F1 Fanatic

@prisoner-monkeys I’m curious – how do you mean a “Williams” driver? What characteristics would said drivers embody?

I’ve always thought that Hamilton would make sure his swansong season would be a Williams season, given that it was Ayrton’s last team.

I think Sauber will want to keep at least one Mexican driver to maintain their Telmex sponsorship, so I can only see Sutil going to Sauber to replace Kobayashi.
Unless Massa and Schumacher start winning races, there is going to be some movement at the top. I see these two and Senna leaving F1 and Hamilton possibly changing teams.
So with three people leaving, there will be three new people next season, fighting over these seats will be:
Bottas – Could replace Senna
Gutierrez – Could replace Perez if he goes to Ferrari or Kobayashi
Bianchi – Could replace di Resta or Hulkenberg should either move to Mercedes of Mclaren
Sutil – Could move into any of the midfield teams
Alguesuari – Again, would be a good choice at any of the midfield teams, he is very confident he’ll be around next year
Rossi – Could replace Kovalainen if he moves to a top team
Kobayashi – His seat is at risk, he could stay at Sauber or move to another midfield team
Massa – Will probably leave Ferrari, could move to a midfiled team, or maybe Caterham.

Red Bull clearly expect whoever is in their second car to support Vettel. They let that second driver be competitive enough to make a challenge for the title if something should happen that prevents Vettel from making his own championship challenge – like Michael Schumacher’s accident at Silverstone in 1999 – but until then, they are very much expected to take on a supporting role.

Now, that is understandable in any team when a driver first joins. The established driver is just that: established. He knows the team. He knows how they work. He knows how to get the most out of them. A new driver doesn’t have that advantage, and he needs to learn it, so he will naturally be a little slower to begin with. The difference is that at Red Bull, that new driver is expected to remain in the support role long after their first season is complete. And I think that would be a source of conflict if ever Lewis Hamilton joined them. He’d get the team a lot of attention, but it would still be the Sebastian Vettel Show, and that would not sit well with him. It would probably be twice as bad for him, since he was not a part of the Red Bull development program. He wasn’t found by Red Bull’s talent scouts, so for him to come in an trounce Vettel (as so many people expect him to do) would make a mockery of the entire Red Bull driver program.

Lewis Hamilton needs a team that he can lead from the outset, or at least from as soon as he is comfortable with them. I just can’t see that happening with Red Bull. They’re like the mob – one big, happy family, and that’s not something Hamilton can simply step into. But far too many people see “Red Bull is fast” and “Lewis Hamilton is free” and put two and two together – thinking it will be a match made in heaven – blissfully unaware that they’ve managed to get a total of five.

Speed is one thing, but it’s not the only factor. Cohesiveness is critical; the best team and driver combinations are the ones that mesh together seamlessly. Just look at Alonso and Ferrari – the car hasn’t been the best, but Alonso has two wins, scored points in every race, and is leading the championship. I can’t help but feel that mixing Hamilton with Red Bull would be a case of oil and water – or worse, water and electricity.

I think Hamilton needs to move on from McLaren. They’ve been good to him, but I think he needs a new challenge, the same way Button left Brawn at the end of 2009; he’d been with them since 2003, and felt it was time for a change of scenery. I can see Hamilton doing the same. I think he needs a new challenge, but I don’t think breaking the harmony of another team is it. On the other hand, taking a smaller team with plenty of untapped promise – like Williams or Mercedes – and getting them to the front of the grid is exactly the kind of thing he could throw himself at.

I don’t think Hamilton-Williams will happen in the near future, given the state of Williams’ finances.

Hamilton-Maldonado might be an awkward combination. They’re probably the two most aggressive (and hence incident-prone) drivers on the grid. But I think it’s manageable; certainly moreso than Hamilton and Vettel at Red Bull.

Even if Williams dropped Maldonado and took Hamilton in his place, I don’t think money would be a big deal. All they would have to do is say “2013 is the year we go back to the front, and Lewis Hamilton will be the man to take us there” and sponsors will do this.

That’s why I’d go Hamilton-Bottas or Hamilton-Kobayashi if it could be done. But if it came down to it, I’d be willing to place Hamilton and Maldonado in the same team. Once Maldonado sorts out his aggression, he could be like Hamilton. Perhaps not as fast, but I think one of Hamilton’s biggest strengths is his controlled aggression. He can direct it, tame it, point it in the direction he wants it to go and use it to his advantage. Maldonado, on the other hand, is all over the place, but if he can learn from Hamilton, I think he could be a very strong racer. We saw the beginnings of it in Spain.

Webber’s protégé in the RBR young driver’s programme… interesting idea. And I wonder how he manager would feel about that?

@katederby – It makes sense, so long as Webber remains at Red Bull. If he were to go to Ferrari next year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Evans made an appearance in the Sauber in 2014.

Of course, a lot depends on how he does in GP3 this year. His 2011 season started out much as it has this year, but he suffered a massive slup in form from Silverstone onwards. If Evans repeats this, he might have to kiss his dreams of a Formula 1 start goodbye for a long time. There’s some really impressive drivers in GP3 at the moment, if you know where to look. Tio Ellinas and Robert Visiou look particularly good (though Visiou is only sixteen, he does have a tendency to claw his way up the grid in the races).