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I was having this discussion with a couple of mates about creating your own F1 team, out of the current crop.
You get to choose:

+ Two Drivers (this would have to be a realistic pairing that could work together)
+ Team Principal
+ Livery Colours (up to 3 colours)
+ Engine Supplier
+ Race Engineer


I went with:

+ Hamilton / Ricciardo
+ Christian Horner
+ Chrome / Black / Red
+ Mercedes
+ Peter Bonnington


Whereas one of my mates went for:

+ Alonso / Sainz Jr
+ Toto Wolff
+ Red / White
+ Ferrari
+ Rob Smedley


Thoughts? Yours?

Drivers: Hamilton and Alonso
Team principal: Rob Fernley (imagine what he could do with a big budget)
Colours: blue, black, silver
Engine: Mercedes
Race engineer : Peter Bonnington

I feel a bit biased when making my choices. Also, I'll be surprised less than 90% of responses have the Mercedes engine.

Drivers: Alonso & Ricciardo
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Colours: Blue & White (Ecurie Ecosse or Border Reivers Racing colours)
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: Peter Bonnington

If I wanted to go the No.1 driver route I'd switch out Ricciardo for Di Resta to get some Scottish presence on the grid and a solid point scorer otherwise I think Dan can work well next to a competitive driver like Alonso. I like Bono's style and Horner's BS can keep the press busy. Engine's a no-brainer.

TheDamus wrote:Drivers: Hamilton and Alonso
Team principal: Rob Fernley (imagine what he could do with a big budget)
Colours: blue, black, silver
Engine: Mercedes
Race engineer : Peter Bonnington

I feel a bit biased when making my choices. Also, I'll be surprised less than 90% of responses have the Mercedes engine.

Hamilton and Alonso? Good luck Rob! Is all I'll say

Lotus49 wrote:Drivers: Alonso & Ricciardo
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Colours: Blue & White (Ecurie Ecosse or Border Reivers Racing colours)
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: Peter Bonnington

If I wanted to go the No.1 driver route I'd switch out Ricciardo for Di Resta to get some Scittish presence on the grid and a solid point scorer otherwise I think Dan can work well next to a competitive driver like Alonso. I like Bono's style and Horner's BS can keep the press busy. Engine's a no-brainer.

I definitely agree on the Horner reasoning.

Drivers - Verstappen / Ocon (Going for young blood)
Team Principal - Bob Fernley
Colours - Red, Yellow & Black
Engine - Mercedes
Race Engineer - Peter Bonnington

Drivers: Hamilton + Vandoorne.

Hamilton for the here and now, Vandoorne because I think he is as unthreatening to Hamilton personality wise as Bottas is in real life, but has a higher potential ceiling of performance which would be handy.

Team Principal: Christian Horner

An intelligent yet disingenuous weasel of a man... exactly the kind of guy you want on your side in the murky world of F1 politics. Plays the game as well as anyone, and I don't doubt that he is a racer at heart too.

Colours: Red and White with Gold trim in places (think Lotus)

Engine: Mercedes

Absolute no brainer here, no other lump matches performance with this level of reliability (yet).

Race Engineer: Rob Smedley

Yeah its a demotion for him but I reckon I could swing it

olly-44 wrote:

TheDamus wrote:Drivers: Hamilton and Alonso
Team principal: Rob Fernley (imagine what he could do with a big budget)
Colours: blue, black, silver
Engine: Mercedes
Race engineer : Peter Bonnington

I feel a bit biased when making my choices. Also, I'll be surprised less than 90% of responses have the Mercedes engine.

Hamilton and Alonso? Good luck Rob! Is all I'll say

They do kind of have this circle jerk of admiration for each other the last few years.

TheDamus wrote:

olly-44 wrote:

TheDamus wrote:Drivers: Hamilton and Alonso
Team principal: Rob Fernley (imagine what he could do with a big budget)
Colours: blue, black, silver
Engine: Mercedes
Race engineer : Peter Bonnington

I feel a bit biased when making my choices. Also, I'll be surprised less than 90% of responses have the Mercedes engine.

