It's that time of year again. This post is reserved for the grid of 2013:
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It's that time of year again. This post is reserved for the grid of 2013:
There are very strong rumours that Hamilton will be announced at Mercedes-Benz today and apparently the main candidate to replace him may be Checo Perez. It will also be interesting to see if the expected Schumacher departure was on his own terms ...
[quote=Wouter Melissen;989009]There are very strong rumours that Hamilton will be announced at Mercedes-Benz today and apparently the main candidate to replace him may be Checo Perez. It will also be interesting to see if the expected Schumacher departure was on his own terms ...[/quote]
[URL="http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102891"]Confirmed[/URL].
Lewis, in my estimation, has made a huge mistake.
I will guess Checo will win a title at McLaren.
I've heard the speculations about Hamilton to Mercedes before, but they did not sound real to me - McLaren is still a faster car and will probably remain faster than Mercedes next year. I wonder what the reason could be - Button? The more surprising is Checo to McLaren part - I never ever thought about this possibility, but if that happens... It is also notable how everybody just forgot about Kamui when Perez came up.
Why is it a mistake? There are some remarkably gifted people at the helm at Mercedes and they potentially have the biggest budget.
[quote=faksta;989014]I've heard the speculations about Hamilton to Mercedes before, but they did not sound real to me - McLaren is still a faster car and will probably remain faster than Mercedes next year. I wonder what the reason could be - Button? The more surprising is Checo to McLaren part - I never ever thought about this possibility, but if that happens... It is also notable how everybody just forgot about Kamui when Perez came up.[/quote]
Roebels ...
I'm also interested in whether Massa will have a seat somewhere for next year.
[quote=Wouter Melissen;989015]Why is it a mistake? There are some remarkably gifted people at the helm at Mercedes and they potentially have the biggest budget.[/quote]
Sounds like Toyota :rolleyes:
[quote=Wouter Melissen;989016]Roebels ...[/quote]
Fair... Not that it's really a big mistake IMO, as I think he will still be winning races, but the prospects of a second title will be not as bright now.
[quote=faksta;989018]Sounds like Toyota :rolleyes:[/quote]
Not quite. Toyota was always dogged by the oversight from Japan, which slowed things down unnecessarily.
Bad move, Hami.
Perez confirmed at McLaren.
[quote=Wouter Melissen;989015]Why is it a mistake? There are some remarkably gifted people at the helm at Mercedes and they potentially have the biggest budget.[/quote]
I don't think they have the biggest budget. For a few season they are spending strictly at RRA level....
I still don't think Mercedes/BrawnGP/Honda/BAR is a consistent front running team, and won't be. While all the cards seems to be stacked, for some reason they are just not delivering the results. This season they are chasing tire, setup, and ineffective updates. They just seem to have endless excuses and no real solution to the pace that seems to be lacking. And they still have oddball reliability issues.
I don't think Hamilton switched for money, since McLaren was reportedly matching whatever Mercedes offered, but I think Hamilton wants to leave, be it as needing a new environment, or the fact that Ron Dennis is no longer the pillar which team builds on has something to do with it. At any rate I think he would be hard pressed to match McLaren's competitiveness. It would be interesting to see now though how Rosberg stacks up. Rosberg was pretty good last season but even with the win and pole in China, he is relatively matched by Schumacher 2.0 on pace this season....
I wonder how Perez will get on at McLaren. All I can say is that beyond doubt, especially considering that Sauber is an underfunded effort compared to other outfits, the performances that Sergio have posted have been impressive, now we can see what he can do with front running, well-funded machinery.
Of course, Sauber is a prime example of a team with relatively little and getting a lot out of it as well, but if Sergio has done there what he's done this year, imagine what he might do at McLaren or Ferrari or one of the other higher echelon teams.
Well, $100 Million for a three year deal may not be "about the money" in F1 circles, but it's not shabby.
I am still surprised by Perez going to McLaren though, considering how Ferrari seems to be instrumental in his path to F1....