2010 Formula 1 Season - Official Discussion Thread

[JoostLamers]

Soucek rules out Campos seat

Spoiler:

Andy Soucek set the pace in testing on Tuesday for Williams at Jerez and is targeting a move to Formula One next season.

However, while relatively well funded, the Formula Two champion does not have the funds needed to join Bruno Senna at the new Capos Meta 1 team next season.

"I think I deserve a seat in Formula One next year,” he told Spanish daily AS. "I am speaking with teams."

He told F2's official website that he is focused on stepping up to F1 next year, and has a swathe of backers equally keen to make it happen.

"I have to say I'm really positive because I have a lot of help in Spain and from different sponsors, my manager and Jaime are doing a great job in discussions with different F1 teams," he said.

Campos is a new Spanish team, but Soucek plays down suggestions he is the logical choice to be Senna's team-mate.

"Actually there was not much interest there," he admitted. "I know it's a Spanish team and I'm a Spanish driver, so it's logical. But they actually require more budget than I have. I'm not in that position now."

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http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091202141012.shtml

[Coopz]

He must be confident of getting a better drive then, what a a silly boy if he don't.

[Coopz]

Link?

[harrisv48]

Lotus annnouncement drivers next week
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 4341.shtml

It well interesting to see again Villeneuve.

[luque75]

Lopez to drive for USF1

Oh. Dear. God

Jose Maria Lopez has revealed that he will race for US F1 next season if he can secure the rest of his sponsorship package.

The Argentine driver visited US F1's Charlotte headquarters this week to conclude a conditional deal with team founders Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson.

...

"It's a new team, facing this project from scratch, something different to my experience in Renault, where it was a structure with a lot of years of experience in Formula 1," said Lopez.

"But I have been impressed by the commitment and professionalism with which they are facing this project. We have seen a windtunnel that's nearly real scale, something fundamental to the development of the car which hopefully I will be using in 2010."

Personally, I love Jose, but I sure know he's NOT going to be competative.

Mind you, if F1 is going to become more like the mid-90s in terms of car shape, field size and shorter lived constructors, we've got to get used to having a field on average a lot worse than the last few years, which has had a great standard, compared to even the late 1990s. So imagine Pastor Maldonado, Jose Maria Lopez and others on the same grid and imagine the fun we could have next year.

Hey guys, I'm Argentinian, and I know very well Lopez's career. I'm pretty sure that he'll need time to adjust to the F1 again, since he hasn't race a car since 2006, when he was Alonso's tester, but don't take him as a joke, I understand that he won't be in top 10, but at least i expect much more than the latest argentinian drivers experience (Tuero and Mazzaccane, those two guys were REALLY a joke). Hope you'll geet to know him and respect him.

[tristan1117]

Well, let's hope he's better than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7he6DeV7D8

OR this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLiIA4e3 ... re=related

[Ali]

Renault on point of quitting F1: deal with Prodrive under study

Spoiler:

Renault is working out a plan to leave Formula 1 before the start of next season, according to L’Equipe newspaper in France.

A team has been charged by Renault president Carlos Ghosn with making a study into the possibility of striking a deal with Prodrive’s David Richards to take the team on.

Ghosn made some uncomplimentary remarks about F1 recently, claiming that it was drifting out of relevance, with the challenge for car makers in the 21st century being all about ecology and sustainability. Renault recently launched four new electric models onto the market.

According to L’Equipe, Renault Sport president Bernard Rey is leading the work to find an exit strategy while Ghosn has been meeting F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone a lot recently.

Richards was in Abu Dhabi and indicated that he was interested in working with a team to restructure for the new-look F1 with slimmed down workforces, along the lines of the Brawn and Force India models. Some of the bigger teams are going to have to lose a significant number of the workforce to fit within the resource restriction agreement and slim the travelling race team down to 45 people, roughly the number Force India was taking last season. This takes considerable expertise.

