2013 Silly Season

[dj_bytedisaster]

RG has speed by the bucketload, but he is barely able to finish races and what Force India needs the most are two drivers who can reliably finish.
I think the best way would be to bring back Sutil. He brings money, is very quick, knows the team and can finish races without trying to kill the whole grid. (Well Lotus bigwigs might be another matter )

[AndyL]

Grosjean will get more reliable as he gains experience.
If you want a driver to do the most solid point-scoring job for next year, Sutil would be a good option, but I can't see many teams wanting a guy with a suspended prison sentence still hanging over him.
I think F1 will be the poorer for losing Kobayashi and Kovalainen so I hope one of them gets it.

[Nikki Katz]

I hope that Grosjean is still around next year. He's easily as fast as Raikkonen, he just seemed to get his head in completely the wrong place with all the criticism. I guess that having Kovalainen in the car wouldn't be terrible though.

What's happening with HRT? Wasn't the deadline for paying the FIA's fees yesterday? I would have thought we'd have heard one way or the other by now.

I also like how the FIA are trying to justify the fees as being fairer on the little teams, despite raising the fees for even the smallest teams by $200k. I wonder what they're going to spend all Red Bull's money on!

[dj_bytedisaster]

What's happening with HRT? Wasn't the deadline for paying the FIA's fees yesterday? I would have thought we'd have heard one way or the other by now.

They're still trying to find an investor. Considering that they couldn't even afford proper monitors anymore in Brazil, I'd say they're dead.

I also like how the FIA are trying to justify the fees as being fairer on the little teams, despite raising the fees for even the smallest teams by $200k. I wonder what they're going to spend all Red Bull's money on!

They'll probably spend it on fancy meals and higher salaries for the bigwigs. And, who knows - maybe Max is coming back and they already build up some reserves for all the hookers and inappropriate constumes

[Nikki Katz]

Hehe! HRT are now confirmed gone, I just mis-timed my post by a few hours. The team hasn't shut yet, but only because they're trying to pay off debts before doing so.

[ArrowsFA1]

So Bottas at Williams. Remains to be seen, what he can do, but he has shown promise in feeder series and obviously Williams rates him highly.

Indeed, but my question to Williams would be why did they not consider him suitable to step up to a race seat this year instead of Senna? Obviously he's gained another year of experience in the third driver role but that did nothing to help Bruno who would have benefitted from that seat time.

Bear in mind this was Senna's first full season in F1 after partial campaigns with HRT and Renault and, given the evidence of his years in F3 & GP2, we would have seen an improvement in 2013. It's a shame we won't get to see what he could have done with a full year behind him.

That said Bottas is much heralded as a future talent, and if he does a good job for my team I'll be happy.

[A FONDO]

Haven't been reading the news recently, so, which places are still unconfirmed for 2013?

[keysersoze]

Haven't been reading the news recently, so, which places are still unconfirmed for 2013?

Caterham, which have a half-dozen drivers in mind: Petrov, Kovalainen, and van der Garde are the favorites. Senna and Razia also in the mix.

Force India: Sutil is the front-runner, with Senna, Bianchi, Valsecchi, and Razia also rumored.

Marussia: could be wrong here, but I do not think Glock is confirmed, though there is no strong rumor that he will be replaced.

[Prisoner Monkeys]

Glock has been confirmed. He signed a three-year deal during the 2011 season. He'll be with Marussia until the end of 2014.

With regards to Caterham, Vitaly Petrov's manager reckons that as many as seven drivers (including Petrov) are in contention for the seat. Petrov seems to be the favourite, since he nabbed tenth place in the WCC for the team, and his sponsors visited the Caterham factory a week before Christmas. Meanwhile, Giedo van der Garde seems to be offering more and more money to the team every time they talk to him; I get the feeling that he thinks this is his last chance to join the team. Heikki Kovalainen is pretty much out of contention, since the team want someone with sponsors and he has made it known that he doesn't want to find them. Luiz Razia has apparently been shopping around for all of the available seats, and I've heard that he has offered up to $23 million, but nobody wants him. And Bruno Senna's sponsors reportedly won't pay for him to drive a car that cannot score points (apparently overlooking the fact that Bruno Senna can barely score points).

As for the Force India seat, Adrian Sutil's name keeps getting mentioned - which I find odd, because he was solid, yet unspectacular. Paul di Resta beat him last year, only to be beaten in kind by Nico Hulkenberg this season. That said, with Lewis Hamilton moving to Mercedes and McLaren replacing him with Sergio Perez, di Resta isn't going to be moving up in the world any time soon. He was placed at Force India to develop as a driver, with a view to one day promoting him to a front-running team. In exchange, Force India got a discount on their engines. But with di Resta going nowhere fast and speculation suggesting engine prices will increase dramatically in 2014, it's possible that Force India will dump di Resta and instead take Sutil alongside Jules Bianchi, who comes with Ferrari backing. This would get them a discount on Ferrari engines, and Sutil would work well in mentoring Bianchi so that at the end of the year, Ferrari will have a choice between Bianchi and Hulkenberg, the latter of whom they seem to be eyeing off as a repalcement for Felipe Massa.

[dj_bytedisaster]

As for the Force India seat, Adrian Sutil's name keeps getting mentioned - which I find odd, because he was solid, yet unspectacular. Paul di Resta beat him last year, only to be beaten in kind by Nico Hulkenberg this season.

The only thing di Resta could beat last year was a hasty retreat. Sutil scored 42 points to di Resta's 27. Since when does this mean being beaten?