The '13 driver transfer discussion/speculation thread op updated 16/10

  • Thread starter F1 fan
  • 2,521 comments
  • 158,243 views
Status
Not open for further replies.
Qinghua Ma will drive for HRT in the first practice session of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, so I wouldn't be surprised if he is being groomed for a race seat in 2013. I think Chinese investment in the sport is an inevitability, and HRT have signalled that they would be willing to go a long way to secure their long-term future in Formula 1, even expressing a willingness to change their name. I could see them racing in 2013 under a Chinese name and racing licence.
 
His contract supposedly only guarantees him a seat until the Indian Grand Prix. If that is to be believed, then Ma or Clos (or someone we don't know about) could be in the car for Abu Dhabi, Austin and Interlagos.
 
This...is unexpected. I don't think Eddie Jordan would BS.
 
Jordan may play the clown on TV, but he does know his stuff and this scenario makes perfect sense.

And I don't really think McLaren will be sorry to see Lewis go.
 
His contract supposedly only guarantees him a seat until the Indian Grand Prix. If that is to be believed, then Ma or Clos (or someone we don't know about) could be in the car for Abu Dhabi, Austin and Interlagos.

Shame really, cause I love that guy.


He was never gonna stay with them for his entire career, though I'd have expected him to wait until they started making rubbish cars.

Now the obvious question begs, who would replace him?
 
He was never gonna stay with them for his entire career, though I'd have expected him to wait until they started making rubbish cars.

Now the obvious question begs, who would replace him?


One of their test drivers?
Oliver Turvey and Gary Paffet
 
AJHG1000
One of their test drivers?
Oliver Turvey and Gary Paffet

I doubt Mclaren would seriously consider any of them... Mclaren will go for the best drivers available. I don't know where people have gotten it into their head that they only employ British drivers...
 
I doubt Mclaren would seriously consider any of them... Mclaren will go for the best drivers available. I don't know where people have gotten it into their head that they only employ British drivers...

I'd go for Hulkenberg, he has shown signs of someone who could be a champion one day. I bet he'll be relatively cheap to.

Guess that's Karthikeyan gone then.

I don't think he has been good enough, yes his car is terrible but De La Rosa seems to be much faster and he stays out the way of the front guys.
 
Contract posturing probably. McLaren want to pay him less, Hamilton wants more. McLaren wants a long term contract, Hamilton wants a short term (maybe?).
Saying things and starting rumours help one side or the other get nervous and hurry their decision.

Same as when the rumours of Button to Ferrari were about.

I'd be very surprised if Hamilton went for Mercedes. He's got it made at McLaren, no point in going else where except for Ferrari and Red Bull.
 
Contract posturing probably. McLaren want to pay him less, Hamilton wants more. McLaren wants a long term contract, Hamilton wants a short term (maybe?).
Saying things and starting rumours help one side or the other get nervous and hurry their decision.

Same as when the rumours of Button to Ferrari were about.

I'd be very surprised if Hamilton went for Mercedes. He's got it made at McLaren, no point in going else where except for Ferrari and Red Bull.

I think Lotus would be a good move, they've produced a car this year which is very good and it's not down to a single significant part like the 2009 Brawn car. Apparently they have not had as much money to play with as the other top teams so cost cutting regulations may favour them.
 
But do Lotus have the money to pay for Hamilton? They are still run largely on Genii's money and the "Lotus" sponsorship doesn't even include much money anymore (its just an agreement to run the name now).
 
So if that leads to Di Resta going to McLaren, who gets the second seat at Ferrari...?

This may seem kinda out of left field, but what about Heikki Kovalainen? He has been impressive in a poor Lotus/Caterham for 3 years now, it's about time he moved back up the grid.
He is exactly what Ferrari is looking for, an experienced driver who won't threaten Alonso, but is capable of consistenly scoring points and maybe the occasional win. He has also hinted he is dissapointed with Caterham's development, and is looking to move up the grid.
 
Well that would be a brickhead move from Hamilton. Arguably the worst driver on tire preservation(I realize he has done a little to prove otherwise) plus the worst car(MErcedes) on tire wear? Its back to the drawing board boys....
 
Well that would be a brickhead move from Hamilton. Arguably the worst driver on tire preservation(I realize he has done a little to prove otherwise) plus the worst car(MErcedes) on tire wear? Its back to the drawing board boys....

I don't think Hamilton is particularly poor on his tyres. Since the Pirellis have been in the sport, he has driven cars that weren't very good on their tyres to begin with.
 
Well regardless moving to the team with the worst tire wear for 2 consecutive years. All Mercedes Radio messages include "You need to take care of the rear tires," then, "the rear tires are getting hot,"..followed by "I don't have any rear tires!"...I think its good for Hamilton to escape Mclaren. Mclaren is a Family to him and family has a pretty odd way of screwing everything up.

Just look at what happening with Graham Rahal(the opposite). Instead of swopping in to his fathers team he raced with newman haas and then Gannasi and finally coming back to his dad's team. Thats the way the not become spoiled. Rahal has to make a name for himself on his own before he can come to his dad team.

Hamilton was effectively spoiled by racing first with Mclaren.

