Silly season is well and truly in full swing. With several drivers out of contract, and a few powertrain-supplier movements happening for 2015, there is a lot of anticipation to see where some of the big names end up. However, some teams already have their eyes set on a year further – 2016. One of these teams will be McLaren-Honda, a combination which sent shockwaves through Formula One the last time that the two came together. Many drivers have been linked with McLaren for 2015 or 2016, but the biggest name out of the lot has to be Sebastian Vettel, currently at Red Bull Racing.
Vettel currently is signed with Red Bull until the end of the 2015 season, and the team are very happy with him so it is highly unlikely that the 27-year-old will be moving any time soon. With his incredible tally of 39 wins, 45 pole positions and four consecutive world titles, all of the fellow big teams must be looking at the German at some point. While McLaren-Mercedes currently seem happy with their two drivers, Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen, with the highly impressive Stoffel Vandoorne waiting in the wings, it seems unlikely that anybody else will be driving for the Woking-based team next year.
While Niki Lauda has recently rubbished any claims that Vettel is on his way to the Mercedes team any time soon, even for 2016, and Jules Bianchi set to get the step up to Ferrari for 2016 once Kimi Raikkonen’s contract expires, Vettel will be left with the options of staying at Red Bull, trying to revitalise McLaren, or leaving F1 altogether. At the end of next season, Vettel will only be 28, at the peak of his powers, so I see the latter case being highly unlikely.
While Red Bull remain a force to be reckoned with in Formula One, the loss of some very big names in the aerodynamic department including the genius that is Adrian Newey, and Renault still struggling with their attempt at the V6 turbo hybrid powertrain points towards a tough 2015 and possibly beyond. Another problem for Vettel is his new team mate, Daniel Ricciardo. While Vettel has had the majority of the bad luck, he has been outshone on a number of days by his team mate, which I am not sure even Vettel could see coming. That isn’t to say that Vettel has suddenly forgotten how to drive, he is perhaps just going through a bad patch at this moment.
So that does leave McLaren as a major option. While Button wants to stay in Formula One, and he would like to reach 300 Grand Prix, something that could happen in 2018, his performances this season have been solid if unspectacular compared to his rookie team mate Magnussen. McLaren have clearly struggled ever since losing Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes, and they have still achieved just one championship since of the turn of the new millennium from 28 attempts which is a shocking conversion rate for a team so great. Vettel is hugely popular in Japan, and Suzuka is his favourite circuit and one that he has won at four times already in his career, and surely Honda will have taken note of that, so it wouldn’t at all be a bad move from that point of view.
Since Hamilton left the team at the end of 2012, just one McLaren driver has stood on the podium, so they are clearly struggling at the moment. Perhaps they are in need of a true team leader to grab the team by the throat and drag them back up to the front where they belong. With Ron Dennis back at the sharp end of things, he will be looking for at least one driver with that sort of mentality. While there are other options available, including Romain Grosjean (possibly even for 2015), Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and possibly more hidden gems in GP2, GP3 and World Series by Renault, there is certainly space for two very top drivers at McLaren-Honda in the near future, but it’s difficult to not want a four-time World Champion at the team, and the only one about is Sebastian Vettel.
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