[Rumours] 2016 Driver Silly Season & Beyond

[BSchneiderFan]

Unless the deal is being sweetened by cheaper engines, in which case Mercedes may have some say over who they favour.

[S griffin]

So Magnussen to Haas? A good combo him and Romain

[wolfhound]

Palmer to stay at Renault.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127021

[wolfhound]

Ocon gets the second Force India seat.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/127026

It will be interesting to watch his progress.

[BSchneiderFan]

Interesting that Ocon is on a "multi-year" deal - but I assume there are break clauses if Mercedes wants him.

[newlaprecord]

There are strong rumours over here that Picci are happy with the Nasr and Ericsson , who are equally happy to chip in for the 2017 budget, so no changes are expected at Sauber.

Guiterrez is now linked with Manor to partner Wehrlein, while Magnussen is pretty much as good as comfirmed at Haas with Grojean.

Im not exactly a historian, but was there ever a season with no rookies before? 2017 could easly end up being one.

[S griffin]

Maybe it's about time we did have more teams in F1, no new talent in F1 is not right

[chillibowl]

well Stroll and Ocon will be rookies and i suppose one could put Vandoorne in there as a full season rookie.

but as to your question...i cant think of a season without at least one rookie...actually cant even think if i have ever heard that question asked before to be honest.

[newlaprecord]

abu dhabi will be ocon's 9th race....
but you are right about stroll completely forgot about him.
so 1 rookie then.

[chillibowl]

yes indeed my bad...meant to include him with Vandoorne as about to have a full and proper rookie season...but i guess thats not how being a rookie works anyways.

[steve_r]

I doubt anyone experienced will be in the second seat at Manor, assuming Pascal W gets the 1st seat.

So probably 3 rookies if you count Vandoorne, who has only done one race IIRC. That is not too bad.

Losing Massa, Button and Gutierrez.

[p-matt]

Keep hearing very mixed reports about whether Nasr stays at Sauber or moves to Manor. If also heard that Gutierrez and even Haryanto are candidates for both.

I wonder if Giovinazzi might be in the mix at Manor? He's a Mercedes junior now I think.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by p-matt

Keep hearing very mixed reports about whether Nasr stays at Sauber or moves to Manor. If also heard that Gutierrez and even Haryanto are candidates for both.

I wonder if Giovinazzi might be in the mix at Manor? He's a Mercedes junior now I think.

I thought Ferrari had Gio on tbeir books in sone capacity?

If Wolf has snapped him up I could quite easily see him jumping Ocon and Wehrlein in the F1 promotion queue pretty quickly!!

[p-matt]

Giovinazzi did a sim test for Ferrari, but that was it.

I'm still not fully convinced on Giovinazzi yet. He's done well this year, but he's in the best GP2 team by miles. On raw pace he's not as quick as Gasly, and Gasly has his flaws too.

[chillibowl]

i feel like Suber has to retain Nasr now.

[bella]

especially if it's an excuse not to take gutierrez and his toddler strops back

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

i feel like Suber has to retain Nasr now.

I suspect that Nasr was leaning towards Manor next year before the race. With the extra money for 10th, Sauber might make more sense.

It was interesting and telling to see Manor's Dave Ryan heap praise on Nasr's drive in interviews after the race. Probably more so than Ocon's equally impressive drive.

[chunterer]

Ocon was mega in a back of the grid car. Made Max think a bit more than some of the other drivers didn't he...

Nasr was driving out of his skin in front of his home crowd.

Nasr needs to do that more bloody often as the ability is there.

[newlaprecord]

Nasr's point was just a combination of keeping the car on the road and having a messy wet race (did the race last another lap he would have been out of the points). For sure it does the trick in term's of prize money but -in my book- if you are fair and square outqualified by an utterly mediocre guy like Ericcson (and he is, regardless what he does in Abu Dhabi), thats just a far cry of anything spectacular.

The irony is, Nasr with his drive in Brazil took 20mil out of Manor's already slim 2017 budget, and since other than Manor there arent any other options left for him to be there at Melbourne, he is now pushing for a Sauber contract he didnt want to sign mid-season

[newlaprecord]

And of course to add to his stress, now there is Guttierez in the frame with easly on-pair abilities and quite possibly deeper pockets... in other words, scoring this 2 points might have been a good drive, but probably will go down as a horrible career move

[gert]

Originally Posted by newlaprecord

Nasr's point was just a combination of keeping the car on the road and having a messy wet race

Wasn't that "just" the same combination for which Verstappen and - to a lesser degree - Hamilton are applauded now?
Don't get me wrong. I don't think Nasr is a great driver or anything, but he was surely one of those who put in a very good drive last Sunday.

[newlaprecord]

Originally Posted by gert

Wasn't that "just" the same combination for which Verstappen and - to a lesser degree - Hamilton are applauded now?
Don't get me wrong. I don't think Nasr is a great driver or anything, but he was surely one of those who put in a very good drive last Sunday.

Put on a very good tire more like. Verstappen did the exact opposite, he was ballsy enough to get out there on inters, paid the price, and still came back strong. Nasr just played the safe bet, never had inters on and kept it on the road. Decent drive by all means, but in a different universe from Verstappen's.

[cds_uk]

Originally Posted by newlaprecord

Put on a very good tire more like. Verstappen did the exact opposite, he was ballsy enough to get out there on inters, paid the price, and still came back strong. Nasr just played the safe bet, never had inters on and kept it on the road. Decent drive by all means, but in a different universe from Verstappen's.

Absolutely spot on.

[chillibowl]

given the consensus is the current wet tires are pants, im not sure one can say that putting in 43 laps on wet tires in a Sauber was a safe bet to finish the race let alone finish in the points.

in hindsight sure, but at the time (and given the amount of praying they were doing in the garage) i dont think they felt like they were playing it safe at all.

[Richard C]

Alonso to Porsche WEC in 2018?

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2016/1...h-porsche.html

I saw this yesterday and am surprised it hasn't been discussed here. I suspect there is a nugget of truth, but likely a deal is not 100% done. I can't remember, but is Alonso's contract with McLaren up end of next year (with likely an agreement for extension if he wants one)? I can imagine Alonso may have an offer in his pocket for 2018 from Porsche and he is just waiting to see how things go in 2017 with McLaren/Honda before he decides to move to Porsche or extend with McLaren/Honda.

This also fits neatly with the Jenson "non retirement" and retrainer with McLaren. McLaren knows Alonso may be ready to walk, they can't loose promising young drivers, so they promote Vandoorne and park Jenson for a year with the promise to him that if Alonso goes he is in (because they want an experienced top level driver). That is.. if it is not already a done deal with Alonso??? I feel it had to be a strong "maybe" otherwise why keep Jenson on that retainer. It can't be all sponsorship stuff.

Side note... I am a big Jenson fan, but he has also been pretty uninspiring recently. Hopefully just a slump, but not a good way to end his career if this really is his last season.

Richard