Hamilton and Alonso? Good luck Rob! Is all I'll say

They do kind of have this circle jerk of admiration for each other the last few years.

As they did with Rosberg and look how that turned out. When the tough gets going there are no friendships...

Siao7 wrote:As they did with Rosberg and look how that turned out. When the tough gets going there are no friendships...

I don't believe Hamilton ever admired Rosberg. They were friends once, sure, but I never got the feeling that there was much respect there, even in the beginning.

Driver 1: Alonso
Driver 2: Verstappen
TP: Bob Fernley
Colours: Blue and white.
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: James Key

Drivers: Vettel and Wehrlein
TP: Toto Wolf (seems genuine and not artificial)
Colors: Green, Ocher, Brown
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: Rob Smedley

Cool thread. Here's my dream team

Drivers: Fernando Alonso & Robert Kubica
Team principal: Maurizio Arrivabene
Colours: Royal blue with yellow piping.
Engine: Mercedes
Race engineer: Rob Smedley

Drivers: Alonso, Ricciardo
Boss: Bob Fernley
Colours: Indigo, Zaffre, Ultramarine
Donk: Merc
Engineer: Pete Bonnington

Drivers: Alonso - Verstappen
Team Principal: Bob Fernley
Colours: Yellow and Light Blue (basically Renault in Alonso years with a modern touch - see Sean Bull concepts)
Engine: Mercedes
Engineer: James Key

Fernley would have continuity in managing clashing drivers with that pairing I feel.

Interesting how much love for Fernley there is. Far more than any other tp out there it seems.

I'll take this as two questions. One is for who I would want in order to win right now. The other is who would I want for the next 10 years. For right now; my choices would be:

Drivers: Hamilton & Perez
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Colours: Black/Gold
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: Guillaume Rocquelin

For the next decade, I would go:

Drivers: Verstappen & Ocon
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Colours: Black/Gold
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: Guillaume Rocquelin

I would not attempt to team two elite drivers. I think in F1 that tends to work against you to some extent and it's much better to have one top tier guy and another driver who is consistent and quick but not quite on par with your top guy. Hamilton is the best in the world currently for my money but I think he will retire within the next 4-5 years so if I knew I could have any driver for the next decade, I would have to go with Max. For me, Max is clearly the best of the under-25 crowd and in fact once you get younger than Ricciardo (who is now 28 believe it or not) there is no other driver in the conversation with Max. We'll have to see how Leclerc performs but Max is in a league of his own amongst the youngsters at the moment.

Both Perez and Ocon strike me as ideal #2 drivers on top teams. I think the collisions are primarily owed to neither of them wanting to back down from the other guy but against a superior opponent, I look at both of their excellent track records of consistent points finishes and I think that they would be ideal wing-men.

sandman1347 wrote:Drivers: Verstappen & Ocon

I would not attempt to team two elite drivers. I think in F1 that tends to work against you to some extent and it's much better to have one top tier guy and another driver who is consistent and quick but not quite on par with your top guy. Hamilton is the best in the world currently for my money but I think he will retire within the next 4-5 years so if I knew I could have any driver for the next decade, I would have to go with Max. For me, Max is clearly the best of the under-25 crowd and in fact once you get younger than Ricciardo (who is now 28 believe it or not) there is no other driver in the conversation with Max. We'll have to see how Leclerc performs but Max is in a league of his own amongst the youngsters at the moment.

Both Perez and Ocon strike me as ideal #2 drivers on top teams. I think the collisions are primarily owed to neither of them wanting to back down from the other guy but against a superior opponent, I look at both of their excellent track records of consistent points finishes and I think that they would be ideal wing-men.

Ocon seems to have a personal rivalry with Verstappen based on some comments he's made (such as how he was faster in F3, he knows how to defend against Verstappen, etc.) so I'm not sure he'd be an ideal wing-man for Max. I'm absolutely sure he wouldn't go into the partnership accepting that status.

Drivers; Alonso and Verstappen, no comments needed
Principal; Horner
Colors; Black on black
Engine; Mercedes
Engineer; Smedley

Drivers: Hamilton & Leclerc
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Colours: Black/Blue
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: Rob Smedley

Reasoning behind Leclerc is because he's definitely one for the future and I don't see the problem in putting rookies alongside world champions (even though past experience with Hamilton/Alonso would indicate it's not always a good plan)...

