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Silly Season 2013 (494 posts)

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Prisoner Monkeys said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

I suspect Vijay is trying to head off all the talk of Narain Karthikeyan joining the team.

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Ben Needham said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

According to Croft/Brundle – it’s looking increasingly likely that Hulkenberg could be staying put.

Does that put Di Resta under pressure? I’ve been seeing increasingly less of him every race since Singapore to the point where I don’t actually remember seeing him during the race at all yesterday…

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Keith Collantine said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@prisoner-monkeys That would make sense.

@ben-n Autosport are adamant Hulkenberg is going to Sauber so it’s curious Sky seem to think they have it wrong.

If, as has been claimed, Hulkenberg’s Force India exit clause is activated by them failing to finish in the top half of the constructors’ championship, then it might not be settled until the end of the season.

Ironically, of the two Force India drivers at the moment Hulkenberg is the one doing the most to aid Force India’s chances of beating Sauber!

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Ben Needham said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

It’ll definitely be interesting to see how it plays out.

I’m a fan of driver moves, I think it spices things up – so I wouldn’t mind seeing him go to Sauber, but I also think Kobayashi deserves more than dropping out of F1.

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Fer no.65 said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

I’d rather see Karthikeyan in the Force India than Sutil. To be honest, I don’t miss him, and I can’t see him doing anything better than he did for 5 years in that same team.

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Prisoner Monkeys said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@keithcollantine – I don’t think Mallya needs to bother, really. The stories of having an Indian driver race for an Indian team while the sport was in India seem like nothing more than the typical hype train.

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raymondu999 said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

They should’ve done it in 2010 lol. We’d have had Team Germany, Team Britain, and Team India.

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Keith Collantine said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@ben-n

According to Croft/Brundle – it’s looking increasingly likely that Hulkenberg could be staying put.

Not so much:

Nico Hulkenberg joins Sauber for 2013

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raymondu999 said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

Yeah. Apparently SpeedTV were saying something likeHulkenberg was going to take the seat meant for Perez at McLaren and such rubbish, but yeah.

Love that this happened.

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Enigma said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

So, where does this leave the whole thing? At the top 5 teams everything is taken, apart from the 2nd Lotus seat – but it’s unlikely it’ll be anyone other than Grosjean there.

Toro Rosso will surely keep the two drivers, at least for the first half of the next season. Maldonado is staying put as well, also di Resta, Glock and de la Rosa.

So this seats are still open:
- 1 at Sauber (Gutierrez, Alguersuari, Frijns, Kobayashi)
- 1 at Force India (Bianchi, Alguersuari, Sutil, Razia)
- 1 at Williams (Senna, Bottas)
- 2 at Caterham (Kovalainen, van der Garde, Rossi, Valsecchi, Razia, Pic)
- 1 at Marussia (Pic, Chilton)
- 1 at HRT (Karthikeyan, Ma)

What do we think?

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Estesark said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

@enigma – I would expect Gutierrez, Bianchi and Bottas to take the first three places on your list, but that creates something of a contradiction if we are to assume that Alguersuari is returning to the sport. Would he take a drive at Caterham? I wouldn’t rule it out. They might actually need two new drivers, because I’m not entirely sure Kovalainen will be in F1 next year. I’m just speculating, but I think he’s got fed up at Caterham and will leave the team even if he can’t get another seat. Continuing down the list, I’m not sure who Marussia will take and I’m not particularly interested in who HRT take.

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Girts said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

Sauber: Gutierrez
Force India: Alguersuari
Williams: Bottas
Marussia: Chilton
HRT: Karthikeyan

As a Kovalainen fan, I take the situation at Caterham quite personally. It looks like Kovalainen doesn’t have much choice at the moment but, for sure, he sees the situation within the team and, if he doesn’t believe that they are ever going to be more than ‘HRT Plus’, then I could understand his unwillingness to stay there. After all, drivers quite often come back to F1 after having lost their seats for a year or even more.

Kovalainen himself says that he’s waiting for Fernandes’ decision (not vice versa) but, of course, we cannot know what’s happening in the background. To be honest, I’m disappointed with the Kovalainen’s management, not only because of the contract talks but I think they generally should be doing a better job.

I hope that Kovalainen stays with Caterham after all but I wouldn’t bet much on it, it’s possible that the team ends up with something like Pic + Van der Garde, too.

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Antonio Nartea said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

it’s possible that the team ends up with something like Pic + Van der Garde, too

Neah. Caterham need Kovalainen at the moment. And Kovalainen has no better option. I’d be very surprised to see him leave before 2014. It’s the second seat at Caterham that’s subject to change. However, I wouldn’t take Petrov out of the equation. Remember this season? He was all out of options until Caterham decided to replace Trulli after all. Petrov could get a late capital infusion and keep his seat with Caterham. His performances haven’t been so bad. Money is the issue. I still see Van Der Garde in that seat for 2013 but who knows? Petrov is still an option. And so would be Kobayashi, I reckon, if he gets the boot from Sauber, and Alexander Rossi. As for the Pic rumours, I doubt there’s anything coming out of that prospect.

The Sauber seat looks like it’s Gutierrez’s for the taking. Carlos Slim won’t be pumping money into that team for nothing. Williams are most likely to throw Bottas a bone and finally let him race while Marussia will most likely go with Chilton. Also the prospect of Ma Qing Hua taking Narain’s place is not that much of a daydream. There are chinese money flowing through HRT’s bank accounts already and it would be the good exposure for them as well, to be the first F1 team to race a chinese driver. It might not be a big deal for us, in Europe or in the USA or wherever, but in China I bet that’s gonna be huge news.

The only big question mark is over that Force India seat which might go either way between Sutil, Alguersuari and Bianchi, I reckon. Alguersuari however has been too confident in his statements to not know for sure someone, somewhere is keeping a seat warm for him.

So, this is how I believe the 2013 line-up will look like:

Red Bull
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Mark Webber

Ferrari
3. Fernando Alonso
4. Felipe Massa

McLaren
5. Jenson Button
6. Sergio Perez

Lotus
7. Kimi Raikkonen
8. Romain Grosjean

Mercedes
9. Lewis Hamilton
10. Nico Rosberg

Sauber
11. Nico Hulkenberg
12. Esteban Gutierrez

Force India
14. Jaime Alguersuari
15. Paul Di Resta

Williams
16. Pastor Maldonado
17. Valtteri Bottas

Torro Rosso
18. Daniel Ricciardo
19. Jean-Eric Vergne

Caterham
20. Heikki Kovalainen
21. Giedo Van Der Garde

Marussia
22. Timo Glock
23. Max Chilton

HRT
24. Pedro De La Rosa
25. Ma Qing Hua

If it comes true, we’re in for a very interesting season, I might add.

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Estesark said 6 months, 3 weeks ago:

The Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat, who are obviously keeping a keen eye out for any stories involving Valtteri Bottas’s possible promotion to a race seat, report that Williams have missed the deadline for taking up an extension on Senna’s contract, which they had to do before this Wednesday. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s definitely on his way out – Massa’s option at Ferrari expired but he went on to sign another contract – but it does indicate that the team are keeping their options open even at this late stage of the season.

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Antonio Nartea said 6 months, 2 weeks ago:

but it does indicate that the team are keeping their options open even at this late stage of the season.

I’d be very surprised if they made a decision before the end of the season and an announcement sooner than December. Old Papa Frank likes to take his time with things…

I reckon they’ll announce Maldonado is staying soon. But Senna’s seat…that’s subject to a lot of debates.

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