Silly Season 2018/2019

[Just_a_fan]

Come to think of it, what does Seb get up to in his spare time ?

He has two children. Spare time does not exist...

[NathanOlder]

Come to think of it, what does Seb get up to in his spare time ?

He has two children. Spare time does not exist...

Tell me about it! I'm just amazed that you don't seem to ever see photos of him out and about with his family. As soon as Lewis steps outside, there are people taking photo's. People go on about Lewis' fashion, music ect ect but the only reason people know about it is because people want to know about it, and then they complain/moan ect. Obviously no one cares about what Seb, Max , Valtteri ect get up to then.

[Vasconia]

Come to think of it, what does Seb get up to in his spare time ?

He has two children. Spare time does not exist...

Tell me about it! I'm just amazed that you don't seem to ever see photos of him out and about with his family. As soon as Lewis steps outside, there are people taking photo's. People go on about Lewis' fashion, music ect ect but the only reason people know about it is because people want to know about it, and then they complain/moan ect. Obviously no one cares about what Seb, Max , Valtteri ect get up to then.

Lewis loves to be part of this world while Sebastian has not even a single social media account. Different points of view I guess.

I even didn´t know that Seb has two children.

[marmer]

He has two children. Spare time does not exist...

Tell me about it! I'm just amazed that you don't seem to ever see photos of him out and about with his family. As soon as Lewis steps outside, there are people taking photo's. People go on about Lewis' fashion, music ect ect but the only reason people know about it is because people want to know about it, and then they complain/moan ect. Obviously no one cares about what Seb, Max , Valtteri ect get up to then.

Lewis loves to be part of this world while Sebastian has not even a single social media account. Different points of view I guess.

I even didn´t know that Seb has two children.

it was mentioned on teds notebook that seb's family actually attend most races are very rarely picked up by TV. its even so covert that i am sure on one notebook seb actually walked straight past his dad and ted noticed that neither said a word to the other

[ScottB]

Seb lives in Switzerland doesn't he? In a presumably rather well to do part, so probably not the sort of place where the locals go around asking for selfies.

It is why Bernie was most keen on Lewis being champion, you may not like him, or his style etc but he's out there, in the public eye, which brings attention and interest to the sport, Vettel is fairly anonymous outside of race weekends, then of course we had Nico who quit the sport completely!

Not that every driver should be as open as Lewis, far from it, but some insight into their lives would be nice, even, say, behind the scenes of their fitness regimes and so on, would be super interesting, without being much of an invasion into their private lives.

[marmer]

to be fair to Seb he has done extremely well to be a 4 time world champion that almost no one knows anything about.
i know he likes motorbikes and has a family.. thats about it.

we know more about kimi

[notsofast]

Which kind of raises the question why a family man like Seb, with all the money he has earned, would want to continue in a risky sport with limited opportunity to win another championship. I hope Ricciardo has a clause that allows him to jump ship if Seb does decide to retire.

[Jolle]

Which kind of raises the question why a family man like Seb, with all the money he has earned, would want to continue in a risky sport with limited opportunity to win another championship. I hope Ricciardo has a clause that allows him to jump ship if Seb does decide to retire.

Why is there this question of retirement coming back (for both Hamilton and Vettel). What Rosberg did was a rarity. Drivers breaking contracts to retire are extremely rare.

[garygph]

Which kind of raises the question why a family man like Seb, with all the money he has earned, would want to continue in a risky sport with limited opportunity to win another championship. I hope Ricciardo has a clause that allows him to jump ship if Seb does decide to retire.

With all the analyses and discussions of achievements I think it is easy to forget that just maybe they absolutely love driving an F1 car! Getting the championships etc is an added bonus but not the only reason they all ( but some may ) race.

[Phillyred]

Seb is a racer at heart like Lewis, Alonso, Max etc.. He's a stubborn German too, so he won't be retiring any time soon. What would be great for the sport is Seb and Lewis on the same team like the Senna/Prost days!!!!

