Pascal Wehrlein to miss Chinese GP

[Vaud]

Likes Fast Cars said:

Maybe he “did a Montoya” … tennis (motorbike riding) anyone?

I thought the joke was "he was injured while playing tennis on his motorbike"?

[mikecassie]

There's definately something about Wehrlein that's maybe a bit arrogant behind the scenes I think. Force India picked Ocon over him and there was stories that their respective attitudes played a part. Can't remember the race but Wehrlein was firmly stuck in the gravel and he was told far too many times to switch off the engine, eventually he did. But for me he should have done it on the 2nd telling at the latest, the Engineers can see the temps etc better than him and also see how well stuck he was in all likelihood.
Talented he is but his attitude out of the car can make or break. Just ask Tommy Byrne...

[Likes Fast Cars]

Vaud said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

Maybe he “did a Montoya” … tennis (motorbike riding) anyone?

I thought the joke was "he was injured while playing tennis on his motorbike"?

Ah yes, that was so long ago now, thanks for the correction!

[Likes Fast Cars]

mikecassie said:

There's definately something about Wehrlein that's maybe a bit arrogant behind the scenes I think. Force India picked Ocon over him and there was stories that their respective attitudes played a part. Can't remember the race but Wehrlein was firmly stuck in the gravel and he was told far too many times to switch off the engine, eventually he did. But for me he should have done it on the 2nd telling at the latest, the Engineers can see the temps etc better than him and also see how well stuck he was in all likelihood.
Talented he is but his attitude out of the car can make or break. Just ask Tommy Byrne...

Yep.

[paolow]

Likes Fast Cars said:

Yep.

just out of interest - is there a clip of him beached in the gravel? Ive looked - and nothing is obvious

[FourWheelDrift]

paolow said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

Yep.

just out of interest - is there a clip of him beached in the gravel? Ive looked - and nothing is obvious

video here - https://track4.mixtape.moe/uaxuvb.mp4

[paolow]

FourWheelDrift said:

video here - https://track4.mixtape.moe/uaxuvb.mp4

Many thanks FWD

[glazbagun]

FourWheelDrift said:

Tyre Smoke said:

I would suspect there's politics at play here. Sauber are borassic, are they playing both sides off against the middle using Pascal as the pawn?

In a "yes we are paying for your 2016 engine for this year, but if we were to give your reserve driver seat time and maybe even a permanent race seat this year could you allow us to use your 2017 engine for no extra charge"

I would have said this was unthinkable, but after what the very same team did to Van der Garde and Sutil it is now my default position. Sauber make Ferrari/Williams look a bastion of probity.

[Likes Fast Cars]

FourWheelDrift said:

video here - https://track4.mixtape.moe/uaxuvb.mp4

thanks

[Trabi601]

glazbagun said:

FourWheelDrift said:

Tyre Smoke said:

I would suspect there's politics at play here. Sauber are borassic, are they playing both sides off against the middle using Pascal as the pawn?

In a "yes we are paying for your 2016 engine for this year, but if we were to give your reserve driver seat time and maybe even a permanent race seat this year could you allow us to use your 2017 engine for no extra charge"

I would have said this was unthinkable, but after what the very same team did to Van der Garde and Sutil it is now my default position. Sauber make Ferrari/Williams look a bastion of probity.

Not sure it's quite as easy as swapping the engine on a Ford Cortina in a lockup... it'll need a fairly serious redesign to switch and nobody will be doing that mid season.

[Likes Fast Cars]

glazbagun said:

I would have said this was unthinkable, but after what the very same team did to Van der Garde and Sutil it is now my default position. Sauber make Ferrari/Williams look a bastion of probity.

That fiasco was a disgrace, it certainly leaves an aura of dodgy-ness around Sauber. Where there's smoke there's (usually) fire.

[Vaud]

Trabi601 said:

Not sure it's quite as easy as swapping the engine on a Ford Cortina in a lockup... it'll need a fairly serious redesign to switch and nobody will be doing that mid season.

It would, I agree. The mounting points are standard, but the rest of the packaging, heat management, CoG, etc would need some serious work, essentially a new car.

