0h my....

At least if other teams in the mix for victories on consistent basis, we'll start to Mercedes splitting strategies. Bored of Mercs identical strategies.

Identical strategies unless they want to put Rosberg into the lead (Austria)!

comment by King 'arry (U7920)
posted 2 hours, 25 minutes ago
Identical strategies unless they want to put Rosberg into the lead (Austria)!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Even Case Stoner called them out on that one. They tried to rig that race in Nicos favour

http://www.grandprix247.com/2016/12/18/massa-to-return-allowing-bottas-to-got-to-mercedes/


Auto Bild reports that Hamilton is not keen to have Pascal Wehrlein as his teammate, because having the the young German in the team reminds him too much of the situation at 2007 at McLaren where Hamilton teamed up alongside Fernando Alonso.

Furthermore Wehrlein has proven to be very fast during his stints testing for Mercedes, and he has also clocked up more mileage in testing of the wider 2017 Pirelli tyres than any other driver.

The report goes even further and suggests that Hamilton is lying when he says he does not care who his teammate is next year, because the triple World Champion has vetoed Wehrlein’s promotion according to Auto Bild.

So, German newspaper claims young German driver being held down by driver who almost prevented German world drivers' champion.

Could be true. Probably not.

In general, I suspect Lewis is more bothered about who his teammate is than he is letting on. He should be. Besides Heikki, he's always had at best equal terms with his teammate and (arguably) it has cost him two titles in the past: namely 2007 (Monaco, Hungary qualy) and this year.

I strongly suspect the Mercedes will not be the best car next season, so he will need every point he can get. Nearly every other champion I can think of since the late eighties after Prost left McLaren has had favourable terms, so why not? He just needs to be a bit more honest about it.

Bild is talking ballacks

Williams rejected him as well because of his inexperience. I do not believe Hamilton does not care who his team mate is, everydriver does.

If Verstappen was joining Mercedes, he would be very concerned.

Wehrlein is nothing special

comment by Chelseamf™®© (U1677)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/dec/11/lewis-hamilton-f1-mercedes-toto-wolff-williams-valtteri-bottas?

Sounds like Bottas foregone conclusion.

Maybe Toto will step down as part of Bottas' management...

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

http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/id/13471

"Wolff has also agreed to sever management ties to Bottas as part of the agreement as it could be seen as unfair if one of Mercedes' drivers is managed by the team boss."

There we go.

So he'll (Toto) just get his share of the signing on bonus that he negotiated and part ways. Noble .

On a serious note, I am very happy for Bottas. Now we just need Hulkenberg to get a decent drive. Massa's return would seem to reduce the chances of agreeing a minimum driver weight...

https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/mercedes-amg-f1/amg-f1-news/amg-f1-video/exclusive-first-interview-with-valtteri-bottas-our-new-driver/

Done.

One-year deal. Mercedes keeping options open.