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Well, if Massa is coming back, he apparently made a new F1 record for the shortest retirement. Less than a month.

But like said before, Williams pushed him out because Bottas didn't leave at that point and they knew they have to take Stroll in. Maybe they offered the role of a reserve driver for Felipe, but he thought that he either races in a good car (or not any worse than Williams) or retires. So he retired because Williams signed Bottas and Stroll.

Now the table have turned.

Bottas is leaving and who else would be more suitable for that seat to set a par for Stroll and help the engineers to develop the car.

Familiar team, known driver. Mercedes gives a nice discount from the engines and Bottas' salary is now available too, so Felipe gets a good compensation for being a team player one more time.

And Martini doesn't have to re-make all their commercials either, just cut out Bottas instead of Massa.

Mercedes gets a driver they want and Hamilton doesn't use his veto on Bottas, who's career takes the natural step forward.

I don't really see anyone losing in this arrangement. Well, Wehrlein maybe, but it wasn't his time yet and apparently Hamilton used the veto on him. Felipe Nasr is not going to be in the grid for 2017 very likely, so Brazilians gets at least one driver to cheer for...without having to buy new merchandise.

Both Williams and Mercedes are conservative with their driver choices, so there wasn't many realistic options left at this point of the year. Anyone who was racing this season has a contract, has retired or is not an option. These two teams don't want to hire drivers who has not raced this year, not a junior nor a driver who was left out of seat after 2015. So who's left that meets the criteria? Bottas for Mercedes, Massa for Williams.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Pretty much all are conservative. Only Red Bull has guts to take a near rookie on. McLaren is taking a shot with van Doorne but he's older than half the grid by now

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... ve-mclaren

Capito to leave McLaren after 3 months in the job.

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Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
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Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

McLaren is such a mess

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There's a current article on autosport where Alonso says the current McLaren team is the best one he's ever driven for.

So McLaren are doing the Ron Dennis purge?

i'll always have a bit of sympathy for massa. he probably had near the talent level as lewis before his accident, but ever since he caught that spring to the head he was never on that same level

The minute I read that headline I asked myself "who are they holding for a hostage to make him say that?"

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Couldn't disagree more, but everyone has their opinion.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Merc was a box of bolts and the Williams hit the ground running and under the new leadership of Paddy Lowe Massa ended up winning the championship and neither Lewis nor Botas won a race.

I'm sure there's some parallel universe where this will happen, if not in ours.

We can laugh about this, but who saw Brawn and Red Bull coming in 2009? Or Benetton in 1994?

Sort of related - I got bored last week and found the 2009 testing thread. Did anyone here who said they were going to put money on Brawn actually do so?

I wouldn't have put him on the same level as Lewis, but there's no denying that he really did take the fight to him in 2008 - one more win and only one less point. Maybe 'near the talent level' is actually a fair assessment of his season.

He had a good season in 2008 but didn't become champion because of his own screw ups (Australia, Malaysia, GB, probably more) and yes, also because of bad luck (Hungary, Singapore) but also had a real chance thanks to luck (France, Belgium) and bad luck on Lewis' side.

Each to their own but he's comparable with Barrichello, Webber and DC and I would rate those three higher than Massa.

Pat Symonds has left Williams

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the main issue with Massa is that he sticked with Ferrari too long. when the car was good he could achieve good results and so but after Alonso arrived the project was "make Alonso champion no matter what" and it didn't worked, the car became shit and also his performances

in Williams mediocrity is contagious so is time for Bottas to prove he is more a Kimi than a Kovalainen

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I agree.



So I guess Paddy Lowe will join them.

According to Auto-Motor-und-Sport the 2017 F1 cars will feature a sharkfin once again...

Massa confirmed for Williams (when Bottas goes to Mercedes):

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/massa ... 017-860616

Well, that makes Frank sick in his stomach. What happened to 'anybody can become world champion in my car(s)'? Massa has been poor, bar 2008, all his career. Compare him to Bottas, he's half the racer. Now they're gonna get him back? Hell, With Wehrlein it would have been fun, just like with Jordan. But now, it's just meh all over againg.

Well. Fuck!!