You should get terrific odds.

Hamilton, for starters, is only in year 2 of a 3 year deal with Mercedes and, as things are, he'd have to be nuts to leave.

What if he was "pushed" rather than "jumped?"

As I said, I think you'd very very good odds on that happening.

Vettel hasn't done himself any favours this year.
We all know that when he's got an outstanding car that suits his driving style he can use it to bring home the big prizes but, given the way things have been going this year, any team who might have been thinking of getting Vettel into one of their cars would surely now be thinking they might do just as well (or better) with Daniel Ricciardo or, by extension, some other supposedly "2nd tier" driver who's thus far lacked the machinery to show what they're capable of.

Right now, if you asked every team boss in the paddock which of the RBR drivers they'd choose to have in their car if they could, most of them would probably pick DR over Vettel so the chances of Hamilton being booted out of Merc' in favour of Vettel are pretty slim IMO.

About the only way this might end up happening, IMO, would be if Rosberg continues to "get all the luck" at Merc' and Hamilton loses his shit and quits.
Even there, that's the sort of thing that Hamilton might sometimes consider on a bad Sunday afternoon but he'll probably have forgotten about it again by Monday morning.

I dunno. I just keep getting this recurring dream of Mercedes getting fed up with Hamiltons whinging, and this, along with the fact that I'd bet they'd like an all German line up, sees them getting shot and installing Vettel in his place.
There have been certain "rumours" going around that Alonso fancies another bash at McLaren, so in he goes, replacing the "reliable" Button.
This leaves a space at both Red Bull and Ferrari. Button goes to Red Bull as a "reliable" back up to Ricciardo, and Lewis goes to Ferrari to prove that he can do what Alonso couldn't do...turn Ferrari into a winning team again.
I dunno. You couldn't make it up.

I can see all that happening which is weird.

I can't see any top driver choosing to go to Ferrari in the foreseeable future, if there are alternate choices available.

According to will Buxton on twitter Max Verstappen will race for TR next season

Confirmed by TR: http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12...-rosso-in-2015

Red Bull should be disgraced with themselves for doing this. 17 is ridiculous.

I thoroughly believe they are damaging Max's chances of a long career in f1 by putting him in 2-3 years too early.

Let him develop he's a boy for gods sake. He sounds like a talent but it could go terribly wrong, it's making a mockery of F1 yet again in my opinion.

Joke.

Ridiculous.

He switched from carts less than a year ago, straight into a drive. Would expect him to be a test driver first.

More importantly, what does this mean for JEV? Have TR taken Verstappen because JEV has a seat elsewhere or are they dropping JEV? He's done pretty well and surely deserves a seat above some of the paying drivers on the grid. This could be the first seat in a huge game of musical F1 seats so it will be interesting to see who's left standing when the music stops. Can't believe it will be JEV but stranger things have happened.

How's about, for a wild theory, JEV is actually moving up to the mother team, Vettel is going to Ferrari, Alonso is going to Mclaren and Button is left without a seat? Actually I think it far more likely that JEV go to Ferrari and Kimi is taking an early bath.

Maybe given the drive because his dad was an ex driver?

Must have helped!

As an aside, I've seen Jos Verstappen referred to twice today as an "ex F1 star". Not sure he really qualifies for that billing.

He was certainly one of the hottest F1 drivers.

Is it? No doubt he has driven an F1 car, and TR/RB have seen something in him that warrants a seat for next year. Its not like he is a pay driver with millions to hand over to a team. Unlike some hes got the seat on merit.

Is it a mistake to hire him? only time will tell.


His dad would have contacts that got Max into racing. However getting an F1 seat it would have been down to Max impressing in the car, not who his father was.

Of course, if his dad has pictures of Dr Marko, in a compromising position - then yes I would agree it is down to his dad.

Three-time Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer will drive for Caterham for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix and replace Kamui Kobayashi for this race.

If Kimi ends up getting paid to sit at home by Ferrari for a second time, it'll be a bit bonkers but, fair play to him for shafting them twice.

Max Chilton has been replaced at Marussia by reserve driver Alexander Rossi for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Be good to see what Rossi can do, if he can have a clean run, might seal the deal for him at the new US team.

Bit of a scoop for the BBC there...

They interviewed Alex Rossi about it and, just afterwards, it turns out that Malfoy IS going to be back in the car for the rest of the weekend.

Regardless of how it turns out, if Marussia are that "up in the air" about this stuff, it suggests all is not well behind the scenes.

*EDIT*

Hmmm....

Interview with Graham Lowden and he said (apparently of Malfoy) that "There are times when, due to business issues, a driver should, contractually, not be in the car".

Not sure what we're supposed to take from that.

Seems like either Malfoy hasn't been getting the results he was contractually obliged to or he hasn't put the right amount of 50p coins into the F1 arcade game and they put Rossi in the car as a wake-up call for him.

Or, Marussia hasn't paid him.

But then, you just have.

Given the conspiratorial nature of the sport, that might not be as far fetched as it sounds.

Given that he's a pay-driver, wouldn't that mean he is the one not, erm, paying him?

Yup, presumably daddy decided to pay up.

I might have "insider" knowledge