But never this late. To memory, it's always been before Christmas (the announcement)dren wrote:Hasn't FI been historically late to announce drivers?
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But never this late. To memory, it's always been before Christmas (the announcement)dren wrote:Hasn't FI been historically late to announce drivers?
You mean Aethra? If i'm not mistaking, they were a FI sponsor in 2012 also.ESPImperium wrote:Interesting sponsor on the side pod barge boards, the main personal sponsor of Bianchi.
They were, but paid the €6m for Bianchi and his 9 P1 outings and his 3 days testing in both young driver days and his one pre season day that he binned the car during the install lap.Forghieri wrote:You mean Aethra? If i'm not mistaking, they were a FI sponsor in 2012 also.ESPImperium wrote:Interesting sponsor on the side pod barge boards, the main personal sponsor of Bianchi.
Ok, thanks for the info, Senna might have the €€€'s but Bianchi brings along a very nice dowry, in the form of Ferrari V6 turbosESPImperium wrote:They were, but paid the €6m for Bianchi and his 9 P1 outings and his 3 days testing in both young driver days and his one pre season day that he binned the car during the install lap.Forghieri wrote:You mean Aethra? If i'm not mistaking, they were a FI sponsor in 2012 also.ESPImperium wrote:Interesting sponsor on the side pod barge boards, the main personal sponsor of Bianchi.
They paid for him in GP2 and WSR last year too. Id say they have a €10m budget for Bianchi, but that would be about half of what Force India would want. There is only one driver that has the available €€€ to get close to the Force India rumoured needed amount for a pay driver. That driver is Bruno Senna.
Great for Jules! Saw it coming a little, when Di Montezemolo crowned De La Rosa as third driver, because he "hoped" Bianchi would get the seat.fritticaldi wrote:Excellent news :Jules Bianchi will drive the Force India this Friday according to italiaracing.net
Di Resta will drive first then development driver, Rossiter.
Doesn't necessarily confirm that Bianchi will get the seat, but it makes it more likely. They already said they were planning to keep Bianchi in a testing/Friday role and sticking with Hulkenberg until he decided to leave. Either way it's a pretty weak grid if so many faster drivers have had to make way for young drivers with excessive backing. I'm not expecting Force India to do well this season though, they seem to have the most basic car, although on the other hand they finished last season very strongly so they probably know what they're doing. The driver lineup is a real disappointment though. The weakest they've ever had by a fair margin.Forghieri wrote:Great for Jules! Saw it coming a little, when Di Montezemolo crowned De La Rosa as third driver, because he "hoped" Bianchi would get the seat.fritticaldi wrote:Excellent news :Jules Bianchi will drive the Force India this Friday according to italiaracing.net
Di Resta will drive first then development driver, Rossiter.
Sutil preparing for Force India test outing
Adrian Sutil could test for Force India during the second pre-season gathering of the year at the Circuit de Catalunya next week, with GPUpdate.net learning that the German has completed a seat fitting in the team's VJM06 chassis.
Sutil, who is not yet guaranteed a test outing, is a leading candidate for the vacant seat alongside Paul di Resta. The 30-year-old drove for the outfit under various guises between 2007 and 2011 and is up against 2012 reserve Jules Bianchi.
"Adrian has had a seat fitting," a team spokesperson confirmed to GPUpdate.net. "The line-up is not finalised, but there is a possibility Adrian could be involved."
Force India is expected to reveal its full Circuit de Catalunya testing line-up on Monday. The venue, situated to the north of Barcelona, will host the final two pre-season tests of the year from 19-22 February and 28 February to 3 March respectively.
That was my first thought to, but it could also mean trouble for Di Resta, who doesn't have a lot of sponsors, maybe they'll go for Sutil and Bianchi (who could bring along the Ferrari engines for a reasonable price in 2014).n_anirudh wrote:Sutil brings in the sponsorship -- Medion bank and knows the team well.Guess Bianchi would still stay as reserve and get the occasional Friday outing