2013 Formula One Discussion

[majidasadi]

it's surprising that we havent' seen more chinese drivers in F1,after 10 years of chinese grand prix china has just one driver who is going to drive in FP1,i guess they can easily find sponsors and financial support but still we don't see Chinese drivers in f1,it can be very beneficial for the sport and specially smaller teams,just imagine the money that it will bring,big companies (like Telmex in case of Mexican drivers) will support teams that hire chinese drivers,TV deals and all the financial benefits of it...and a new fan base in China.

[mnmracer]

Yeps, in the village next to the city I grew up in.
Never met him though, nor did I ever eat food from his parents.

[phil1993]

It'll probably take more than 10 years. There's no karting structure in China, meaning anyone would have to go to Europe. It's such a different culture as well...

[donald29]

If China wanted a Grand Prix driver they'd produce a Grand Prix driver. The government would put the structure in place. They have the money, population size and lack of human rights to make it happen. They'd spend the money getting children interested, trying out karting etc. then pick out the ones who show promise and develop them all the way to the top. It's what they've done with various Olympic sports and it's what they're doing with football at the moment to try and win the World Cup (hence some famous players being offered 500k per week to go and play in China).

[tderias]

If China wanted a Grand Prix driver they'd produce a Grand Prix driver. The government would put the structure in place. They have the money, population size and lack of human rights to make it happen. They'd spend the money getting children interested, trying out karting etc. then pick out the ones who show promise and develop them all the way to the top. It's what they've done with various Olympic sports and it's what they're doing with football at the moment to try and win the World Cup (hence some famous players being offered 500k per week to go and play in China).

This.

You'd think with a billion plus population, a third of the grid would be Chinese. But there's other, underlying reasons why they're not in F1...

[phil1993]

Not hugely newsworthy but Marussia say it's either Mercedes or Ferrari engines for them in 2014.

[phil1993]

Pic says he has no regrets over moving to Caterham
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106445

[François]

I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a dead end.

I can't say for sure where Caterham are going but it hasn't looked good for the past few months. Assuming they make it this far, speculation that the 2014 engines could help Caterham improve is precisely that - speculation, as we don't know if the Renault unit will be the class of the field. Also, there isn't *that* much room to shine among backmarkers and Bianchi's hogging all the attention at the moment.

[phil1993]

I thought it was telling that when Pic first moved, his initial comments were that the Renault engine is much stronger than Cosworth, suggesting that aerodynamically there was very little between Marussia's 2012 car and Caterham's 2013 model.

[donald29]

Spotted at Brands Hatch...

[phil1993]

This may well be an April Fools Day joke, but Pedro de La Rosa and Alex Wurz have tweeted about it
http://www.dupontf1.com/

[cformula1]

Dupont would be a somewhat logical choice for F1, given their extensive motoring background, although given the very suspicious timing I'd say it's more likely to be a joke that PDLR and Wurz are in on.

[Fangio]

The domain was registered by Julia Wurz (wife of Alex): http://whois.domaintools.com/dupontf1.com

The timing is somewhat suspicious with tomorrow being April Fools but on the other hand it is something that's been expected from Wurz for quite a while.

[François]

Oh, PLEASE. Come on.

[donald29]

Max Chilton's Dad chucked money at a team to get him into F1, could Jordan King's Dad be about to take over the whole sport?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013 ... CMP=twt_fd