Italian Grand Prix 2012, Monza - Race 13/20
- Thread starter Duke
- Start date
maybe I have lived in Madrid as well 
As has been said. If Ferrari will get Vettel in 2014 then they will only want someone for a year. For this reason I suspect Felipe will be re-signed for next year only.
Fernando will block any move for Lewis to Ferrari. Sure things may not be as bad as they were when they were both a McLaren and most of Fernando's anger was a McLaren, not Lewis directly.
Lewis will sign for McLaren, probably for a least two years. Massa will stay at Ferrari next season and Mercedes will most likely stick with who they have.
The only exception I ca see is that if RB lose Vettel then Lewis may only want a one year deal so he can go to Red Bull in 2014.
Fernando will block any move for Lewis to Ferrari. Sure things may not be as bad as they were when they were both a McLaren and most of Fernando's anger was a McLaren, not Lewis directly.
Lewis will sign for McLaren, probably for a least two years. Massa will stay at Ferrari next season and Mercedes will most likely stick with who they have.
The only exception I ca see is that if RB lose Vettel then Lewis may only want a one year deal so he can go to Red Bull in 2014.
I agree. It also supports why they have played down the Perez talk.
I think it may be more about the press and the expectation from the world that they would fall out. But I can't imagine he genuinely wants Lewis as a team mate.
Yep, although I think Merc have better long term options available to them than Schumacher. Although they may choose to develop someone like Di Resta for another year at Force India before bringing him in.
I think this is another factor in why its taking a while for Lewis to sign. I don't think he will get a 1 year deal anywhere though.
After all the hype around what could happen this year in terms of drivers I think its just going to be a massively disappointing anticlimax when all the top teams (Ferrari, McLaren, RBR, Mercedes, Lotus) all just stick with the same driver line-ups
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Soldato
Lewis just needs to look at what happended to alonso after he left mclaren. Two years in a dog of a car but talent like that and a rather wealthy sponsor got him a seat at ferrari. Also what would hammy expect to get at ferrari? Theres no dennis to help out and he is going into alonso's team, plus he would earn a lot less than alonso. He should stay put at mclaren but then again would a repeat of 2009 dog car be possible?
There's no guarantee anyone else won't produce a rubbish car either. McLaren are regarded throughout the paddock as the team that develop their car the fastest and best.
Lewis might want some sort of performance based clause built in which allows him to be released just in case Vettel does go to Ferrari and the McLaren is a shopping trolley with wings.
Lewis might want some sort of performance based clause built in which allows him to be released just in case Vettel does go to Ferrari and the McLaren is a shopping trolley with wings.
Red Bull have said over and over they have no interest in Lewis and will be using their youth programme which they heavily invest into when they need to replace any driver, so I think Red Bull is a closed ship no matter what happens with Vettel.
Ferrari is probably a no-go even though he would get treated very well in Alonso's team, so it probably leaves him McLaren or Mercedes, personally I would like to see him go to Mercedes and suffer for a season or two as I personally believe this builds a driver into a more complete product when they have to fight a car in the midfield and when they get back into a top team they have learned plenty from it. All the great drivers have had to do it.
Ferrari is probably a no-go even though he would get treated very well in Alonso's team, so it probably leaves him McLaren or Mercedes, personally I would like to see him go to Mercedes and suffer for a season or two as I personally believe this builds a driver into a more complete product when they have to fight a car in the midfield and when they get back into a top team they have learned plenty from it. All the great drivers have had to do it.
Soldato
Gave him a good car, so he would sign a contract.
Contract then signed, "Right guys, slow his car down. He's back to whipping boy status"
Contract then signed, "Right guys, slow his car down. He's back to whipping boy status"
I agree, imagine if JB was the team leader this season. Looking at possible Lewis replacements JB would definately be the team leader. Then look at his grid slots through the year. Yes he would have won two races but the team would have looked like it was in decline.
I'm really a big fan of JB but since the 2nd half of 2009 whatever happened is killing his chances of ever taking another title. As a team owner it would worry me being left with JB and a driver of lesser ability than Lewis or Jenson.
On the flip though Mclaren in the last 20 years haven't exactly done the best for their drivers either. The cars are rarely consistently good year to year and when they get most of the ingredients right they are laughable bad at dropping clangers of race losing proportions
Sadly for JB and Lewis their is no where to currently go.
Last season JB could easily have won the title without LH in the team (at the very least it would have been a **** of a lot closer) so Im not sure your arguement really carries much weight.
LH and JB both struggled with tyre issues (admittedly more JB, but there were a number of times LH mentioned it earlier this season) ,so its a little harsh to just point at his position now in the WDC and put it all down to him, let alone suggest McLaren would be worried with him being the team leader.
And yet they have won one constructors in 20 years and 3? drivers titles. The whole yarn about Mclaren being the fastest to develope a car came from one disastrous year where they turned the car around. Ever since we get that pedalled out.
Clearly they aren't the best at developing the car or they would win more. What the drivers need to win the title is a car that's the best from day one, not 7 months later and omg aren't we quick to develope a car. That's why so many champions have won the first race of the season.
Brawn are the worst I've seen in years at car development, they gave up mid season. Yet they won the title because they got points on the board early, while Mclaren busied themselves 'being the fastest on the grid to develope'.
I've said for years Mclaren are not a team to consistently stay at the top. They don't build the best car for 2 seasons on the trot, the last time was probably when Senna drove the car. I wouldn't trust them to not take 3 years to get right any big reg changes. They haven't been great at that since Newey departed.
I'd love to know how he could have won it last year with a 120 point gap, even without Lewis and being an outright team leader. Even if from race 1 Lewis moved aside for JB, he still wouldn't have won the title against that red bull.
Button will never win a title again against the drivers of this pedigree without a serious car advantage while he performs so badly on more saturdays than he gets right. It puts him so far on the back foot with tyres and lack of clean air. Which is why all of a sudden he's no longer the mythical tyre saver. Alonso has shown what out performing the car on a saturday gets you with a clear air advantage.
Hopefully I'm wrong and he will win a title from row three and four and I will eat your hat but I can't see it despite good race day showings.
I'm curious how not having Hamilton on the team would have allowed JB to overturn the 11 race wins and 5 second place finishes Vettel had.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Formula_One_season#Drivers_standings
Was Lewis not dominating Jenson for half the season anyway until he went a bit crazy?
Even combining JBs and LHs results to get 6 race wins and 5 second place finishes only gets 347 points. 45 points behind Vettel.
In fairness to McLaren there was the Peugeot years and the Ferrari/Schumacher years of dominance when McLaren have consistently refused to have Number 1 and 2 drivers and given each driver equal chances to win. Ferrari never did that and they reaped the rewards.
Recently only one team has built a great car two years in a row and that has been Red Bull. Then they were told to change their car fundamentally several times.
Soldato
Not childish just jubilant. Fed up with people on the internet s l a g ging him off. He's a great driver and a nice guy. I'd had a few drinks and felt like venting. You never vented before ? Maybe you're too mature for that.
