Scuderia Toro Rosso has announced that Carlos Sainz will join the team with immediate effect. It means that our driver line-up for the 2015 season is now established as Max Verstappen and Carlo Sainz.
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All in good time. When this is confirmed it will make way for the Vettel-Ferrari announcement as well as Hamilton continuing at Mercedes. If McLaren wants to challenge for the championship anytime soon it needs both Alonso and Button.
If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari.
Alonso to McLaren I think is a bad move also Vettel to Ferrari. Neither teams have done anything this season to hint at any changes of form. Sure McLaren have recruited a good aero guy from Red Bull and have a Honda engine next year but there are no guarantees that either McLaren or Ferrari can deliver good cars based on recent form.
Personally I think Renault will have a much better engine next year, so for me the drive to get was either Mercedes or red bull. Alonso has managed neither. I doubt now that Alonso will now win then third drivers championship however he will become very much richer.
The real mistake mclaren are making is losing Jenson, I mean laying off a proven race winner and world champion who still wants to drive.....dumb. Kmag underperformed which is a bad sign for the future for him.
Prediction
McLaren ... Alonso / kmag ... Fails next year, kmag gone year after.
Ferrari ... Vettel / kimi....fails next year, kimi retires year later
Red bull...Richy...wdc contender & constructors
Merc....ros / ham....ham wdc contender & constructors
Williams ... Vatteri good season in 15 then to merc/Ferrari/McLaren 16
Guys, KMag is a rookie, this is his first F1 season! Moreover, he didn't get the extended testing periods that rookies got a number of years back. So, to put the initial argument on its back, I'd say that KMag is a pretty decent prospect and deserves to have at least another season. Button is a world champion who was pretty even with Hamilton over the course of their stint together at Mclaren and who has been in the sport for 15 years now. I don't think it was reasonable to expect a complete rookie to be on par with him.
I agree. Since 2015 will be a build up Year for Honda i think it's best to Pair Alonso with Button and park Magnussen in a Mid Field Team so he can get his Race Craft developed. Then 2016 they can always get Mag back if they feel he is up to the Job or put Vandoorne in.
Mag definitely deserves at least another Year in F1, but for McLaren next Year Button would be the better choice imho.
McLaren will be thinking of what will be best for them in 2016 and 17. I can't see Button staying for that long, so better to nurture Magnussen.
I do feel for Button, he deserves better than being in limbo like this, but McLaren wouldn't want to release him and end up with only one driver for next year. Unfortunately it means he's been unable to find an alternative seat for the swansong that Massa, Barrichello and Coulthard enjoyed.
the prob for ALO was that neither Merc nor RB wanted him ! He of course was hoping to land a seat at Merc, but no chance there it seems. Rest assured that if Merc wanted him, they would make room for him. They just don't.
Of course the above is assuming that indeed ALO is going to McL.
I really wonder about all the talk by ALO about "I knew for months", "it is the best for me" and "it is so obvious"…
There would be nothing obvious about a move to McL except for the fact that he had no other choice other than leaving F1.
As far as McL vs Ferrari in 2015, my take on it is that McL will be ahead. Ferrari has shown zero ability to improve this year and I find it very unlikely that Honda could possibly do a worse job than Ferrari with the PUs. And too many italians at Ferrari, usually an indicator of failures ahead ….
Alonso switching to Mclaren (or should I say HONDA) is the wise move because there is no chance for any team to beat Merc in 2015 unless Merc agree to unfreeze the engine rule. Even if they go agree to unfreeze the engine rule, it might take at awhile for other engine manufacturer to catch up.
So the best bet for 2015 IMO, is to hope that Honda can produce superb engine to rival Merc and I am sure with Honda budget and 1 solid year to study current engine setup I am sure they will have a upper hand for next year.
Between JB and KM I think Mclaren will choose to keep KM because
a) KM is likely to cost less
b) JB and FA are both consider senior citizens in current formula one
c) KM is part of Mclaren young driver program, they are likely to follow RBR footstep to promote their young driver.
