Silly Season 2016/2017

[NathanOlder]

According to Autosport, Pascal Wehrlein is the leading candidate for the 2nd Sauber drive.
I hope he gets it, as I think another year at Manor would stop his progress, and he will then more than likely fail to climb any higher.

Also , If he does sign, id love to see Nasr's face! Palmer, Ocon, Wehrlein all moving in the right direction, and Nasr going backwards.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... cond-seat?

[Scuderia1967]

A Mercedes-backed driver in a Ferrari-powered team? Well, stranger things have happened before in F1...

[edu2703]

According to Autosport, Pascal Wehrlein is the leading candidate for the 2nd Sauber drive.
I hope he gets it, as I think another year at Manor would stop his progress, and he will then more than likely fail to climb any higher.

Making progress going to Sauber? Using 2016 Ferrari engines?

With all F1 experts saying that Sauber will be the worst team in 2017 because of engines, change Manor for Sauber is a very stupid decision. I would love to see Werhlein face when he finds out that he has made a bad move!

Also , If he does sign, id love to see Nasr's face! Palmer, Ocon, Wehrlein all moving in the right direction, and Nasr going backwards.

If Palmer had no sponsorship and Ocon and Werhlein did not have Mercedes support, none of them would be in F1.

They are all moving in the right direction because they had financial support and Nasr is going backwards because he doesn't have more this support. Not because they are good drivers and Nasr is a bad driver.

It's not funny to see a good driver in this situation...

[FW17]

Does Manor even have a Mercedes deal without Werhlein?

[Vasconia]

According to Autosport, Pascal Wehrlein is the leading candidate for the 2nd Sauber drive.
I hope he gets it, as I think another year at Manor would stop his progress, and he will then more than likely fail to climb any higher.

Also , If he does sign, id love to see Nasr's face! Palmer, Ocon, Wehrlein all moving in the right direction, and Nasr going backwards.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... cond-seat?

I would like to see him in FI not in Sauber which is likely to be the worst team in 2017. It doesnt sound like the best move taking into account that they will use 2016 Ferrari engines. We have seen TR suffering sometimes because of this and the gap between the current engines and the 2017 versions will be bigger than in 2015/2016.

[edu2703]

I would like to see him in FI not in Sauber which is likely to be the worst team in 2017. It doesnt sound like the best move taking into account that they will use 2016 Ferrari engines. We have seen TR suffering sometimes because of this and the gap between the current engines and the 2017 versions will be bigger than in 2015/2016.

Exactly! I wrote this in my comment above and many other times here.

"Financial stability" does not determine whether a team is good or bad. I've seen teams doing miracles, building competitive cars with a small budget, like Force India is doing this year.

[ChrisDanger]

They are all moving in the right direction because they had financial support and Nasr is going backwards because he doesn't have more this support. Not because they are good drivers and Nasr is a bad driver.

Why does one driver get financial support though? Obviously you need the right backer, but surely the only the better drivers get supported.

[Vasconia]

I would like to see him in FI not in Sauber which is likely to be the worst team in 2017. It doesnt sound like the best move taking into account that they will use 2016 Ferrari engines. We have seen TR suffering sometimes because of this and the gap between the current engines and the 2017 versions will be bigger than in 2015/2016.

Exactly! I wrote this in my comment above and many other times here.

"Financial stability" does not determine whether a team is good or bad. I've seen teams doing miracles, building competitive cars with a small budget, like Force India is doing this year.

Force India always make a good job. Sadly their in-season development is usually worse but the limited budget explains this. I dont see Sauber doing such a good job but I hope I am wrong.

[PlatinumZealot]

I would like to see him in FI not in Sauber which is likely to be the worst team in 2017. It doesnt sound like the best move taking into account that they will use 2016 Ferrari engines. We have seen TR suffering sometimes because of this and the gap between the current engines and the 2017 versions will be bigger than in 2015/2016.

Not true. It would be smaller as ruturns are more limited as the development cycle gets older. 2014<<<<2015<<2016<2017

[Vasconia]

I would like to see him in FI not in Sauber which is likely to be the worst team in 2017. It doesnt sound like the best move taking into account that they will use 2016 Ferrari engines. We have seen TR suffering sometimes because of this and the gap between the current engines and the 2017 versions will be bigger than in 2015/2016.

Not true. It would be smaller as ruturns are more limited as the development cycle gets older. 2014<<<<2015<<2016<2017

I am not sure about this, at least not in all the cases. Now, if I am not wrong, they have free development so they can potentially improve in many more areas. So, theoretically, weaker PUs like Honda and Renault should improve a lot more.

[ChrisDanger]

2014<<<<2015<<2016<2017

The removal of the token system might affect this progression.

[godlameroso]

According to Autosport, Pascal Wehrlein is the leading candidate for the 2nd Sauber drive.
I hope he gets it, as I think another year at Manor would stop his progress, and he will then more than likely fail to climb any higher.

Also , If he does sign, id love to see Nasr's face! Palmer, Ocon, Wehrlein all moving in the right direction, and Nasr going backwards.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... cond-seat?

Manor has put all it's resources into next year's cars, remember they have some decent people working there.

[godlameroso]

2014<<<<2015<<2016<2017

The removal of the token system might affect this progression.

I agree, 2017 some teams will make a big leap(Honda, Renault), others not so much(Mercedes, Ferrari) but still a nice step forward.

The chassis is going to hide a lot of the power gains, and some teams are going to definitely be caught off guard. Some people that thought they had good ideas are going to be in for a rude awakening. Some will just need tweaks to be mighty, and some people will just do a better job than everyone else. Next season needs to start already, I'm excited over consistent low 1:2x lap times at Barcelona in race trim.

[ME4ME]

Making progress going to Sauber? Using 2016 Ferrari engines?

With all F1 experts saying that Sauber will be the worst team in 2017 because of engines, change Manor for Sauber is a very stupid decision. I would love to see Werhlein face when he finds out that he has made a bad move!

If you're going to make a statement like that, please refer to the source. Which experts are you actually talking about?

My opinion about Sauber differs from some of the people here. Although ive lost all interest and faith in the team since 2013, and have little good to say about their current team principle, I actually think they will improve in 2017. They have struggled financially for a long time, but once they got the resources in place, they showed decent progress in the final part of this year with a few crucial updates. Also they have been hiring a lot of great people recently. Focusing on their main weakness, aero & chassis, makes a lot of sense to me. Having a fixed PU specification will be beneficial throughout the development process of the rest of the car. Yes they will ultimately lose out on some peak power, but I expect them to overcome that disadvantage with greater chassis improvements. Regarding the free-for-all PU development which will be allowed next year, I dont see that making a massive difference. The leading PU manufacturers are already into the zone of diminishing returns, with ever decreasing improvement rate. I think the year-on-year performance difference will be slightly less than it was from 2015 to 2016.

I expect Sauber to quite easily beat Manor through the use of better structural resources and possible financial backing. If they were to sign Wehrlein, they will probably have a better driver line-up than Manor too. I expect Haas to struggle next year, having not had unlimited wind tunnel time this year, so Sauber might beat them too, at least at the start of the season.

[Sebastian Kettle]

I've read somewhere (sorry cannot find the link) that the 2017 cars will produce 20% more drag and a year old engine will be detrimental to the performance of the car, regardless of the chassis. Manor has also been developing their car sine Jan 16 without money issues unlike Sauber who have only just got their finances in check.
I would not underestimate Manor producing a solid midfield car with the technical team they have in place.