Motorsport Off Topic Thread

More stories about Ross Brawn about to exit Mercedes and Mclaren have been banging on about BIG signings over the last few months, suggesting the big ones are to come. I think that would be an interesting story. Thoughts?
 
Lol @ marshals vid.

I remember years back at Silverstone the marshals on Club Corner had lunch on the apex. Fold out table, table cloth, candelabra and one of them dressed as a butler.
 
Niki Lauda has also been saying he will do everything he can to keep Brawn at Mercedes.

There's also rumours that the Maldonado/Lotus deal has been done for $30m, and the Hulk will be at Force India with Chilton and his $12m.
 
Seems like an odd move. Drop Di Resta and his free engines and replace him with Chilton and not enough cash to buy engines?

Unless the free engines deal is no more?
 
Spunkey said:
According to wikipedia the FI/Merc engine deal expires this year:
Click to expand...

If that's the case, have they got an engine supplier for next year yet?

If they drop Di Resta then it pretty much solidifies some peoples opinions that he's only stayed in that seat due to the engine deal.
 
To be fair to PDR he had good years in 2011 and 2012, and he's still well in front of Sutil this year even given his run of 7 non-scoring races. It's just his dismal demeanour which puts people off him.
 
Better to have maldanado and still lotus exist than otherwise

That Lil bitch better come good

What a sorry state of affairs. RG must be one of the last drivers to have come into F1 and still be here without cash
Chilton and maldanado moving up and hulk moving down says it all
 
al4x said:
What a sorry state of affairs. RG must be one of the last drivers to have come into F1 and still be here without cash
Click to expand...

I thought Grosjean was part of the deal with Renault. He must bring something, as he'd have been out of the door in double-quick time last year. Marked improvement (certainly in terms of his race-craft) this year though. :)
 
Spunkey said:
According to wikipedia the FI/Merc engine deal expires this year:
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it was confirmed around mid year that FI will be staying with Merc next year, but they have not extended beyond that. I believe that this strongly means that PDR will stay for next year, and that the second seat at FI will either be sutil/random with money/chiltern with money.
They have left themselves open for a 2015 engine shift though which is potentailly a smart move if there is one power unit that has a significant advantage over the others next year.

Also Grosjean brings cash in the form of Total.

Something that seems to be missed is that many of the drivers bring cash/sponsors, its just the top end drivers get paid by the sponsors so there is nothing/less left over for the teams then the likes of Maldonado and Chiltern. Massa will look to bring Petrobras where ever he can fit in, but the few times he has mentioned them he has clearly said that "i can pay for my self with my sponsors, i dont bring money to get a seat" to me that means he will not have to be paid by the team, but will bring no money to the team budget either. How can anyone forget Alonso and Santander either??
 
Massa has already said that he isnt a pay driver, yet he will be bringing sponsorship with him... not sure how that differs to being a pay driver to be honest? If Massa isnt a pay driver, then so isnt Pastaface going by Massa Logic.

Anyway, I didnt know that FatJohn brung in dollar with Total. I guess thats the same as Alonso being a pay driver being that Santandar follow him about as well.
 
As has already been said, they're pretty much all pay drivers to some extent. Talent alone won't get you anywhere close to F1.

The only real thing that differentiates those branded as "pay drivers" from the rest is a general opinion that they wouldn't have an F1 drive at all if money wasn't a consideration and opinion can change pretty quickly.
 
I think one huge differing factor is if the sponsorship is the deciding factor in them being given a drive, I'm sure many people wouldn't argue Maldonado and Chilton would not be in F1 without basically buying their way in... Let me drive and I can pay you this much money.

Most/all drivers will have some sponsorship to sweeten the deal a little but will (ideally) be getting the seat based on talent first and foremost.

Recently it seems the talent side of things isn't the first thing teams are interested in, if at all!

Massa you could argue would probably get the Williams drive on talent alone, but as it is currently you don't get anywhere without money as well, just ask Hulkenberg! :p


EDIT: kaiowas summed it up better and simpler than me :p
 
Last edited:
I can only think of vettel, webber, button, kimi, hamilton that didnt bring money into the party to themselves a drive.

But hamilton/button did do a lot with santander and button still does but I assume button didnt really bring them on board as such.

Its a shame about hulk, he gets booted out of williams because maldando brings aload of cash, spends a year sitting on the side lines hoping for a seat, gets one and ferrari give him the nod, so he moved to sauber so that ferrari could assess him for a year to prove he was good enough for the team, only to get beaten to it by kimi.

Realises thats all gone wrong, mclaren wont have him because hes to heavy and lotus need money so they are getting maldando(so thats twice the venezuelan has screwed him)

So looks like hes back where he started at force india, unless he starts putting the car on pole every weekend and his team mate is last I dont know what else he can do to prove his talent is better financially(higher up the constructures) than bringing in a sponsor
 
Of the current drivers I don't think Massa has (until the possibility of it happening now) not sure about Rosberg and Bottas either, both obviously brought in through Williams (similat to Vettel with RB and Hamilton with McLaren) which you could say is a form of sponsorship, just from the team itself :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom