F1 Fanatic

I was wondering what people thought about Heidfeld’s chances of finding a cockpit for next year. Obviously it seems to be pretty much status quo at the top teams; as far as I can see, his main options would be:

- Mercedes: should Schumacher decide/be forced to call it a day, it seems logical that the team might turn to Nick as the test and reserve driver. However they might also try to sign Kubica. (Whether Kubica would want to go there is a discussion for another day…)

- Renault: should Kubica move, or Petrov be dropped, this would be another good option.

- Sauber: if De la Rosa retires at the end of the year as he has suggested he might, there would be a possibility here, but I think it’s unlikely, considering that Sauber had the chance to resign him this year and chose not to. Also, with the team lacking performance and sponsorship (= money for development), this would arguably be less preferable to waiting another year for an opportunity at Mercedes.

- HRT: Senna and Chandhok haven’t exactly set the world alight and it’s plausible that the team might decide that having an experienced driver such as Heidfeld in one of the cars could ultimately be preferable to the sponsorship brought by the current pair. However, he’d presumably be ‘in the queue’ as it were behind current testers Klien and Yamamoto.

- The new team? Whoever this might be, they seem likely to get their entry quite late on and not have long to prepare for the new season, rather like Lotus last year. In that scenario they might well go for an experienced hand to speed up development and show the ultimate potential (or lack thereof!) of the car, without having to wait for rookies to get up to speed.

However due to the lack of rumours regarding Heidfeld I can only presume he’s going to wait around for Schumacher to finally hang up his helmet…

What are people’s thoughts?

Don’t know about Renault Steph, don’t think they’ll sign Heidfeld but at the same time I think the chances of them keeping Vitaly next year are getting smaller every time he fails to score. 6 points is simply not good enough, Kobayashi and Buemi both have 7 an their driving vastly inferior cars. I think Renault have run out of patience and are starting to walk around Sutil and Glock. Next year or soon after that they could be in Championship contention and Vitaly just isn’t getting the job done, granted Kubica is know to his stearing wheel as Mr Fantastic Job but a 77 point gap to your teamate is astronomical even for a rookie.

An they don’t even need the money any more, the points Glock or Sutil could have gained for them would bring in far more FOM money than whatever amount Vitaly provides through sponsership, as well as the fact they’re up to the ears in sponsers.

I’m not entiley convinced De La Rosa will get to stay either, never good when your Rookie teamate outscores you. Sure he’s spent three years out but the chances of him restarting his test driver role, especially considering testing may be returning are high.

I think Petrov will stay with Renault. Sutil or Glock would be a good number two but Vitaly is just the product from the testing ban. He’s got into a few scrapes just thre inexperience which all the field has. In Turkey, Alonso rudely gave him a puncture for his fine drive (which without then Kobayashi wouldn’t have scored that point) and at China in the wet he really shone esp overtaking Webber I think it was, sure he had a spin but it showed his racecraft.

I do think the Renault is the best car to start out in and there is definite room for improvement but Buemi has much more experience of F1 than Petrov and Kobayashi is great when he isn’t crashing.

If Renault choose to ditch Vitaly I think it’s more because they can’t be bothered to wait around for points rather than a reflection on Vitaly. I genuinely believe the testing ban has pretty much ruined the majority of the first season for F1 rookies which is a shame as F1 isn’t patient.

Sorry for the off-topic ramble but to get to the point Heidfeld will only have a shot at Renault if (and I;m not sure it will happen) they boot out Vitaly and go back on their promise to build the team around Kubica because Nick was far too close to Robert at their time in BMW to just be instantly made a number 2

Why has no one mentioned Force India? Liuzzi isn’t doing enough to deserve a 2011 contract. I’ve heard Joe Saward mention that Liuzzi will continue to drive for them next season, but then as the founder of the Tonio Liuzzi fan club he would say that…

Adrian Sutil is perhaps going to be a target of one of the top teams, maybe Renault or even Mercedes if they decide to cut their losses with Schumacher, so I think he could possibly move on too. In which case, I think a Force India line up of Paul di Resta and Nick Heidfeld could work very nicely indeed

I forgot about FI too. Liuzzi if fired I think will be replaced by Paul. Sutil well i don’t see him going anywhere but if he does maybe Renault as Kubica should outpace him. Maybe Heidfeld could then if he wanted to

Yes, I probably do! Hahaha!

I don’t think Schumacher is going to retire at the end of this year. Everything about Schumacher is about giving his best. I think he’ll push on, slowly but surely, gain experience with these cars, work with the technology, try and improve. Schumacher has never been one for giving up, with out knowing he’s tried his best. (Adelaide ring any bells? :) )

I don’t think his reputation has anything to do with it in my mind. He’s always going to be a 7 time world champ ( annoyingly at the time!! But pleased that this Nemesis exists today as it raises the value of the championship).

So Heidfeld made a bad decision to go to Merc. He would have been better of at Virgin with Glock. Maybe he’ll find a seat next year at the end of the grid.

Nick’s only chance is if Schumacher said that he wants to quit at the end of 2010.I don’t see there is any chance for him in any other team but Force India if anyone of Sutil & Luizzi leaves the team. I don’t want him to go in any of the Newbie team as this will make him go backfoot.