The Official 2017 F1 Pre-Season Thread

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

2017 F1 Season - Live UK TV Broadcasts
1. Australia (March 27) - Sky
2. China (April 9) - Sky
3. Bahrain (April 16) - Sky and Channel 4
4. Russia (April 30) - Sky and Channel 4
5. Spain (May 14) - Sky
6. Monaco (May 28) - Sky and Channel 4
7. Canada (June 11) - Sky
8. Azerbaijan (June 25) - Sky and Channel 4
9. Austria (July 9) - Sky
10. Great Britain (July 16) - Sky and Channel 4
11. Hungary (July 30) - Sky
12. Begium (August 27) - Sky and Channel 4
13. Italy (September 3) - Sky
14. Singapore (September 17) - Sky and Channel 4
15. Malaysia (October 1) - Sky and Channel 4
16. Japan (October 8) - Sky
17. USA (October 22) - Sky and Channel 4
18. Mexico (October 29) - Sky
19. Brazil (November 12) - Sky
20. Abu Dhabi - Sky and Channel 4

[ukaskew]

Thanks all, everything up to date now.

[ajprice]

Wehrlein confirmed a Sauber.

[Jordan210]

Bottas to Mercedes and Massa one year deal at Williams confirmed

[ukaskew]

Updated along with the McLaren car launch.

[VolvoT5]

Jordan210 said:

Bottas to Mercedes and Massa one year deal at Williams confirmed

Sigh... we all knew it was coming but it is a bit of a let down anyway.

[suffolk009]

The best unsigned F1 driver in the world, available for next year is....Massa.

You couldn't make it up.

[rscott]

suffolk009 said:

The best unsigned F1 driver in the world, available for next year is....Massa.

You couldn't make it up.

But you appear to have done just that.

Williams required an experienced driver over 25 years old to fulfil their sponsorship requirements, so the choice was pretty limited.

[MiniMan64]

ajprice said:

Car launch dates so far:

Renault - February 21
Force India - February 22
Mercedes - February 23
Ferrari - February 24

Is it just me or do those dates seem much later than normal?

New rules and no one wants to show their hand?

[Rich_W]

suffolk009 said:

The best unsigned F1 driver in the world, available for next year is....Massa.

You couldn't make it up.

It's fking tragic isn't it! What is it with these Brazilian drivers keep hanging around and not retiring when they get slower and slower and less interesting to talk to.

You just know if Senna had lived to be 90 he'd have been racing till he was 40 at the back, still thinking he had it.


And as fro Bottas. Overrated massively and lets be honest will finish 5th or lower next year. And hopefully will bugger off

I always liked the phrase "he's like Kimi, but without the personality or the inherent speed"

[Vaud]

Rich_W said:

And as fro Bottas. Overrated massively and lets be honest will finish 5th or lower next year. And hopefully will bugger off

I always liked the phrase "he's like Kimi, but without the personality or the inherent speed"

Source?

Ferrari thought enough of him to pitch for his services. Williams have generally been fairly ruthless on driver selection.

[HustleRussell]

Rich_W said:

Bottas. Overrated massively and lets be honest will finish 5th or lower next year.

You're going to look sillier in 10 months.

[Rich_W]

We'll see.

I imagine the top 4 will include
Hamilton
Verstappen
Riciardo
Vettel.

Bottas is not the equal of any of those. He'll be a very competent 2nd driver.

[VolvoT5]

Vaud said:

Source?

Ferrari thought enough of him to pitch for his services. Williams have generally been fairly ruthless on driver selection.

Yeah they considered his services in late 2014 and early 2015 when Raikkonen was performing poorly vs Alonso and Vettel..... and yet after weighing up their options they still decided to stick with Kimi. That can't say much about how highly rated Bottas is, can it? Based on 2016 form it looks like the right decision as well.

I hope I'm wrong but I think Hamilton will beat him comfortably and only maybe then will people appreciate what a great job Rosberg did to at least make it an interesting fight these last 3 seasons.

Of course Merc may not turn up with the best car... I think F1 really needs Merc/Red Bull/Ferrari to be relatively evenly matched this year.

[ajprice]

Stoffel Vandoorne at the launch of a McLaren edition Richard Mille watch, with what may or not be a new McLaren livery, or at least a new testing livery. It has orange in it!


McLaren Twitter says it's a one off.


Maybe it is a one off, maybe they'll do something like what Renault did last year showing a black car with yellow parts at the launch then the yellow car with black parts for the season.

Orange car with black hexagons?

Edited by ajprice on Tuesday 17th January 07:29

[JNW1]

VolvoT5 said:

Vaud said:

Source?

Ferrari thought enough of him to pitch for his services. Williams have generally been fairly ruthless on driver selection.

Yeah they considered his services in late 2014 and early 2015 when Raikkonen was performing poorly vs Alonso and Vettel..... and yet after weighing up their options they still decided to stick with Kimi. That can't say much about how highly rated Bottas is, can it? Based on 2016 form it looks like the right decision as well.

I hope I'm wrong but I think Hamilton will beat him comfortably and only maybe then will people appreciate what a great job Rosberg did to at least make it an interesting fight these last 3 seasons.

Of course Merc may not turn up with the best car... I think F1 really needs Merc/Red Bull/Ferrari to be relatively evenly matched this year.

