gdh

ESPNF1:

Williams has confirmed 18-year-old Canadian driver Lance Stroll will drive alongside Valtteri Bottas in 2017.

Stroll, the winner of this year's European Formula 3 championship, will replace the retiring Felipe Massa, giving Williams its first line-up change since the Brazilian was paired with Bottas in 2014. The deal keeps Bottas at the team for a fifth season following interest from Renault.

Stroll only turned 18 on October 29, which delayed Williams' unveiling as the teenager could not be pictured with main sponsor Martini until he was of legal drinking age in the UK. He becomes the first Canadian driver in Formula One since 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, whose last race was the 2006 German Grand Prix.

The pair were unveiled at the team's factory in Grove, Oxfordshire on Thursday. Bottas and Stroll will drive the FW40 next year, the car which will skip a number in Williams' lineage in order to mark the team's 40th season in F1.

DDP

About time we got some of our homegrown talent back in F1.

raztek

Hmmm...his daddy bought him that seat. He is a mediocre talent at the F1 level at best, but happy to be proven wrong.

Patman

I hate when people "buy" their way into Formula 1. They clog up the field running at the back of the pack, like Max Chilton. There should be a rule that if you can't qualify within 2 or 3 seconds of the pole sitter, you can't race. Slow drivers just get in the way.

gdh

Some former F3 champions who won F1 WDC

raztek

There is a 7% rule already in place. Slowest car cannot be more than 7% of the fastet during a the qualifying session.

Reality is that if the 2 to 3 second rule applied you would lost 3 teams (6 of 22 cars) before the race started. What would then be the incentive of a back marker team to evem try. Costs are so ridiculous in F1 that teams like Manor and Sauber and currently Renault and at points this season Mclaren would have spent millions with no air time for their sponsors. Why would they even bother showing up. And there is no lonf list of possible other teams waiting in the wings. The financial model is why you have pay drivers now for the midfield and back marker teams.

Hopefully, with Liberty Media taking over they can address the cost and rewards model when the current contracts run out in a couple years. The fact that Ferrari are given $100MM for just being there and having veto rights on any rules changes should tell you that the field isnt level for all competitors. Until that is done, the racing will be between the big teams with big bank roll and the minnows will stay that way unless another Brawn one trick pony finds a loop hole it can exploit (though Brawn did take over rhe Honda works team which is now Mercedes).

Latest rumour is that Brawn may be back in some capacity to oversee competition and rules. Smart guy so hope its true. Another guy to watch for is Adam Parr and the guy who started Formula E - Agog (he sold off his share in the Electric series recently).

Formula 1 needs to decide what it is - entertainment or leading edge technology or racing. Right now its doing none of these effectively. Their hybrid technology is ridiculous but has limited real world applicability as all the harvesting is due to the stupendous braking capability of these cars whixh you wont have in the real world.

They arent leading edge in Electric cars as Formula E is. And from an entertainment perspective thwy have foxed that up too as frankly simulated passing, over regulation and inconsistent stewardship is ruining the show. They are very good at collecting from dictatorships and governments for their race fees.

I LOVE what it can be - the politics are fascinating, just hope that someone can lead these parasites to a righteous path lol!

raztek

Did not intend to offend gdh...as I said from what I know about the kid is he has had a lot of help and am happy if he proves me wrong. F1 will be the equalizer, but then again he will be in a Williams. If he beats Bottas thats a statement, but then again Bottas hasnt really proven anything either - been kinda ho hum and his run ins with Kimi have been funny at times in wheel to wheel action.

Joe Saward gives a pretty good summary of how he got his seat. Let's see if his pops becomes a shareholder in Williams in the coming months. Did not realize he had F1 tech support on his F3 car too. Kinda greys what his skills are as a result. But then again Mclaren backed Hamilton since the age of 11 - but there was a whole other form of anticipation for Lewis in F1 vs Lance. Having said that, the young gun would make all of us look like captain slow!

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/joesawar...roid-rogers-ca

gdh

No offence taken at all, I have followed F1 since the early 60's when my dad would go to the races. He liked Mosport but loved the old street race through Watkins Glen. He and many other of his WW2 fighter pilot friends used to get together and meet at one of the races. I posted a more or less tongue in cheek synops of the last 20 yrs of F1 on an F1 forum the other week fully expecting to get trashed by the Brits but they actually agreed even the biggest of LH fans (at one point I called F1 the WOrld Wrestling Federation of 4 wheel racing). I agree F1 is floundering, like most sporting events it is losing viewership and costs are out of this world. Interesting that Mercedes has signed up for a Formula E team for 2018. Hopefully battery technology will advance quickly and the teams don't have to stop racing and switch cars during the race. I disagree though that none of the hybrid tech and resulting braking tech from F1 will make it into street cars.
Me I am just glad to be cheering for a Canadian again, hopefully with his dad's $ us Cdn tax payers won't have to pony up as we did for Villeneuve to get and retain a seat. My wife and I are quickly warming up to Max's attitude -"nothere to finish 4th" will go down as an all time great racing quote.

