2011 Formula 1 Season - Official Discussion Thread

[cformula1]

Mercedes are definitely looking to be a potential future force. Hopefully Michael can stay for long enough in order to experience some success, including (hopefully) another win.

[mnmracer]

I think Schumacher will try and postpone his decision on his retirement when he sees the first plans for 2013. If he's got a good feeling about it, and he thinks it will enable him to fight for the podium, 100% certain that he will want to stay.

[MavF1]

I think Schumacher will try and postpone his decision on his retirement when he sees the first plans for 2013. If he's got a good feeling about it, and he thinks it will enable him to fight for the podium, 100% certain that he will want to stay.

The question is if Mercedes is willing to keep him with Di Resta probably only waiting for Michael to retire.

[tderias]

I think Schumacher will try and postpone his decision on his retirement when he sees the first plans for 2013. If he's got a good feeling about it, and he thinks it will enable him to fight for the podium, 100% certain that he will want to stay.

The question is if Mercedes is willing to keep him with Di Resta probably only waiting for Michael to retire.

Agreed. Di Resta and Mercedes sounds like an effective combination

[Ali]

The question is if Mercedes is willing to keep him with Di Resta probably only waiting for Michael to retire.

Agreed. Di Resta and Mercedes sounds like an effective combination

So guys, here is the question begging for an answer:

You are Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Mercedes. It's certain that your car will be competitive out of the box for 2013 season. You've been making investments to the team for 3 years and now you are ready to reap what you saw. You are a German team. Silver Arrows. Your arch rival terminated its F1 operations due to unsuccessful campaign and moved out. You have the chance to use that opportunity for PR and competition reasons in car industry against your rival, BMW. You have one promising young talent in Rosberg and you have to have a choice for the second seat.

Do you choose a seven time world champion, a 44-year old German Michael Schumacher, whose possible comeback championship, even the championship hunt, will rock the world, PR, media business and whose lovers-hater-bashers-fans of that guy will be universally, all around world, ready to jump-swear-talk on, well, everywhere, whose championship after 3 years absence and 3 years in waiting story will be told, written, commented, posted literally on everywhere including and excluding Formula 1

or

Do you choose a Scottish Paul di Resta who might outclass Rosberg?

[NewF1Boy]

The question is if Mercedes is willing to keep him with Di Resta probably only waiting for Michael to retire.

Agreed. Di Resta and Mercedes sounds like an effective combination

So guys, here is the question begging for an answer:

You are Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Mercedes. It's certain that your car will be competitive out of the box for 2013 season. You've been making investments to the team for 3 years and now you are ready to reap what you saw. You are a German team. Silver Arrows. Your arch rival terminated its F1 operations due to unsuccessful campaign and moved out. You have the chance to use that opportunity for PR and competition reasons in car industry against your rival, BMW. You have one promising young talent in Rosberg and you have to have a choice for the second seat.

Do you choose a seven time world champion, a 44-year old German Michael Schumacher, whose possible comeback championship, even the championship hunt, will rock the world, PR, media business and whose lovers-hater-bashers-fans of that guy will be universally, all around world, ready to jump-swear-talk on, well, everywhere, whose championship after 3 years absence and 3 years in waiting story will be told, written, commented, posted literally on everywhere including and excluding Formula 1

or

Do you choose a Scottish Paul di Resta who might outclass Rosberg?

The fact that he is going to be 44 and just can't beat the competition like he did when he was 25.

Take monaco in 1994 where he could have stopped gone for a swim then got back in the car and still won. Talent will never leave him but everybody gets old.

[KevC]

Do you choose a seven time world champion, a 44-year old German Michael Schumacher, whose possible comeback championship, even the championship hunt, will rock the world, PR, media business and whose lovers-hater-bashers-fans of that guy will be universally, all around world, ready to jump-swear-talk on, well, everywhere, whose championship after 3 years absence and 3 years in waiting story will be told, written, commented, posted literally on everywhere including and excluding Formula 1

or

Do you choose a Scottish Paul di Resta who might outclass Rosberg?

