The 2017 F1 driver transfer discussion/speculation threadFormula 1 

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Pierre Gasly thought that a seat with Toro Rosso was a lock - but now that they've opted for Sainz and Kvyat, he's looking elsewhere:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/126815/surprised-gasly-exploring-2017-f1-options

LMSCorvetteGT2
Just means one of them is for sure on the chopping block next year, but good news for both.
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But at least they will be on an even footing.

Kvyat got pretty rough treatment from Red Bull. Sure, he had some scruffy moments, but he was also moved to try and ease tensions between Sainz and Verstappen. He went from a car capable of podium finishes to a car with a year-old engine (and no development), so it would have been a huge psychological blow. While Formula One can be a cruel sport in that you perform or you meet your replacement, I think that there were enough mitigating circumstances to justify giving Kvyat a second chance.
 
prisonermonkeys
I think that there were enough mitigating circumstances to justify giving Kvyat a second chance.
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Kvyat didn't deserve to be promoted over JEV to RBR. Once at RBR he was average on his best days and woeful most days. Now at Toro Rosso he is being schooled by Sainz. I don't think he deserved to keep his seat in F1 on any team TBH. There are many promising new talents on the horizon which may or may not deliver, but at least there is hope. We know Kvyat won't deliver since he has shown no race craft in the last few years. Reminds me of Petrov
 
lunarwolf
Kvyat didn't deserve to be promoted over JEV to RBR. Once at RBR he was average on his best days and woeful most days.
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I doubt JEV would have been much better at RBR. Toro Rosso always refreshed their line-up every two years. There's a reason why they kept JEV for a third, and it wasn't so that they could promote him - they wanted to keep him as a yardstick to judge incoming talent against because the YDP was restructured to only support four drivers a year. When Vettel left sooner than expected, Red Bull had a choice: to keep a driver who had reached his peak, or to take a gamble on an underdeveloped young driver.

If Red Bull really wanted JEV, they would have promoted him when they had the chance - instead, they took Ricciardo.
 
To be fair, Ericsson hasn't been too bad this season in such a poor car. He has performed incredibly well on Lap 1 of every race, moving forward at every single GP, and he hasn't really made any mistakes (apart from Monaco). Yeah, there are other drivers we'd rather see in the Force India, but Marcus has at least performed as best as he can with the car he's got.
 
JEV would have been better at Red Bull senior, no doubt in my mind. It probably wouldn't have been a long term move, mind. He'd have had last season and this, assuming he didn't mess it up, before Verstappen got the top drive next year.

Still, it didn't work out like that. We got Kvyat in a drive he shouldn't have had but that led to getting Verstappen, who looks to be one of the most exciting drivers of the next generation and injecting a swagger to the field long since lacking.

How long will Verstappen last at Red Bull? Let's assume he isn't going to do a Kvyat and will continue to impress. I could see someone approaching him for 2018. Mercedes-Benz because I think one of those will be gone by then.
 
Liquid
I could see someone approaching him for 2018. Mercedes-Benz because I think one of those will be gone by then.
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I agree, but when I think of his flamboyant devil-may-care attitude inside the car I keep thinking "Ferrari". With the possibility of two seats being vacant there in 2018 who knows? Ferrari know that the way to win something is to throw endless amounts of money at it and change your personnel every time that doesn't work...
 
F1 becomes more of an aero-race next year and I'm not sure why you would want to leave Red Bull, unless Ricci beats him comfortably. Red Bull will surely be up there for the next few years at least. Ferrari continue to be unimpressive and McLaren and Renault are a bit of a lottery regarding future pace.
 
Jimlaad43
To be fair, Ericsson hasn't been too bad this season in such a poor car. He has performed incredibly well on Lap 1 of every race, moving forward at every single GP, and he hasn't really made any mistakes (apart from Monaco). Yeah, there are other drivers we'd rather see in the Force India, but Marcus has at least performed as best as he can with the car he's got.
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It's hard not to move up when you're at the back already with only Manors behind you, or sometimes even ahead.
 
I haven't read the rest of this thread, but has there been any discussion about Esteban Gutierrez and his future at Haas? He still has not given the team any points.
 
ukfan758
I haven't read the rest of this thread, but has there been any discussion about Esteban Gutierrez and his future at Haas? He still has not given the team any points.
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Nope.
 
ukfan758
I haven't read the rest of this thread, but has there been any discussion about Esteban Gutierrez and his future at Haas? He still has not given the team any points.
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Remains a mystery how he's managed to keep his career alive despite consistent mediocrity.
 
ukfan758
I haven't read the rest of this thread, but has there been any discussion about Esteban Gutierrez and his future at Haas? He still has not given the team any points.
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Haas have said that they will wait for now, and may not make an announcement until 2017. I'm guessing that they might be biding their time because they could scoop up a promising young driver. Antonio Giovinazzi springs to mind, but the decision by Red Bull to pass on Pierre Gasly might make Gasly available.

