Hamilton says he intends to stay at Mercedes

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says he intends to sign a new contract with Mercedes after his current one, which expires at the end of next season.

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Toto Wolff has spelled it out loud and clear why Fernando Alonso won’t be going to Mercedes. So what will the McLaren driver do?

Alonso is in trouble alright. No chance to get a top seat, no competitive car, his salary might take a big hit if he leaves McLaren.

Don’t know if Renault can or want to pay him 30-40 million per year, unless he finds a big sponsor to pay him that kind of money. Don’t know if he really wants to go to Renault and have Hulkenberg as team mate, Williams seems to go backwards with every passing year since 2014.

Where to go?
Marian Gri (@Corrado-dub)

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50 comments on “Hamilton says he intends to stay at Mercedes”

  1. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
    1st September 2017, 0:14

    Prefer Hamilton to go make rap records and Alonso to take his seat. Come on Lewis, you know the music is calling you. Beiber awaits.

    1. I agree with you. After all, we all know that Alonso can’t compete with Hamilton’s superior skillset (2007). 8)

      1. I think F1 will be a lot more dull when Lewis retires, whether one likes him or not, it seems hard to deny he has brought a lot of attention and excitement to the sport in his career.

        I am not sure I will follow with the same interest when he is gone, what with halos and wheezy sounding engines and the rest. Either way, it will be very interesting to see where the sport is in another 5 or 10 years. Hopefully it will be something worth watching.

        1. After almost 30 years of watching, I’ve often thought I’d be over it by now. I was damn near distraught when Senna died, disappointed when Mika quit, was bored out of my mind with the Schumacher/Ferrari show near the end of it, absolutely hated the slow, “skinny” cars of 2009+ and very nearly gave up with the introduction of tires designed to punish hard drivers. But, alas, I’m still here. I think as long as F1 remains relevant at the pointy end of the technical side of things, I’ll still be interested in that side of it, to tell the truth. After all, the technical side of it was what drew me to it first… the real appreciation for the drivers only came after I understood exactly what type of beast an F1 car was. Sadly for today’s F1 fan, the glorious soundtrack of high stratospheric revs is no more (much more to it these days than revving them high and/or cranking up the boost… and of course, I’m being overly simplistic) but I still appreciate the technology that’s in today’s generation. They’re incredible.
          But I think I might finally quit watching races if there isn’t at least one driver I like to watch because of their craft. Right now that’s Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso (when he has a chance at a good scrap… few & far between these days) and Verstappen as the only newbie who gives me cause for hope going forward. I rated RIC highly too, but young Max seems to have the measure of him so his stock has fallen a bit. I like aggressive drivers that are quick… the type of driver you can tell is in the car instead of their teammate just by the way it’s behaving on track. The ones that always seem able to find that little bit extra more often than not. Right now for me, those four are it.

          1. Riccairdo looked as good as Hamilton in the past when they were close together I always wanted to see them two together. I reckon Verstappen would beat Lewis consistantly though and will develop into a monster over a whole season .where as Lewis always has periods of going off the boil and that’s where he can lose the WC if not in the superior car.

      2. Yes, let’s have another big argument about who is the better driver in which no one changes his mind.

        1. To be honest I think I could do a better job than the pair of them, and if you disagree you’re wrong.

      3. You’ll find Hamilton sat behind Alonso and Massa early in 2007 and picked up the points when those two tangled. He bottled the end of the season when it mattered and goes off the boil every season. 2008 as well.
        First five races of 2007. Massa and Alonso 2 wins each, Kimi 1, Lewis 0

        Ron Dennis said in 2015 that Hamilton started the problems ar McLaren with his immaturity

        1. I’m far from a Hamilton fan, but he was a rookie in 2007, got 5 podiums out of 5 races in those first five races and was level on points with Alonso at the top of the WDC standings at that point before he then went on to win 2 races in a row. That’s some way of going “off the boil” man.

          1. End of season against Kimi in 2007 and worse against Massa in 2008 they had the better of him as soon as the pressure built up as did Rosberg for a small period when Lewis suffered from pressure and went off the boil twice in 2 seasons.
            2007 was actually Lewis’s best season to date if it goes down as ‘beating’ Alonso because in
            2008 Alonso outscored him in the last five races with Lewis having a vastly superior car. The Renault was nearly 90HP down. After the 2nd yellow at Singapore that evened up the field (no cheating this time) Alonso blew him away again.

