Vettel to leave Red Bull Racing and linked to Ferrari

matty55

Just announced this morning Sebastian Vettel is leaving Red Bull and is being strongly linked with Ferrari!

Frank Bullitt

Yup, silly season has lived up to its name.

Not sure if this is a good move for Vettel to be honest, but he has time on his side.

antodeco

Link for anyone

http://www.infiniti-redbullracing.com/article/new-team-driver-line-2015

Statement from The Team.

Sebastian Vettel has advised us that he will be leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season.
We want to warmly thank Sebastian for the incredible role he has played at Infiniti Red Bull Racing for the last six years.
Since joining the team in 2009, Sebastian, together with Infiniti Red Bull Racing, has scored 38 wins, 44 poles and eight World Championships, including four Drivers' titles and four Constructors'. If you include Sebastian's success at Red Bull's second team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull total increases to 39 wins and 45 poles.
As we wish Sebastian well in the next stage of his career, we also look to the future with excitement, as the vacancy makes way for the next generation of Red Bull racers.
The Red Bull Junior Programme has developed some proven talents in recent times, including Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, who has excelled in the RB10 and become a three-time Formula One race winner in his first season with the team.
We're pleased to announce that Daniel will be joined in the team for 2015 by another rising star from the Junior Programme, Daniil Kvyat.
Ends

matty55

I guess time will tell but Kyvat to take his seat! Big move for him and he has impressed me this year

antodeco

So Alonso to McLaren and Vettel to Ferrari. I wonder if Button and Kimi will retire end of this season.

Frank Bullitt

Hopefully more of this, and a genuine car to challenge for a title or wins. The man deserves it.

Firewalkwithme

I can't help but think that this is a bad move for him in terms of driving a competitive car. This has to be down to three factors, Ricciardo embarresing him, the alure of driving for Ferrari (which is surely where he is headed) and most likely a massive pay check too. There was a comment made by Marko recently that he is the most expensive part of the car / team or something to that effect so money clearly had something to do with it. It may be that Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren agreed to co-ordinate their driver line up announcements to more or less coincide with each other so that all the speculation could be dealt with in one fell swoop which would be better for all concerned.

Frank Bullitt

The Spaniard's departure has been assisted by outgoing president Luca Di Montezemolo. He asked Alonso if he could give him anything as a leaving gift.

The 33-year-old, who has three times in the last four years finished runner-up to Vettel in the championship, asked to be released from his contract. Alonso is said by some sources to have already concluded a deal with McLaren-Honda.

Good man Monti! Genius move.

smellslikeshoes

I love a bit of silly season me :pac:

So the question now is, who is losing their seat at Mclaren.

Frank Bullitt

Q: Is VET the right driver for Ferrari? Christian Horner: "Drivers are not Ferrari's problem..."

Zcott

Jean Eric Vergne must be mightily annoyed that Kvyat is taking Vettel's seat at Red Bull, after being in F1 for only a year...

PukkaStukka

How smart a move is this for Alonso? McLaren have the best engine but are not the best Merc engined team by some margin. They haven't built a decent chassis for some time now. Plus it's highly unlikely that the Honda motor will not be competitive straight out of the box, and they too will be on a steep learning curve. It make take a year or two for that partnership to bear fruit.....which is as long a Ferrari are privately admitting will take them to return to the front.

Perhaps someone should have told Alonso the old cliche about better the devil you know.....

Zcott

PukkaStukka wrote: »

How smart a move is this for Alonso? McLaren have the best engine but are not the best Merc engined team by some margin. They haven't built a decent chassis for some time now. Plus it's highly unlikely that the Honda motor will not be competitive straight out of the box, and they too will be on a steep learning curve. It make take a year or two for that partnership to bear fruit.....which is as long a Ferrari are privately admitting will take them to return to the front.

Perhaps someone should have told Alonso the old cliche about better the devil you know.....

Either move was a gamble for Alonso - he suspects McLaren have a better shot at developing a good car in the next few years over Ferrari. 2015 won't be good but he'll be looking at 2016. They have the facilities and resources if they'd just apply them properly.

PukkaStukka

Zcott wrote: »

They have the facilities and resources if they'd just apply them properly.

And so do Ferrari! I think Alo just has a big pain in his tailpipe with promised a winner and that simply not happening.

mickdw

Vettel was backed into a corner. He had to act sooner rather than later. He is being well beaten by Dan. If that was to continue into next season, I believe he would be in trouble as surely if any Driver was being sought after it would be the quicker one.
At the minute he still has the benefit of the doubt as this exact car may not suit him or whatever and he is also current champ so I think it was a wise move while his stock is still in fairly good shape.

