2012-13 Silly Season

[donald29]

FR3.5 > GP2, for last season at least. I think that's something that needs to be factored in here as well, GP2 is too expensive. There was a blog post from Saward explaining it a while back about how it's basically a nice little earner for the series bosses and suppliers.

[majidasadi]

German GP in doubt? i think i read somewhere that Hockenheim is not going to host German GP in 2013 due to its financial problems,so are we going to have just 18 races for next season?

http://www.f1zone.net/news/ecclestone-c ... lks/17497/

[phil1993]

FR3.5 > GP2, for last season at least. I think that's something that needs to be factored in here as well, GP2 is too expensive. There was a blog post from Saward explaining it a while back about how it's basically a nice little earner for the series bosses and suppliers.

Indeed. GP2's becoming a rich boy's series. There's very few guys out there because of talent. It'd be nice if every F1 team had a GP2 team. But alas life works not like that...

[donald29]

Looks like Valsecchi will be Lotus' reserve.

[phil1993]

Wolff will be getting an expanded role
http://www.f1zone.net/news/wolff-gets-e ... ole/17507/

Valsecchi as 3rd driver seems like a good choice. Quick enough to keep Romain on his toes and possibly a Kimi replacement in the long run.

[sugarcube]

Looks like Valsecchi will be Lotus' reserve.

Or Nicolas Prost? http://i.imgur.com/Y09JaXr.jpg

Edit: Just saw the articles on the front page.

Third Driver - Valsecchi / Development Driver - N. Prost / Reserve Driver - D’Ambrosio

[reppo]

But lets take up the Bottas topic then.

Toto Wolf was the team Executive Director of Williams (high seat). He is also deeply involved in managing Bottas career paths.
Isn't it unfair to other drivers that one driver witch is good but not the best out there gets the seat just because the manager has a high role in a team?
Shouldn't there be a claus that says management roles and team-related roles should be kept separated? IMO, yes!

Fair or unfair who knows. Though I don't believe Toto had much effect in Williams as Valtteri's manager since the last word comes from Frank and the board, who is responsible to shareholders. Valtteri does not bring a fat money bag to the team. Besides Toto has hinted he is retiring from driver management, F1: Toto Wolff unlikely to remain driver manager. Of course he probably is not doing it completely because he is a co-owner of Aces Management with Didier Coton and Mika Häkkinen. BTW, incidentally Coton, who was Häkkinen's manager in McLaren, joined to Hamilton's managing team year ago. He is (was?) well respected manager in McLaren and then he was managing Lewis to Mercedes - bummers. Multiple people has multiple roles in F1 and I think it would be hard to forbid since F1 society is so small.

[reppo]

http://www.ts.fi/moottoriurheilu/f1/443 ... n+paikalle (in Finnish)

Petrov is been tailored into Glock seat
F1 | Turun Sanomat 01/29/2013 22:53

30-year-old Timo Glock's leaving from F1 circles to BMW's DTM racing driver is shaping driver markets.

Glock already had a follow-up contract with Marussia team in his pocket, but in the same way as Jarno Trulli a year earlier in Caterham, the contract was paid out and the Russian team is able to take to the other seat a driver who brings in sponsor money, so-called pay driver.

Behind the scenes the rumor is that Vitaly Petrov's background crew have been active, and been negotiating the number one seat to 28-year-old Russian is Marussia.

Logically Petrov with his Russian connections would have a lot to offer to the Russian team, while at the same time the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi in 2014 is approaching.

Petrov drove Renault in 2010-11 and last year in Caterham as Heikki Kovalainen's team mate. Altogether he has 58 Grand Prix races on his belt and 64 points from Renault era.

At Brazil at the end of last season Petrov made ​​a so-called zero teams so far best result by driving Caterham into 11th place in the race, which raised the team tenth in manufacturers championship ahead of Marussia.

It looks like Caterham and Marussia are arm wrestling this year too for the tenth place which justifies for the last share of TV money. So far, Caterham has an agreement with French Charles Pic, while Marussia will bring a new face British Max Chilton to the show.

