Nico's retiring?

alfadriver wrote: So what was wrong with what Lewis said?

Mostly, the words passed his lips, I think.

I saw the announcement and thought good for him; he poured everything into this year even by his hardworking standards. Initially I was taken aback as well but then thought about how there just seemed to be something going on under the surface. Nicks body language just seemed off / odd to me for the past few months.......couldn't tell you why of course but it just seems off.

We are huge Hamilton fans and my wife wasn't thrilled that Nico won but I told her he worked his butt of this year.

I have to respect his wilingness to walk away after one championship.

Now as for the talk about living the dream; I'll never forget Senna saying enjoyed Karting the most as it was just for him with no need to worry about all the other stuff.

As for how hard these guys work; I've had the privilege to work with some top flight professional drivers on a few occasions and I'm always reminded of that line about the women who tells the opera singer she'd give her life to sing like him and he says "but Madam I did"

Whether it's F1, MotoGP, Indy or NASCAR these guys schedules are grueling. Every ounce of energy goes into their craft, I've only seen a glimpse of how hard they work and makes me thankful to be an amateur racer.

Again good for Nico,

Tom

You can't knock anyone for pulling a Seinfeld and going out while you're on the top. It was his life long dream and he finally got it. Now it's time to focus on his family and destress from all the pressures of F1 (against Hamilton especially).

However I'm kinda sad. I've been cheering for Nico the past 2 years. He was on a new level this year, and I think would have been even better next year with that brides maid stigma gone.

Now I've got to find a new driver to pull for.

MattW wrote:

Rusnak_322 wrote:

fidelity101 wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

Rusnak_322 wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to Rusnak_322: If I had to race every week, it would be work, just like any other job. I'd be looking forward to vacations and retirement.

Not me. I road raced motorcycles for a decade and did 17 weekends one season, that included track days and racing from Michigan to Alabama and Florida, based out of Cleveland Ohio.

Not to dismiss your obvious dedication, but that's nothing compared to running F1 even allowing for your work and school. Those guys are amongst the fittest athletes on the planet. Beyond the 21 races there is testing, simulator work, hours in the gym every day. Sponsor, media, team and sport related appearances etc. Not feeling sorry for them, or demeaning your dedication which was way higher than mine ever is/was. But these guys have lived Formula one 24/7/365 since they were six years old. NOTE. They took Feb 29th off each leap year hence it's not 24/7/365.25

Basically they pay you to not have a life.

Hard to feel sorry for someone who was raised in Monaco that has to race 20 weekends a year. And play on a race simulator when not doing that. And then going to parties for sponsors and doing photoshoots. Plus they have the winter off and a month in summer! If the workload is the reason (I don’t think that it is with Nico) then boo-fricken-hoo! Seriously. They have a team of assistants that handle all aspects of life for them, from making travel arrangements (private jets and helicopter rides from the track to the hotel) to private chef’s and trainers. You don’t think they have a life? Ever follow Lewis Hamilton between races? The guy is everywhere partying. You guys really got to get over F1 drivers. Is driving the car easy? No, is it THAT hard? I look at athletes like chad reed in supercross who raced with a freshly broken collarbone and say F1 drivers have it easy comparison. From reading the facebook post, I think that the stress of the championship caused Nico to change and he didn’t like who he was becoming and decided to stop. If that is true, good for him. Lots of people (probably me) wouldn’t have had the insight and ruined their off track lives to further their career.

Kinda surprising that somebody that has some proper club racing experience doesn't understand how professional racing can be a serious commitment. I'm gonna guess that you don't understand the pressure of living up to media, sponsors and your own expectations week in and week out. When somebody is paying you millions to "play", as you say, the game becomes much different.

Still a better gig then digging ditches for a living.

Can't be too bad, why would someone like Alonso not give up after racing for a top 15 finish for so long. Hell, I bet Jenson would have stuck around for a few more years had there been a seat for him.

I think there is a tendency to pigeonhole very talented or hardworking people who happen to be doing something we wish we ourselves were doing. Im sure being an F1 driver at a high level is unique in untold ways, but if this fellow is talented and hard working enough, i would guess he could be doing someone else's dream job just as well, so i doubt he is going from everything to nothing in any sense.

This thread is reminding me why i don't care about high-dollar celebrity racing, though. This is like a soap opera discussion thread. Nothing in here has made me the least bit curious to get involved in F1, or to get famous.

Hamilton said something that came across as snarky and conceded?

NO WAY! PRO RACING DRIVERS NEVER DO STUFF LIKE THAT!

Isn't that the reason that The Stig doesn't speak? The best talking Pro racers do is with thier lap times, not thier mouth's.

Rusnak_322 wrote: Still a better gig then digging ditches for a living. Can't be too bad, why would someone like Alonso not give up after racing for a top 15 finish for so long. Hell, I bet Jenson would have stuck around for a few more years had there been a seat for him.

Well, digging ditches for a living doesn't give you a 1 in 4000 chance of dying each time you start a new ditch. That's about the F1 fatality rate over the last 10 years, much better than it was the 60s and 70s, but it's still very real.

I don't think anyone's saying Rosberg's life sucks, certainly. OTOH, is it so hard to understand why someone who has achieved his dream and has all the money he'll ever need in the bank might want to leave a dangerous job that has long hours and keeps him away from his wife and young daughter for weeks at a time?

Alonso is a different man with different priorities.

Sir Jackie Stewart

"He only does 21 races a year. It is no big deal. We worked our asses off [in the old days] to make decent money, and they don’t even do much testing now. ...”

http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/racing-legend-jackie-stewart-calls-lewis-hamilton-a-lit-1789639379

Seriously? A 1 in 4,000 chance?

So with 20 races a year the odds are against him if he races 200 years!

