So unpopular opinion, I don't think Lando or Charles will be a WDC. I think Lando will be in midfield teams his whole career, because the top 3 teams have drivers the same age who they have put a lot of money and focus into.
Everyone says Mercedes, but I don't think they would ever put Lando and George in the same team. That would be asking for another silver war, in my opinion. (Plus if Mercedes thought Lando would be a better than George, they would have brought him in last season and let George be a free agent like Ocon).
If he does move teams (and he will) it will be to a team like Alpine or Aston Martin. Maybe Red Bull if he see's himself as a second driver. I don't think he would ever go Ferrari tbh.
Charles I think is cursed to stay in Ferrari forever, whose issues go so much further than just strategies and reliabilty. I think to an extent he believes his own hype, which is more than strictly deserves tbh. People act like he is a 5x wdc not a 5x race winner, which is appalling concidering the number of poles he had.
Maybe I am completely wrong but I just think both are destined for Daniel Riccardo esq careers
I kind of agree about Lando. I feel like a lot of the ‘hype’ around Lando is because a lot of the mainstream British press in 2019 hooked on the ‘Rookie Brit at McLaren’ angle and said he would be the next Lewis.
Lewis had been the only Brit on the grid in 2018, and the press had started turning on him by that point. They had three Brit Rookies to throw their weight behind but Alex wasn’t ‘British’ enough and George wasn’t going to be competitive enough so they went all in on bigging up Lando. People didn’t hook on to George’s potential until Sakhir and by that point the ‘Lando is a future WDC’ hype train was full steam ahead.
Obviously anyone could be a WDC. I know I’d thought Jenson had missed his chance before he actually did end up winning his, but I find it odd how hyped Lando is, when the likes of Esteban and Pierre are now race winners and their names are never touted as potential WDCs?
I do agree that I don’t think Mercedes would approach him though. They were dropped in it in 2016 and had a vacancy last minute, but they still chose a number 2 driver when they probably could have tempted whoever they wanted into that seat if they chose. They’re training George to be Lewis’ replacement, and when Lewis leaves, I think they’ll look for someone to fill a Valtteri type role, rather than a potential second first driver?
