2012 Silly Season - Grid lineup

[jens]

So, 2013 my best guess of the top four teams:

Red Bull - Vettel / Ricciardo

Ferrari - Alonso / Kubica

McLaren - Hamilton / Button

Mercedes - Rosberg / di Resta

Ferrari already have experience of bringing back a driver, who has been injured and after that not been performing impressively (Massa). I doubt Ferrari is going to change one such driver for another, as it seems Kubica is probably not going to race in 2012 and then hiring him for 2013 would be an extremely doubtful gamble.

[Nikki Katz]

I think Trulli's already under contract for next year. Force India haven't announced either of their drivers, but it's expected Sutil will be dropped for no real reason. Petrov has a contract but isn't confirmed, I doubt we'll see a Petrov/Senna lineup at Lotus next year, they'll want one other driver to complement their pay driver.

Sutil has a shot at Williams (for some reason I don't see Raikkonen returning, but I could be wrong on that), I doubt Barrichello has a chance there any more. If he really still wants to be in F1, perhaps if he found sponsorship he could target, say, Liuzzi's seat? But I expect Brazil's the last we'll see of him.

I think we may see Karthikeyan back at Hispania, if only on a part-time basis.

[Rollo]

I do hope Grosjean gets a proper chance next year, as opposed to being #2 in the Alonso team for 6 races or so with no prior testing.

What does Romain have to do to take a trick? He won both GP2 and GP2 Asia in the same year and won the Auto GP series in 2010. It's like he keeps on hitting his head on the glass ceiling of F1 and can't get in. Genii/Black Lotus/Renault (or whatever the hell the decide to call themselves next week) are overbooked, and it'd be a waste of him to faff about in anything worse.

[DazzlaF1]

And Glock has a contract until 2014... Well, that's the longest deal I can remember with a backmarker team... :\

I dunno, I remember reading about Ghinzani spending 5 successive seasons at Osella and Pierluigi martini spending nearly all his 10 year career at Minardi

But still you're right, in todays world, its a long time, the only other I can think of in presernt terms is Adrian Sutil at Force India/Spyker

[DazzlaF1]

How I see it so far

RED BULL RENAULT: 1. Sebastian Vettel, 2. Mark Webber
No suprises here

McLAREN MERCEDES: 3. Jenson Button, 4. Lewis Hamilton
Read above

FERRARI: 5. Fernando Alonso, 6. Felipe Massa
Despite the aforementioned Kubica rumours, I fully expect Mssa to fuilfill the remainder of his contract

MERCEDES: 7. Michael Schumacher, 8. Nico Rosberg
With Rosberg being re-signed for 2 years and Schumacher likely goign nowhere, no suprises here either

LOTUS RENAULT: 9. Vitaly Petrov, 10. ??? (POSSIBLES, Robert Kubica, Romain Grosjean, Bruno Senna, Adrian Sutil)
It all depends really on Kubica's fitness, if he's OK, then i cant see him getting overlooked, Petrov's a cert after signing that new deal

SAHARA FORCE INDIA MERCEDES: 11. ???, 12. ??? (POSSIBLES, Adrian Sutil, Paul Di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg)
Like with Kubica at Renault, Its all dependent on one drivers position, in this case Sutil, the only certainty I can see is Di Resta being kept on

SAUBER FERRARI: 14. Kamui Kobayashi, 15. Sergio Perez
Confirmed a few weeks ago, no suprises really

TORO ROSSO FERRARI: 16. ???, 17. ??? (POSSIBLES, Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo)
Traditionally, they'll decide on their lineup weeks before the first race but with both Buemi's and Alguersuari's improved form this season, it will be tough to drop them

WILLIAMS RENAULT: 18. ???, 19. ??? (POSSIBLES: Rubens Barrichello, Pastor Maldonado, Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas)
This is a tricky one to decipher, especially after the Raikkonen rumours began to circulate

CATERHAM RENAULT: 20. Heikki Kovalainen, 21. Jarno Trulli
Same lineup for the 3rd season running, pretty unheard of for a backmarker team

MARUSSIA COSWORTH: 22. Timo Glock, 23. ??? (POSSIBLES: Jerome D'Ambrosio, Charles Pic)
It would be a shame for d'Ambrosio to lose his seat, he's performed admirably in such a bad car bit I fear he could in favour of Pic

HISPANIA: 24. ???, 25. ??? (POSSIBLES: ???)
For this lot, it'll be who provides the most $$$

[DexDexter]

What does Romain have to do to take a trick? He won both GP2 and GP2 Asia in the same year and won the Auto GP series in 2010. It's like he keeps on hitting his head on the glass ceiling of F1 and can't get in. Genii/Black Lotus/Renault (or whatever the hell the decide to call themselves next week) are overbooked, and it'd be a waste of him to faff about in anything worse.

His stint at Renault a few years ago hurt his reputation a lot. The first impression is really difficult to shrug off.

[Ranger]

Petrov may be on the way out.

Vitaly Petrov's future at Renault has been thrown into doubt after the Russian driver launched an amazing outburst against the team this week, in the first public sign of friction between himself and team management.

On the back of an increasingly frustrating campaign, which has seen Renault score just six points since the German Grand Prix, Petrov has blamed a lack of development and strategy mistakes for its current plight.

Vitaly Petrov hits out at Renault over lack of progress - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

I am starting to think Renault are sufficiently lacking in the management department.

[DexDexter]

Petrov may be on the way out.


Vitaly Petrov hits out at Renault over lack of progress - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

I am starting to think Renault are sufficiently lacking in the management department.

Renault is a mess and going down. The team will be done in a couple of years.

[CNR]

Renault is a mess and going down. The team will be done in a couple of years.

lotus i think the only Renault thing will be the engine

[Koz]

Petrov may be on the way out.


Vitaly Petrov hits out at Renault over lack of progress - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

I am starting to think Renault are sufficiently lacking in the management department.

Meh, Renault need Petrov [rather his money] far more than he needs them.