In reply to Tom1200 :
As compared to the Ferrari or Mercedes system? Bottas was never coined as on the the Mercedes development drivers, and Hamilton was 100% Ron Dennis McLaren (Niki wooed him to factory Mercedes). Vettel and Sainz were Red Bull drivers. Charles being the only former Ferrari Academy driver to make it. Obliviously it was Jules seat if not for passing away would have had the seat. Think about all the development drivers that never received a opportunity from Mercedes or Ferrari. In terms of the Academy the Red Bull does well, they just don't hold onto the drivers for long to keep the cycle rolling.
Bottas was a Williams driver, so that's basically the Mercedes farm team. Development is a different gig.
Another report that Perez is going to Red Bull Sergio Perez will race for Red Bull in 2021
The biggest problem with the whole driver development idea for F1 is that there are only 20 seats in the entire world. If the guys in the seats are doing ok, or providing a goodly sized cheque, or have the ear of the major sponsor/team owner/prime minister, then there isn't a seat available.
Makes for a ready supply of Indycar, LeMans and IMSA drivers, though.
loosecannon said:
Another report that Perez is going to Red Bull Sergio Perez will race for Red Bull in 2021
If you were writing articles for an F1 website/blog/publication, you'd totally be writing these articles. I'll believe it when Horner says it, because otherwise it's just wish fulfillment. Like that whole OMG Mercedes is going to dump Bottas for Russell! thing a few weeks back.
Keith Tanner said:
loosecannon said:
Another report that Perez is going to Red Bull Sergio Perez will race for Red Bull in 2021
If you were writing articles for an F1 website/blog/publication, you'd totally be writing these articles. I'll believe it when Horner says it, because otherwise it's just wish fulfillment. Like that whole OMG Mercedes is going to dump Bottas for Russell! thing a few weeks back.
To be fair Bottas did change his instagram profile lol
My wife is a Bottas fan, she maintains it never said anything about Mercedes. Lewis' doesn't :)
Perez officially to Red Bull
In reply to johndej :
I guess I should've seen that coming... I wanted Albon to do well since he seems like a genuinely good guy, but ah well. I wonder what he'll do now.
Poor Albon, from one of the fastest cars in the grid to the dole. Ouch.
Let's hope Perez can keep his head in the Red Bull environment. He's more mature than any of the second drivers they've had with a while, fingers crossed.
In reply to trigun7469 :
The Red Bull ladder is rather a grind tip to tail; sure it gives people an opportunity they might not have had but it also spits them out quickly. None of these teams mollycoddle drivers but Red Bull is just a bit more demanding than the others. I happen to think it's to their detriment. It may not be as bad as Enzo turning his drivers against each other but I still think a slight change of approach could net them two strong drivers rather than just one.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
This is cruel but if Perez starts giving Max a run for his money, I wonder how many minutes before Max flips out?
We can only hope that Perez is the one who can push Max. Will Max respond by upping his game? That's the secret to the Mercedes pairing, Bottas provides pressure on Lewis. Or will Max start making bad decisions? I suspect it may be the former during qualifying and the latter in races. It wasn't that long ago that his racecraft was pretty poor. And given his prominence in the sport, it's always surprising when you see just how few poles and race wins Max has. I mean, Lewis won more races this year than Max has in his career.
Red Bull supports their Most Favored Driver at the expense of the other. Ricciardo and Webber both left because of it. Then the second seat became a revolving door because it worked once, dumping Kvyat for Max. So now they just keep swapping drivers out hoping that lightning will strike twice.
I think Sergio will do well. I think if he had gotten the Red Bull situation a few years ago, he wouldn't have done anything too exciting.
The Turkish race showed that age and experience can beat youth and enthusiasm. I think Cheko kicked over that line about three years ago.
Everyone forget how Sergio and Ocon got along on track?
Red Bull might need a bunch of spare bits for both cars :)
In reply to kevlarcorolla :
Good point.
kevlarcorolla said:
Everyone forget how Sergio and Ocon got along on track?
Red Bull might need a bunch of spare bits for both cars :)
He also has his in's with Button- I forgot that he was there for only one season. Back when McLaren was going through drivers really quickly.
Checo has matured a lot since then, no doubt. But it's not as if he was ever really challenged the last couple of years by his teammate.
There's still hope for Albon, Mercedes hasn't locked in their driver lineup for next year yet 
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
I don't see Checo conceding to the supporting driver role,if there's a gap he'll go for it.
And that's exactly how it should be imho:)
Keith Tanner said:
And given his prominence in the sport, it's always surprising when you see just how few poles and race wins Max has. I mean, Lewis won more races this year than Max has in his career.
While true, it's also true that Max has been more successful at his age than Lewis was at the same age. He's also had to get that success in an era when Mercedes was basically the 1990's Chicago Bulls or the 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers of F1, and utterly dominated the rest of the field. Max got the seat so young, you forget that he's only 23 years old. If he gets a few breaks along the way it's not crazy to think that he could have a career like Lewis.
Unfortunately I think you're right though. I can see the potential for major friction between Perez and Max, with the Red Bull culture throwing gasoline on the fire, and the potential for that friction to hinder Max's development. Time will tell I guess.
Lewis won a world championship when he was 23 and very narrowly missed having two. He matched his world champion teammate in the same car as a rookie despite a number of shenanigans by Fred. By the time he turned 24, he'd started 35 F1 races, won 9 of them and taken 13 poles. I'm not sure that Max has been more successful at this point. But in terms of fan engagement and sheer number of words written, Max cannot be avoided. F1 has played that up quite a bit as well.
So he's missed having the same start as Lewis, but that's a high bar. I think he's finally maturing to the point where he could start to fight for a championship - he's been too eager to give up the race to win a corner in the past. He's just got the same problem that everyone else on the grid does. Lewis.
in reply to Keith Tanner;
"He's just got the same problem that everyone else on the grid does. Lewis."
Keith, you most defnitely speak the truth regarding Lewis. I would be truly more impressed with his talents/accomplishments if he were to walk away and drive one of the following; Renault.....McLaren....wait for it .......RB as the "Brats" team mate. No, I'm not on crack .....just wondering WAY outside the box.
759NRNG (Forum Partidario) said:
Keith, you most defnitely speak the truth regarding Lewis. I would be truly more impressed with his talents/accomplishments if he were to walk away and drive one of the following; Renault.....McLaren....wait for it .......RB as the "Brats" team mate. No, I'm not on crack .....just wondering WAY outside the box.
Were you watching in 2010-2013? He drove a non-dominant McLaren or Mercedes for every year of the Red Bull domination and managed to win at least one race in every single one of those years. The only other driver to do that is Alonso, the one that no one challenges his demonstrated talent (just his off-track interactions). What more do you want?
It can be difficult to separate a dominating driver from a dominating car. Sometimes the car dominates because of that driver - Schumi is often given credit for the Ferrari powerhouse of the era. Sometimes the driver dominates because of the car (coughVettelcough). But they tend to find each other because the team with the fastest car attracts the fastest driver and vice versa.
