2009 Season Discussions: Line-ups, News and Miscellaneous

[kimi and mika]

Force india still wont be anywhere unless they spend everything. Everyother team (apart from maybe Renualt, Ferrari and McLaren) were fully focused on '09. They will all be stronger next year but Ferrari and McLaren's money will put them near/at the top again.

[simon91]

Why, I think they'll do much better with McLaren's know how.

Because they changed from the best engine to the second best engine on the grid. Maybe, we will see. I hope and think that Senna will drive for Honda next year, di Grassi will only be for a tester, I guess. At STR I guess that they test Sato because they want to decide whether they take him or Rubinho. I would take Barrichello because he drove a very good 2008 season, outperforming Button clearly (13:3 points, 10:8 qualifying). The other seat could go to Bourdais again, but at Swiss television they said that Toro Rosso is even quite satisfied with Bourdais's results, but not with his behaviour. And then the Swiss television concluded that this could mean that Sebastien Buemi could drive for STR next year, which would be great for Switzerland.

[iceman1]

According to "Italia Racing" Pantano is fishing for a Toro Rosso test.

[JoostLamers]

Nick Fry: 'When we give him (Jenson Button) the car, we're sure he can fight with Lewis. But for the official announcement of our line-up, you'll have to wait until a few days before Christmas.'

So Jenson Button is likely to stay... And I think Rubens is out for 2009, and so for F1...

[JoostLamers]

De La Rosa in the race for Force India seat:

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 4317.shtml

[blizzard]

Nick Fry: 'When we give him (Jenson Button) the car, we're sure he can fight with Lewis. But for the official announcement of our line-up, you'll have to wait until a few days before Christmas.'

So Jenson Button is likely to stay... And I think Rubens is out for 2009, and so for F1...

Come on guys, now that Lewis has won it, everyone starts talking: " I am as good as Lewis". Rosberg said something like that recently, Sutil and now Button and Fry.

He´s the champion and you´re not. Face it.

JB is a good driver, no doubt about it. But to be fair, he hasn´t got what it takes to win a championship. In 2006 when the Honda was decent, he achieved some brilliant qualifying performances, but qualifying doesn´t give you points. In the races he often bottled it.

[iceman1]

I was reading a comment by Steven Roy ; Honda claim to have an advantage with their KERS system . Rubens is the heaviest of the current drivers and therefore his car has less moveable ballast. Add in 60kg of KERS and you have to take of 60kg of ballast which is a higher percentage of Barrichello’s ballast than anyone else’s.
If Honda genuinely believe they have an advantage with their KERS system it does not make sense put a heavy driver in this car to compromise the effectiveness of that advantage.

[fclen]

...with their KERS system it does not make sense put a heavy driver in this car to compromise the effectiveness of that advantage.

Interesting. Now who's gonna show their superior F1 geekness and compile a list of all the current drivers weight?

[simon91]

Nick Fry: 'When we give him (Jenson Button) the car, we're sure he can fight with Lewis. But for the official announcement of our line-up, you'll have to wait until a few days before Christmas.'

So Jenson Button is likely to stay... And I think Rubens is out for 2009, and so for F1...

Come on guys, now that Lewis has won it, everyone starts talking: " I am as good as Lewis". Rosberg said something like that recently, Sutil and now Button and Fry.

He´s the champion and you´re not. Face it.

JB is a good driver, no doubt about it. But to be fair, he hasn´t got what it takes to win a championship. In 2006 when the Honda was decent, he achieved some brilliant qualifying performances, but qualifying doesn´t give you points. In the races he often bottled it.

But I think Button was the best or at least one of the best point scorers in the second half of 2006. But I agree with you, Button passed his best time already, just as Heidfeld, who started F1 in the same year. But maybe, who knows, give Button a really good car and he could be a championship contender. This year, as I already said before, Button lost clearly against Rubinho. He was outqualified and even clearlier outscored by his teammate.

I still hope that Barrichello gets the seat at Toro Rosso. I think he could help the team enormously.

I really hope that Mercedes won't change Force India's driver line-up because it would not be fair towards Fisi and Sutil. Force India had presented them as the line-up very early.

[swca92]

Thought I'd make a prospective driver line-up for 2010:

Ferrari-Felipe Massa,Sebastien Vettel
McLaren-Lewis Hamilton,Heikki Kovalainen
BMW-Robert Kubica,Nico Rosberg
Renault-Fernando Alonso,Romain Grosjean
Toyota-Timo Glock,Kamui Kobayashi
Red Bull-Mark Webber,Bruno Senna
Williams-Nico Hulkenberg,Kazuki Nakajima
Toro Rosso-Paul Di Resta,Pastor Maldonado
Honda-Jenson Button,Nelson Piquet Jr.
Force India-Karun Chandhok,Alvaro Parente

Thought I'd do this as I think the driver market for both 2009 and 2010 will be like an over enthusiastic game of musical chairs,with the younger drivers really ruling the F1 roost.In 2009 only STR and Force India are yet to confirm their line-ups,and both are probably going to be nearer to the back of the grid than the front in 09.

[Arrows_F1]

you think Force India will change both drivers ? I don't think so

Force India-Adrian Sutil, Karun Chandok (I would suggest...)

[fclen]

Sutil's manager says 2009 seat safe
Another season with Force India

Sutil seat seems safe
Adrian Sutil's manager has played down speculation the German driver's place on the 2009 Formula One grid may not be safe.

With recent confirmation of Force India's tie-up with McLaren Mercedes, it was suggested that the British team may have some influence over the final configuration of race drivers.

It led to speculation that the McLaren Mercedes-backed DTM racer Paul di Resta, or primary F1 test driver Pedro de la Rosa, could be called up to Force India to the detriment of either 25-year-old Sutil or his 2008 teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

"There is no reason for us to believe that Adrian's place is anything other than safe," his manager Manfred Zimmermann told motorsport-total.com.

Zimmermann explained that not only is Sutil's contract valid also for 2009, but that team boss Vijay Mallya has reiterated the situation several times by a factor of "100 per cent."

In addition, Sutil visited Force India's Silverstone factory last Friday to have his seat fitted for the 2009 car.

It also emerges that he will test on two out of the three days for the team in Barcelona this week.

[JoostLamers]

Buemi thinks he has the best chance of the STR-seat...
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/n ... 5704.shtml

[Zack]

I was reading a comment by Steven Roy ; Honda claim to have an advantage with their KERS system . Rubens is the heaviest of the current drivers and therefore his car has less moveable ballast. Add in 60kg of KERS and you have to take of 60kg of ballast which is a higher percentage of Barrichello’s ballast than anyone else’s.
If Honda genuinely believe they have an advantage with their KERS system it does not make sense put a heavy driver in this car to compromise the effectiveness of that advantage.

I know 60kg is example but any team with more than 40kg or 50kg max allotting to KERS is to be consider uncompetitive.


http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news ... -kers.html

[blizzard]

Looks like a nuclear bomb