Summarised F1 news from across the internet: 2nd December 2016
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Previously on TJ13
Hamilton tops poll but should he be disciplined for insubordination?
‘Verstappen is ready for a title fight’
Max Verstappen is ready to fight for the F1 World title in 2017, he just “needs the right car” according to Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
In his second season in F1 Verstappen was promoted to senior team Red Bull Racing and immediately vindicated the decision as he took the chequered flag at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“He just needs the right car,” the Austrian told the official F1 website. “But that goes for both our drivers – either can be champion next year – so hopefully we can deliver.
“Staying with Max, when I first met him he was 15 – a 15-year-old boy with the maturity of a 26-year-old man and an unbelievable self-confidence.
“Since then three years have passed and he’s had a sensational learning curve. He doesn’t make mistakes twice – so he is definitely ready for the title fight.
“There is no need for any more extra preparation: he knows the name of the game!”
Verstappen’s driving, though, hasn’t always gone down well with his rivals.
Even the FIA stepped in to ban the ‘Verstappen block’ after numerous complaints that he was courting a huge crash by moving in the braking zones.
Marko sees nothing wrong with his driver’s antics.
“What I see is that he brings a completely new approach to the ‘reigning establishment’! He shows them again how racing should be – how it was in the past.
“I remember when guys like Senna and Schumacher came, they also had a different approach and were a shock awakening for the establishment of their time. They also were criticised massively.
“Now we have a young, hungry, sexy young driver, with a devil-may-care attitude about the spoils of former champions – whether they have won once, twice, three times or even four times.”
Sauber is set to be the first team to homologate their 2017 car
After coming close to collapse earlier in the year, Sauber were rescued and given financial security. Despite that, they opted to take year-old Ferrari engines for next season, something team boss Monisha Kaltenborn insists it is for technical reasons rather than cost.
“We know there is a big change coming up, so with the size we are the capacity we have, we needed to focus on that change,”
Kimi testing 2017 mule car in Abu Dhabi
Bygones be bygones
French GP to return
Paul Ricard looks to be back on the calendar.
For those who don't speak French, a plan for the return of the French GP (at Le Castellet) will he presented in Paris on Monday https://t.co/uEFSST1KT9
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) December 1, 2016
Ahh. Bygones. Nice.
Lewis does know how to (appear to) be gracious after all. Unless he’s handed over his Twitter account to his PR until he can trust himself to post again.
I read somewhere a while back that Lewis said in a press conference that he doesn’t control his Twitter account. It was funny to hear, although with the number of photos on his account that are obviously taken by a professional photographer it was no surprise. The whole account looks like a branding exercise.
Verstappen has revealed now that it was because Hülkenberg that his Brazil race was so good. Hülkenberg passed Nasr on the outside of curva del sol, which Red Bull saw. They radioed max, to tell them what they saw and instructed him to try it there too. Once he did it he felt it was possible and gave us the race we all liked so much.
Verstappen ‘sexy young driver’? Sexy? Really? I am really getting old… 🙁
I’m more confident when rating women, but I can understand that people find Justin Bieber or Timberlake attractive. With Max? No idea.
Maybe der dokter Has some criteria for selecting young drivers for his program which he rather leaves hidden in the closet?
Is Operation Yewtree now going international!!!!
Benson of the BBC reporting Nico Rosberg has retired with immediate effect.
Was not expecting that!
Been there, done that, bought the tee-shirt…………………
Anyone for a round of musical chairs?
Who’s next in line for the throne?
Wehrlien? Surely not.
Jenson! Don’t call it a comeback, he’s been here for years….
Why do you think he got passed over by Ocon for Force India?
Would say that he’s got his family values in place; winning a championship to his dad and when that’s done it’s time to spend time with his wife and daughter.
Huge respect for the decision. I’m sure some people will say that he’s afraid of Lewis. I’d think it’s a right move if you don’t have the drive/passion to sacrifice your family life
Rosberg might also have seen that the era of M-B dominance was coming to an end.
I think that he’d already set his mind retireing F1 for quite some time. I was pretty sure that he would have retired if he lost out the WDC title to Lewis again this year, So it doesn’t really surprise me that he’s doing so now.
Good for him that he can say he won the title, instead of loosing out which would have haunted him for the rest of his life.
Perez…
I can see Merc employing a definite #2 driver to ensure Hamilton’s toys stay in the pram next year. I’m not sure they’ll want to blood a youngster at the sharp end, so would that possibly exclude Werhlein? Who is a safe pair of hands, will play the team game, has experience of the new turbo era and won’t mind being outpaced by their teammate more often than not whilst still collecting a bucketful of points?
Williams will want to keep Bottas as their other drivers testicles haven’t yet descended, I get the feeling Perez sees himself as a big fish and may not want to be a supporting driver. Grosjean may not fancy dragging the Haas around for another season and Hulk the German will probably be studying the drying ink on that Renault contract.
Any other names for the hat or will Merc just name someone and end our fun?
Will Stevens, Max Chilton and Estaban Gutierrez are available 😝
Frijns
And maybe Toto can slip Susi in 😝💅👠
I rather thought he had already “slipped one in”
😛
I wonder about a young German Mercedes driver seemingly out of a drive….
?
Mercedes might wanna go after a big fish and get the loving partnership of Lewis and Alonso back together. Or get another German, Vettel to chalenge Lewis. I’m sure all contracts have loopholes and can be bought out. Those options would be nice to fans to make the season interesting. The Bottas or Wehrlein though seems more likely if I was placing any bets.