Silly Season 2012/2013

[stefan_]

Red Bull Racing is pleased to confirm today that it has agreed a four-year extension of its partnership with Infiniti, the premium automotive brand from Japan, which first began in March 2011.

The increased agreement will see Infiniti become title partner from 2013, meaning Red Bull Racing’s team name will become Infiniti Red Bull Racing from the start of next season.

As part of the expanded partnership, Infiniti’s involvement with the team will evolve from being purely commercial to a relationship that is more technologically focused, as the two companies will join together on a number of engineering and development projects.

Johan de Nysschen, President of Infiniti said: “While our first 24-months have been very beneficial to both parties, our new increased relationship will bring increased advantages to Infiniti and Red Bull Racing. As title sponsor, Infiniti Red Bull Racing will help us garner even more worldwide exposure for our brand, products and technology.”

Red Bull Racing’s Team Principal Christian Horner added: “Red Bull Racing and Infiniti have been working on a number of initiatives since the start of our relationship in 2011. During that time, Infiniti has demonstrated significant technical prowess and I’ve been impressed by the depth of the wider engineering capabilities of the Nissan Motor Company. In terms of marketing, Infiniti has leveraged their involvement with Red Bull Racing and Formula One extremely effectively to become much better known in a short space of time. These two attributes make Infiniti the ideal title and technical partner for Red Bull Racing.”

Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer commented: “Formula One presents immense design and engineering challenges on a daily basis. Having a committed technical partner like Infiniti gives us a great platform for working together on technical projects, such as the Energy Recovery Systems for the 2014 season.”

source

[ScottB]

That Caterham swapped him out for Van der Gerde for the 2013 tyre test suggests pretty heavily to me that Heikki will be out...

Interesting observation but with Pic now confirmed at Caterham that would suggest a full line up change. Are Petrov's financial benifits not enough for him to stay? I could see him swapping to Marrusia what with the Russian connection. That would leave Glock without a drive though and I understand he's likely to partner Chilton.

Petrov tweeted on Friday that he was at a race 'for the last time ' so that could be a pretty good indication of his future...

[stefan_]

Motorsport GP ‏@motorsportgp

Finnish sources claim that Heikki Kovalainen is in talks with Lotus F1 Team regarding racing seat for 2013...

It's a rumour and should be treated as one, but how would that be - Kimi & Heikki at Lotus

[Shrieker]

I think Heikki can do a much better job than Grosjean while crashing a lot less. Maybe Grosjean would be a tad faster than him on Saturdays but that's pretty much it really.

[Nando]

Heikki is a fine driver, a solid one but not a top top driver of course.

I just think the Boullier/Grosjean connection is too strong and i expect him to get one more year.

[raymondu999]

Heikki is a fine driver, a solid one but not a top top driver of course

I disagree - I think at this point he's an unknown. IMO he has improved in his Caterham years, but just how much is impossible to tell, given that Caterham are consistently in the no-man's-land between Toro Rosso and Marussia.

I just think the Boullier/Grosjean connection is too strong and i expect him to get one more year.

Boullier is Grosjean's manager, no? Like how Briatore was with Alonso.

[Nando]

He´s definitely not an unknown, he was solid in Renault which allowed him to move to Mclaren in the first place.

Put in a good drive there but perhaps to premature. The reason Caterham was so happy was because they actually got a driver of Heikki´s caliber to join them.
Heikki and everyone else knew he would "trade down" and see what he could do at Caterham and to help it grow.

[raymondu999]

He´s definitely not an unknown, he was solid in Renault which allowed him to move to Mclaren in the first place.

My point is - he's better than that now, but it's unknown just how much better he is. Hence an unknown.

[Nando]

ok thought you ment him as a driver overall, anyway will be interesting, i think he´s better then most newcomers and now with a couple of years that experience should be another asset.

[iotar__]

I think Heikki can do a much better job than Grosjean while crashing a lot less. Maybe Grosjean would be a tad faster than him on Saturdays but that's pretty much it really.

You don't really believe that. "Much better" would mean outqualifying and outracing Raikkonen even often and even by a bigger margin, wouldn't you agree?

At the moment Kova is slightly faster over one lap than Petrov and no better at everything else. Considering that he's been with the team three years and for Vitaly it was first season it's hardly impressive. Leaving aside that this rumour is as reliable as Kovalainen to Ferrari "talks".

With Raikk + Kova or any other "rumoured" driver Lotus have no chance of matching, never mind beating, Mercedes, RB or Ferrari in an equal machinery. From sporting point of view they need a driver that will show limits of the car, not some solid points collector. They already have one. Even this season without Grosjean they wouldn't have known what the car was capable of on many occasions: Monaco, Valencia, Canada or even Silverstone or recently Austin. They would have to be content with mumbling about clouds or car being too slow . I don't know how old these quotes are but here's Lopez:
http://www.f1zone.net/news/lotus-owner- ... ean/17035/
"And team owner Genii’s Gerard Lopez told Speed Week: “The chance that he races with us in 2013 is great.”
Lopez told L’Equipe: “Romain is one of the fastest drivers in F1.
“He understands the car, he can get the most from it, but he has not done everything we asked of him, especially in terms of consistency.
“But the kind of speed he has does not grow on trees.
“The reason he is not yet confirmed for 2013 is because we have not yet had time to sit down and discuss it together with the engineers. Then we’ll see."

It's all bullshit. "No time to sit and talk" really? And with "engineers", really? It's like towards the end of the season they didn't know everything good and bad about RG. You either believe in a driver and make him comfortable by signing extension or continue playing marketing politics and poor driver management. After pathetic team orders, unequal machinery they added signing one driver and not the other. Fine, but don't be surprised with result. They can keep him or be stupid but it's not going to be based on performance but something else.

BTW for those uninformed that think that some Boullier connection keeps RG in the team and prevent their favourite loser driver to take his place: 1.Gravity is owned by Genii/Lopez 2. Lopez (+Lux(?)) is making final decisions when it comes to drivers. Not always on sporting grounds. It's their toy/investment.

[xDama]

I think it's fairly certain that GRO will remain at Lotus, and if he doesn't I'm thinking they might give d'Ambrosio a shot.

I'm Belgian, so not 100% objective, but I think he did a good job in Monza and he hasn't been able to compete a race in normal circumstances or a good car. DAM is also in the Boullier-management, and Boullier said earlier this year that DAM deserves a season with a team, so who knows... But for me, GRO had his chance and blew it. He's quick, no doubt about that, but he doesn't deliver on sunday when he crosses the line... And that's what counts.

[Nando]

I´ll give Grosjean one more year. (as if i were some kind of hot shot at Renault )

[Mika1]

It's his second chance this year. Some drivers have had less time to achieve something.

[Nando]

It's his second chance this year. Some drivers have had less time to achieve something.

He´s a GP2 champion so it´s in there somewhere.
Just like Maldonado, everyone hated him, thought he was crap then he goes and win the spanish GP with Alonso trying to hunt him down.

His Renault days i would say is the same as Luca Badoer. It will never work out really.
His first full year is his rookie year and regardless of what happens, one more year is needed to make a real assessment in my opinion.

[CHT]

Does anyone know what is the length of Lewis contract with Merc?