The champion retires

Calibre11 · Dec 11, 2016

Interesting to see that Paddy Lowe appears headed for Williams and out of Mercedes given his contract is up. I wonder if a deal will be struck for him to start early in exchange for Bottas heading to Mercedes along with a new multi-year engine deal for Williams?

automobilia42 · Dec 11, 2016

Just read that Alonso wil not join Mercedes...I'm just throwing in another driver, Hülkenberg from Emmerich, Germany?
Did also drive/ train in The Netherlands in karts before F1 as did Max.
Some weeks ago he was in a dutch late night talkshow, nice guy!

Calibre11 · Dec 14, 2016

Seems to have gone a bit quiet...

I was interested to read this post by Joe Saward, who is normally very well informed

"Williams will not do anything unless the deal is right, which may explain why there are stories of Paddy Lowe moving to Williams. He cannot get the role/salary he wants at Mercedes, so it might be better for all concerned if he was allowed to join Williams, which looks like it would benefit from some new technical oomph. Contrary to rumours, Lowe is contracted to Mercedes next year so to let him go to Williams would be a big bonus to sweeten the deal to get Bottas."

That's the first I've read that Lowe is contracted- and if that's right, then surely there is a deal to be done where Bottas goes to Mercedes and Lowe goes to Williams

dsio · Dec 14, 2016

Question is though, is Bottas worth Lowe? I'd be inclined to say no, he's not bad but he's not great by any means and it could just let Lewis make 2017 the most boring year in history while at the same time harming Mercedes going forward. I really really hope Redbull and McLaren can build some epic chassis' next year or Bernie's going to have to follow through on his threat (again) of telling FOM to ignore the front of the race completely and only show the midfield competition like he did in Japan 2015 when they were refusing to supply Redbull.

Hubert · Dec 17, 2016

Big Adam · Jan 16, 2017

Big Adam
You've omitted Bottas from your shortlist.
Williams is short of money and would have to listen if Mercedes came calling, perhaps with an offer to supply their engines at a lower cost.
And, most significantly, Toto is part of the Bottas management team so clearly rates him very highly.
My money is on Bottas.

Mic drop!

The champion retires

Calibre11

automobilia42

Calibre11

dsio

Hubert

Big Adam

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