Less than three months before the start of the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship, there are still 4 seats available in the pinnacle of motorsport. At the moment, there are 3 new names on the grid in 2011: Jérôme D'Ambrosio, Sergio Pérez and Pastor Maldonado.
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But the thing is that its not the powerplant, its the KERS and Gearbox as well. Whitch are better than the Xtrac and Spec systems that HRT and Virgin will run next year. Nothing power related, they were happy with the Cosworth power.
But as i said, without inside know how, the figures i stated are just a ball park figure. For all we know, Cosworth may have severed the contract without any financial penalty at all.
not going to happen, apart from an contract that not gets renewed with citroen there is no reason why he would return. He never liked F1 and he openly told it, he also said that he enjoys WRC much more, so why would he even return?
we don´t know how much renault would charge for the kers or if it was like Mercedes asking 10mill it would soon be out of reach for lotus or the whole idea of reducing costs is out of the window...
He's doing pretty well in WRC considering, but to do rallying well you need years of experience which it is doubtful Raikkonen will build up to any meaningful amount. Guys like Loeb have been rallying all their lives. For Raikkonen, as talented a driver as he is, it's a hobby and an interest.
Don't let Raikkonen's attitude fool you. His first choice was to stay in Formula 1 and to go to McLaren. When that didn't happen he totally ignored Mercedes, which was a wise decision, and decided to align himself with a backer in Red Bull that would allow him to return and ultimately have a championship winning car. Rallying was a hobby he wanted to continue doing while in Formula 1, and McLaren was never going to allow him to do that though. Renault should allow him that opportunity with a foot back in the door, make Webber and Vettel look like idiots and he'll then jump ship to Red Bull.
Having a Russian in F1 is good for the long-term commercial possibilities, but Kimi would be a welcome addition to the grid. He's a threat to win any time his head is in the game. I'd love to see him back -- even if it's not in a Ferrari.
Enzo Ferrari was a great man. But he was not a good man. -- Phil Hill
It would be good to have a stronger line up.
hamiliton, button, alonso,massa,rosberg, shui, vettle, webber, kimi, kubica.
hopefully all in competitive cars would be great fun.
Im not guaranteeing all cars will be roughly equal but I would expect the teams to be in the ball park.
Petrov has got the next 2 or 3 GP to show his potential. He clearly has speed, but makes rash decisions in the race and his Quali pace is poor at best. Looking at other GP2 drivers that came into the sport this year, Hulkenberg is maturing nicely, showing consistency and getting better, now outshining his massivly experienced team mate on occasion, Di Grasi is difficult to judge, shows flashes of brilliance, but compaired to Glock is slow now. Chandhok and Senna are the ones that are even harder to judge as they are driving a GP1 car not a F1 car in comparison to Petrov.
Petrov i think will stay in F1 but would be wise to take a demotion in race seat, maybes even go to HRT next year in the modified TF110 would be the best posibility for him. Renault are loosing out on points, if you look at BMW Sauber.
WIlliams split is 66/34% in favour of Rubens
Mercedes split is 71/29% in favour of Nico
Renaults split is 85/15% in favour of Bob
Force India Split is 78/22 in favour of Adrian
Saubers split is 22/78 in favour of Kimui
I think Chandhok deserves a better seat, he's constantly outshone his team-mate who was supposed to be the new messiah, granted the HRT car is a GP2 car in disguise but he has a great deal of potential and a real nice guy (counts for everything lol)
HRT in talks with Villeneuve /Durango ? Villeneueve seems to have a complete or near complete car design to bring into a possible takeover of an existing team ..HRT?
So HRT now in the luxury of having Geoff Willis currently working on HRT 001 ,Epsilon Euskadi available to supply their design,Toyota prepared to supply a TF110 based contender and now Villeneuve trying to find a ways to get on the grid with a design he has a lot of trust in.
thats 4 designs ..HRT just need some bucks and they will spring a brawn in 2011..
Or ...could it be villeneuve has his fingers already on the Toyota project .as we all know he was in Cologne early this year for a seat fitting and who would think there was no excahnge of business cards happening then and there?
Villeneuve stated that they wanted a place on grid for 2011 but FIA announced that 13th team won't be available. So he said they got a plan B which was taking over on of the existing teams. HRT is a really nice target for him.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."~William Shakespeare
JV should just give it up, he would be cool in F1 but no one wants to remember him as a backmarker... Wait, thats what he was in 2006 with BMW Sauber.
As for HRTs design for next year, the Epsilon supply of their design was taken out of the equasion by the owner of HRT. The Toyota TF110 in a Modified for 2011 deal is on the table, id put a figure of $10 million a chassis as a ball park figure, and ideally they would need 3. The thing about the TF110 deal is that they could ditch X-trac as well and use the Toyota gearbox next year as well. As for the Geoff Willis designed HRT001 chassis, it will be a good chassis, but where and who will make it??? There has been reports of the HRT & Toyota contract already being signed for 2011.
One thing that HRT will have to think of is what KERS it will use, as its looking like all the Renault, Ferarri and Mercedes teams will be using their engines associated KERS, Virgin have yet to decide and Williams are using their own Flybrid KERS.
However, i have found out that HRT could be just about to ditch one of their drivers for Pedro De La Rosa, whitch could see Senna loose his seat, or if they want better results, drop Yamamotto. But ideally they should bring Chandhok back into the action and give Christian Klien a chance for one race.
villeneuve did not less good as Kubica who was his replacement in that year having tested and done a lot of friday sessions that season.he definitely was not a backmarker when BMW dropped him.
Kolles is a shrewd guy.. he says EE is not up to it.. simply to get a better price and this a s a base to get into negotiations with more attractive alternatives.
I´don´t think the toyota is that expensive..and still they need to fit the cosworth engine into it..so gearbox rework 7new housing necessary and a lot of adaptions
Morteza AMG wrote:Villeneuve stated that they wanted a place on grid for 2011 but FIA announced that 13th team won't be available. So he said they got a plan B which was taking over on of the existing teams. HRT is a really nice target for him.
Looks like Virgin could also be a target. Sir Richard is likely to end up serving tea to Tony and he might loose the fun in running the team under the Virgin banner. F1 isn't going to become the money maker it was thought to be when he took the plunge.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
Branson is no quitter, im sure that he will give it a multiple year investment. The fact there is $40 million coming from Virgin and more from other sponsors shows the team has a buisness model that it wants to stick to. The fact that Nick With has just expanded his side of things bringing all 3 buildings of his old site under a single roof with regaurds to CFD, simulator and 7 post rig is a good thing, they used 30% of the alloted CFD power for this year, and will be closer to where they should be next year is only a good thing. Manor GP are now starting to look to expand their side as well, they need a new site so they can bring their 3 buildings under 1 as well.
I think that Virgin will be on the grid for 2011. As for HRT in the current guise, id say not, id say that they will either be taken over or not make it. Virgin i think is needed in F1, HRT id say is not and would not be missed.
