With Hamilton’s future up in the air, I thought it’d be interesting to have a few of your thought’s about what may happen in the driver market over the next few month’s/years.
Assuming Rosberg is safe at Mercedes, one can only assume that, as Eddie Jordan suggested, it would be Schumacher departing, presumably to retirement, to make way for Hamilton.
There were heavy rumours recently that Vettel had signed for Ferrari for 2014 and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that move come off. Which leaves Ferrari needing a 2013 stop-gap between the 2012 incumbent, Massa, and the incoming Vettel for 2014.
Fingers are being pointed towards the current Force India pairing of Hulkenberg and di Resta to fill the presumably free spots at Ferrari and McLaren for 2013, but would Hulkenberg really be ready to perform for a year knowing full well he would have to look elsewhere for 2014? More realistic in my eyes is that Schumacher would take a swansong back at Ferrari (would he want to partner Alonso), before retiring? Or, even more realistic, is that Raikkonen joins Ferrari for a year, before replacing Vettel/Webber at Red Bull a year later.
But where does that leave the current crop of young talent; Perez, di Resta, Hulkenberg, possibly even Kobayashi? Would they be willing to wait for Button, Alonso or Webber to retire before filling one of the top seats?
A lot is still up in the air for next year, with, in my opinion, only one of the seats at three top teams filled.
I predict a line up of:
2013:
Ferrari – Alonso, Raikkonen
McLaren – Button, Di Resta
Mercedes – Hamilton, Rosberg
Red Bull (confirmed) – Vettel, Webber
Lotus – Grosjean, Kobayashi
Sauber – Perez, Kovalainen
2014:
Ferrari – Alonso, Vettel
McLaren – Button, Di Resta
Mercedes – Hamilton, Rosberg
Red Bull (confirmed) – Raikkonen, Perez(?)
Lotus – Grosjean, Kobayashi
Sauber – Guttierez, Kovalainen
I know it’s a ramble but I thought it’d be interesting to get everyone elses thoughts!
