silly season - F1 2017 driver line up

I think Bottas is probably pretty equal in terms of speed and consistancy to Rosberg. Therefore not as fast as Hamilton over a season, but capable of beating him on his good days or when Hamilton is having a bad day.

I've no doubt Hamilton will come out on top out of the two, provided they have equal cars and reliablity over the season.

Hopefully Bottas won't resort to driving people off the track when he starts to sniff a chance to beat Hamilton.... Glad Rosberg is gone to be honest, his defending of position is worse than Max's
 
I'm not expecting Bottas to be up to speed straight away, he's only got a month to adapt to a new work place with different staff, processes, simulators and car characteristics before pre-season testing starts. Pascal has been in their simulator for over 2 years, in season testing with the car and a year racing at the back and Merc didn't consider that enough experience. I hope he gets up to speed quick and is competitive against Lewis so we can see more fireworks in the team and more off track drama.
 
Darryl_1983 said:
I think Bottas is probably pretty equal in terms of speed and consistancy to Rosberg. Therefore not as fast as Hamilton over a season, but capable of beating him on his good days or when Hamilton is having a bad day.

I've no doubt Hamilton will come out on top out of the two, provided they have equal cars and reliablity over the season.

Hopefully Bottas won't resort to driving people off the track when he starts to sniff a chance to beat Hamilton.... Glad Rosberg is gone to be honest, his defending of position is worse than Max's
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I reckon Bottas is faster than Rosberg. We've only seen him in that Williams which is terrible in anything other than a straight line, rubbish in the wet, and makes extremely bad strategy calls.
 
englishpremier said:
I reckon Bottas is faster than Rosberg. We've only seen him in that Williams which is terrible in anything other than a straight line, rubbish in the wet, and makes extremely bad strategy calls.
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He could well be better than Rosberg but he would have to be far superior to break the hold Hamilton will have on the team with all those years as a team member having a car and team built around him. I'm not sure there's a driver on the grid that could enter that and put up a showing without a mass fall out.
 
Bottas needs to be good enough to push and and pressure Hamilton - Mercedes will want that to get the best performance out of him. Mercedes will also want Bottas to be very competitive with Hamilton as an example to him that they can win without him - keeps egos in check and contract negotiations more realistic.

Of course, RBR could win the first four races and then nobody would be talking about this anyway! Can't wait for pre-season testing to start.
 
Kermit said:
His workplace is pretty much as before, in an F1 car on the track and he's had 5 seasons to get used the formula. Given all drivers will need to get used to a what for at least all the major teams with be a 90%+ new chassis thats much wider and I expect totally different grip levels from 2016 and he already knows the 2016 Merc engine then I wouldn't suggest uses lack of experience of the Merc as any potential excuse 'if' he's a lot slower than Lewis, not that I expect him to be slow or having to learn any more other drivers switching teams and really only then allowing for confusion with the myriad of steering wheels knobs and buttons in different positions :p
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This shouldn't really be an issue either as the drivers can choose what buttons they want where. Hamilton and Rosberg had different steering wheel layouts, it's drivers preference. Bottas will obviously have to learn to navigate the menus.
 
He will be drilling menu processes and using the sim extensively. He will be totally fine with navigation, it's just knowing all the actual deeper menu functions that would be a pain!
I am guessing, looking at Hamilton's menu woes earlier last season!
 
Kermit said:
His workplace is pretty much as before, in an F1 car on the track and he's had 5 seasons to get used the formula. Given all drivers will need to get used to a what for at least all the major teams with be a 90%+ new chassis thats much wider and I expect totally different grip levels from 2016 and he already knows the 2016 Merc engine then I wouldn't suggest uses lack of experience of the Merc as any potential excuse 'if' he's a lot slower than Lewis, not that I expect him to be slow or having to learn any more other drivers switching teams and really only then allowing for confusion with the myriad of steering wheels knobs and buttons in different positions :p
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Hamilton had some of Rosberg's mechanics this year and apparently it was that changeover that caused reliability issues that lost him the season. All of their workplaces were the same as before, if swapping 5 mechanics can have that much of a psychological effect on a driver how does swapping 700 not affect them?
 
Steeps said:
Hamilton had some of Rosberg's mechanics this year and apparently it was that changeover that caused reliability issues that lost him the season. All of their workplaces were the same as before, if swapping 5 mechanics can have that much of a psychological effect on a driver how does swapping 700 not affect them?
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I think it was a mechanical affect not psychological that caused problems for Lewis in this year's Championship. In any case, Lewis didn't choose it. Bottas did. Plenty of drivers have switched teams and immediately been fast, some even won the championship.
 
englishpremier said:
I think it was a mechanical affect not psychological that caused problems for Lewis in this year's Championship. In any case, Lewis didn't choose it. Bottas did. Plenty of drivers have switched teams and immediately been fast, some even won the championship.
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The 5 mechanics don't have a say who gets what engine, that's done at the factory, so blaming the failures on the switch of 5 trackside mechanics is psychological because he had to blame something and I doubt Mercedes would be fine having their engine branded a GP2 engine.

If Bottas gets more points than Hamilton will we blame a change in mechanics again?
 
Steeps said:
Hamilton had some of Rosberg's mechanics this year and apparently it was that changeover that caused reliability issues that lost him the season. All of their workplaces were the same as before, if swapping 5 mechanics can have that much of a psychological effect on a driver how does swapping 700 not affect them?
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no one has, outside conspiracy sites. Of which there's one or two on here.
 
Glaucus said:
no one has, outside conspiracy sites. Of which there's one or two on here.
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So Toto Wolff himself is stirring the conspiracy?

Toto said:
“So that one comment was taken out and it is clear that if you change a crew that is directly involved with a drivers, such as mechanics or a number one, that a driver constantly looks at when he’s pulling out of the garage, it can have a psychological effect."
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Steeps said:
So Toto Wolff himself is stirring the conspiracy?
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nope, that's you taking a comment out of context. or reading it on said conspiracy sites, his issue was reliability, with out that he would have won and by quite a large amount.
now the rest of the quote you decided to leave out.
But as a matter of fact we are 1,500 people in Brixworth and Brackley and it’s about developing personnel. Somebody who was working on one corner of the car today as a mechanic might be a number one next year, might be a chief mechanic afterwards and maybe has even more potential within the organisation. In a similar way we have done all through the organisation we are not keeping it static. It’s a dynamic structure and the same happens in the garage. This is a fact. I appreciate the effect on the singular driver and it was taken into consideration and maybe I’ll write a book in 10 years and we’ll put some things in there.
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Bottas hast been disappointing of late. Let's hope he can step up to the big stage and prove my opinion wrong; it'll certainly make or break his reputation.

I'd have liked to have seen a more daring choice, and Massa back for another season of past-it racing? Ugh.
 
deuse said:
I hope Bottas has more then a one year deal http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/w...in-bottas-but-wants-2018-options-open-866542/

He could have shoot himself in the foot.
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Ouch.. I'm guessing he's thought to himself i'll never get another shot like this again so i may as well go for it? Obviously staying at a lower team for years and years could be better financially and your future but are you ever going to win things?? If I'm honest, I'd probably have done the same too. Hopefully he does well and gets rewarded for it appropriately.
 
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