The Official F1 2025 silly season *contains speculation*

The Official F1 2025 silly season *contains speculation*

Author
Discussion

Petrus1983

10,134 posts

173 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
ajprice said:
This is a good result for him - I'd imagine being around the Ferrari F1 team will be fairly exciting in 2025.

andburg

7,916 posts

180 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Petrus1983 said:
This is a good result for him - I'd imagine being around the Ferrari F1 team will be fairly exciting in 2025.
Makes sense.

history with Ferrari
history with Fred
knows the powertrain modes
experience at all the tracks on the calendar
likey cheap and potential bring a sponsor

LM240

4,981 posts

229 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
andburg said:
Petrus1983 said:
This is a good result for him - I'd imagine being around the Ferrari F1 team will be fairly exciting in 2025.
Makes sense.

history with Ferrari
history with Fred
knows the powertrain modes
experience at all the tracks on the calendar
likey cheap and potential bring a sponsor
Only one reason and it isn’t his performance capabilities should they be needed.

vaud

Original Poster:

53,697 posts

166 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
LM240 said:
Only one reason and it isn’t his performance capabilities should they be needed.
He's not that bad. Dog of a car the last few years,

Rotary Potato

455 posts

107 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
It'll be interesting to see who gets the nod if Lewis or Charles is unable to race.

My money would be on someone other than Zhou (maybe whichever HAAS driver is doing better at the time, similar to Merc with Russell when Lewis had Covid), but you never know.

Hustle_

25,328 posts

171 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Ferrari have already put Bearman in the car in Saudi Arabia last year when Sainz had his appendix out. Now that Bearman's a HAAS driver I'd expect him to get the call up with somebody else deputising for him at HAAS.

entropy

5,844 posts

214 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Robert Schwartzman was Ferrari's reserve driver last year but it was Bearman who got the nod covering Sainz at Saudi.

trackdemon

12,566 posts

272 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Hustle_ said:
Ferrari have already put Bearman in the car in Saudi Arabia last year when Sainz had his appendix out. Now that Bearman's a HAAS driver I'd expect him to get the call up with somebody else deputising for him at HAAS.
Yep, Bearman in the Ferrari and Zhou into the Haas would make sense (I don't know the Haas reserves) unless they've created a car that's given Ollie a chance and good points they don't want to risk...

TheDeuce

26,809 posts

77 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Rotary Potato said:
It'll be interesting to see who gets the nod if Lewis or Charles is unable to race.

My money would be on someone other than Zhou (maybe whichever HAAS driver is doing better at the time, similar to Merc with Russell when Lewis had Covid), but you never know.
Definitely Bearman. He's in the wings at Haas and Ferrari would be more than keen to give him a little extra seat time in their car if they lost one of their main drivers.

Zhou isn't going to get a sniff.

ralphrj

3,750 posts

202 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
entropy said:
Robert Schwartzman was one of Ferrari's reserve drivers last year but it was Bearman, another of Ferrari's reserve drivers, who got the nod covering Sainz at Saudi.
Edited as it read as if you were implying that Schwartzman was the sole reserve but was overlooked. Giovinazzi was another unused reserve.



entropy

5,844 posts

214 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
Didn't know you could nominate >1 reserve drivers

MartG

21,533 posts

215 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
entropy said:
Didn't know you could nominate >1 reserve drivers
Well you need at least two in case both primary drivers are out of action

LM240

4,981 posts

229 months

Wednesday 5th February
quotequote all
vaud said:
LM240 said:
Only one reason and it isn’t his performance capabilities should they be needed.
He's not that bad. Dog of a car the last few years,
No, but it’s purely a Chinese market led move. PR events, sponsor attraction, car sales etc.

Mark-C

6,241 posts

216 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
LM240 said:
vaud said:
LM240 said:
Only one reason and it isn’t his performance capabilities should they be needed.
He's not that bad. Dog of a car the last few years,
No, but it’s purely a Chinese market led move. PR events, sponsor attraction, car sales etc.
Same reason they put a Monégasque in the car? That's a big market for the brand as well ...

thegreenhell

18,475 posts

230 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
Ferrari are probably the most recognisable car brand in the world, highly profitable and could probably sell five times as many cars as they can actually make. I don't think they need to resort to hiring specific drivers just as marketing tools. Zhou is a former Ferrari Academy driver who has been racing for their main customer team, so it's quite natural for him to be added as a Ferrari reserve driver now.

Sandpit Steve

11,762 posts

85 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
entropy said:
Robert Schwartzman was Ferrari's reserve driver last year but it was Bearman who got the nod covering Sainz at Saudi.
Didn’t Bearman get the gig because he was already there in Jeddah for F2, whereas Schwartzman would have needed to get a visa and a flight when Carlos fell ill.

8Ace

2,802 posts

209 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
Petrus1983 said:
ajprice said:
This is a good result for him - I'd imagine being around the Ferrari F1 team will be fairly exciting in 2025.
Maybe Zhou should be a good value bet on WDC this year. That is, if the weirdos on this Anti LH facebook group are correct in their suggestion that Lewis is going to be dropped after 2-3 races

8Ace

2,802 posts

209 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
Rotary Potato said:
It'll be interesting to see who gets the nod if Lewis or Charles is unable to race.

My money would be on someone other than Zhou (maybe whichever HAAS driver is doing better at the time, similar to Merc with Russell when Lewis had Covid), but you never know.
Definitely Bearman. He's in the wings at Haas and Ferrari would be more than keen to give him a little extra seat time in their car if they lost one of their main drivers.

Zhou isn't going to get a sniff.
Agree with this. Apparently Giovinazzi will be sharing reserve driver responsibilities with Zhou too. Bearman is Ferrari's future and I can see him alongside Charlie for several years

LM240

4,981 posts

229 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
Mark-C said:
LM240 said:
vaud said:
LM240 said:
Only one reason and it isn’t his performance capabilities should they be needed.
He's not that bad. Dog of a car the last few years,
No, but it’s purely a Chinese market led move. PR events, sponsor attraction, car sales etc.
Same reason they put a Monégasque in the car? That's a big market for the brand as well ...
As much as I’m to be convinced Charles is the full package in terms of a solid title contender for Ferrari, I would say he is arguably seen as a bigger talent that Guanyu.

UKsandman

2,759 posts

149 months

Thursday 6th February
quotequote all
Mark-C said:
Same reason they put a Monégasque in the car? That's a big market for the brand as well ...
I might be due a whoosh parrot by why is that a big market for the brand? It’s one of the smallest countries in the world.