    2. (@come-on-kubica)
      Did you watch Spa? He backed up Sebastian Vettel going through Eau Rouge. You want to trade that for his rap talents.

      Man, you can’t ask for better racing. Besides, it’s not Hamilton’s fault McHonda sucks.

      1. –Joke->

        You

      2. @slotopen he restarted in the wrong engine mode which allowed Vettel to be that close in the first place. Further more, backing off a little mid-corner to compromise the opponent behind is not exactly a novel racing move.

    3. Rap records rather than lap records?

    4. @come-on-kubica Must be rough disliking Hamilton so much, yet having to sit there watching him win race after race. How do you cope?

      1. If I may, I don’t dislike Hamilton, it is more his blind faith fans.
        But if it were me, I would cope by watching the final race from last year over and over and over… very entertaining.

  2. The former world champion has also described claims he has told McLaren he will leave unless they drop Honda as ‘absolute rubbish

    so…..not false, then?

    1. It is funny how, all of a sudden, as soon as the doors started closing, McLaren-Honda can be champions again…

      1. @johnmilk
        It’s funny how Alonso has been lured away from top teams to drive for McLaren twice when they wernt the best team.

        1. In 2007 McLaren would have won the constructors championship, which makes them the best team when he moved there.
          But Pedro de la Rosa had an email account, and the rest is history

          1. Yeah let’s just gloss over the fact that it started when LH petulantly blocked FA from doing a final quali run, which went without consequence from RD, which then caused FA to go to RD for assurance that he would be treated equally on the team after it looking like they were favouring LH by doing nothing about him blocking FA. Let’s just all sit in our armchairs and agree that as freshly achieved two time WDCs we would have just sat on our hands and done nothing but smile when a rookie appeared to be being favoured by getting away with a petulant, childish, unfair move.

          2. Don’t know what that has to do with the previous comments, but ok

          3. Alonso signed a year before, after he’d just beaten the superior Ferrari in his crippled Renault. McLaren were 3rd best team.

          4. @johnmilk I thought your PdlR having an email account comment was a reference to he and FA receiving emails from Coughlin at Ferrari, and FA putting that to RD which in some people’s books makes FA the whole problem in 07 at Mac.

          5. @robbie just a bit of fun ;) I was just commenting on the quality of the McLaren team

  3. The headline “F1 to drop DRS in 2021” seems overly optimistic. Brawn says he hopes the cars are developed in such a way that they can pass without it by then, but it falls short of a commitment.

    1. Couldn’t disagree more. They are half a season into their mandate, they being Brawn and his team under Liberty, post-BE. They have already talked about new engine regs for 2020, and it is well publicized that there is much work they can do on retaining some aero downforce while having cars less negatively affected in dirty air. Brawn has talked about an evolutionary process that gives smaller teams a chance to adapt, not just the top teams with more resources who can react to reg changes more quickly and effectively. I’d say Brawn has given as much commitment as can be expected in these early days that has him wanting to take deliberate and well thought out actions that will benefit F1 in the long term. All of F1, not just the top teams.

      1. The article says it’s their ambition to do away with DRS. I agree it’s likely to happen, I’m only saying it relies on a few “ifs,” while the headline made it sound like a done deal.

        1. Fair comment. The headline never entails the whole story and I’m playing off things that Brawn not only says in this referenced article, but has said earlier this season too.

  4. OK, so Ross has brought up the subject of grid penalties
    I’m not a fan of them but, there needs to be some way penalizing unlimited usage of engine components
    My proposal would be:
    Instead of grid place penalties, give the penalty in seconds which can then be taken at any time during the race.
    Pros:
    driver starts where he qualifies
    .’. loses less time due to not having to overtake slower cars
    takes penalty when most suitable for driver/team
    time penalties procedure already in place for teams & stewards, so nothing new
    Cons:
    appreciate the existing penalties spiced up races to an extent (but any penalty @ say Monaco is bad for any driver)
    with McLaren often getting 30 odd (& occasionally more) penalties, maybe there shoud be a maximum set ?

    Just an idea !

    1. Nice idea but a 50min+ penalty would not work. If you lessen the penalties then changing parts could be an advantage. Rock and a hard place.

