Ok since the end of the season there's been many changes, not least Nico Rosberg retiring. UPDATED as of 5 December 2016.
As Renault confirms Jolyon Palmer for a second season, seven seats are still officially vacant. Today's news that Renault will retain Jolyon Palmer for a second season, alongside new boy Nico Hulkenberg, sees another piece of the 2017 jigsaw fall into place. Usually reliable sources also claim that Kevin Magnussen is heading to Haas and it has been confirmed.
While neither deal is any great surprise, it is worth a moment to examine why these two have retained their places on the F1 grid for next season, despite a season without many points finishes. Magnussen is in his second season of F1, while Palmer was a rookie this season. The Dane has scored seven points in total with Top Ten results in Russia and Singapore, while Palmer has just one point to his name from Malaysia. Magnussen is ahead in qualifying, but it’s fair to say that not many F1 commentators would have predicted a scoreline of 12-7 up to this point, which reflects well on the Briton.
As was amply demonstrated in the Grands Prix in Japan and Mexico, the midfield battle is incredibly tight this year. Haas, for example failed to score any points in Japan from 7th and 10th places on the grid. While Sauber ran 11th in Mexico due to a risky strategy and only narrowly missed out on a point they desperately need.
It all comes down to Strategy every week, which is really tough when you don’t have good car pace and it can vary so much in that midfield battle. This is why Magnussen and Palmer haven’t really featured in the Top Ten this season; the car has poor qualifying pace so they start on the back foot and thus strategies tend to be a gamble. Some hefty accidents, while trying to make things happen, like Palmer’s at Monaco and Magnussen’s at Spa, have not helped.
It means that the remaining vacancies are at Sauber and Manor with the one hot ticket being the second seat at Force India alongside Sergio Perez. Seemingly heading the Silverstone outfit's wish list is Esteban Ocon, though other drivers - and their sponsors - are sure to be making their pitches over the Interlagos weekend.
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