Your predictions for the driver line-up, 2010

  • Thread starter Ardius
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So we're looking at:
Mercedes:
Rosberg
Schumacher

Sauber:
Heidfeld
Kobayashi

Virgin:
Glock
Di Grassi

Lotus:
Trulli
Fauzy, Davidson or Sato

USF1:
Who the hell knows?

Campos:
Senna
Petrov, Parente or Maldanado

Renault:
Kubica
Kovalainen
 
Ooh I do hope Schumi comes back! He could potentially dominate and make it boring again but F1 hasn't been the same without him!
 
Fortunately I think such years of domination are long over, during the Ferrari+Schumacher years there were only really 2 other teams that had a chance of beating them at each race.
Nowdays most of the grid has a chance of winning and the top 5 teams all appear to be strong enough to take the championship with the right car.
 
Ardius, I'm doubtful as to Parente's position with Campos. I'm not denying that he's in contention, but I think his chnces are being over-exaggerated. He was said to be in line for the second Virgin/Manor seat for weeks (if not months), but kept dragging his feet. I think it had something to do with sponsorship dollars. Then, just as the reports of his going to Virgin fade, he's suddenly front and centre for the Campos seat because Adrian Campos is losing his patience with Petrov and Maldonado and their sponsors? I'm not buying it, especially since the Parente-Campos stories were first run by Brazilian papers.
 
Well to be honest I haven't been paying a great deal of attention to the Campos 2nd seat rumours because I have no interest in any of the mentioned drivers and they all appear to be pay drivers.
The last I had read was that Parente was rumoured along with the other two and I don't see much between them skill-wise, so its going to be who comes up with the cash quickest.

From what I saw in GP2, Petrov seems to be the most favourable choice, but I don't think anyone has had a good indication of who is most likely yet.
 
The term "pay driver" doesn't mean what it used to. Yes, they pay for their seat - but they're no longer entirely useless. With so many feeder series these days, the pay drivers can't rely solely on money to get them a seat: they have to have at least a little bit of talent to go with it. Of the three, I'd say Petrov is by far the safest bet; neither Maldonado nor Parente have particualrly shone.
 
Pay driver as a term is still the same as it always was - teams are considering them because of their money rather than necessarily their skill. Pay drivers weren't always rubbish back in the day either (Schumacher was a pay driver) but most of the time they weren't particularly great either.

The very nature of motorsport requires almost all drivers to find sponsorship, so really everyone is a pay driver to an extent. But the difference is those that bring major money and those that don't, teams have been known to hire drivers who didn't bring enough money.

Only the top drivers don't bring much sponsorship and only the top teams don't need the additional money, or at least are more willing to take drivers for their skill rather than the money.
For smaller teams, the ideal setup is a highly rated driver with experience to help develop the team and a pay driver to help boost the finances. If the pay driver happens to be pretty good, its a bonus but its a secondary requirement.
 
I just read an interesting rumour - Anthony Davidson at Mercedes? Thats certainly something no one has considered and is definitely a surprise!
 
:lol: This is getting ridiculous. I see we have a new flavor for the day :crazy: My head is starting to hurt lol
 
Ardius
You'd be hard pressed to find anywhere where Benetton and Williams co-operated at the time.
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You make a good argument

PeterJB
Ooh I do hope Schumi comes back! He could potentially dominate and make it boring again but F1 hasn't been the same without him!
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You're right, it's been better!

interludes
The latest bit of insanity: Anthony Hamilton to buy Renault!
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What was someone smoking when they wrote that?

Ardius
I just read an interesting rumour - Anthony Davidson at Mercedes? Thats certainly something no one has considered and is definitely a surprise!
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That would make sort of sense seeing as how Davidson/Sato were test drivers once upon a time for Honda who are Brawn who are Mercedes

timeattack07gt
:lol: This is getting ridiculous. I see we have a new flavor for the day :crazy: My head is starting to hurt lol
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I like crazy, gives a rush of blood to the head
 
Ardius
I just read an interesting rumour - Anthony Davidson at Mercedes? Thats certainly something no one has considered and is definitely a surprise!
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Well, German and French media outlets are slowly starting to admit that Schumacher might have signed.
 
interludes
Well, German and French media outlets are slowly starting to admit that Schumacher might have signed.
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Ludes, ludes, you disappoint me

What have I told you about believing everything the French and the Germans say?

IF you believe the Germans, they will keep telling you that they won WW2

If you believe the French, they will tell you that Thierry Henry never handballed that ball
 
No Lotus seat for Sato.

Sato drops out of Lotus contention

By Matt Beer Sunday, December 13th 2009, 11:06 GMT

The new Lotus team looks set to field Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen next season after Takuma Sato's management revealed that the Japanese driver had been informed he had failed to secure a drive with the squad.

Sato was believed to be vying with Kovalainen for one Lotus seat, with Trulli a strong favourite for the other. Lotus is due to announce its line-up tomorrow, but Sato's manager Matthew Winter says his driver has already missed out.

"We know Taku has not got Lotus - we found out yesterday," Winter told Reuters. "He has now come off the list."

Winter had hoped Sato would find favour with Lotus' Asian backers, as the team is ultimately set to be based in Malaysian, and has been founded by Air Asia entrepreneur Tony Fernandes.

