Alonso is rich enough. He would drive for free if he felt he could get another F1 drivers championship. But he won't.
A driver I won't name, told me once that no professional driver wants to drive "for free", because they all want a price tag associated with their name. The price tag reflects their skills and desirability, apparently.
That is true... however Alonso is running out of options. If he got a seat at Mercedes and was told he was not going to be paid, he would jump at it.
Honestly, I doubt very much that a company like Mercedes would employ a driver without paying him; that would look very bad for them. Also, when you pay someone, you can expect something back; but when you don't, you cannot raise any expectation. Just my opinion.
There have been contracts with drivers in the past where the salary portion is very low, but the bonus for points and wins was very high. Recent example was Raikkonen at "Lotus" in 2012 and 13. "Lotus" took a gamble on bringing Kimi back in to F1, their car had been mid-field at best, so they agreed to a low base salary and a high points and wins bonus. Kimi then shocked "Lotus" and F1 by scoring 7 podiums including one race win in 2012, and 8 podiums and one race win in 2013. In fact, that's why "Lotus" had trouble paying Kimi both years - they never expected him to score on the podium so many times, much less win at all, so had weighted his compensation heavily on the unlikely points and wins bonuses, so when he actually achieved those results he blew their budgets for both years!
You tend to confirm what I said. When he came into contact with Lotus, Raikkonen was trying to get back into F1, and no other team was calling him; hence his desirability was almost nil. Also he had been away from F1 for a while, so his form was unknown. No surprise then that he was offered a performance related contract. Of course his ranking improved a lot during his 2 years there, and both his desirability and skill level went up: Ferrari offered him a firm contract on more generous terms.
Yep, his star was fading by then, and Piquet had to accept these terms to keep on racing. Benetton was run by Flavio Briatore, and he kept a tight team budget.
Not completly true, William: Kimi had discussions with Frank Williams at the same time he was discussing with Lotus in the autumn of 2011. He chose Lotus over Williams. Rgds
How bad is it for Honda? This bad: Stoffel Vandoorne, fresh from being announced as a McLaren driver for next year, soon came back to down to Earth with a bump as he will now start his home grand prix with a 35-place grid penalty. Vandoorne is moving onto the upgraded Spec-3 Honda engine but his overall engine usage this season does not make for pretty reading. The Belgian is now through to his fifth internal combustion engine, an eighth turbocharger, an eighth MGU-H, a fifth MGU-K, a sixth battery, and a sixth power electronics.
To be honest, at this point it doesn't matter how much grid penalties he gets. Grid penalties are surely a handicap for the front runners in the championship, but less of an hinderance for mid-field teams, and completely irrelevant for tail-enders. It's just that the same punishment has different effects depending on the strength of the team.
+1 They say they will bring a bunch of upgrades still this season, might as well flush out the penalties at places like Spa and Monza where their chances will be slim. I hope Honda can at least catch up to Renault this season since Red Bull are usually racing by themselves on Sunday's and the McLaren chassis is as good as theirs if not better.
Its not the grid penalties. I agree that's nothing. What I was referring to is how many components have failed so often. It's not just "the engine". They are chasing problems everywhere. For example, I had no idea they replaced the batteries and electronics that many times. Its a lot easier to fix one problem at a time than 6!
It would be great to see McHonda get into the top three by the end of the season. They are not giving up.
There's nothing in that story that confirms Alonso will stay at "McHonda", as you suggest! All it states is that Alonso is holding talks with McLaren about his future plans, and the teams future plans (well that's been going on since the season started, so no change there!), and it states that Alonso has said that the engine that will be in the car makes little difference to his decision, it's the performance of the car that matters to him. You could just as easily claim: "McLaren desperately try to convince Alonso to give them one more chance" In fact, that statement is probably closer to the truth than claiming Alonso will stay at "McHonda", as though it's a done deal already! Take a look at FP1 from Spa this morning, and check out Alonso's outlap - I'll give you a clue: Alonso on the radio: "No power........No power" Yeah - I bet he's chomping at the bit to re-sign at the moment!
Problem is he has nowhere else to go in F1 right now...or maybe if Massa packs it in Williams might take him?
Honda failed to introduce 'Spec 4' engine at Spa Honda had hoped to introduce a 'Spec 4' Formula 1 engine for this weekend's Belgian Grand prix, but failed to meet its development schedule, according to Yusuke Hasegawa. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/honda-failed-spec-4-engine-spa-944753/
I am really curious about the negotiation Vettel is having with Ferrari. I wonder if Ferrari is quietly telling Vettel if he doesn't want the seat Alonso would take it. If you think of the top proven drivers that could fill his shoes, only Alonso and Hamilton are in that category. Others could do it but are risky or already have a contract.