CaliforniaDream

Considering Vettel had a release clause if he didn't finish in the too three, do you think it's been deliberate on his part this season? Maybe he wanted the chance to move to Ferrari?
I think it's an odd move for him but it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

zombieHanalei

CaliforniaDream wrote: »

Considering Vettel had a release clause if he didn't finish in the too three, do you think it's been deliberate on his part this season? Maybe he wanted the chance to move to Ferrari?
I think it's an odd move for him but it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

What as in has he deliberately let Ricciardo consistently beat him? Not a hope. Daft suggestion to be honest! A mixture of the car not suiting him and Ricciardo turning out to be far better than we all thought he was, it's that simple.

Why move to Ferrari? They're behind Merc engines and well behind Red Bull's fundamental downforce. Losing on purpose to get to Ferrari seems behind the realms of possibility to me.

Slutmonkey57b

Very bad move for Vettel and Alonso.

McLaren have been much worse than Ferrari for much longer : 3 competitive (ie championship contender) cars since 2007. The last time the car was competitive in 2012 the team and their main driver were a shambles.

Honda were rubbish for more than the last 10 years. Their last competitive engine was in the back of senna's car. Their ability to organise an f1 quality operation no longer exists, it took Ross brawn to sort them out as an F1 team and without a Mercedes engine it wouldn't have worked. They've had half the time Mercedes did to develop this engine and they're already behind schedule.

As for Ferrari, they've been a disaster since they decided "all Italian" was more important than quality. Luca spent the last 6 years dismantling Todt's team, and it'll take 3 or 4 years to fix. Vettel's on the run from a competitive teammate, running to an outfit which has only been of note for its unprofessional attitude of late. Neither of them will taste success next year, or the year after.

CaliforniaDream

zombieHanalei wrote: »

What as in has he deliberately let Ricciardo consistently beat him? Not a hope. Daft suggestion to be honest! A mixture of the car not suiting him and Ricciardo turning out to be far better than we all thought he was, it's that simple.

No, not letting Ricciardo beat him intentionally. But the season didn't start too well for him at all and he's probably growing more and more frustrated as it goes on.
He's had some bad luck this year and it must be killing him to see his rookie teammate beating him.

dloob

I think Alonso may have been caught on the hop.
Ferrari have decided to call his bluff perhaps.
If Alonso hasn't got the contract for next year completely signed off he is now negotiating from the position of a driver with no where else to go.

mickdw

I was just thinking about the proposed 3rd car idea if some teams collapse.
If the big teams had 3 cars in the race, even if only 2 could score points, I think it would be even more critical to be with a team that had a clear number 1. Could be a plus point for moving to Ferrari.

Infoanon

dloob wrote: »

I think Alonso may have been caught on the hop.
Ferrari have decided to call his bluff perhaps.
If Alonso hasn't got the contract for next year completely signed off he is now negotiating from the position of a driver with no where else to go.

Alonso enacted his release clause on Thursday according to Niki Lauda, I don't think Fernando has been caught on the hop and he is very clear that he is in control of the situation.

Lewis Hamilton when asked was he surprised about Sebs move said that he already knew.

smellslikeshoes

Infoanon wrote: »

Alonso enacted his release clause on Thursday according to Niki Lauda, I don't think Fernando has been caught on the hop and he is very clear that he is in control of the situation.

Lewis Hamilton when asked was he surprised about Sebs move said that he already knew.

Well Alonso is hardly going to say he made a balls of things is he. Mclaren are saying a contract hasn't been signed yet. He has now got only one possibility and that is to sign with Mclaren, there isn't another big team with a drive for him and that means his bargaining position is seriously weakened.

Frank Bullitt

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Well Alonso is hardly going to say he made a balls of things is he. Mclaren are saying a contract hasn't been signed yet. He has now got only one possibility and that is to sign with Mclaren, there isn't another big team with a drive for him and that means his bargaining position is seriously weakened.

He is the best driver on the grid, Honda are bending over backwards for him to get him in the car. He has already said that he knows what he will do next and I think a move to McLaren, where there is actual structure, will be good.

Zcott

Ferrari scored no points today. Vettel got a podium. Hmm....

zombieHanalei

CaliforniaDream wrote: »

No, not letting Ricciardo beat him intentionally. But the season didn't start too well for him at all and he's probably growing more and more frustrated as it goes on.
He's had some bad luck this year and it must be killing him to see his rookie teammate beating him.

Apologies, didn't quite take you up right so!

Well I think he decided long ago that he was going to move on, had looked like his heart was no longer in it for a long time, and with Newey stepping back combined with Renault's issues; the signs are that Red Bull will not be the front runner for the medium term future.

