Red Bull say they will continue to support both drivers in 2011.
Links
RBR drivers still free to race in 2011 (Autosport)
Christian Horner: “I don’t think it changes anything for us. We will go into next year giving both drivers the same support as we always have.”
Schumacher defends his decision to return to F1 (CNN)
“I enjoy it. I feel I have the right to do what I enjoy. Whether I put in dispute my reputation… I just feel good about my decision and I have so much support from people.”
Piquet Moves To Truck Series Full Time (Speed)
“Nelson Piquet Jnr is going NASCAR Camping World Truck Series racing full time, and, after a taste of the Truck Series this season, he’s more than ready.”
Renault F1 team greatest hits volume 1 (Renault F1 team)
“As 2010 comes to close and we get ready to relaunch the website with new colours for 2011, it’s the right moment to mark the end of an era and celebrate everything that Enstone achieved as the Renault F1 Team.”
Richard Branson to be flight attendant (Virgin)
“Richard Branson is set to serve as a flight attendant on an AirAsia X flight next year, all in the name of charity.”
Maldonado Supports Venezuelan Flood Victims (Williams)
Pastor Maldonado: “I have come here to give them as much encouragement as I can and do whatever is in my power to help those compatriots who lost their homes. As a Venezuelan I am concerned about the situation and it is with pride I have come to help them.”
Nicolas Costa wins Formula Future Fiat and a course with the FDA (Ferrari)
“Brazilian driver Nicolas Costa will join the Ferrari Driver Academy, having won the first ever Formula Future Fiat championship, the new Brazilian series which is backed by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver Felipe Massa.”
Comment of the day
DaveW expects the new rules on driving standards will prevent drivers pushing each other off the track:
Currently, drivers are free to push a pursuer off the road in a corner. That particular move is never penalized now. This will also go a good way to dealing with some of the poor, and delayed stewards calls for passing off-track and gaining position or keeping it by means of going off track.
DaveW
From the forum
Who will be Force India’s drivers in 2011?
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Dermot Farrelly!
On this day in F1
This time last year Lotus – that’s Team Lotus, not Renault-sponsored-by-Lotus – announced Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli would be driving for them in 2010.
Coincidentally it’s also three years to the day since McLaren named Kovalainen as Lewis Hamilton’s team mate for 2008. So who will he be driving for in one year’s time?
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
Scribe
14th December 2010, 0:20
Thats one self congratulatory back pat of a blog from Renault there, I hate a coporate jolly. An who can forget it!?
One thing I didn’t know though, Alonso whipped out the Freddie Mecury before Jenson! Well well well, if hadn’t started growing a beared, a whole new light would I be looking at him with now.
Nice roun up Keith, truly we’re at the darkest patch, soon news of cars will leak through, driver rostra will be finalised. TESTING! Till then, snorrree.
PJ
14th December 2010, 12:08
I like how they pixellated Mild Seven :D
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
14th December 2010, 1:36
it’s going to be so confusing next year with the 2 Lotus teams.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
14th December 2010, 2:53
There’s been talk that Lotus Racing was intended by Tony Fernandes to be the first step in acquiring Lotus Cars from Proton and turning it around the way he did Air Asia. But with Dany Bahar appointed to lead Group Lotus, that’s no longer an option. Certain journalists have ben reporting that Fernandes intends to follow through with his original plan, only amend it to create a new car manufacturer and twin it with Team Lotus. The name “Lion” has been suggested – although it’s only speculative – which would make the team known as Team Lotus Lion.
Himmat S.
14th December 2010, 3:51
Come on… like seriously?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
14th December 2010, 4:10
I personally doubt it – it is Joe Saward reporting this, and he’s the only one doing so. But part of it is a logical step forward, namely using a unique identifier (like “Lion”, whether true or not) to separate the two Lotus teams.
Mike
14th December 2010, 4:47
Maybe he has been reading pitpass…
I doubt this will happen, not for a long time anyway.
That, And I suspect Fernandes will be able to just wait this one out,
As I can’t see the loss making Lotus cars group doing anything but losing much more money due to Bahar’s….. ideas……
Maybe Fernandes might be able to buy Group Lotus the same way Hunt bought Team Lotus.
GeeMac (@geemac)
14th December 2010, 5:33
If that was Fernandes’ plan then hats off to him, it would have been good to see what he could have done with Lotus Cars.
That said, I’m not so sure that it is a logical step forward for a F1 team that has completed only 1 season to be thinking about building road cars. Ferrari is in a unique situation that it used to make road cars to fund its racing, McLaren have made only 2 road cars (on their own, not counting the various McMerc SLR’s) and Williams have prepared a couple of highly tuned Renaults and dabbled in BTCC. If that’s all that the best teams in the history of the sport have managed, Team Lotus need to get a grip of themselves and focus on moving up the grid before trying to sell road cars.
Electrolite
14th December 2010, 1:49
I’m going to stray from being cynical here and believe Horner. Hopefully at no point in 2011 will I regret it. They’ve proved they’ll see a WDC through to the bitter end without giving up on one of their drivers and focusing on one already. Wish both drivers luck!
Electrolite
14th December 2010, 1:52
In a year I can see Kovy perhaps driving for a.) Renault if they keep Petrov for 2011 then drop him at the end of 11 or b.) Sauber if Perez proves to be a flop. In fact there’s a few possibilities. Lotus might be really good next year and he’ll stay there for a while.
Dipak T
14th December 2010, 2:30
Team Lotus or The Team Formerly Known As Renault?
