The 2017 F1 driver transfer discussion/speculation threadFormula 1 

  • Thread starter mister dog
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Gotta love how Mercedes is/was like "Suprise. It's Bottas" even thought Williams officially confirmed Massa as second driver ~30minutes earlier. And just what was that "#GuessWho" puzzle photo, right after the Williams announcement on their Facebook page? :lol:
 
What a shocker, seriously i thought Newgarden's move to Penske in Indycar was the worst kept secret in Open Wheel until today
 
catamount39
Probably not, not useful to have with the new regs and all. Then again he could be retiring after this year and give him this one too. :P
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Simplest way to get free exotic rides for every day of the week:
1. Threaten to retire every year.
2. Run in top 5 or higher.
3. Receive car.
4. Retire then come back after retirement becomes stale.
5. ??????
6. Profit!
 
I still personally believe that Merc should have taken a wildcard risk and bought out Verstappen's Red Bull contract. But here's hoping Bottas can try to challenge Hamilton this year in a top car since he has colossal boots to fill now as Rosberg's replacement.
 
AudiMan2011
I still personally believe that Merc should have taken a wildcard risk and bought out Verstappen's Red Bull contract.
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They could have done that, but it would have been expensive. So expensive that Hamilton and Verstappen would probably line up on the grid in Melbourne wearing carboard boxes painted like racing cars.

Red Bull made it pretty clear that Verstappen's contract wasn't for sale. And even if it was an option, Verstappen made it equally clear that he wanted to stay with Red Bull. So as much as Mercedes might have liked to recruit Verstappen, it was never going to happen.
 
SagarisGTB
The Bottas that was well beaten by Pastor Maldonado? What?
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The Bottas that scored 3 more points than the proven race winner and qualified 3rd on the grid in one of the worst cars of the season?
 
AudiMan2011
I still personally believe that Merc should have taken a wildcard risk and bought out Verstappen's Red Bull contract. But here's hoping Bottas can try to challenge Hamilton this year in a top car since he has colossal boots to fill now as Rosberg's replacement.
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If I was Max personally, I wouldn't even want to leave RBR.

They're my top pick to win 2017...
 
Jimlaad43
The Bottas that scored 3 more points than the proven race winner and qualified 3rd on the grid in one of the worst cars of the season?
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That's a very selective and superficial way of looking at what transpired that season. Pastor probably had his best season in F1 that year and clearly outperformed Bottas over the full season. It was 9-5 Maldonado when both Williams finished and it could have been even worse for Bottas than that (Korea, for example, Pastor was having a great race in the points and 20+ seconds ahead of Bottas until a late safety car and team decision not to pit nullified his advantage over the pack behind, and he was then overtaken on his older tires).
 
Im not really sure where to rate Bottas, I don't rate any of his F1 team mates to date very highly however last season he did perform really well against Massa.

I guess we will see how this goes.
 
Part of me doesn't believe that Bottas will thrive at Mercedes-Benz. A few years ago I thought Bottas was destined and deserved a top drive however he has tapered off somewhat over the last year or two.

But I would absolutely love to be proven wrong.

Massa's irretirement? Eh, I know it was (publicly) last minute and there were few options but I think Williams should have tried to prise Button away. Behind the scenes Williams have known Bottas is on his way out so they may indeed have had time to do so.
 
Williams should have looked at someone who's proven themselves in another series to give them a year in F1. Maybe tried to prise someone away from LMP1 or Indycar for a season with options for an extension. Think Dixon, Buemi, Lotterer, Hartley, Pagenaud etc
 
Jimlaad43
Williams should have looked at someone who's proven themselves in another series to give them a year in F1. Maybe tried to prise someone away from LMP1 or Indycar for a season with options for an extension. Think Dixon, Buemi, Lotterer, Hartley, Pagenaud etc
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They clearly wanted someone with experience and stability for their programme in general. None of those drivers bar Lotterer for what, one race, have any experience with the current formula. As much as I'd love to see a wild card or a new face over Massa erasing much of the emotion surrounding his retirement, teams don't run on the principle of 'just for the hell of it'.
 
Peter.
They clearly wanted someone with experience and stability for their programme in general.
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If it were any other year, they could probably get away with it. But they were clearly unwilling to take a risk, what with the regulations being overhauled.
 
Personally I think this will really test Bottas' nerves. I'd have to imagine that Mercedes are in one of two minds: 1) Bottas is a solid investment going forward, let's plan on him being here for the next 2-4 years, or 2) Bottas is a fine stand-in while we spend 2017 finding the real driver we want.

I'll be curious when they announce how long Bottas' contact is. If it's one year or two years you know it's pressure-cooker time for Bottas to show what he's got and earn a continued drive at arguably one of the top teams in the sport. Add to that a team mate in Lewis Hamilton and the stress level is going to go through the roof (unless he's a super cool-headed guy who won't be bugged by Hamilton). Let's see how he holds up.

The only down side of this whole thing is Massa returning. I know people enjoy waxing poetic about Massa and Button, etc., but he's really not a good performer, and brings nothing to the sport outside of being a nice guy. I think this'll be a wasted seat for Williams this year, sadly. (I understand the thought process behind keeping him, but I wish Williams had gone out on a limb and tried a young hotshot from elsewhere).
 
Blitz24
Simplest way to get free exotic rides for every day of the week:
1. Threaten to retire every year.
2. Run in top 5 or higher.
3. Receive car.
4. Retire then come back after retirement becomes stale.
5. ??????
6. Profit!
Click to expand...

Retirement didn't become stale, they basically said "we're done here Felipe", and proved it by saying now "Wha? No Felipe, we always needed you here, who is Valtteri?"

In reality Massa was forced out for a pay driver, and a seasoned younger driver that could perform better than him. Too bad it didn't work that way for Williams, and they were given an offer they couldn't refuse.
 
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