Manoah2u wrote: ↑23 Jul 2020, 13:02
gibells wrote: ↑23 Jul 2020, 08:50
You make a good point there Man. I'd like to see Vettel with great equipment and zero pressure. I'm sure he'll make it interesting for us next year. And I still have a feeling that he's going to show LeClerc the way this year. His pressures this last year has won me over as a fan.
Don't get me wrong, I think Vettel himself made some pretty bad decisions (Baku for example) showing he doesn't really do good with relative pressure (remember Webber), and has made some rookie mistakes not fitting for a multi champion (singapore driving into kimi, etc), but let's be honest here, Hamilton and Rosberg made the same contacts in the 'heat'.
Now i must say that in 'the beginning' with Ferrari, Seb had the benefit of having his friend Kimi alongside who really wasn't pushing him at all in any 'competitive' or 'WDC result treatening' way, yet he didn't make it then either. On the other hand, it's not that the car was even remotely close to being able to take on the mighty Mercs. Still, he managed to stay in the WDC fights. In a F1 team which went from Domenicali to Marco Mattiacci to Arrivabene in record time, and that's just team principal reforms, you could say it didn't go down much different with 'key' personell either, and it seems that all this time it was pretty much chaotic and ego clashing in the entire line.
As if that wasn't enough, calm good guy 'outsider' Arrivabene, who clearly knows how to run and operate, called things by it's name and the Italian egos got all riled up inside the team and then 'biggest ego of them all' Binotto decided to slash around him and got the ONLY GUY who managed to stabilize the team OUT. In an era that Ferrari also had to deal with the death of their new 'big head' whom replaced Montezemolo only shortly before.
And somehow, LeClerc was pushed into a Ferrari race seat, a clearly fast and capable driver but also a clear primadonna.
Now we have the utter ego clashing chaos complete, and on top of it all, after ditching their former WDC Kimi, they now went so far as to ditch a loyal driver that got them many wins, many times near the WDC in a Merc Dominant era,
and don't offer him a contract but instead Ferrari is gonna go with 2 non-wdc drivers of which one NEVER has managed a race win OR a podium (he only managed after a penalty for Ham in brazil19 post podium), and the other has managed a few wins but is still inexperienced and took out both Ferrari's in race 2 due to his hot head.
To be honest, I think it's actually GOOD that Vettel is leaving Ferrari as it would have gone nowhere anyway, and he would have ended up just like Alonso. I think its another prime example that it wasn't Alonso that's responsible for not making another title with Ferrari. Both Vettel AND Alonso actually ended up in similar results and circumstances.
I would VERY much like to see Vettel in Aston Martin or RedBull now.
Without even the tiniest amount of doubt Vettel would do way better than either Perez or Stroll in the RacingPoint.
I wonder whether we could have seen Vettel get the RP at P3 last weekend. I think Stroll actually did very well in the race, and he ended P4. Bottas was being his usual self and Vettel is far better than Valterri. I'm confident Vettel would have kept that RP ahead of the Merc, or overtaken the Merc. The ONLY problem would be that there might be a call from Toto to let the black merc pass, which could even have happened at RP just the same. Hell, it might even be contractually agreed in any case at any position during the race.
And
this is why i'd actually prefer to see Vettel @ Mercedes, and Bottas @ Aston Martin.
I don't see any difference at all between Bottas and Perez, i think they're similar.
The only reason Bottas has won is because of the Merc. A WDC he'll never be, nor will Perez.
Vettel @ RacingPoint/Aston Martin will ALWAYS end up in when the heat comes down to it, that Mercedes mothership team will make sure the RP's or AM's MUST step aside to let the Mercs pass. Mercedes wants 1-2 and it indulges AstonMartin (probably their B-team) 3-4 by giving it their '1 year old equipment' so that they will have no competition for the WDC and WCC titles since their 'true' rivals (RedBull and Ferrari, perhaps Mclaren) will have to battle AstonMartin FIRST before they can manage to rival Mercedes.
Because of that, when it comes down to it, no matter whether we have a battle for P1 between Hamilton in the Mclaren, and Vettel in the Aston Martin, Aston will come up with some 'fuel saving' crap, or some 'tire pressure warning' and call him either in or to take things slow so that Hamilton will get P1 guaranteed, and preferably see Bottas make P2 if Aston would threaten the WCC position of Mercedes.
It's why a ToroRosso/AlphaTauri driver would NEVER win a GP if they are batteling P1 with a RedBull driver.
It's why a AlfaRomeo/Sauber driver would NEVER win a GP if they are batteling P1 with a Ferrari driver.
So yes, i would really like to see Vettel @ Mercedes alongside Hamilton.
Vettel @ Aston Martin would not have the Ferrari ego pressure he has to deal with now.
But he'd still be 'muzzled' against the Mercs.
So if Vettel would be @ Mercedes at Hamilton's side, we'd see Vettel, a german driver, given the best of the best,
to race against the best of the best, with nothing holding him back.
We'd also finally see some REAL competition between Hamilton and his teammate, and i think it would be a vastly more interesting fight.
It would also make Mercedes have the strongest driver pairing in the field, and quite frankly, it would make the strongest team and pairing
in the entire history of F1.
It would see a 7-time British WDC, with a 4-time German WDC, holding 11 titles together,
Ham with 86 wins and Vettel with 53 wins so 139 together (more by the end of this year),
7 WCC titles in the current era, and on and on and on, in a British-German team.
Even IF there would be a team in 2021 or 2022 that COULD challenge the Mercs CAR potential,
there is NO driver pairing in the world stronger than THAT combination.