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Russell can go to Aston Martin to replace vettel.
Bottas is asset to Mercedes. If they lose him, he goes to their rivals as a very strong wing man. Possibly too strong for their #1 driver to be comfortable.
George isn't entitled to a top seat until he scores some points.
If Vettel decides by mid season he is retiring then that is definitely a great opportunity for Mercedes to keep everyone relatively happy, but I feel Seb is slowly finding his feet and is possibly likely to start enjoying his racing again and happy to stay.
GoLandoGo
Lewis v2.0
King George has arrived.
New found love for GT racing with Assetto Corsa Competizione on PS5 & PC
It's laughable how people are still defending and praising Bottas. He is absolutely useless and not worthy of that car. He never was spectacular @ Williams either, mediocre at best. Guys like Gasly, Ocon and co are a decent bit better and even then those imho aren't 'the full monty'.
George proved himself in that one outing at Lewis seat enough to merit a Mercedes seat. He is flaming fire and will prove to be even a handfull for Lewis to beat, aswell as Max.
He is able to extract every last drop of that trashy Williams car, and then even Bottas in the Merc couldn't hold up against him in that Williams. Bottas is done, dusted and an embarassment really.
Russell earned and deserves that Mercedes seat more than anyone in the field and by a huge mile.
Aston is a step up from Williams as in the car he'd be driving, but it would be a backstep, a sidestep or a hold on his F1 career.
Putting Russell in the Aston is like taking Alonso from minardi into a midland. a step up perhaps, but not worthy of his capabilities.
It would be like taking Schumacher from a Jordan and putting him into a Footwork.
And all along the most useless, unworthy seat occupier in the history of F1 is sitting in the fastest and most dominant F1 car in history.
It's insulting to be honest.
Bottas at best would belong in a Renault or Alpine seat.
He's not as a total failure as Joylon Palmer or a Esteban Guiterrez or a Nikita Mazepin, but if anything he's a Formula E driver, not a F1 driver in a topteam.
And above all Valterri has the unfounded guts to nag whine and complain. He has nobody to blame but himself, and the only person he should say f#ck you to on a radio is himself, and instead of at a camera at the mirror. Hell I think Grosjean would beat his lilly hind every race if Romain was in the other Merc seat. Romain wouldn't beat Lewis, but he surely would beat the living daylights out of Valterri.
BTW, that said, there are some other drivers that are also starting to 'fade' abit or have 'lost' their momentum.
Perhaps we will see a bit of a resurgance, I do think Vettel is finding his feet a bit,
but to be honest, looking at how 2021 has panned out untill now,
Perez, Ricciardo, Vettel and Alonso have been disappointing imho.
I never saw Perez on Max level but i did expect him to do conciderably better than been seeing now.
Ricciardo used to be hard for Max to handle, but he is ages behind Norris right now.
I also expected Vettel to be faster right from the start, but untill now has been pretty grey.
Alonso is the biggest surprise for me, I expected him to have a twitchy start but to quickly walk all over Ocon,
but i dunno if it's the accident right before the season, i can't really fathom though, but he is constantly behind Esteban. More of a Kubica return than a Schumacher return and even Schumacher 'disappointed'.
I hoped more from Mick but it's more or less as expected. Still hard to judge, but he should have more in his arsenal than been trowing down untill now.
Norris has been consistantly great and keeps improving. I never really liked him to be honest, but he is a presence.
Also Tsunoda has been a gigantic disappointment imho. He was 'hyped' up like crazy, but he has been greatly disappointing. Albon would have done miles better imho.
As for me, there are honestly only 3 drivers i really have the utmost of interest in in every weekend:
Hamilton, Verstappen and Russell.
After that it's only Sainz and Norris that now that get me excited to see their relative battles in Qualy and Race.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Russell has not “earned” or “deserved” the Mercedes seat... Has he showed glimpses of great driving? Yes... But unluckily the points of reference with him aren’t great, not only has he driven so far in a car that definitely lacks in performance, but his team mates aren’t top tier drivers to be used as references of how much faster the Williams could actually go... He did had a great drive in Bahrain for Mercedes, but it was done in arguably the easiest layout ever in Formula 1, very hard to tell how good he really is from 1 race in a circuit layout that isn’t demanding for the drivers.
