planetf1.com

pokerman wrote:

Need4Naiim wrote:Talking of Vettel; no driver can get 4 championships only through luck. Schumacher was more than a lucky driver in the summer of 2001. Prost was a lot more than a lucky driver in autumn of 1993.

But we perhaps can still call 3 Championships as being lucky?

Senna is a 3 times Formula 1 champion. No one <me too> rated Vettel as equal of Senna or Piquet Snr. at the end of 2012 season. But it does not mean that we should see Vettel as a worse driver to Heidfeld just because he completed his one-and-only BMW race 8th. Or we shouldn't downgrade his STR win just because he outqualified his teammate "only" more than 1 second, not 2 seconds. And i do not think the current 4-time-champ will be rated any higher by his naysayers even if he gets 8 WDC titles with 5 different engine manufacturers. If he gets a win with Manor F1 team sometime in the future, it will be due to the fact that "Manor was the best car on those conditions".

Laura23 wrote:Given Ferrari look further away than ever this year in Barcelona I'd expect the Hamilton/Merc deal to be done ASAP. Why he'd give up that Merc for anything else at the moment I don't know.

Yep I keep saying sign, sign, sign, but then again I kept saying that with McLaren, what did I know?

Need4Naiim wrote:

pokerman wrote:

Need4Naiim wrote:Talking of Vettel; no driver can get 4 championships only through luck. Schumacher was more than a lucky driver in the summer of 2001. Prost was a lot more than a lucky driver in autumn of 1993.

But we perhaps can still call 3 Championships as being lucky?

Senna is a 3 times Formula 1 champion. No one <me too> rated Vettel as equal of Senna or Piquet Snr. at the end of 2012 season. But it does not mean that we should see Vettel as a worse driver to Heidfeld just because he completed his one-and-only BMW race 8th. Or we shouldn't downgrade his STR win just because he outqualified his teammate "only" more than 1 second, not 2 seconds. And i do not think the current 4-time-champ will be rated any higher by his naysayers even if he gets 8 WDC titles with 5 different engine manufacturers. If he gets a win with Manor F1 team sometime in the future, it will be due to the fact that "Manor was the best car on those conditions".

That wouldn't be me calling Vettel a worse driver than Heidfeld, I give rookie drivers the time to find their F1 feet.

http://www.grandprix247.com/2015/05/10/ ... sues-them/

There are rumours the 30-year-old is demanding he be able to keep his F1 cars at the end of each season, all of his trophies and be paid a staggering $66 million per year.

Hamilton better sign the damn contract. The car is fantastic and will continue to be so until the end of 2016. It's a no brainer Lewis. Alonso would drive the thing for free.

mas wrote:http://www.grandprix247.com/2015/05/10/ ... sues-them/

There are rumours the 30-year-old is demanding he be able to keep his F1 cars at the end of each season, all of his trophies and be paid a staggering $66 million per year.

Have to say the point Danner makes is valid. Hamilton is an asset to the team, but at some point the question has to be asked "is he worth that much?"

He has to be crazy to walk away from Mercedes

Since both sides have said that money is not the issue the rumours have gone from $40 million to $50 million; and now $66 million plus all trophies and cars. I wonder if the rumours will reach $100 million before he signs?

shoot999 wrote:Since both sides have said that money is not the issue the rumours have gone from $40 million to $50 million; and now $66 million plus all trophies and cars. I wonder if the rumours will reach $100 million before he signs?

Well both parties also said this would be done in Australia, then Malaysia and so on. Something is clearly holding it up and we won't know what until it's done, but I wouldn't read too much into what either Mercedes or Hamilton are saying at this point. Even if it was about money I don't think either party would tell us.

shoot999 wrote:Since both sides have said that money is not the issue the rumours have gone from $40 million to $50 million; and now $66 million plus all trophies and cars. I wonder if the rumours will reach $100 million before he signs?

The next rumor will have him demanding that a private hangar for his airplane be installed at each venue for race weekends.

pokerman wrote:He has to be crazy to walk away from Mercedes

Wasn't he called crazy when he left McLaren?

dizlexik wrote:Wasn't he called crazy when he left McLaren?

