2012-13 Silly Season

[phil1993]

I really hope Senna stays on another season. I'd like Senna/Bottas but we all know Maldonado will stay...

On another note, I believe this may be Kamui's last season. I hope not, but it's a gut instinct.

[donald29]

Yeah I'm with you there on all points.

I said before, it's not that Kamui is doing badly but I can't see him delivering any more than what we've seen from him. Perez on the other hand looks like a future race winner. I like him, but there are other drivers (e.g. Kovalainen) who I feel could do a better job for Sauber. Especially in that car that has been very good but not always scored the points it should have.

[phil1993]

That's what I feel too. Kamui is a competent racing driver, but I can't see huge room for improvement. I hope I'm wrong, but with a lot of other drivers - Romain, Checo are two who come to mind - I can.

[Edi96]

Kobayashi is the best Japanese driver in F1 history but has no heavy backing of sponsors. I guess Peter Sauber was expecting that Kobayashi would generate some Japanese sponsors when he signed him.

[mikhailv]

Strangely enough, I think Kamui was never that good. His Banzai style and success was a shock to F1; it was Sato but with some mild ability to drive.

He is still the same driver but its less spectacular now because we've seen it and theres nothing to go WOW! about.

Perez too is the same. I think he has more potential, but aside from tyre saving in Malaysia and doing a one stopper at many races, Perez actually like kamui, hasn't shown that much IMO. He could be good in the future but theres nothing truly WOW! aside from Malaysia. made you stand up and take notice, but notice what afterwards?

Bruno Senna was naff in HRT and it seems he is finally finding his feet. What people fail to realise with bruno is, he has 24 points maldanado has 29. but 25 of those points are a single race win. Bruno secretly has been impressive and doing a miles better job. I find Di Resta invisible and boring. Dont rate him at All nor hulkenberg.

[tderias]

I think Hulkenberg is quite impressive, and what's being said about Kamui is true imo... I don't mind Paul keeping his head down and focusing on his job as long as his racing does the talking, but its not happening at the moment. His racing is quite boring and there's nothing special about it. As for Perez, I think with all the speculation linking him to Ferrari, he kind of eased off a little bit, especially when compared to last year when he was trying hard to prove himself.

Pastor Maldonado.. hmmm.. he's a tricky one isnt he... He's made some stupid mistakes this season, but definitely what he did in Hungary isn't worth a penalty. The whole race was a bore, and when someone tries to go for a move, he gets penalised for it... He's had a lot of stick coming towards him from the media over the past few weeks, but I believe there's something in him that is yet to shine. He's proved that he can go fast and withstand pressure in Spain and he outqualified his teammate in all occasions bar two GPs. His only weakness is the over-aggressive driving and bad racing decisions, but if he manages to work on these fronts, I believe there's a bright future ahead of him. And, its not the first time we've seen a South American driver that kept crashing into others, but still managed to amaze people with his pure speed...

[sportingcp]

I think we should open a poll to who will be the 2nd Ferrari driver next season. Raikkonen, Perez, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Senna, Kubica, Kovalainen... So many names . About Kobayashi I like the guy I recognize that even if he makes some "spectacular" moves sometimes he doesn´t have what it takes to be a WDC but I think he is pretty good and he deserves a place in a middle team. He would fit very well in Toyota, if they were still in F1.

[mikhailv]

I think we should open a poll to who will be the 2nd Ferrari driver next season. Raikkonen, Perez, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Senna, Kubica, Kovalainen... So many names . About Kobayashi I like the guy I recognize that even if he makes some "spectacular" moves sometimes he doesn´t have what it takes to be a WDC but I think he is pretty good and he deserves a place in a middle team. He would fit very well in Toyota, if they were still in F1.

I hope so. Would be a good team.

Kovalainen didnt do so bad in 2008 and he had quite a few f*ck ups on reliability he had 11 point scores to lewis' 13. But in the R27 he was actually really good and had 5 retirments in the first 8 races.

[phil1993]

Kovalainen was very good towards the end of 2007.

Remember in China in 2008 when McLaren put Heikki's tyres around the wrong way. Just a laughable mistake that left him with a horribly handling car.

[mikhailv]

Kovalainen was very good towards the end of 2007.

Remember in China in 2008 when McLaren put Heikki's tyres around the wrong way. Just a laughable mistake that left him with a horribly handling car.

Yeah. Im not saying he was setting the world alight, because we know he wasnt. But He had alot of opportunity. Briatore wasnt kind, straight swap at Mclaren and was firmly number 2 from the start and i guess rightfully so. But wasnt there an engine failure in Japan was it where he was running very well?

Its strange because he was awsome at the Japanese GP in the R27, he handled it really well and got the 2nd place on the podium didnt he ahead of Kimi?

I think that, he was put straight into Briatore's 'b***' category, then into the 'hamiltons b***' category and dumped into the caterham. He never had time to adjust or develop, he was shifted from one pressure environment to another with no consistency in team or car really, to settle into the environment like he has done at Caterham and thoroughly deserves another chance.

Especially when you think Buemi, Alguesari, Senna, Petrov, maldanado for example have miles better cars over Heikki.

[phil1993]

He did get on the podium in Fuji yes.

If you look at Heikki's season, he should have been fourth in the championship roughly. He had that awful failure in Spain, picked up a puncture in Turkey, retired from third in Japan.

I think the final straw was Italy 2009. He was in a prime position on the grid but he utterly failed to make the strategy work.

[donald29]

Both Italy 2008 and Italy 2009 I thought 'Kovalainen is in a great position to win this' and he just didn't deliver.

[phil1993]

With every race that goes by, I think that Timo Glock is going to leave Marussia. It's a shame, because I think he's a handy racing driver who put up with a lot of c**p in 2010 and 2011; it's as if 2012 has been a step too far. That and Charles Pic is criminally underrated.

[mikhailv]

Both Italy 2008 and Italy 2009 I thought 'Kovalainen is in a great position to win this' and he just didn't deliver.

Italy 2008 was a bloody weird race.! Mclaren, Renau and Ferrari, even BMW just didnt have the pace to beat the STR until the closing laps. Damn, Damn weird.

2009 was abit of a well, The brawn was miles better in race trim and Lewis crashed trying to keep up with jenson....

Timo is whole different ball game. he had promise in Toyota but nobody seems to have cared about him and in Marrussia he has just plain and outright given up the ghost IMO.

[donald29]

Yeah I think he's completely fed up and doesn't particularly care. Even last year he was frustrated, in Germany we had the 'you're making my life difficult' radio message. Then they miss pre-season testing and have another dog of a car and I think he's had enough.

When Toyota pulled out for a while it was thought he would go to Renault. I wonder if he had that opportunity, if he turned Renault down.