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Silly Season 2013 (494 posts)

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Asif said 6 months ago:

Too bad some decent drivers are going to be forced out of racing. Some drivers deserve a chance while others are there just for show and sponsor money.

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Prisoner Monkeys said 6 months ago:

AMuS reporting that Bottas has already signed a contract with Williams; it simply hasn’t been announced.

The Italians are reporting that Petrov has found some additional backing and that he could sign a new contract with Caterham today.

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Bosley said 6 months ago:

Petrov’s recent form would suggest he’d be a good candidate at Caterham.

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Garns said 6 months ago:

I think Senna has been hard done by if that is the case PM. If you take out Pastor’s win (although impressive) Senna has been more consistent and I think the points results is 10:5 in Senna’s favour.

Pastor quicker in quali but more likely to make race errors. Added to that Bottas has taken Senna’s car in FP1 all year meaning Bruno is really behind the field in FP2 as he then needs to make set up and aero adjustments where all else are pretty well sorted by then.

Not saying Bruno is better than Pastor, but I hate the fact that one a driver that rocks up with a bag full of money gets the drive- but I guess thats F1.

I posted previoulsy that Nico would replace KK at Sauber which has come true. Seems Kobayashi has done nothing wrong except for not having enough cash in his bag- certainly has more talent than some others on the grid IMO.

Seems Heike will see the same fate as well.

Garns

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Prisoner Monkeys said 6 months ago:

I think Senna has been hard done by if that is the case PM. If you take out Pastor’s win (although impressive) Senna has been more consistent and I think the points results is 10:5 in Senna’s favour

Senna has had more than enough chances to prove himself, both this year and in previous seasons.

As I’ve said before, it’s easier to teach a fast driver like Maldonado to be consistent than it is to teach a consistent driver like Senna to be fast.

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Garns said 6 months ago:

PM- I can see your point and personally was hoping Senna’s results this year would have been a bit better, but I still think its not right that all talk (and seemingly action) has been Bottas replacing Senna and Pastor a given for the seat. I dont think Pastor has blown Senna out of the water in performance, but that sponsor backing again ensures a drive.

Will Bottas be much of an improvement on driver line-up??

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Prisoner Monkeys said 6 months ago:

I dont think Pastor has blown Senna out of the water in performance

When he’s on form, he’s on form – Senna has had just one apperance in the Q3 this year, whereas Maldonado has qualified in Q3 thirteen times (though he has been pushed back by penalties from time to time). And he was in the top three five times.

Furthermore, Senna has only out-qualified Maldonado three times. And of those three times, Maldonado was given a penalty in Monaco that sent him to the back of the grid and had a KERS problem in Bahrain that stopped him from setting a qualifying time at all.

At this rate, anyone would be an improvement on Senna.

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AdrianMorse said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

Now that the season is over, we only have the tail-end of the silly season to look forward to.

I think Petrov made a good case for either a Marussia or a Caterham drive yesterday, especially if he can still find a couple of roubles.

Paul di Resta has been blown away by Hulkenberg in the second part of the season, with the exception of Singapore. I don’t know whether Paul has a contract for next season, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see two new faces at Force India next year. Jules Bianchi is the obvious choice for one of the seats, and Adrian Sutil a safe bet for the second one, although personally I would be more excited to see a new face. Partnering Bianchi with Robin Frijns would have been particularly interesting, though with Robin’s reserve driver role at Sauber, that’s not going to happen.

Romain Grosjean has had a shocking second half of the season, and I wonder whether the occasional highs are enough to give him a second chance, or has he really blown it this time and will he be replaced by Davide Valsecchi or Pastor Maldonado?

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Girts said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

@AdrianMorse Talking about Petrov, I think that the keywords are still ‘a couple of roubles’. In my opinion, Petrov is one of 24 best single-seater drivers in the world and deserves to be in F1 on merit. But I believe that Kovalainen deserves it a bit more.

I don’t think that Petrov’s performance on Sunday alone will make the team change their minds. He did what he needed to and deserves praise for that but I believe Kovalainen was as good, he just made two pit stops more and got delayed in one them. Before the first pit stop, he even had managed to get ahead of Petrov.

