Not Straight Forward

Renault Formula One have announced that Fernando Alonso will be driving for them next season. This was not really a surprise as Alonso has previously won two world titles with the team in 2005 and 2006. The fiery Spaniard turns 39 this year so he brings tons of racing experience and maybe able to find race pace where others haven't.

This announcement leaves Sebastien Vettel scrambling for a seat wherever that might be. The pickings are slim and don't expect Bottas to move from Mercedes anytime soon either. They did say they would leave the door open or talks but where and how as they have two good drivers already and Bottas wants to stay on.

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Bottas is not going anywhere and is the cheaper option if things unravel with Hamilton.Bottas would have been World Champion last year if it wasn't for Hamilton being around.

I actually think Toto Wolff has got Vettel for cover if anything happens to the Hamilton contract negotiations. From what I have heard they are not going along as smoothly as everyone thought they might. Hamilton has high pay demands and being a 6 time and current World Champion thought he would automatically have them all met.

Wolff let slip that the world has changed some what this year and Hamilton's salary requests are virtually double what they are prepared to offer. The Formula One teams have new budgets to work under so everyone has to feel the pain. The two drivers and the team principals are not part of the budgetary constraints however but it looks like Toto Wolff is keeping everything in check and being fair to the entire team.

How could he justify paying Hamilton a rumored $47 Million per season and have Bottas at less than half that. Then his entire staffing compliment which is being shrunk to fit the half sized budget from previous seasons would just look odd. Hamilton has to tread carefully and negotiate his value as he is not irreplaceable.

Mario Binotto from Ferrari came clean about Sebastien Vettel and it was along similar lines. The thought process was that they are trimming the budgets drastically from what they originally had so the salaries of the drivers need to be adjusted. If Leclerc hadn't shown so much promise last season then it would not have been an issue but Vettel is not cheap and why they decided to part ways.

Bottas won the first Grand Prix last weekend which doesn't really help Hamilton's cause either. The economy around the world right now is screwed and who can forget Honda walking away from the sport selling their team for $1 as they couldn't justify the spend when they were letting staff go at their manufacturing plant in Japan.

Under normal circumstances I am sure Mercedes would probably pay somewhere close to what Hamilton wanted but now in these times meeting in the middle somewhere sounds more fair and reasonable. One must not forget that Toto is also a share holder in the Formula One team so whatever is paid out does effect his pocket at the same time. I don't expect Hamilton to retire as he wants the 7th Championship title and then possibly an eighth which would make him the most successful driver of all time.