Caterham F1 Team has today announced that Vitaly Petrov has joined the team as race driver, replacing Jarno Trulli with immediate effect. The Russian was at the Anglo-Malaysian team’s factory in Hingham on Friday 17th February for a seat fitting ahead of his first run with the team at the second pre-season test in Barcelona, 21st to 24th February.
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There is no sentiments - just raw equations and numbers. And cash is a heavy part of those equations.
I feel sad for Trulli that they didn't at least give him a clue after all his hard work and contribution over the years. Now that the car seems up to speed it would have been good to see Trulli on his way out after a few points.
It has been fairly obvious that Trulli would not be racing in 2012 given that he was offered a contract for this season which did not specify that he would actually be racing for the team - not exactly water tight. He would have seen that this was coming, and I am sure that the team would have given him some notice once the decision was made.
I feel that Vitaly Petrov has more than proved himself to be a capable and quick driver, and he deserves to be in Formula 1. Jarno Trulli was completely outclassed by Heikki last season and, although he has been very impressive in the past, it's probably time for him to make way for the younger drivers. Although Adrian Sutil would be more deserving, he will be too busy enjoying himself in the prison showers to race for Caterham. I think Petrov is the most deserving driver for the seat, pay driver or not.
I have to agree a bit there. I think Petrov will fit well within the team too. I don't think the atmosphere at Lotus/Renault was all that good for him. He made a huge improvement over his first year in F1.
There is no sentiments - just raw equations and numbers. And cash is a heavy part of those equations.
I feel sad for Trulli that they didn't at least give him a clue after all his hard work and contribution over the years. Now that the car seems up to speed it would have been good to see Trulli on his way out after a few points.
It has been fairly obvious that Trulli would not be racing in 2012 given that he was offered a contract for this season which did not specify that he would actually be racing for the team - not exactly water tight. He would have seen that this was coming, and I am sure that the team would have given him some notice once the decision was made.
I feel that Vitaly Petrov has more than proved himself to be a capable and quick driver, and he deserves to be in Formula 1. Jarno Trulli was completely outclassed by Heikki last season and, although he has been very impressive in the past, it's probably time for him to make way for the younger drivers. Although Adrian Sutil would be more deserving, he will be too busy enjoying himself in the prison showers to race for Caterham. I think Petrov is the most deserving driver for the seat, pay driver or not.
Am I the only one who thinks Petrov is not as bad? He must have done something to get 2nd in GP2, behind Hulkenberg.
I don't think he's bad, and he has a lot of money. Being in a position like caterham their's more time to be gain with money than with a driver. They got a combo with vitaly petrov.
It is a logical decision. It is a win win for Caterham and a big win for Bernie.
I think the term paydriver doesn't fit here. Maybe HRT will hire real paydrivers like my avatar, Diniz , Gene, Young etc. were.
For me even Maldonado and Senna are not paydrivers, they are maybe half a second slower than Alonso but not much more. They are from high quality.
I think Petrov and Heikki will be on the same level. So bye bye Trulli!
Finishing races is important, but racing is more important.
At least Petrov has shown talent and pace in his short career. On paper, it makes business sense. He brings not just money but potentially an untapped market for F1. No one will stop watching F1 because Jarno doesn't have a drive, many will watch if Vitaly does.
I know that pay drivers have been around from the beginning, and it's only proper that a team/driver should have every avenue available when it comes to deciding who makes the grid, who doesn't and why. I don't need to be convinced of those things. Yet, I'd still like to see somehow the role of pay drivers reduced, if not eliminated, in motor racing.
Indeed, money makes the world go 'round, and racing is a textbook example of this. I have no problem with that, either. While money can make a car faster, it simply never makes a driver faster. And it's for that reason that I'd prefer the driver corps in F1, and elsewhere, become much more meritocratic.
The best often rise to the top in motor racing as it is; money or not, those drivers cannot be denied. I'd just like to see a racing environment that amends that sentence by replacing "often" with "always," because no one was left out due to an inability to buy a way in to compete.