Di Resta.
Every time.

MS clearly hasn't 'got it' any more and should have stayed retired. At some point you have to admit you're not as good as you used to be and step aside. He's had the odd race here and there where he's done a bit better than expected but the underlying trend is that he's just not up there any more.

[Ali]

Do you choose a seven time world champion, a 44-year old German Michael Schumacher, whose possible comeback championship, even the championship hunt, will rock the world, PR, media business and whose lovers-hater-bashers-fans of that guy will be universally, all around world, ready to jump-swear-talk on, well, everywhere, whose championship after 3 years absence and 3 years in waiting story will be told, written, commented, posted literally on everywhere including and excluding Formula 1

or

Do you choose a Scottish Paul di Resta who might outclass Rosberg?

Di Resta.
Every time.

MS clearly hasn't 'got it' any more and should have stayed retired. At some point you have to admit you're not as good as you used to be and step aside. He's had the odd race here and there where he's done a bit better than expected but the underlying trend is that he's just not up there any more.

Lots of assumption there. I posed that question based on facts, not a speculation. And I would be very afraid of using that kind of absolute adjectives and adverbs, which I believe draw the thin line between objectivity and subjectivity.

If we are going to talk about trend, then there is only one word for it: upwards. Schumacher has been consistently faster than Rosberg for 4-5 races now. That is not to say he will be the fastest guy on track but he's there and thereabouts with the guys. That is not an opinion. There is no reason to assert that di Resta or any other driver for that matter will be miles faster than Schumacher.

It will be a matter of choice and pragmatism.

What is more, my question is purely related to a business decision, not a sporting one. That said, I also believe Schumacher could well be as fast as anyone sitting in that cockpit but I'm not sure of that. I only say Mercedes will and should look into these facts while choosing driver. The Schumacher household name has lots of offer than what di Resta himself could.

[KevC]

If we are going to talk about trend, then there is only one word for it: upwards. Schumacher has been consistently faster than Rosberg for 4-5 races now.

Really?
Rosberg is 5-2 up in the last 7 race results, and 6-1 up in qualifying.
I wasn't speculating at anything.

I also think the better business decision is to look to the future with a younger driver. As I said, Schumacher has had his go, his time has passed and it's on to a new generation of drivers.

[Ali]

If we are going to talk about trend, then there is only one word for it: upwards. Schumacher has been consistently faster than Rosberg for 4-5 races now.

Really?
Rosberg is 5-2 up in the last 7 race results, and 6-1 up in qualifying.
I wasn't speculating at anything.

I said "faster" and talking about for the last 4-5 races. Why you are stretching to 7 races is baffling, mate.

Pace is clearly not a function of results only, otherwise there would have been no discussion about who is fast or slow. Championship standings would have given the whole picture, which is not the case, as you'd appreciate. I was implying that the trend is not what you suggested.

Still, I'm not saying Schumacher or Rosberg is faster than each other. I didn't say that. I talked about the mindset of Mercedes execs merely on who they choose as a driver if they have a race winning car regarding publicity and business motives. Rosberg is already a young driver in prospect, albeit he's a bit old now but still. So, Schumacher would be a better choice if he keeps delivering the kind of performance he's been delivering for the last races than di Resta could have been.

I don't think I didn't make myself clear enough.

[phil1993]

By 2013, I'd choose di Resta or Sutil over Schumacher. di Resta is still a rookie, but you can tell he has a bright future ahead of him. Schumacher would be too great a liability for a title winning team as he's made too many mistakes this season. He has pace, but lacks consistency.

[Ali]

By 2013, I'd choose di Resta or Sutil over Schumacher. di Resta is still a rookie, but you can tell he has a bright future ahead of him. Schumacher would be too great a liability for a title winning team as he's made too many mistakes this season. He has pace, but lacks consistency.

