Hamilton out for next race, Russell in POSSIBLE SPOILERS

[Bardahl77]

With Hamilton testing positive, George Russell is thought to be his replacement for next week. It'll be interesting to see how he stacks up against Bottas, going from the crappiest car on the circuit to the best. I don't expect him to be at HAM levels, being this is his first race in it, but it might answer some questions about how car vs driver works these days.

[EricP]

Personally, I'd like to see Verstappen in there since he is consistently right there. Would the Mercedes make the difference? (I know this isn't a contractual possibility...)

[FVRacer21]

It would be interesting but the money is on Stoffel Vandoorne - since he is the reserve driver and has spent time in the simulator recently.

On the other hand - would Mercedes give Nico Hulkenberg a shot at a podium that is missing from his resume?

ChrisZ

[FVRacer21]

On the other hand - since they are running the "oval" track

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...-prix/4864250/

maybe they could use Rossi....

ChrisZ

[Bardahl77]

Russell is sort of "on loan" to Williams, he's still part of the Mercedes Junior Driver program. I'm sure Williams has to agree.

Williams could agree and put 2019 W-series champion Jamie Chadwick in Russell's seat, since she's signed to their development team.

[Bardahl77]

On the other hand - since they are running the "oval" track

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...-prix/4864250/

maybe they could use Rossi....

ChrisZ

Scott Dixon is not doing anything right now.

[mmi16]

With the track configuration being NEW to everyone and no team having set up data from prior competitions on the track is should prove interesting.

[Robins Ken]

With the track configuration being NEW to everyone and no team having set up data from prior competitions on the track is should prove interesting.

JOHNNY HERBERT.

[Gary_T]

It actually is Russell - I did not expect that.

Jack Aiken to race for Williams.

https://racer.com/2020/12/02/russell...-for-williams/

[JHerscher]

And we were all wondering why Toto didn't return any of our calls....

[Farrout48]

This will be a very interesting F1 race to see how Russell adapts to and races in a decent car. I am looking forward to it.

[dc]

Russell fastest on the board after FP1. Wow.

That says a lot about how great that car is, and how talented George is to jump in a strange car and in one practice session be faster than his teammate by .322 sec. Almost .2 faster than Max in P2.



The future is bright in F1.

[kea]

Great for Russell but i noticed Stoffel was not a happy camper. Too bad Mercedes had to take from another team, so what, they could finish 1-2 in a race that means little to them points wise.

[dc]

SVD doesn't have a future at Mercedes at the grown-up table, unfortunately. George does, and has been earmarked as Bottas' successor for a while, so this could be a preview of what's to come in the future of Mercedes F1.

[Bardahl77]

One of my online racing personas is Stroopwaffel Von Doom.

He replaced Bobby Doorknobs.

[bgaff6]

Difficult upside for Russell.
If he qualifies outside the top 5 he is a failure and if he finishes in the top 5 it proves that Hamilton is superior and the car is really good.
He has to finish on the podium or his F1 stock might go down.
I personally wish him success and hope he triumphs. We could use a positive story.
my 2 cents

[FVRacer21]

My comment about the oval was in jest - but it looks like they are have some issues- a 54 second lap will make some interesting pit strategy and virtually everyone will be within drs range....

Chris

[Offcamber1]

My comment about the oval was in jest - but it looks like they are have some issues- a 54 second lap will make some interesting pit strategy and virtually everyone will be within drs range....

Chris

Yes. And the race will be should be rough on outside tires. Look for Checo to do well as he is the master of tire management.

[Bardahl77]

Crank a little stagger in the rear tires, maybe move the ballast to one side, major front camber. Hell, let's just put them in Supermods!

[Kazis31]

FPR 1 RuSsel dominates
FPR 2 Russel dominates.

so much for it.s not a car bs............

[Kazis31]

Hamilton does not deserve six championships.
Mercedes does......

[provamo]

i might even watch it

[mikey]

At the rate this thread is going it should have "Potential SPOILER ALERT" added to the title

[FVRacer21]

Hamilton does not deserve six championships.
Mercedes does......

With an attitude like that maybe Mercedes should just build 20 cars and then..... then we would have a spec series

Let's not write off Hamilton's talent yet:

https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/20...ia-styrian-gp/

--------------------------------

This should be a very interesting race - sort of like when Nascar goes to Bristol....

ChrisZ

[Bardahl77]

Judging by Bottas' difficulty to stay in track confines FP2, he's desperate to show he's better than Russell. What would have been top time got deleted for exceeding track limits.

[stonebridge20]

.

[douglap1]

I suspect Toto believed that Russell can dominate in the Mercedes as he is proving that he can do.

But, I believe that Toto sees this as a bargaining chip that he can use with Hamilton in their on-going contract negotiations. I think Hamilton may be the only Mercedes driver who does not use Toto as his agent. What conflict of interest?

Hope it all works out well for Russell.

[Bardahl77]

On the other side, Pietro Fittipaldi replacing Grosjean, do we claim Fitti as an American since he was born in Miami? Or do we want to?

[E1pix]

If Pietro’s character is anything like his cousin Christian’s, I’d be proud to have him represent us.

But according to Wiki, at least, he’s listed as Brazilian.

[Lynn]

Pietro is racing on a Brazilian license.

[EricP]

So very interesting to watch car/driver variables change and see how it rolls...

[Daryl DeArman]

With an attitude like that maybe Mercedes should just build 20 cars and then..

They probably would build a few more than 2 if the rules allowed.

In any series where the cars are all very good the driver/team makes the largest difference.
In any series where the drivers/teams are all very good the car makes the largest difference.

In most other cars Hamilton doesn't have all these Championships, and neither would Schuey. They are both very good drivers who landed on very good teams, and there's not much beating that!

[Bardahl77]

If a guy who usually qualifies near dead last nearly 2 seconds off the pace can jump into front running car and run within 99.9% of the veteran driver of said car, it kind of proves the car is the king right now. The best driver can get that 0.1% little extra out, but that doesn't mean everyone else are punters. Hell, Pastor Maldonado was GP2 champion. They're all champs in lower series of one form or another. The SuperLicense rules are keeping out guys like Alex Yoong, no matter how much money a government-owned business or rich daddy has.

[EricP]

Damn. I really wanted to see what Max would do. And it looked like he was even being cautious...

[FVRacer21]

Let me throw something out:

Maybe driving your heart out in a car that doesn't quite have it - can it make you a better driver in a good car?

Hmmm....

ChrisZ

[E1pix]

IMO... absolutely!

[Bardahl77]

Someone in the Mercedes team is gonna get their lights punched out. Russell earned that win, he had Bottas covered.

[EricP]

Someone in the Mercedes team is gonna get their lights punched out. Russell earned that win, he had Bottas covered.

Heartbreak in a lot of places.

[FVRacer21]

Racing is a strange game....

Now - If they had run the old engine last week - maybe Perez takes 3rd - and the other engine blows up this week.....

Russell basically gets affected by a Williams crash....probably the debris is what hurt his tire later.....

Bottas started with Williams - and has bad luck following him (the Williams curse?)

But forgotten in the entire thing is Verstappen who is sitting at the hotel going - if it wasn't for bad luck - I wouldn't have no luck at all....

ChrisZ

[problemchild]

Amusing to hear Verstappen whining about LeClerc pulling the same stunt that Max has been doing forever. "Why was he being so aggressive on the first lap". Hilarious!

Very entertaining event. Tears of joy .... tears of disappointment. Great storylines, but mostly driven by non-racing activity. The racing storyline, without the drama, would have been only the two Mercedes on the lead lap.

Yes, it is the car!