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Who will stand in for Grosjean at Monza? (49 posts)

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robk23 said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

Lotus have d’Ambrosio as their reserve driver, it would make sense for them to put him in their car for Monza otherwise why do they have him? They’re fighting McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors standings and d’Ambrosio should be able to put in a good result, he knows the car and the team after all. In that respect, bringing in an outside driver would seem stupid.

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Keith Collantine said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

A couple of ex-F1 drivers have their hands up:

people are asking in case the Lotus F1 team[Renault] called me to race in Monza if I would go???the answer is YES…

— Rubens Barrichello (@rubarrichello) September 3, 2012

people are asking in case the Lotus F1 team[Renault] called me to race in Monza if I would go???the answer is YES..But I needextinguisher.

— Taki Inoue (@takiinoue) September 3, 2012

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mrgrieves said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

Rubens tweet filled me with delight, Taki Inoue fille me with laughter. As much as i’d like to see Jerome get his chance to see Rubens back at Monza would be amazing and nothing sells like a comeback!

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Felipe Bomeny said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

Roberto Moreno!

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robk23 said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

@Portugoose The last time I saw him he was racing at Oulton Park in a Mini, quite a comedown for the ‘super sub’!

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the_sigman said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

It’s all over. D’Ambrosio.

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Force Maikel said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

Well I expect Lotus to announce the replacement driver tomorow hence they have no time to lose. I have confidence that Boullier will go for D’ambrosio because boullier is one of the main reasons he ever made it to F1 in the first place.

Jerome knows the team and car and has already driven with 2012 Pirelli’s. Sutil does not have that luxury, Alguersuari does but how many sponsors does he have to back up such an adventure?

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Antonio Nartea said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

@Ral – regarding Sutil, from what I know he shook hands with Eric Lux and it’s all in the past for both of them now. So it isn’t that unlikely, even though yes, D’Ambrosio still seems a much reasonable choice.

Barrichello’s post on Twitter actually put a big smile on my face. After his best IndyCar result so far at Sonoma, being offered a driving seat, even if it’s just for one race, would make Barrichello’s month for sure. And I’m sure KV would have no problem with letting him have a go.
What a move would that be from Lotus? Racing Raikkonen and Barrichello at Monza in a potentially winning car…

However, it’s all fantasy I’m afraid. There’s virtually no chance Boullier will make that phone call. I would declare myself completely shocked if this happened.

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necrodethmortem said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

What about Jean Alesi, isn’t he under contract with Lotus somehow? :P

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Antonio Nartea said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

@necrodethmortem – I swear I wanted to metion Alesi earlier today! He is under some sort of contract with Lotus. Or at least was, for the Indy500.

However, the IndyCar package is simple and somewhat similar in its simplicity to what Alesi was familiar with before he retired from F1. Trying to make Alesi understand and adapt to a modern F1 car would be similar to teaching a fish how to walk. :)

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aka_robyn said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

Honestly, I thought we would have heard it’s d’Ambrosio by now. What are they waiting for?

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Prisoner Monkeys said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

@keithcollantine

I’d be surprised if Williams let a rival team get their claws into a hot property like Bottas as Prisoner Monekys suggests. But Williams seem willing to put up with a lot of things for money at the moment so who knows.

I think Williams would stand to gain just as much from having Bottas drive for Lotus as Lotus themselves do – and not just money.

Right now, Bottas is the one driver in the paddock with the most experience in current-generation cars on 2012-spec Pirellis who isn’t currently under contract to race for someone else. He is the reigning GP3 champion, and a driver that Williams think highly of. He fits the profile of everything Lotus is looking for.

At the same time, driving for Lotus would give Williams an excellent chance to assess him. In the three races where Pastor Maldonado has made the most of the FW34′s potential (Spain, Valencia and Belgium), he has qualified very, very close to Raikkonen and/or Grosjean. Even before his penalty in Monaco, Maldonado was only a tenth of a second slower than Raikkonen. So when the Williams is on form, it’s comparable to the Lotus – in fact, the two are probably closer together in terms of performance than any other two cars on the grid. Having Bottas drive for Lotus at Monza would give the team a chance to assess him without being forced to give up one of their current drivers. And since it’s unlikely that Lotus will take anyone but Grosjean and Raikkonen next year, there is no real danger of Lotus poaching Bottas away. Even if they did, it probably wouldn’t take Williams much to convince Grosjean or Raikkonen to cross over to their side.

So I think there is something in it for the both of them.

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the_sigman said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

I read in a greek site that Eric Boullier said it would be d’Ambrosio.

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raymondu999 said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

So let’s add a little je ne sais quoi to this whole discussion. Let’s say that in Monza – whoever Grosjean’s stand-in is – we have a retired Kimi, and the stand-in wins at Monza. Dominant fashion. What happens then? :P

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Prisoner Monkeys said 9 months, 2 weeks ago:

Red faces for all.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s that realistic a scenario. I can’t really see any of the proposed stand-ins – d’Ambrosio, alguersuari, Bottas, Sutil, etc – climbing into the car and obliterating the field first time out.

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