F1 Fanatic

@prisoner-monkeys

Well, problem is that in F1 99% of all talent gets stuck in karting, because it is virtually impossible for a middle-class family to support a junior formula career without serious backing from a large sponsor, or the junior drivers’ program from an F1 team. Seriously, who here can afford $300,000 for Formula BMW? That’s just your first step.

You don’t have this BS in the Olympics, Football, Tennis, or Cycling.

I honestly do believe that in a perfect world, hypothetically speaking, if finances and money had no say in Auto Racing, and the ladder to F1 was entirely down talent — the 22 drivers on the grid would be Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, maybe Raikkonen, and then 18 or 19 other blokes. I doubt any of the other current drivers would be in there.

Just my humble two cents.

@kingshark – If you want someone to blame, throw a rock into pit lane. Chances are that you’ll hit someone guilty.

The teams are responsible for this situation. Motorsport is, by its very nature, an expensive sport. But the teams aren’t helping things when they are spending $400 million per season. It costs the likes of Marussia and Caterham $50 million just to see out the season, much less be competitive. So blame the teams who have the power to cut costs – Jean Todt approached them with a proposal to make the Resource Restriction Agreement mandatory, rather than voluntary – but refuse to because they know that if they spend $399 million, they’ll be less competitive than if they spent $400 million, and so won’t back any regulations that limit their spending to just (for example) $100 million. And if they did back it, you know that the first thing they would do is go over it with a fine-toothed comb, looking for any loopholes that would allow them to spend $101 million.

In fact, I believe that almost all of the teams actually agreed to Todt’s proposal, but Todt needed unanimous agreement to make the regulations a part of the sport. The only holdout was Red Bull, who refused to agree to it – and, given their influence over Toro Rosso, used Toro Rosso’s vote to block the regulations.

Sport Bild says that Sutil back to Force India is now a done deal. According to the article, Mercedes have lowered the price for their engines to help Sutil’s bid and it is now expected that FI will keep the Mercedes engines in 2014, too. SB also claims to know that Sutil prepared for the new season in the McLaren simulator (that FI use) yesterday and will participate in the final test as of tomorrow.

http://sportbild.bild.de/SPORT/formel-1/2013/02/27/adrian-sutil/perfekt-rueckkehr-in-die-formel-1.html

If it’s true that Bianchi has been passed over, I wonder whether a quick time from Bianchi on the last day (which was wet of course) of the previous Barcelona test would have made a difference.

What next for Jules? A move to Marussia in case Razia’s sponsors fail to pony up the dough? Marussia needs a new engine supplier for next year anyway.

@ryanwilliams, well, with Renault wanting to supply fewer teams and Ferrari looking for more, I guess the choice for Marussia will be between a three-pointed star and a prancing horse, neither of which sound cheap. I guess the question is: can Marussia afford any engine in 2014? Anyway, we’re drifting off-topic here. Maybe we should start a thread 2014 silly season ;-)

Kovalainen is apparently in talks with Marussia after Razia’s money has failed to fully materialise

http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtml/2013/02/1714329/kovalainen-neuvottelee-marussian-kanssa

Ilta-Sanomat is also reporting about Kovalainen and Marussia:

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/formula1/art-1288544166731.html?ref=hs-tf-promo5

Ilta-Sanomat isn’t the most reliable news source in Finland, but in my opinion their Formula One news often have something to do with reality.

Apparently Swedish Formula One reporter Janne Blomqvist has said in his blog that “Marussia has asked Riedel, the company that makes radios for most of the teams, to make a radio for Kovalainen also”, whatever that means.

The headline also suggests that McLaren are helping Kovalainen to get the seat. However, in the actual article there is little proof for that, so it’s most likely pure speculation.