In the round-up: Lance Stroll says the experience Robert Kubica brings to his role as a reserve driver will give the team a competitive edge.
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"The fact that he's driven so many great Formula One cars, he's competed with some really good teams, he can give us some good knowledge, it will definitely help us because it's going to be a very competitive year."
Mercedes taking McLaren and Renault threat 'seriously' (Motorsport)
"We are taking Ferrari, we are taking Red Bull, we are taking McLaren, we are taking Renault seriously. These guys can fight for a championship and some others might be surprising us."
Monisha’s new plans (Joe Blogs F1)
"The Kaltenborn Di Comberti team will field two cars in the German and Italian Formula 4 Championships, working from a base at Granollers, close to the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona."
Volume of revenues from F1 races revealed (AzerNews)
"The final figure of $277.3 million is a combination of the direct and indirect results of operational spending linked to the arrival of F1 in Baku, taking into account the spend across various sectors including the professional services, hotels and general accommodation, catering, transport, social and cultural services, agriculture, post and telecommunications, wholesale trade and electricity, gas and water amongst others."
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Comment of the day
Does Bottas have a realistic chance of winning the world championship this year?
Hamilton is one of the best drivers of all time, we all know that, and that kind of talent is hard to beat. That being said, Bottas winning the world championship isn’t an unlikely scenario. Good form on his part, a couple of DNFs for Hamilton and other racers taking points of Hamilton at key races could swing it for him.
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Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
18th February 2018, 1:05
Regarding COTD………… No! Bottas isn’t world champion material, no matter how theoretically possible it is.
Nathan Builder (@nathanbuilder)
18th February 2018, 1:42
If someone like Lewis Hamilton could do it, Bottas can do it for sure.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th February 2018, 3:18
Not sure what you mean, nathan, if hamilton (one who makes the top 10 best drivers list) can do it, surely bottas can too? Weird!
But I think bottas could well reach rosberg’s level, so might win a title in the right circumstances.
chris
18th February 2018, 9:17
He simply means that with the right car, most F1 drivers can be WC. Rosberg proved that, but of course the Lewis lovers will make the reliability argument which is valid of course. But looking at Lewis vs. Rosberg from 14, 15 and 16, even if Rosberg didn’t win the WC. They are fairly matched. In 2014, the Championship was decided on the last race, in 2015, Rosberg was hit with a lot of engine troubles but recovered to the end of the season though a bit too late, in 2016 Lewis was hit with reliability problems but Rosberg handled it well and calculated. Lewis just get a step further unlike Lewis vs. Bottas. So yes, Bottas is no championship material and Bottas’ performance just make Rosberg performance even more credible.
I hope next year Merc signed Ricciardo, Hulk or Sainz.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
18th February 2018, 9:43
I think a lot of people underestimate Nico. He was exceptionally fast all his career and probably the most intelligent driver of them all. Cannot see Valterri getting to Nico’s level.
Bleu (@bleu)
18th February 2018, 21:03
There were reliability issues on Lewis’s part in 2016, but I agree on Nico’s ability – I think that overall 2 titles for Lewis and 1 for Nico is a fair result for their time in dominant Mercedes cars.
DrG
20th February 2018, 8:38
I love how people rewrite 2014.
Actually Hamilton had all the engine troubles all year long.
It was only the one sided reliability that kept it close until finally Rosberg had trouble in Singapore.
For absolute clarity – it is not close when someone wins 11 races to your five. Or 10 to your four.
In fact oddly Rosberg never won more than half the races of Hamilton from 014 on until last year when he still won one fewer despite a head start as it were.
He certainly inherited a few though.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
18th February 2018, 10:41
Bottas isn’t bad for a number 2 driver, thats it, he ain’t winning jack.
Matt
18th February 2018, 12:44
If Rosberg can manage it then so can Botas, it is unlikely but not impossible.
rob91
18th February 2018, 13:03
Bottas won the last race fair and square, if he can replicate that form consistently whilst being in a front running car then there is no reason why he could not win the Driver’s World Championship.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
18th February 2018, 14:48
I disagree, when Bottas joined Mercedes I expected him to do well, and finishing the season third proves he is a very good driver. He had only one retirement for the season, which was second best of the drivers who competed at every GP, only beaten by Hamilton. Bottas’ worst result aside from retirements was a 6th place, which is equal to what Ricciardo did, one better than what Vettel and Raikkonen did, and three better than what Hamilton did. Bottas is very capable of winning a World Drivers Championship. There is an unknown element in that we don’t know how influential the team were in deciding those results.
If one looks at the “mode” statistic, the most frequent race result, for last season Hamilton’s is 1, Bottas and Vettel have 2, and Ricciardo and Raikkonen have 3. Again, Bottas is a very good driver, he was simply beaten by better drivers. Expect Bottas to finish this season close to the top of the World Drivers Championship results.
Todfod (@todfod)
19th February 2018, 9:25
@rdotquestionmark
Bottas might not be a once in a generation talent, but he’s definitely a race winner and a consistent driver. I actually don’t think he’s that different from Rosberg.
