The '13 driver transfer discussion/speculation thread op updated 16/10

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UK-Gamer
F2 isn't as great as the FIA wanted it to be, its on pace (slower?) than WSR 3.5 cars and much slower than GP2.

So GP2 remains as the main F1 feeder series.

Hmmmmm, fair enough.
 
I never suggested that he was going to take the seat, just throwing another name out there for a future possibility. If anyone is going to race in F1 in the future then surely its the winner of the F2 championship.

But as I just pointed out, none of the F2 champions have so far driven in F1, all of them have had to look elsewhere to prove themselves.

The talent in the F2 field is too low and its still considered below GP2 and FR3.5.
Even AutoGP is a more visible and competitive series than F2 and most drivers are probably better off spending the season in GP3 or FR2.0 learning the tracks for GP2 and FR3.5...and in far more competitive fields.

Not to mention, the way F2 works (with all drivers sharing the same set of mechanics and engineers) makes the series cheaper...but perhaps means drivers miss out on the side of being part of an independent team, setting up the car etc. Its just not the same environment as all the other series out there.
 
It's the final of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in Barcelona this weekend, and Robin Frijns has re-taken the points lead from Jules Bianchi when Bianchi spun it. I'm really hoping Frijns can pull this off and win it, because he's already making waves - he's got virtually no sponsorship and no support from any of the Formula 1 teams, and he's leading the championship with just one race left. He's already scheduled to test with Sauber and Red Bull at the final round of Young Driver Tests in Abu Dhabi, and if he impresses, I'm hoping he can score a Formula 1 seat in 2013.
 
How much money would a driver need to bring along to make it into F1?
 
Dennisch
How much money would a driver need to bring along to make it into F1?

Good question. I believe Senna and Pic bring about €10m to the table each. Drivers like Petrov, Perez and Maldonado bring far more than that whereas Alonso brings Santander. Although that may be more a case of Santander following him around. When it comes to sponsorship, the bigger, the better but I think a highly rated driver from gp2 or F3 would get a seat for about €10m. Some will make it to formula one with less. Especially if a team have an interest in him.
 
It would be nice for us Dutch to see a driver that is capable of higher team standards. After Jos Verstappen, meh, and Christian Albers, even more meh.
 
He was a gravelpit jockey. At best.

But he was excellent in the rain.

Frijns needs to get support from a large Dutch company, like Philips or Mammoet.
 
Unless he can get into a team like Sauber, who are already well-funded. Wen Sergio Perez left for McLaren, the team confirmed that Telmex would stay with them, and that their partnership did not hinge on the presence of a Mexican driver in the team (even if it was preferred, it would not necessarily be a condition of the contract).

Of course, Jules Bianchi could throw a spanner in the works yet. He's reportedly so upset about the collision that he wants to take Frijns to court over it. While he's at it, he might as well sue whoever caused him to finish 17th at Spa and 12th at the Nurburgring, because if you're going to be a sore loser about it, you might as well go the whole way.
 
:lol: I already didn't think much of Bianchi, that only makes it worse. Him and Gutierrez are possibly the most over-rated junior drivers currently. Both are undoubtedly fast..but very erratic and inconsistent.

Although da Costa is getting there now - at least he's earnt it this year.
 
Well, I'm going off a translated Tweet from a Dutch commentator here. It's possible he meant "stewards" instead of "courts". But I think he also mentioned that Frijns had twenty-five seconds added to his race time in the same Tweet.

It still makes no sense for Bianchi to go to a court of law, though. He'll be a pariah in the paddock the minute he does it - if it can happen to Andy Soucek, it can happen to Jules Bianchi. No-one wants a driver whose first response is legal action when he doesn't get his way. Okay, so Soucek was taking action against a team and Bianchi is (supposedly) taking action against a driver, but it's still not going to end well for Bianchi.

The only way this could possibly be true and still make any sense is if Ferrari promised to place Bianchi in a Formula 1 team in 2013 - probably Sauber - but only on the condition that he won the Formula Renault 3.5 title. If not, the deal was off. Frijns, on the other hand, has been given a day with Sauber at the Young Driver Tests, and he has publicly said that he is driving for his career here. He has no real sponsorship; his family's business - Frijns Industrial Group - has some presence in sponsoring him, but I've heard that they're limited to sheet metal fabrication or the like. Bianchi might only be taking legal action against Frijns if he thinks Frijns deliberately pushed him off the circuit, thereby depriving Bianchi of his shot at Formula 1 (though this depends on Frijns knowing that Bianchi was going to be placed if he won) for the sake of his own. He's still going to have a devil of a time proving it, though. The stewards gave Frijns a twenty-five second penalty for causing an avoidable collision, and there doesn't appear to have been anything malicous about the contact.