I don’t think he has done anything to earn or deserve the seat yet and just as he has showed some solid driving, he has also binned it in more than one occasion by mistakes of his own, he still needs to prove that the hype is real... Unluckily, unless we see him, not only in a better car, but against a more solid driver, we won’t really know if he is in that same group of top drivers.
Russell has not “earned” or “deserved” the Mercedes seat... Has he showed glimpses of great driving? Yes... But unluckily the points of reference with him aren’t great, not only has he driven so far in a car that definitely lacks in performance, but his team mates aren’t top tier drivers to be used as references of how much faster the Williams could actually go... He did had a great drive in Bahrain for Mercedes, but it was done in arguably the easiest layout ever in Formula 1, very hard to tell how good he really is from 1 race in a circuit layout that isn’t demanding for the drivers.
I don’t think he has done anything to earn or deserve the seat yet and just as he has showed some solid driving, he has also binned it in more than one occasion by mistakes of his own, he still needs to prove that the hype is real... Unluckily, unless we see him, not only in a better car, but against a more solid driver, we won’t really know if he is in that same group of top drivers.
Well, it is your opinion. Others think the opposite...
I feel so sorry for Bottas, he has by far the worst luck on the grid over the last few years. But as I'm British, I don't mind seeing George in the W13 next season [-o<
GoLandoGo
Lewis v2.0
King George has arrived.
New found love for GT racing with Assetto Corsa Competizione on PS5 & PC
Russell has not “earned” or “deserved” the Mercedes seat... Has he showed glimpses of great driving? Yes... But unluckily the points of reference with him aren’t great, not only has he driven so far in a car that definitely lacks in performance, but his team mates aren’t top tier drivers to be used as references of how much faster the Williams could actually go... He did had a great drive in Bahrain for Mercedes, but it was done in arguably the easiest layout ever in Formula 1, very hard to tell how good he really is from 1 race in a circuit layout that isn’t demanding for the drivers.
I don’t think he has done anything to earn or deserve the seat yet and just as he has showed some solid driving, he has also binned it in more than one occasion by mistakes of his own, he still needs to prove that the hype is real... Unluckily, unless we see him, not only in a better car, but against a more solid driver, we won’t really know if he is in that same group of top drivers.
I'll repeat. He was overtaking Bottas in the Mercedes P10 in a WILLIAMS that belongs in p17,18,19,20.
He gets his car in Q2 consistantly.
Has beaten his teammates EVERY weekend.
and was flaming fire in his first outing in a Merc.
but hey, Bottas deserves that seat more
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
I think Russel deserves the seat, but not the hype, specially coming from the British media.
It is true that has kept Williams alive during difficult times, but has thrown away some points on accidents that should not have happened (the crash under SC, the accident with Bottas...). He did really well with the Merc but not finishing the race is difficult to fully judged. Maybe dealing with pressure is not one his best assets assets at the moment.
Definitely he is on the high and Bottas on the way down, for me is a no-brainer no put him on the Mercedes next year and see what he is able to do.
I must admit I don’t even know why the debate on here is framed as - does RUS deserve the seat. To me it’s quite irrelevant. And why you think Wolff (whose charge it is to deliver the championships) would have this as a significant consideration is quite weird.
Russell has not “earned” or “deserved” the Mercedes seat... Has he showed glimpses of great driving? Yes... But unluckily the points of reference with him aren’t great, not only has he driven so far in a car that definitely lacks in performance, but his team mates aren’t top tier drivers to be used as references of how much faster the Williams could actually go... He did had a great drive in Bahrain for Mercedes, but it was done in arguably the easiest layout ever in Formula 1, very hard to tell how good he really is from 1 race in a circuit layout that isn’t demanding for the drivers.
I don’t think he has done anything to earn or deserve the seat yet and just as he has showed some solid driving, he has also binned it in more than one occasion by mistakes of his own, he still needs to prove that the hype is real... Unluckily, unless we see him, not only in a better car, but against a more solid driver, we won’t really know if he is in that same group of top drivers.
