Quote Originally Posted by Duncan View Post
Interesting thought. IIRC Toto stated that this will not influence contract negotiations with Nico, but how could it not? At some point, the situation with these two drivers becomes untenable, and you have to fix it. Lewis is already under contract, but Nico is not. If I'm Mercedes, that's how you fix the problem.

Possible paths for Mercedes at this point:

1. Re-sign Nico, hope that Lewis and Nico sort themselves out. Best of luck...

2. Don't re-sign Nico, replace him with Pascal. Pros: keeps young blood in the team, Pascal looks like an exciting and competent young driver, counterbalance excitement at Red Bull with Max. Also, he's German. Cons: frying pan, fire. etc. Pascal seems smart and mature, but he's ambitious. Depending on how things work out, you could still have fireworks.

3. Don't re-sign Nico, replace him with Rio Haryanto. Probably won't reduce the number of crashes, but at least they won't be crashing into each other.

4. Release Lewis from his contract, possibly in negotiation with another major team, replace him with...? Pascal, as above, gives you an all-German team. Maybe that has some value, but doesn't necessarily solve your problem, same as above.

I dunno, but option 2 looks the best available to me.
Great thoughts. I think Mercedes will be looking at whether these two can continue together past the end of this season. As you say Nico is out of contract so that is the cheapest outcome. Buying out Hamilton's contract would cost a pretty penny. Lewis is also a huge pull for their marketing due to his appeal in Asia, Europe and the US. I personally think he's a self absorbed son of a gun in his private life, but he gets a lot of attention and appeals to the younger cool consumer. Nico is just a normal guy without the wow factor. I think these sorts of details matter when picking a driver to front your marques race team.

Lewis has also given Mercedes 2 drivers championships and all three of his world titles have been won with Mercedes power. He's given a lot back.

I really do think we'll see Lewis with a younger teammate next season.