They are probably going to partner an experienced F1 driver (read: Alex Wurz) with a young American, possibly Jonathan Summerton or Graham Rahal. I woulden’t be suprised to see some of the young Americans racing in Europe and America- Rossi, Daly, Newgarden, Hildebrand- signed to some kind of developmental deal as well.

Plenty of talent bud…now that someone is looking for it and wiling to employ them, watch them shine in a little while

Speed had a go, Seb had a go, etc etc…Maybe they should look at Marcus Ambrose.
Ambrose has raced open wheelers, against button, kimi, etc so he has experience.
Ambrose on road tracks is faster than Speed, Montoya and really is the class of the nascar field when they have to turn right and left.
He isnt ‘young’ and would be a older rookie…and even though he isnt American he is know in the US thru nascar so it might be an option, just as P Windsor is a Australian/American.

I dont even know if Ambrose would even want to go in to F1 but give him a test and that might re spark an old flame he was chasing a few years ago.

With the demise of Yukos, there’s only really two options that I can think of: Lukoil and Gazprom. Lukoil has a close association with Red Bull; they run a Young Driver Development Program of their own throughout the lower formula like Formula Lada, the pinnacle of which is their sponsorship of Mikhail Aleshin in Formula Two, which they do with Red Bull. If Petrov gets the Campos drive – or any drive, for that matter – they may use him as a stepping stone to infiltrate all levels of international motorsport and create a conduit from Russia to the international stage, but one of my closest friends is Russian and if I’ve learned anything from her it’s that loyalty is very highly valued.

Gazprom is the other alternative. They’re primarily a natural gas company, but they do have an oil arm named Gazprom Neft, which is treated as a separate copany and is the fifth-largest in Russia. That said, parent company Gazprom is currently embroiled in a dispute over the supply of natural gas reserves to the Ukraine, so they may not really be in any position to start sponsoring major sporting teams (though they do lend their name to professional football and ice hockey teams). Gazprom Neft might be separate enough that they are unaffected by the dispute and may decide to sponsor Petrov simply to one-up Lukoil.

There’s a handful of other companies that might do it, mostly telecommunication outfits. But most of the money lies in oil and natural gas. I don’t really know who Petrov’s personal sponsor is, and obviously that’s going to have an effect on who sponsors a team he joins (if he indeed joins one).

Now, formula1blog’s Paul Charsley has an interesting idea. Back in the 70’s a fellow named Guy Edwards bought space on a Hesketh, and some other cars I think, and then sold the space to advertisers for as much as he could get.

I believe that’s what some sponsors actually do. I’ve heard Malboro do it for Ferrari – they buy sponsor space and sell it to other sponsors (subject to Ferrari’s approval, of course) – and that Virgin supposedly had that right for Brawn (the idea being that Branson could attract sponsors so the team could carry on racing).

With YouTube actually losing Google,

Sorry, that line was meant to read “with YouTube actually losing money for Google”

Never pick up typing without proofreading first after having been called away to the phone, lol.