Looks like a ditch digger would have the same odds of dying on the way to work

Odds of dying in a car accident — Between 1 in 4,000 and 1 in 8,000

https://www.google.com/amp/www.sheknows.com/living/articles/1023453/what-are-the-odds-21-statistics-that-will-surprise-you/amp?client=safari

Rusnak_322 wrote: Still a better gig then digging ditches for a living.

That depends how you define 'better'. Ditch diggers work to live. Professional racing drivers live to work. Where I'm at with life and my family, I'd probably prefer the former over the latter...And if I was already comfortably set financially, then I would only 'work' for the fulfillment of life.

So why is Wehrlein not already announced as Rosberg's replacement? The media seems to say that he isn't easy to work with which is why Ocon moved to Force India instead of him.

Anyone have any other insight onto the former DTM champion?

Why move Wehrlein or Ocon up to the top spot. They either want another Hamilton Equal (Alonso, Vettle or the Honey Badger) or a tried and true close but no cigar driver (a current Kimi).

I'd say Ocon is perfect at Force India. Far enough up the grid that they can see how he really performs and keep tabs on him, but not in the A team so they are not wasting a single point if the new regs don't favor them as much as they have this year.

I'd say Wehrlein has one more year to prove himself as worthy and able to work with people before he's cut loose by Mercedes.

I think they have to be looking at Seb, Alonso and the Honey Badger. It all depends on who has the easiest contract escape clause. Possibly Alonso if the performance clause that he's rumored to have is really there. Next would be Ricciardo. I bet he's going to be a lot easier to wrangle free from the pink cow than Vettle is from the Red Purse brand. Ferrari paid too much to let him slip away without serious compensation. With Red Bull though they have the anointed one in Mad Max plus Sainz Jr waiting in the wings to replace him plus Gasly (GP2), Kari and Camara both in F3 waiting to step up to Mucca Rosa so they can easily find a back fill for him.

Driven5 wrote:

Rusnak_322 wrote: Still a better gig then digging ditches for a living.

That depends how you define 'better'. Ditch diggers work to live. Professional racing drivers live to work. Where I'm at with life and my family, I'd probably prefer the former over the latter...And if I was already comfortably set financially, then I would only 'work' for the fulfillment of life.

And at this level of racing, the commitment has to 100% or more to be successful.

It seems Nico came to the realization he wouldn't be able to give that level anymore.

alfadriver wrote: So what was wrong with what Lewis said?

"This is the first time he's won in 18 years, hence why it was not a surprise that he decided to stop."

That's a pretty snide, underhanded remark.

As a professional ditch digger, I resemble all these remarks. :P In reality, digging a ditch may or may not be safer than racing, but those guys make a heck of a lot more money than I do, get to drive cool cars, have pretty girls and go to exotic places. If Nico doesn't want to drive anymore, I'd swap seats with him in a heartbeat!

z31maniac wrote:

alfadriver wrote: So what was wrong with what Lewis said?

"This is the first time he's won in 18 years, hence why it was not a surprise that he decided to stop." That's a pretty snide, underhanded remark.

Only because it's true. :)

Granted, it's not particularly tactful to say it to the press.

z31maniac wrote:

alfadriver wrote: So what was wrong with what Lewis said?

"This is the first time he's won in 18 years, hence why it was not a surprise that he decided to stop." That's a pretty snide, underhanded remark.

I didn't take it that way. I think that in context with his total interview he was trying to explain why he was not surprised about the retirement. Specifically that Nico is in the enviable position of having a family he loves and money. One thing about Nico that was apparent even in the 2014 season was that this F1 circus was wearing on him. I mean everyone was dissing him and his value to F1. So now that he has won the championship, what is left for him? Hamilton knows this about him and is just explaining it. He finally felt that feeling of beating everyone and specifically beating his childhood rival Hamilton. So time to go.

I guess some folks want Hamilton to be gracious and only say nice things. But then the other side of the fence would call him a fake, pretty boy slick talker. So either side of the fence he gets heat. I think he is just in a phase of being rather matter of fact. Taken in context it isn't a slam on Rosberg.

I'm a Hamilton fan, it just came off as dickish to me. c'est la vie.

z31maniac wrote:

alfadriver wrote: So what was wrong with what Lewis said?

"This is the first time he's won in 18 years, hence why it was not a surprise that he decided to stop." That's a pretty snide, underhanded remark.

Pick your favorite line, and you can find what you don't like.

I, too, read the whole quote, and didn't see anything bad. Unless truth is that bad.

Dream jobs can look very different from the inside.

Maybe Nico will race in other venues like Tony and Jeff do.

Mercedes is looking at Alonso. McLaren says he's staying. So I wonder how much money he will be able to command? He is arguably the best F1 driver currently.

This guy seems to think that the only money Mercedes will be willing to spend is the $15M of Nico's salary, which needs to cover both the contract buy-out from whoever holds it, and also the salary of the driver in question:

https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2016/12/06/reality-in-brackley/

I dunno if I agree. For one thing, Nico had a 3 year contract, so presumably if the driver is willing to accept a lower-than-$15M salary, there's 3 years' worth of that the balance money available. For another, if they get a rookie/cheap driver and wind up losing out on the constructor's championship next year because Ricciardo and Verstappen manage a larger points haul than Hamilton+rookie (like at McLaren in 2008), then that's a significant cost to them in loss of prize money...

I still think Mercedes would prefer Vettel to Alonso though.

Never liked Nico but I've gained some respect for him for doing what he did. Humans have a hard time walking away when things are good. Sometimes we stick around too long.

Keith Tanner wrote: Dream jobs can look very different from the inside.

I knew a guy who went to work for F1. It seems like a great job for an engineer. If you love racing with a massive passion and are willing to put it above everything else in your life- it's awesome.

But if not, well...