Either way, I agree that Jules Bianchi is over-rated. he set the world on fire in Formula 3 and was touted as the Next Big Thing, but in two attempts at winning the GP2 title, he failed twice. He got a reputation as a bit of a crasher, and while he's had a better time of it in Formula Renault, I would not be surprised if Ferrari placed him in the team and then had them support Bianchi first all season long. Kevin Korjus did really well last year, but this year he's been let down by poor reliability, dud strategies, and has generally had a very poor run of luck. All of that stopped when he moved to the Gravity-Lotus team mid-year (even if he was only racing for minor points). If Tech 1 Racing were paid by Ferrari to support Bianchi from the first race in Aragon, then that makes me like him even less. Bianchi already had his shot. He shouldn't get a second bite at the apple when it means another talented driver has to miss out.
 
I'm not sure Frijns did a good thing winning the championship like that. At the moment we can see that F1 teams are looking for drivers who dont crash (Maldonado then the Grosjean hating pretty much show it), so I'm not sure that taking out your rival for the championship is a good move from his part, we'll see I guess but I found it quite sad.
 
This is probably very wishful thinking, but i would love to see

RB: Vettel/webber
Mclaren: Button/Perez
Ferrari: Alonso/Massa
Mercedes: Hamilton/Rosberg
Lotus: Raikkonen/Kobayashi
Sauber: Hulkenberg/Gutierrez (with frijins taking over gutierrez's current role)
Williams: Maldonado/Bottas
Force India: Di Resta/Bianchi
Toro Rosso: JEV/Ricciardo
Caterham: Kovalainen/Grosjean
Marussia: ??/??
HRT: ??/??

Don'rt really know enough about marussia/HRT's options to pick from those, would probably guess same lineups ^^;
 
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Why would Lotus give up on Grosjean and take Kobayashi? While accident-prone and probably in danger of being far too conservative in his starts to avoid another collision, Grosjean has been a much better performer than Kobayashi all season long.
 
Why would Lotus give up on Grosjean and take Kobayashi? While accident-prone and probably in danger of being far too conservative in his starts to avoid another collision, Grosjean has been a much better performer than Kobayashi all season long.

There's a reason it's wishful thinking :p

My only real reasoning for it is that they would be able to keep a driver with a more aggressive driving style to partner Raikkonen's more patient driving that he's been showcasing recently, without being so accident-prone. Also, if Kobayashi dropped out of f1/to a backmarker team I would be super sad T_T
 
Why would Lotus give up on Grosjean and take Kobayashi? While accident-prone and probably in danger of being far too conservative in his starts to avoid another collision, Grosjean has been a much better performer than Kobayashi all season long.

Although I agree that it wouldn't make much sense for Lotus to drop Grosjean in favor of Kobayashi, mainly because Grosjean likely has more untapped potential, I don't think it's all that fair (for a number of reasons) to say Grosjean has been the much better performer (taking into account all criteria) this year.

Romain's qualifying performances have often been impressive this year, but he's made far too many costly mistakes along the way when it counts...and his standings in the points reflect this. With nearly double the points of Grosjean, Kimi to a good degree has shown what the Lotus is capable of (although I think Alonso or Hamilton would have likely been able to get a bit more out of it) and how poorly Grosjean has capatilized on the cars potential in the end.

Kamui on the other hand has done a solid job this year with the equipment he's been given, moreso when you consider the variables (mainly Sauber's splits strategies) that have likely worked against him and in favor of Perez.
 
I'm curious about these commentators discussing the possibility of Hulkenburg at Ferrari in 2014. I thought 2014 was going to be Fernando and Vettel. Just rousing up gossip?
 
I thought 2014 was going to be Fernando and Vettel.
Nothing has been confirmed, but Vettel is widely believed to have a pre-contract with Ferrari. It's a contract that states Vettel would be offered a full race contract starting on a certain date - in this case, 2014 - provided that both sides meet certain performance-related conditions. However, Ferrari in general and Luca di Montezemolo in particular have denied that they have any plans to take Vettel any time soon, whilst Christian Horner has said that Vettel is under contract to race for Red Bull through to 2015.

Personally, I believe that if Ferrari is looking at taking on Vettel, then they are looking at taking him on as Alonso's successor, rather than his team-mate.
 
prisonermonkeys
Frijns to get "long-term Sauber deal":

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103708

Although there's no word on what kind of a deal that might be. The team is continuing to prepare Esteban Gutierrez for a race seat as well. The Abu Dhabi Young Driver Tests might be a good old-fashioned contest for the second Sauber seat.

What does that consist of exactly? Is it like a shoot-out styled test with the fastest driver getting the seat?
 
Tom
What does that consist of exactly? Is it like a shoot-out styled test with the fastest driver getting the seat?

Not exactly. Takuma Sato took part in a shoot-out for a Toro Rosso seat where he was fastest but he ended up not getting the drive.
 
Tom
What does that consist of exactly? Is it like a shoot-out styled test with the fastest driver getting the seat?
I imagine it would be like Jenson Button and Antonio Pizzonia going for the Williams seat in 2000. It wasn't just lap times that counted - attitude, the ability to set the car up and a whole host of other factors counted as well.

But it's really down to what the team chooses to look for. There is no hard-and-fast or formal rules as to what a shoot-out entails.
 
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