"We don't know what the criteria was," Winter said. "We thought he was a very strong contender, you don't get more Asian than Taku."

Sato had hoped that the expanded Formula 1 field next season would enable him to make a comeback nearly two years after the collapse of Super Aguri left him on the sidelines. He had also been linked to the IndyCar Series, but said F1 was his first priority.

With the Lotus option gone, Winter conceded that Sato's hopes of a 2010 F1 seat were now fading.

"We haven't given up," he said. "There are still a few seats open and we are trying to hunt them down. His options are running out so we don't know if he is going to be in Formula 1 next year."
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Well thats lame.

So I guess that all but confirms Trulli and Kovalainen for Lotus then, quite a solid and experienced line-up 👍 Hopefully Kovy goes back to his Renault success.
Its pretty impressive that Lotus have come from being a late-comer nobody team to hiring two experienced decent drivers and GP winners.

They are certainly going a long way to being the "best of the new teams".
 
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Virgin Racing has confirmed? Well thats a lie :lol: They haven't announced anything yet apart from Glock!

They are confirming their drivers on Tuesday.
 
Such a crying shame for Sato. But don't get down, there's always USF1, whatever the hell they are doing.
 
Ardius
I just read an interesting rumour - Anthony Davidson at Mercedes? Thats certainly something no one has considered and is definitely a surprise!
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As nice as it would be, MS is looking like the most likely candidate.

Ross told Ant, there will always be something for him at Brawn/Merc and he also said many people within the team have told him he should put Ant in the 2nd seat. He knows Ant would drive for peanuts too...but, we wouldn't be dissapointed if they chose MS over Ant. For obviously reasons...!
 
Lotus annoucement expected in about an hour. I think. Trulli seems to be a sure thing for the first seat, Heikki Kovalainen favourite for the second. However, Will Buxton reckons it's not as simple as that - Heidfeld might have given up on Mercedes and be interested in Lotus.

Tony Fernandes also seems to be angling for a rivalry with Virgin, since he runs AirAsia and Richard Branson has Virgin Airways and Virgin Blue. It will be interesting to see how that pans out, given that each team will have an ex-Toyota driver in their lineups.
 
And now we know why Button left:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80574

Henkel press release:
Henkel
A fraud case, in which the Düsseldorf Prosecutor's Office is investigating the previously convicted fraudster Willy Luchs and a former Henkel employee, has greater scope than originally believed.

Brawn GP has concluded a 3-year sponsorship agreement for 90 million euros with the Dutch letterbox company operated by the convicted fraudster Willy Luchs. A former Henkel employee is alleged to have entered into a guarantee from Henkel to support such sponsorship agreement.

Additionally, it is totally unprecedented to believe that an employee at the 5th management level of a DAX-listed company would have been authorised to either negotiate or sign agreements of such magnitude and commercial profile without involving the company's senior management, Finance, Marketing or Legal departments. The appropriate level of diligence does not appear to have been undertaken by Brawn GP as even a simple "Google" search would have revealed Willy Luchs' criminal past.

Following an enquiry by Daimler on September 28, Henkel informed Daimler that a Formula 1 sponsorship agreement with Brawn GP neither exists nor was planned.

On October 28, after Henkel was informed by the Dusseldorf Prosecutor's Office and the fraudulent acts became apparent, it immediately notified Daimler of the acts of Willy Luchs and the former Henkel employee. Henkel fully supports the Dusseldorf Prosecutor's Office in their investigations.

On November 13, Brawn GP demanded payment from Henkel with a fixed deadline and with the threat of legal action. To safeguard its legitimate interests, on November 19 Henkel began court proceedings against Brawn GP in the Dusseldorf District Court in order for the Court to determine that there are no obligations whatsoever on Henkel on the basis of the existing documents. Henkel will not accept a fraudulent sponsorship arrangement with Brawn GP, based on clear and obvious fraudulent acts.
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Ardius
And now we know why Button left:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80574
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Actually, I'd be surprised if that had anything to do with Button's departure. Mercedes are only just finding out about it now; blame seems to rest with Nick Fry for this little episode. He's probably the one responsible for Button's departure as well, since the team left it to him to negotiate and Fry decided to play hardball with Button because he felt Button owed his championship to Brawn. But aside from Fry being the antagnoist in both cases, I don't think the Henkel case has anything to do with Button going to McLaren.
 
I think he had tongue in cheek when he said this is why Button left.

On a separate note, I guess this and the Quadbak incident means F1 is ripe for fraud.
 
Given the massive upheavals we've seen politically this year, the teams need to get sponsors to secure their future, and fast. Brawn in particular had to do it since they had virtually no money.
 
Virgin confirm Tim O'Glock and Degrassi High as drivers, Avocado Parente and Luiz Razamataz as testers. Judging by their website, they're going for a real rock-and-roll attitude, the kind we haven't seen since Jordan (sure, Red Bull had it - but then they started getting all corporate). It's kind of retro, nothing flashy and the video has the best team tagline ever: SCREW IT - LET'S DO IT.

Also, one of Campos' guys reckons they're still angling for Pedro de la Rosa for 2010 despite Petrov and Maldonado having much more in the way of sponsorship on offer.
 
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