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I think, Perez will stick with Force India. It's the best option for him. Ocon has been heard saying that the seats are taken, while talking to Vettel. One by who Stroll and other by whoever brings the money. Perez has substantial backers, and is highly experienced. Force India would be foolish to let him go. If only there is any truth to Stroll-Kubica theory, then they may release Perez. Haas or Sauber should get him, if he leaves Force India.

I also think Perez will stick to Force India. He was the one who brought about this change of ownership. He was behind the petition to courts to put Force India in administration. He has good sponsor backing as well. So he will have many supporters currently.

It is difficult for Ocon to find a new seat as he is from Mercedes-Benz driver development programme so joining Haas or Sauber is not an option. For him, it will be good if he gets a drive in Williams or becomes test driver for Merc, keeping in mind that he can be the potential replacement from the 2021 season for Mercedes.

Sad news IMO:

Vandoorne replaced by Lando Norris

Link to news

Kimi likely to exit Ferrari to make way for Charles Leclerc. This is still not confirmed but it seems Ferrari are going with a decision left by former boss Marchionne.

Link to news

Not sure if going with two new drivers at Mclaren is a smart idea. I guess with their management re-shuffle, makes sense to go with everything all brand new.

There has been a lot of hue and cry lately online about the replacement of Vandroone at McLaren. Many have been cursing McLaren stating that they are ruining the careers of young drivers like Perez, Magnussen and now Vandroone.

However, this is how I see it. McLaren know very well that their car currently is not a strong package to compete in races. However odd it may sound, whatever running they are doing on track is to identify the aerodynamic issue which they are unable to identify in the wind tunnel. In all this, they are also observing the performance of the drivers against each other. This is exactly where Vandoorne has failed miserably!

Here are the stats:
No. of races till date : 14
No. of times out qualified by Alonso : 14
No. of races finishes ahead of Alonso : 06 (In all these races, Alonso did not finish so I guess this doesn't even count)

Coming to the topic of McLaren ruining careers of young drivers, I believe Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen are doing pretty well in their current teams. I also believe that McLaren had played a major part in getting them those seats.

Perez and Magunssen doing well has nothing to do with McLaren!

The problem with McLaren is the way they go about changing drivers. When Hamilton quit, they hurriedly signed up Perez and did not give him enough time at all. Perez in his sole year at McLaren did not make the kind of mistakes that say a Romain Grosjean made at Lotus or even at Haas this year! He had a pretty okay stint and then McLaren says that they went around the paddock recommending him to other teams! Truth is that Force India saw some potential in Perez and he also brought in some sponsors, so they snapped him up.

Secondly, McLaren went about saying that how good a racer Kevin Magnussen was and he was the next big thing etc and he too was sacked within a year, although he too never made any grave mistakes like Romain or Kvyat, and not even close to people like Pastor Maldonado! And McLaren again makes a noise about Vandoorne being the next big thing, ask Button to stay on as a reserve driver and they offer Vandoorne the same treatment!

And again now they have the audacity to state that Torro Rosso should take Vandoorne without skipping a heat beat!

Once again, the same rousing reception for Norris! God knows how they would react in 1 or 2 years time!

No one has a problem when teams sack or change drivers, but no one has done it the way McLaren does! Create hype about a driver, then sack him and ask other teams to hire them! Wow, at least RBR had a very strict performance measure in the way they change or sack drivers, but not McLaren!

I can tell you this, McLaren is the next Williams! Down the grid fighting for 10th or 12th with 2 midfield drivers or may be a pay driver like Stroll will come to their rescue as well!

I do not know what made you understand this but I have nowhere said that the current performance of Perez & Magnussen is due to McLaren. I said, Mclaren have been instrumental in getting them those seats post their departure from their team. Performance if the driver depends collectively on the car and the skill of the driver together.

This is Formula 1! There is a lot of money at stake & in Formula 1, a year is more than enough time to gauge performance of a driver in a team and against his team mate. In 2013 McLaren was not at it's best. They finished 5th in the Constructor's Championship. When a team knows that they are not as competitive with other teams, they look at how competitive the drivers are against each other in the same noncompetitive car. In this case Button was better than Perez and finished ahead of him in the Driver's Championship.

The same case applies to Kevin Magnussen in 2014 where Button finished ahead of him in the Driver's Championship.

In the case of Stoffel Vandoorne, there is no analysis or explanation needed to say that he is being thrashed by Fernando Alonso this year.

So what? Again an attempt to probably not spoil the career of an emerging young driver. At least, they are not leaving the driver in the lurch.

Only time will tell.

[quote=motorworks;4456834]No one has a problem when teams sack or change drivers, but no one has done it the way McLaren does! Create hype about a driver, then sack him and ask other teams to hire them! Wow, at least RBR had a very strict performance measure in the way they change or sack drivers, but not McLaren!

Different teams (companies) work in different ways. The ultimate aim is to be World Champions and they do what it takes to ensure it is achieved. It is ruthless but this is how the business can be especially when performance is required by everyone! There is a reshuffling in the entire team. Everything is hunky dory when a company does well; but otherwise, heads roll.

Very doubtful.

Wow, you must be that McLaren fan who is hoping they regain past glory!