Richards will be looking for a deal which involves the minimum spend on acquisition. According to L’Equipe, Richards has a second tier manufacturer behind him, looking to make an impression on a global scale through F1. Given the increasing globalisation of F1 teams, with a US team and a Malaysian team joining the circus next year, I wonder whether it might possibly be one of the Korean brands, something Ecclestone would be likely to encourage as he seeks to push the sport into new markets. There is a Korean Grand Prix on the calendar next season.

“We will announce something the day we have something to announce,” said a Priodrive spokesman yesterday. “Prodrive had its candidature turned down by the FIA for 2010, but would be ready to engage with F1 as long as it could be competitive and the business is viable.”

There is a suggestion that part of the incentive for Richards is to relocate his Prodrive business, sell the factory in Banbury and the Renault deal would allow him to move to much larger state of the art premises with built in wind tunnel, CFD department and far better facilities.

As for engines, as I wrote here last week, Renault will continue to supply engines for 2010 and it is not hard to imagine that this arrangement would continue until the end of 2012 when the engine formula is set to change – ironically to a more environmentally friendly formula, no longer based on engine capacity but on fuel efficiency – precisely the kind of thing Renault says is important for F1.

However Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, has said that Renault wants some assurances on engine parity before committing. It is not yet confirmed that his team will use the Renault engine next year, even though it appears on their entry in the FIA entry list. It depends on what steps are taken to equalise the engines, as the FIA has indicated that this year it should be rounded down rather than rounded up and it is up to the teams to decide among themselves how that should be done,

“I think it depends on what’s done with the engine regulations moving forward in terms of parity,” said Horner. “The teams have decided that the engine should not be a performance differentiator under the frozen rules. I think it’s vital, not just in the case of Renault, but in the case of all the engine manufacturers, that a solution is found.”

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http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/12/renault-on-point-of-quitting-f1-deal-with-prodrive-under-study/

Kubica might go to Mercedes now...

[phil1993]

http://www.ferrari.com/English/News/Pag ... amily.aspx

[Tom Vandenhove]

I srsly hope renault won't quit F1. And if they do, I hope they can return very soon

http://www.ferrari.com/English/News/Pag ... amily.aspx

hehe

[phil1993]

Sauber secures final slot

Sauber has been granted the final slot on the Formula 1 grid, the FIA has announced, bringing to an end months of uncertainty about the future of the team.

The Swiss-based outfit had been hanging in limbo since the summer following BMW's decision to pull out of F1.

An original deal with Qadbak proved troublesome, especially because it came too late for the team to be guaranteed a place on the original 2010 grid - with the 13th slot having been handed to Lotus.

However, the post-season decision by Toyota to quit F1 handed Sauber a fresh chance to get back on the grid – and its hopes were further boosted when Peter Sauber took over the outfit following the eventual collapse of the deal with Qadbak.

With Toyota having relinquished its entry, the FIA confirmed on Thursday that Sauber's application to join the championship had been successful – meaning the team will be racing in F1 next year.

"The FIA has written to inform BMW Sauber AG that their application for an entry in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship has been successful," said a statement issued by the FIA.

"Subject to their signing the Concorde Agreement, BMW Sauber will be awarded the 13th entry in the Championship, taking the place of the departing Toyota team.

"The FIA has worked closely with the Commercial Rights Holder and the teams involved over recent weeks and is grateful for their support in achieving the best outcome for the sport."

[Coopz]

Link?

[phil1993]

Every F1 website

[JoostLamers]

Sabuer named 7 potential drivers: DLR, Heidfeld, Petrov, Trulli, Kobayashi, Kovalainen and Klien

[TwistedArmco]

I'd love to see Cowboy-ashi and Kovalainen at Sauber. Kovy's a traditional Sauber driver: a makeweight with no wins in front of him, while Cowboy is a young guy, like Heidfeld, Raikkonen and Massa were, although of course their debut seasons had mixed results.

[sdutt]

Sabuer named 7 potential drivers: DLR, Heidfeld, Petrov, Trulli, Kobayashi, Kovalainen and Klien

Link??
not seen this anywhere