2019 Driver Speculation

[Chrill]

I'll call him Princess Cake for the same reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_cake

I'd say use prinsesstarta, that's a fantastic name.

Prinsesstarta it is.

[Chrill]

No Wehrlein for Toro Rosso 2019, he's signed for Formula E:

http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2018/october/wehrlein-and-dambrosio-to-race-for-mahindra-in-season-5/

As has the Stoff, as you previously announced:

http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/24987255/stoffel-vandoorne-confirms-formula-e-move-2019

And Jean-Eric Vergne stays with Techeetah in Formula E:

https://e-racing365.com/formula-e/ds-techeetah-unveils-new-ds-e-tense-fe19-car/

And Ticktum, not having enough points to race in F1, can be excluded too.



I'm starting to think perhaps Hartley will earn another one-year contract for Toro Rosso after all. It's him, the Polish man, or the little shoe maker. Shoemakerinho as he'd be called in Brazil, I reckon.

That gives us this table for Toro Rosso (and the rest of them):



Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport:
44. Lewis Hamilton (link)
77. Valtteri Bottas (link)

Scuderia Ferrari:
5. Sebastian Vettel (link)
16. Charles Leclerc (link)

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda:
10. Pierre Gasly (link)
33. Max Verstappen (link)

Renault Sport Formula One Team:
3. Daniel Ricciardo (link)
27. Nico Hulkenberg (link)

Haas F1 Team:
8. Romain Grosjean (link)
20. Kevin Magnussen (link)

McLaren F1 Team:
55. Carlos Sainz (link)
?. Lando Norris (link)

Racing Point Force India F1 Team:
11. Sergio Perez (link)
18. Lance Stroll (link)
31. Esteban Ocon (link)
?. Nicholas Latifi (link)

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda:
26. Daniil Kvyat (link)
28. Brendon Hartley (link)
?. Mick Schumacher (link)
?. Robert Kubica (link)
25. Jean-Eric Vergne (link)
31. Esteban Ocon (link)
94. Pascal Wehrlein (link)
?. Alexander Albon (link)
?. Dan Ticktum (link)
?. Sebastien Buemi (link)

Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team:
7. Kimi Raikkonen (link)
?. Antonio Giovinazzi (link)

Williams Martini Racing:
63. George Russell (link)
18. Lance Stroll (link)
35. Sergey Sirotkin (link)
?. Artem Markelov (link)
?. Nikita Mazepin (link)
?. Oliver Rowland (link)
?. Robert Kubica (link)

[Chrill]

You know how sometimes you are bored? I couldn't find a table of all drivers and their super licence points for 2018 so I created one based off of a 2017 table.

See attached:
Google Doc "FIA Licence Points - 2018"

To sum it up, these guys have 40 or more points (in order of total points). Highlighted are those speculated to join F1.

Sebastien Buemi
Lucas di Grassi
Lando Norris
George Russell
Simon Pagenaud
Kazuki Nakajima
Nicolas Lapierre
Scott Dixon
Nick Cassidy
Artem Markelov
Alexander Albon
Neel Jani
Will Power
Josef Newgarden
Kamui Kobayashi
Gustavo Menezes
Mike Conway
Jean-Eric Vergne
Sam Bird
Mick Schumacher
Timo Bernhard
Maximilian Gunther
Oliver Rowland
Nyck de Vries
Luca Ghiotto
Bruno Senna
Earl Bamber
Oliver Jarvis

In addition to them, anyone who has raced in F1 in the last 3 years also hold the licence.

[Chrill]

Also some notables who today do not qualify for the licence:

Pastor Maldonado, 10p
Dan Ticktum, 25p
Felix Rosenqvist, 36p
Jerome D'Ambrosio, 8p
Alexander Rossi, 34p
Sebastien Bourdais, 4p
Brad Keselowski, 7p
Will Stevens, 4p
Nikita Mazepin, 21p
Max Chilton, 0p (yup, zero)

[Penfold]

At least you're putting your boredom to good use.  Well, maybe good use is pushing it. 

