Silly Season 2011/2012

[Giblet]

Does'nt anyone else think that it's a disaster for the sport that Team Lotus has retained Jarno Trulli for next year!? There are many drivers in F1 that should be dropped for young talents and I think Jarno Trulli is on top of that list!

Jarno is known to be able to extract some pretty decent pace, and has sat in many different cars. Lotus is not a team that needs a blistering hot shoe at this point, they need drivers with good previous experience and development which Trulli and Kovi have.

[thelimey]

Perez & Bianchi to finally test 2009 Ferrari F60 at Fiorano this week
http://en.espnf1.com/ferrari/motorsport ... 58901.html

[raymondu999]

It looks like a seat shootout to me

[ESPImperium]

Does'nt anyone else think that it's a disaster for the sport that Team Lotus has retained Jarno Trulli for next year!? There are many drivers in F1 that should be dropped for young talents and I think Jarno Trulli is on top of that list!

Jarno is known to be able to extract some pretty decent pace, and has sat in many different cars. Lotus is not a team that needs a blistering hot shoe at this point, they need drivers with good previous experience and development which Trulli and Kovi have.

Giblet has it, Team Lotus is in need of experienced drivers that can extract the best from the car in terms of set up. Jarno has 246 starts and has been at 6 previous teams with 2 of them being Renault and Toyota, he has diven 18 diffrent F1 car philosiphys if you include B Specs as well. You cannot let this experience go in the first 3 years. I think 2012 will be his final year however.

Heikki has 83 starts and has been at Renault in the 2005-2006 Ferarri slaying years, he has been team mates with Fisichella and Hamilton previously and this is good experience as well as he had the speed to beat Fisi and on his day match Hamilton. He also has the satisfaction of being at McLaren when Hamilton won his title and also being at Renault when they won their Constructors title.

This is good experience, and this can drive the team forward alot quicker than €10m of development. Look at Hispania when they put Liuzzi into the car, within half a day, he was driving the F110+ about a second a lap faster than what it was with Karthikeyn they day previously, and about 1.5 seconds faster than the fastest time with Senna/Chandhok.

A driver with a few years experience, can always extract more in setup than a poorly set up car with a young guy with speed.

Team Lotus have gone with a diffrent philosiphy to Virgin and Hispania, they have gone with a good line up that can extract more from the car and have both cars finish than one being fast and not finish and one being a little slower and finishing as you can learn more from finishing that you can from completing less than half distance.

However, its all about having the best avalable technichal resource as well in terms of facilitys and technology and staff in and out of the car.

Team Lotus have gone with the best option in my opinion.

[donskar]

The drivers have not held back the car, but rather vice versa. They don't need faster drivers, they need a faster car -- and drivers who bring a helmet full of cash.

[marcush.]

with drivers like Perez and Maldonado you have to acknowledge it is a bit questionable to pay a driver when you can get quality drivers who can bring something more in terms of cash.
I think some of the top drivers fullfil this aim as well like Alonso or Schumacher and dare i say it Senna.. these will and have opened the door for sponsorship commitments so add value for the team .

If there is a potential bif sponsor prepared to come on board because of Trulli or Kovalainen or liuzzi I can´t say.

[nacho]

It's not that many pay drivers who are available who are on the level of Perez for example.

[godlameroso]

I see maybe for 2013 Gutierrez in at Sauber, and Perez in at Ferrari.

[marcush.]

van de Garde seems to have a wealthy mentor ...
Motorsports in general is expensive and guys like Hunt (who had lord Hesketh)or Alboreto (conte zanon)would have struggled to make it without their help...talent alone does not cut it .

[ESPImperium]

Van Der Garde comes from the Family (Or his mother does) who owns McGreggor fashion in the Netherlands. In effect hs has a billion and a few hundred million more behind him.

Charls Pic and his brother Arthur have a few hundred million from their parents buisness behind them as well.

Mikhail Aleshin has got the billions form GazProm behind him as well as he is well linked to the Russiona gas giant.

I can see some teams clamour for their money, This could put some guys out in the cold who have the tallent to come into F1 and stay in, it could also push out some others as well that deserve to be in F1.

Drivers like Valsecchi and Razia may not get a seat, also D'Ambrosio and Chandhok could be squeesed out, also Sutil is now in the non paying drivers rota now as his €5m from Medion has now gone as Medion have been taken over by Lenovo. All he has is the €2m from Coca Cola to advertise Capri-Sun on his helmet, but thats a personal sponsor and not a team sponsor.

Senna is in as he is bringing a reputed €10m to Renault till the end of the season now.

Rumor has it that Hulkenberg has now got some money behind him now to secure a Force India race seat, Also Paul Di Resta id say is safe as Force India wont loose the €8.5m that he has brought with him from White & McKay the Scottish Whisky manufacturer and the fact he is in there from Mercedes for a reduced engine bill each year.

I will say this, and this could be quite sweeping. Drivers will now look to try and forge a career in GP2 soon as it is more cost effective than F1, look at Luca Filippi, age 26 and now effectivly passed over by F1 as he was in the Honda youth set up when they pulled out, and now is the most experienced GP2 driver ever with 107 race starts. He was second last year in GP2 after Van Der Garde and Bianchi slumped mis season and Luca Filippi mopped up with a couple of timley wins.

Money is now king in F1 and those with money will now get a drive, however the guys with money can now race and are quick. Gone are the days of the mid 90s where the guy with the biggest ammount of money got the drive, regardless of tallent or experience.

[multisync]

Rumor has it that Hulkenberg has now got some money behind him now to secure a Force India race seat, Also Paul Di Resta id say is safe as Force India wont loose the €8.5m that he has brought with him from White & McKay the Scottish Whisky manufacturer and the fact he is in there from Mercedes for a reduced engine

W&M are owned by Kingfisher. My understanding was the W&M were bought with the aim of chaneling money out of India to Silverstone. Indian tax laws are very complex so this was the easiest way of funding the team.

PDR was part of the Merc deal and afaik nothing whatsoever to do with W&M (unless he's being used as part of the above 'scam'?)

[MIKEY_!]

I see maybe for 2013 Gutierrez in at Sauber, and Perez in at Ferrari.

So Massa or Alonso out. My bet is Massa but i don't know who is out of contract.

And sutil out at FI for Hulkenberg is that wise?

Could someone do a wrap up of potential moves so people don't have to trawl all the way back though this forum. Or at least a wrap up of who is out of contract end of this year.

[donskar]

It looks like a seat shootout to me

Although Perez is getting the attention, Bianch was several tenths faster (though they were apparently running two different programs). I'd like to see Massa move on (back to Sauber?) and another driver in Ferrari's #2 car.

[donskar]

With Zander joining HRT, Willis might be on the market. He could help any team that signs him. Solid background, lots of F1 experience. My interest in the "Silly Season" is focused on the tech guys. Great cars win races; drivers just aim them. Over the top? A very long list of drivers would have been WDC in Newey's current and previous designs.

[raymondu999]

I actually think that the Renault seat might not be too bad for a top driver looking for a drive. Massa could be good there