2012-13 Silly Season

[Treacle]

Alonso claims that Helmut Marko holds a grudge against him, because he repeatedly turned down Red Bull's offer...

[phil1993]

Thoughts on Glock's departure from Marussia
http://www.f1zone.net/news/glocks-depar ... ues/17434/

[donald29]

Alonso claims that Helmut Marko holds a grudge against him, because he repeatedly turned down Red Bull's offer...

Imagine if for the 2008 season Alonso had accepted Red Bull's offer not Renault's... He'd have likely won every championship since 2009.

[Treacle]

Alonso claims that Helmut Marko holds a grudge against him, because he repeatedly turned down Red Bull's offer...

Imagine if for the 2008 season Alonso had accepted Red Bull's offer not Renault's... He'd have likely won every championship since 2009.

Probably... But then it's Alonso who have lost quite a lot, not Red Bull.

[phil1993]

Some exchanges between Webber and Glock

Mark Webber ‏@AussieGrit
@realTimoGlock you'll be missed matey on the drivers parade and drivers meetings chats. One of the good guys, and never went to your head.

@AussieGrit Hi mate thanks a lot for that message that means a lot to me!thats the way of F1 at the moment hope it will change again soon...because like this it has nothing to do with sport!now it's up to you guys to make things clear in drivers meetings :-))) see you

[frubbs]

The Petrov´s sponsors were removed from caterham´s page at the same time bruno senna´s website went 'under construction'.

is it something ?!

Spoiler:

PT-BR source: http://tazio.uol.com.br/blog/blog-do-ta ... -caterham/

[marcus666]

To be honest, I think Glock will feel the same thing as Montoya felt after leaving Mclaren.
Would be no surprise if he would think "Leaving F1 was the best decision I've ever taken".
Thats the cruel world of F1, 2-3 teams are in the top, then theres a gap to the midfielders and
then a HUGE gap down to the backmarkers.

If Heikki doesnt get a seat next year, I also hope he gets into DTM too.

[majidasadi]

it's not a good news that Timo Glock is no longer in F1,he was a good driver (not in the class of Alonso or Hamilton of course,more like Sutil or Kobayashi) but i think we lost him when he joined Virgin at the end of 2009,did he make a right decision then? I think no.

[mikhailv]

it's not a good news that Timo Glock is no longer in F1,he was a good driver (not in the class of Alonso or Hamilton of course,more like Sutil or Kobayashi) but i think we lost him when he joined Virgin at the end of 2009,did he make a right decision then? I think no.

Timo's committed career suicide at Toyota. Kovy committed career suicide at Mclaren. Nobody picked them up, both drivers got better at Virgin/Caterham but the problem is, 2009 you really started to see the rise of the pay driver with Nakajima in the Williams. Then you had Senna/Yamamoto/Karthikeyan at HRT, Marussia took D'ambsoio and every pay driver they could. Caterham fell to the pay driver after Trulli left. Williams, Force India require pay drivers. Sauber have one maybe 2 if Hulkenberg brings a wad.

If your not Mercedes, Mclaren, Ferrari or Redbull, theres at least one pay driver in every other team.

[donald29]

To be honest silly season isn't much fun when you're just waiting to see who can scrape together the most cash, especially when it's a decent team like Force India who lets not forget almost won the last race.

[phil1993]

I still think it's intriguing, but there's so many rumours nowadays that I just prefer to wait until an official announcement.

The 'pay drivers' are still good, not like some hopeless guys that have graced the sport, but it is frustrating to see drivers such as Glock lose their seats.

My main feeling is that if we lose drivers, I want to see the top guys from GP2 or FR3.5 grace the sport the following season. We may criticise the new drivers coming in with cash, but the 2012 crop includes 3rd in GP2, 4th in GP2. Bianchi was 2nd in FR3.5, Razia was 2nd in GP2. Far from abject.

What's worse? Paying for your seat and justifying that money or just being the right nationality? Because Kobayashi was Japanese, he got the Toyota gig and then Sauber gambled - successfully - on him. Maldonado was the right nationality with the PDVSA sponsorship...but he's justified his position in F1 thanks to his win. It's a situation that needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis, and I think it's wrong to instantly rubbish drivers who arrive with big money behind them. Only if they do appallingly can you call them a pay driver.

[marcus666]

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!

[marcus666]

Let's also not forget Sakon Yamamoto, that guy took away one/half season each for Franck Montagny and Markus Winkelhock! Of course, Yuji Ide was the worst that year (2006) but Sakon wasnt that far away...

[donald29]

It's a problem when GP2 isn't exactly brimming with exceptional talent though. I'm not saying they're bad, but there's not much to get excited about.

If you look at Maldonado's career as a whole, would he have got this far without the state money that keeps on coming? I can't see many companies continuing to back a driver who keeps crashing and nearly killed a marshal with his recklessness. And I wonder if the guaranteed dosh has affected his mental approach, the fact he says he won't stop being aggressive. As he's not fighting for his seat because he has $30m guaranteed. He's not going to lose his sponsorship through lack of results either. After last season I wouldn't even say he doesn't deserve a place in F1, but did he deserve it at the expense of the Hulk? Not in my opinion. At least he has the speed, Gonzalez is the one where it's ridiculous. He is slow and crashes or gets involved in an incident everyone weekend yet the Venezuelan dollars keep on coming. And then he can buy some running in the YDTs, at the expense of drivers with some actual F1 prospects who would benefit from the experience.

[phil1993]

It's a problem when GP2 isn't exactly brimming with exceptional talent though. I'm not saying they're bad, but there's not much to get excited about.

If you look at Maldonado's career as a whole, would he have got this far without the state money that keeps on coming? I can't see many companies continuing to back a driver who keeps crashing and nearly killed a marshal with his recklessness. And I wonder if the guaranteed dosh has affected his mental approach, the fact he says he won't stop being aggressive. As he's not fighting for his seat because he has $30m guaranteed. He's not going to lose his sponsorship through lack of results either. After last season I wouldn't even say he doesn't deserve a place in F1, but did he deserve it at the expense of the Hulk? Not in my opinion. At least he has the speed, Gonzalez is the one where it's ridiculous. He is slow and crashes or gets involved in an incident everyone weekend yet the Venezuelan dollars keep on coming. And then he can buy some running in the YDTs, at the expense of drivers with some actual F1 prospects who would benefit from the experience.

Absolutely, but he's justified that money. If he'd replaced Nico and been awful, then yes.

GP2/F3000 never had exceptional talents, but for a few years we've been spoilt. The top half of FR3.5/GP2 are still very good.