So, Pastor Maldonado can be yours for just 10p... cheap at twice the price - although I bet he costs a lot more to keep (feed) than an Alexander Rossi.

[Chrill]

Toro Rosso wants to steal Alexander Albon from Nissan's Formula E team:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/albon-toro-rosso-hartley-2019-nissan-formulae/3196111/

We'll see if they are successful.

[Penfold]

Now, he can be called Blur.

[Chrill]

I always did prefer the Gallaghers.

[Chrill]

Ocon aiming for the second Williams seat alongside George Russell:
https://www.racefans.net/2018/10/19/ocon-wants-one-year-williams-deal-in-case-good-opportunities-appear-in-2020/

And here's an updated table, including Perez confirmed at the point of racing:

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport:
44. Lewis Hamilton (link)
77. Valtteri Bottas (link)

Scuderia Ferrari:
5. Sebastian Vettel (link)
16. Charles Leclerc (link)

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda:
10. Pierre Gasly (link)
33. Max Verstappen (link)

Renault Sport Formula One Team:
3. Daniel Ricciardo (link)
27. Nico Hulkenberg (link)

Haas F1 Team:
8. Romain Grosjean (link)
20. Kevin Magnussen (link)

McLaren F1 Team:
55. Carlos Sainz (link)
?. Lando Norris (link)

Racing Point Force India F1 Team:
11. Sergio Perez (link)
18. Lance Stroll (link)
31. Esteban Ocon (link)
?. Nicholas Latifi (link)

Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda:
26. Daniil Kvyat (link)
28. Brendon Hartley (link)
?. Alexander Albon (link)
?. Mick Schumacher (link)
?. Robert Kubica (link)
25. Jean-Eric Vergne (link)
31. Esteban Ocon (link)
94. Pascal Wehrlein (link)
?. Dan Ticktum (link)
?. Sebastien Buemi (link)

Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team:
7. Kimi Raikkonen (link)
?. Antonio Giovinazzi (link)

Williams Martini Racing:
63. George Russell (link)
18. Lance Stroll (link)
31. Esteban Ocon (link)
35. Sergey Sirotkin (link)
?. Artem Markelov (link)
?. Nikita Mazepin (link)
?. Oliver Rowland (link)
?. Robert Kubica (link)

[Penfold]

Sounds like the Williams seat is Ocon's if the team can make the budget work, but that is quite a big 'if'.

[Chrill]

Well, Williams are losing a trifecta of cash for 2019 - Sirotkin, Stroll, and Martini. I'd genuinely prefer it if they kept Sirotkin's Russian money over Ocon's talent. Going for Ocon would have negative consequences financially, which would have a negative effect on their already poor performance. Ocon should grab a third seat at Mercedes and replace Bottas come 2020.

[Penfold]

Quite.  Claire Williams basically said that they'd love to take Ocon but the figures would have to make sense, i.e. Mercedes would have to stump up some cash/free engines; Claire also said that George Russell was hired on talent not on the back of Merc support: "This (hiring Russell) doesn't enhance our racing budget, this was a decision purely based on the talent we know George has."

You'd have to say that Sirotkin or Kubica (he's been doing the rounds in Poland trying to bolster his finances) are still favourites for the second seat, but Merc. has the option of keeping Ocon in F1 next year.

[Chrill]

Well, at this stage one has to acknowledge that Kubica is a one-handed veteran with limited funding and quite frankly limited experience. Sirotkin has not set the world alight, quite the opposite judging from our Driver Ratings, but at least he's rich. I'm surprised Williams are talking quite so openly about wishing to replace him with Ocon. It can't be good for his confidence.

[Chrill]

DAMS and Nissan e.dams (is that their name?) confirms that Toro Rosso is hunting for Alexander Albon, but no deal has been reached. They also confirm that they're all rather upset about it:

https://www.autosport.com/fe/news/139542/albon-fe-team-very-unhappy-after-red-bull-bid

[Penfold]

I wonder where one goes to hunt for an Alexander Albon?  Never mind, after some exhaustive research (five seconds on Google), I see that the lesser spotted Albon is indigenous to the Milton Keynes area... but what will this information be worth to Toro Rosso?