Spyker announce Sutil

sebbe · Post 22 Dec 2006, 22:20

Spyker is not testing because they don't have enough money.
Good for them!, they're trying to make an intelligent use of their resources (we need to see more than that and less oversized budgets). But I'm not very comfortable with a rookie F1 team loosing its opportunity to gain knowledge and letting its drivers gain skills that could help them win races (!) and ultimately avoid crashes and save their lives.

FIA should enforce teams to show they can afford a complete season, beginning with the early tests during December until the last race of the season.

I'm not against smaller teams, or modest budgets, I'm against teams that happily say "we will put our teapot on the track and see what our rookie driver can do with it".

Monstrobolaxa · Post 22 Dec 2006, 23:48

Well....I organized a event with Tiago last tuesday for the portuguese website F1Portugal.com...I also got a present for Tomba from this gathering....hehehe

But we spent almost 3 hours with Tiago with a Q & A session with him and his PR...and though Tiago did not comment about his situation it all seemed that he had his bags packed to move to a new team....

Tiago is a fantastic person! On Wednesday morning I had an e-mail from him thanking me for organizing everything and hoping to participate in a similar event in the near future...!

He seemed very relaxed at the gathering and not worried at all about his situation.

Here's me and Tiago:
[img::]http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/8568/p ... at6.th.jpg[/img]

Principessa · Post 23 Dec 2006, 11:53

Well there are a lot of rumours of Tiago moving to Toro Rosso to replace Speed. Toro Rosso promised to announce their 2007 drivers before the newyear....so a bit more patience and we'll know

Evil Weasel · Post 23 Dec 2006, 12:57

I don't want to seem like a complete cynic here, but I always thought that Speed's place at STR had more do with his nationality and selling cans of Red Bull in his homeland than his driving ability. Monterio may be a better driver than Speed, but is that what really counts in modern F1?

mx_tifoso · Post 23 Dec 2006, 22:11

believe me, speeds presence at STR doesnt help Red Bull sell anymore cans at all,actually it makes me NOT want to buy some red bull because of speed and his poor performance,i would be glad if tiago got the seat at STR,send speed back to america along with his poor driving skills, liuzzi did a way better job at str,
and i agree with you, driving skills arent what matters most in modern F1, its mostly about advertising
wow, all of this coming from someone who lives in america (im not american, but i live here though)

Velha · Post 24 Dec 2006, 11:59

Evil Weasel wrote:I don't want to seem like a complete cynic here, but I always thought that Speed's place at STR had more do with his nationality and selling cans of Red Bull in his homeland than his driving ability. Monterio may be a better driver than Speed, but is that what really counts in modern F1?

That is the only reason speed is still in F1. For Red Bull is important to have an
american driver, but now they are starting to realise that is not enough, and a bit of skill is also required. Portugal is not an important market for RB, but monteiro could help the team with skill part. I hope he gets the place, Toro Rosso is a lot better than Spyker.

zenvision · Post 24 Dec 2006, 12:21

Frankly, if driver skill is all what counts, Monteiro shouldn't be there. At least Speed managed to get close and sometimes beat the rightly, highly-rated Liuzzi so if it was up to me I'll confirm both, at least for next year. Also, using his nationality, Speed would have no problems attracting sponsors.

Evil Weasel · Post 24 Dec 2006, 12:38

the rightly, highly-rated Liuzzi

The same highly rated Liuzzi that had to contest the RBR seat with Klein - a competition that saw Liuzzi unclassed and relegated to the junior team by someone so "good" he was dropped part way through the season?

This doesn't suggest Liuzzi is highly rated, neither does STR's relutance to confirm him in its driver line-up - or they waiting to see if someone better comes along?

slick · Post 07 Jan 2007, 01:22

As many in the paddock, and in this thread have already, testified Tiago is a really nice guy. So I wish him all the best, and hope that he gets the race seat he deserves.

For me Spyker getting Sutil is a bit of a coupe for them. He is quick, very quick, as Hamilton knows all to well, especiall as they were teamates. Read the article in this week Autosport. Money may be an issue, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see Sutil driving for one of the bigger teams in the not to distant future. 2007 season will let us all know.....