Italian press says Valterii Bottas has signed with Ferrari for 2016

Actually any seat at Ferrari has been a bit of a poisoned chalice for most of F1's history. Lauda and Michael were the only ones to control the politics, Lauda sorted it himself and Michael had Jean Todt to control the "nutty" Italians.

There have been many up and coming stars that have stalled when given a chance at Ferrari ...
Pete

 

I do not believe they will make any announcement until after the season. Kimi will just give up the rest of the season if there is no incentive to drive.

 

Are you implying that Kimi is actually trying? ... REALLY! ... they need to threaten not to pay him or something, or install a very hot heater under his seat which is turned on if his lap times continue to suck.
Pete

 

I don't think Kimi is under any misconceptions at the moment. He's not a child. He knows as well as anyone else that his seat is up for grabs. Perhaps more so.

Suggesting that Ferrari would delay announcing a change in order to keep Kimi motivated suggests that either Ferrari will keep teasing patronizing and misleading him...

("Come on Kimi.. Good dog... One more podium... Yes!! GOOOOD driver. Good boy!")

Or suggests that you think Kimi is both out of touch, and unprofessional enough to lay down in the job when he hears the news.

Respect the man as an adult and a professional. If Kimi chooses to prove me wrong, so be it. But I choose to give him enough respect to believe he will continue to do the best job he can through the end of his engagement.

 

I don't get the "not trying" comments either. He looks like he is trying hard to me. If he didn't care, we wouldn't hear comments like, "How the **** is that possible!?" after being eliminated in qualifying.

 

He's sitting in the second best car on the grid, "How the heck is it possible" that he does not make it to P3 ... has to be him
Pete

 

I like him too.
In answer to your question, what is missing is the WHINING and EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS.

 

Not 100%; It was testing after all; She may have never run a low fuel, balls out (!) qualy lap, but rather ran race sims with much gas etc.

However, "they" generally let them do it at least once over the course of the test, just to "see".

Or at least they used to, and most other guys turned at least one or two "decent" times, which suggests to me they still do.

She just appears *slow* to me! [Although, there's no doubt she'd blow all of us here in the peanut gallery into the weeds too! ]

No comment.

Cheers,
Ian

 

LOL.

I suspect you've hit the proverbial on the head right there.....

He is Finnish after all - Mika, Kimi, now him - All cut from the same cloth?

Cheers,
Ian

 

+1

Which is why he'll be a #2. You don't need two #1's to win a championship either.

 

Second best car on the grid for sure, which most likely indicates that it's him, BUT, that does NOT indicate he's not trying. The car is probably not suited to his style. Just look at Vettel last year, he was getting SMOKED by Ricciardo at Red Bull. Are you gonna tell me Vettel wasn't trying last year?

 

Winning LeMans in a Porsche is every bit the same as driving f1 for Ferrari. Returning from a hiatus to win for Porsche even more so. I would choose defending LeMans in the Porsche vs Ferrari f1.

 

Is it fair to say that bottas is the number one driver at Williams?
I'm not sure about that only that massa has the experience & bottas has the fire in the belly.

 

There is no status evident at Williams for who is #1. Id be more impressed with Bottas had he simply passed Massa and was able to maintain it. Instead he waited and then attacked. He stopped, put on the harder tire and fell back vs Massa. He needs to drive first and take charge so to speak. He does not and that was the perfect opportunity to do so. I dont blame the team but Bottas. If he thinks he has a chance against Vettel, he must up his aggression. He does not have Vettel's.

He failed in the one place he could have imposed his speed and authority - on the track at that moment in the UK. He should have passed and then said ok we will race now -- Im faster. If you are 'faster' then get the pass over with. He is very good at defending but he needs to attack more and make it known he intends to be the team's priority. A bit too nice overall possibly. He is no longer a rookie either. Far from it.

 

Well on some circuits it is now the third best unfortunately behind the Williams.

It is his responsibility but I don't think you can make the jump to him not trying. He was annoyed and pissed after when he was being interviewed. This is not an attitude consistent w someone who doesn't care and isn't trying.

