Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Glaucus said:
Reserve drivers are pointless. They need to make them relevant again.
Just another one of the downsides of the massively restricted testing rules.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the testing is absolutely a problem and needs to be addressed. Whilst the cost-cutting is important, surely there needs to be a balance between that and driver development.

Skeeter said:
Valsecchis rant is more at the 3rd driver role as a whole, and I fully support him. Its a complete screw up that being a 3rd driver, or winning in GP2 is basically a sure fire way to ruin any chance of getting into F1.
Click to expand...

It's only a huge disadvantage further up the grid. If you look further down the grid, then it's more common that third drivers get their chance. Last season, Bianchi, Bottas and van der Garde did a fair bit of testing in their reserve roles and it led on to a full-time drive the following year. The year before, Hülkenberg and Ricciardo spent a year as reserves with Friday sessions before moving into full-time seats (well, Ricciardo did have that stint at HRT after doing Fridays in the first half of the season), and in 2010 Paul di Resta and Jerome d'Ambrosio did the same.

As for GP2, it's not as bad as you're making out, although not ideal. Six of the nine champions have made it to F1 and nine of the fifteen who finished second or third have also graduated. That's not too bad, especially when you consider that Giorgio Pantano was a GP2 champion.
 
Skeeter said:
The whole thing has fallen flat on its face, and its mostly because of the testing ban.
Click to expand...

Totaly agree, but just because its marketed like that doesn't mean some extremly intelligent drivers and team owners cant point out the obvious problems, that weren't around a decade ago.
Both campaigning for changes to gp2 and f1, and in the mean time, till they succeed implement their own route.
 
Sounds like Perez might find himself sitting in a Force India next year..

There's talk of Whitmarsh having offered FI discounts on technology for next year if they take Sergio.
 
TaKeN said:
Sounds like Perez might find himself sitting in a Force India next year..

There's talk of Whitmarsh having offered FI discounts on technology for next year if they take Sergio.
Click to expand...

What about Sam Bird? He's directly tied to Mercedes, and it would make sense for him to serve an "apprenticeship" at a Mercedes-powered team. There are other drivers in the frame as well, like their third driver James Calado.
 
Skeeter said:
But thats not what GP2 is marketed as.

It follows the F1 calendar, its got involvement from a lot of F1 teams, its marketed as the highest single seater series in the world behind F1, meant to feed the series with talent. Yet it just doesn't.

Drivers join GP3 and then GP2 because they want to race in F1. not IndyCar, or FIA GT, or WEC. It would be like teams succeeding in the Championship being told theres no room in the Premiership, go play Rugby instead.

The whole thing has fallen flat on its face, and its mostly because of the testing ban.
Click to expand...

The problem is that there are simply too many series trying to be step on the ladder. Any driver with talent is fast tracked through the various series so quickly now that they simply don't have enough seasons under their belt to do every feeder series that you are "supposed" to do.

It's not uncommon for promising kids to start getting touted for an f1 drive at 19. If you've gone beyond your early 20s without getting a drive you're written off as having missed the boat. After karting and junior formulae that only gives drivers 2 or maybe 3 full seasons of senior level car racing before they're expected to be in f1 so you've got to be selective over what you do in those few seasons
 
Spunkey said:
Lotus seem that desperate for cash Kim Kardashian probably could have slipped them some money for a go. She could probably afford to buy a ******* superlicence too these days.

I'm so close to being done with F1. Really am.
Click to expand...

You've got that the wrong way around, if you have the cash you can slip one to Kim, or any Kardashian :p
 
Couple of interesting things.

Kovalainen in the running for 2014 Lotus seat

Heikki Kovalainen has emerged as a surprise and late contender to drive for Lotus in 2014.

The Finn, Caterham's 'Friday' driver this season, was drafted into Lotus' race lineup for Austin when countryman Kimi Raikkonen headed for early back surgery.

It was believed the highly rated Nico Hulkenberg, or the well-funded Pastor Maldonado, were the only candidates to replace the Ferrari-bound Raikkonen full-time next year.

But Kovalainen has performed strongly from the first practice lap in Austin, qualifying eighth compared to teammate Romain Grosjean's third on Saturday.

Team boss Eric Boullier admitted the 32-year-old might have leapt into contention to race full-time for Lotus in 2014.

"He can be (an option)," the Frenchman told the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.

"It is true that he was not originally on the list, but if he's doing well now, he can change our minds.

"I don't know, anything is possible," Boullier added.

The vacancy for Austin and Brazil was created when Raikkonen headed for back surgery ahead of schedule.

