Silly Season 2016/2017

[ME4ME]

Well, the question is; how good/bad was the Manor really; or - how awful was Haryanto actually?
I think Haryanto was really that awfully bad, and Wehrlein was driving a rather good Manor that had it's settings spot on,
and not to forget carrying a Merc engine.

Another thing also to concider:

Supposedly Hamilton could do 8 tenths better in the tire test compared to Wehrlein's laptime - need i mention he stopped after 2 laps being 'unwell'?

If that's really true, then that means a hangover-hamilton after losing the WDC a day before still is able to pull off a easy 8 tenths in a tire 'test' - not even a real-world event that counts.....So apart from not being ready.....for clear reasons; Does Toto, Niki, Zetche want a driver consistantly atleast 8 tenths slower then it's teammate? Or do they want to avoid getting a RedBull in between?

I think you misunderstood regarding those 8 tenths. It was just a comment made by Hamilton, throwing a number out while polishing his ego. There was no actual data behind it as far as I know. Mercedes will know the thruth, and has been pretty content with Pascals speed.

[Sevach]

To me it's pretty clear Mercedes isn't really happy about promoting their Juniors right now, if they were this would be a quick decision.

[Cold Fussion]

To me it's pretty clear Mercedes isn't really happy about promoting their Juniors right now, if they were this would be a quick decision.

It's pretty clear that they don't run it in the same way as Red Bull, remembering they promoted Kvyat the day after Vettel announced he'd leave the team. Is Toto still Bottas's manager? I'm sure Mercedes love that conflict of interest.

[Gerhardsa]

I'd love to see that happen. He's a very underrated driver, and I think people would be surprised at how close the margin would be between he and Hamilton...make for some great drama.

lol, do people really have such low estimate for Hamilton's skills? I mean really, Grosjean close to Hamilton?

Dead serious. Hamilton is a bit overrated and Grojean is very underrated. He demonstrated a lot of very nice racecraft this year in that Haas. And you know what? Put them all in identical cars they're within .5 of one another, depending on the track.

Hamilton is overrated? How'd you get to that ?
They way I see it:

Hamilton has more wins than Senna or Prost,
He has the second best race start to win ratio, only behind Schumacher.
He has 3 titles with 2 different teams
Also the 3rd most Pole Positions and only 7 behind Schumacher's record now

Pfft....yeah, overrated

I think if Grojean has a "big team" clause, it will almost surely be for Ferrari.
I suspect he will be heading there in 2018.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

I think you misunderstood regarding those 8 tenths. It was just a comment made by Hamilton, throwing a number out while polishing his ego.

In that case why precisely 8 tenths? Why not a few seconds? Don't you think he was talking based on the data available in front of them after those runs?

[Gerhardsa]

This is why I think they are 1stly targeting Alonso
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/ ... toto-wolff

Why?
Williams is a customer, Bottas lead driver, so they don't want to upset their stability too much with 2 inexperienced drivers in a new regulation season.
McLaren is another story. They aint customers, so frankly, Merc could not care less.

If that doesn't work (Alonso over to Merc)
They will probably try swop Pascal for Bottas, but with a good engine deal.
If that doesn't work, Pascal it would be.

Again, just my opinion.
But having to "be brave" with this decision as Wolff state,: To me that says. "I will handle the potential politics between Ham and Alo, but I absolutely need someone who is "lightning"and "error free" in the car.."
That can only mean 1 person...

I might be completely wrong, but lets hope not for F1 sake
Let the stars align! [-o<

[adrianjordan]

lol, do people really have such low estimate for Hamilton's skills? I mean really, Grosjean close to Hamilton?

Dead serious. Hamilton is a bit overrated and Grojean is very underrated. He demonstrated a lot of very nice racecraft this year in that Haas. And you know what? Put them all in identical cars they're within .5 of one another, depending on the track.

Hamilton is overrated? How'd you get to that ?
They way I see it:

Hamilton has more wins than Senna or Prost,
He has the second best race start to win ratio, only behind Schumacher.
He has 3 titles with 2 different teams
Also the 3rd most Pole Positions and only 7 behind Schumacher's record now

Pfft....yeah, overrated

I think if Grojean has a "big team" clause, it will almost surely be for Ferrari.
I suspect he will be heading there in 2018.

I'm a fan of Lewis, but I do think the number of wins/poles etc stats are unfair because we have more races per season these days.

Starts to win ratio etc however are fair game!!

[adrianjordan]

I don't have a superlicence, however I am a qualified blue light driver - stick blue lights and sirens on the car and watchme fly past as all the other cars have to pull over to get out of my way

[Jolle]

To me it's pretty clear Mercedes isn't really happy about promoting their Juniors right now, if they were this would be a quick decision.

It's pretty clear that they don't run it in the same way as Red Bull, remembering they promoted Kvyat the day after Vettel announced he'd leave the team. Is Toto still Bottas's manager? I'm sure Mercedes love that conflict of interest.

It's not really a conflict of interest. Wolff is one of the owners of the Mercedes team, I even believe HWA is all his. The involvement of Mercedes looks a lot like Renault used to do it in the Alonso/Briatore days. Part investor, part sponsor and part partner. Still very different then Ferrari for instance.

[Gerhardsa]

All those guys did 150 -200 GPs plus(so even at 15 - 20 GP's a year, that racing in F1 for 10 years at least) so I think its highly relevant.
Schumi 308 odd starts...
Senna 161 I think (and if he didn't die, it would surely be more than 200)
Prost 202 I think...
Hamilton 188 and going..

I don't think its unfair at all.
So someone should not come and say "Hamilton is overrated". Total nonsense!

[hemichromis]

If Alonso, Ricciardo, Vettel etc had been in the Mercedes for the last 3 years he would probably have as many race wins.
Lewis has had probably the 1st or 2nd most dominant car in history for more than 60 races. front row is guaranteed without some form of failure, in 2014 this was true even starting at the back of the grid.
Couple this to the media hype than yes he is overrated. It doesn't stop him being one of the best racers in history.

[Gerhardsa]

Anyhow, this is going off topic. We should get back to the Silly season, in stead of overrated, underrated etc.

[FW17]

If Merc wants a Red Bull Driver will they offer the Mercedes Power Unit?

[Gerhardsa]

If Merc wants a Red Bull Driver will they offer the Mercedes Power Unit?

You know that will never happen...ever

[jonas_linder]

Manoah2u: I've seen you go on about lewis hangover during tire testing. I'm curious, where does your theory about hangover come from? The race was on Sunday 27 and the testing was on Tuesday 29, quite a hangover? (Source: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/head ... tyres.html)