176 replies to this topic

[jonpollak]

Who is going to be Lewis’ teammate?

If LuLu gets his way it’s Lance.
Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 07 September 2021 - 00:08.

[William Hunt]

Bottas's manager Didier Coton told Canal+'s Julien Febreau that he had been working on 'Plan B' since the start of the year:

 

CanalPlus_Sport - Twitch

 

Didier Coton is a legendary drivers manager in F1, a Belgian born in Dakar (Senegal). He initially started working as the right hand of Keke Rosberg when Keke started to manage the carreer of J.J. Lehto, Didier afterwards started his own management company.

Some of the names he managed in the past include Mika Häkkinen, Olivier Panis, Alexander Wurz, Vitaly Petrov, Esteban Gutierrez, Charles Pic, Enrique Bernoldi, Jamie Green, Oliver Turvey, Nicolas Lapièrre, Anthoine Hubert and he also worked with Hamilton for a while.

 

Currently he manages Valtteri Bottas, Paul di Resta, Nico Jamin, Maxime Martin, Vincent Abril, Will Stevens, Aurélien Panis and current F4 driver and former karting star Marcus Amand (who is half Finish half French).

Edited by William Hunt, 09 September 2021 - 00:31.

[HP]

Finally. It should have been clear to everyone by now that Bottas will be struggling to win much against drivers like MV in years to come. Bottas would have his good days, tracks where he shines, but not enough to sustain a one year long championship challenge. Especially not as long as Hamilton is with Merc.

I’m wondering if there were outside pressures to have Russel in that seat. I’m sure Lewis would have wanted Bottas (that’s clear) and Toto wants to keep Lewis happy. If the decision was purely between Lewis/Toto it might have been Bottas in 2022 but too many other factors to consider and deal with that made Russel the inevitable choice IMO.

Even Toto has to be forward looking for the best interest of Mercedes.

 

Hamilton confirmed for 2 (IIRC) seasons. That is enough time to groom a new driver which can take over Hamilton's position, once he retires. Also with the new generation of cars coming up, a few drivers will struggle, especially the older ones. If I'd been in Toto's position, I'd let my drivers and those I consider to hire to "race" next years car in the sim. That would show me how they adapt to the new spec.

 

Now we'll see from next season if Russel has what it takes. Wonder if he will get a multi year deal or not. That will be the next sign to see where the teams priorities are.

 

This season also has shown the health issues Hamilton is dealing with has because of COVID. So keeping status quo with the driver lineup seemed not to be an option. Bottas wanted a multi year extension. That would have been sensible last year, but this year, it was too late for that as Hamilton may retire after his current contract with Merc runs out. So potentially Merc would have to look for 2 new drivers in the same season, without knowing the competitive order of next years car. Something had to give and Bottas was the obvious choice, once the sentimentality of keeping the current driver lineup for harmony's sake had been put aside. Over the last year I got the feeling that was the biggest hindrance for Toto to hire Russell. Since last year Russell has shown that he is worth to get a shot at a top team, so I wish him best luck. It won't be that easy, but a more memorable visit to the podium should be in store for Russell.

 

Bottas did well at Mercedes to help the team with the WCC. At Alfa he might get a chance to shine once or even more in a while and it should be more memorable, because of the competitiveness of the car.

 

[HP]

If i was red bull i would have taken him.

They would not have given him a multi-year deal. Besides I think him and Marko working together would be a nightmare for Bottas. Possibly never being able to live up to Marko's standards would be hard on Bottas. He needs other methods to get the best out of himself, Bottas tends to be hard on himself already.

[CoolBreeze]

What a waste of seat

[loki]

If LuLu gets his way it’s Lance.
Jp

[Mat13]

He is 3rd in the WDC. Thats pretty much where he is supposed to be in a season like this.
Oh, and he did take out both RBs in Hungary. Team-player right there.

It’s taken until now- and some stunningly bad fortune on Norris’ part- for him to reach 3rd in the WDC. When the other teams are as far behind as they are, that’s pretty pathetic.

[Ultraviolet]

It’s taken until now- and some stunningly bad fortune on Norris’ part- for him to reach 3rd in the WDC. When the other teams are as far behind as they are, that’s pretty pathetic.

 

Lewis and Max have an average of about 17 points per race this year.

 

If Bottas had averaged fourth place this season, he would be on 13x12=156 points.

 

He is actually on 123 points, an average of 9.5 points per race, or below 5th.

[keeppari]

Until this year when Red Bull are right up there with them, yes. Which is precisely the point of the "most needed" comment. It is now they have such close competition that they need Bottas up there taking points off their rivals, and he is missing in action.

Bottas has been pretty consistently finishing ahead Perez. I mean he has ended up behind in Baku and France, in latter due to the awkward strategy choice by Merc pitwall.

Can't really expect him to take off many points from Verstappen as even Lewis is being outdriven by him.

[FirstnameLastname]

The statement from Toto that Bottas ‘would have deserved the 2022 Mercedes seat’ is like being dumped by your girlfriend but her telling you ‘you’re a great guy, you’ll find someone else’

[BobbyRicky]

It’s taken until now- and some stunningly bad fortune on Norris’ part- for him to reach 3rd in the WDC. When the other teams are as far behind as they are, that’s pretty pathetic.

Ah yes, thats it. No bad fortune for Bottas this year eh?

[Loosenut]

Maybe George to serve as understudy to Lewis for 22 and lead the team in 23 when Lewis decides (if he hasn't already) to move on and launch his music career!