Pretty much agree with that, personally I'll be surprised if Bottas is able to put any real pressure on Hamilton. I think the main concern Lewis will have is whether the Mercedes will continue to be at the front of the pack given all the regulation changes; if it is he's a shoe-in for the 2017 driver's title IMO but if Red Bull and/or Ferrari have a car that's more competitive with the Mercedes I think he'll have more of a fight on his hands. From the point of view of what's good for the sport, a three-way fight between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari would certainly be preferable; would be nice to think McLaren could make it a four-way fight but I don't see it this year!

[Vaud]

JNW1 said:

VolvoT5 said:

Vaud said:

Source?

Ferrari thought enough of him to pitch for his services. Williams have generally been fairly ruthless on driver selection.

Yeah they considered his services in late 2014 and early 2015 when Raikkonen was performing poorly vs Alonso and Vettel..... and yet after weighing up their options they still decided to stick with Kimi. That can't say much about how highly rated Bottas is, can it? Based on 2016 form it looks like the right decision as well.

I hope I'm wrong but I think Hamilton will beat him comfortably and only maybe then will people appreciate what a great job Rosberg did to at least make it an interesting fight these last 3 seasons.

Of course Merc may not turn up with the best car... I think F1 really needs Merc/Red Bull/Ferrari to be relatively evenly matched this year.

Pretty much agree with that, personally I'll be surprised if Bottas is able to put any real pressure on Hamilton. I think the main concern Lewis will have is whether the Mercedes will continue to be at the front of the pack given all the regulation changes; if it is he's a shoe-in for the 2017 driver's title IMO but if Red Bull and/or Ferrari have a car that's more competitive with the Mercedes I think he'll have more of a fight on his hands. From the point of view of what's good for the sport, a three-way fight between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari would certainly be preferable; would be nice to think McLaren could make it a four-way fight but I don't see it this year!

In all of this... clearly Mercedes and the team principals have much more data than us.

I am sure Toto has had someone take all of the Bottas race data (and maybe had Williams provide extra) to evidence his true pace versus the scant few other drivers available.

The paddock is a small place, and these are very intelligent people.

[tommunster10]

Rich_W said:

suffolk009 said:

The best unsigned F1 driver in the world, available for next year is....Massa.

You couldn't make it up.

It's fking tragic isn't it! What is it with these Brazilian drivers keep hanging around and not retiring when they get slower and slower and less interesting to talk to.

You just know if Senna had lived to be 90 he'd have been racing till he was 40 at the back, still thinking he had it.


And as fro Bottas. Overrated massively and lets be honest will finish 5th or lower next year. And hopefully will bugger off

I always liked the phrase "he's like Kimi, but without the personality or the inherent speed"

Ha ha provided the Merc is of the same dominance in 2017 as last few seasons Bottas is guaranteed 2nd place in the WDC and picking up the first win of his career in F1....
It's offensive to the team at Merc to suggest otherwise, that car is simply genius.

[JNW1]

Vaud said:

JNW1 said:

VolvoT5 said:

Vaud said:

Source?

Ferrari thought enough of him to pitch for his services. Williams have generally been fairly ruthless on driver selection.

Yeah they considered his services in late 2014 and early 2015 when Raikkonen was performing poorly vs Alonso and Vettel..... and yet after weighing up their options they still decided to stick with Kimi. That can't say much about how highly rated Bottas is, can it? Based on 2016 form it looks like the right decision as well.

I hope I'm wrong but I think Hamilton will beat him comfortably and only maybe then will people appreciate what a great job Rosberg did to at least make it an interesting fight these last 3 seasons.

Of course Merc may not turn up with the best car... I think F1 really needs Merc/Red Bull/Ferrari to be relatively evenly matched this year.

Pretty much agree with that, personally I'll be surprised if Bottas is able to put any real pressure on Hamilton. I think the main concern Lewis will have is whether the Mercedes will continue to be at the front of the pack given all the regulation changes; if it is he's a shoe-in for the 2017 driver's title IMO but if Red Bull and/or Ferrari have a car that's more competitive with the Mercedes I think he'll have more of a fight on his hands. From the point of view of what's good for the sport, a three-way fight between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari would certainly be preferable; would be nice to think McLaren could make it a four-way fight but I don't see it this year!

In all of this... clearly Mercedes and the team principals have much more data than us.

I am sure Toto has had someone take all of the Bottas race data (and maybe had Williams provide extra) to evidence his true pace versus the scant few other drivers available.

The paddock is a small place, and these are very intelligent people.

The paddock is indeed a small place but I suspect the people who would have given Hamilton a run for his money in an equal car were all unavailable. Given the available options Mercedes have probably opted for a sensible choice but I really don't see Bottas matching Hamilton on a regular basis; the evidence suggests there was a bigger margin between Alonso and Massa than there was between Bottas and Massa so that doesn't bode well for how Bottas is likely to stack-up against Hamilton....

[swisstoni]

I'm not seeing Bottas as a clear rung below Hamilton. People thought that about Rosberg and he never made it easy for Hamilton and is WDC 2016.
If Hamilton cared (which I'm sure he doesn't) he'd like a teammate who might win the odd race but then go missing for a few. Bottas isn't that.