Felipe Nasr appears to have drawn the short end of the stick for his second year at Sauber, as he is consistently overshadowed by his Swedish teammate, Marcus Ericsson. Nasr has had frustrations with the team all season long and the tension between the Sauber duo was evident in Monaco, when the pair crashed into each other. So the question is, will we see Nasr at Sauber in 2017 or will he be looking for a contract elsewhere?
The season started with the Brazilian complaining about how poorly the car was setup and its poor handling. Having driven the chassis that Ericsson was given for the season in pre-season testing, Nasr was convinced that his chassis was not as good as his teammate’s and claimed that was the reason why Ericsson was performing better. In the end, Sauber decided to give Nasr a new chassis ahead of the Russian Grand Prix. Having been the slower of the two cars, Nasr finally had a coming together with his teammate when Ericsson was attempting an overtake on the inside of Nasr in the final two corners. An angry Monisha Kaltenborn called the result unacceptable and says that she has spoken with the drivers to prevent this from happening again in the future.
Nasr seems to be always upstaged by his teammate when it comes to publicity as well, with Ericsson getting much of the attention from the press and even in team publicity campaigns. This is odd, seeing as Nasr was responsible for converting the team to the blue and yellow of Banco do Brasil in 2015, bringing the Brazilian company to the team as a main sponsor. Therefore, you would think that the company would argue that Nasr get more publicity to promote the company. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Sauber.
Having signed a single year contract, it’s possible that we could see Nasr make a team swap next season. The only issue is that it would appear that 2017 won’t have a huge amount of driver swaps during the off season. The majority of the drivers look like they will most likely renew their contracts with the team that they are currently on or they are already locked into a contract. Either way, it means that there probably won’t be a huge amount of seats available. The only seat could be the Ferrari.
As Kimi Räikkönen gets older with each day that passes, he is getting closer and closer to the retirement age of a Formula One driver. Although he does alright in the races, he isn’t doing anything extra special and Ferrari will probably be looking to replace him for 2017. Of course, it’s unreasonable to think that a driver with only two years of experience will be asked to join the biggest team in the sport, so Nasr probably won’t be on Ferrari in 2016. However, with Bottas having been linked to the seat, Williams may have an opening.
Having Felipe Nasr on Williams is very logical for everyone involved, although it may create some confusion during the race broadcasts because Felipe Nasr sounds extremely similar to Felipe Massa. Nevertheless, there are plenty of positive points to support this driver swap.
Firstly, it would be great for Williams to have both of the Brazilian drivers together on the same team. Although they hold a large percent of the Brazilian Formula One fans already, having a second Brazilian driver would make the team the most popular in Brazil, opening the doors for many more exclusive sponsorship contracts with Brazilian companies looking to reach the target market in an effective way. Although they may get more sponsorship deals if they had two drivers of different nationalities, having a special segment of fans is more valuable.
Although Massa has more experience and will probably outshine Nasr, Nasr would be a positive asset for the team. Although his results are not anything overly impressive, Nasr is not a bad driver, as he proved in the Australian Grand Prix in 2014, when he scored Sauber some big points in the championship. Before he entered the sport in 2014, I knew that Nasr would be a driver with some great potential and he has shown some of that already. It would be great to see what he would be able to do in a car with the same performance as the Williams. Although he is far from reaching his full potential, he has plenty of years left in his career and lots of time to improve and reach the same level as Massa.
Sponsorship is a big deal too. Although Williams probably won’t change their main sponsor, Banco do Brasil will certainly want to partner with the team, seeing as there are two of their national drivers on the team. That deal could potentially bring a lot of money to the team, which would increase Nasr’s chances of getting a contract with the team, seeing as modern Formula One is driven by money.
Regardless of whether Nasr stays at Sauber or leaves, he will have a lot of leverage against Sauber in the off season. The way I see it, the team is stuck in a position where they will pretty much have to do whatever Nasr wants, whether it’s a raise or moving to the number one driver position, because he holds all of the chips. Having brought the team’s main sponsor, he also has the power to take it away if he leaves the team. This could lead to the collapse of Sauber, given the team’s unstable financial position currently.
Felipe Nasr will have a very difficult decision to make at the end of the season. He will have to wait and see which positions become available and then weight all of the factors to ensure that any contract he signs will benefit him in the future. Personally, I can’t picture Nasr staying with Sauber in 2017, unless no seats on other teams become available.
Weekend Summary: 2016 Monaco Grand Prix
Sauber Gives Nasr A New Chassis
Sauber Optimistic That Car Will Improve
Nasr: “I am still not satisfied with the handling”
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