If he moves to another team and wins the title I'm going to have to start calling him Juan Manuel Hamilton. The Mercedes move paid off far more than he expected, lightning doesn't strike twice.

F1Tyrant wrote:

dizlexik wrote:Wasn't he called crazy when he left McLaren?

If he moves to another team and wins the title I'm going to have to start calling him Juan Manuel Hamilton. The Mercedes move paid off far more than he expected, lightning doesn't strike twice.

I wonder how long can Lewis delay his decision? Polish TV commentators said that he should do it at Monaco.

dizlexik wrote:

pokerman wrote:He has to be crazy to walk away from Mercedes

Wasn't he called crazy when he left McLaren?

Yes because Mercedes were so poor, however McLaren themselves were not exactly delivering, here we are talking about leaving a team that possibly have just delivered him 2 titles and have the out and out best car in terms of performance and reliability.

That jet fuel sure is expensive to replace

Lewis Hamilton to sign three-year deal worth £130m with Mercedes (presumably with all win bonuses included)

Hamilton says he will have news in Monaco on contract

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/m ... ct-f1-130m
http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/10236

I hope he leaves, just because it would be great for F1 and give us something different, in my opinion. First British driver since Mansell, and Hamilton may have seen Mansell at Ferrari a little when he was a kid. Get the third title this year, secure his place in the history books, and then make it truly special by winning titles with three different teams, four or more in total. He has time to do it.

mas wrote:That jet fuel sure is expensive to replace

Lewis Hamilton to sign three-year deal worth £130m with Mercedes

Hamilton says he will have news in Monaco on contract

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/m ... ct-f1-130m
http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/10236

the first article claims:

"Money has always been the main issue during the negotiations," which is a contradiction to earlier claims

Of course. Lewis loves the Gold and if someone is willing to pay him lots of it good luck to him.

hittheapex wrote:I hope he leaves, just because it would be great for F1 and give us something different, in my opinion. First British driver since Mansell, and Hamilton may have seen Mansell at Ferrari a little when he was a kid. Get the third title this year, secure his place in the history books, and then make it truly special by winning titles with three different teams, four or more in total. He has time to do it.

The actual reality though is that he has more chance of winning titles in 2016 and 2017 with how it stands at the moment

mas wrote:Of course. Lewis loves the Gold and if someone is willing to pay him lots of it good luck to him.

Never understood that claim. Forbes, etc, suggest he could earn more in sponsorship that salary. Yet he gave up millions in personal sponsorship when he joined Mercedes. Even now he only has the IWC sponsorship that he and Rosberg get for being Merc drivers; and the Bombardier sponsorship; which is basically a couple of million to keep the plane flying. Why spend months haggling over a few million when you can earn ten times that in sponsorship.
The Telegraph are suggesting the hold up was over trophies and cars; which he got under the old regime. And that seems more likely given that Mercedes are investing in their own 'FerrariWorld'; and would want to keep them.

pokerman wrote:

hittheapex wrote:I hope he leaves, just because it would be great for F1 and give us something different, in my opinion. First British driver since Mansell, and Hamilton may have seen Mansell at Ferrari a little when he was a kid. Get the third title this year, secure his place in the history books, and then make it truly special by winning titles with three different teams, four or more in total. He has time to do it.

The actual reality though is that he has more chance of winning titles in 2016 and 2017 with how it stands at the moment

Absolutely, but it depends if he wants to chase more titles and try to break Vettel's tally and push for higher numbers, or get the very special third title and then look for a new challenge which, if it goes well, might mean more to him than an additional title at the same team. Who knows? My judgment is biased because I want him to go to Ferrari, Bottas or Alonso to Mercedes, which could free up top drives for Grosjean and Hulkenberg.

pokerman wrote:The actual reality though is that he has more chance of winning titles in 2016 and 2017 with how it stands at the moment

It would be interesting to see what he can achieve if he signs until 2018. If he averages 7 wins a season, Lewis could potentially have 5 titles and 57 wins before the age of 33. If he races to 37 like he plans, the sky is the limit.

hittheapex wrote:

pokerman wrote:

hittheapex wrote:I hope he leaves, just because it would be great for F1 and give us something different, in my opinion. First British driver since Mansell, and Hamilton may have seen Mansell at Ferrari a little when he was a kid. Get the third title this year, secure his place in the history books, and then make it truly special by winning titles with three different teams, four or more in total. He has time to do it.