But it has been rumoured his relationship with Lotus, broken over a financial dispute, was the real reason.

"Money has little to do with it," team owner Gerard Lopez insists. "We clarified that in Abu Dhabi -- he will get his money.

"Maybe his new employer advised him that it would be better to seek treatment as soon as possible," he told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Indeed, Lopez suspects Lotus' constructors' championship rival Ferrari might also have had something to do with Hulkenberg's sudden unavailability for the seat in Austin and Brazil.

"It was too bad for us, but for sure also a shame for Nico," said the Luxembourger.

"As I understand it, he was paid (by Sauber) all of a sudden, so he was no longer available to us," he added.
Click to expand...

Quantum running out of time for Lotus deal - Lopez

Quantum, the investment group looking to buy 35 per cent of Lotus, has denied once again that the deal is collapsing.

There is no doubt, however, that team owner Gerard Lopez's patience is running out.

"They have very little time," he told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"Either they fulfil their contractual obligations, or we must draw our conclusions," added Lopez.

The Quantum group is led by Mansour Ijaz, who after playing down speculation in Abu Dhabi recently, has now travelled to Austin with the same message.

"There is no question that the deal is going to work out," he insisted on Saturday.

Ijaz said the hefty flow of cash has been held up by red tape, and promised to apologise for the holdup by paying bonuses out of his own pocket.

Lotus, however, cannot afford to simply go on hoping. It is rumoured Pastor Maldonado, with his millions in PDVSA backing in tow, is now definitely headed to Enstone to guarantee the team's 2014 budget.

"I have read that it is being reported in Venezuela that it (the deal) is done," Lopez said, "but nothing is signed yet. He is a serious candidate for next year.

"If other candidates are dropping out it's because they have signed somewhere else," he added.

"We are taking our time, just as we did with Romain (Grosjean last year)," Lopez explained.

"If what actually happened was as it was reported," he smiled, "he (Grosjean) would now be working in the bank."

Lopez admitted, however, that Lotus needs to secure its future financially.

"I will need a sponsor," he said. "Whether the money comes with a driver or not, I don't care -- I would also take Fernando Alonso with his sponsor."

He hit out at the press, at Lotus' rivals and the F1 system in general for a lot of the negative stories about the team's finances.

"Some F1 journalists pretend they work for the Wall Street Journal," he started.

"But many of the these stories are deliberately put around the paddock by people who get more money from the rights holders for the same or a worse job as we do."
Click to expand...

Actually starting to get a little bored with what's going on at Lotus. Just get on with it already. :p
 
Maldonardo is dissing his current team, and his sponsor (that apparently arn't his sponsor as he's claims to be in F1 on talent alone) are claiming a deal that isn't. I suspect he's been drinking the sponsors product.

/Grabs popcorn ;)

I hope he ends up in WTCC.
 
It's worth noting that Genii didn't pay anything for the ex-Renault team, they merely loaned money to run it (and speculation is that Lopez borrowed that money himself).
 
Last edited:
A colleague at work came up to me and said what a boring race it was this weekend.

I (genuinely) looked at him, asking, "what race?"

First time its happened to me in 20 years of watching F1.
 
GP2 (aka Formula 3000) has historically struggled to be a feeder series to F1 - especially when compared to F3; Mika Hakkinen never raced in F3000 and Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve only raced in one race apiece. Kimi took it one stage further by all but skipping F3 altogether!

The testing ban has ruined F1 though. Granted we probably couldn't go back to the days of dedicated test teams - like Ferrari had with Luca Badoer pounding round Fiorano seemingly 24/7 - on purely environmental, let alone financial grounds. But what scope is there for teams to develop their cars, and their young drivers?

If you go back to the 1994 season (setting aside the tragic loss of Senna), the Williams FW16 was badly flawed (as Senna discovered), mainly due to active suspension being banned, which Williams had been the masters of. What scope would they have now to test the car, iron out the 'bugs' and learn how to set the car up properly like they did in 1994? What scope is there for a driver to be a team's test (and Friday) driver for a couple of years then 'graduate' to a permanent seat, as both Damon Hill and David Coulthard did back then?

It seems odd that when the commercial marketing of F1 has never been better and the sport far more prominent in the media, that the product and the spectacle should suffer so much...
 
Other than occupying the same support race slot in the F1 calendar, F3000 has very little to do with GP2.

It's Bernie's series, it follows F1, and 20% of all GP2 drivers have raced in F1. Sure back in the day F3 was the proving ground, but GP2 was designed to be the stepping stone. And it worked well at the start. But your right, the testing ban ruined it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom