Silly Season 2020/2021 (starting with silliness in 2019)

[Ringleheim]

My take is that Vettel is finished with F1, and he is not the kind of guy to stick around making money and living the lifestyle with any team that will employ him, like Kimi, for example.

Vettel will want to be in a top car and capable of winning, or he's gone.

He is not going to get that chance, and in any event, I think he's done with the whole thing.

I will be surprised if he does not retire from the sport.

[Ringleheim]

2019 showed Vettel and leclerc both are fast on same setup when things are good, but once the balance degrades Charles is more able to hang on to the stallion so to speak

I still disagree. I do not doubt that Charles has had the better of Seb through their time as teammates thus far - but I am not sure that Charles is better able to handle a malhandling car. Seb is no good at handling oversteer and Newey’s recent interview With Motorsport magazine said as much. When it’s more of an understeer/stable mishandling situation though, I do think Seb handles better. What proof? None, because I don’t think we’ve quite seen it yet. The 2019/2020 ferraris seem to have a pointy balance when the car falls out of the window.

Seb himself complained of Balance issues a number of times when Charles was happy. Whether it is for oversteer or understeer it was not really said, but the bad balance seems to bother Sebastian more.

British GP 2020

“It’s very challenging in a Formula 1 car without wind already because Maggots and Beckets now, it’s crazy how quick that is,” he added.

“Now with the wind, it completely changes the balance of the car so you need to adapt to it quickly because it really affects the balance.”

While Leclerc is pleased with his Saturday, his team-mate Sebastian Vettel won’t be. The German had to use soft tyres to get into Q3, meaning he’ll have to start on them tomorrow.

To make matters worse, he hugely struggled for pace in the final session and could only manage to take P10. On the bright side, he does at least start ahead of a Red Bull, Alex Albon, and a Racing Point, Nico Hulkenberg.

“The balance was extremely hard to drive. Very, very difficult not to do a mistake, so we definitely need to do something on that because otherwise doing that many laps like that during the race with this balance will be a huge challenge.

“But again, we can still change quite a lot of things, so we will try to understand what we can change to maybe sacrifice more of the quali pace to be better in the race.”

As Charles says here it is the balance of the car that is tuned to drivers preferences. In this way Sebastian is similar to "no balance" Jenson Button. They need the balance to be in a particular window to drive at full potential.

http://scuderiafans.com/charles-leclerc ... -2020-car/

Vettel simply can't live with a car that isn't absolutely planted at the back end. It's been a weakness of his going back to when Danny Ric kicked his butt at Red Bull.

He never did anything about it and it's exposed him.

[PlatinumZealot]

Ricciardi exposed him, but it was quickly swept under the carpet. The deniers said Sebastian lost on purpose so that he could go to Ferrari via some performance clause in his contract. Then contrary to this logic, now he is losing to LeClerc in a most embarassing fashion to make Ferrari look bad... Not sure how that one works.

He is still a top driver though one with very particular needs and people just need to accept that he is only tier 2 ( or tier 3?) of the F1 greats. Tiers two and one are reserved for more uncompromising drivers I would say.

[ME4ME]

Then contrary to this logic, now he is losing to LeClerc in a most embarassing fashion to make Ferrari look bad... Not sure how that one works.

I know it's the last race which leaves that impression but lets be real he put in a good performance in Hungary and also was ahead at Styria before the famous crash. Also I'd stay it's rather the other way around, Ferrari are making him look bad. I mean an intercooler issue, loss of an entire session, and then two interupted sessions because of issues with the pedals. He wasn't exactly set up for success. But yeah, he didn't dig himself out of the pit either..

[notsofast]

Bottas confirmed at Mercedes for 2021.

This will give Perez more leverage. Without an open seat at Mercedes, Perez will want more money if Vettel wants to buy his seat at RP. (Not that I think that Vettel wants that seat...)

[raymondu999]

Bottas confirmed at Mercedes for 2021.

This will give Perez more leverage. Without an open seat at Mercedes, Perez will want more money if Vettel wants to buy his seat at RP. (Not that I think that Vettel wants that seat...)

I doubt that it’s a variable number at this stage. I have never negotiated an F1 contract, but I have never negotiated a contract that hasn’t got clear penalties and termination fees stated. Technically tho - Bottas’s teammate hasn’t been announced yet. Although it’s probably 99.999999% Hamilton

[PlatinumZealot]

Vettel' hand is weakened with the Mercedes announcement.

[Just_a_fan]

Technically tho - Bottas’s teammate hasn’t been announced yet. Although it’s probably 99.999999% Hamilton

Short of making some ludicrous demands, Hamilton will have the seat as long as he wants it I should think. He's stated that he thinks he's got 3 more years in him. Perhaps he's thinking a couple of years with the new regulations is an attractive proposition.

[Morteza]

[Scorpaguy]

The culmination of Big Red's last 10 year's of management and engineering/design blunders have removed them as being possible contenders as Ham's next home. While I sincerely doubt Ham ever wanted to go there or that Ferrari would ever sign him anyway, Ham being able to use them as fodder for contract negotiation threats is gone. So it is likely that Ham stays at Merc, little to no raise, with him possibly extracting a few more pro-diversity programs from the team. In short, Ham is a victim of his and Merc's success...he has no place to go. In fact, the car/organization is so good, they might even push for a pay cut if it were not for the current social climate.

[PlatinumZealot]

Well.. they used Hamilton's marketability as reason why they should be getting a bigger share in the new Concorde agreement! So they, Mercedes, want Hamilton as much as he wants them. It makes sense because at the end of the day Formula 1 is entertainment and a marketing exercise to the investors. To racers, engineers and fans its a bit different of course.

[GPR-A]

Haas should dump both their drivers and hire Hulk and Perez. One would bring lot of money and Closer connection to home base and other is a solid driver.

Alfa Romeo should dump Kimi and hire one of the two, who should do decent job for that seat. Giovinazzi is a waste of time, but he is Ferrari sponsored driver.

[ME4ME]

Haas should dump both their drivers and hire Hulk and Perez. One would bring lot of money and Closer connection to home base and other is a solid driver.

Alfa Romeo should dump Kimi and hire one of the two, who should do decent job for that seat. Giovinazzi is a waste of time, but he is Ferrari sponsored driver.

Actually I was just thinking this morning, If I were in charge of Racing Point I'd have both Hulk and Perez. But yeah if Haas is still around and they can sign them up, it's a no-brainer.

[Manoah2u]

https://twitter.com/LukeSmithF1/status/ ... 3750538240

all they wanted was an ice cream at the fuel station.

[Scorpaguy]

Well.. they used Hamilton's marketability as reason why they should be getting a bigger share in the new Concorde agreement! So they, Mercedes, want Hamilton as much as he wants them. It makes sense because at the end of the day Formula 1 is entertainment and a marketing exercise to the investors. To racers, engineers and fans its a bit different of course.

No argument from me on that PZ. My "pay cut" quip was not about Ham's ability/prowess (proven, I need not elaborate). Rather I was just waxing poetic due to the overall financial status of our covid world...Merc, or course, less affected than most. My main point was just that Ham truly has no other grid options at the moment...even if he wanted to move. I am not sure his ego would allow for him to go to a start-up/re-build-up...and at this time, Merc is the only sharp stick on the grid. As for the 2020 WDC, our only hope for drama is Bot finding a groove...something I have yet to see. Looking like 7 in 2020(asterisk or not) and 8 in 2021. 2022 is likely a 9, and then he is gone...all in a black merc (seems a marriage made in F1 heaven).