Official 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix 2020 Thread **SPOILERS**

[kambites]

Petrus1983 said:

With the outgoing of normal engines, fuel and Covid restricting company sales, I’m not so sure. Williams dropped Hill after he won the WCC.

Hill wasn't the most successful F1 driver of all time.

[Nickp82]

Of course you are all completely missing the REAL situation at Merc.
Lewis hasn’t got COVID at all, he got spooked by Grosjean’s accident and has ducked out of the season as the title is in the bag. Can Toto convince him to return for next year or indeed ever? Well, he’s certainly trying but in the meantime he is giving his back up driver a run for the last two races to ensure all bases are covered. The End

[Petrus1983]

kambites said:

Hill wasn't the most successful F1 driver of all time.

Agreed. But we are in strange times. I don’t think it will happen - but I’m sure senior people are looking at books differently at the moment.

[DanielSan]

Nickp82 said:

Of course you are all completely missing the REAL situation at Merc.
Lewis hasn’t got COVID at all, he got spooked by Grosjean’s accident and has ducked out of the season as the title is in the bag. Can Toto convince him to return for next year or indeed ever? Well, he’s certainly trying but in the meantime he is giving his back up driver a run for the last two races to ensure all bases are covered. The End

I thought we'd seen the most ridiculous post in this thread already, until I read this.

[DanielSan]

Petrus1983 said:

kambites said:

Hill wasn't the most successful F1 driver of all time.

Agreed. But we are in strange times. I don’t think it will happen - but I’m sure senior people are looking at books differently at the moment.

Let's face it the only way Hamilton isn't in that car next year will be if he decides equalling Schumacher's titles is enough and retires. Leaving that decision until this late would be a bit of a sthouse move to the team though so it seems spectacularly unlikely.

[WickerBill]

Petrus1983 said:

Obviously playing devil’s advocate- Toto pays Lewis almost directly via his ownership of Mercedes. He also manages Russell. Why does Toto need to pay £50m to Lewis for what Russell can do for £5m?

Because Russell, as much a brilliant day this is, hasn’t proved much yet.

He is still a massive unknown quantity. When the chips are down and there is a title to be won, would you put your money on a multiple world champion with a track record within the team or a relatively inexperienced driver?

I know we’ve seen this before with Hamilton V Alonso, but if you’re going to drop 1 driver then it’s Bottas.

Everyone keeps going on about Hamilton’s salary, but given his profile, the 40 million is peanuts in comparison to the return on investment he gives to Mercedes and their sponsors.

[TheDeuce]

Petrus1983 said:

kambites said:

Petrus1983 said:

Obviously playing devil’s advocate- Toto pays Lewis almost directly via his ownership of Mercedes. He also managed Russell. Why does Toto need to pay £50m to Lewis for what Russell can do for £5m?

Because of they keep Hamilton, Mercedes have a very good chance of becoming the company directly associated with the outright most successful driver of all time. That's probably worth far more than £50m to them.

With the outgoing of normal engines, fuel and Covid restricting company sales, I’m not so sure. Williams dropped Hill after he won the WCC.

Regardless of cost - there is one chance with one man to take the outright record for WDC's under the Mercedes banner. It's worth whatever.

I would have said a year ago that the biggest thing Mercedes were sacrificing to achieve that was to bring talent up the ranks, because they couldn't - because Bottas is a curious yet important part of cementing Lewis's invaluable 8th title... But as it happens they appear to have chosen very well in GR and we can see that he's become a remarkably mature and effective F1 driver despite being saddled with the Williams seat. Perhaps even because of it...

So Merc are all set driver wise, they can carry on as is or ditch Bottas at some point and bring in GR. Or maybe Lewis will depart and GR+Bottas to see how that works out. Bottas is no slouch and is a very fine (compliant...) team mate!

Future looks rosy. Albeit they also have to do a good job of the 2022 car.. I think they will though, they started looking towards it over 2 years ago and god knows how much they have put in to it already, and with no costs caps or shortage of resource.

[Boom78]

Lewis will of course resign for next year, they always leave it late. The conundrum is Bottas or George. Bottas is signed and a ‘sure thing’ in that he will be quick but not Hamilton quick, obvs question is would they dump Bottas for George?? Dunno, it would be pretty £££ to get Bottas to vacate his seat. Williams wouldn’t have a say in the matter. I wonder what’s going on in Toto’s mind??

[swisstoni]

Never have two practice sessions been so closely scrutinised.

I don’t think Bottas is mentally broken and he will be back in business when it counts.

If the kid comes out on top though, it will send his stock price sky high, and put a big dent in Bottas’ and even a little dent in Hamilton’s.

F1 doesn’t do fairytales though generally.

[TheDeuce]

Boom78 said:

Lewis will of course resign for next year, they always leave it late. The conundrum is Bottas or George. Bottas is signed and a ‘sure thing’ in that he will be quick but not Hamilton quick, obvs question is would they dump Bottas for George?? Dunno, it would be pretty £££ to get Bottas to vacate his seat. Williams wouldn’t have a say in the matter. I wonder what’s going on in Toto’s mind??

