2021 Driver Speculation

[Chrill]

The Renault engine looks pretty hot though. I mean, they occupy places 2-4 in FP3 at Monza.

With a car designed for a Renault engine, the McLaren may suffer aerodynamically when adapting to the Mercedes. I believe the Mercedes is longer but narrower than the Renault, so the McLaren crew will definitely have to do some cunning engineering to fit it properly.

[Chrill]

Aston Racing Martin Point dumps Perez, presumably for a four-time World Champion:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sergio-perez-racing-point-exit/4871384/

[Chrill]

And Vettel is confirmed at Aston Martin (Racing Point) in a "multi-year" agreement:
https://www.racefans.net/2020/09/10/official-vettel-to-replace-perez-at-aston-martins-f1-team-for-2021/

[Chrill]

With Vettel in, Perez out, the new table looks like this:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team:
77. Valtteri Bottas (link)
44. Lewis Hamilton (link)

Red Bull Racing:
33. Max Verstappen (link)
10. Pierre Gasly (link)
23. Alexander Albon (link)
26. Daniil Kvyat (link)
27. Nico Hulkenberg (link)

McLaren F1 Team:
3. Daniel Ricciardo (link)
4. Lando Norris (link)

Aston Martin F1 Team:
5. Sebastian Vettel (link)
18. Lance Stroll (link)

Alpine F1 Team:
14. Fernando Alonso (link)
31. Esteban Ocon (link)

Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow:
16. Charles Leclerc (link)
55. Carlos Sainz (link)

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda:
10. Pierre Gasly (link)
23. Alexander Albon (link)
26. Daniil Kvyat (link)
?. Jüri Vips (link)
?. Yuki Tsunoda (link)

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN:
7. Kimi Räikkönen (link)
11. Sergio Perez (link)
27. Nico Hülkenberg (link)
99. Antonio Giovinazzi (link)
?. Callum Illot (link)
?. Mick Schumacher (link)
?. Robert Shwartzman (link)

Haas F1 Team:
8. Romain Grosjean (link)
11. Sergio Perez (link)
20. Kevin Magnussen (link)
27. Nico Hulkenberg (link)
?. Louis Deletraz (link)
?. Pietro Fittipaldi (link)

Williams Racing:
6. Nicolas Latifi (link)
63. George Russell (link)

[Penfold]

Seems fair, Perez is clearly the weaker of their two drivers....

[Chrill]

Stroll is the one with a podium!

To be honest, Stroll has driven better than I expected in 2020, but Perez utterly dominated Stroll in 2019.

[Penfold]

He 's definitely beating Perez in terms of luck this year, I'll give you that.

Well, how many podiums have McLaren scored this year? One!
How many podiums have Ferrari scored this year? Two!

Now it's two apiece and McLaren is 37 points ahead of Ferrari....

[Chrill]

Ah, yes, but which team has the nicest livery? It's not Ferrari, their 1000th GP Burgundy is really not a very nice livery.

[Penfold]

Just seen it... umm, yeah, it's certainly burgundy.  What's the old saying, if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.  Right then, do you think Alfa or Haas for Perez?  If he has the choice of either which way should he leap?

[Chrill]

I guess him being Mexican is good for Haas, but I don't know if Perez will remain in F1 now. Why not have a go at IndyCar, WEC, Formula E or wherever he can find a seat?

[Penfold]

Red Bull should sign him. Albon's not up to it and I don't really see the sense in giving Gasly another chance to be destroyed by Max.

[Chrill]

Mick Schumacher will run FP1 for Alfa Romeo at Nurburgring, in place of Giovinazzi. Rumour has it he will join the team in 2021 alongside the still racing Raikkonen. Pretty cool how Kimi used to race Jos and Michael, and will now be on the grid with Max and Mick.

[Penfold]

Hang on, so you're suggesting Ant man hasn't done enough to keep his seat? Wow, talk about a bolt from the blue....

On a more serious note, Kimi will be a good yardstick for Mick if they end up together.

[Chrill]

Kimi will be an old yardstick, if anything.

Still, I guess if Kimi does stay then Perez might join Ilott or Shwartzman in a Haas.

[Chrill]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/raikkone-record-2021-contract-alfa-romeo/4887401/
Alfa Romeo reportedly about to announce a one-year extension with Kimi over 2021. Giovinazzi or Schumacher not decided yet, but we all know it is decided in the German's favour.