Mercedes second seat?

[wnut]

Massa could still be an excellent stop gap for 2017

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...gramme-in-2017

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by wnut

Massa could still be an excellent stop gap for 2017

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...gramme-in-2017

I thought that too, but it does clearly say 'following his retirement from Formula One...'

[wnut]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

I thought that too, but it does clearly say 'following his retirement from Formula One...'

I think part of the hope here is that when Massa "retired" there was no prospect of a decent drive, and Williams were looking for Stroll's cash.
Now there is a decent seat available and Massa unlike Button seems very keen to keep racing, so he should be an excellent seat holder until an Alonso, Vettel or similar is available in 2018.

He must at least be in with a good shot, surely?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by wnut

I think part of the hope here is that when Massa "retired" there was no prospect of a decent drive, and Williams were looking for Stroll's cash.
Now there is a decent seat available and Massa unlike Button seems very keen to keep racing, so he should be an excellent seat holder until an Alonso, Vettel or similar is available in 2018.

He must at least be in with a good shot, surely?

I admit that I think he'd fit in well at Mercedes. On a good day he can turn out a good performance, and being honest, he generally makes a very subservient number two driver. Another bonus is that he doesn't seem to make a habit of throwing the car into the wall or break it any other way too.
My main doubts is his consistency (especially without Rob Smedley to hold his hand...)

[wnut]

Your reasoning is pretty similar to mine, and he can be extremely quick too, not that 2016 was his best showing.

Was Rob Smedley still his race engineer in 2016, I thought he was moved to having overall responsibility for both cars at the end of 2015?

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

See post 191 in this thread.

Oh dear awfully sorry to have wastedyour clearly valuable time......

[BSchneiderFan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...-mercedes-move

Now, to be fair, Flávio is so crooked that if he swallowed a nail he'd sh*t a corkscrew, but this reinforces what I've been saying. Alonso is contracted to McLaren until next year and I expect him to stay there.

[chillibowl]

but surely the parties can mutually agree to ignore the contract...in much the same way Flav let Alonso start working at Mclaren before his Renault contract expired.

or how Mclaren and Alonso mutually agreed it would be better to terminate his Mclaren contract early.

or how despite Renault (ING years) extending/picking up Alonso's contract extension for 2009 and 2010, Alonso had a secret Ferrari contract which allowed him to leave for Ferrari for the 2010 season.

there was also something weird about his return to Mclaren and Ferrari letting him go early on account of SV showing up i would think.

lets be honest here...when it comes to Alonso and his contracts its always been anyone's guess where the guy will end up.

[chillibowl]

i should add that i agree that while Alonso looks to be a serious long shot for the Merc seat his employment history does allow for there to be a lot of speculation in this area.

[Moneyseeker]

Joe Saward is saying it's Alonso to Mercedes..

[djinvicta]

Actually he says....

"Told you so...it's not happening"

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by djinvicta

Actually he says....

"Told you so...it's not happening"

On the email I got it just said told you so, I didn't get the not happening bit!

[Richard C]

Joe is trolling his readers!

Richard

[JeremySmith]

Joe Saward has no need to troll...

[djinvicta]

There is Flav saying it won't happen.
Joe Saward saying it won't happen.
Which means it probably will.

[gert]

Originally Posted by Moneyseeker

Joe Saward is saying it's Alonso to Mercedes..

IMO that guy has a history of speaking in riddles, answering questions in as few words as possibles and when something happens always saying "see, I told you", "I was right!" even when he did say something else previously.

In a way he is similar to FormulaHistory: just spit out as many lists/rumours/"facts" as you can, and surely one of them is bound to happen.

[GTRMagic]

[wnut]

[gert]

LOL !

[Taxi645]

[wolfhound]

Love it

[Moneyseeker]

In a similar vein...

Gianmaria Bruni ‏@GianmariaBruni Dec 2
after this big news... someone waiting in Brackley

[Hawkwood]

Williams rebuff Mercedes' initial bid for Bottas, with more discussions to come.
Sainz seems to be second on the list now?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38282791

[BSchneiderFan]

I think Wehrlein is a better bet for Mercedes than Bottas. But the Lowe-to-Williams move is potentially much more interesting.

[Chaynes321]

Mercedes - Hamilton, Bottas
Willaims - di Resta, Stroll

Wehrlein ?