Now put Hamilton in that sentence Phil, would you still advocate that McLaren a title winning team should ditch him for another driver?

Well, I wouldn't say cause it would have been erased what Hamilton did till this hour. I would find it a little unfair.

Don't you think so?

[KevC]

I said "faster" and talking about for the last 4-5 races. Why you are stretching to 7 races is baffling, mate.

Because in 3 of the last 4 races they've had 3 retirements between them so it skews the data. MS has a breakdown and a crash of his own doing and Rosberg was taken out by Luizzi at Monza.

Fair enough if you want it over 5 (it still doesn't look good)
Qually 4-1 to Rosberg
Race 3-2 to Rosberg

I still don't think MS can cut it any more. I would still choose Di Resta next season and tell MS to pack it in, from both a business and a racing point of view. He's had his career, he did very well at it but the game has moved on.

[MavF1]

Do you choose a seven time world champion, a 44-year old German Michael Schumacher, whose possible comeback championship, even the championship hunt, will rock the world, PR, media business and whose lovers-hater-bashers-fans of that guy will be universally, all around world, ready to jump-swear-talk on, well, everywhere, whose championship after 3 years absence and 3 years in waiting story will be told, written, commented, posted literally on everywhere including and excluding Formula 1

or

Do you choose a Scottish Paul di Resta who might outclass Rosberg?

Di Resta.
Every time.

MS clearly hasn't 'got it' any more and should have stayed retired. At some point you have to admit you're not as good as you used to be and step aside. He's had the odd race here and there where he's done a bit better than expected but the underlying trend is that he's just not up there any more.

Lots of assumption there. I posed that question based on facts, not a speculation. And I would be very afraid of using that kind of absolute adjectives and adverbs, which I believe draw the thin line between objectivity and subjectivity.

If we are going to talk about trend, then there is only one word for it: upwards. Schumacher has been consistently faster than Rosberg for 4-5 races now. That is not to say he will be the fastest guy on track but he's there and thereabouts with the guys. That is not an opinion. There is no reason to assert that di Resta or any other driver for that matter will be miles faster than Schumacher.

It will be a matter of choice and pragmatism.

What is more, my question is purely related to a business decision, not a sporting one. That said, I also believe Schumacher could well be as fast as anyone sitting in that cockpit but I'm not sure of that. I only say Mercedes will and should look into these facts while choosing driver. The Schumacher household name has lots of offer than what di Resta himself could.

Well, your optimism in this case is laudable, but I think you did not. You're convinced that with the staff Mercedes hired in the past year the outfit will be competitive in 2013, but who's to say?
They're still spending less than the other top teams, add to that the benefits which teams like Ferrari and McLaren get out of their infrastructure and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Mercedes goes down the route BMW took.

Then look at Di Resta, we obviously don't know how his contract looks like, thus we don't know if he's in any form contractually bound to Merc or not. So, if Merc really wanted to keep Michael for another year or two, Di Resta could decide to look elsewhere for a better seat and they'd loose him.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's much benefit for Merc in keeping Schumacher beyond 2012 (be it that he wants to continue) and I would really be surprised if he was still there in 2013. I myself wanted him to at least win another race before he retires for good, but now I'm not even sure if he can reach a podium until then.

[phil1993]

By 2013, I'd choose di Resta or Sutil over Schumacher. di Resta is still a rookie, but you can tell he has a bright future ahead of him. Schumacher would be too great a liability for a title winning team as he's made too many mistakes this season. He has pace, but lacks consistency.

Now put Hamilton in that sentence Phil, would you still advocate that McLaren a title winning team should ditch him for another driver?

Well, I wouldn't say cause it would have been erased what Hamilton did till this hour. I would find it a little unfair.

Don't you think so?

No, but you're creeping into fanboyism here to suit your own agenda.

Schumacher is a good driver. But would I - in terms of delivering results - choose him over others in 18 months time? Unlikely.