Article: 2013 Driver Line-ups, News & Rumours | Formula one

I suppose it depends how desperate FI are for the money.

 

Kobayashi to test for Ferrari....
http://www.f1today.net/en/news/kamui-kobayashi-to-test-ferrari-sports-car

Caterham want to keep Kovalainen....
http://www.f1today.net/en/news/caterham-looking-for-different-project-for-kovalainen

 

I thought FI got a huge wod of backing money last season, they're not short of money anyway so I can't see why they'd be desperate for a out and out pay driver?

 

Anything that keeps him close to F1 sounds good to me, but what's he going to do? Test Driver? It'd just about sum up the madness in F1 if Caterham had arguably their best driver testing because they couldn't afford to give him a race seat. Interesting the mention of "disappointing". I imagine that's Caterham disappointing Heikki by not providing a good enough car, and Heikki disappointing by not signing a contract earlier, and talking badly of the team.

I don't really know what other pies Caterham have fingers in. I think they've got GP2 and maybe GP3 involvement, and probably some closed-wheel teams, but it's hardly the pinacle of motorsport. Very interesting development. Heikki to tear up GP2 this season? Would he even be allowed to enter?

 

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I can make something of that involving Seb with a dash of insanity...

Seb is good mates with Kamui, Kamui gets seat with Ferrari, Seb being rumoured for future with Ferrari around (14-16), Seb must of influenced his friend being kept in some decent Motorsport with Ferrari so to keep his skills up when he goes back to F1.

DICUSS!

 

erm, but its just a Ferrari 458

 

The next Red Bull F1 car to look like this:

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Pirelli announced the tyres for the first four races.

Australia: Supersoft, Medium
Malaysia: Medium, Hard
China: Soft, Medium
Bahrain: Soft, Hard


http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/100723.html

 

Supersoft in Melbourne! Should be fun, although I'm supporting Lewis so he will probably have to make like 5 stops!!

 

Thanks for that bud. For me I would like to see at leat a 2 compund gap at every circuit.

 

Presumably if Bianchi didn't get the Force India drive he would do a second season of Formula Renault 3.5 (he could also go back to GP2 but that would be very unlikely as all the good seats are gone and he didn't take part in GP2 pre-season testing). If he stays in Formula Renault 3.5 you would expect his old team (Tech 1) to retain him. About a month ago Tech 1 confirmed their first driver for 2013. Yesterday they confirmed their second driver. Now there are only five seats left, none of them with good teams, and Bianchi hasn't been linked to any of them. Have the team recently received word that Bianchi is moving up to F1? That would surely be the only reason why they would wait this long only to sign a mediocre driver like Aleshin.


This coincides with a few tweets from Bianchi a day before Tech 1's announcement. He said:

• Fans ! Show your support to @Jules_Bianchi ! Let's push him to @ClubForce !! #F1 #Bianchindia
• You are the best fans !! Thank you ! #WaitAndSee #F1
• Thanks for your likes, tweets, messages, songs... Best fans out there ! But still : #WaitAndSee #F1 #Bianchindia

Maybe I'm reading too much into this but I'm thinking Force India signed with Bianchi on Sunday or Monday, and his manager informed Tech 1 of the signing so that they could finalise their own driver-line up.




There are other things as well which suggest the decision to sign Bianchi was imminent:

• Aethra (Bianchi's sponsor) signed up with Force India last year when they made Bianchi their reserve driver. At the launch of the VJM06, Aethra's logo was on the car. That might be because Bianchi is guaranteed to be reserve driver if someone else gets the drive, or maybe it's a sign of confidence - that Bianchi was most likely to get the drive.
• Last week Vijay Mallya said "we are very close to making our decision and I can assure you that we will arrive in Australia with one of the most exciting pairings on the grid". He said this two days before Bianchi drove the car.
• The team are running out of time to make their decision. Fernley said at the launch that doing the first test without announcing a second driver was fine because that driver could catch up in Barcelona. For them to be in that position they must have had a favourite - and what did they do next? Put Bianchi in the car at Jerez.
• Bianchi admitted that his practice sessions early in the season weren't good but he showed his pace later on. If the delay in Force India's decision was due to doubt about Bianchi's ability, that would have gone away after Jerez.
• At Jerez, Bianchi was Car 15 whereas De La Rosa was Car 32.
• Yesterday Sutil's manager said Sutil needs to be in the car at Barcelona to stand a chance. Fernley has already said Force India wouldn't use the tests for this:

 

I don't understand why they wouldn't just say if it is Bianchi. Maybe they're trying to get more money out of him or maybe they're after someone else and hes option 2?
Bianchi is already at FI so why hide it if he has signed, seems odd, very odd.

 

well something is stalling it

 

Could even be that theres a contract in place with somebody else and FI are trying to get out of it?

 

Ferrari and Bianchi probably want a 1 year contract whereas FI may want a longer term one.

 

Maybe there are some sponsorship deals to be worked out

 

Sutil has seat fitting!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105563

 

Apparently Kingfisher are on the brink of collapse. What will this mean for Vijay and the team?

 

Interesting.....