Electrolite
14th December 2010, 13:50
Team Lotus might be really good next year and he’ll stay there for a while*
By Renault I meant formerly Renault.
dsob
14th December 2010, 17:59
LM@O … perhaps we could just call them “Prince”
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
14th December 2010, 2:54
Or c) Lotus if they start moving up. Which they’re expected to (Virgin, too).
Mike
14th December 2010, 6:14
The new teams should move up, But I think the expectation that they will challenge in the mid field, is a bit unrealistic, the mid field is so close these days, and that closeness demonstrates just how hard it is to be competitive.
Scribe
14th December 2010, 17:13
Well, Virgin and Lotus showed they could keep up a certain pace of development, although of course they where comming from further behind. Things do look pleasantly promising for both teams.
I’d predict points, possibly one or two decent hauls in freak races.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
14th December 2010, 3:01
Oh Schumacher is heating things up.
Where will Nelson end up?
Cyclops
14th December 2010, 16:24
NASCAR truck series
mkh1
14th December 2010, 3:06
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere yet but Mark Webber will be on bbc 5live at 8pm tonight for a 1 hour phone in special.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
14th December 2010, 8:32
Well, Horner recognises that when your car is good enough to challenge for wins, the best thing to do is give your drivers equal treatment and not mess them around. We’ll never know if Massa wouldn’t have used the win as a springboard to results that would have taken more than 7 points off of Alonso’s rivals. And we wait to see if the psychological damage will hamper Massa’s ability to help Ferrari win the WDC next year too.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
14th December 2010, 8:41
How about a … Vietnamese Grand Prix?
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=396412&FS=F1
It might be an odd place for a race, but if the Top Gear special is anything to go by, it will at least be a stunning setting.
McLarenFanJamm
14th December 2010, 11:07
No Thanks
Johan
14th December 2010, 18:05
Why not? Better then the drifting sand of Bahrain. So long as they don’t time the race to coincide with the daily tropical downpour in the afternoon, like Malaysia.
summers
14th December 2010, 9:21
“Christian Horner: “I don’t think it changes anything for us. We will go into next year giving both drivers the same support as we always have.””
Ha. ha. ha. He’s got nerve saying that. I just would like to see Webber’s face while reading that statement ;)
Pink Pirelli
14th December 2010, 10:18
I know, its funny how quickly people have forgotten that RBR did the exact opposite all season…
bosyber
14th December 2010, 12:26
So you could read it to mean:
BasCB
14th December 2010, 20:44
Or Webber will just be declared the nr. 2 all year, they even put it on his car :-D
Robert
15th December 2010, 0:14
Webber deserves No2 status and he knows it. His performances at the end of the season were dismal.
Paul
18th December 2010, 7:25
Yeah, that 2nd place in Brazil was pretty dismal, wasn’t it. You Vettel fanboys make me laugh.
Carlos Santos
14th December 2010, 10:41
Hello,
Any news on the forum problem?
I miss it!
Tiomkin
14th December 2010, 11:17
On a side note, Sebastian Vettel’s championship winning car is on display at my local asda. It’s just sitting there…near the frozen section. I stared at it for a good 10 mins, It didn’t have a price tag. So I didn’t buy it.
Made my day.
Mike
14th December 2010, 12:22
So…. Does that mean it’s free?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
14th December 2010, 11:22
You know, I was going to write a guest article on “Why you should watch … V8 Supercars” – but news has come through that James Courtney has officially moved to Holden Racing Team. Given their habit of buying whichever drivers are showing any kind of promise and trying to control as much of the grid as possible for marketing purposes, the series is officially dead.
Stretch
14th December 2010, 12:07
Except, of course for Bathurst :)
Fixy (@)
14th December 2010, 14:20
I think the FDA is getting too wide, it’s going to end up like the Red Bull programme with hundreds if drivers with only one capable of winning.
Scribe
14th December 2010, 17:18
It certainly doesn’t look like they’ve learnt the lessons of the RBR programme. Ah well, maybe there doing things differently, RBR’s problem was they tried to channel it all through there cars, sponsorship translating into first acsess of signiture seems a cleverer, cheaper, an more effective solution.
Through in some testing and training as well.
Fixy (@)
15th December 2010, 14:35
– Jules Bianchi, 21 (FRA)
– Nicolas Costa, 19 (BRA)
– Brandon Maïsano, 17 (FRA)
– Raffaele Marciello, 15 (SUI)
– Sergio Pérez, 20 (MEX)
– Lance Stroll, 11 (CAN)
Zampieri and Bortolotti are out. See?
Fixy (@)
14th December 2010, 14:24
I can’t access the forum! It doesn’t load! It’s three days now! If you see that I’m not replying in the threads you know why, I’m not gone fishing.
Ed
14th December 2010, 16:24
Also, the season summary video from the FIA Gala is now on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1McIcTlLjg
I don’t like it as much as last year’s, to be honest.
I noticed some new footage of Massa consoling with Alonso after Abu Dhabi and some new stuff with Vettel after Turkey. But I haven’t seen the DVD Review yet, but I assume there’s no new footage that wasn’t in that.
Scribe
14th December 2010, 18:16
TBF, although it got a bit fixaited with the altogether suprising exsitance of women in, fashion/monaco/revealing dresses, see also famous people saying sweet nothings about F1 (mostly Americans that don’t care). Damn good video, best thing FOM’s done with it’s footage post race for a while.
Last year the race edits were awesome, this year not so much. Still, liked this one a hell of a lot, more than last years actually.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
14th December 2010, 18:40
Yeah that whole Monaco bit was terrible.