[cjm]

glazbagun said:

FourWheelDrift said:

Tyre Smoke said:

I would suspect there's politics at play here. Sauber are borassic, are they playing both sides off against the middle using Pascal as the pawn?

In a "yes we are paying for your 2016 engine for this year, but if we were to give your reserve driver seat time and maybe even a permanent race seat this year could you allow us to use your 2017 engine for no extra charge"

I would have said this was unthinkable, but after what the very same team did to Van der Garde and Sutil it is now my default position. Sauber make Ferrari/Williams look a bastion of probity.

Would you give up your seat for three races if you were going to get a 2017 Ferrari engine? It all seems a bit odd and if the new guy is faster you might not get your seat back at all?!

[thegreenhell]

glazbagun said:

FourWheelDrift said:

Tyre Smoke said:

I would suspect there's politics at play here. Sauber are borassic, are they playing both sides off against the middle using Pascal as the pawn?

In a "yes we are paying for your 2016 engine for this year, but if we were to give your reserve driver seat time and maybe even a permanent race seat this year could you allow us to use your 2017 engine for no extra charge"

I would have said this was unthinkable, but after what the very same team did to Van der Garde and Sutil it is now my default position. Sauber make Ferrari/Williams look a bastion of probity.

It would be a strange move, especially if the rumours are true about Sauber signing up with Honda for next year. Unless they want to get some first-hand knowledge of the 2017 Ferrari donkey to pass to the Japanese.

[99dndd]

Something seems fishy. When he 1st had his crash he was expected to be competing the next day, then withdrew as a precaution.

[Dr Z]

Well, his long runs on the Friday of the last GP weekend looked highly inconsistent. It looked like he really couldn't string 10 laps together. It probably made Sauber panic a bit, and Pascal probably shat himself too after realising the extent of his 'fitness' deficit whatever that is. I don't believe there is any underhand politics going on. However, I struggle to believe that they couldn't find this in the winter testing.

[Krikkit]

They didn't do a race sim (or close to it) in testing, hence not knowing.

According to him he was able to do a few laps, then back to pain again, hence the odd times in practice. To be honest it sounds like a pretty grown up attitude - if you can't do it right, don't try.

[Dr Z]

Right, I wasn't following testing too closely, did they send him out on short runs all the time then?

A bit unfair, if you knew you couldn't do a full race distance and still pretty much wasted a friday's running, when a reserve could have familiarised with the car and probably done a better job on the Sunday.

Edited by Dr Z on Thursday 6th April 14:15

[jamiebae]

Pre season he was posting pics of himself skiing (XC rather than downhill I guess) on social media so I'm inclined to take the fact it's a 'fitness' issue with a pinch of salt. Also, any continuation of the 'back injury' from ROC really should have been clear if his training was hard enough before the season started, my (non-medical-professional) opinion would be that it's very unlikely that it would only flare up if he did 10+ laps in a race car.

To me, it's really fishy indeed.

[Tyre Smoke]

cjm said:

glazbagun said:

FourWheelDrift said:

Tyre Smoke said:

I would suspect there's politics at play here. Sauber are borassic, are they playing both sides off against the middle using Pascal as the pawn?

In a "yes we are paying for your 2016 engine for this year, but if we were to give your reserve driver seat time and maybe even a permanent race seat this year could you allow us to use your 2017 engine for no extra charge"

I would have said this was unthinkable, but after what the very same team did to Van der Garde and Sutil it is now my default position. Sauber make Ferrari/Williams look a bastion of probity.

Would you give up your seat for three races if you were going to get a 2017 Ferrari engine? It all seems a bit odd and if the new guy is faster you might not get your seat back at all?!

If I was Monisha, I'd be letting the whole Ferrari factory at Marinello take turns on me if it meant I got a chance of a top ten finish at the end of the season. Sod the driver, look at the bigger picture. If she can get a significant cash/tech boost for this season by dropping Pascal, surely she would? Coming up with an 'injury' keeps Pascal's sponsors quiet (and hence, their money still rolling in) and gives her the chance to appease Ferrari and get some help.