OFFICIAL: This means Buemi will be out of STR by mid-season 2011 :)

[UltimateDanGTR]

Ofcourse, we must remember you don't have to stand out in the junior formulae particularly to be a star in F1...

for proof, see 'Kamui Kobyashi'

[maximilian]

Your last point is excellent. But is Ric that driver? Talented? Yes. Good enough to pull the team around him? No idea - there have only been a handful of guys like that.

Yes, true... names like Alonso and Vettel come to mind there. The thing is, though... neither Buëmi nor Alguersuari is "that" driver for sure, so if STR seriously want to up their game, then perhaps it's time to try their luck with someone new... and Daniel is about as good a prospect as there is out there anywhere at the moment.

[Hawkmoon]

I have a solution to this problem of where to put young drivers. It's total fantasy and will never happen but what the hell?

F1 should have a junior or B level championship that runs in with current cars on GP weekends. Each team brings a third car for a third driver, say under the age of 25, and they have a race, on a Sunday morning, as a curtain raiser to the main event.

We get to see how good Ricciardo is in current machinery, against other young drivers in a race situation, as opposed to just testing.

Now I know people will automatically say it's too expensive but I think that's bull****. F1 is looking to spice up the action and is going to have to spend something to do that. Why not test young drivers and provide fans with more racing at the same time?

Wouldn't it be good to see Bianchi in a Ferrari vs Ricciardo in a Red Bull vs Bird in a Mercedes in something that was a much more meaningful than testing?

[wattoroos]

I have a solution to this problem of where to put young drivers. It's total fantasy and will never happen but what the hell?

F1 should have a junior or B level championship that runs in with current cars on GP weekends. Each team brings a third car for a third driver, say under the age of 25, and they have a race, on a Sunday morning, as a curtain raiser to the main event.

We get to see how good Ricciardo is in current machinery, against other young drivers in a race situation, as opposed to just testing.

Now I know people will automatically say it's too expensive but I think that's bull****. F1 is looking to spice up the action and is going to have to spend something to do that. Why not test young drivers and provide fans with more racing at the same time?

Wouldn't it be good to see Bianchi in a Ferrari vs Ricciardo in a Red Bull vs Bird in a Mercedes in something that was a much more meaningful than testing?

i think thats really good actually but i wonder if they would televise this and how long would you make the races, but i think gp2 should just become a series that follows f1 everywhere o get taste of the tracks as the f1 teams wouldnt worry about making the third car brilliant

[maximilian]

Even if the 3rd driver races may not be feasible, it would at least be great to see the 3rd drivers back in action in a 3rd car during some or even all practice sessions.

I don't know whatever happened to cars these days, it seems like even established teams have a hard time sometimes scraping up enough parts for even 2 cars, where in the past it was no big deal to have a spare car or 2 along, but it couldn't be THAT hard to have a 3rd car in there.

Cost prohibitive? Well, the larger teams can certainly afford it, and I would imagine that some of the smaller teams could actually be selling off the seat for additional sponsor money to some pay drivers - with 3 full practice sessions to contend, I would think it would be a much more attractive proposition for sponsors to chip in, and their protegee would have a much better chance to turn some heads with good practice times, rather than the current silly system of having to sit out one of the race drivers so someone like d'Ambrosio can spend his sponsor dollars.

Rather than having the 3rd drivers all compete in their own race (which they often do in GP2 anyways, and in more comparable machinery), and risking race incident damage, it would be much more interesting to compare them to the 2 race drivers of the same team (and the rest of the established field) for a better understanding of how good they may or may not be.

All the teams already bring 3 drivers to the races anyways, even the small ones... might as well use them! The teams would then benefit from the additional testing data, the 3rd drivers from the additional practice - they would be much better prepared to step in as reserve should the need arise. It sounds like a win/win situation to me. And we all know what that means!!

[Ari]

With all due respect, Daniel has as more talent in his bellybutton than all of AlgaeBoy taken together.

And that's also why I said "with proper pre-season testing", i.e. plenty of time in the car to get used to it. Then all he'd need to do is learn the tracks as he goes.

It WOULD be a stupid mistake by STR to enter him mid-season instead of giving him the benefit of pre-season testing. I am convinced he'd do great, based on his pace in the test sessions already.

Agree with this.

Also, and most importantly. I believe in a driver having the off-season to mentally prepare and play out in their mind what needs to be done. Particularly a rookie driver.

Dragging them in half way is not ideal a all.

[rjbetty]

I have a solution to this problem of where to put young drivers. It's total fantasy and will never happen but what the hell?

F1 should have a junior or B level championship that runs in with current cars on GP weekends. Each team brings a third car for a third driver, say under the age of 25, and they have a race, on a Sunday morning, as a curtain raiser to the main event.

We get to see how good Ricciardo is in current machinery, against other young drivers in a race situation, as opposed to just testing.

Now I know people will automatically say it's too expensive but I think that's bull****. F1 is looking to spice up the action and is going to have to spend something to do that. Why not test young drivers and provide fans with more racing at the same time?

Wouldn't it be good to see Bianchi in a Ferrari vs Ricciardo in a Red Bull vs Bird in a Mercedes in something that was a much more meaningful than testing?

Sounds like a VERY good idea to me.

Also, where can Nico Hulkenberg get a drive? What about Toro Rosso?

[jens]

Maximilian's agenda, how Vettel "developed" STR in 2008 and current drivers aren't doing it, doesn't make much sense to be honest. Vettel was quite inexperienced at the time, so he didn't know about "car development/feedback" much unlike currently highly rated development drivers Barrichello/Wurz/de la Rosa, etc know. I suspect Bourdais had actually more influence in these matters at the time.'

The second half of 2008 has been the only period, when STR has outperformed RBR, but that was mainly down to STR having basically equal chassis to RBR plus finally proper adjusting to the Ferrari engine, which happened to be a superior one at the time. But that was the end of the period of consistency in the rules, to which STR had finally adapted. For 2009 STR was left in a mess with new rules and to be honest, I don't think Red Bull has put in much effort to try to make Toro Rosso competitive since then.

Probably after 2008 Red Bull realized that if they really want to succeed in F1, they must put most of the effort into their A-team, which has left STR struggling at the back. And Red Bull doesn't seem too interested in elevating them upwards in the rankings - they are happy just to exist there.

Talking about pre-F1 credentials, it has been forgotten that Alguersuari is also British F3 champion like Ricciardo.