I'll repeat. He was overtaking Bottas in the Mercedes P10 in a WILLIAMS that belongs in p17,18,19,20.
He gets his car in Q2 consistantly.
Has beaten his teammates EVERY weekend.
and was flaming fire in his first outing in a Merc.
but hey, Bottas deserves that seat more
I’m not making an argument in favor of Bottas... I’m arguing that for whatever reason Russell “has earned” and most importantly “deserves” the seat at Mercedes, which I just don’t think it’s the case for either.
Again, the fact that he has beaten his team mate every Qualifying session has a lot to do with the team mate and in this case, Latifi (nothing against him) is not the best measuring stick.
“Deserves” is not the right term I think, it’s more a case of being chosen by the team.
With the incoming drivers cost cap, Bottas will be to expensive anyway.
Russell has not “earned” or “deserved” the Mercedes seat... Has he showed glimpses of great driving? Yes... But unluckily the points of reference with him aren’t great, not only has he driven so far in a car that definitely lacks in performance, but his team mates aren’t top tier drivers to be used as references of how much faster the Williams could actually go... He did had a great drive in Bahrain for Mercedes, but it was done in arguably the easiest layout ever in Formula 1, very hard to tell how good he really is from 1 race in a circuit layout that isn’t demanding for the drivers.
I don’t think he has done anything to earn or deserve the seat yet and just as he has showed some solid driving, he has also binned it in more than one occasion by mistakes of his own, he still needs to prove that the hype is real... Unluckily, unless we see him, not only in a better car, but against a more solid driver, we won’t really know if he is in that same group of top drivers.
I'll repeat. He was overtaking Bottas in the Mercedes P10 in a WILLIAMS that belongs in p17,18,19,20.
He gets his car in Q2 consistantly.
Has beaten his teammates EVERY weekend.
and was flaming fire in his first outing in a Merc.
“Deserves” is not the right term I think, it’s more a case of being chosen by the team.
With the incoming drivers cost cap, Bottas will be to expensive anyway.
IMO, it's a missed opportunity to not make driver salaries part of the 'regular' cost cap.
It would be pretty cool to see what would happen in that case - will teams settle for an expensive, experienced driver (reducing budget for car development), or take a shot at a cheap but talented rookie, allowing more budget towards car development. With the current plans, such trade-offs are missing (although it is still there in engineering staff- more expensive engineers, or more dev. budget?)
Russell has not “earned” or “deserved” the Mercedes seat... Has he showed glimpses of great driving? Yes... But unluckily the points of reference with him aren’t great, not only has he driven so far in a car that definitely lacks in performance, but his team mates aren’t top tier drivers to be used as references of how much faster the Williams could actually go... He did had a great drive in Bahrain for Mercedes, but it was done in arguably the easiest layout ever in Formula 1, very hard to tell how good he really is from 1 race in a circuit layout that isn’t demanding for the drivers.
I don’t think he has done anything to earn or deserve the seat yet and just as he has showed some solid driving, he has also binned it in more than one occasion by mistakes of his own, he still needs to prove that the hype is real... Unluckily, unless we see him, not only in a better car, but against a more solid driver, we won’t really know if he is in that same group of top drivers.
I'll repeat. He was overtaking Bottas in the Mercedes P10 in a WILLIAMS that belongs in p17,18,19,20.
He gets his car in Q2 consistantly.
Has beaten his teammates EVERY weekend.
and was flaming fire in his first outing in a Merc.
"Bottas had not at any point managed to get the tyres up to that critical threshold where they begin to work properly. Being stuck in the pack just made the problem worse. He was whole seconds off the pace on both the inters and slicks."
“Deserves” is not the right term I think, it’s more a case of being chosen by the team.
With the incoming drivers cost cap, Bottas will be to expensive anyway.
Agreed. As if you could claim a seat based on a subjective assessment of your performance. I think history shows it does not quite work that way.
“Deserves” is not the right term I think, it’s more a case of being chosen by the team.
With the incoming drivers cost cap, Bottas will be to expensive anyway.
I believe there needs to be a lead-in time for a drivers salary cap, it won’t be a hard deadline. Existing contracts signed before the deadline legally will need to be honoured, as I understand it.
[-o<