If Petrov can find some new sponsorship money, then it probably makes sense for the team to keep him. But, based on performance indicators alone, I would rather keep Kovalainen.

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Lorenzo said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

According to italian reports, Bruno Senna is actually talking with Lotus to replace Grosjean.

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Garns said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

Prisoner Monkeys – Maybe 3:17 on the Saturday but as you well know they dont give out the points on the Saturday. On race day Senna has scored more often than Pastor – still 10:5 as they both went out last night. Pastor I think has been given 8 grid penalties this year- far too many really.

The public perception seems to be one is a gun and the other a dud- probably mainly due to his win of course- but I dont think either is correct.

As for Bruno going to Lotus would love to see it but shows the height of the silly seasons doesnt it! Some reports say he is gone from F1 forever, the other he is heading to a top team……………

Garns

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Matthijs said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

@Lorenzo: the same team that ditched him last year? That does not sound likely.

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Lorenzo said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

I know Matthijs, but that’s what i heard.
During the last quali session, an italian journalist said: “We give you a scoop; Bruno Senna is actually in big negotiations with Lotus in order to replace Grosjean in 2013″

Also, Renault president hinted that Bruno will drive a Renault-powered car in 2013.

One other interesting point is that Senna looked easy and calm in the post race interviews , meaning that probably he has already a good contract in the hands for next year. (if you are going to be fired out of F1, you should be angry and sad looking i suppose)

We’ll see.

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Antonio Nartea said 5 months, 4 weeks ago:

I will eat my desk if Senna sets foot in a Lotus ever again. Seriously. Boullier is not the type of guy who lets himself get disappointed twice. He fired Heidfeld based on his lack of results and brought in Senna who had even poorer results, in 2011. Then he sacked both Senna and Petrov, even though his season was not that bad / he was still better than Bruno in the second half. What makes you think Senna is in with even 0.1 of a chance? Grosjean is staying, most probably, because he showed promise in the first half of the season. I reckon they will try to sort the recklessness out of him in the winter break and let him have another go in 2013. The only way Senna will get a seat with Lotus is if Renault impose him. And that would be a massive mistake and an adventure that will probably turn ugly and end somewhere in mid-season 2013.
But, I for one would relegate Grosjean to the test driver role once again and I’d bring in Kovalainen alongside Raikkonen. That would be a doozy of a line-up for Lotus.

Petrov convinced me, in the second part of the season, that he deserves the seat at Caterham. He took advantage of Kovalainen’s unhappiness with the team and the bad climate on the finn’s side of the garage in order to constantly outrace him. And as I said in one of my previous comments, somehow I feel Petrov and Pic would go well together.

Sutil is definitely the one for that Force India seat. It remains to be seen if Mallya decides to let Bianchi have a go instead of Di Resta. Even though I find that very unlikely to happen, while they still run Mercedes engines.

So:
Lotus – Raikkonen / Grosjean (even though I still hope for Kovalainen, in my own naivity)
Williams – Maldonado / Bottas
Force India – Sutil / Di Resta (even though based on the trashing he recieved from Hulk, I’d rather be interested in seeing Bianchi in that seat)
Caterham – Petrov / Pic
Marussia – Glock / Chilton

And that’s that. Senna, Kobayashi, De La Rosa, Karthikeyan – out for sure. Kovalainen, Di Resta, Grosjean – at least one of them out. The only two guys on this list who don’t deserve to be kicked out of F1, in my opinion are Koba and Kovalainen. Senna, Di Resta, Grosjean and the lot, we could do without.

Oh, and what’s happening with Alguersuari’s “sure” racing seat for next year?

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Felipe Bomeny said 5 months, 3 weeks ago:

MTV3 is reporting that Kovalainen could form an all-Finnish lineup at Lotus. While Auto und Motor Sport said Grosjean is still the favourite, they pointed out Total is unhappy with RoGro because his tendency to crash is very embarrassing for Total’s road safety program. It’s also interesting considering both Raikkonen and Kovalainen have Rovio sponsorship- if Heikki was to partner Kimi, we’d see much more Angry Birds involvement.

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