      1. I think teams should be docked Constructor points but drivers not docked grid spots.

        1. I like that idea.

        2. @robbie
          I do like this idea, although I can see some situations where teams might just take the hit on constructor’s points for increased performance.

          1. @george Yeah I’m sure it’s not just cut and dry, eg. if they were to lose points for the sake of performance as you suggest, that could hurt them with bonus money for a lesser standing in the WCC as one possible scenario. I suppose it would be no surprise if they were to address the money distribution issues as they have been discussing, and tie that in with tweaking the convoluted components penalties and how those are administered. Perhaps to avoid your scenario money could be distributed based on points in the WCC, not just position amongst the teams in the WCC.

          2. @robbie

            Perhaps to avoid your scenario money could be distributed based on points in the WCC, not just position amongst the teams in the WCC.

            Probably not a good idea seeing how last year Mercedes had 765 points and Sauber had 2 ;). I think prize money based on performance is good from a sporting perspective anyway, it gives an incentive to beat your rivals, it just needs less of a gradient between the top and bottom teams.

  5. I wouldn’t write off Williams chances for 2018. This year’s car is an evolution of the Pat Symonds era car which he still had an influence before he left last year. Thats the car that has steadily declined in competitiveness. Paddy Lowes appointment will only start making an impact next year and if he’s already decided to stop development this year already, then they could be something of a surprise next year – not race winners perhaps but best of the rest. That might be a pull for Alonso if McLaren or Honda rather show no signs of improving competitively.

    1. It’s hard to believe that Force India is doing so much better than Williams with the same power unit. I expected Williams to be much more competitive after the deal to move Valtteri to Mercedes.

      Something’s gone terribly wrong at Williams.

  6. “NH: Let’s see. To be honest, I personally don’t look at the drivers’ championship as long as I am not fighting for the title. It’s a bit pointless isn’t it? The constructors’ championship is much more meaningful – even if I drive by myself!”
    FTFY

  7. If Palmer drives like he was in quali, then I think Renault can finish 5th. However, if he drives like he did in the race – not so much. They’re just 11 points off 5th, doing better than Toro Rosso or Haas, and Williams are just going backwards (although they should do well this weekend).

  8. Reading those comments from Hamilton, and adding it to some of his previous ones, there’s some take-aways I feel are suggested:

    – Vettel tried to get Hamilton’s seat (not Bottas’) after his 2018 contract is up, but didn’t get it. After which he re-signed with Ferrari
    – Hamilton’s “plans” for his career suggest he wants to sign another 3 year contract with Mercedes, then try to join Ferrari for his final contract

    1. Spot on I think.

  9. Alonso situation just shows what happens when you burn to many bridges. In F1 he was at all top teams except RBR… And RBR is now about as good as McLaren – Not good enough.

    Why would Mercedes hire him? To enter a descending spiral? Fernando is a team killer. Stats just show, every front running team Fernando signs wont be a front running team after that.

    1. @jureo which was exactly why HAM took the title with McLaren after ALO left.

    2. Stats just show, every front running team Fernando signs wont be a front running team after that.

      Like Renault? (only won the WCC & WDC with Alonso; half Renault total wins by a certain FA)
      Like Ferrari? (1 win in ’09, fighting for the WDC in ’10)
      Even like McLaren? (3rd in ’06, most points in ’07
      None of those teams were front running before he entered, and all improved when he was there (that’s what the stats are showing!)
      @

    3. @jureo

      I’d expect some more sense in your comments. He’s nearly taken championships in mediocre cars. something Vettel and Hamilton have to still accomplish. He might have had blowouts at teams, but don’t kid yourself by saying he diminishes a team’s strength.

  10. I like that HAM and VET will stay w/ their respective teams long term. I think long, productive relationship between star drivers and big brand teams help F1 and its branding.

  11. Evil Homer (@)
    2nd September 2017, 4:31

    Alonso has certainly painted himself into a corner hasnt he! As much as I think most of us want to see him in a winning car again each time he publically rubbishes Honda future potential employers are asking if they really want that in their team.

    Hamilton signing with Mercs again is a no brainer- while there are some out there that dont like him he certainly is great for F1. It does look like Seb tried to take his seat but didnt want to be team-mates with him (a bit of a shame- that would have been awesome!!!!).

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