I think this is a good move for Petrov and Caterham.
It is unreasonable to assume that Trulli wasn't told by Caterham about hiring Petrov. I agree with the notion that it was probably a waiting game with Petrov's sponsors, but it could have been a courtesy on both Caterham's and Trulli's part to allow Trulli to test the car, giving everyone more track time.
Also, I think Petrov deserves some credit for pushing hard to get 3rd in Australia in 2011. Knowing he had to take over for Lotus, he drove well. It is in my humble opinion Lotus Renault had a hiccup with the FEE. It takes time for drivers to mature, and Petrov has shown flashes of speed that can be developed, just like Caterham needs with their car. Hopefully, with Petrov's young blood to Heikki's experience and Caterham's new car, the team can push up the ranks.
It is unfortunate for Jarno to bow out like this, though. Ciao Jarno
Dont get me wrong, Trulli was good for the team, however last year all i heard from him was "power steering" and "I cant feel what the car is doing" from pre seasons testing.
Heikki was able to get the car to perform, he adapted, Jarno couldnt adapt his style.
I am glad to see Vitally in the sport with a rac e seat as he showed last year that he was a quick driver, showing that he was fast on occasion. He saw off Quick Nick and then when Senna came he was kept honest but showed that he was a able driver. And we know he is up for a Scrap, Fernando knows this only too well.
I think the money he brought to Renault over the past two years wont be as much to Caterham. He brought €25m in 2010 and €21m in 2011 to Renault. Id recon that Caterham have a deal worth up to 70% of this, maybes €15m to €16.5m tops.
Pay driver yes, but does he have tallent, i say yes as well.
How many pay drivers are in a F1 seat and dont have the talent at present. How many pay drivers in the past havnt came with a tallent to match their wad of cash? Many people forget that Lauda was a pay driver at one point. Schumacher was a Pay Driver at Jordan via money from Mercedes. There is a list of great and good F1 drivers in the past that have became WDC via a pay seat eary in their career.
The current list of pay drivers is as follows:
Grosjean - €18m from Total to Lotus F1 team
Di Resta - €8.5m from White & McKay and some say there is a €4.5m subsidy from Mercedes
Hulkenberg - €6m from two sponsors
Perez - €30m from Telmex and other various sponsors who have came to Sauber via Telmex sponsorship of the team
Maldanado - €35.4m from PDVSA (This is a known figure)
Senna - €21m from 5 diffrent companies/brands
Petrov - €15m from Russian backers
Karthikeyan - €8m from TATA and Hero Motors
Pic - €20m from family buisness that is the haulier of Total fuels in France.
In direct pay drivers are Alonso, Vettel, Riccardo, Vergne and Rosberg as they have sponsors who effectivly follow them from team to team, however two or three teams are on the grid to sell a product outside of F1 so has a diffrent pay model to the direct pay to team model.
Every driver on the grid at one point has been a pay driver at one point of their career. Hamilton and Vettel are prime examples of having their career path paid for them in lower formula.
Im just glad the average age of the grid is being lowered and we arnt loosing tallents like Petrov. The only tallent we have lost this year is Sutil, who post-Lux has lost all but one sponsor and juat has a €1.2m to spend on a drive, whitch should do him for a season in DTM.
The only old guy im sad to see leave for sentimental reasons is Barichello. But F1 is a sport yes, but there buisnesses that are the teams, they have a responsability to pay their employees and if that means selling the 2 largest assests the team has in race seats to the highest bidders, they can do so. However now the higest bidders have a decent ammount of tallent, and its the way of the future. How many of the young guys that have came thrugh in the past 3 years will be champion, who knows. We will know when the top 5 to 7 drivers at present all call it a day, if the "pay" drivers have managed to stay in F1 due to budget or if they have lost budget, their tallent has shown thru and a team higher up has taken a gamble on them as they dont have a budget any longer.
