silly season 2018 - F1 driver line up

andicole0 said:
@lunarwolf Is Kvyatt confirmed at TR for 2018 yet?
Andi.
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no news since TR statement last summer (I posted link in a previous post), in which they said they were planning on continuing with Sainz and Kvyatt. However many things have changed since then ie Honda will supply them and Sainz is on loan to Renault for 2018.

As I see it, they have the following options in order of likelihood
- Kvyatt + Gasly
- Gasly + Matsushita
- Kvyatt + Matsushita

Although far from brilliant, Kvyatt is familiar with team and car, but then again the team doesn't rate him much since they gave his seat up to Gasly in next couple of races.

Furthermore, Honda are keen to get Matsushita a seat. He won't get a superlicense since he is 6th in F2 championship and not enough races left for him to finish in top 3; however, Malt Vinegar said there is a loophole according to Appendix L ie if FIA vote unanimously.

I have a feeling that there are current negotiations between Honda and the FIA to get a seat for Matsushita. I have no proof of this, so it is just speculation on my part having just learned there was an Appendix L

Finally, there is no urgency for TR to confirm drivers yet since they hold the cards. I doubt we will get any news for at least a month or two, depending on how Gasly performs in next couple of races and the outcome of any potential negotiations Honda are undertaking on behalf of Matsushita.

PS I updated OP and put Kvyatt as TBC due to recent changes at TR
 
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I was trying to look at the history of appendix l being used. Struggling to find any source of this information.

Perhaps when Lotterer filled in? However, under current criteria, he would qualify under super formula results, so he had clear pedigree at the time anyway. Probably not the same sort of situation.

Would be interested to know where I could find that info.
 
MissChief said:
Interesting that it's for a single year. The silly circus towards the end of 2018 is going to be ridiculous. As far as I can make out, only Vettel and Hulkenberg have cast iron contracts. Everyone else either has performance clauses (Max apparently) or is out of contract at the end of next year.
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Agreed 2019 will be super silly season with a mad rush for Ferrari and Mercedes 2nd seats. We may see new records in terms of salary negotiations, esp if Max as an opt out clause and an incident free 2018 season
 
Aren't Mercedes still rumoured to be considering selling the team in a couple of years, following the loss of Petronas? They might want a couple of decent but inexpensive drivers contracted for a couple of years if so. If they can get Ocon on the relative cheap he might tick that box.
 
The_Abyss said:
Aren't Mercedes still rumoured to be considering selling the team in a couple of years, following the loss of Petronas? They might want a couple of decent but inexpensive drivers contracted for a couple of years if so. If they can get Ocon on the relative cheap he might tick that box.
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What are you basing this off exactly, they signed a multi year extension to the existing deal with mercedes this year... and the last deal was stated to be a 10 year deal from 2014... meaning they just agreed to stay the course for at least a few years more post 2024 as far as I can tell. Singapore wasn't the reason Petronas were in F1 with Mercedes, they are in F1 for the advertising and relationship with Mercedes.

There is very little hint of Mercedes leaving or even considering leaving beyond Jordan saying so.

It terms of TR seats, Matsushita's test/free practice session supposedly went poorly and he was considered miles slower and no where near good enough for F1 which I think is pretty much why the talk of him has disappeared. Honda aren't interested in having a Japanese driver come in and embarrass them by being terrible. Hell, it would look better for Kvyat to be terrible than a Japanese driver. Kvyat if he finds his form is a very capable driver, but he's been crapped on so much that they killed his confidence completely it seems. There are other options though, loan Wehrlein would be good for them and Mercedes imo. Frankly regardless of it Sauber decide to ditch him or Ericsson, it would be better for Wehrlein and for Mercedes to have him for a year in the TR seat, test him more properly and know if they should back him for the future. You just aren't learning enough having a guy in a backmarker team.

The only thing we really know is that Wehrlein is better than Ericsson because Sauber suck too badly to do anything interesting in that car. Even with the current years Ferrari I don't see them suddenly being even half way competitive. I think Leclerc looks really exciting and it will be a shame to see him in a Sauber looking extremely unexciting because he hasn't got a car that can do anything.

It seems a real shame that Haas seems to be committed to sticking with Grosjean and Magnussen as they turned down the opportunity to take on Leclerc, which would have helped them with money and more help from Ferrari. Sauber may want to do better but I think we all know they won't any time soon, Leclerc in a Sauber seems like a huge let down in terms of exciting new drivers coming in to make things more interesting.

Haas, no idea what they are doing, personally think Grosjean and Magnussen are dead weight making refusing Leclerc even more crazy. They could have gotten Ferrari to buy out either of their remaining contracts to get Leclerc, win win, probably a couple years with Leclerc which could make them a good future team for other young drivers coming through. Sauber is the current young drivers go to kill their career team because the team has gone nowhere in years. Haas had the chance to be the team that accept Merc/Ferrari/Mclaren young drivers and keep constant young talented drivers coming through. Grosjean for me is a bad driver, Monza in qualifying, the only guy to bin it complains about the conditions but was from memory going 30kph faster than Hamilton or Vettel down the straight where he binned it. If rain shows the best and worst drivers, Grosjean is one of the worst on the grid, he screws up literally every wet session or race because he's inept. Even when dry he's only fast because he's reckless and gets into some kinda contact every other race even if it's minor, while also being a whiny ***** who blames the team for everything. It was finally called out earlier this year by the team boss that Magnussen works around the car better and has less brake problems. In other words a huge part of the reason Grosjean keeps having brake problems is because he stamps on the brakes, drives how he wishes his perfect car could be driven rather than taking care on the brakes and driving as the car requires. same deal with Monza, he drove as fast as he could, not what the car could do in those conditions which literally every single other driver managed to do on the day.
 
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