Top people to replace Mark Webber

[tfp]

LOL.


Is he? Webber had the best and fastest car last year, he ended up 6th. Grosjean had the 4th best car and ended up in 8th place.


Twitter - the most credible encyclopedia of our time.

quite possibly, if Lewis Hamilton is posting

[faster69]

grosjean's position in the championship doesn't tell the full story. on sheer pace grosjean matched kimi.

[Koz]

The Lotus is not a great qualifying car, Kimi sets his car up for the races. Grosjean did match Kimi in qualifying at times but in the races Grosjean only finished ahead of Kimi twice the whole season.

The Lotus was like the Ferrari, much stronger in races than qualifying.
Grosjean beat Kimi 10-9 in qualifying.
Yes, he did move backwards in the races, I attribute that to his inexperience rather than Kimi set up or Lotus being a bad car - and it should have won at Bahrain (Kimi's rustiness) and especially in Hungary (where Kimi was clearly quicker than Hamilton, but had no space to overtake).
As we have seen, with warm track temperature Lotus was at least second fastest car on the track, in races. On cooler tracks, their performance was worse.
And just like Kimi, every race that he finished he was in the points - something we cannot say for anyone except the Vettel, Kimi, Fred and Lewis.
Also, in the races that he did finish, Grosjean was also never more than two places lower than Kimi. Usually he was the guy just behind Kimi. What do you make of that?

Does that make Grosjean a bad driver or Lotus a bad car? Consistency suggests otherwise.

I do not believe anyone can fault Grosjean's pace, his inexperience and proclivity for crashing, yes.
Up to the mid-season break, I have to say, Lotus was one of the best cars on the grid for most races, after that they couldn't maintain development.

Nor am I taking anything away from Kimi, he is one of the best drives on the grid. Equally driver of the season with Alonso, Hamilton.

This season seems to be different from last season, the E21 is not an easy car to setup and drive. Kimi has out qualified Grosjean 0.4 - 0.6 so far in all 3 races. Kimi did get a new exhaust for Malaysia that Grosjean didn't have, but the team also did it before for Grosjean. Last season they give Grosjean the first updates from Valencia to Silverstone. Lotus just doesn't have the same resources as the big teams, so it goes with the territory.
In China both drivers had exactly the same parts. The team placed Kimi on the wrong clutch settings at the start so he lost a few positions, then he had the tangle with Perez which damaged his front wing, he was losing 0.25 seconds per lap according to Alan Permane. And yet with a faulty start and damaged car he finished 43 seconds ahead of Grosjean. I can see why Grosjean is taking a less aggressive approach this season, and it is good that he has consistently scored points so far this season.
But if we would have judged the E21 solely on Grosjean's results - 10, 6, 9, then the car would have looked liked the 5th/ 6th best car on the grid, on par with the Mclaren's and Force India, while in Kimi's hands the car is competing for the WDC. And it was pretty much the same situation last year as well. Lotus doesn't seem to impressed by Red Bull for trying to lure Kimi: Lotus not worried Red bull can lure Kimi Raikkonen away - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

Kimi has always been a natural choice for Red Bull, his image fits in with the type of image that Red Bull is trying to convey about themselves. Getting Kimi in the team will boost the team's likability. And Red Bull in turn has always had a connection with Kimi, they have been his personal sponsor from the start of his F1 career even when he was at Ferrari, they sponsored his stint in WRC, and they are currently sponsoring his motocross team. Kimi is not part of the young drivers program but he has always been a part of Red Bull in some way. And of course Kimi is a very popular driver from a marketing perceptive this would be a great combination. Even Helmut Marko approves of Kimi as a candidate.

But Kimi is currently 2nd in the championship, only 3 points behind Vettel, if Lotus keeps on providing him with a competitive car then there is really no incentive for him to leave the team. He seems to fit in really well at Lotus, and they dont have the politics of a big team.

It will most likely be one of the STR drivers who will get the seat, or they could always go for Grosjean.

[Koz]

It would have been hard for him to win a championship whilst getting regularly smoked by his teammate Massa at the time. Just face it dude, Kimi's F1 mojo at the time was dying.

he was never bored with f1. santander wanted alonso winning a championship not kimi.

I think lack performance in 2008 was mostly attributed with the atmosphere in Ferrari rather than being bored. Nor do I believe Kimi was "smoked". Massa was the better driver that year, but that is not the same Massa we've seen for the last few years.
The rumour mill had aleady started in late 2007 that he would be replaced by Alonso. And I recall an attitude of preference towards Massa by the end of that season. If Kimi wasn't world champion in 2007, Alonso would have replaced him in 2008.

The fact that it was Kimi that was replaced at Ferrari and the massive gamble of an injured Massa - whilst still paying Kimi, IIRC, 25 million to sit out a season of F1?
That surely implies some sort of personal issues, rather than anything related to his racing abilities.

they were even throughout, but yeah kimi was the highest paid person in f1 at the time and wasn't quick enough to justify his salary. i do think ferrari had eyes on alonso from the time he laft mclaren.

So it was justifiable to pay him a massive fortune not to race for a year?

[jens]

The rumours about Kimi are getting stronger. Anyway, it would be interesting and looking forward to it.

It would pose a critical issue for Lotus though - who should they hire to fill the void left by Kimi? But this is for another thread.

[BDunnell]

It would also pose a critical issue for Red Bull — what's the point of Toro Rosso if it can't produce any drivers to fill the void Webber's departure would leave?

[CNR]

It would also pose a critical issue for Red Bull — what's the point of Toro Rosso if it can't produce any drivers to fill the void Webber's departure would leave?

Toro Rosso may no longer be seen as the junior team next year Toro Rosso planning switch to Renault engines for 2014 - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com Toro Rosso planning switch to Renault engines for 2014

It is our target to have the same engine as Red Bull Racing is using, to use the synergies that are possible from the regulations side, that is the reason why," he said about the change of supplier."We are in negotiations with Renault and then we will see. No contract has been signed so far."
Toro Rosso believes the move to Renault will help it make competitive gains because it will be able to work more closely with its sister team, as well as be able to use Red Bull's gearbox rather than have to make its own.

[Knock-on]

Kimi was pissed off in his last year at Ferrari. He had just won a (rather fortunate) Wdc and was being benched. Would piss me off too.

Im rather uneasy with the prospect of having 4 renault powered bulls out there. They can afford to have a decent driver in Webbers seat and have a couple of rear gunners.

[faster69]

i don't think it affected his performance much. 07 there wasn't much between massa and kimi, except massa had more retirements. the expectation was that he'd blow massa away like schumacher did. 08 there wasn't much between them either.

[CNR]

Alonso how well do vettel and kimi get on ? F1Today.net - Formule 1-nieuws, live verslag, live updates, f1 test, uitslagen, gp2, gp3

A photo of Webber dining with Red Bull's arch-enemy Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso in Dubai was posted on the drivers' Twitter feeds, triggering another wave of rumours. Marko said: "It's nice that there are at least two friends in formula one."