Silly Season 2011/2012

[yace]

trulli was ahead of alonso in 2004, when flavio sacked him at the half of the season. glock is also a gp2 champion, bu couldn't beat trulli at toyota. finally i agree with timbo, he impressed by his race performances, his fights etc...

[ringo]

Renault says Kimi Raikkonen did not suffer any serious harm when he crashed in a snow mobile race in Austria today.

The Formula 1 returnee was reported to have fallen on an early run in the event and suffered pain from his left wrist, ruling him out of the rest of the weekend.

But the Renault team has issued a message via its Twitter feed underlining that Raikkonen was largely unscathed.

"We just spoke to Kimi," it read. "There's nothing to worry about, he only has a sore wrist. He might have it checked again on Monday, but that's all."

Here we go again.

[Giblet]

Webber broke his leg riding bikes yet he went straight to do the Tasman kayak/running/bike race right after Brazil. Schumi snapped his neck racing bikes for fun yet returned to F1. Montoya hurt his shoulder playing motorcycle-tennis. Zanardi lost both his legs and still races cars. Frank Williams rolls up in a wheel chair every day. These guys have all known and seen people die or get extremely badly hurt in motor racing, but get back in the next day and go as fast as they can.

These guys are competitors, and it is in their blood. Kimi not racing what he wants would not be Kimi. These guys have serious stones.

I'd assume stop Kimi from racing outside F1 as I would stop my cat from chasing mice. Its in the blood (and the contracts).

[Raiden]

trulli was ahead of alonso in 2004, when flavio sacked him at the half of the season. glock is also a gp2 champion, bu couldn't beat trulli at toyota. finally i agree with timbo, he impressed by his race performances, his fights etc...

Trulli was sacked with 3 races to go, in case you were wondering. And yes he was ahead of Alonso at the time. So he pretty much beat Alonso that year.

[Raiden]

It's much easier to beat Trulli than it is to beat Alonso. Also, weren't the two teammates at some point? I seem to remember Koba getting beat by Grosjean in... Gp2?

Well Wendlinger beat Schumacher in F3. Albeit it was by 1 point and Wendlinger was in his 2nd or 3rd season of F3 and Schumacher was a rookie. And look how that turned out.

But in any case lower formula beating someone doesn't mean you will turn out to be better in F1.

[Tyler]

Renault may have shot themselves in the foot.
Now they have 2 clueless drivers.

I susepect petrov will not race in 2012, unless Glock takes a back seat, and that may not be happening.

Sutil may well go to Williams and Hulk gets a seat.

So many ok drivers getting scraped off.

Not at all - other teams (e.g. Williams) will be kicking themselves for not nabbing him for one of their seats.
The guy is a marketing dream! - his comeback is getting even more attention than Schumachers!

Let's face it, he's a hugely popular driver, Lotus Renault is going to be getting a lot more television coverage because of Kimi and with that comes sponsorship.
Plus isn't he bringing a big sponsor from Quatar or something?

I think they should have given the other seat to Senna - the marketing potential of the 2 of them together would be huge!
Also I think Senna has got a lot of potential.
He's shown he is quick. Look at his qualifying performances - much quicker than Petrov or Heidfeld.

His problem is his racecraft but then he's still very unexperienced, that will come in time.
The important thing is he has natural speed, the rest can be worked on.

Big pity if he doesn't get a drive for next year.
As much as I like Grosjean, Lotus really should have chosen Senna! - what a waste of that JPS paintjob!

[ringo]

Webber broke his leg riding bikes yet he went straight to do the Tasman kayak/running/bike race right after Brazil. Schumi snapped his neck racing bikes for fun yet returned to F1. Montoya hurt his shoulder playing motorcycle-tennis. Zanardi lost both his legs and still races cars. Frank Williams rolls up in a wheel chair every day. These guys have all known and seen people die or get extremely badly hurt in motor racing, but get back in the next day and go as fast as they can.

These guys are competitors, and it is in their blood. Kimi not racing what he wants would not be Kimi. These guys have serious stones.

I'd assume stop Kimi from racing outside F1 as I would stop my cat from chasing mice. Its in the blood (and the contracts).

We had a similar discussion when kubica just crashed.
I still don't agree with giving the driver too much freedom pre season.
If they need to risk their career they're not worth it for the team. Teams need to put clauses in driver contracts where if they injure themselves outside of an F1 car on another machine to the point where they cannot operate the F1 car, they void the contract and the hit the road.

[Giblet]

I think I remember. That is a good idea though to have that exit clause. You want to risk your life on a snowmobile, fine. You wipe out, its not our problem.

The problem is though, it is their problem. There was simply not a backup Kubica kicking around. While it would give the team a great and easy out, it does nothing to improve their position.

Part of the issue is that teams are too reliant on cash and the whims of sponsors coming and going. If the budgets were reasonable than a bad season due to an injured driver would not be such a serious issue.

There is too much at stake now. It used to be more fun.

[Tyler]

You would have thought Renault would have learned their lesson by now and that they would have put something in Kimi's contract to stop him competing in things like this.

[MIKEY_!]

Renault says Kimi Raikkonen did not suffer any serious harm when he crashed in a snow mobile race in Austria today.

The Formula 1 returnee was reported to have fallen on an early run in the event and suffered pain from his left wrist, ruling him out of the rest of the weekend.

But the Renault team has issued a message via its Twitter feed underlining that Raikkonen was largely unscathed.

"We just spoke to Kimi," it read. "There's nothing to worry about, he only has a sore wrist. He might have it checked again on Monday, but that's all."

Here we go again.

And this is why I love KIMI!!!!!!!! The man is a nut case.

[ringo]

Well renault better mind they scare investors off with their high risk dont give a damn driver selections.

Don't know if you guys are looking at it that way, but once bitten twice shy. And if they're going to bring in someone who has a death wish, for the second year in a row, then i'd be pulling out my money and taking it elsewhere.
Maybe williams or Sauber; somewhere more stable.

[andartop]

Or maybe investors are attracted to drivers with a riskier attitude as they generate more buzz. I would certainly rather put my money on a driver like Kimi or Kubica, instead of a "safe" and "boring" driver.

Motorsport can be dangerous, but so is driving to work every day. Plus, with all the silly testing bans these guys really need to do something to keep on edge. Simulators are not nearly as good as the real thing yet..

[megz]

Megz your point was good but your last three examples are bogus. Everyone had the same problem in 2009 (not quite with KERS admittedly), 2010 and 2011. The point is that Kimi will start behind the game.

The idea was to come up with ridiculous examples to show what a ridiculous argument was being made. Yes Kimi has been out of F1 for two years and yes there will be time needed to re-adapt probably. What Kimi has on his side is a proven record of being able to drive around car problems and adapt to new cars and do so quickly + winter testing.

My point is that while Kimi might not be as sharp as he perhaps could be, he will still be on the pace and be so quickly (IMO)

Grosjean has, in the past, struggled. That was my previous point but I also gave a potential reason for that struggling in 2009. He will have more time to adapt and the GP2 cars aren't quite as different now as they were in 2009.

[Tyler]

I don't think it will take Kimi long to re-adapt.
It's not like he's been sitting on the couch for 2 years.
If anything, I'm hoping that rally driving may even have sharpened his skills.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Rumour has it Kobayashi could be dropped by Sauber in favour of Bianchi.

Terrible news if it happens... Kobayashi deserves better IMO.