Vettel leaving Ferrari

My guess would be Giovinazzi. He's already in the Ferrari driver family, had a couple of years in F1 and is the perfect plodder to warm the second Ferrari seat and pick up some points while Leclerc goes for championships. It almost exactly mirrors Massa's situation in 2006
 
keylion said:
After reading his statement above it kind of suggests he'll be retiring.
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I've never really rated Vettel, not 4 WDC worthy anyway, but this seems like the perfect get out time for him. It's been kind of sad to see him implode over the last few seasons. I wonder how much time Hamilton has left. I'll miss this era of drivers, sure there is some young talent coming through, but it doesn't excite me quite as much. Probably just my age.
 
Spunkey said:
My guess would be Giovinazzi. He's already in the Ferrari driver family, had a couple of years in F1 and is the perfect plodder to warm the second Ferrari seat and pick up some points while Leclerc goes for championships. It almost exactly mirrors Massa's situation in 2006
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The difference is that Giovinazzi has a much inferior record to Massa. Massa was coming off a season where he had outclassed world champion driver Jacques Villeneuve. Giovinazzi has been made to look utterly foolish by Kimi. Massa had a string of formula wins going in to F1; Giovinazzi hasn't won a season of anything significant. The driver pairing is different too. Massa was going to join the experienced and established Schumacher who was well capable of driving car development. Giovinazzi is going to join Charles who would actually have more experience than Giovinazzi. I think Ferrari will want an experienced driver to put next to Charles; Giovinazzi is not that. The only thing that could swing it for him is getting an Italian back in the Ferrari.
 
I can't see Ferrari taking Gio just yet, he took a long time to get up to speed in the Alfa and it would leave Ferrari with two young drivers. I think Ferrari would take back Kimi before giving the seat to Gio.

The Red Bull merry-go-round could be activated again, Vet back to RB, Albon back to STR and Kvyat to Ferrari (has ties with the team). Bottas would be the driver I'd aim to get though.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
I wonder how much time Hamilton has left.
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He's 35 now, but he also seems to be at the peak of his powers. I wouldn't be surprised to see him racing to 40.

I'll miss this era of drivers, sure there is some young talent coming through, but it doesn't excite me quite as much. Probably just my age.
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I'm surprised by this take. It looks to me like Leclerc, Russell, and Verstappen are some of the most exciting drivers to come into F1 in years. Add in Norris, Gasly, and Albon and older drivers like Sainz and Ricciardo and I think we've got a wonderful era of F1 coming up... if they can only sort the cars out so they can race better.
 
After his "big money" move to Renault and that not working out, do we think Riciardo could be tempted by a pay cut but more possibility of results? I think so...

However, as alluded to above, that his sticking point will be if he doesn't have equal footing in the team. Can't see him going Ferrari if that isn't resolved in his contract. He is motivated to be a world champion, not a #2.

Going to be interesting to see who they announce as will have roll on effects through the rest of the driver market.
 
Mr Jack said:
He's 35 now, but he also seems to be at the peak of his powers. I wouldn't be surprised to see him racing to 40.



I'm surprised by this take. It looks to me like Leclerc, Russell, and Verstappen are some of the most exciting drivers to come into F1 in years. Add in Norris, Gasly, and Albon and drivers like Sainz and Ricciardo and I think we've got a wonderful era of F1 coming up... if they can only sort the cars out so they can race better.
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Ricciardo? He’s 30 lol. Hardly young and up and coming talent
 
What Ferrari want/need is the older head who isn't interested in being overly competitive with Leclerc, to help develop the cars from experience and give a bit of guidance to their up and coming young driver. Question is, in today's market, who is that?

Ricciardo for me is a no - he's too competitive, he'll want to fight for wins, he hasn't 'been there and done that'.

Bottas would be a good should if he gets unseated but at the moment I don't see that happening this year

Kimi I can't see going back for a third stint and i'm not sure they'd get the level of input that would be ideal

Hamilton would need astronomical wages to go elsewhere IMO and they'd end up with two drivers fighting - if Hamilton turned up and destroyed Leclerc it could ruin him as a future potential, completely knock his confidence. If Leclerc was competitive with Hamilton they'd end up squabbling - Hamilton isn't going to go to a drive where he'll potentially miss out on a Championship because his teammate has robbed too many points.

