The 2018 F1 driver transfer discussion/speculation threadFormula 1 

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Jimlaad43
The main thing about Hartley is, who would replace him? Red Bull and Toro Rosso would want to put a Red Bull Junior in, but there aren't any ready. Dan Ticktum is the most experienced of the lot, with a Macau GP win to his name, but he doesn't have a Superlicence yet.

Honda want a Japanese driver, but Matsu****a and Fukuzumi also don't have a superlicense, while I'm sure Toyota would just love to let Nakajima or Kobayashi join Honda. Their only option there would be Super Formula, but I doubt they'd take anyone from there.

And Wehrlein? As much as he deserves to be in F1, I doubt Mercedes would want him playing around with a Rival engine, AND a Red Bull affiliated team.



Anyone who says Sean Gelael needs their head cleaned out.

Hartley is the best Toro Rosso are going to have for a while, so they may as well work with him to make him into a class Formula 1 driver, we know how good he was in LMP1, he just needs to readjust back to Single-Seater racing.
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I think Wherlein is a good shout. He’s with Merc at the moment but he’s in DTM... Merc are in there last year of DTM and then where does he go? F1 via Merc is a now a non-starter so if he wants another go the Toro Rosso seat is his only option. And we’ve seen that drivers change teams/engines and no one takes it personal, it’s just racing.

I don’t see why Wherlein can’t go to Toro Rosso for at least some of this season and then join Merc in Formula E when ever his F1 drive runs out,
 
baldgye
I think Wherlein is a good shout. He’s with Merc at the moment but he’s in DTM... Merc are in there last year of DTM and then where does he go? F1 via Merc is a now a non-starter so if he wants another go the Toro Rosso seat is his only option. And we’ve seen that drivers change teams/engines and no one takes it personal, it’s just racing.

I don’t see why Wherlein can’t go to Toro Rosso for at least some of this season and then join Merc in Formula E when ever his F1 drive runs out,
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He'd probably go to FE if possible or be retained as a factory Merc driver to test, or run GT3s.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
He'd probably go to FE if possible or be retained as a factory Merc driver to test, or run GT3s.
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Maybe, wasn't Kamui a Ferrari Corsa driver and when he got the chance at Caterham he went for it over good money from Ferrari? He's now an LMP1 driver. I could see Wherlein taking a similar route.
 
baldgye
I don’t see why Wherlein can’t go to Toro Rosso for at least some of this season and then join Merc in Formula E when ever his F1 drive runs out,
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One of the things the teams (or rather their engine suppliers) don't like is having "enemy" teams knowing their specific tactics getting performance from the engine. That's arguably why Renault want Red Bull to decide sooner rather than later on what they're doing next season - it's no good for Renault if Red Bull see how their upgrades work and then take that knowledge to a Honda contract. To an extent the same thing is true with drivers - they might not understand as much of the deep engineering (although some do) but they know enough about the engines and their modes to pilot the cars. That's one of the reasons that we don't often see drivers go from supplier to supplier unless it's by force majeure.
 
TenEightyOne
One of the things the teams (or rather their engine suppliers) don't like is having "enemy" teams knowing their specific tactics getting performance from the engine. That's arguably why Renault want Red Bull to decide sooner rather than later on what they're doing next season - it's no good for Renault if Red Bull see how their upgrades work and then take that knowledge to a Honda contract. To an extent the same thing is true with drivers - they might not understand as much of the deep engineering (although some do) but they know enough about the engines and their modes to pilot the cars. That's one of the reasons that we don't often see drivers go from supplier to supplier unless it's by force majeure.
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I'm not sure what he'd bring to Toro Rosso, and then, what he could possibly take from them to a possible Formula E drive..
 
baldgye
I'm not sure what he'd bring to Toro Rosso, and then, what he could possibly take from them to a possible Formula E drive..
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It's more who his new 'owners' would be. In fact they're his existing 'owners' too.
 
baldgye
Maybe, wasn't Kamui a Ferrari Corsa driver and when he got the chance at Caterham he went for it over good money from Ferrari? He's now an LMP1 driver. I could see Wherlein taking a similar route.
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I was pretty sure he was at both but I can't remember. I could see that too though for Wherlein ending up like that though too.
 
I am a little biased but I would like Hartley to see the year out, I will admit he appears to have struggled a little bit, but (not that I watched every session) he appeared to have pretty good pace at Monaco, and he has out qualified Gasly a couple of times (?), so I think there is potential there, I just hope Red Bull give a bit of a chance to develop it.