The actual reality though is that he has more chance of winning titles in 2016 and 2017 with how it stands at the moment

Absolutely, but it depends if he wants to chase more titles and try to break Vettel's tally and push for higher numbers, or get the very special third title and then look for a new challenge which, if it goes well, might mean more to him than an additional title at the same team. Who knows? My judgment is biased because I want him to go to Ferrari, Bottas or Alonso to Mercedes, which could free up top drives for Grosjean and Hulkenberg.

He still has time to see out another couple of years at Mercedes and go to Ferrari after that, it would be quite silly to leave Mercedes at this moment in time

F1Tyrant wrote:

pokerman wrote:The actual reality though is that he has more chance of winning titles in 2016 and 2017 with how it stands at the moment

It would be interesting to see what he can achieve if he signs until 2018. If he averages 7 wins a season, Lewis could potentially have 5 titles and 57 wins before the age of 33. If he races to 37 like he plans, the sky is the limit.

Well you can never take anything for granted, this year's title is far from being won yet

From the Mirror newspaper

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1 ... irror_main

I do wish he would sing already !! Making me nervous but I guess he knows what he's doing

Qiwater wrote:From the Mirror newspaper

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1 ... irror_main

I do wish he would sing already !! Making me nervous but I guess he knows what he's doing

Oh I do wish he wouldn't.

Black_Flag_11 wrote:

Qiwater wrote:From the Mirror newspaper

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1 ... irror_main

I do wish he would sing already !! Making me nervous but I guess he knows what he's doing

Oh I do wish he wouldn't.

Lol .. SIGN

Well here's hoping the article is right regarding the signing and not the singing

shoot999 wrote:http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/20 ... wis-hamil/

Finally!

shoot999 wrote:http://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/20 ... wis-hamil/

Yay

Dammit! I was hoping a *predictions for 2050* type thread would come up first so I could make a Hamilton-Mercedes contract joke

Super, another couple of titles at Merc then (hopefully) onto Ferrari for a crack at matching Fangio's legacy of WDC's with three teams.

TheOtherGuy wrote:Super, another couple of titles at Merc then (hopefully) onto Ferrari for a crack at matching Fangio's legacy of WDC's with three teams.

A three year contract is pretty much perfect for any aspirations along those lines. It gives time for the boys at Maranello to tire of Vettel or vice versa unless there is a serious improvement on the Alonso era. It looks like the boys in red have turned a corner but they have to deliver Vettel the fastest car for him to make a serious challenge, he wont' be able to drag around a s***box like Alonso could.

Hamilton will be 33, probably a triple-WDC and he will get offers from a lot of teams.

Very good news. Monaco was very last moment to sign such a deal.

£100 millions huh? That is a lot of cheese dang!

F1Tyrant wrote: A three year contract is pretty much perfect for any aspirations along those lines. It gives time for the boys at Maranello to tire of Vettel or vice versa unless there is a serious improvement on the Alonso era. It looks like the boys in red have turned a corner but they have to deliver Vettel the fastest car for him to make a serious challenge, he wont' be able to drag around a s***box like Alonso could.

Hamilton will be 33, probably a triple-WDC and he will get offers from a lot of teams.

Good on Hamilton for getting the contracting done on his own with his attorney and saving the 10% agency fee, which would be quite hefty. I guess that is not good news for Alonso, although the Merc seat was always a longshot.

bonecrasher wrote:£100 millions huh? That is a lot of cheese dang!

That's why it took so long, Lewis insisted on grating it all himself

bourbon19 wrote:I guess that is not good news for Alonso, although the Merc seat was always a longshot.

If you bear in mind that Hamilton won't veto on his teammates, Alonso has an option when Rosberg leaves this season or next. That would be quite some spectacle! A man can dream!

bourbon19 wrote:
Good on Hamilton for getting the contracting done on his own with his attorney and saving the 10% agency fee, which would be quite hefty. I guess that is not good news for Alonso, although the Merc seat was always a longshot.

Guess, then he just has to outperform whatever other car...