Rosberg drove an incredibly consistent season. He picked up points whenever Lewis faltered and maximized his chances at races where he was genuinely quicker than Hamilton. But most importantly he got incredibly lucky with all the mechanical problems that plagued Lewis.
If Bottas gets the similar level of luck that Rosberg got in 2016, he has a genuine shot at the title
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
19th February 2018, 12:19
@todfod I just think he’s a good number two personally. Rubens and DC won the odd race on merit but over the course of a season it balances out. 2016 was the exception to the rule but Nico was close to Lewis generally, whereas I don’t think Valterri is.
Telvee32 (@telvee32)
18th February 2018, 3:37
Yes Lance. But putting him in the race seat instead of you would, on paper, likely be even more of a boost, without taking his dad’s millions into account (heh), of course.
Emaema
18th February 2018, 4:56
Let me tell u,stroll. Replacing u with kubrica will make Williams much and much more competitive.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th February 2018, 7:12
Regarding COTD: Yes, he can win the Championship if he can avoid underperforming to the same extent as he did last season and if the circumstances are right.
harold wilson (@bonbonjai)
18th February 2018, 10:47
Jere
I am starting to think the Bottas under performing last season stitch is a tad overdone. I mean, what exactly did we expect from him? Dropped into a race winning car for the 1st time in his career, new team, with a multi world champion winning driver as your team mate. I think he did OK. The fact that he was signed for just this season says Mercedes expected more from him. I think he knows he needs to be closer to Lewis for most of the season, not just the 1st half to get a contract extension. As for been a potential world champion, yes, but, he need to be starting in 2nd next to Lewis most of the time, to pick up wins when Lewis messes his starts and not be in 3rd or 4th. His target should be 2nd or ahead of Vettel at a minimum. Nico proved Lewis is beatable when you play the numbers game. If Bottas can do that for 10-15 of the races this year, then yea, he can potentially be in position to win the world championship as the point difference might not be too big later in the season.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
18th February 2018, 9:45
For Bottas to have a chance to win a world championship, Mercedes need the performance advantage they had 2014-16.
Vettel fan 17 (@)
18th February 2018, 9:48
Agree. Even if Hamilton had engine troubles last year, Vettel would have beaten Bottas.
harold wilson (@bonbonjai)
18th February 2018, 10:52
Vettel fan 17
Good point. For Bottas, Vettel must be his target. Anything else would be a bonus. Oh, and he going to have to become more aggressive because when he comes up against Vettel and Lewis or Vestappen, they are not going to give an inch in any fight.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
18th February 2018, 11:17
I don’t quite see how Kubica having a role as a reserve driver would definitely help Williams more than if Massa had this role. I mean Massa has been in F1 since 2002. 16 years. And he was in F1 at Wiliams last year. I don’t know how Kubica could do a better job than Massa in this area. Kubica was last in F1 over 7 years ago. He may have done a lot relating to it, but I can’s see him having Massa’s knowledge of the latest F1 cars. Of course, as I say to others when they don’t like the decisions from teams, I suppose they will have their reasons as to why everything is the way it is.
Robbie (@robbie)
18th February 2018, 12:54
Don’t recall hearing of FM as a potential reserve driver for this year at Williams. I don’t imagine that would have been a role he’d have been interested in.
Balue (@balue)
18th February 2018, 11:24
I question Kubica’s motivation to help the driver that was chosen in his stead, especially when he’s been saying he could hardly watch F1 without him in it.
I guess he thinks his real chance at a drive is to prove he’s better at doing setup work and figuring out car issues, but likely he will just become indispensable in the role, and nothing will be able to beat a good pay-driver at Williams.
Robbie (@robbie)
18th February 2018, 13:00
You actually think RK would have a grudge against Sirotkin and therefore not help him? First of all I doubt he has that kind of nonsense in him, secondly he wouldn’t even be able to prevent info the team gains from his reserve work from getting to the drivers, and third, if he tried he’d be canned.
anon
18th February 2018, 13:40
@robbie, not only would it probably get him kicked out of Williams if he did deliberately try to hinder Sirotkin, it would probably also heavily damage his reputation within the sport and destroy any vestigial hopes he might have of trying to race in F1 again. Why, after all, would a team want to hire a driver if they feared that he might act in a malicious manner?
Balue (@balue)
18th February 2018, 15:27
It was a question about motivation, not about not wanting to help or deliberately trying to hinder.
Mahuu (@mahuu)
18th February 2018, 12:33
I saw Grosjeans tweet about the new helmet and thought it looked really good. Then I realized it was only the bottom layer..
Neil (@neilosjames)
18th February 2018, 16:56
@mahuu I had exactly the same experience! I thought ‘wow, that’s an interesting colour, simple and quite beautiful’… then all the other bits got added!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th February 2018, 21:17
@mahuu @neilosjames Agreed!
Joakim Jarnstrom
19th February 2018, 0:09
For certain Bottas have a realistic chance, if the other option is a theoretical chance. All the top team drivers have realistic chanses, at least in preseason speculation before we know what kind of cars the teams have made. Drivers like Marcus Eriksson and reserve drivers like Kubica have theoretical chances.
chris
19th February 2018, 3:58
To Lance… Making Kubica the race driver and you the reserve role will make Williams more competitive.