The 2018 F1 driver transfer discussion/speculation threadFormula 1 

Well, that's...bizarre. Shame actually, as it's unlikely he'll end up in a real Ferrari seat. I'd have rather seen him go to sportscars or another discipline where he can actually compete.
 
I can't imagine why Ferrari needs him, expect for information maybe. Coming from Red Bull he surely can give some input. Ferrari still has Giovinazzi and Leclerc in the pipeline on the driver side...
 
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psychoazubi
I can't imagine why Ferrari needs him, expect for information maybe. Coming from Red Bull he surely can give some input. Ferrari still has Giovinazzi and Leclerc in the pipeline on the driver side...
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Maybe Ferrari aren't doing so well with the Russian oligarch market? :lol:
 
psychoazubi
Sirotkin confirmed by Williams
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I find it funny how quick people are to bash Sergey Sirotkin for being slower than Kubica and only being in F1 because he has lots of money. Maybe he was slower than Kubica was in his prime, but Kubica isn’t in his prime anymore. He spent 6 years out of single seater racing and when testing with Sirotkin with both in equal machinery Sirotkin was the faster driver. Sirotkin also brings an estimated £15 million in sponsorship from SMP Bank. Overall Sirotkin is the better choice in my opinion and Kubica’s year as reserve and development driver should only help him regain more of his lost experience and speed.
 
So Oliver Rowland has left Renault and has just been signed by Williams as their official "young driver".

He's 3 years older than Sirotkin and 6 older than Stroll :lol:
 
I heard about it on facebook but I think it's complete bs.

Redbull at the very minimum would allow Hartley a full season.
 
Wehrlein is definitely too good to not be on the grid, but he is heavily tied up with Mercedes, so I doubt he is going to a rival's junior team for now. Torro Rosso is an extension of their young driver programme, and a testbed, first, and a F1 team with individual ambitions second.
 
Don't like that news one bit, but there might be some logic to it. Lando Norris is clearly the future for McLaren so I don't think there is any real doubt that should Alonso move on in 2019, it will be Norris promoted. On the other side of the garage you have Stoffel Vandoorne, who had a decent season in 2017 but has so far struggled in 2018. There is talk he may lose his seat also, so who do McLaren go to then? Nyck de Vries is in his second F2 season, and although some results have been very good, his consistency is poor when compared to Norris and Vandoorne and the mistakes are very poor. So perhaps McLaren feel they need someone else in the fold either as a stepping stone before de Vries is developed enough to join the F1 lineup, or to replace him completely... The money Latifi brings in would then be an added bonus to the driver deals.

I certainly hope this is along their line of thinking anyway, otherwise they are following the wheel tracks of Williams... But the other worry for me is that Latifi has been in F2 for a number of seasons now without real impact. Either McLaren feel they need an "older and wiser" driver in one of the seats or they really aren't keen with de Vries' errors the last 2 race weekends...
 
Pezzarinho17
Don't like that news one bit, but there might be some logic to it. Lando Norris is clearly the future for McLaren so I don't think there is any real doubt that should Alonso move on in 2019, it will be Norris promoted. On the other side of the garage you have Stoffel Vandoorne, who had a decent season in 2017 but has so far struggled in 2018. There is talk he may lose his seat also, so who do McLaren go to then? Nyck de Vries is in his second F2 season, and although some results have been very good, his consistency is poor when compared to Norris and Vandoorne and the mistakes are very poor. So perhaps McLaren feel they need someone else in the fold either as a stepping stone before de Vries is developed enough to join the F1 lineup, or to replace him completely... The money Latifi brings in would then be an added bonus to the driver deals.

I certainly hope this is along their line of thinking anyway, otherwise they are following the wheel tracks of Williams... But the other worry for me is that Latifi has been in F2 for a number of seasons now without real impact. Either McLaren feel they need an "older and wiser" driver in one of the seats or they really aren't keen with de Vries' errors the last 2 race weekends...
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Be that as it may, you don't go opting for the guy that has never won a feeder series championship, doesn't look to be any closer to winning one this year. And at least guys like de Vries have more to their name on the come up. If he's an issue because of the past couple races, then Latifi is a catastrophe with money being thrown at him.
 
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Hence the doubt and worry that this is about the money only. Even if you exclude all of the F2 drivers already linked to a team (not forgetting Latifi himself is the Force India reserve driver) then there are still better options available.

You never know, perhaps this is just a pure business deal between a Formula 1 team and a company that just so happens to be run by the dad of an aspiring Formula 1 driver. No caveats...
 
Pezzarinho17
Hence the doubt and worry that this is about the money only. Even if you exclude all of the F2 drivers already linked to a team (not forgetting Latifi himself is the Force India reserve driver) then there are still better options available.

You never know, perhaps this is just a pure business deal between a Formula 1 team and a company that just so happens to be run by the dad of an aspiring Formula 1 driver. No caveats...
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200 million and no caveats...is tons of wishful thinking, considering what some fathers of certain current F1 drivers have done to ensure their kids keep driving.
 
It could also be nothing to do with that. Remember that Jordan King's dad owner Manor for a couple of seasons, and Jordan got a couple of practice sessions at most.
 
McLaren is definitely in the "need money more than drivers" zone right now though. When you have Fernando Alonso who can't do much with your car, it's not a driver problem. That is not an assumption that a large financial investment will magically turn into a sorted car though. Watching that short McLaren documentary thing on Amazon was pretty depressing - seeing how heavily they've fallen in the sport.
 
Definitely didn’t see that coming, given that Latifi hasn’t had much of an impact in F2.

Obviously Norris is the future of McLaren’s F1 program....but could bringing a driver like Latifi into the fold, along with his money, have anything to do with some of the rumours that McLaren is considering a full entry into Indycar, and maybe even whatever WEC turns into after the super season?

If there is anything to these rumours, it would make sense that McLaren would both want to increase the size of its driver stable, and bring in as much money as they can. For a driver like Latifi, the shot at an F1 seat is the carrot on a stick. If he’s not quite good enough for an F1 race seat, perhaps he (and his money) can stay in the stable as someone who does things like development work on a potential Indy or Endurance entry, and perhaps as a race driver in Indy and/or WEC.
 

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