That was my first, extremely panicked, thought. It hasn't worked out too badly having too rookies for Marussia this season, but then they're not moving quickly enough to be a danger to anyone. ...Unless there's about to be a reshuffle. If Hulk moves to Lotus, or Gutierrez is indeed booted out, then Frijns might find himself in the car yet this season! I'm assuming Sirotkin will be Sauber's driver at the season-ending YDT and will have a lot of mileage in pre-season.
I'm pleased that Sauber are safe for a few years, but disappointed that Sirotkin is getting a seat as a result of it. There's a lot of talent in WSR this year, and a handful who are capable of making the step up to F1, Sirotkin isn't one of them. I doubt Da Costa, Magnussen or Vandoorne will get a drive next year. There's plenty of testing next year, what's wrong with putting Sirotkin in GP2 for a year and giving him plenty of test mileage for Sauber alongside that? There's no need to rush someone his age into Formula 1, they're supposed to be the best drivers in the world.
I guess for Sauber, desperate times call for desperate measures, and I'd rather have them on the grid with a couple of pay drivers than lose them. For what it's worth, I can't see how Sauber would end up with such a funding gap unless Slim had pulled his money out, so you'd have to think Gutierrez is a goner. However, if they're still marginal on budget, and have had to stop developing next year's car for a period, then I can't see them taking a salaried driver as their #1, which rules out Hulk and Massa for me. (I also think they'd be mad to go there, as I could well see Sauber competing with Caterham/Marussia sadly). With that, I guess you're looking for someone who brings a little money, and has a bit of experience. Grosjean?
Grosjean will stay at Lotus I think. There'd potentially be a conflict of interest if he took Total branding to Sauber; Ferrari and Shell wouldn't want a rival brand on one of the cars they supply.
I think Grosjean will stay at Lotus or leave the sport fairly soon, although he could find a niche lower down the grid with his Total money. He is fairly talented!
It is a massive risk having someone as inexperienced as Sirotkin in F1 next year. However, having said that there were exactly the same discussions 12 years ago with another Sauber debutant called Kimi Raikkonen...
That's true. I'd also got it into my head that Lotus wanted Hulk to replace Grosjean, forgetting Kimi is more likely to be off.
Raikkonen was chosen for his talent though, Peter Sauber had seen him race and given him several days of testing before deciding he was good enough. Sirotkin's seems to be getting a drive because he's Russian. Raikkonen was three years older than Sirotkin too.
Great news for Sauber. I haven't followed Sirotkin's career but I recognise his name because he did a test with Ferrari in 2011, as a reward for winning the Formula Abarth Euro championship. They tested five other drivers at the same time as Sirotkin, and I know at least two of them continued to do tests with Ferrari throughout 2012 and at the end of last year one joined their driver academy (Fuoco). To my knowledge Sirotkin only did that one test with Ferrari. He talks briefly about it here: It's not hard to see why Ferrari would lose interest in him - following this test, he did a season of Italian F3 and his results weren't great. I know F3 results don't always translate to F1 results, but I don't think he'll be any good, certainly not if he starts driving next year.
I think he did a season of Auto GP and came 3rd and considering how young he is 5th and 6th aren't bad results in F3. He needs a bit more time in junior formulae for me though
It would be borderline suicidal to put someone that A: Average B: Young in the car. If they want a young driver, put Frijns in, he's a far better prospect. I hate it when sponsors dictate terms, it ruins the sport.
Cecotto? [video=youtube;umDr0mPuyQc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=umDr0mPuyQc[/video] It'd be nice if there was a way to stop sponsors dictating drivers, although I suspect in the current economic environment, it wouldn't be possible. A grid next year of Cecotto, Maldonado, Grosjean and Sirotkin worries me somewhat.
So I guess Williams will get another 20-30 million? And sacrifice Bottas even though he is already clearly better than Maldonado who is a GP2 champion. Nice... Bye bye F1 and hello WEC.
Formula E for me I think. Wide open tech regs, R&D into something more useful than aero, and hopefully no Bernie. Fingers crossed there's some kind of driver talent and the field is reasonably close, and I'll probably convert almost completely. Will probably start paying more attention to MotoGP too, seeing as I can actually watch it.
Wonder how much it would take for F1 to collapse. I think if it did theres a chance for it to come back as what its supposed to be, the pinnacle of motorsport. Rallycross and Rallys are the cheapest to watch (Rallys being free), plus theres more or less a Rally every week if you live north enough
ah, I love Rallycross, used to love watching Martin Schanche. As for F1, it won't be safe until Gollum dies.
If F1 does collapse (let's say that all the teams currently struggling financially were to fold and we ended up with only 4 teams on the grid - I think that constitutes a collapse) I think there are two different potential outcomes. Outcome 1: The rights holder (whether that's Bernie or someone else) and the remaining teams (possibly not including Ferrari) start up two competing series, FOM trading on brand recognition and the remaining teams trading on their expertise. Outcome 2: "Formula 1" becomes a single-chassis formula, probably utilising Ferrari; many of the existing team structures remain in F1, with key aerodynamicists moving to the chassis manufacturer. Can't say I'd be delighted with either.
