DRIVER MARKET INTRIGUE FOR 2021 AND 2020 NEWS
Over the last seven days we have been treated to plenty of F1 news. Before the 2020 season has even got under way the look of the grid for 2021 has changed significantly with some big driver announcements and one of the sports big names unsure if he will be on the grid at all next year.
It all started on Tuesday when news broke that Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari would be parting company at the end of this season after failing to agree on terms for a new contract. There had been speculation in previous weeks, which has now seemingly proven to be true that Ferrari had offered Vettel a new deal which he had turned down. The reason given for Sebastian’s decision was that the deal featured a reduced salary and was only for one season. While Sebastian may have accepted the lower fee but in return the story is that he wanted a two year deal.
Ferrari’s reluctance to commit to a two year deal seems then to have finally ended the negotiations and the love affair between the two is over. I’m sure that in the fullness of time more will be revealed about the whole situation but what we can read into it at this stage is that Sebastian could see that he was no longer a part of the teams long tern ambitions felt that the only option was to leave.
Sebastian had been the teams lead driver since he had joined the team and his ambition was to emulate countryman Micheal Schumacher be winning the title with the scuderia. With his chances of that slipping away as a result of his status within the team the relationship was over. All of this can really be traced back to the events of the last twelve months. At the start of 2019 Ferrari boss Matia Binotto made it clear that Vettel was still the lead driver despite the arrival of highly rated youngster Charles LeClerc but as the season progressed it was more often LeClerc that was racking up the impressive results and looking the stronger of the two drivers.
Vettel did have some strong performances towards the end of the year but there were also moments of controversy such as at Monza where v ettel was not given the chance to benefit from his team mates tow despite doing it for LeClerc. And in Sochi where a pre-race arrangement would see Vettel lead into turn one to ensure a clean first lap for both drivers saw Vettel not cede the place back to LeClerc as had been agreed pre-race. Even worse was to come in Brazil as the two drivers clashed as the fought for position heading up to turn four.
The events of 2019 appear to have convinced Ferrari that LeClerc is their man and this didn’t sit well with Sebastian. Whatever the feelings of both parties, and as I say we will surely hear more about it at some point in the future the result is that Sebastian will be starting his last season as a Ferrari driver when 2020 eventually gets going and next season the team will have its youngest driver line up for decades as Carlos Sainz has been signed from McLaren to replace Vettel.
I had expected Vettel to stay at Ferrari and so see Carlos continue his partnership with Lando Norris so this outcome has come as a bit of a suprise, but an exciting suprsie at that as LeClerc and Sainz will make a good tesm at Ferrari I believe. Sainz is a good choice as he has a few season of experience behind him now, does not make silly errors and really matured as a driver last year at Mclaren. Im looking forward to seeing these two as team mates.
Just as interesting as that though is Daniel Ricciardo’s move to McLaren from Renaultas Sainz’s replacement. Both Sainz and Ricciardo’s moves were announced the same day and only two days after the news about Vettel which strongly suggests that the deals had been discussed and for some time. It had been suggested in the media that Vettel may end up at McLaren but the speed of the deals being done would suggest that was never a real option for the Woking team.
McLaren had tried to sign Ricciardo two years ago but he moved to Renault, which in hindsight I’m not sure was a good fit for either of them. Daniel drove well last year and outperformed his team mate but never looked at home and Renault haven’t done enough to show that they will be a strong team in the coming years. McLaren on the other hand are on the up and Daniel should be able to help them continue that progress, having a proven Grand Prix winner will certainly not hinder them, and together with Norris they will make a good pairing.
So the question now is what is Vettel’s next move and who do Renault sign as team mate to Esteban Ocon? Will Vettel see Renault as a good proposition or will he leave the sport? It will be sad to see him not on the grid but I personally cant see him going to Renault. As already mentioned the team has not shown enough promise to suggest that they will be strong in future years and I don’t believe that Vettel will be happy to toil away in the mid field. I’m sorry to say but I think we may be seeing the last of Vettel as a Grand Prix driver.
Rumours in the media say that Fernando Alonso is close to doing a deal to drive for Renault for a third time, with some even suggesting that some kind of pre-contract has already been signed. Alonso has made no secret of his desire to come back to F1 and as little as a few weeks ago said that he is pretty sure what he will be doing in 2021 but I’m not sure about this move. It could be interesting and it may give Fernando a more competitive machine than he had in his final years with McLaren but a title challenger it is unlikely to be, and this is what Alonso wants most of all. The aforementioned rumors also say that Liberty Media, the sports owners will pay for part of Fernando’s salary which also seems unlikely given that they are having to deal with a loss of revenue due to cornavirus and may be called upon to help out some of the smaller teams during this time. Time will tell but I would suggest it is more likely Renault will promote one of its junior drivers and try to build them up, they already have Ocom who we know is top class.
Silly season is in full swing then but what of this year. We know of F1’s plans to start the season in Austria with two races on consecutive weekends and this week Silverstone took a step closer to doing the same thing after concluding a deal with Libery. This is great news and two races at Silverstone will be very exciting, however there does remain a stumbling block which could scupper the plans as the UK Government impose a 14 day quarantine on people coming into the country.
The rest of the season still remains unclear, the Belgium Government have this week ok’d sporting events to take place which would allow the GP to take place in Spa so we should expect a deal for that to happen soon. But the Asian and Middle Eastern parts of the season are still being organised. Until something definite is announced I think we should all take it as a work in p regress.
That’s the news this week, I’m sure there will be more soon and I will post again when we know more.
My F1 talk 