2021 Silly Season Thread

[Ruslan]

Bottom post of the previous page:

McLaren is backed by Saudi investors though, aren't they? So the Saudis can just plug in the gap whenever they feel they sold a few barrels of oil. On the other hand, WIlliams is a listed company so there are a number of factors here. It can dilute the shareholding to raise equity or put some more bonds out. Not sure how healthy the balance sheet looks for that. Its share price has dropped by about EUR1 in the last few months or so which is hardly a big deal considering trades are being made on a company which is currently not actually generating any revenue!

The majority owner of McLaren is a Bahraini company that is "The sovereign wealth fund of the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain." It is the Mumtalakat Holding Company.

RIght, thanks for clarifying. So that means it is state owned in essence right? Meaning it has infinite sources of finance from $$$ of oil barrels produced

Yes, that is a good way of looking at it....McLaren is the stated-owned team of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

[Ruslan]

Current status for the 2021 is:

Mercedes: Hamilton, Bottas?
Ferrari (confirmed): Leclerc, Sainz
Red Bull: Verstappen (confirmed), Albon?
McLaren (confirmed): Ricciardo, Norris
Renault (confirmed): Ocon, Alonso
Aston Martin (confirmed): Perez, Stroll
Alfa: Raikkonen, Giovinazzi
Toro Rosso: Kvyat, Gasly
Haas: Grosjean, Magnussen
Williams: Russell?, Latifi

Retirement: Vettel? He may be gone before the 2020 season is done.

1. Rumor has it that Mercedes is sticking with Hamilton and Bottas. If so, then Russell probably stays at Williams.
2. Horner has confirmed that Albon has a safe seat, but there are still rumors that Vettel might take it. I don't think it is very likely.
3. Right now, it looks like the only seats in play are at Alfa and Haas.

[DoubleFart]

Albon is only safe until he has three bad races in a row.

[Ruslan]

Albon is only safe until he has three bad races in a row.

Well, as much as I like the guy, I am not sure he is the really a top line driver. In fact, I suspect both drivers at Toro Rosso (or whatever they are called this month) are a shade faster. I do suspect he is living on borrowed time. Right now though, I don't think that Vettel is that attractive of an option. If he wins three races in a row....

[MonteCristo]

I honestly don't know why Kvyat still has a Red Bull drive for either team. Fair enough if he bought Russian money to another bank row team. But he's clearly not top level, so why stick with him?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Bottas 'confirmed'(ish) at Mercedes.

Apparently the deal is not yet signed but it has all been agreed and the Mercedes CEO, Ola Kallenius, was at the weekend GP and confirmed the team would continue with the same drivers, with Bottas deal having been agreed in the past few days.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15055 ... 21-f1-deal

Probably not what George Russell or any other Mercedes wannbees (Vettel!) would want to hear, but I gues Bottas is leading the WDC atm.... not bad for a #2 as was once said.

I guess Mercedes can now concentrate on ensuring Lewis stays with the fold.

In other news on the driver front Vettels options seem slim..... unless the rumours of Mateschitz wanting Vettel 'to come home' outweigh Horner's No way comments

[DoubleFart]

Vettel was given a warning by the FIA for having a conversation with Marko and Horner during which none of them wore masks.

I'm not saying there is anything in that, but I can't believe Horner's "no chance" comments weren't brought up.

[Ruslan]

I honestly don't know why Kvyat still has a Red Bull drive for either team. Fair enough if he bought Russian money to another bank row team. But he's clearly not top level, so why stick with him?

Disagree. When he was teamed with Ricciardo, he showed considerable speed. His then kind of mysteriously got very erratic and inconsistent, kind of like Gasly. Makes me wonder how much is the driver and how much is the environment.

Kvyat had 19 races as teammate to Jean-Eric Vergne, who in the previous two seasons had 39 races with Daniel Ricciardo as his teammate. Then Kvyat has 23 races as a teammate with Ricciardo.

So, Kvyat vs Ricciardo over 23 races:

Qualifying: 7 vs 16
Points: 116 vs 128
Ahead on track: 8 vs 8
Podiums: 1 2nd and 1 third vs 1 2nd and 1 third

It is clear that Kvyat was quite fast, unless you think Ricciardo is a complete stroker. Kvyat did lack consistency. I still suspect he is the fastest of the three current Toro Rosso drivers (Albon, Gasly and Kvyat).

Also, I don't think Kvyat has ever been a paying driver in F1.

[MonteCristo]

unless you think Ricciardo is a complete stroker.

He certainly can be!

Also highly erratic. Great qualifying, often poor race pace, bad tyre management.

Red Bull showed what they thought of Kvyat back in 2017 (?) replacing him with Hartley (lol). I assume the only reason they brought him back is because somebody is Putin it on.

[Ruslan]

@MonteCristo

I don’t know a whole lot about Kvyat’s ties and connections, but I have not seen anything that says he was a paying driver (after all he was part of the Red Bull program) or has close ties to Putin or the oligarchy.

[XcraigX]

I assume the only reason they brought him back is because somebody is Putin it on.

Putin on the ritz?

[MonteCristo]

I assume the only reason they brought him back is because somebody is Putin it on.

Putin on the ritz?

If you're in Red Bull blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Kvyat sits
Putin on the Ritz

[MonteCristo]

@MonteCristo

I don’t know a whole lot about Kvyat’s ties and connections, but I have not seen anything that says he was a paying driver (after all he was part of the Red Bull program) or has close ties to Putin or the oligarchy.

I kind of find it hard to believe that he started in F1 the same year that F1 first went to Sochi and there is absolutely no coincidence about that at all.

He has got some public Russian backing, though: https://www.grandprix247.com/2016/05/07 ... -in-kvyat/

I'm not saying he's shit. Just that something smells a bit, especially since it's Red Bull and they're otherwise about developing drivers. And STR was long for sale - maybe Dietrich needed some extra money. Or it's a business-to-business deal in some other way.

[XcraigX]

If you're in Red Bull blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where Kvyat sits
Putin on the Ritz

Needs like button.

[Star]

Albon has had three 'crashes' in three races, does that count against him? I mean none of them were his fault but it's getting to be a habit now, much like with Vettel sadly.

Would I like to see Vettel back at Red Bull? I'm torn, part of me would love it, the other part isn't so sure.

As for Kvyatt, he can be really good but he's not consistently so in my view and you need to be able to put in a good race week after week if you want to even begin to think about going for a championship. A few good races and a few disasters don't cut it.

[Ruslan]

I kind of find it hard to believe that he started in F1 the same year that F1 first went to Sochi and there is absolutely no coincidence about that at all.

Well, I only know what I read on Wikipedia, but in 2009, while he was racing carts in Italy, he was picked up by Red Bull and also sponsored by Lukoil. He was signed to Red Bull at the same time as Carlos Sainz and was teammates with Sainz in F3 in 2013 (and Nicholas Latifi).

So, don't know if him being Russian influenced his promotion to Toro Rosso in 2014, but there was an opening there by Ricciardo being promoted to Red Bull, he was Toro Rosso free practice driver in 2013, and by default, he was probably next in line in the Red Bull program.

It does appear like you are speculating.