[fed up]

Lewis and Max have an average of about 17 points per race this year.

 

If Bottas had averaged fourth place this season, he would be on 13x12=156 points.

 

He is actually on 123 points, an average of 9.5 points per race, or below 5th.

Only that in the real world he is actually in 3rd - 5th in your head, 3rd in the classification - I wonder which ranking they use for prizes?

[Marklar]

Lewis and Max have an average of about 17 points per race this year.

If Bottas had averaged fourth place this season, he would be on 13x12=156 points.

He is actually on 123 points, an average of 9.5 points per race, or below 5th.

I wonder who is 1st and 2nd, since Lewis and Max are also "below" 2nd

[Hrco42]

The statement from Toto that Bottas ‘would have deserved the 2022 Mercedes seat’ is like being dumped by your girlfriend but her telling you ‘you’re a great guy, you’ll find someone else’

It's not you, it's me

[Man of the race]

The statement from Toto that Bottas ‘would have deserved the 2022 Mercedes seat’ is like being dumped by your girlfriend but her telling you ‘you’re a great guy, you’ll find someone else’

Will Valtteri take his coffee machine with him then?

[noikeee]

The statement from Toto that Bottas ‘would have deserved the 2022 Mercedes seat’ is like being dumped by your girlfriend but her telling you ‘you’re a great guy, you’ll find someone else’

No it's even more awkward.

Guy has been dumped but still has to live with his girlfriend the rest of the year.

[FirstnameLastname]

While they openly fawn over the new bloke 😄

[BRG]

That happens to every departing driver.  Bottas is not a special case.  

 

Not even slightly special in fact...

[absinthedude]

Yes, it's normal to praise an outgoing driver. stuff like 'we had a great five seasons together. We are sorry to see Roger Rocket leave us and wish him well.'

[Astandahl]

The fact that Bottas is doing better than Perez doesn't mean he is driving well. On the contrary, his season has been pretty mediocre.

[ArrowsLivery]

Berger was a better driver than Bottas, there was a time when he probably the third fastest driver behind only Senna and Prost while Bottas is a midfield driver at best.

I don’t think that is fair. Everybody is a midfield driver bar Max, he’s just that much better than the rest!

[Mat13]

Ah yes, thats it. No bad fortune for Bottas this year eh?

I’m not saying that- I’m saying his performances should have given him enough of a gap over Norris that his own bad fortune wouldn’t have covered it.

[ArrowsLivery]

Lewis and Max have an average of about 17 points per race this year.

If Bottas had averaged fourth place this season, he would be on 13x12=156 points.

He is actually on 123 points, an average of 9.5 points per race, or below 5th.

He has lost many points due to Merc’s failures such as at Monaco and Imola.

[Gyan]

I can’t understand why drivers want a move like this, going from the quickest car on the grid to possibly the slowest, I am not sure what his motivation will be as he is unlikely to prove the doubters wrong and he isn’t going to get another shot at a top team. He obviously doesn’t fancy Indycar or the WEC so Alfa must be just topping up his bank account.

 

Because it's better to be in the sport than out of it. I mean, there are few cooler jobs than being an F1 driver. In the big picture of life it doesn't really matter if you drive for a big ream or a small team as long as its an F1 team. Not to mention more practically the money Bottas will make by extending his F1 career for as long as he can. He's not going to pull in the same income after leaving the sport so he'll make hay while the sun shines.

[vlado]

He is finally joining a team that more or less matches his skill level   Perhaps Aston Martin would've been a better fit.. he can fight it out with Vettel. 

[William Hunt]

Berger was a better driver than Bottas, there was a time when he probably the third fastest driver behind only Senna and Prost while Bottas is a midfield driver at best.

 

During 1987-1988 when Berger was at his peak: for sure. He started to '88 season as the title favourite after convincingly winning the two final races of '87.
And Ferrari had gone quickest in Imola during pre season testing. But McLaren had been sandbagging a bit there to hide how good their new car really was.

 

Berger himself said that he wasn't as fast after his Imola 1989 crash as before. Not because he had an injury that hindered him (like Piquet after his Imola '87 crash, he lost a lot of sight of depth) but because he then had realised that he was driving too agressive and took too much risks so he drove more calculated and less on or over the limit after Imola and that sometimes showed, the magic was a bit gone after that but he still had his moments.

 

Bottas never had that status in F1 that Berger had in '86 (he won the Mexican GP for Benetton) up until '89, Gerhard was in those days seen as a title challenger and since he drove for Ferrari some were seeing the next Niki Lauda in him (although their driving styles were very different, the young Berger was a far more agressive driver as Lauda had been: always on the limit).
But in all honesty: you can't really compare this fantastic era that Gerhard Berger drove in with today's F1. So I personally wouldn't do such statements claiming that one is better as the other since you can't really compare the environment of the '80s & '90s and cars that didn't even have servo power with todays cars. The '80s F1 cars had less downforce but more turbo power (up until 1200 hp even) but those turbo's had a lot of lag, the power came in quite late but very sudden. The cars were much more physical to drive: a 19 or 20 year old really wasn't ready for that, you needed the strength also to hang on to the car in fast corners. So it's not a fair comparison although personally I would always put Berger ahead of Bottas if you pressured me to rank them but that would just be based on how it feels for me, it doesn't have any more value as an opinion. 

Edited by William Hunt, 09 September 2021 - 00:49.