2013 Silly Season

[CNR]

F1 : Kovalainen management summoned to Maranello for Formula 1 drive talks

Finnish reports say Caterham Formula One team driver Heikki Kovalainen's management have been summoned to Maranello.

The speculation follows Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo ruling out Sergio Perez as Felipe Massa's 2013 successor, due to his lack of experience.

Finn Kovalainen, 30, is on the market after three years of rebuilding his reputation at Caterham, following his less than shining first three years in Formula 1 at Renault and McLaren.

The Finnish broadcaster MTV3 said representatives of Kovalainen's management team at IMG Worldwide will travel to Maranello next week.

[prpr]

Alonso quoted in Autosport.com, when quizzed about Massa being retained: "If the team decides to change Felipe, anyone who arrives has to be better than Felipe. I've seen a lot of names written, and I don't know if they have been written with the head or the heart. With all the names you hear, if you compare what Felipe has done in Formula 1 and what these little names have done in Formula 1... In my opinion we need to have a driver that respects Ferrari, that respects the tradition that here we work for the team, for the red cars, and this is the first priority." In other words, not ..... ........

[CNR]

Sport | Motorsport | Robert Kubica route to F1 Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express-

ROBERT KUBICA could be on his way back to Formula 1 as test driver for Pirelli.

The tyre firm faces losing Jaime Alguersuari for 2013 as the Spaniard is linked with a return to Force India

[N4D13]

As much as I'd like to see Alguersuari back in 2013, I don't think Force India would pick him. It's not that di Resta nor Hulkenberg are doing badly and neither did Jaime set the world alight during his time at Toro Rosso. It was obvious that he was a fine driver, but so are Paul and the Hulk.

[Rollo]

How silly are we allowed to get here?

Ferrari: 1 - Alonso, 2 - Kobayashi
McLaren: 3 - Button, 4 - Perez
Red Bull: 5 - Vettel, 6 - Ricciardo
Lotus: 9 - Raikkonen, 10 - Maldonado
Sauber: 11 - Massa, 12 - Gutiérrez
Force India: 14 - Hulkenberg, 15 - di Resta
Williams: 16 - Senna, 17 - Bottas
Toro Rosso: 18 - Buemi, 19 - Vergne
Caterham: 20 - Kovaleinen, 21 - Petrov
Kia (Formerly HRT): 22 - de la Rosa, 23 - Karthikeyan
Marussia: 24 - Glock, 25 - Pic
Mercedes: 658 - Rosberg, 722 - Hamilton

[truefan72]

Alonso quoted in Autosport.com, when quizzed about Massa being retained: "If the team decides to change Felipe, anyone who arrives has to be better than Felipe. I've seen a lot of names written, and I don't know if they have been written with the head or the heart. With all the names you hear, if you compare what Felipe has done in Formula 1 and what these little names have done in Formula 1... In my opinion we need to have a driver that respects Ferrari, that respects the tradition that here we work for the team, for the red cars, and this is the first priority." In other words, not ..... ........

in other words a driver willing to be a #2 without question
alonso doesn't care one bit about "the team" he has and will always only care about himself no matter what

[kfzmeister]

alonso doesn't care one bit about "the team" he has and will always only care about himself no matter what

[CNR]

in other words a driver willing to be a #2 without question
alonso doesn't care one bit about "the team" he has and will always only care about himself no matter what

a good example of this is after the race in the room where vettel and button where having a chat about the race and alone so just walked away

[AndyL]

How silly are we allowed to get here?

Ferrari: 1 - Alonso, 2 - Kobayashi
McLaren: 3 - Button, 4 - Perez
Red Bull: 5 - Vettel, 6 - Ricciardo
Lotus: 9 - Raikkonen, 10 - Maldonado
Sauber: 11 - Massa, 12 - Gutiérrez
Force India: 14 - Hulkenberg, 15 - di Resta
Williams: 16 - Senna, 17 - Bottas
Toro Rosso: 18 - Buemi, 19 - Vergne
Caterham: 20 - Kovaleinen, 21 - Petrov
Kia (Formerly HRT): 22 - de la Rosa, 23 - Karthikeyan
Marussia: 24 - Glock, 25 - Pic
Mercedes: 658 - Rosberg, 722 - Hamilton

OK, most of that is understandable apart from Karthikeyan keeping his seat, but what's the explanation for 658 and 722?

[Rollo]

OK, most of that is understandable apart from Karthikeyan keeping his seat, but what's the explanation for 658 and 722?

Basically marketing.

The numbers come from the two 300 SLRs that Mercedes-Benz ran in the 1955 Mille Miglia. 658 was the number on Fangio's car and 722 was on Moss' car which won the event. The numbers being the time which they started the event. (ie 722 - 07:22am).
This idea keeps on coming up in Das Rundschreiben which is one of the M-B club magazines; based on internal memos.