[NeilP]

Its the car, its the driver arguments are a waste of time the answer smacks you in face. Neither can succeed alone it takes both!

[forzaferrari]

Its the car, its the driver arguments are a waste of time the answer smacks you in face. Neither can succeed alone it takes both!

(in a scolding tone) Neil, what have I told you about making sensible comments on here?

[NeilP]

(in a scolding tone) Neil, what have I told you about making sensible comments on here?

Sorry Forza I will try harder next time!

[Jody Barton]

So top Ferrari brass have been making complimentary noises about Hamilton for 2 weeks in the Italian media, and at the start of this weekend Binotto said some very complimentary things, and Sky Italia have joked that this weekend he's spoken more about Hamilton than Vettel and Leclerc combined... Lewis to Ferrari... again?

https://www.euronews.com/2019/11/29/ferr...le-in-2021

[PapaofGags]

Wolff "totally okay" if Hamilton has had talks with Ferrari.    (Autosport)

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says he would be “totally okay” with Lewis Hamilton speaking to Ferrari, amid a report that the F1 champion has had meetings with parent company Fiat Chrysler’s chairman John Elkann.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Hamilton – who, like most of his F1 peers, is out of contract at the end of 2020 – has met Elkann twice over the course of the campaign.

And while the 34-year-old has tended to play down the possibility of racing for anyone but Mercedes in the future, Wolff had admitted that the appeal of a Ferrari seat for any F1 driver had come up as a topic during talks over Hamilton’s latest Mercedes deal.

And while the 34-year-old has tended to play down the possibility of racing for anyone but Mercedes in the future, Wolff had admitted that the appeal of a Ferrari seat for any F1 driver had come up as a topic during talks over Hamilton’s latest Mercedes deal.

Asked during the final F1 race weekend of the season in Abu Dhabi what he would make of Hamilton meeting Ferrari, as per the newest reports, Wolff said: “I'm totally okay with that. I think this is a free world and I recognise that everybody needs to explore career options, and make the best decision for themselves. Drivers and everybody else included.

“So, I have zero problem, a racing driver will always try to be in the quickest possible car, and the quickest possible car is always going to try to have the best racing driver in there. So there is a good consensus between us [over] what we are trying to achieve.


Lewis has since poured coolish water on this story, I suspect Lewis will do two more years with Mercedes & is using this as leverage, still hope he ends his career at Ferrari though.

[morini]

Lewis has since poured coolish water on this story, I suspect Lewis will do two more years with Mercedes & is using this as leverage, still hope he ends his career at Ferrari though.

I was saying to Neil in chatroom yesterday during quali that I think it is looking odds on Lewis will go to the red team in 2021. 

Easy to understand why it could be attractive for him, but it will leave me conflicted (I felt the same when Nige wore the red overalls too). Watching the sport over 45 years it is natural to build personal preferences / allegiances for teams and drivers. Over the years RBR and then Ferrari have become the teams I least want to see win anything   That says more about the way those teams operate and the personalities in senior management than it does about the brilliant and talented people who design and build their race cars. Slightly irrational thinking on my part, but it is what it is!

On the one hand I would love to see Lewis Hamilton raise the high-water mark in terms of WDC's, wins and poles. On the other that would mean watching Ferrari win races and titles if he does go that way. In morini’s ideal world, he goes back to McLaren who have as good a chance as anyone of turning it around during a rule reset. Particularly with Merc power.

[PaddyB]

Easy to understand why it could be attractive for him, but it will leave me conflicted (I felt the same when Nige wore the red overalls too). Watching the sport over 45 years it is natural to build personal preferences / allegiances for teams and drivers. Over the years RBR and then Ferrari have become the teams I least want to see win anything   That says more about the way those teams operate and the personalities in senior management than it does about the brilliant and talented people who design and build their race cars. Slightly irrational thinking on my part, but it is what it is!

I have more than a little sympathy with this view and similarly have a view that some of the other teams such as Williams are suffering more from a lack of leadership than a lack of talent in many areas but I would have to bite my lip and say that Binotto has been an absolute breath of fresh air for me this season compared to the last couple of team leaders. 
I have actually looked forward to the interviews he has had on TV and whilst not in the same league as Mercedes, he seems to answer the questions he is asked, and, for Ferrari,  answer in a pretty straight manner (or have I just become disillusioned by the politicians on the TV at the moment who couldn't lie straight in bed....)
It would seem to me that as well as the car getting better, the timing starting to look better in terms of contracts ending etc there is also a slowly improving leadership style which might also be quite important to Lewis given the importance he seems to attach to it at Mercedes.

[Jody Barton]

I don't have the same levels of "dislike" for Ferrari some have, but I do get where Morini is coming from with his comments with regards to Ferrari and RBR. I too would love to see McLaren right back at the pointy end of the sport. However, I'd love to see Lewis in a Red car winning races and WDC's. He wins at Ferrari as well then there's surely be no question of his greatness. It does seem that there is a concerted campaign in Italy lobbying Ferrari to sign him up for the red team.

[morini]

I would have to bite my lip and say that Binotto has been an absolute breath of fresh air for me this season compared to the last couple of team leaders. 

I don't have any problem with Binotto, apart from the fact he is not really a team principal. Nice guy, great technician, but not a team principal. My coments are mostly aimed at how the Ferrari team have chosen to operate historically. I don't like the lead driver approach and Montezemolo recent comments on that subject were disgraceful (IMO, obviously) and tells me all I need to know about Ferrari.

People may argue that Mercedes do the same thing, but they don't, not really. Not until it is very clear one driver is the only realistic hope of the WDC, up 'til then they are free to race. Bottas isn't a number 2, people just like to think he is. He had the same support Hamilton got this year but wasn't good enough over the season.

[Jody Barton]

I agree with you 100% on the team orders thing Morini, there's still the fact that had Ferrari not deployed team orders in France and another race I forget now, Eddie Irvine would have won the WDC in '99. It really bit them in the ass that year.