The Formula One Thread

Also:

 

"His Sponsors" don't think Mercedes can or have and they drove the decision and yes he is #2 driver to Chuck..

 

IWC isn’t going with him. Doubt he’ll care, Richard Mille will hook him up.

 

Ducati: "We gettin' Marquez, y'all."
Ferrari: "Hold ma beer..."

 

It's not like they're getting Max!

 

Frederic Vasseur must have laid out a convincing plan.

Assuming they're not firing his ass already. Who knows?

 

Dude, it’s like evel kenevel level jumping the snake river and actually making level of beer holding.
I thought it was posturing for cash but doodie mcdreadlocks actually did it.

 

They won F3 and GP2 together. That probably mattered.

 

Excellent point. I think it's as simple as Hammy has lost faith that Mercedes will get their act together. My guess is that he also feels like they're not listening to him (or some crap like that). It's also entirely possible that he now believes that Russell will be their main driver with the intention of keeping him long term. This would have rubbed Hammy the wrong way as well.

He sees that Ferrari is close and believes he has a better chance of winning with them.

I'm very curious to see how the Hammy and LeClerc relationship plays out.

 

Ain’t no way he’s moving to Ferrari to play second fiddle, he’s going there to chase that 8th championship. Sainz may have been the de facto #2 driver but that’s because he sucks.

 

this is pretty cool and hilarious

 

Honestly, I think it simply boils down to all the great drivers feel that they must drive a Ferrari at some point in their career. Like them or hate them (the latter for myself), Ferrari is a major part of F1 history and they all want to be part of that legacy.

That's why so many drivers have made the switch after securing their own legacy elsewhere. Prost, Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel… No matter how accomplished they were, they all look at a guy like Niki Lauda and convince themselves that it's it's something that's missing on their resume.

That's also why high-potential drivers like Jean Alesi or Charles Leclerc jumped at a chance to join an early and stayed even though they had a better chance of winning a championship elsewhere. Hopefully Leclerc will come out better than Alesi.

It will not go well if the car is a winner.

 

I don't see it going well. Once Rosberg was a contender, we got the hat throwing and other antics. With Bottas, Hamilton was never threatened overall. Now that Russell has got momentum (and a more recent win of the two) Hamilton is heading off, just like Ricciardo did. LeClerc is already a contender each season. Hamilton has only had this one, two...maybe three seasons where the driver in the team car was a legit threat for the title, which included his first season when he and Alonso were not in danger of being on each other's Christmas card lists.

I get that it's Ferrari and the standard phrase every F1 driver says is that they wish to drive for Ferrari at some point in their career, but I really don't get what this does for Hamilton. Ferrari are the Green Bay Packers of F1. Good, if not great, but they just can't push over that final hurdle since Schumacher. (Kimi's one year not withstanding).

 

Can't wait to see Kanye Hamiltons meltdown when he doesn't get what he wants at Ferrari.

 

When Schumi was there so were the great strategists... hopefully Ferrari is putting as much $$$ into the strategy department as they are driver/car. The car is pretty close to being there, and w/ the Merc car dynamics engineer joining, it could be the missing piece. But its all for naught if the strategy is still as bad as it has been the last few years.

Hammy will have to check his ego a bit at the door. Its about the Team, not the driver, at Ferrari.

 

In his mind, sure, If you think that was a 'concession' he wrote into the contract, he is #1 and LeC is #2, No.
If you wanna say whoever brings more money and is making more money is #1,,, then yes, he is.
The team view it as seniority re drivers. They wanted hammy for the sponsors money(who directed the move) and the few engineers he'll bring,, according to my friend who works there.

 

As expected, because your visceral hatred of Hamilton, you totally ignored 50% of the reason it's not going to work out: Charles Leclec is not a team player and will not hesitate to hurt the team if it's better for him. I guess your blinders haven't allowed to see his tantrums.

Putting those two together is a highly combustible proposition.

 

I see MB making a lot of progress over the off season.

I see Lewis throwing a fit when one of Ferrari's strategies doesn't work out for him.

I see him and Charles butting heads.

 

Ferrari was up 17% after the announcement, +$10B in market value

 

Imagine that but x10 if it was Verstappen.