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Mercedes reserve driver


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#1 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:39

Toto Wolf broke his wrist, elbow, shoulder in a team buildiing cycling event of the Mercedes F1 team a couple of days before the race. But what if this had happened to Rosberg or Hamilton?
To my knowledge Mercedes had not nominated any official reserve driver this year. They used to have Sam Bird when he was doing GP2 but he went off to sportscars and I'm not sure if he is still involved with Mercedes. I believe Anthony Davidson is still doing some simulator tests for them although not sure if this is still the case. They lost their simulator tester Brendon Hartley to Porsche. There were also rumours of Heikki Kovalainen becoming their reserve driver but this was also never confirmed.

What will Mercedes do if something that happened to Wolf happens to one of their drivers short before a race?
Will they fly in someone like Bird or Kovalainen?
Will they hire a test / reserve driver from another team? (Ferrari tester de la Rosa, McLaren youngster Vandoorne, Sauber tester van der Garde, Lotus tester Charles Pic or Force India tester Daniel Juncadella who races in DTM for Mercedes?)
Or would they hire a driver from a competitor for one race? (Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Sutil, Bianchi?)

It's strange that a team fighting for the title has no back-up plan for such a situation. One of their drivers could also become ill.



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#2 SirT

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:42

No idea. I wondered what happened with Kova.

 

Maybe.... Susie Wolff?



#3 jestaudio

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:43

Toto Wolf broke his wrist, elbow, shoulder in a team buildiing cycling event of the Mercedes F1 team a couple of days before the race. But what if this had happened to Rosberg or Hamilton?
To my knowledge Mercedes had not nominated any official reserve driver this year. They used to have Sam Bird when he was doing GP2 but he went off to sportscars and I'm not sure if he is still involved with Mercedes. I believe Anthony Davidson is still doing some simulator tests for them although not sure if this is still the case. They lost their simulator tester Brendon Hartley to Porsche. There were also rumours of Heikki Kovalainen becoming their reserve driver but this was also never confirmed.

What will Mercedes do if something that happened to Wolf happens to one of their drivers short before a race?
Will they fly in someone like Bird or Kovalainen?
Will they hire a test / reserve driver from another team? (Ferrari tester de la Rosa, McLaren youngster Vandoorne, Sauber tester van der Garde, Lotus tester Charles Pic or Force India tester Daniel Juncadella who races in DTM for Mercedes?)
Or would they hire a driver from a competitor for one race? (Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Sutil, Bianchi?)

It's strange that a team fighting for the title has no back-up plan for such a situation. One of their drivers could also become ill.

Or decides to walk?......................unlikely i know but with this season you never know, its not like any of them need the money is it :lol:



#4 P123

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:43

It would probably be di Resta given his recent F1 racing experience.

#5 Szoelloe

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:44

No idea. I wondered what happened with Kova.

 

Maybe.... Susie Wolff?

 

Nothing. He is the reserve. He has the sim time too.



#6 Radion

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:44

It would probably be di Resta given his recent F1 racing experience.

Plus he drives for mercedes in DTM.



#7 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:45

it would have to be possible to fly a driver in last moment, di Resta or Juncadella could be at a DTM meeting during an F1 weekend



#8 pacificquay

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 16:50

DTM doesn't have any clashing races with F1, as far as I can recall



#9 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 17:35

they could also pay Hülkenberg to rent him and then Force India can run Daniel Juncadella



#10 F1matt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 18:39

Maybe that's what Niki Lauda is there for.

#11 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:30

that would be something, a 65 year old in a Mercedes.



#12 DanardiF1

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:31

that would be something, a 65 year old in a Mercedes.

 

Would still probably give the others something to think about...



#13 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:39

I can imagine a lof of drivers in the current field would like to temporarily jump ship if there was an opening at Mercedes for 1 or more races since it's a race winning car



#14 chrcol

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:41

Susie :stoned:



#15 chrcol

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:42

I can imagine a lof of drivers in the current field would like to temporarily jump ship if there was an opening at Mercedes for 1 or more races since it's a race winning car

 

That can hurt tho, think back to kovi last year, ouch.
 



#16 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:49

We've had a couple of nasty crashes this year already, each time the driver was able to walk away without (serious) injury.
In particular Raikkönen was lucky with his very heavy crash in Silverstone, I think that if Hockenheim was one week later they would have replaced him 1 race.
And Hamilton had a nasty shunt in Hockenheim too, yesterday Magnussen and today Perez.


Edited by William Hunt, 27 July 2014 - 22:49.


#17 TomNokoe

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 22:51

Is it no longer Sam Bird?

#18 William Hunt

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 23:04

Is it no longer Sam Bird?

 

That's what I was trying to find out by asking the question.
Sam is racing sportscars in a Ferrari this year, not sure if he is still with Mercedes too, nobody seems to know.



#19 Mila

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 23:10

That can hurt tho, think back to kovi last year, ouch.
 

 

Last season, Kovalainen wasn't an active driver before the call from Lotus.

 

And would having a sub driver, even underperforming, in one Merc be a bigger ouch than the team running one car?



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#20 Fastcake

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 23:18

Toto Wolf broke his wrist, elbow, shoulder in a team buildiing cycling event of the Mercedes F1 team a couple of days before the race. But what if this had happened to Rosberg or Hamilton?
To my knowledge Mercedes had not nominated any official reserve driver this year. They used to have Sam Bird when he was doing GP2 but he went off to sportscars and I'm not sure if he is still involved with Mercedes. I believe Anthony Davidson is still doing some simulator tests for them although not sure if this is still the case. They lost their simulator tester Brendon Hartley to Porsche. There were also rumours of Heikki Kovalainen becoming their reserve driver but this was also never confirmed.

What will Mercedes do if something that happened to Wolf happens to one of their drivers short before a race?
Will they fly in someone like Bird or Kovalainen?
Will they hire a test / reserve driver from another team? (Ferrari tester de la Rosa, McLaren youngster Vandoorne, Sauber tester van der Garde, Lotus tester Charles Pic or Force India tester Daniel Juncadella who races in DTM for Mercedes?)
Or would they hire a driver from a competitor for one race? (Hülkenberg, Grosjean, Sutil, Bianchi?)

It's strange that a team fighting for the title has no back-up plan for such a situation. One of their drivers could also become ill.

 

Mercedes will have a list of drivers they can contact at very short notice. They would have no problem finding a suitable replacement for Rosberg or Hamilton.

 

An official "reserve driver" is often no more than an honorary designation, or for some teams an extra source of income in exchange for a Friday outing. As we've seen repeatedly, being the reserve driver does not mean you are an actual reserve.



#21 purplehaireddolphin

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 23:27

That's what I was trying to find out by asking the question.
Sam is racing sportscars in a Ferrari this year, not sure if he is still with Mercedes too, nobody seems to know.

are you sure about that? James Colado is driving for Ferrari in sports cars this year. Sam has signed with virgin in formula e

#22 jjcale

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Posted 27 July 2014 - 23:44

that would be something, a 65 year old in a Mercedes.

 

Would probably win anyway if its a dry weekend.....



#23 Lennat

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 06:52

Who needs a reserve driver except for smaller teams who need some extra money? There are always halfway descent rejects available, like the above mentioned ones as Di Resta and Heikki. They wouldn't get a better driver as "reserve" anyway... :)