Silly Season 2011/2012

[Tyler]

Sutil's seat is safe IMO. He has been pretty consistent this year. I can't remember any mistakes from him, only the short end of the strategy stick.

I'd like to believe that too - I've said it before but I think Mallaya will be foolish to get rid of such a reliable, good points scorer in favour of the more unknown in terms of ability, Hulkenburg, who, if rumours are to believed will take his seat.
Kubica's seat is looking uncertain.
This is one of the biggest tradgedies I think as he obviously looked so promising.
Hopefully he'll be back in full force in 2013 - my wife's Polish, so by default he's 2nd in line of drivers I support

[Jeffsvilleusa]

http://www.yallaf1.com/2011/11/05/wolff ... otiations/

The Raikkonen rumor is gaining momentum. I'm pretty sure Raikkonen once said he wouldn't consider coming back unless it was with a competitive team, but I'd rather see him on the grid in a Williams than not at all.

[raymondu999]

I think he said a top car as in championship calibre. But he also said in a recent interview that Red Bull was the only one with a top car so it didn't matter much anyways. Basically kind of "I'm not here to just win races; I want to fight for the title." so if only one team can win the title anyways, then it doesn't matter if it's a back marker or a race winner

[Trailer23]

Sébastien Buemi future after a couple of weeks...

[CMSMJ1]

Would be superb to see Kimi back. He was a and can be a great driver and it would be a bonus for F1 to have a quarter of the grid as ex WDC.

What is JV up to these days??

[raymondu999]

Oh please no. JV is probably just about as unworthy as champions get.

[Trailer23]

Oh please no. JV is probably just about as unworthy as champions get.

I know i'm gonna get hate mail for this one..., but I have the exact same thoughts for his former WilliamsF1 teammate - Damon Hill.

[raymondu999]

I sort of agree; but Damon to a far lesser extent than JV

[Lurk]

Mysteriously Lotus Renault or whatever their name is now have fallen apart with Heidfelds departure in terms of scoring points even though it looks like the car has found some speed compared to the midseason drop around Silverstone ...How many points did they score since then ?
6points ..in 6 races...funny that axing Heidfeld has not done anything good for Petrovs reputation..the two chaps sitting in the car now seem to be even worse in giving the team direction.

Well, LRGP scored only 6 points the 4 races before Heidfeld was fired. They were already declining with Heidfeld. So it is not really related to the drivers I think...

[MIKEY_!]

If I were kubica I'd be wondering if they are really a good option to return to.

[megz]

Oh please no. JV is probably just about as unworthy as champions get.

I know i'm gonna get hate mail for this one..., but I have the exact same thoughts for his former WilliamsF1 teammate - Damon Hill.

Damon at least had the decency to win other races in other cars that weren't the dominant species.

[Richard]

Damon also served his time as an apprentice which gets a bit more respect. He was also a nice bloke as most the guys who have done hard graft in F1 often are, it was nice to have a non-prima-donna win the WDC.

With regard to Sutil, one can only assume that Hulkenberg will bring in more sponsorship. It might work out for Sutil to go to Renault if Kubica doesn't come back in 2012, then he could end up end up in faster car. Or Kubica might return but Renault might want to hedge their bets with the reliability of Sutil in case Kubica takes a while to get on form.

Which brings us onto Renault. They are not fighting for position in the WCC with Merc or FI. If they were in a WCC fight then they'd have had to stick with Heidfeld. There is nothing to fight for, so if you can't cash in on the FEE for WCC places then why not cash in on a famous name? Senna has been planning for this for some time so he'd have sponsors lined up, whereas Heidfeld wouldn't have had anything lined up at such short notice.

[marcush.]

Mysteriously Lotus Renault or whatever their name is now have fallen apart with Heidfelds departure in terms of scoring points even though it looks like the car has found some speed compared to the midseason drop around Silverstone ...How many points did they score since then ?
6points ..in 6 races...funny that axing Heidfeld has not done anything good for Petrovs reputation..the two chaps sitting in the car now seem to be even worse in giving the team direction.

Well, LRGP scored only 6 points the 4 races before Heidfeld was fired. They were already declining with Heidfeld. So it is not really related to the drivers I think...

5 of them scored by Mr.Heidfeld...to be a bit nitpicky...and if you like :Renault scored 20 points in the 6 races before Heidfeld was fired ....just for the record.
It is undebatable that their race results have dropped since he is gone.Without really having checked i have the impression their Qualyspeed has not suffered compared to the rest but they are just plain useless with their races.

[Richard]

Renault's drive selection is influenced by the FEE. It would cost too much to re-engineer the car to blow the diffuser at the rear, and all that effort would go in the bin when a blown diffuser is banned next year. Anyway, why bother to develop a car when 4th in the WCC is out of reach, and the team in 6th isn't challenging you?

So they've gone for maximising their cash in the second half of the season with two pay divers. Which brings me back on topic.

They need 3 drivers for next year in case Kubica isn't ready. If they knew Kubica would be out for most of 2012, then Sutil and Petrov is possible/

But who would they drop if Kubica returned? Sutil & Kubica would be a strong combination for race pace, but the way they treated Heidfeld shows they might drop Sutil to keep Petrov's cash.

[MIKEY_!]

Petrov is already signed for 2012 so I think they could have some legal trouble getting rid of him.