With the European leg of the season behind us and just seven flyaway rounds remaining, attentions are already fixing on 2017.
For teams these months are all an attempt to one-up the opposition with a daring new design – a weighty responsibility for car designers, undoubtedly – but for drivers these months of positioning could make or break an Formula One career.
This is particularly so for the sport’s midfield drivers, whose progression is limited by movements in the biggest teams – and one by one this season those teams have closed their doors to change.
Red Bull Racing made its Max Verstappen-Daniil Kvyat switch, Kimi Räikkönen won another one-year Ferrari contract, and Nico Rosberg and Mercedes inked an extended partnership. The midfield has been left to its own devices.
This confined situation leaves few options beyond a sideways move or an exit – Felipe Massa and Jenson Button have opted for the latter in the season’s most significant announcements to date – which is bad news for those who could, and perhaps should, be on the move.
Sergio Perez and Romain Grosjean are two drivers for whom their talent, held in high regard, is inversely proportionate to their prospects. With six and five seasons of experience respectively, both are in the prime of their careers after turbulent early seasons and both know the next 24 months could be crucial to their championship aspirations.
Perez’s contract situation has been the highest profile of the two. After podiums in Monaco and Azerbaijan his Force India team was keen to ensure his services into 2017, but his wealthy sponsors sought an alternative opportunity that might put him in the championship frame.
Talks are ongoing, but with few such options Perez is tipped to formally announce a Force India extension ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
Romain Grosjean’s pivotal decision came last season when he called time on his Lotus, now Renault, tenure to join start-up Haas, owing in equal parts to chronic underfunding at Enstone and to Haas’s strong bonds with Ferrari.
Though no announcement has been made Autosport reported before the Italian Grand Prix that Grosjean would remain with the American team for another year.
For Perez a one-year Force India deal leaves him available in 2018, when Kimi Räikkönen’s contract will again be up for renewal, while Grosjean’s decision to move to Haas was motivated by the pathway to the Scuderia the fledgling team could offer.
But neither driver is likely to find his way to Formula One’s most famous constructor – while Perez and Grosjean’s negotiations are interesting, they are superseded by more exciting prospects.
GP3 driver and Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc’s three practice appearances, Pascal Wehrlein’s links with vacant Mercedes-powered seats, Esteban Ocon’s arrival in Formula One, Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly’s winning GP2 form and Toro Rosso links, Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren contract – the list goes on.
Worst for Perez and Grosjean is not the calibre of young talent rising through the ranks but their logical destinations.
Leclerc is earmarked for Ferrari after as little as one season, if that, at an apprentice Formula One team. Mercedes is sizing up Wehrlein and Ocon as 2019 replacements for Hamilton and Rosberg. Pierre Gasly is only the latest in Red Bull’s oversubscribed development programme, and Vandoorne will partner Alonso next season and either Alonso or Button in 2018.
Doled out among the sport’s growing list of talented young guns are all of the F1’s plum drives, leaving little for Formula One’s middle generation – once promising up-and-comers, now seasoned journeymen – to fight for.
Crueller still could be a final twist in Perez and Grosjean’s futures – by pursuing the Ferrari dream both appear to have snubbed Renault, the only cashed-up manufacturer with seats available.
Renault is actively courting drivers of Sergio and Romain’s generation to fill the role of strong and charismatic team leader as it rebuilds to its former glory – but interest remains low.
When that success arrives – a matter of when, not if – it will be at the hands of someone else. Any combination of current drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, Esteban Ocon, and Toro Rosso duo Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat could land the last manufacturer drive in their stead.
Just as it is for the Scuderia’s famous tifosi, chasing the Ferrari dream all too often leads to disappointment. In Perez and Grosjean’s decision to prioritise the red cars over the amply viable Renault they may be confining themselves to the midfield forever.
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