Confirmed: Jean-Eric Vergne ousted by Toro Rosso

[Jag_Warrior]

Susie Wolff's F1 rise is not tokenism – but a triumph over the odds

Whatever method she adopts to gain traction the point remains she wouldn’t be in the car if she were not seriously quick. When Wolff appeared in Friday practice in Germany she closed only a couple of tenths behind Felipe Massa, a veteran of 210 grands prix and 11 race wins.

I'm sitting here trying to decide which is worse: having Pastor "Hit Everything But the Safety Car" Maldonado in the race car or letting Susie "Seriously Quick" Wolff be a make-believe reserve driver? I'm sure that watching him tear up race cars Friday-Sunday (and then blame the wall for hitting him) would make even the Pope take up drinking, but ol' Zipperhead can score points every now & again. But now, with little Susie Quick as the "reserve driver", one has to wonder how much lower that Mercedes engine bill will be next year compared to what everybody else will have to pay? Or do you think Dr. Z is going to make Toto write Williams GP a personal check?

I understand that Williams isn't flush with cash (although next year's check should look pretty nice after they shouldered Ferrari out for 3rd), but how far the mighty have fallen that they have to resort to letting the unaccomplished bed partner of their engine supplier take up a seat that a legit racer could be occupying. I've never been much of a Williams fan, but even to me, this is rather sad.

[jens]

Here, though, they invested at least four years in Vergne, and now he's gone. Red Bull got nothing out of it, so from a business standpoint it didn't pay off.

I guess that's inevitable if you have so many drivers on the books. Between Vettel and Ricciardo also Liuzzi, Buemi, Alguersuari, Vergne and others. Now Kvyat and Verstappen and Sainz are also coming up. Plus others in junior series. If you have so many drivers it is plain impossible for all of them to graduate to Red Bull and some of them inevitably have to "go to waste" in terms of investment.

But I guess this is the cost Red Bull has calculated to be reasonable. In any discipline - if you have a group of 10 sportsmen to train, and one of them wins the world championship, you can be happy that your investment has beared fruit. It is impossible to have 100% success rate, so you are doing well if you win anything. And with Red Bull having Vettel and Ricciardo as two excellent drivers, and potentially Kvyat being good, they have found good drivers to justify their investment.

That's great, but there's nowhere to go unless you have a bag full of cash.

Sadly that's the tough life of modern F1. Sauber - full of paydrivers, Lotus - Maldonado. Force India already has two good drivers, otherwise they could have been an option. After all, Pérez managed to continue his career after dropping out of McLaren. No such luck for Vergne after dropping out of STR.

[Mark]

Not completely unexpected:Toro Rosso confirms Sainz alongside Verstappen

Carlos Sainz will be good across the gravel traps I suppose!

[jens]

Carlos Sainz will be good across the gravel traps I suppose!

Also considering the old Verstappen, Jos the Boss, used to be nicknamed as Graveltrappen, it could be a good team-mate battle on the loose stuff, provided the sons have learnt anything from their dads.

[Malbec]

But I guess this is the cost Red Bull has calculated to be reasonable. In any discipline - if you have a group of 10 sportsmen to train, and one of them wins the world championship, you can be happy that your investment has beared fruit. It is impossible to have 100% success rate, so you are doing well if you win anything. And with Red Bull having Vettel and Ricciardo as two excellent drivers, and potentially Kvyat being good, they have found good drivers to justify their investment.

What is interesting is the effect RBR's policy is having on driver salaries.

IMO Alonso did not expect RBR to replace Vettel with yet another STR rookie almost immediately but they did. By doing so RBR saved $10s of millions by not hiring Alonso and also decimated his negotiating position with McLaren as he could not play Woking against Milton Keynes for his services. Alonso will likely be taking a substantial paycut for 2015 because of Kvyat, the alternative would have been hoping for a Caterham seat or sitting out of F1 for a year.

It will be interesting to see the effect of a constant influx of young, fast and talented but low paid F1 drivers will have on the market over the next few years, I reckon RBR is singlehandedly driving down driver salaries across the whole sport (for the talented group, paydrivers are another matter).

[N. Jones]

Carlos Sainz Jr.... Money always talks!

[Tazio]

I guess this is another situation we can blame on Fred!!

Fernando Alonso, Spain's greatest ever Formula 1 driver, spoke of his happiness at hearing the news that Carlos Sainz Jr. had been named as one of Toro Rosso's drivers for next season.
"Very few things could make me happier. Both father and son are awesome guys. Ps. even though you still owe me about 24 hours", tweeted the former Ferrari driver.
Carlos Sainz Jr. responded: "Thanks a lot Fernando, for all of your support over the years. Who'd have thought it from this photo, eh?" he wrote alongside the above photo, taken of the two of them several years ago.

[Doc Austin]

Also considering the old Verstappen, Jos the Boss, used to be nicknamed as Graveltrappen,.......

I've heard him called "Yes, we're wreckin' "

Sainz did just dominate his championship and set a record for wins, so he is probably not the most unqualified driver on the grid. With Max at Torro Rosso that will be a fascinating battle. They will probably crash the sh*t out of each other. Should be good fun.

Vergne is trying to put an Indycar deal together and he is talking like he's going to win the championship the first year. Yeah, put him in one of Coyne's sleds and let's see how he makes out. Considering he's never run an oval, and the first one will be Indianapolis, he'de better bring a spare pair of underwear to the speedway every day.

[Doc Austin]

Vergne to race in Formula E’s Punta del Este ePrix

You have to wonder if this ends up being an audition for the Andretti Indycar team.

[kfzmeister]

What is interesting is the effect RBR's policy is having on driver salaries.

IMO Alonso did not expect RBR to replace Vettel with yet another STR rookie almost immediately but they did. By doing so RBR saved $10s of millions by not hiring Alonso and also decimated his negotiating position with McLaren as he could not play Woking against Milton Keynes for his services. Alonso will likely be taking a substantial paycut for 2015 because of Kvyat, the alternative would have been hoping for a Caterham seat or sitting out of F1 for a year.

Sounds to me simply like wishful thinking from someone that doesn't like ALO. Everything that i've read indicates that he will command the highest current salary, once confirmed.
Not sure where you draw your (IM)O from, but that seems to be about what's gonna happen.
We'll have to just come back to that another day...