Anyway, I never said that McLaren was wrong to sack drivers, my whole point is that they seem to be always in a hurry to hire the next young driver, so not actually have a car that performs at that level and the easy out is to sack the driver and ask other teams to recruit them! Lets look at the reality, McLaren has been a mid field team for the last 10 years now, well behind the top 3. And that means one thing, that their car is not working well. They made some bold moves with Honda, did not work out, and they have now taken the decision to be a Renault powered team, almost certain that they would never challenge for a championship in the near future, at least not even until 2021.

So in this kind of a scenario, why persist with a top driver like Alonso in 2018? And then sack Vandoorne? If its all about performance, be like RBR, sack drivers on pure merit! There is no doubt that Kvyat got the boot for his torpedo skills! RBR did not go around the paddock saying what a wonderful talent Kvyat or even Hartley now, saying what a wonder talent Hartley is and how he does not figure in their plans for the next year and the other teams should hire him without skipping a heart beat! Literally these are the words from McLaren!

Mclaren has been on a declining trend for the last 10 years for various reasons, engine, chassis, and many more. I do not believe drivers are one of them. Perez, Magnussen and Vandoorne are not the better drivers around, but put them in a decent car like Force India or Haas and they would do justice to the car most of the time. And hence my point is that McLaren keep barking up the wrong tree, which is the driver side of things, rather their focus should be on the car and other engineering decisions that go behind it!

Meanwhile there is a online petition addressed towards Ferrari management to keep Kimi for one more year. https://www.change.org/p/maurizio-ar...r-another-year

That is really stupid! If someone really likes Kimi, why would they want him at Ferrari or F1 for another year of suffering??

I love the man and I think he should quit this circus and do some other series - I have a feeling he will do quite well in endurance racing - Le Mans and the likes! He is still very fast and is also a clean racer! He will get the respect he deserves and will also start winning again for sure.

Yes I am a huge McLaren fan and always will be. Not ashamed to say it and will support them in their highs and lows. That what true fans do. But, I am not a blind fan that will support them even when they are wrong.

McLaren is the most successful team after Ferrari. They are used to being on the top. Unfortunately that has not been the case since a very looong time. The last time they won a Constructor's Championship was in 1998 and last time they won a Drive's Championship was in 2008.

Post that from 1999 to 2012 they have been finishing in the top 3. Since 2013 they have dropped in performance big time. That's around 06 years (not 10) that they have been a mid field team and at the moment there does not seem to be any improvement. They are doing what it takes to regain glory even if it means changing/sacking drives or top management. Hell, even Eric Boullier was not spared.

The problems started after the exit of Ron Dennis, who I believe was very instrumental in making McLaren a successful team. His vision of having Honda engines was not a bad one. But after his exit, there was no one to monitor the aero part of the car. Eric Boullier made everyone believe that the Honda engine was the only problem to McLaren's woes and that the chassis was the best on the grid. The truth was out this year when the performance did not significantly improve with the better Renault engines. With this he definitely did not deserve to be in the team anymore. But in all this, Fernando was still outperforming Vandoorne.

They can definitely challenge in the near future if they get their aero issues sorted out. Strange as it may sound, as per them, they know it's the problem with the aero but not able to identify it in the wind tunnel. Hence they are relying on the data from each qualifying and race session.

They wanted to keep Alonso as he has the experience to help improve the car. Alonso wants to win races. Alonso is the best driver on the circuit today and can give a miserable time, if not destroy Hamilton & Vettel if given a Mercedes or Ferrari. Even Sainz was warned about the same when planning to join McLaren. Hence when Alonso decided to leave, Sainz was taken for his experience. Time will tell if Lando Norris will be the next Hamilton.

Red Bull on the other hand is a team that has a very different thought process only because of Christian Horner. They talk bad about their past partners even though they have achieved a lot with them. They won 04 Championships with Renault and still bitch about them. The same has happened with Ricciardo. Horner is an egoistic guy who got a slap on the face when Ricciardo decided to join a team that he despised!

Any big team, like McLaren, need drivers who can bring out the best in the car even if the car is not as competitive. Perez, Magnussen and Vandoorne were not one of them. Alonso has proved on many occasions that he is a person of that calibre. The same is for drivers like Hamilton & Vettel.

Garage Italia , a company headed by Lupo Elkann, brother of John Elkann, posted a congratulatory message to Charles Leclerc which was quickly deleted.

"Charles, we are proud to have believed in you since your debut in F1,"
"We are proud to have accompanied you on the track, curve after curve. And we're happy to see you at the wheel of the red car,"

Kimi Raikkonen to leave Ferrari at the end of the 2018 season.

Link

Is he going to drive for Sauber?

Ferrari have officially announced that "Kimi Raikkonen will step down from his current role at the end of the 2018 season". :mad:

source: http://formula1.ferrari.com/en/kimi-...e-end-of-2018/

They still haven't announced his replacement though it would most likely be LeClerc.

http://formula1.ferrari.com/en/charl...rrari-in-2019/

Sep 2018
Maranello – Scuderia Ferrari announces that in the next Formula One racing season, Charles Leclerc will drive for the Team alongside Sebastian Vettel.

Yes, he is joining Sauber. Kimi Raikkonen will leave Ferrari at the end of the 2018 season and return to the Sauber team he started his Formula One career with. Link