Stroll beats Massa comprehensively in 2017. Massa dragged his career out a few years too long (some say 7 years), and finally got out before being too badly embarrassed. Coming back again for 2017 is going to be painful to watch for Massa fans... perhaps entertaining for those who aren't fans to watch the disaster unfold.
Massa retired with have and dignity at the right time. I can appreciate the difficulties of the team and his sense of loyalty bringing him back, but can't help but feel it'd be a mistake for him personally. Whatever happens with Massa/Bottas, it'll be interesting to see how Stroll does in 2017. All the best, Andrew.
Massa has nothing to lose here. New cars and regs and a team that feels he has something to offer. Yep thats a terrible life. Im glad the 'in the know' crowd here have it all sorted. Im sure Massa knows this will be a transition year for the team and he will get a 1 year deal. He has ZERO to lose. If Stroll develops and over all surpasses Massa the world will turn and those here predicting it will be what? Still a fan babbling on Fchat. Wow. Stroll needs a strong year and its Massa's job to help develop him and the car. Worse jobs to be offered.
So is Massa going to give back all the retirement presents?! As for Stroll - he gets a lot of bad press on here because he has been very well funded to get where he is. F1 has made and broken many young hot shots - many of which were highly rated, so I guess we ought to cut him some slack until he gets to prove what he can really do next year. Overall, in this scenario, Merc would get what it wants for it's driver line up, and Rosberk will have inadvertently hosed Williams..! What a farce.
Sure why not. Alonso is a lot more mature now, definitely more than Hamilton. BONZAI!!! I miss that guy. Thank you! I'll be here all week.
5 points is nothing...it literally came down to seconds on the final laps of the final race. That is as close as it can get. One mistake by Rosberg and he easily drops positions and Hamilton is world champion. There's a reason why Rosberg said those last few laps were the most stressful of his career.
That sounds like a leap of faith to me. I think there's a good chance Stroll racks up DNFs like they are going out of style. He was still pulling ridiculous moves in his final F3 weekend. Remains to be seen how much he has learned...especially when he isn't on the best team, with the most money behind him, in the best car, with tons of testing. He won't have any of those things in F1.
In an end of season F1 special on Channel 4 in the UK, both Webber and Coulthard told Toto Wolff that they were available if he needed them! - He said he would bear them in mind should the need arise!
No ****ing way that he will beat Massa. When Stroll was in his karting years, he was in the best team with the best team manager (Dino Chiesa, who was also team manager of Hamilton/Rosberg), had a F1-style trailer bought by his father, had a physiotherapist that followed him during racing weekends, a personal cook, etc., etc., etc. Yet, he was far from being considered to be at the same level as the well-known talented drivers such as Max Verstappen. He then moved to F4, a brand new series where in the first year teams were still learning and developing the new equipment. Being at Prema, he got a early chassis development than others and became champion. In F3 he crashed a lot in the first year and for the second year he had Williams engineers to help Prema make him champion. Again, he is definitely a good driver, a very good one, but far from being among the super talented. Massa is not in his prime years anymore but with his experience he will easily outperform Stroll. I just hope Stroll has his head in place and doesn't become another Maldonado.
As I've posted already, we had an end of season F1 special on Channel 4 in the UK and they spoke to Nico about the last race and the pressure he was under. He stated that it was hard because Lewis Hamilton started to do the very things that he had stated in a morning team meeting that day that he wouldn't do! Apparently, Lewis had made it clear to the team that if he was in the lead, regardless of where Nico was, he was going to go all out for the race win, and try to win by the biggest margin possible to show the World how much quicker he was of the two. He said he had no interest in trying to mess up Nico's race and wouldn't do it. In the interview, Nico said that that was why he was surprised and a bit disappointed with Lewis' tactics in the race because he had stated he would not do that, and didn't want to win the WDC that way. Nico stated that, in the last couple of laps he then simply didn't understand to what lengths Lewis would go to in order to try to win the Championship, including the possibility of trying to cause him to crash out of the race or cause damage to his car to put him out of the race. He said it wasn't a comfortable position to be put in. Even Lewis stated in the programme that until the last few laps it wasn't really in his mind to try and win by messing up Nico's race, but then he thought to himself that it was the only way he could possibly win it and so gave it a go! So Lewis made assurances to Nico and the team as to what he would and wouldn't do, and then completely welched on those assurances, which played a big part in the team telling him to speed up! If you can get to see the UK Channel 4 end of season special anywhere, it's all in the programme!
Serves Mercedes right for their favouritism towards Hamilton going on since Brawn was there. I like Rosberg all the more for this and wish he changes his mind and comes to Ferrari with the number 1. Only way we can get it on our cars for the time being. Btw with the new more physical cars of next year I think it would be a big mistake to get Massa back at Williams but suspect there are quite a few financial incentives for Williams to do so, including probably from Stroll's dad, Brasilian companies and Ecclestone himself. I think the best choice for them would be Nasr.
DECEMBER 20, 2016 Driver call could take until February says Lauda Mercedes could be set to further delay its decision about the identity of world champion Nico Rosberg's successor. Initially, the German team said it would give a lucky candidate the ultimate Christmas present, but then a spokesman said there would in fact be no decision until after the New Year's break on January 3. But team chairman Niki Lauda now says: "It could take until the end of January before we know what path we are going to take. "We are not ready yet. There are quite complicated negotiations," he added. It is clear that, failing all else, junior Pascal Wehrlein is ready to step in. But Mercedes' preferred solution is believed to be Valtteri Bottas, the Toto Wolff-managed driver who is under firm contract at Williams. German publication Auto Bild claims that the deal is basically done, involving Felipe Massa being convinced by Williams to cancel his retirement plans to replace Bottas. No matter what happens, Lauda admits that Mercedes is on the back foot, with Red Bull now having "the best driver pair" in the form of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. The F1 legend agrees that comparisons between Verstappen and Ayrton Senna ring true. "Everyone is different, but the potential of Senna, Schumacher and Verstappen are comparable," Lauda told Austrian broadcaster Servus TV.
Massa assina acordo com Williams para 2017 e abdica da aposentadoria por causa de 'efeito Rosberg' / Grande Prêmio Brazilian press affirming Massa signed with Williams for next year. Looks like Valtteri is going to be driving a silver car next year, as I predicted...
Yep. Williams have completely screwed up their 2017 season (nice move Rosberk)... and Merc will be just fine with Bottas.
