot of attention to AM.
I mentioned earlier people like Chilton or Bourdais, who have experience but would still be seen as 'coming in from indy' because that's where they are now. There are several in Formula E too.
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.
I don't see why any of the current drivers would want to go to AM at the moment. They are basically the tail of the grid and so far don't look to be improving very much. Would Alonso want to go there from an Alpine that is giving him chances to score solid points if not podiums so far this year? I don't see why he would unless he just wanted to go there and do better than Seb did so he could say "I'm better than Seb". I don't see that happening, does anyone else?
Likewise Danny or others on the grid currently. Even Schumacher is basically doing as well in the points standings as Seb. Would that happen in AM rather than with Haas?
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
I don't see why any of the current drivers would want to go to AM at the moment.
So you suspect it will be a rookie driver? Assuming Piastri & Sargeant find F1 drives elsewhere, then the remaining rookies in contention would be De Vries and Drugovich.
Assuming De Vries bring a Mercedes engine discount then De Vries would seem the logical choice for the British exotic sportscar maker.
However four drivers into three Alpine & Williams seats does not go. If none of Alonso, Albon, Piastri and Sargeant are at Aston Martin (and Schumacher stays at HAAS, and Gasly & Tsunoda stay at AlphaTauri, and Ricciardo stays at McLaren), then it's not possible for those four to occupy only three vacant Alpine and Williams seats.
Sargeant's Grand Prix debut may be delayed until 2024, unless Sargeant takes the place of Piastri who is delayed (again) instead. Would not Williams and Dorilton be wanting to fast-track a talented and marketable United States driver?
Last edited by JordanMugen on 29 Jul 2022, 13:35, edited 4 times in total.
I don't see why any of the current drivers would want to go to AM at the moment.
So you suspect it will be a rookie driver? Assuming Piastri & Sargaent find F1 drives elsewhere, then the remaining rookies in contention would be De Vries and Drugovich.
Assuming De Vries bring a Mercedes engine discount then De Vries would seem the logical choice for the British exotic sportscar maker, however if both Piastri & Sargaent find drives elsewhere how can it be possible that both Alonso & Albon will also have drives elsewhere -- at least one of these two would need to make space for either Piastri or Sargaent... Four drivers into three Alpine & Williams seats does not go.
Just had a scan through De Vries wiki, he does have a lot of experience, does look an option to me
When arguing with a fool, be sure the other person is not doing the same thing.
I don't see why any of the current drivers would want to go to AM at the moment.
So you suspect it will be a rookie driver?
Yes. Cheaper, for one thing, and perhaps less likely to upset Daddy's Little Trooper. Although can you imagine the fall out if a fresh faced young 'un comes in a makes Junior look like a complete amateur?
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
The more I look at it, the more this just looks like a slap in the face to AM. By the sound of it, although maybe Seb had decided to leave a while back, he only seems to have notified people in the last week. Nothing says "vote of no confidence" like your star driver retiring rather than taking up another year in your car. I 100% believe Vettel would have stayed if the team was where, say, Alpine is right now.
Hiring a rookie driver means you have wasted your time with a world champion in the seat for two years, after you fired a guy who was no worse, knew the team, and brought you sponsorship! Clearly they wanted a top driver in 2020, if they went for an unknown quantity that would surely be taken as a sign of defeat (although getting constantly eliminated in Q1 might also do that). The only people with race wins which could be theoretically available are Alonso, Ricciardo, or Gasly. None of which I think would make the jump and/or be a good fit. I don't think MSC is anything extraordinary, although I think his potential is higher than Lance. People keep saying "but Lance is still early in his career" but this is year SIX. That's less than Leclerc, Russell, Gasly, Norris, Albon, Ocon, etc. Stroll Sr. needs to look in the mirror and get a grip if this team wants to move forwards.
Honestly? I would look outside of the F1 pool. Someone like A.F. da Costa maybe, IDK. As far as Indy goes, there's nobody that's really hot property that isn't under contract. I mean, you're not going to sign Ericsson, are you? He seems to like Indy and gels with the series more. Palou is already under two contracts. The only other person who would have enough SL points that could make the jump is Newgarden, who never would. Either way, I think AM will have a lot of work to do to NOT have the worst driver lineup on the grid.
"You can't argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"
- Mark Twain
The more I look at it, the more this just looks like a slap in the face to AM. [...]
Hiring a rookie driver means you have wasted your time with a world champion in the seat for two years, after you fired a guy who was no worse, knew the team, and brought you sponsorship!
I'm sure that if AM were actually heading in the right direction, there'd be more motivation for Seb to stay. Unlike the young guns, Seb has a young family and being away from them will be hard and getting harder as time goes on. Without positive outcomes at the races as compensation, there's no motivation to look in his kids' eyes and say "bye" every other week.
As for a slap in the face, I think that's over-dramatising it. If the team can't get its act together and produce a decent car, no driver with Seb's record is going to hang around for ever. He's out of contract at the end of the year and maybe when he started negotiations the team and he were too far apart to be able to agree another deal. Only the team and Seb know the answer to that.
I wonder if Stroll Jnr's move on Seb at the end of the French GP made him think "sod this", especially if he mentioned it to the team and was met with silence (no idea about that, of course).
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere that AM pushed for an answer from him, so he decided.
If he's been yes/no for a while then a "decide now" demand is likely to get a "no" response. It's a job that you need to want to be there, you can't just turn up and fiddle about like an office worker on a Friday afternoon. If he's had doubts about carrying on then they might just have inadvertently pushed him to quit.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
Would not Williams and Dorilton be wanting to fast-track a talented and marketable United States driver? 