I had a bit of thought the other day... I was thinking if Kimi is dropped, Haas should let go of Grosjean and put Kimi in the car. I know its very unlikely but think it could be a good move for Haas as Kimi would be a good benchmark as to where there car could actually be, and probably be good for their development, even if it is only a year contract or something....But mainly thought that because I am really unimpressed with Grosjean at the moment, and was thinking who would be good to put in his car instead.
 
Hartley imo deserves at least one full season. Regarding Wehrlein, I just can’t see him in F1, reportedly hard to work with, last year he and Ericsson were the closest pairing in Qs IIRC.

RB going for Merc’s leftovers would be weird, especially as if they want to waste a seat, they could as well give it to one of Honda drivers.

Wehrlein, if he doesn’t part ways with Merc, is definitely FE bound, for MB it’s a no-brainer, especially with Ocon in F1 and Russell looking very good in F2
 
Kubica won't be going anywhere, Martini need him at Williams. If Kubica went, Ollie Rowland would have to be promoted to a race seat to keep the sponsors happy with the 25-year-old regulations
 
Jimlaad43
Kubica won't be going anywhere, Martini need him at Williams. If Kubica went, Ollie Rowland would have to be promoted to a race seat to keep the sponsors happy with the 25-year-old regulations
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I'm not sure, after all Kubica isn't in a race seat either and Martini only have a few months left. It wouldn't be too much hardship to promote Rowland to 'spare driver' if they had to, even if they never used him.

Late last season Paddy Lowe was saying that the 25-year-old thing wasn't a thing any more.
 
Williams recently did a presentation at my university. Firstly, they had to wear non-Martini branded team wear, because they were presenting to university students, most of which are less than 25 years old. They even said that Kubica was crucial to their sponsor commitments. When I say Kubica isn't going anywhere for sponsorship reasons, I mean it.
 
Still, and that's merely my opinion, I don't believe Martini would pull out mid season in last year of their contract over third driver, if they were to break the contract, they would've done so the moment Sirotkin got announced, as that is where Martini got shafted, by not having a 25+yo in a racing seat.
 
Jimlaad43
Kubica won't be going anywhere, Martini need him at Williams. If Kubica went, Ollie Rowland would have to be promoted to a race seat to keep the sponsors happy with the 25-year-old regulations
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And on that note.... Rowland and Kubica will be track testing the car in Hungary :)
 
"McLaren have blocked Toro Rosso's approach for Lando Norris, Niki Lauda says that Ricciardo is blackmailing Red Bull and Claire Williams wants to extend Lance Stroll's contract. "

 
Hartley is gone, apprently Mclaren might of accepted if it was only for 2018 for Norris but it was a multi season deal.

Redbulls next breed of juniors are awhile away from being near F1, so the next driver will be there for a decent time, they wouldn't want a stop gap.
 
mustafur
Hartley is gone, apprently Mclaren might of accepted if it was only for 2018 for Norris but it was a multi season deal.

Redbulls next breed of juniors are awhile away from being near F1, so the next driver will be there for a decent time, they wouldn't want a stop gap.
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Then who are they going to replace him with? I get that he is lacking the pace and has only shown moments of it since joining, but if there is no one in the program capable of joining, who else could they grab? I can't think of anyone other than recalling their driver but that seems complicated.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
Then who are they going to replace him with? I get that he is lacking the pace and has only shown moments of it since joining, but if there is no one in the program capable of joining, who else could they grab? I can't think of anyone other than recalling their driver but that seems complicated.
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No idea at this stage, but it looks like Redbull have made their mind up, could be a surprise who actually ends up in the seat, Hartley's best chance of staying would be to nail Canada, but who knows whats going through Marko's head, the Super license Rules means they could be looking at someone like Aitken, if Renault are willing to let him go that would probably require Redbull to give up on Sainz to Renault though, which I doubt Redbull would allow unless Ricciardo signs a new contract.
 
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mustafur
No idea at this stage, but it looks like Redbull have made their mind up, could be a surprise who actually ends up in the seat, Hartley's best chance of staying would be to nail Canada, but who knows whats going through Marko's head, the Super license Rules means they could be looking at someone like Aitken, if Renault are willing to let him go that would probably require Redbull to give up on Sainz to Renault though, which I doubt Redbull would allow unless Ricciardo signs a new contract.
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I think again that is the biggest factor at the end of the day, which means they have time and don't need to rid themselves of Hartley right away.
 
TheCracker
*fixed* ;)
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While true. I actually have been curious to see how many people would blame him this season (and his team mate) because of their pay status performance, when it's quite obvious the car probably has equally or more blame. It should be obvious, but perhaps that's my thoughts, when various technical personnel in charge of departments for the team have either been fired or resigned. As well as the car having fundamental aero issues.
 

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