2018 Driver Speculation

[Penfold]

I know Sergey has several F1 practice sessions under his belt but to me that's of limited value compared to raw talent.  So, with that in mind: Sirotkin or Rosenqvist?

As for Wehrlein, he's actually one year older than Sirotkin - so why did they ignore poor Pascal?

All this said, I'm still kind of expecting Serge to be quicker than the Stroller.

[Chrill]

Sure, Rosenqvist I would have been thrilled with. Then again, clearly finances played a part. If Sirotkin is two tenths slower, but can bring funds that should allow improvements to cover those two tenths, well then Sirotkin's money is simply making the two cars faster despite being slower himself.

Picking a well funded average driver can be better than a poorly funded above average driver. Of course the dream is to bag someone like Alonso, technically a pay driver yet also a proven world champion driver. Santander surely contributed large sums of money to various teams.

[Penfold]

Sure, Sirotkin's money should buy the team enough extra pace to at least offset any losses from driver performance - I suggested a while back that Williams would be thinking along those lines - and that's fine, it sounds like a sensible approach to take.  What I dislike is Paddy Lowe popping up to tell us that money played absolutely no part in driver selection, because for that to be true you have to believe that Sirotkin is the very best driver on the planet who was able to compete for Williams in 2018.  Well, what about Wehrlein, and what about Rosenqvist?  How come they weren't given some time on the test track, or even in the simulator?  Doesn't seem like Williams searched too hard before deciding Sergey is the best guy out there.

[Chrill]

Swedish media reporting that Alfa Romeo wants to move from title sponsorship to full ownership of Sauber already this year. As in, no more Alfa Romeo Sauber, and simply Alfa Romeo F1.

As in, bye bye Ericsson, hey there Giovinazzi. Here's hoping it's wrong, for me, since I want a Swede in F1.

[Penfold]

Isn't he going to be taking Kimi's spot at Ferrari next year?

[Chrill]

Well yes that's almost a given at this point, but until then.

[Penfold]

Late in the day for Alfa to take control and boot out one of its drivers.  I suppose it could be a mid-season switch but got to be some difficulties extricating themselves from contractual obligations - how much to pay off 'Toys R Us' and his sponsors?  And would it be worth it?

[Chrill]

You are good with names.

Frankly I think Alfa Sauber benefits from not having two rookies during a buildup phase. For 2019, sure, but this season should be safe for my fellow rutabaga.

[Penfold]

Can't keep calling him 'Chrill's mate Marcus', too much of a mouthful.  Rutabaga would do, that or my Toys R Us nonsense.

[Chrill]

Yes. I don't quite follow Toys R Us, although rutabaga and swede is the same thing. Right?

Fun fact: Rotabagge, which is where the English rutabaga comes from, is an extremely local dialectical word for the vegetable we in Sweden call K?lrot (Coal root). So basically, some immigrants from this area near Gothenburg called it Rotabagge, Americans interpreted it as rutabaga and boom here we are.

[Penfold]

What we call swedes, Americans call rutabagas.  Used to be called Swedish turnip over here to differentiate it from those little white turnips, but now they're just swedes... except for some places up north where they seem to call them turnips, or neeps, which is also how the Scots refer to them and why you might have neeps and tatties (potatoes) with your haggis.

Mark 'Toys R' Us Ericsson.  Shortened to Toys R Us.  No rhyme or reason why.