silly season - F1 2017 driver line up

lunarwolf · 10 Nov 2016 at 15:07

Guerrilla said:
Ericsson and Nasr set to stay at Sauber in 2017

Nothing official yet but seems the last few seats are falling into place now.

thx updated OP

with Zander joining Sauber as tech director, I wonder if this is a sign of Audi dipping its feet into F1 and test the waters to possibly join F1 in the future since they have abandoned Le Mans

Syla5 · 11 Nov 2016 at 09:05

Zander came from Sauber originally, and Audi have had exclusive use of the Sauber wind tunnel for a long time, so its probably more a convenience thing then anything, this guy knows his stuff and is probably already based in Hinwil.

Malt_Vinegar · 11 Nov 2016 at 09:14

I think another season at Manor is no big problem for Wehrlein really. It means he can contiue to ply his trade without too much pressure, and wait for that bigger Mercedes backed seat to pop up.

FrankJH · 11 Nov 2016 at 10:10

Would really love to see Audi in F1, unfortunately I cant see it - even with the withdrawl from Le Mans (and lets face it, the costs even now in F1 are astronomic in comparison to sports cars)

Syla5 · 11 Nov 2016 at 11:22

FrankJH said:
Would really love to see Audi in F1, unfortunately I cant see it - even with the withdrawl from Le Mans (and lets face it, the costs even now in F1 are astronomic in comparison to sports cars)

I think this is a common miss conception. Audi are reported to be spending $350m per year on their le mans program. Redbull a top spending team, just released their accounts for 14-15 and reported a profit after making £240m ($290m) and only spending £230m .

A source at Audi has said the saving should be $110m per year to Audi, but this doesn't confirm if all the spending previously was canned or if staffing costs etc and some budget will move to other areas such as DTM and formula E.

WEC budgets of the big teams are just as comparable to F1 more so now then ever.

lunarwolf · 11 Nov 2016 at 15:11

Syla5 said:
Zander came from Sauber originally.

I didn't know that. guess my hopes of seeing Audi in F1 were in vain

seems that Kmag's Haas deal is done but just hasn't been announced officially, probably this weekend. http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/haas-hopes-to-tie-up-magnussen-deal-this-weekend-848256/?s=1

so unless Manor pick up Guttierez, it is the end of his F1 career http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/gutierrez-confirms-haas-f1-exit-848467/?s=1

lunarwolf · 12 Nov 2016 at 15:02

Haas confirms Grosjean and Kmag for 2017 http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/haas-confirms-magnussen-alongside-grosjean-for-2017-848803/?s=1

Malt_Vinegar · 15 Nov 2016 at 21:42

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/17...brazil-points-will-impact-manors-2017-line-up

Looks like manor is going to have to go with financially driven driver choices

I guess this means we will have to wait longer now for confirmation, as who knows, they might get a couple of points and knock sauber back down?

andicole0 · 21 Nov 2016 at 11:27

Ericsson re-signs for Sauber.

Three places left :-)

2 at Manor and 1 at Sauber.

Andi.

andicole0 · 21 Nov 2016 at 11:28

Malt_Vinegar said:
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/17...brazil-points-will-impact-manors-2017-line-up

Looks like manor is going to have to go with financially driven driver choices

I guess this means we will have to wait longer now for confirmation, as who knows, they might get a couple of points and knock sauber back down?

Is Maldonado still free? ;-)

Andi.

englishpremier · 21 Nov 2016 at 12:18

I reckon Maldonado in a Mercedes would beat Nico over a season. Perhaps he should come back and race for Manor as a stepping stone

The_Abyss · 21 Nov 2016 at 13:11

I think Maldonado is also free of sponsorship these days too!

lunarwolf · 21 Nov 2016 at 15:26

andicole0 said:
Ericsson re-signs for Sauber.

Three places left 2 at Manor and 1 at Sauber.

Andi.

thx - updated OP

Steeps · 21 Nov 2016 at 16:50

andicole0 said:
Five places left 2 at Manor and 3 at Sauber.

Fixed

andicole0 · 21 Nov 2016 at 20:46

Steeps said:
Fixed

Hmm, care to explain ;-)

Andi.

Steeps · 21 Nov 2016 at 20:56

andicole0 said:
Hmm, care to explain
Andi.

Sorry, thought they had 4 drivers contracted to 2 seats in 2015, turns out they had 5 who had paid to drive those cars. Suppose they don't need the extra drivers signed up now they are ahead of Manor and can just sign up 2 drivers.

BBC said:
The Swiss team actually ended up with five drivers contracted for this season - Van der Garde, last year's race drivers, Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez, and the two current drivers, Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson.

andicole0 · 21 Nov 2016 at 21:03

I see but for 2017 there's only 1 seat left.
Andi.

Malt_Vinegar · 22 Nov 2016 at 13:59

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127221/wehrlein-frontrunner-for-sauber-second-seat

Speculation about Wehrlein getting the vacant Sauber seat over Nasr. Fuel to get Nasr's sponsors to cough up, or real?

Steeps · 22 Nov 2016 at 16:08

Woud assume it's getting Nasr to open his chequebook as the car was covered (painted blue with that game changing yellow stripe on the nose) in his sponsors, thought Pascal could only offer Merc engines, which is a bit late for a switch now.

andicole0 · 2 Dec 2016 at 13:58

OP needs to change the Mercedes entry!!

Who is getting that seat|?
Andi.