I think that it would push Lewis but also bring on Charles for when inevitably Lewis retires...I did think about sticking Norris in the second seat...

Exediron wrote:

sandman1347 wrote:Drivers: Verstappen & Ocon

I would not attempt to team two elite drivers. I think in F1 that tends to work against you to some extent and it's much better to have one top tier guy and another driver who is consistent and quick but not quite on par with your top guy. Hamilton is the best in the world currently for my money but I think he will retire within the next 4-5 years so if I knew I could have any driver for the next decade, I would have to go with Max. For me, Max is clearly the best of the under-25 crowd and in fact once you get younger than Ricciardo (who is now 28 believe it or not) there is no other driver in the conversation with Max. We'll have to see how Leclerc performs but Max is in a league of his own amongst the youngsters at the moment.

Both Perez and Ocon strike me as ideal #2 drivers on top teams. I think the collisions are primarily owed to neither of them wanting to back down from the other guy but against a superior opponent, I look at both of their excellent track records of consistent points finishes and I think that they would be ideal wing-men.

Ocon seems to have a personal rivalry with Verstappen based on some comments he's made (such as how he was faster in F3, he knows how to defend against Verstappen, etc.) so I'm not sure he'd be an ideal wing-man for Max. I'm absolutely sure he wouldn't go into the partnership accepting that status.

Verstappen & Ocon are bound to clash in the near future. Ocon is destined to go to Mercedes, if not as early as 2019. Verstappen surely seems more skilled but Ocon has strenghts as well. They two in the same team would cause some fireworks no doubt.

As of now we don't see fireworks either in Mercedes or Ferrari as the 2 lead drivers are quite ahead of their unofficial no. 2 counterparts / team mates.

UnlikeUday wrote:

Exediron wrote:

sandman1347 wrote:Drivers: Verstappen & Ocon

I would not attempt to team two elite drivers. I think in F1 that tends to work against you to some extent and it's much better to have one top tier guy and another driver who is consistent and quick but not quite on par with your top guy. Hamilton is the best in the world currently for my money but I think he will retire within the next 4-5 years so if I knew I could have any driver for the next decade, I would have to go with Max. For me, Max is clearly the best of the under-25 crowd and in fact once you get younger than Ricciardo (who is now 28 believe it or not) there is no other driver in the conversation with Max. We'll have to see how Leclerc performs but Max is in a league of his own amongst the youngsters at the moment.

Both Perez and Ocon strike me as ideal #2 drivers on top teams. I think the collisions are primarily owed to neither of them wanting to back down from the other guy but against a superior opponent, I look at both of their excellent track records of consistent points finishes and I think that they would be ideal wing-men.

Ocon seems to have a personal rivalry with Verstappen based on some comments he's made (such as how he was faster in F3, he knows how to defend against Verstappen, etc.) so I'm not sure he'd be an ideal wing-man for Max. I'm absolutely sure he wouldn't go into the partnership accepting that status.

Verstappen & Ocon are bound to clash in the near future. Ocon is destined to go to Mercedes, if not as early as 2019. Verstappen surely seems more skilled but Ocon has strenghts as well. They two in the same team would cause some fireworks no doubt.

As of now we don't see fireworks either in Mercedes or Ferrari as the 2 lead drivers are quite ahead of their unofficial no. 2 counterparts / team mates.

I'm not so sure about that. Max was routinely out-qualifying Daniel for most of last season. Ocon, by comparison, was unable to out-qualify Perez (a solid driver but certainly not a one-lap sensation). I think Ocon might want to be Max's rival but that doesn't mean that he would be. In the same car, I'd expect Hamilton/Bottas or Vettel/Raikkonen levels of dominance from Max. Just my take on things.

sandman1347 wrote:I'm not so sure about that. Max was routinely out-qualifying Daniel for most of last season. Ocon, by comparison, was unable to out-qualify Perez (a solid driver but certainly not a one-lap sensation). I think Ocon might want to be Max's rival but that doesn't mean that he would be. In the same car, I'd expect Hamilton/Bottas or Vettel/Raikkonen levels of dominance from Max. Just my take on things.

