Lots of drivers out there fighting to keep their seats for next season, whether they were signed on a one-year deal or have simply underwhelmed and are therefore under pressure. How do we rate their chances with seven races left? Kamui Kobayashi Sauber's team leader, but has been outclassed in the points standings by his team-mate this season. Has suffered from some rotten luck (I'm pretty sure every time he qualifies well he is taken out) but has also not helped his cause with poor qualifying pace and a tendency to be inconsistent. Publicly under pressure before Belgium, today's result cannot have helped his position. He has however outqualified his team-mate at the last two races and finished 4th in Germany. Bruno Senna See the Evaluation So Far thread. Bruno has scored fewer points than his team-mate (mostly due to Maldonado's win in Spain) and is only close to him in the standings by virtue of Maldonado's own clumsiness. While he has tended to do well in race trim, poor qualifying has let him down on many occasions this season, and poor strategy from the team will only excuse so many finishes as the last of the runners not in a Caterham. He does bring sponsorship with him though, and has not endangered the car like Maldonado. Felipe Massa Massa has shown the pace that allowed him to challenge for the championship in 2008 on a handful of occasions this season, and would have had a podium finish today if not for his potential replacement's stunning drive. However, only 3 races ago his team-mate was on pole - and went on to win the race - with Massa qualifying 13 places back and finishing out of the points. Yet at the same time, we do not know what is going on at Ferrari - with rumours that Sebastian Vettel is set to make the switch for 2014, Massa could yet find himself in the prancing horse for another season simply as a stop-gap! Daniel Ricciardo / Jean-Eric Vergne Scuderia Toro Rosso has always had a confusing driver policy. Last season's double firing of Buemi and Alguersuari was as surprising as it was ruthless. This season's crop have impressed when given the chance, a chance which in the slowest car outside the backmarkers has been all too fleeting. Both drivers have scored points twice: Vergne has the superior tally after two 8th place finishes compared to Ricciardo's 9th place finishes. He has however been poor in qualifying. Would be a shock if either of them was replaced but worth pointing out that Ricciardo had half a season in an HRT last year but has not dominated his team-mate, who got up to speed quickly, and that Webber's seat is set to be up for grabs in the not-too-distant future. Vitaly Petrov/Heikki Kovalainen Included here because there are some young drivers chomping at the bit to get into that Caterham, and the car has not developed enough pace to come even close to achieving the team's objectives for this season. As a result I wonder if Tony Fernandes and the team will re-assess the wisdom of Kovalainen's salary or Petrov's driving for next season with that in mind. Interestingly Kovalainen has been comprehensively beaten by Petrov in race trim this season, but has a superior qualifying record. Charles Pic Pic suffers the misfortune of being at the Marussia team where he has little opportunity to impress and Glock as a team-mate. Has beaten Glock on several occasions this season and has received several high ratings from Autosport, which would normally work in his favour but in this instance risks upsetting the apple-cart. Rumours he has fallen out with his team-mate abound after their duel at Belgium,and given Marussia's frequent driver turnover I would be surprised if he is driving in black and red again next season. Linked with Kobayashi's seat at Sauber, funnily enough. Did not include Schumacher because A) his pace is not in question and B) I think he will continue or retire on his terms rather than Mercedes'. Don't think I forgot anyone. discuss away!
PIC is outclassing Glock at the moment yet I think one will have to go. Apparently there is some bad blood between the 2.
What's Kovalainen's salary? On the face of it they'd be mad to let him go, but they're kind of in no-man's land with their car so there's little point throwing loads of cash at Kovalainen when there's not much difference he can make on track. I think Williams should replace Senna, having a quality driver this year would've been worth more than two pay-drivers in prize money. I think someone like Sutil would've been top 10 in the championship with the car they've had. They're behind Force India currently who have a worse car but better drivers. Would that 7th be worth more to them than Senna's sponsorship? And don't forget strong results will attract sponsors to the team.
I'm not sure where I'm getting the figure from, but I think Heikki is on $5m a season. The question in his case is also whether he wants to stay there. Not having the car he was promised this year won't have impressed him, and he's talked of moving if another seat became available, albeit only if it was to a 'top team' (So I'm guessing RB, Mclaren, Merc, Ferrari or Lotus). I think he could do a job at a better team, if Ferrari ditched Massa and wanted someone for a single season (in case they can tempt Vettel, get Kubica, or if Perez is ready) then he'd seem like a decent choice to me.
I think that Williams would have signed Sutil had he not been involved in the "glassing" incident and I do think that a lack of quality is affecting them, or more to the point Maldonado's inability to harness his obvious talent. The amount of money that he has cost the team in crashes must be pretty significant! In fairness this year was always going to be about consolidation under a new technical team and in that respect they've managed to improve on last year. I was going to say that they could do with getting an experienced head in one car next year to help them push on, so perhaps they will give consideration to others: Kovalainen, if they could convince him to come, for instance; but then Senna is 28 now and has had two full seasons in F1, plus testing experience - perhaps they think he can do the development side of things?
Really good article tomtom! I can see Massa staying for another season if the Vettel rumours are true
Very good post but really none of these drivers futures lies in their own hands! The Schumacher, Hammilton and maybe Massa moves will filter through every team down the grid in some way or the other.
I don't think Schumacher will leave, if he does, it will be his own choice. He can still drive like a machine, so a move to Ferrari as Crofty pointed out, would not be out of the question.
IMHO, it all depends on what Lewis and Michael want to do. If both stay then I can see no real changes in the upper midfield and top teams due to the fact that.. McLaren and Redbull would retain their current driver line-up If Michael stays, Mercedes will retain theirs! Ferrari, if they have an agreement in place for Vettel in 2014, I doubt they'll want to replace Massa for one year, so by default he'll most likely stay. Williams may move Senna on, although for a pay driver he's bringing home a decent amount of points, however agreee with others that a driver like Sutil in this years Williams would have scored more often and more heavily than Senna! Sauber, if no seat in the top teams, Perez is likely to stay where he is, I don't think Kamui is in any real danger either. Lotus, Grosjean for all his incidents is a good driver, if no seats available in McLaren and Ferrari then Kimi isn't going to leave either. HRT would be better placed to replaced Karthikeyan with a salad bowl! Thought it was harsh on last years Toro Rosso drivers to be replaced with the current two.. even though the current two have been impedded with the car being a crock of pooh! I haven't seen anything from them so far that indicates they're an upgrade on the two they replaced, so could see more movement here! Wasn't aware of the fallout between Pic and Glock, if Glock is retained then Pic could be shown the door for A N Other pay driver? Or maybe promote from within their GP2 team? If, Hamilton does leave, well that could start the mother of all merry go rounds!