There's not really many other 'old heads' about that are both good enough but ready to take a back seat - Hulkenberg may well be the best of the rest.
 
Kimi back to Ferrari, you know it makes sense. Ferrari need a competent journeyman until at least 2024.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
I've never really rated Vettel, not 4 WDC worthy anyway, but this seems like the perfect get out time for him. It's been kind of sad to see him implode over the last few seasons. I wonder how much time Hamilton has left. I'll miss this era of drivers, sure there is some young talent coming through, but it doesn't excite me quite as much. Probably just my age.
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Vettel has never been a great driver. He's won a lot of races and championships with a very good Red Bull when he's been able to run away at the front, but he's always had temper tantrums, always has trouble racing wheel to wheel, never been a particularly clean driver. He's also never improved those aspects of his driving, in great contrast to the likes of Hamilton who have just got better and better over the years.

I think Hamilton will stay as long as he's winning (and he's showing no sign of slowing down, he's only getting better). I don't think Hamilton will spend his last few years running around as a midfield driver, he'll finish on top when his interest (and thus his performances) wane.

I don't think he'll move to Ferrari as long as he's happy at Mercedes. I think that as long as Toto is there to keep Hamilton feeling good and the team keep producing winning cars, Hamilton will stay because they foster the family thing that seems to bring out the best in Hamilton. I know there's a romantic thing for drivers to win with Ferrari, but I don't think Hamilton will benefit from going from Mercedes where they basically hug him and make him feel loved to get the best out of him, to Ferrari where they will throw him in the pits to fight to the death. I think Ferrari have made their commitment to Leclerc for the future, and even if Hamilton comes in and wins, that will just be filling in a year or two while Leclerc becomes their future champion.
 
Kenai said:
Bottas would be a good should if he gets unseated but at the moment I don't see that happening this year
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Mercedes have Ocon waiting in the wings; and Russell passing time at Williams. Bottas's contract is up at the end of the year; don't you think they'll want to bring one of their young drivers in sooner rather than later?
 
Mr Jack said:
Mercedes have Ocon waiting in the wings; and Russell passing time at Williams. Bottas's contract is up at the end of the year; don't you think they'll want to bring one of their young drivers in sooner rather than later?
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I thought Bottas had longer on his contract, so if that's the case and he's out of contract after this season, then he'd make a lot of sense for Ferrari as a backup driver.
 
Steampunk said:
Vettel has never been a great driver.
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Steampunk said:
He's won a lot of races and championships
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:p
 
JRS said:
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:p
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Bottas has been in the top three in a lot of races, is he a great driver?

You can win a lot without being "great". Being great at something is more than just the scorebook. Look at Vettel's poor performance wheel-to-wheel, his cheating and temper tantrums, all of which have not improved. Compare that to Hamilton who has won more, is considered to be one of the cleanest and fairest drivers ever, and has just improved year on year, is an ambassador for the sport known in areas of life that normally have nothing to do with Formula 1.

If Vettel won titles by cheating his way to the win (and there have been some pretty dodgy things about the Red Bulls and the Ferraris over the years), would you still consider him to be "great"?
 
Vettel will retire. His string of race-ending mistakes and generally disinterested attitude isn’t making him seem particularly attractive to any of the mid-field teams and the top 3 all have #1 drivers in place.
 
Hamilton will never
koolpc said:
I bet Hamilton will join Ferrari.

I know he said he wants to stay at Merc but lets see!
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Never ever going to happen (unless Merc quit the sport).

Would love to see Ricciardo get the seat, yes he'd fight for wins and not be a number 2 but Ferrari will not win the constructors with just one fast driver. However I don't think he will, it'll probably be someone boring like Bottas.
 
Let's hope this one goes away quietly unlike Alonso. We need to concentrate on the younger drivers now.
 
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