Quoting from the Baku thread so as to take my own advice of us not spamming up that thread!


Quote Originally Posted by Nitrodaze View Post
When l say you are not being fair. I am talking about appreciating the potential of a driver. Yes, there are many unknowns. If Redbull took that sort of perspective to hiring their drivers, Verstappen would still be in Torro Rosso now. Every driver presents each team bosses with a perspective of their potential, given the chance to drive their car. Perez did just that when he won the Bahrain GP and was swiftly hired by Redbull. And he has confirmed that potential by winning the Baku GP.

Note:- Perez is the first driver to win in that 2nd seat at Redbull since Ricciardo. What a relief that must have been for Horner. The curse is broken.

With very little opportunity to showcase his true potential, Russell grasped his one and only opportunity and nearly won the Bahrain GP. A race that did wonders for Perez. My point is, it is not about yardstick measures but measures of potential. And Russell has demonstrated that he has enormous potential.

On Hamilton compared to Verstappen, this scenario is the best possible way to measure the comparative strengths and weaknesses of both drivers. In the same team, Verstappen would have to cope with the in-team politics, the mind games as well as try to beat Hamilton on track. That is not a good scenario for a young challenger to take on a seven-time world champion. However, in the safety and protection of another team, he can focus on his racing and put out his best performances.

We adore Alonso because he beat Seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher, twice in a Renault. Would he have done so, driving in the second seat at Ferrari? Certainly not. He would be flying too close to the sun and would have been burnt from the experience. To estimate what is possible in the future, we only have "potential" to go on. When it comes down to proving it, there is a myriad of factors that come into play to producing what would actually happen. And the outcome can be different from what we expect. Among those things is crucially luck and good timing which plays a huge role in what transpires for each driver.

Bad timing destroyed Grosjean's career. Albon is paying the price for that very same thing. Gasly was nearly destroyed by it. Thankfully he is recovering well.
No doubt Russell has shown great potential. My main point on that being that it's very limited, since his usual ride is the back of the field, and most likely not driver could change that much.

As for the other scenarios' personally I think it's all assumption until it happens. For all we know Alonso might have made Schumacher look very ordinary, Max might do the same to Lewis, and Gasly would destroy both of them in the same car. We can speculate until we die, but in the end actual facts will always win out. And in most cases if two strong drivers are on a team the team pushes a #1 and #2 scenario at some point, whether it be favoritism or the standings of the first few race results.

As for RB and breaking the curse, I think they probably chose Perez in much the same way as Merc chose Bottas. There is no lack of young drivers with great potential, but having some years under the belt makes "older" drivers a good candidate for the #2 spot when in a strong car. It also limits rivalry within the team and thus team drama.



The rumors are already swirling fairly quickly about Hamilton's contract, as well as the Russel/Bottas swap. Until it happens, we can't be sure. The only thing we can really but sure of is to expect the unexpected, as it happens quite a lot in the F1 driver shuffle.