He needs a new challenge; and emulating Schumacher's reawakening of the prancing horse is a good place to start.

dloob

Well we've heard Alonso's contract was terminated on thursday which lead to the Vettel announcement the next day, but we haven't heard which side terminated it.
Ron anyway insists that no contract is signed with Alonso.

ScumLord

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Very bad move for Vettel and Alonso.

I think it was time for both of them to make a move and take a chance. They're both fast drivers they just need the right car and moving gives them the chance to take a risk on something new. Honda have the chance to make a mercedes beating engine, they have an advantage over the other engine manufacturers in that they know what needs to be achieved and can make that engine. The other teams were working in the dark and Mercedes won the engine game by a big margin.

Vettel is moving to a prestigious team, I think whether or not he wins a championship he'll probably make more money and if he is on the decline he can at least build up a nest egg. I doubt he's thinking like that though, despite Ferraris problems their car isn't a million miles off the top pace. Their car is pretty competitive and it wouldn't take an awful lot for them to at least be competing with Williams and Red Bull for second best.

I think anything can happen next season, all the teams will be able to build on what they learned this year and we could see major performance differences across all the teams. Alonso and Vettel have taken a gamble, it's probably the right time for them Alonso has put a lot of faith in Ferrari and got nowhere, Vettel has achieved a lot with Red Bull but Red Bull seem to like the new thing and they're both just not gelling like they used too.

Only time will tell but already it's building up next season into what could be another great season.

Daniel S

Zcott wrote: »

Jean Eric Vergne must be mightily annoyed that Kvyat is taking Vettel's seat at Red Bull, after being in F1 for only a year...

21 points to 8 points... I'd say he is alright!

I think Vettel is hoping for something like what happened to Lewis when he left McLaren, 90% of people thought he was mad to leave what was, possibly, the fastest one lap car. Look at him now!

Vettel has time on his hand, a few more than Alonso anyway. It will take a few years before the Ferrari is competitive, bar a design miracle. He can build the team around him. Kimi won't be an issue for him.

Alonso hasn't time on his hand, he can't wait for Ferrari to fix it. McLaren did their restructuring a good while back now, with everything focused on the new Honda engine. They should come out swinging next year, unless the engine is as rumours suggest. It's the only chance Alonso has at another championship, or even race wins for that matter.

EDIT: Also, 80 million to go to Ferrari may have also helped!

Myrddin

80 million? Jeez, that's a 4/5 year deal I assume?

Daniel S

Myrddin wrote: »

80 million? Jeez, that's a 4/5 year deal I assume?

Nope. Per year.

:eek::D

Myrddin

Daniel S wrote: »

Nope. Per year.

:eek::D

Get out :eek: Sure Alonso was the top earner at €30m per season wasn't he?

Daniel S

Myrddin wrote: »

Get out :eek: Sure Alonso was the top earner at €30m per season wasn't he?

He was.

Famously, Vettel is one of those rare drivers who negotiates his own deals without the help of a manager.

"I have a head and a brain," the 27-year-old smiled on Saturday after his shock Red Bull exit was announced.

Incredibly, British newspapers claim Vettel's new Ferrari deal - which is yet to be announced - could be worth up to an astonishing $80 million per year, making him easily the highest paid driver in F1.

How has he managed to negotiate that himself?

"I'm not completely alone," Vettel is quoted by Kleine Zeitung newspaper. "I have a friend who I consult with a little and a lawyer but I think I am old enough."

Myrddin

Christ almighty, that's some bread.

Tea 1000

With a deal like that, looks like after he finishes driving he'll be in demand for being a driver manager!

zombieHanalei

That figure must include commercial deals and image rights and add ons and so on. Surely his basic must be closer to half that?

v3ttel

I was really surprised by the news, but it makes sense for Vettel for a good few reasons.

He is following in the footsteps of his idol. Many people said that he needed to get out of his comfort zone and win a championship with another team. If he can beat Kimi, a bone fide world champion (presumably, his team mate for next season), it'll be considered a success for next season.

Beyond that, if he can build Ferrari up to be title contenders over the next few seasons (with his work ethic, its entirely possible) and win a championship, that will dispel any doubts about his ability. He has the time to do that. I doubt he would have gone there without some assurances over their future performance. (What is Ross Brawn doing in 2015 and beyond?).

It also helps a bit with his popularity. As Ferrari is unquestionably the bigger brand and most supported team, it can help to turn him from a pantomime villain into someone with a lot of support as the possible #1 driver of the biggest team on the grid.