Imagine if Vettel had been spoiled by Red Bull since his first grand prix race. He would be an even bigger Prince Stompy foot than he is know lolol. Having the experience of racing with the lower level teams like Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber. Vettel is a better person because of it.
 
Last edited:
Well regardless moving to the team with the worst tire wear for 2 consecutive years. All Mercedes Radio messages include "You need to take care of the rear tires," then, "the rear tires are getting hot,"..followed by "I don't have any rear tires!"...I think its good for Hamilton to escape Mclaren. Mclaren is a Family to him and family has a pretty odd way of screwing everything up.

Just look at what happening with Graham Rahal(the opposite). Instead of swopping in to his fathers team he raced with newman haas and then Gannasi and finally coming back to his dad's team. Thats the way the not become spoiled. Rahal has to make a name for himself on his own before he can come to his dad team.

Hamilton was effectively spoiled by racing first with Mclaren.

Imagine if Vettel had been spoiled by Red Bull since his first grand prix race. He would be an even bigger Prince Stompy foot than he is know lolol. Having the experience of racing with the lower level teams like Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber. Vettel is a better person because of it.

Lowliness is the word you're looking for
 
But do Lotus have the money to pay for Hamilton?
I don't think there has been anything serious to suggest Lotus could take Hamilton. For one, there has been nothing to suggest they are looking to drop either Grosjean or Raikkonen. And secondly, the rumours of Hamilton to Lotus only started ocne Webber re-signed with Red Bull, which to me suggests the rumours were started by a group of Hamilton's fans who blame McLaren for his poor form, rather than admit that Hamilton has become a bit aimless of late.
 
But do Lotus have the money to pay for Hamilton?

Ah, forgot about that.

I don't think there has been anything serious to suggest Lotus could take Hamilton. For one, there has been nothing to suggest they are looking to drop either Grosjean or Raikkonen. And secondly, the rumours of Hamilton to Lotus only started ocne Webber re-signed with Red Bull, which to me suggests the rumours were started by a group of Hamilton's fans who blame McLaren for his poor form, rather than admit that Hamilton has become a bit aimless of late.

Poor form? what has he done wrong in the car? he's had some DNFs which he couldn't do anything about (perhaps he could have let Pastor through at Valencia) and some pit stop errors. He was robbed of points in the pits multiple times, 2 of Alonso's wins came after passing Lewis in the pit lane. I'm a big Hamilton fan and his car is possibly the fastest out there but Mclaren are probably the worst team on the grid at turning performance into points.

Having the experience of racing with the lower level teams like Toro Rosso and BMW Sauber. Vettel is a better person because of it.
You could put Mclaren in that midfield group for the first half of 2009
 
Poor form?
Pretty much everything in 2011. There are die-hard Hamilton fans who deny that anything was wrong last year, and that everything was the team's fault. They still insist that Lord Lewis was on top of his game last year, and hold it against McLaren. They are the people I am talking about, who would have started these rumours because Hamilton moving to a team like Lotus and succeeding would prove that it was all McLaren's fault.

what has he done wrong in the car?
Perhaps the more-challenging question is what Hamilton has done wrong out of the car. And the answer is that he has shown some of the most erratic, questonable and bizarre behaviours from a driver that the sport has ever seen. Posting the telemetry on Twitter is just the tip of the iceberg – how about his infamous “don’t touch me, man!” episode in Singapore last year? Or his Bob Marley helmet in India, which was meant to represent “no woman, no cry” and his on-again, off-again relationship with Nicole Scherzinger?

For the time being, McLaren have tolerated it, though one suspects that their patience must be wearing thin by now, and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the only reason why they haven’t let him go yet is that they feel any other driver is going to be a step down from him, but sooner or later, he is going to stop being an asset and start being a liability, and when that happens, McLaren will walk away.

If that happens, teams like Lotus and Ferrari and Red Bull aren't going to be interested in him.

Mclaren are probably the worst team on the grid at turning performance into points.
Did you watch the Belgian Grand Prix?
 
Pretty much everything in 2011.

I thought we were talking about 2012, you know Hamilton's had a bad year when he finishes behind Button.

Perhaps the more-challenging question is what Hamilton has done wrong out of the car.
I suppose those twitter comments where stupid but as I said he's done his job in the car this year at least.

Did you watch the Belgian Grand Prix?

They've had the most wins but look at how far behind Red Bull they are in the constructors, that's a team that knows to win a championship.
 
Last edited:
I suppose those twitter comments where stupid but as I said he's done his job in the car.
Not in Germany. Not in qualifying for Belgium. Not in Bahrain or at Silverstone.

And while he might have "done his job" in the car, out of the car, some of his antics have left me wondering whether he deserves to drive for McLaren at all.
 
Not in Germany. Not in qualifying for Belgium. Not in Bahrain or at Silverstone.

And while he might have "done his job" in the car, out of the car, some of his antics have left me wondering whether he deserves to drive for McLaren at all.

Germany puncture ruined his chances and he was one of the few drivers to actually use his brain to try and avoid the debris, Belgium was just a bad wing choice, Bahrain he qualified 2nd and lost over 17 seconds in the pits due to 2 bad pit stops IIRC and Silverstone was wet all weekend so they had limited time to test new parts. He's the only driver to make it to Q3 at every race this season which is pretty impressive.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back