Tough to say no to an Adrian Newey car. Can't imagine Lewis is happy on the other hand. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101114
Would have made a good team regardless. He's good friends with Alonso. A bit sad he's not going to Ferrari, but he's good at Red Bull. With a bit of luck Massa will continue racing like he did at Silverstone and all is well!
I would love to see Mark at Ferrari but he made the smart choice. Still think that Massa is toast. Wonder what it would cost to buy out Grosjean's contract?
This does jam Lewis, looks like he will have to stay at McLaren. Wonder what offer will be on the table now?
+1. Grosjean is fast but too much of a loose cannon at the moment. If he matures, he could become great. My top pick for Ferrari is still Perez. He already has ties with Ferrari and I think he has fantastic potential. Onno
Driver swap with Sauber? Massa has been there before, Ferrari could sweeten the engine deal and make it happen.
For Massa replacements it probably depends on whether there's only a one year vacancy if Vettel is coming in 2014. Only other place for Lewis is MB which depends on whether MS stays, and even then I think MB will only be useful to him as leverage negotiating against Ron.
LdM has already gone public some time ago stating Perez was still too in-experienced. Id say he's out till 2014 if then. What others are available and able to integrate assuming FA would be happy?!
Somewhat ironic that Hamilton stated he relished the chance to race against MS for a couple of years when he came back, but now MS is the impediment to him changing teams.
Looks like Massa is going to keep his seat for another year. Good fortune seems to be returning to the guy along with some good form. Lets hope it continues through the end of the season & beyond with Ferrari because I don't think there are any good options on the table at the moment. If Perez crosses over to Ferrari for 2013 I will run through my neighborhood naked waving the Mexican flag. Mark that post.
I doubt he'd actually consider going to MB even if MS left. They're still lagging and inconsistent. With Ferrari and RB closed he'll stick around where he is.
+1 the F1 press were saying Webber was the key to the silly season so far. Where he went would drive the rest of the picture. Now its about the MS future and his replacement should he leave Mercedes.
Whether he stays or not has little impact on the rest of the field as the top drivers are not eager to become Nico's #2 and amongst the midfielders it seems as if Di Resta would get the nod. So it really only matters to him. Hami has no valid option to go elsewhere at this point. Webber did the right thing by re-signing with RB as that will keep his chances at this year's title intact. Had he signed with Ferrari, I'm sure the team would drop its support and focus solely on Seb. The really interesting seats are #2 at McLaren (if Button is sent packing), #2 at Ferrari and #1 at Lotus if the disharmony between Kimi and the team persists.
What disharmony? Iceman seems to love everything about Lotus, so much so he decided to just visit the factory unannounced and just hang out and play some darts! Read this off my facebook feed earlier this morning: http://www.lotusf1team.com/Welcome-Home-Back-at-Enstone-with.html?lang=fr
The weekly rumors coming from the team ever since he refused to drive the practice session at Monaco because of the steering wheel. There have been numerous updates to the story of the relationship between him and the team. But according to the latest story (referenced by freshmeat) things seem to have been patched up. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Kimi fan so I want to see him stay with the team, but the relationship was on ice (pun intended) over the past few weeks. At least according to the news reports. http://www.speedweek.ch/Formel1/news/26256/Raeikkoenen-Verliert-Lotus-die-Geduld.html Translation: Is Lotus loosing its patience? Kimi is still complaining about the steering but the team does not want to do anything about it anymore. .... The team said: "Kimi has his own mind. It is like dealing with a child to whom we gave 6 lollies from which he can choose. There will be no seventh version of the steering."
