Silly season 2010

[Fil]

Its not confirmation, just the usual banter..

Link

[fenix4life]

I just misread.
It was information concerning a Moto GP and not F1 GP

My bad

[ESPImperium]

Force India confirm Sutil & Liuzzi for 2010.

http://www.forceindiaf1.com/index/page_ ... ews_id/277
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 47,00.html

Its tightening up now.

Seats to be confirmned:

Mercedes GP seat #2
Renault F1 seat #2
Campos Meta seat #2
Manor GP seat #2
USF1 both seats
Team Lotus F1 both seats
Sauber F1 both Seats

Thats only 10 drives, and theres arround 12 to 14 drivers out there for those drives. Its gonna be dog eat dog for seats.

[WhiteBlue]

The jury is still out for Sauber to take the 13 slot over Stefan GP.

[donskar]

WhiteBlue:

I think Montezemolo was a fool. His controversial hiring of Reikkonen turned out to be a desaster. Half the time Kimi looked totally lost in the red car and Ferrari lost Brawn and Todt due to Montezemolo's power play. The team at times looked like they completely lost their operational skills.

Kimi a "disaster"? WB is not alone in his virulent, over-the-top assessment of Kimi (and Montezemolo). I'm at a loss to understand the anti-Kimi hatred. Kimi won the WDC and helped Ferrari to the WCC. Of this year's performance, James Allen (I'm no fan of his) seems to have a balanced view:

People say he [Kimi] had a quiet start to the season, but he was impressive in Bahrain and Monaco. But his performances from July onwards in a car which Ferrari had stopped developing, were astonishing. Even the Ferrari engineers don’t fully understand how he managed to get some of the podiums he did based on the performance of his car, compared to the opposition. He had a sniff of a win at Spa and he took it, holding off a clearly faster Force India car. Loses out on consistency, but gains on miracle achievement.

[WhiteBlue]

I did not say Kimi was a desaster. I said the hiring of Raikkonen was a desaster compared to the option of continuing with the dream team. If you fire your lead driver 18 month into a three year deal what would you call it?

The July revival happened after Ferrari decided to fire him for Alonso. It only shows that Kimi was driving well under his abilities before. What is the use of a driver with great talent if he isn't applying it consistently. Half a season of cruise and collect and the other half window drives for new employers isn't going to convince tough team principals. Kimi's stocks have just dropped to less than half of what he got at Ferrari and it will not improve very much if he stops for a year. His best option in my view would be driving for Merc and accept that he will have less money than his Ferrari gardening salary.

[noname]

The July revival happened after Ferrari decided to fire him for Alonso. It only shows that Kimi was driving well under his abilities before.

the reason may be it took him a while to get to grip with F60 and unlock its potential, something no one else was able to do.

[lebesset]

ferrari were desperate for a new main sponsor , and santander was the best deal on the table
no alonso , no santander

as as happened with a number of drivers before , kimi was never really happy at ferrari , and played his cards well to get out

ink dry on the deal , kimi comes to life

what's to understand ?

no fool , our kimi , wouldn't want to play poker against him

and the days of deals like top F1 drivers have being enjoying are now over , if santander want to give lots of money to alonso that's up to them , but the teams won't be doing it in future

[ESPImperium]

The reason for Ferrari to look for Santanders sponsorship money was Alonso, and the fact that from 2012 onward theres a European law that prevents any team that partakes in any sport to have a tobabcco sponsorship what so ever. Meaning that if they were to go to Bahrain with the Marlbro logos on, the coverage wouldnt be allowed to air in the EU.

That said, Ferarri will loose arround $110million a year in sponsorship. One reason that 2010 is posibly Massas last year at Ferarri as i think Ferrari is currently looking at Jules Bianchi as he has a few good personal sponsors that would be intrested in putting their name on the prancing horse.

Altho, Massa could end up staying at Ferarri for 2011 and Jules Bianchi could land himself a Sauber seat for that season doing what Massa did to come into the Ferarri team. Sauver then Ferri TD role then Ferarri full drive in 2006.

