Agree with all of this. No loss either way, Vettel is overrated. He got thrashed the one year he had a decent teammate and his drama queen attitude is getting old and unbecoming of a Ferrari driver. I'm sure they would love to have an italian named Ricciardo winning titles even if he's australian born.
It's funny to see you guys talk about forcing Ferrari to give him a good car.... Like they are purposely giving him a bad car... they sell street cars largely based on how they perform on the track. We are adults now, but how many of us as kids saw Ferrari on the track or on TV before we ever saw one on the street? And now own one because of what we saw growing up. PS - some fodder - what would any other team pay Vettel? Nowhere near 138 million.
'According to Autoweek'.... Maybe not correct at all, Ferrari will keep 'laggard' Kimi again because Vettel insists??? I don't think so!But then again it might be the easy option for just 1 more year.
Given some of the other contract situations (at least at the moment), I could see doing another year of Kimi, three years of Vettel and then after next year, trying to grab up one of the better drivers that would (presumably or at least potentially) be coming available.
Weren't some of you just recently saying in another thread that Vettel's job was in jeopardy lol, Mayor was that you?!
Yep, that's why Marlboro man Arrivabene got to become team manager at the Scuderia; he was placed there to look after the investment of the tobacco company. He is in fact more a commercial manager than a sporting manager.
So Marko says he would not accept Euro 100 Million for Max ...but only paid him around $650 k in 2016? Something doesn't add up ,even if Max is now getting say almost the same as Ricci did in 2016 $6.5 mio (a 10 X pay rise from 2016) in 2017. Max will be out of there immediately if someone comes up with the $$$ for the contract. I still reckon Ferrari should try to sign him ,Vettel can suck it up if he doesn't like it ....he has nowhere to go anyway. The No1/No2 driver thingy has not really worked for Ferrari since the Schumi days. They need to try something new.
In defence of Vettel, I would say that his lack of form in 2015 coincided with the introduction of the hybrid formula that requires a different style of racing, with energy saving, lift and coast, etc... Not every driver adapted to it immediately, and Vettel at RB was one of them. His team mate Ricciardo made the most of it and won 3 times that year. Raikkonen was another driver who struggled initially with the new technique. But I don't think either of them are slow now.
True. I think Vettel wants assurances in place that Ferrari is doing the right thing with the right people to move the team forward. He should say ''pay me 200 milion over 3 years. If you can supply me a good car over the season I'll take half''. A nice thought but considering RBR won't sell max for 100m the number is stageringly more than that... RBR bonus structure is huge. I've no idea what they're dangling in front of him but he'll be a very wealthy kid next year. Ferrari + Mercedes bidding war? Rest assured Max will get 20+ next season.
2014 . Vettel also came from a car which produced huge amounts of rear downforce, suddenly going to very little of it. Ricciardo came from a car with comparatively little rear downforce so that won't be a big adjustment... On top of that, Vettel had constant car issues with things breaking during the race and driving around that problem, then he signed for Ferrari of course and gets told much fewer things regarding new parts (all understandable of course in Red Bull's case).
Yes we all know Max is sadly unavailable - but he represents much better value than Vettel, even when Vettel is in the faster Ferrari young Max won't let Vettel pass him. Even better value is possibly Bottas. Has proven himself as quick or quicker than Hamilton on a good day and wins races.
+1 Bottas would be very nice at Ferrari and would certainly keep Vettel awake and the team I think would find him pleasant to have in the garage. I dont see Mercedes letting him go but this is F1 and we are surprised many times!