Which kind of raises the question why a family man like Seb, with all the money he has earned, would want to continue in a risky sport with limited opportunity to win another championship. I hope Ricciardo has a clause that allows him to jump ship if Seb does decide to retire.

[ScottB]

I was always surprised that it was even possible for Nico to break his contract and walk just because he felt like it. Wouldn't be a huge shock if the contracts signed by the top guys since include clauses that prevent them just walking away for non medical reasons say, otherwise it leaves the teams in potentially super risky positions. Imagine how weak Merc or Ferrari would be if Lewis or Seb just walked this December!

[notsofast]

You can always retire. You just can't join a competitor for the remainder of the contract period.

[Jolle]

You can always retire. You just can't join a competitor for the remainder of the contract period.

Not true. Damon Hill wanted to retire during his last year, Eddie Jordan didn’t let him.

[GPR-A]

Which kind of raises the question why a family man like Seb, with all the money he has earned, would want to continue in a risky sport with limited opportunity to win another championship. I hope Ricciardo has a clause that allows him to jump ship if Seb does decide to retire.

I doubt if Ricciardo would be hired by Ferrari, fully knowing that he has been beaten thoroughly in qualifying battle for two years. Leclerc has been consistently beating Ericsson by healthy margin at Sauber (in both qualifying and races) and if he does that to Ricciardo at Ferrari (assuming he does get hired), then his career is over within the first year of Ferrari. Leclerc seems to be less hot headed than Max and doesn't get into harakiri moves in races, which means Ricciardo's chances of salvaging in races, like he did in Red Bull due to Max's mistakes, would be far lower.

All the alphas in top teams gets decided on the basis of one lap speed and with experience comes race craft. Vettel had no great deal of race craft at the beginning of the career, but had pure one lap speed that allowed him to out qualify Webber and demand Alpha position in the team, despite being the younger driver. So was Senna, Schumacher, Alonso, Lewis and now Max.

Qualifying performance is undeniably and critically important to the top teams. In places like Hungary and Singapore, even if a driver has the faster car, but can't out qualify the competition in qualifying, most likely he ends up losing the race. We already saw it this year!

[Fulcrum]

Yet, oddly enough, they employed both Raikkonen and Alonso as their number 1 drivers for close to a decade, and neither of them are especially good qualifiers; I'd certainly classify them as being better racers than qualifiers.

Even in their most dominant years (and cars), neither managed very high numbers of pole positions. Alonso in particular has an extremely lopsided Win-to-Pole ratio (1.45 Wins per Pole). Compare that to other notables:

Lauda - 25 wins, 24 poles; 1.04
Senna - 41 wins, 65 poles; 0.63
Prost - 51 wins, 33 poles; 1.54
Schumacher - 91 wins, 68 poles; 1.33
Mansell - 31 wins, 32 poles; 0.97
Hakkinen - 20 wins, 26 poles; 0.77
Vettel - 52 wins, 55 poles; 0.95
Hamilton - 71 wins, 80 poles; 0.89
Jenson Button - 15 wins, 8 poles; 1.88
Jackie Stewart - 27 wins, 17 poles; 1.59
Jim Clark - 25 wins, 33 poles; 0.76
Raikkonen - 20 wins, 18 poles; 1.11
N. Rosberg - 23 wins, 30 poles; 0.77

Senna and Clarke were both famously quick over 1 lap. Hakkinen and Rosberg are also well regarded over 1 lap.

I can't comment on Stewart (before my time), but neither Button nor Prost were ever regarded as 1-lap specialists.

Alonso's numbers are much closer to those of Button and Prost than they are Clark or Senna.

Point being, I agree 1 lap pace is crucially important for race outcomes. I don't agree Ferrari hired Alonso because he's a stellar qualifier. By no measurement is he slow, but he's never been definitely the best qualifier during his era.

I think, at the time, Alonso recommended himself on the following basis:

- was already a World Champion (proven experience)
- charismatic and spoke Italian (marketable and convenient)
- fast over 1 lap (if not the outright quickest)
- incredible race craft (probably the best at the time of being hired)
- he was looking, as were Ferrari (fortuitous)