Glad to see Petrov in the Caterham #2 seat. Hope Jarno can get a seat in LMP somewhere.
The only travesty is there is no Italian drivers in F1 any longer. And one asks the question, what has been going on there? Surly thats more of a question to answer than Pay Drivers.
I heard Hulkenberg had no sponsors?? Di Resta & HULK have the talent to walk into most teams. They are the future of Formula1. I dont get the Maldonado hype though. Do you really think he would have got the seat without the money??? No chance in hell.
Maldonado has been the biggest flop this season. I doubt if he can beat Katikeyan. Apart from Monaco he was completely outclassed all season by a 40 year old Rubens. People expect him to improve as the season goes on. Nico pushed Rubens very hard during the part of the season. Pastor was getting out-qualified by 4-5 tenths even during the last few races. Crashing his car here & there. This is Bruno's 3rd season & he has still not SHOWN great talent.
Di Resta & Hulk showed great talent in the rookie season. Even Senna was reasonably good out-qualifying Kamui regularly.
There are a lot of promising drivers. Its not just Trulli & Petrov. Barring Sutil who is facing criminal charges Buemi & ALG are more than competent to get the SEAT.
Mr.S wrote:I heard Hulkenberg had no sponsors?? Di Resta & HULK have the talent to walk into most teams. They are the future of Formula1. I dont get the Maldonado hype though. Do you really think he would have got the seat without the money??? No chance in hell.
Maldonado has been the biggest flop this season. I doubt if he can beat Katikeyan. Apart from Monaco he was completely outclassed all season by a 40 year old Rubens. People expect him to improve as the season goes on. Nico pushed Rubens very hard during the part of the season. Pastor was getting out-qualified by 4-5 tenths even during the last few races. Crashing his car here & there. This is Bruno's 3rd season & he has still not SHOWN great talent.
Right, because out qualifying his team mate by 4 out of 6 times, at times by 0.7 seconds isn't showing tallent.
Di Resta & Hulk showed great talent in the rookie season. Even Senna was reasonably good out-qualifying Kamui regularly.
beelsebob wrote:Right, because out qualifying his team mate by 4 out of 6 times, at times by 0.7 seconds isn't showing tallent.
Well, actually it was 3 by 3, as in Japan they didn't run in Q3 (both were in), and in Q2 Petrov was faster.
In Spa Petrov botched his tyres on the first lap of Q3, when he tried to open DRS in Blanchimont and spun. So, after that he couldn't attack.
Singapore and Brazil were really great performances by Senna in Qualifying indeed.
The alarming sign for Senna is that he never progressed in race compared to grid position (most of the time he fell down), Petrov's race performances were much better.
beelsebob wrote:Right, because out qualifying his team mate by 4 out of 6 times, at times by 0.7 seconds isn't showing tallent.
Well, actually it was 3 by 3, as in Japan they didn't run in Q3 (both were in), and in Q2 Petrov was faster.
In Spa Petrov botched his tyres on the first lap of Q3, when he tried to open DRS in Blanchimont and spun. So, after that he couldn't attack.
Singapore and Brazil were really great performances by Senna in Qualifying indeed.
The alarming sign for Senna is that he never progressed in race compared to grid position (most of the time he fell down), Petrov's race performances were much better.
Senna outquallified Petrov in Brazil, India, Singapore and Spa. Petrov beat Senna in Abu Dahbi and India. That's 4-2. In Japan neither went out, so neither out-qualified the other.
You can't say "Well Petrov --- up on one of these, so it doesn't count"... Senna didn't --- up and Petrov did... This resulted in Senna out qualifying Petrov. More over, he did it in his very first race in that car.
For reference – the reason I don't include Japan in the stats is because in Q2 the drivers are only doing enough to get into Q3, not actually trying to lay down their ultimate pace. You have no idea whether Petrov would have ground Senna into the dust in Q3 or the reverse.