Wasn't Verstappen out-qualified by Sainz in his rookie season? Drivers get better, and Max has two full seasons more experience than Esteban.

If Ocon still isn't qualifying ahead of Perez by the end of this year, then I think you have a point. But I'm expecting the usual second-year step up to put him well ahead.

Drivers: RIC & (tough choice) OCO (PER has come a long way since McL days and Ocon was more or less his match and continually improving.)
COO/CEO: Rob Fernley (He makes each Euro work like 5.)
Team principal/PR: Zak Brown. (He seems to be on TV/ in interviews almost as much as Horner, and by now everyone knows that whatever Christian says is not the real reason.)
Colours: Purple pink & ... well, actually no, let's go Lotus gold & black.
Engine: Renault (They seem to be the only PU supplier that give customers one equal to their works team's.)
Race engineer: The whole RBR strategy team. (They make fewer mistakes than any other big team, imho, and generally are pressuring other teams into non optimum strategies.)

+ Hamilton / Alonso (In their current mature state, with a mature no nonsense taking person ant the helm, they could be kept in check and if that person is clever enough they can manipulate them into believing they could rewrite the history books and slide in alongside Prost & Senna as the greatest duo of all time. Plus added incentivized bonuses can also contribute to civilized existence.
+ The Incubus (No reason I couldn't do it since I'm building myself a team! LOL)
+ Red / White / Blue
+ Renault (I agree for parity - should Honda right the ship they'd be my #1… ALWAYS)
+ Peter Bonnington (keeping in mind his EPIC Blunder at Monaco & a few calls where Lewis questioned it correctly)
+ James Allison (added 1 more to the list because I feel engineers in this day and age have reared their heads in this ever evolving game of chess and James would be the guy I'd want to hire)

Drivers - Verstappen / Rakkonen (unless he's too old) if so Vettel
Team Principal - Bob Fernley
Colours - Red, white and blue
Engine - Mercedes
Race Engineer - Peter Bonnington or Rocky unless he's retired

What about throwing in your dream title sponsor into the mix? A Virgin backed F1 team!

paulsf1fix wrote:Drivers - Verstappen / Rakkonen (unless he's too old) if so Vettel
Team Principal - Bob Fernley
Colours - Red, white and blue
Engine - Mercedes
Race Engineer - Peter Bonnington or Rocky unless he's retired

What about throwing in your dream title sponsor into the mix? A Virgin backed F1 team!

When Virgin were a team the one wish I had was to see the the car top the timesheets in quali in the hope to hear this exchange at the post quali press conference.

Interviewer: So (insert driver here), a momentous day for the team.

Driver: For sure it is a great day for both the team and me personally. After all the hard work and being within touching distance so many times only to be frustrated at the final minute, it's the best feeling to finally be able to put the Virgin on the pole.

Jezza13 wrote:When Virgin were a team the one wish I had was to see the the car top the timesheets in quali in the hope to hear this exchange at the post quali press conference.

Interviewer: So (insert driver here), a momentous day for the team.

Driver: For sure it is a great day for both the team and me personally. After all the hard work and being within touching distance so many times only to be frustrated at the final minute, it's the best feeling to finally be able to put the Virgin on the pole.

Announcer: And for the first time ever, it's pole for the Virgin!

Exediron wrote:

Jezza13 wrote:When Virgin were a team the one wish I had was to see the the car top the timesheets in quali in the hope to hear this exchange at the post quali press conference.

Interviewer: So (insert driver here), a momentous day for the team.

Driver: For sure it is a great day for both the team and me personally. After all the hard work and being within touching distance so many times only to be frustrated at the final minute, it's the best feeling to finally be able to put the Virgin on the pole.

Announcer: And for the first time ever, it's pole for the Virgin!

You never forget your first time.

Drivers: Hamilton & Ocon
Team Principal: Bob Fernley
Colours: Maroon & White
Engine: Mercedes
Race Engineer: James Key