Will Lewis quit & who is available to replace him ?

Did his Daddy buy Mercedes too???

 

IF Lewis steps aside, Mercedes will keep Bottas and possibly Nick de Vries from Formula E will step in the 2nd seat.

Alfa will find someone to replace the "Bottas" seat.

 

Gio, Hulk?

 

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Here is YOUR logical sense. I was asking a question in my post

 

Zak Brown promised Pato a F1 test if he had won a race or finished higher up on the championship.

Of course the great drivers of Indy can and should go to F1, just like Montoya, Da Matta, etc. But these two doesn't have previous successes against decent competition.

 

I think your comments are well stated. To answer the question as to why people want Lewis to leave F1, I don't perceive that it is about his driving; it's about his wholesale introduction of politics into a sport that was previously blissfully free of them. Sir Lewis has taken it upon himself to use the F1 platform to proselytize for causes that have nothing to do with motor racing. Does Lewis have any kind of degree? (Honest question, I don't know). I'm hesitant to listen to KNOWN SCHOLARS with regard to difficult social and demographic issues, why would I want to listen to preaching of a...multi-millonaire race driver who spends half his life on a private jet attending fashion gala's? Give me Sterling Moss, please!

It is inconsiderate and selfish to use the global platform afforded by F1 to unilaterally force-feed one man's political viewpoints, however noble that driver considers those viewpoints to be.

Lewis should leave the sport because his newly minted followers need him much more than F1 does. If he quit driving, he could devote his time to pursuing a serious education. Then, after 9 years of post-graduate study (which is what it took me) maybe he can share his race and social politics with HIS audience, not guys like me who tune into F1 to enjoy the technology and engineering.

 

Generally agreed. But Lewis isn't solely to blame: F1/Liberty started the politics in the sport with their "We race as One" campaign. They were the ones who came out with taking a knee etc. Lewis merely built on that.

And then there is Vettel collecting garbage in the grandstands after the race. Nice gesture but a bit cringe worthy as well.

 

If Hamilton really retires now he might just do the same mistake Schumacher did twice in his career: Retire too early. There is a good chance the MB will clean up the field next year.

Schumacher could have likely bagged an 8th title had he stayed at Ferrari. And he could have likely won some races in the MB if he hadn't given his seat to Lewis.

 

Ah I see. You didn’t mean chassis, you meant car.

So, to be clear, the major components of the car are homologated. Chassis, gearbox, PU, aero parts etc etc. Some are allowed to vary from car to car and most of those variances are either due to specific driver preferences - eg seat moulding and steering wheel, or set up preferences - wing and suspension set up. No two cars within a team are ever identical for these reasons. Does that help your understanding?

 

No it doesn’t. Keep typing away.

 

I think most F-1 contracts have a Retirement clause - so if you go - you get no penalty - but also a 1st rite of refusal to come back... its a clause designed to keep you from "retiring" and changing your mind and come back with another team ... Ferrari.

 

I think Hamilton will trounce Russell. I'm not at all impressed with Russell.

 

Do you think so? With the budget cap, I doubt if Mercedes can still engineer cars so superior to the opposition.

They will still be a top team, but probably their hegemony is in the past. I hope I am wrong.

 

I'm very impressed with him. While he does some rookie mistakes (e.g. Imola) he is fast. That's raw talent. I do think Lewis will keep the upper hand but it won't be a walk in the park as it was with lap dog Bottas.

 

Not sure with Russell yet.

He did show great results with the Williams fist half of 2021 but it looked to me the car was improving as well. A lot of this progress was being said to be Russell because everyone expected the car to be at the back of the field.
I think this made his results look better than they actually were.

Than the race in Hamilton’s car. It wasn’t a surprise he would lead or be seconds since the car was way quicker than all others. Only real competition was Bottas.
I think Bottas was under a load of pressure to perform. His direct potential replacement racing against him wasn’t the most relaxt way to start a race.
I do think this worked against Bottas.

Besides this it’s the question if both had the same car. It’s clear from this year Hamilton at that stage of the season has the better car, with the best engineers from the team.

The British press is pushing Russell as the next best thing. I don’t see him as a better driver than Max, Charles of Lando.

Nevertheless I could be completely wrong , so very exited to see what’s going to happen.
In that sense I really hope Hamilton will stay and both get a fair change from Mercedes to compete.

 

After russell publicly signed for Mercedes I found his performances to be lacking significantly IMO.

 

pre-Merc signing I would agree. However after his signing I found Russell to be quite lacking. That said, we don't see too much what happens on track with the backmarkers.

 

Ok. I’ve tried to help but you’re clearly asking a different question. Good luck in your quest.

 

Agreed. I think there can be no doubt he has the raw speed. But we need to see him duel at the front to know if he’s got enough racer dna and wdc potential. I’m hoping for fireworks - similar to when Alonso and Ham were teammates at McLaren… Oh the irony!

 

+1 agree Russell really seemed to go "off boil" after signing.

 

In Karting it was Max>Lando>Charles>Russell. In lower formulas it was Charles> Russell > Lando > Max

 

I personally prefer Leclerc and Norris over the other two.

 

Interesting. Reminds me of MS who wasn't anything special in karting nor lower formulae. Then somebody put him in a Jordan at Silverstone "und es hat Zoom gemacht".

Let's see what Russell does in the MB (although we've already gotten a glimpse). I'm sure he'll set a new standard compared to Bottas.

 

HAM retiring is just wishful thinking. He craves the adulation and attention too much to give this up. So unless he gets a gig as a fashion model or gets signed by a record company we’re still going to be subject to his whining and moaning next year, man.

 

Just to make it clear that Max is a super special case. Let me explain.

The normal route for someone leaving karting is to start in F-Renault/F4, then F3 2.0(current F-Open) , then GP3/current F3 V6, then GP2/F2. What Jos Verstappen did was to put Max to test a F4, a F-Renault, and a F3 “2.0” to check which one would suit Max driving style better. Max immediately felt more comfortable with the F3. A small talk with the Dutch team Van Amersfoort plus a sponsorship from the Jumbo owner was suffice to make Max jump the lower Formulas. That’s the difference it makes to have an ex-F1 driver as a father to have just a rich father. While Leclerc, Norris, and Russell spent millions on the lowers formulas, Max impressed in F3 as a complete rookie in cars (P3).

Because Red Bull took notice of him in 2013 when he won almost everything in karts, they concluded Max was some sort of rough diamond and signed him to Toro Rosso. The rest is history.