 

It has also something to do with his team making monumental cock-ups with their timing in Q1, and not sending him back to consolidate a time, prefering to "save" car and tyres instead.

Kimi has been unfairly portayed as "not trying", when sometimres it's his team that let him down.

Then, of course, when you start in the middle of the pack, you have the chance to damage the car in the first few laps, etc...

 

+1 to all.

I've given up mostly trying to defend him, people have made their mind up so no point trying to point out a different opinion anymore.

 

Kimi makes as many mistakes as the team. Thats no one's fault. Its racing. That being said the 'karma' at Ferrari is not there for him.

 

Let's put it that way.

I think Raikkonen is still very good, probably among the best 6 drivers on the grid. But his results are irregular -whatever the reason-, and Ferrari may see him as expendable now and look elsewhere for a "proper" back-up for Vettel.
I don't think his form will get any better, although we may see flashes of talent from time to time.

I don't think Bottas will prove better at Ferrari in the long run than Raikkonen though; I cannot see him as world champion material.

As a matter of fact, the only 2 drivers I can see really trying now are Hamilton and Rosberg, and they are in the same team! Vettel and Alonso don't have a winning car, and the rest ....
Ricciardo is wasted IMHO, and I can see who else ...

 

Whenever asked, Kimi always retorted... "It's not up to me!" Really? Who more so than the driver in his position? Drive great, keep your ride.

Funny that while he was saying that... Arrivabene was answering "It's up to Kimi."

 

Fact 1 - getting rid of Kimi is obviously a good idea.
Fact 2 - Bottas is a promising talent
Fact 3 - Bottas is a certain number 2 and unlikely to trouble Vettel too much

Overall, it seems like a sensible move by Ferrari as they are incapable of running similarly competitive drivers, unlike many other teams. The one obvious weakness that Bottas has is lack of ability in the wet as demonstrated quite embarrassingly at Silverstone. Even Massa is better in the wet and that's saying something...

 

OK, so the team made a mistake at Austria. Meanwhile Vettel managed to get a decent time with his first try, so no need to save tyres for a second lap or anything. Later in the race Raikkonen crashed in a straight, no contact with others, he lost the car. That would happen anyway even if he was running alone, so the "when you start in the middle of the pack sh*t happens" excuse is not valid.

And all this came after he spun at Canada. And later he f***ed up the strategy at Great Britain, after getting passed by Vettel when it started to rain.

And after an infamous 2014 season...

Raikkonen has become one of those drivers who always have "problems". Why? I don´t know. But he´s old and is earning a lot so I don´t think it´s worth to keep trying.

Bottas? Not a fan. He´s not been a lot better than Massa, who already was sacked by Ferrari. I only hope he´s cheap: whoever comes, he´ll be only Vettel´s second fiddle, so why waste too much money on him.

 

If Ferrari is looking for a steady Number 2, then Bottas may be the right choice.
But if they want to get a strong team like Mercedes, then they must have 2 leading drivers and abandon their tradition of team orders and preferential treatment.
Unless Arrivabene is going to change the mentality at the Scuderia, Bottas will be like Irvine, Barichello or Massa, the sacrificial lamb, just allowed to be the tail-gunner for Vettel.

Now, if Ferrari wanted to have 2 top drivers in their team, they could do worse than looking towards Ricciardo, one of the most promising talents at the moment, sadly lost with uncompetitive Red Bull. The guy got experience, skill, ambition and motivation.

 

Yah but what he meant is that he will drive for Ferrari for as long as they will have him, but he wasn't sure if Ferrari wanted him.

 

Raikkonen, just like Alonso in pre-season test fell victims of gremlins in the software for the power delivery, I think.
He got caught out by a surge of power when he wasn't expecting it. That's the way I see it. The modulation of the hybrid system was at fault, and hundreds of horsepower came suddenly when he wasn't asking for them. At bit like a giant turbo lag.
A driver cannot control that, they rely entirely on electronices these days, throttle-by-wire, even braking-by-wire.
Of course, there is no trace left, no proof, no explication to give, etc... but I just cannot believe that drivers of that caliber could commit such a basic fault.
Unexpected surges of power have occured several times since the hybrid system was introduced, and reported by drivers too.