If Petrov goes alongside with Chilton to Marussia, Caterham needs a driver, which is capable for at least the same as Petrov.

When Caterham chooses the driver according to sponsorship money, Bruno Senna's chances have again improved. With the money Senna also has 46-GP race experience.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

[reppo]

Apparently both Petrov and Kovalainen are out from F1. MTV3 writes that Giedo van der Garde has made a deal with Caterham.
http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.s ... 1-kuskinsa (in Finnish)
Giedo has also tweeted yesterday evening that he'll tell about his plans today afternoon. So, what else can it be?

[marcus666]

Since it has been announced that Van der garde is gonna drive for caterham next year...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDkK8a4jHZ8

...Apparently, he was leading at that moment (In the race!).

[mikhailv]

Well, I hope Pic does well, but I hope caterham as a whole fails. Shouldnt have got rid of Kovalainen or Trulli IMO. I hope Marussia take 10th with two rookies and caterham are ashamed.

[François]

I don't know what to think about Giedo. His career seems to go up and down, I was suprised to find out he had been the 2008 FR3.5 champ! But maybe this series's level has increased since. Anyway, he's been very mediocre in GP2 since then. Let's see what he makes of that opportunity.

[phil1993]

Senna leaves F1 - he's signed for Aston Martin in WEC.

[reppo]

http://www.ts.fi/moottoriurheilu/f1/447 ... Kovalaista (in Finnish)

Whitmarsh wants to help Kovalainen
F1 | Turun Sanomat 02/06/2013 23:33

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh is sorry that his former driver's Heikki Kovalainen's F1 career seems to be ending early.

Whitmarsh acknowledged to Turku Sanomat that he had made inquires to help Kovalainen back into F1 circuits with close relations to Marussia team.

- I spoke with Heikki on Tuesday, when I thought about trying to help him by opening the way to Marussia. One way or another, he will hopefully get a seat in F1. He definitely deserves to be here, Whitmarsh confirmed Wednesday morning.

Marussia has business relationships with McLaren. The team, however, filled the seat with 23-year-old Brazilian Luiz Razia when his contract was confirmed on Wednesday morning, and he got to work right away in Jerez test. The other driver is British newcomer Max Chilton.

In McLaren Kovalainen won a race in Hungary 2008. He drove McLaren in seasons 2008-09.

Turun Sanomat, Jerez

HEIKKI KULTA

Funny how people are popping up to feel sorry for Heikki and now defending him. Sure he is better than many currently in the track but the game has become cruel. The sport used to be absolute top fun for motorsport enthusiast at the time when no team had much money and drivers didn't even dream to become millionaires. Talents got easily picked up to the top class. Some could get a try by money but it was not a mandatory. Then money started play a bigger role in the business and young drivers needed financial backing to get their foot between the door of F1. The investment wasn't so big but Häkkinen, Räikkönen and many others got help from their managers in early years. Now you need first of all to have money and then talent would be good too. Can't blame teams for that. They must live or die according their financial resources. Top designers, staff and technology are expensive and there is not much other choices for small teams than get the money or diminish.

Afterwards it is easy to be wise but maybe Heikki could have do something differently. He was too long in Caterham. Two years ago he was ranked to tenth best driver by team principals even Caterham sucked. He should have made plans to get into a better team. Maybe the move to IMG Motorsport management wasn't too good either. IMG had no experience on F1 before and Heikki was their first client in the sport. Heikki has always been too nice - always smiling and always positive, no bad word about anything and always ready to chat with media. No wonder one German magazine gave him a nick name Niceman. More aggressive attitude to defend himself might have helped a bit. Also his stubborn refusal to be a pay driver. With sponsors he would still be in the sport but he is old school and it is kind of matter of honor. But F1 world is cruel. You need money to get in. You need money to stay in. If you survive three years you can consider yourself lucky. If you survive five years you can call yourself a veteran. Some talents get their shot in top teams and some of them becomes the masters. The sport is not like it used to be.

[phil1993]

The sport is better now than it has been. Well, maybe 5 years ago was better. Because of huge budgeted manufacturer teams.

F1 has always been about money.