The Scuderia Ferrari today announced that Giancarlo Fisichella will take over from Luca Badoer for the remaining of the season. But Stefano Domenicali also confirmed that the Italian driver will stay with the Maranello-based outfit in 2010, but than as a test and reserve driver.
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I guess that is more important than the speed, yes.
Any change in car's setup would be then easily evaluated and noted.
He's been with Ferrari as a Test Driver for a while, hasn't he?
Don't you think he wouldn't be a test driver were Ferrari not happy with his performance?
Now how fast can Fisi get acclimatized to the car without any testing? I am happy for him as it is any Italian's dream to drive a red car. Good for you Giancarlo! I hope you push Kimi like you did at Spa.
Innovation over refinement is the prefered path to performance. -- Get rid of the dopey regs in F1
He will be fine, its not like he has to fight Kimi for simulator time, He could sleep in that room for the next 2 weeks and never see Kimi in the flesh.
ISLAMATRON wrote:He will be fine, its not like he has to fight Kimi for simulator time, He could sleep in that room for the next 2 weeks and never see Kimi in the flesh.
I can say that in rFactor, I am not that consistant to run long races, but my setups have won several races, and 2 series championships with a friend using them.
Badoer would need to understand car behavior, and what to do to solve undesirable behavior. He would not need to be fast, nor overly consistantly over long runs. He would just need to know the driving style of the GP driver that he is testing for. Like me setting up in rFactor. If I can lay down consistant 1:45's, I know my friend will put together consistant 1:41's. He gets about 20 times the practice that I do, but that is OK, because it works.
Anyways, after Mallya not only denies Fisi going to Ferrari, but disses Ian Phillips for even commenting about it, and a few days later is talking like he was the ultimate savior...
I don't know how Fisi will do, but with the language synergy, and knowing the engine from last year, he will only really need to get used to the chassis, and the all mighty KERS button!
Mallya on Monday: "Force India F1 Team would like to clarify some reports that have appeared in a section of the press a little while ago with regard to Giancarlo Fisichella. During a press conference via telephone shortly after the team’s podium finish, in response to specific and repeated questions on the subject, Fisichella has himself clarified that he has ‘not received any invitation from Ferrari’ and went on to add that ‘he was looking forward to driving the Force India car at the Monza GP’.
There has been absolutely no change whatsoever on this front since yesterday and we look forward to Fisichella scorching the tracks at Monza.
Ian Philips’ comments do not reflect the views of the Force India Formula One Team Management since he is not the designated spokesperson for the team nor is he authorized to speak to the media. His comments should therefore be ignored. We completely deny as baseless, whatever is reportedly attributed to him in reports that have appeared in a section of the press a short while ago."
Mallya today: "Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari. For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this. Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo's long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardise this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India.
"We would like to stress that we have not agreed any financial settlement with Ferrari. This agreement has been made in good faith and for the good of Giancarlo and the sport in general. A competitive Italian driver in a Ferrari for Monza is a positive story for Formula One, which can only help raise the sport's profile in these difficult times.
"We would like to thank Giancarlo for all his help over the past one and a half seasons and for delivering us our first World Championship points last weekend. He has been an integral part of the team and we owe him a great deal for his input behind the scenes and performance out on track. We wish him all the best for the future.
"For Force India, this sport is a team effort and removing one part, even a major one, will not significantly affect our performance. The competitiveness of the team seen in Belgium was a result of hard work in the factory and wind tunnel and we have further developments coming for the final races, so we are confident this momentum can be sustained. We are now looking forward to a strong finish to the season."
ISLAMATRON wrote:did you see him before Ferarri? Yes he was really that bad, he improved alot, but effort gets you only so far when you have almost no talant.
He's like that 4 foot 6 kid who hits 100% of his free throws but wants to make the high school basketball team.
Are we talking about the same driver, one that took the F3000 championship at his first attempt and that in 4 years of Formula One with hopeless cars (his 1993-1999 period) always compared decently to any team-mate?