VETFEVER

Agree about the politics of F1. Trying to be a fan of F1 based on the racing alone is futile - you'll get frustrated. So, I embrace it in the vein of "it-is-what-it-is" and enjoy it as such.

gdh

How did you enjoy Austin?

raztek

Been a fan since the first time I saw a race as a kid living in Rexdale. Still remember everything about where I was when seeing Gilles accident. F1 and Indy was what reinforced my love of driving. I started to follow it closely about 15 yrs ago and the politics are tremendous. The entertainment and knowledge gained have followed me into my work life. There isn't a day that I do not read Joe Saward or James Allen's blogs. Those two blogs and their comments sections have taught me much about big business politics, greed and lack of fair play and ethics - a microcosm of a lot of the world today. Gotta get my children to eventually read them - will teach them much about the world they will live in.

Max plays the game like an old timer and knows how to shut down the critics. His dad has prepared him well for the hawks in the game. Fearless and Senna like in his mentality of "I am not going to gift you jack and yes, I will take that".

Nico better get his championship now - he is lucky to be in the position he is in. Or could it be that he isn't abusing the same machine to the point of failure. I dont buy the conspiracy BS the fanboys would have you believe - Nico wont sell MB cars as effectively as Lewis. Its either really bad luck or Nico truly deserves the championship as he tuned into this year's car's breaking points better/earlier than Lewis.

VETFEVER

It was a lifetime experience. Being in the Ferrari Garage for the whole weekend was priceless.

I have a bunch of pics - just have to get around to posting them along with some comments...

Patman

Lewis has definitely had his string of bad luck this year, which definitely seems odd considering how reliable Nico's car has been, but I don't think anyone would purposely sabotage his car. The team wants them to finish 1-2 as often as possible, so it would not be in their best interest at all to do anything foolish.

I do believe Lewis is the better driver though, and I'm not just saying that because he's my wife's cousin (Lewis's mom is married to my wife's uncle Ray)

raztek

1000% Lewis is the faster driver and knows how to battle at close quarters and is better in the rain and....is why Nico should grab the title while he can!

It would be epic if after all his reliability woes that Hamilton steals the title with two more wins and Nico getting a third or worse in either of the two remaining races. Bring on the rain in Brazil and both Max and Danny R can make it so the last race is ***** out for the title! Rosberg in rain - not so good.

Relative of Lewis, huh? Any way to score a pitpass to Montreal - pretty please, batting the eyes LOL!

Patman

My wife and I still haven't even met him ourselves, although it'll happen sooner or later. Everyone else in my wife's family has known him ever since he was a little kid. Neither of us has even been to an F1 race, but we've talked about going to Montreal one of these years, perhaps in 2017. We do watch every race on TV though, so we're more than just casual F1 fans.

I would imagine it would be just about impossible to spend any serious length of time talking to an F1 driver during a race weekend though. Our best bet if we ever want to meet Lewis would be during the off season if we went to England to visit her uncle and Lewis's mom. It's too bad we didn't go last year when Lewis had a surprise 60th birthday party for his mom, a lot of my wife's family members from England were there and it was a star studded event.

Lewis definitely needs luck on his side during the last two races, just winning both of them isn't enough, as you know, Nico can still win the championship even with a couple of second or third place finishes. I'd love to see Lewis win the next race and Nico have a DNF, and then it would be whoever finishes higher in the last race for the title.

formula1nut

Folks:
Let's all support Stroll. Yes he has money behind him.. He also has talent. You cannot win 14 of 30 formula 3 races with just a fat wallet. Lots of other pretty well known and successful drivers had to bring money to a team. Nikki Lauda is one and not many question his talent.

This is a Canadian competing at a very high level. Let's all support and cheer for a new Canadian F1 driver!

Stickshiftsteve

When I think of what I was doing at his age - & I am amazed at his achievement!
At 18 - it was a victory if my car started in the morning so I could get to school.
So I for one - will be cheering him all the way!

raztek

Think y'all misunderstood...I will be cheering for him, just not excited about the path to get there.

tfi racing

Daddy's money may get a driver there,but not for long if the kid doesn't have the talent to back it up.A lot of people say that buying a ride is a bad thing,but it is the only way in racing,99.9% of the championship level of drivers in any form of professional motorsport had a very wealthy family member funding their path,exceptions to that rule are few and far between-go ahead and name one if you can...

Patman

Lewis Hamilton! His family was not wealthy at all, he made it on pure talent alone.