He also probably sees that Newey is taking a back seat, Rocky is moving to a more senior role, and Prodromou has left for McLaren. He may think that Red Bull will not be as competitive in the future after the changes.

I guess it was a case of "now or never", and everything seemed to line up perfectly.

Scotty #

2014 Driver Wages (Source - http://www.crash.net/f1/news/207581/1/f1-2014-driver-salaries-published-but-who-earns-most.html)

Drivers:

1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari €22m
= Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari €22m
=Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing €22m
4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes €20m
5. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes €16m
6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes €12m
7. Felipe Massa Williams €4m
= Nico Hulkenberg Force India F1 €4m
9. Romain Grosjean Lotus F1 Team €3m
= Pastor Maldonado Lotus F1 Team €3m
= Sergio Perez Force India F1 €3m
12. Adrian Sutil Sauber €2m
13. Kevin Magnuseen McLaren-Mercedes €1m
= Valtteri Bottas Williams €1m
15. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing €750,000
= Jean-Eric Vergne Scuderia Toro Rosso €750,000
17. Jules Bianchi Marussia €500,000
18. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber €400,000
19. Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso €250,000
20. Max Chilton Marussia €200,000
21. Marcus Ericsson Caterham F1 €150,000
= Kamui Kobayshi Caterham F1 €150,000

No way Ferrari are forking out that kind of money to someone who has admitted several times he wants to race there. I'd say €20-€25M tops, and the way Ricciardo has shown him up this year, not worth it IMO.

Bottas and Ricciardo was money well spent! Don't feel sorry for their low wage though, they get huge bonuses for points/podiums.

Cookie_Monster

it's a bit redundant though isn't it if it doesn't show full package. As you say, huge bonuses for point could distort that hugely.

Still though, it's a HUGE difference over the field where it should really be reasonably similar if there are only 22 top flight drivers in the world.

mickdw

Looking at those wages, I'm surprised by buttons wage. It's big, probably too big and despite the good job he is doing, he would need Honda begging for him and putting up the money in order for his cost to be justified.
I guess he is a big name and that has a commercial value all of its own but still, it's alot of cash.

Zcott

mickdw wrote: »

Looking at those wages, I'm surprised by buttons wage. It's big, probably too big and despite the good job he is doing, he would need Honda begging for him and putting up the money in order for his cost to be justified.
I guess he is a big name and that has a commercial value all of its own but still, it's alot of cash.

I think he probably arranged that deal just after winning the title with Brawn, and had an extension in it.

Scotty #

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

it's a bit redundant though isn't it if it doesn't show full package. As you say, huge bonuses for point could distort that hugely.

Still though, it's a HUGE difference over the field where it should really be reasonably similar if there are only 22 top flight drivers in the world.

I don't agree that it should be reasonably similar. In all sports there is a world of difference between the top and the 'nearly top'. Look at the premiership, golf, tennis, the top players are paid way more. You don't even have to be at the top to be the big earner, you just have to be the biggest draw. I read recently that Valentino Rossi still earns more per year than the rest of the grid combined.

Didn't Kimi earn something like €16M in bonuses last year with Lotus and that's what got them in so much financial bother? Rosberg mentioned on Sunday that there was a nice bonus for everyone in the team for winning the constructors title. Then there's also sponsorship bonuses. Santander paid Alonso a lot of money when in Mclaren and he took them with him to Ferrari. I wonder will they move with him again or stay put with Ferrari?

I'd love to actually see a drivers contract to see all the different clauses and get out options, bonus structure, etc.

Zcott

Back on topic with Vettel: he's sitting out qualifying in Austin because he needs an engine change and would start from the pits anyway, he won't receive any technical upgrades for the remainder of the season, and he's not being released from Red Bull until five days after Abu Dhabi, so he can't drive for Ferrari in the post-season test.

Cookie_Monster

Zcott wrote: »

Back on topic with Vettel: he's sitting out qualifying in Austin because he needs an engine change and would start from the pits anyway.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
nobody except the fans suffer because of those stupid rules :mad:

Does he still not have to qualify to be in the race though? Other teams should be objecting to the outside 107% allowance if that's how they plan to be allowed race, it ****ing farcical.

Frank Bullitt

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
nobody except the fans suffer because of those stupid rules :mad:

Does he still not have to qualify to be in the race though? Other teams should be objecting to the outside 107% allowance if that's how they plan to be allowed race, it ****ing farcical.

Once he runs in P1 and P2 and posts competitive times then he will be allowed to, I do believe as well that the FIA look at the over all competitiveness of the car from the season and testing as a gauge, so he will be allowed to race.