Grid Walk: Ericsson vs. Wehrlein

Pascal- As penned by Paul Charsley

As we know Todd and I had an ongoing feud the past couple of years between Marcus “lots of bucks” Ericsson and Felipe “I’m chock full of talent” Nasr. Well, since Felipe managed to drag the Sauber car out of the gutter to score points worth millions to the team—for clinching 10th place in the constructors—he has been kicked to the kerb.

But I say the battle was won last year with Felipe, and this year, Pascal will continue the quest and Finnish (get it ? I know he’s not Finnish but Swedish doesn’t work in this context) the job. After all, Pascal has done an amazing job since he came into F1 and made some remarkable drives in the Manor especially at the race starts till the Manor ran out of puff, but the truth is there that Pascal Wehrlein is a future star.

Pascal was also as the youngest ever DTM champion in 2015 and you have to go all the way back to 2009 in Japan (shooting fish in a barrel) to find the last time Ericsson won a championship. We all know with enough practice you can get good at anything and the swede has certainly done a workmanlike job at being OK .

But when I think Swedes and F1 I of course think to one of my favourite drivers of all time, Ronnie Peterson. I met Ronnie when I was a young boy and believe you me Marcus Ericsson is no Peterson. So let’s just get down to brass tacks, Pascal will wipe the floor clean of Marcus, the only reason he didn’t get the Merc seat is experience, nothing he could have done about that. And maybe he doesn’t get along with everybody, well that just shows a gritted, determined driver who has a goal and doesn’t feel the need to be everyone’s best friend.

This is F1 people! try to grow up, Pascal is here to stay and Ericsson and even Sauber are merely stepping stones to the top step on the podium for this young German flyer. I see at least a 15 to 5 swing in quali and even if Ericsson gets a few lucky laps every now and again Pascal will be by him before you can say herravälde

Marcus- As penned by Negative Camber

From the hazy, litigation-filled confusion that has been Sauber, there walks a Nordic figure with arms the size of oak trees from which his race chariot seems to have been hewn. The blood of Wolf Cave flows through his veins and we can’t be sure but his name could be on the Söderby Runestones as a prophetic warning to all who would challenge his pace, his aplomb in a team continually on the edge of collapse, that you, quite frankly, DON’T EFF WITH THE SWEDE!

Having a Germanic background is a noble character but The Swede is not threatened by the former DTM driver just as he wasn’t bothered by the Brazilian in 2016 and the only reason Marcus Ericsson didn’t score points for the team in that race was due to issues with the car, as Paul knows.

As Paul also knows, all the young drivers in small teams are paying for their rides so nothing new there but with money comes the thundering performance of a driver like Ukko himself and I expect The Swede to hold his own again this year.

It’s true that many barely noticed his arrival in Formula 1 and I will admit that Nasr out-scored him when they were teammates but The Swede has made good progress of late and the points tally doesn’t reveal the full picture that is Marcus Ericsson.

Having a consistency in the team is good and sure, he beached the car in the waning laps of Free Practice 2 in Australia yesterday but hey, he’s exploring the space and now he knows where the limit is, right?

If Pascal outscores The Swede in 2017, it will be because that’s what he wanted to happen and Pascal will have done what he was told…because YOU DON’T EFF WITH THE SWEDE!