I hope you meant to type "Lewis will of course 'remain' for next year!?

[hantsxlg]

Another huge benefit for merc from their investment in Lewis has been a total change in the target demographics for their road cars. They used to have the 50+ upper mgmt sector nailed but that was a stagnant sector. Since they signed Hamilton they have ditched the 3 pointed star gunsight and gone full rapper bling on all models and seems to have worked for them.. I doubt GR fits that part of the marketing plan...

[Sandpit Steve]

Boom78 said:

Lewis will of course resign for next year, they always leave it late. The conundrum is Bottas or George. Bottas is signed and a ‘sure thing’ in that he will be quick but not Hamilton quick, obvs question is would they dump Bottas for George?? Dunno, it would be pretty £££ to get Bottas to vacate his seat. Williams wouldn’t have a say in the matter. I wonder what’s going on in Toto’s mind??

They’ve got no reason to change for next year. Bottas has a contract so they’ll have to pay him anyway, Toto doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who does that to someone, and the two incumbents managed to win the title for the team with a third of the races to go. How much more would a new driver add?

Of course, 2022 is a distinct possibility for the swap, or they may wait for Lewis to call it a day to bring GR in. Either way, if the young Englishman continues his good weekend, he’ll be surely first on the list when the time comes.

[MiniMan64]

Nickp82 said:

Of course you are all completely missing the REAL situation at Merc.
Lewis hasn’t got COVID at all, he got spooked by Grosjean’s accident and has ducked out of the season as the title is in the bag. Can Toto convince him to return for next year or indeed ever? Well, he’s certainly trying but in the meantime he is giving his back up driver a run for the last two races to ensure all bases are covered. The End

There’s a lot of crazy in this thread today, full moon?

[Tyre Smoke]

Full moon earlier in the week.

[Petrus1983]

Playing the devils advocate game again - how many extra Ferrari’s were sold on the back of Michaels achievements. Probably not many. The supporters loved it, but weren’t buying Ferrari’s. If I was on the Mercedes board, I’d be asking big questions in these times. €50m is 1,600 employees at €30k.

[vulture1]

hantsxlg said:

Another huge benefit for merc from their investment in Lewis has been a total change in the target demographics for their road cars. They used to have the 50+ upper mgmt sector nailed but that was a stagnant sector. Since they signed Hamilton they have ditched the 3 pointed star gunsight and gone full rapper bling on all models and seems to have worked for them.. I doubt GR fits that part of the marketing plan...

Yep Mercedes are/ were seen as old man old money cars.

[Nickp82]

MiniMan64 said:

There’s a lot of crazy in this thread today, full moon?

Indeed, this was just my contribution to the nonsense.

Great to see Russell looking quick in the Merc , I think Bottas will have the edge in the race though.

[Boom78]

Sandpit Steve said:

Boom78 said:

Lewis will of course resign for next year, they always leave it late. The conundrum is Bottas or George. Bottas is signed and a ‘sure thing’ in that he will be quick but not Hamilton quick, obvs question is would they dump Bottas for George?? Dunno, it would be pretty £££ to get Bottas to vacate his seat. Williams wouldn’t have a say in the matter. I wonder what’s going on in Toto’s mind??

They’ve got no reason to change for next year. Bottas has a contract so they’ll have to pay him anyway, Toto doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who does that to someone, and the two incumbents managed to win the title for the team with a third of the races to go. How much more would a new driver add?

Of course, 2022 is a distinct possibility for the swap, or they may wait for Lewis to call it a day to bring GR in. Either way, if the young Englishman continues his good weekend, he’ll be surely first on the list when the time comes.

Spot on SS. Exactly what I’m thinking, Lewis will resign and canter off to another WDC with Bottas trailing behind but combined picking up manufacturers title, that is all that Merc care about. Ham has changed the face of Mercedes/AMG road cars from being old men’s golf club accessories to things twenty somethings want. But.. we know Toto is ambitious, could/will he think of another decade of dominance post Lewis?? I think despite the critics we’re living though a massive old vs new guard, as an F1 fan it’s great (albeit we all know the sport of fu**ed and going electric within 10 years )

[rog007]

Sandpit Steve said:

They’ve got no reason to change for next year. Bottas has a contract so they’ll have to pay him anyway, Toto doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who does that to someone...

...said Vandoorne!

[vulture1]

TheDeuce said:

Boom78 said:

Lewis will of course resign for next year, they always leave it late. The conundrum is Bottas or George. Bottas is signed and a ‘sure thing’ in that he will be quick but not Hamilton quick, obvs question is would they dump Bottas for George?? Dunno, it would be pretty £££ to get Bottas to vacate his seat. Williams wouldn’t have a say in the matter. I wonder what’s going on in Toto’s mind??

I hope you meant to type "Lewis will of course 'remain' for next year!?

Gotta love the English language there where the same word means two things that are exact opposite to each other