[lebesset]

tobacco names have been forbidden on F1 cars for several years already !! malborough have withdrawn from sponsoring ferrari from the end of this year although there have been rumours that they had extended the contract for another year before the tobacco regs were introduced

so ferrari were desperate to find another sponsor , and they most certainly didn't take santander to get alonso ...rather the other way around !

if another sponsor had come along with more money to take another decent driver , then they would have taken that instead ... but there aren't many title sponsors about any more , certainly not with the €200 million that santander have put up over 5 years

[Giblet]

tobacco names have been forbidden on F1 cars for several years already !! malborough have withdrawn from sponsoring ferrari from the end of this year although there have been rumours that they had extended the contract for another year before the tobacco regs were introduced

so ferrari were desperate to find another sponsor , and they most certainly didn't take santander to get alonso ...rather the other way around !

if another sponsor had come along with more money to take another decent driver , then they would have taken that instead ... but there aren't many title sponsors about any more , certainly not with the €200 million that santander have put up over 5 years

Except in Bahrain and China, and then these races get shown all over the world.

They really need to drop the tobacco advertising. We have moved on as a society, and tobacco smokers are becoming more and more ostracized.

I am a reformed smoker and have some sympathy for the smokers, but none for the companies.

[ESPImperium]

tobacco names have been forbidden on F1 cars for several years already !! malborough have withdrawn from sponsoring ferrari from the end of this year although there have been rumours that they had extended the contract for another year before the tobacco regs were introduced

so ferrari were desperate to find another sponsor , and they most certainly didn't take santander to get alonso ...rather the other way around !

if another sponsor had come along with more money to take another decent driver , then they would have taken that instead ... but there aren't many title sponsors about any more , certainly not with the €200 million that santander have put up over 5 years

Except in Bahrain and China, and then these races get shown all over the world.

They really need to drop the tobacco advertising. We have moved on as a society, and tobacco smokers are becoming more and more ostracized.

I am a reformed smoker and have some sympathy for the smokers, but none for the companies.

And with the EU laws on Broadcast Sponsorship from 2012, how do you think the rest of the teams would feel if they couldnt get paid from their sponsors due to the fact that Ferarri or another team has a Tobacco sponsor on it. They wouldnt like it plain and simple.

I do have sympathy for smokers, myany friends and collegues smoke, once smokers were in their many, but due to social change and the non smokers sright to clean air and promotion of a family friendly immage for most companies, weter it be your local pub or a sports team, thats now where the money is. And Ferarri i think has got Alonso, whilst letting the Marlbro sponsorship lapse, for them to promote their brand better, and get a more family frieldly immage from it, hence more $$$s in the long term.

[WhiteBlue]

With Sauber apparently back in the game one could make an educated guess who will be driving. I expect at least one pay driver or Ferrari protege in exchange for engines.

Nick Heidfeld could be an option to keep continuity plus whoever Ferrari fancies. Petronas may also have a go at placing a driver. Whatever happens, the driver choice may be a hint who is ultimately going to pop up there as the eventual owner. Something I could well imagine is a new venture by Gerhard Berger together with a big global brand name and another sovereign wealth fund. Berger has unfinished business in F1 is seems.

[marcush.]

oh yes Gehrhard ...that would be mega ...coming into Sauber ofter BMW left early and
doing it as he wanted to run the party what he couldn´t back then.
any doubts this has potential? I#d put my money in that no question.

[bergzy]

my observation is that it was a huge mistake to bring kimi onto ferrari that resulted in the retirement of schumi. michael was clearly still very competitive and heck, even this season when they considered him to drive for injured massa. the only thing that 'prevented' him was an earlier in the year neck injury.

kimi, imo and observations won his wdc that year because of the squabblings between fernie and louie. the hatred were pretty evident and obvious. the preferential team treatment of louie also cost either alonso or hamilton the wdc that year. kimi only won by one point over hamilton. 'if' mcclaren was organized that year (and not fractionated), alonso should have and would have had that wdc. it took monumental efforts on mcclarens part in form of support ( and A LOT of leniency of rules from fia stewards) to get hamilton to be one point short of kimi...while fernie, being third, had almost every obstacle to overcome to be in third place.

so, to review the two championships that fernie won. if i recall, it was in the renault that deep into alonso's season to his second wdc, the fia ruled that renault was using an illegal dampener. this dampener was also present on the renault that fernie won his first wdc. so, after the dampener was removed, the renault drove like a dog and has never driven well since.

so...

'if' fernie' never had the renault with the illegal dampener...schumi would have easily won those two years...bringing his total wdc to 9. and 'if' ferrari didnt prematurely force him to retire to bring on kimi, i am very very very certain that schumi would have won the wdc that year as well. bringing his total wdc to possibly 10. but this is all speculation and in F1...anything can happen!