When it became patently clear that Seb was getting the boot, the prohibitive favourite to take his seat was McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniel Ricciardo moving on from Renault to take Sainz’s seat.
We’ve not even raced a kilometer in anger this season and already three major pieces are shuffling round the grid.
And it’s almost certain that this is only the begining of the unsettled silly season when you consider that Vettel really isn’t going to have any truly attractive options to continue in F1 other than joining Nico Rosberg in the pits as a commentator (which he would be brilliant at just as Nico has done well with the microphone).
Toto might say he has to consider the implications of Seb’s situation but there is as close to zero chance as is possible he unsettles Lewis and boots the ultimate team player in Valteri Bottas in favour of Vettel. Likewise, Dark Helmut knows full well Verstappen won’t take kindly to a fox in his hen house and there’s no way he will unsettle Max who has been at least on a slow path to maturity, particularly of late.
What that leaves is uncompetitive mid-field teams or the back of the grid, neither of which Seb would find suitable. It’s a darned shame to see a four-time champion go from a seat at arguably the most prestigious team in F1 to the very real possibility that he’s done driving in F1 for good.
But as it looks from this fan’s seat…Fernando Alonso has a hell of a lot more chance of driving in F1 again once this season is done than Seb will!