Giedo van der Garde gets 2nd Caterham seat

[Wasted Talent]

Van der Garde gets second Caterham seatJames Allen on F1

WT

[truefan72]

well, Caterham has just taken a step back IMO
Petrov really should have retained his seat, but hopefully he is off to Marussia, even though that is still going backwards down the gird

but back to caterham, cheap is what comes to mind. On paper, right now they have the weakest driver line up in my opinion.
Some poor decisions being made over there.

[AndyL]

We all had such high hopes when the team first arrived didn't we. They had good drivers, people of substance running the team, and an approach that seemed to be putting them on course for midfield respectability in a few years.

[keysersoze]

I'm disappointed, to put it lightly, but we all knew what Caterham were up against. Pic joined Barwa Addax after Giedo had already been there for a season, and the Frenchman outpointed him despite getting DQ'd from a race. Pic had 3 poles and 2 wins to van der Garde's 1 pole and zero wins. But Giedo had a fair 2012 season and has already driven the Caterham a half-dozen times in FP1. Should be an interesting season for them.

[zako85]

Scandalous. Kovalainen and Petrov were both good drivers, and probably the best Caterham could hire right now. I am surprised they haven't kept at least one of them for the sake of continuity. I think Caterham will realize soon how hard it is to compete without an experienced driver in the lineup.

[Koz]

Caterham just went from having the best drivers outside the top 5 teams to the worst lineup on the grid. Shame.

[rjbetty]

Caterham just went from having the best drivers outside the top 5 teams to the worst lineup on the grid. Shame.

Hmmm I would say 2nd worst. It's still not as bad as Chilton/Razia, probably.

But yeah, I have also lost respect for Caterham. It's not even about the driver decision, as survival has to be ensured; but more about the way they treated Heikki, and the way that Tony Fernandes seems to have lost interest after losing the Lotus name. That's a shame cos I've gotten used to the Caterham name and now I like it. It's still the same team and still means something.

[steveaki13]

Hasn't Tony Fernandes cut his ties with Caterham already? Last year sometime announced he would have nothing more to do with the team. Could be wrong and probably am.

[lars75]

That is a little simple!

Giedo was leading the championship in the beginning of 2011 and was second in the standing up untill Monza (the last weekend) behind Grosjean. A drive through because off avoiding a coalition (how strange is that?) in the first chicane in the first race made that he had no chance off scoring any points in the 1st race at Monza and he finished at the end of the list. The second race he drove a very strong race but didn't manage to score any point either. This made his drop from second to fifth in the Championship standings! Also to blame on the insane actions of Bianchi that cost vd Garde some points during the season. With that points in his pocket he would still be second, even after a weekend like Monza.
He didn't win any races, that's true. But he was constantly one of the main drivers througout the year!

Your vision is not even near the truth and there is more that meets the eye!

[Natalie.S]

Nice
I like Giedo, pretty good driver in difficult circumstances
Hope he does well