Mercedes would get more return supplying McLaren than Williams. I said in another thread that Williams is moribund. It reminds me of the long agony of the original Team Lotus or Brabham.
It's better to have quality than quantity. Ecclestone said in the past that with 16 cars on the grid, he was still respecting his contract with the circuits. Teams should survive on their merit; if they don't perform, they can go, as far as I am concerned. I though you were in favour of manufacturers leaving F1? I hope you are not lacking sleep over this .
Minimum is 20 as per contract. Yes manufacturers leaving wouldn't bother me as much, IF we have valid replacements lined up. With the current cost? Zero chance at that.
Say Williams and Haas bow out, that leaves 16 cars. How will F1 come up with 2 more teams? Give major incentives to new teams?
Mercedes: Ocon won't be back in 2021 - via SKY F1 Mercedes insist there is no clause to bring Esteban Ocon back from Renault - even if Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas leave the team. Hamilton and Bottas are both out of contract at the end of 2020 and Ocon, a Mercedes reserve with F1 experience, would ordinarily be the next in line for the seat. The Frenchman, however, has signed on with Renault for the next two seasons, and Toto Wolff says he will stay that way regardless of their current drivers' futures. "There is no clause," Mercedes boss Wolff told reporters. "He is a fully-fledged Renault works driver for the next two years, with certain options afterwards on both sides. There is no clause to come back in 2021." Wolff did admit that Ocon would be phased out of his Mercedes duties between now and the end of the season, due to his impending Renault move. "It's a transition. He's in our simulator and that is an important role in helping us to develop the car. Step by step, Esteban is going to fade out of the meetings about the future, things about next year's car or things that we deem to be sensitive. But he's still with us this season and doing some very valuable work.
If you read between the lines, Toto Wolff is quite glad to get rid of Ocon. He has been on Mercedes books for sometimes, and was placed at Force India for a while. I don't think they got good feedback about his attitude in the team and the grief he created with Perez. That and some bombastic comments he made in the French press sealed his fate probably.
The money isn't there....and for sure new comers will be weary anyways, last 2 times F1/FIA said they'd bring new teams in they'd promised limited budgets for all teams, and then they promised the revolutionary engines that would be ''so much cheaper''...both didn't happen, in fact budgets went WAY up and the cheap engines where the most expensive things imaginable!
That's Liberty's problem. If some teams drop out, it's up to them to revamp the rules to attract new ones, or reformat the championship entirely. After all, it's their business, so they better look after it. I am not worried about that.
Difficult to judge without knowing the real reasons. For sure Grosjean is a very fast driver but too much error prone. And unlucky too .. Guess he is a lot cheaper than hulkenberg. Just my opinion , but hulkenberg is slightly overrated and failed recently when he had the car to deliver a podium ( Germany 2019 )
That's amazing. They are keeping a guy that's getting curb stomped by LANCE STROLL. I guess Haas has given up on his Airfix kit dream.
Yes Romain has had severe brain fade such as Barcelona and Baku but he is genuinely very quick, has also had ten podiums, should have won at Valencia had his car not broken down some years ago, has had a lot of good results denied by reliability problems (Melbourne the last two years for example) and he actually spoke with a psychologist to try to solve his issues which is commendable, something Vettel would never even think of doing when he clearly needs to badly. Hulk was stated by Abiteboul to always impede his own progress and Prost said one of the reasons they let him go is that the team needed positivity whereas he was a pessimist, negative.
I am sure if Ocon had been available then Haas ans Steiner would have picked him but Hulk was just not a better option.
We will know the real Ocon level next year with Ricciardo as a team mate. Maybe some will be surprised..
Surprised they kept Grosjean given the past two years, no surprise that Kubica will leave Williams. For as much potential that HULK seemed to have, looking like he's done in F1. As a LeMans winner, I'm sure he'll be driving somewhere next year.
