F1 Fanatic

Three cars teams would probably equal less teams on the grid, I’ll just go with 8 teams.

Red Bull:
1.Vettel
2.Webber
3.Buemi

McLaren:
4.Hamilton
5.Button
6.Kobayashi

Ferrari:
7.Alonso
8.Massa
9.Kubica/Fisichella

Mercedes:
10.Schumacher
11.Rosberg
12.Heidfeld

Renault:
14.Kovalainen
15.Petrov
16.Senna

Williams:
17.Barrichello
18.Hulkenberg
19.Maldonado

Force India:
20.Sutil
21.Liuzzi
22.Di Resta

Sauber:
23.Glock
24.Trulli
25.Perez

1. Vettel
2. Webber
3. Ricciardo

4. Hamilton
5. Button
6. Paffett

7. Alonso
8. Massa
9. Bianchi

10. Rosberg
11. Schumacher
12. Di Resta

14. Senna
15. Petrov
16. Grosjean

15. Barrichello
16. Maldonado
17. Bottas

18. Sutil
19. Liuzzi
20. Hulkenberg

21. Kobayashi
22. Pérez
23. Heidfeld

24. Buemi
25. Alguersuari
26. Vergne

27. Kovalainen
28. Trulli
29. Valsecchi

30. Chandhok
31. Karthikeyan
32. Klien

33. Glock
34. D’Ambrosio
35. Wickens

So … you basically just put all the test drivers in the third cars?

Apologies for double post.

Note that most of us have done something a little different: di Resta at Mercedes, Chandhok at HRT

OK, I’ll have a go. I’m going to assume that the rule is coming in for next season, that the added competition will mean that Virgin and HRT go out of business, and that only 6 teams will choose to run a third driver. That leaves a 26 car grid

RED BULL:
1. Vettel
2. Webber
3. Kobayashi (to try and shift a few more cans in Japan)

MCLAREN
1. Hamilton
2. Button
3. Heidfeld (finally gets his chance 10 years after the infamous snub)

FERRARI
1. Alonso
2. Massa
3. Binachi

MERCEDES
1. Rosberg
2. Raikkonen
3. Barrichello (making a return to his old team to see out his career)

RENAULT
1. Kubica
2. Petrov
3. Senna

SAUBER
1. Perez
2. Gutierrez (2012′s probably a bit too early for him, but meh)

TORO ROSSO
1. Vergne
2. Ricciardo
3. Alguersuari (Red Bull money funds a third seat to keep underperforming JA on)

FORCE INDIA
1. Di Resta
2. Hulkenberg

WILLIAMS
1. Schumacher (I’m thinking outside the box here!)
2. Maldonado

LOTUS
1. Kovalainen
2. Texeira

I’m with PM, I think if third drivers were available teams would be a bit more adventurous and choose the best drivers available. Also, I am by no means saying that this is what I’d think would happen

@Prisoner Monkeys – You have to also take into account that three championship contenders in the same team would be difficult to manage, and that young driver development schemes are done exactly to have a third driver together with two experienced ones. I also would put Kubica in another team, but as this is 2011 he isn’t racing. I’ll do it again, with only one test driver promoted to race seat in the same team.

Red Bull Racing-Renault
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Mark Webber
3. Kimi Raikkonen (stand-in for Robert Kubica) (2010 – WRC)

Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Jenson Button
6. Gary Paffett (2010 – Test Driver)

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
7. Fernando Alonso
8. Felipe Massa
9. Nico Rosberg (2010 – Mercedes)

Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team
10. Michael Schumacher
11. Nico Hulkenberg (2010 – Williams)
12. Paul Di Resta (2010 – DTM)

Lotus Renault GP
14. Vitaly Petrov
15. Bruno Senna (2010 – HRT)
16. Romain Grosjean (2010 – GP2)

AT&T Williams-Cosworth
15. Rubens Barrichello
16. Pastor Maldonado (2010 – GP2)
17. Nick Heidfeld (2010 – Sauber)

Force India F1 Team-Mercedes
18. Adrian Sutil
19. Vitantonio Liuzzi
20. Karun Chandhok (2010 – HRT)

Sauber F1 Team-Ferrari
21. Kamui Kobayashi
22. Sergio Pérez (2010 – GP2)
23. Jules Bianchi (2010 – GP2)

Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari
24. Sebastien Buemi
25. Jaime Alguersuari
26. Daniel Ricciardo (2010 – Formula Renault 3.5)

Team Lotus-Renault
27. Heikki Kovalainen
28. Jarno Trulli
29. Luiz Razia (2010 – GP2)

Hispania Racing F1 Team-Cosworth
30. Narain Karthikeyan (2010 – Superleague Formula)
31. Sakon Yamamoto
32. Christian Klien

Marussia Virgin Racing-Cosworth
33. Timo Glock
34. Lucas Di Grassi
35. Jerome D’Ambrosio (2010 – GP2)

It’s not so far-fetched as you might think PM. Let’s take Red Bull. Alonso is committed to Ferrari. Massa is, depending on opinion, either not good enough or too close to Ferrari to leave. Hamilton wouldn’t leave McLaren unless they weren’t competing consistently. Button has been vocal about team favouritism so you’d think he’d have second thoughts about going to Red Bull. How many top drivers are there left after that? Rosberg has only had a year at Mercedes, jumping ship would have looked bad for him. Kubica is injured but was committed to the Renault project anyway.

Sure, it may have made more sense to us to put even Glock in there before Ricciardo. But Red Bull are sponsoring him for a reason: they believe he could be another Hamilton or Rosberg. Hamilton almost went to Renault or Williams but Ron Dennis gave him the McLaren seat – Red Bull wouldn’t want to risk the same. So why wouldn’t he end up at Toro Rosso first? Since the end of the customer team rules, STR hasn’t exactly been a powerhouse and as we’ve seen with Button, a world champion can appear average in a bad car.