Peter.
Remains a mystery how he's managed to keep his career alive despite consistent mediocrity.
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It's the Felipe Massa principle. Remember when Massa joined Sauber? He was terrible. But Ferrari picked him up, put him on rotation as a test and reserve driver, and when he had a second chance, he came back much stronger for it. Ferrari no doubt thought that they could do something similar with Gutiérrez, despite the rules limiting in-season testing.

But at the same time, it was probably a reaction to losing Sergio Pérez. Ferrari missed the boat on the driver development programmes; they were so caught up in the idea that drivers would race for several years, aspiring to join Ferrari and gradually earning Maranello's approval, that they never saw driver development programmes coming. Now we have drivers like Vettel and Verstappen, who are quite content to win multiple titles for a rival team before making the pilgrimage to Ferrari. It's embarrassing; Ferrari should have been the ones spotting these drivers. So they missed the boat, but they got a Hail Mary pass in the form of Pérez - promising, and unattached to any other team. But then they made their second mistake, dithering over what to do with him at a time when Felipe Massa was seriously under-performing, and McLaren poached him away. Ultimately, Ferrari's doubts were vindicated by Pérez himself, who freely acknowledged that he moved to McLaren too soon. But Ferrari were still in a bind, falling behind the likes of Red Bull and with no viable candidates in the pipeline. It's only now that they have someone who could make it in Charles Leclerc (and possibly Antonio Fuoco). In the meantime, they needed to be seen to be doing something, and so took on Gutiérrez.
 
As a Ferrari supporter I give all my hopes to Sebastian. He is a very good driver and a lovely guy. Wish all the best.
 
Kevin Magnussen has apparently been having conversations with Haas.

Meanwhile, Sky have suddenly started caring about Jolyon Palmer again now that his career is on the line and have been trying to link him to the vacant Force India seat.
 
prisonermonkeys
Meanwhile, Sky have suddenly started caring about Jolyon Palmer again now that his career is on the line and have been trying to link him to the vacant Force India seat.
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A friend tells me that that's Jonathan Palmer's doing, he's making a lot of noise about how good Gillian is (as always). Others aren't so convinced outside the obvious merits of sponsorship.
 
TenEightyOne
Isn't Lance St-Roll the second-favourite driver of @prisonermonkeys ? :D

Stroll's name is already being used in the same sentence as Jacques Villenueve which, imo, is a very good reason not to say that sentence.
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To be fair, they're linking the two together mostly because they're both Canadians and started/will start their career at Williams.
 
TenEightyOne
Isn't Lance St-Roll the second-favourite driver of @prisonermonkeys ? :D
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A fuller explanation of what I am thinking:

Okay, yes - Stroll's record is patchy at best. He's had some messy races, and it's easy to say that he's lived a charmed life, with a rich daddy to fulfil his dream of being a racing driver. But for all his rough edges, he is the European Formula 3 champion, and while his father owns the team, you don't become champion of a series without a modicum of talent. At the very least, Stroll has gotten better; enough for me to reserve judgement.

Compare that to the other child of privilege on the grid, Jolyon Palmer. He too, has had a charmed life, but hit the zenith of his career early on. When he was in GP2, he struggled to beat the likes of Ericsson and Nasr, and was only able to buy his way into a DAMS seat when there was a vacuum of talent. He has so far proven to be mediocre at best, making amateurish mistakes - Monaco and Hungary spring to mind - but is the darling of the media because he is British.

Stroll might be a pay driver - maybe even the mother of all pay drivers, given the testing programme that he had - but at least there is something underneath it all that could be shaped into a racing driver.
 
prisonermonkeys
- but is the darling of the media because he is British.
.
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He's only the darling to the British Media, it's not really our problem that Australia gets the British coverage. It's Sky's fault really though, that they have an international audience and only really present to one country.
 
Jimlaad43
He's only the darling to the British Media, it's not really our problem that Australia gets the British coverage. It's Sky's fault really though, that they have an international audience and only really present to one country.
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Oh, I think it's a problem regardless of who broadcasts to whom. For one, it's a misrepresentation of his abilities, and secondly, the media shouldn't be taking sides like that.
 
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