The Motorsport Thread - 2012

And yay Vettel! 3 in a row...an incredible feat for certain. And what a race for Hulky...totally underserved penalty IMO. But still...a pretty sweet finish for him.

Williams have confirmed their line-up for next year with Maldonado and the new Flying Finn Valtori Bottas. That just leaves Force India and Caterham to fill thier seats (and HRT, but with the team up for sale they might not even be on the grid next year).

sleeper wrote: Man With Hat wrote: I must admit, I like the name, but have never heard of him. Has Gut been successful in gp2 or similar other series'??   Sucks for Kam though. Heard on F1 debrief that Pic is going to Caterham replacing everyones other favorite finn, and Senna has no ride atm (I want to say they said a rookie was taking the spot...but I was still catching up on the Pic/Kov news )     Rain would certainly make it interesting! Looking forward to it either way. Esteban was a race winner in F3, the first GP3 champion and finished third for ART/Lotus in GP2 this year. He's quick but a little inconsistent, to be honest the only reason he finished ahead of his rookie team mate this year was because James Calado was suffering from severe food poisoning at the series final in Singapour. Pic is indeed on his way to Caterham on what is thought to be a multi year deal, he'll most likely be replaced at Marussia by Max Chilton who finished 4th in GP2 this year. It's not set that Kovy is on his way out but his best chance lies in the team securing 10th in the championship again this year, so they hav eto finish 12th or higher tomorrow ahead of the Marussia or HRT's for that to happen. If it's a wet race then it's possible, but if doesn't happen then he's probably gone. Great qualy, half a tenth between the McLaren drivers, looks like Alonso is beting on a wet race.

Gutierrez did 2 years in GP2. I cant remember how well he did in the first year but despite winning 3 races he wasn't a title contender and since he was with ART (former champions with Rosberg, Hamilton and Hulkenberg) it has to be called a disappointment. There are some in Sauber that think he's a bit eratic and needs a year as a third driver doing Friday mornings first, though it has to be said Kobayashi was less than steller in GP2 as well (he was 16th in his final year, though he won GP2 Asia).

Here's the drives for next year.

Red Bull: Vettel and Webber
Ferrari: Alonso and Massa
McLaren: Button and Perez
Lotus: Raikkonen and Grosjean*
Mercedes: Hamilton and Rosberg
Sauber: Hulkenberg and Gutierrez
Force India: Paul Di Resta* and TBC
Williams: Maldonado and Bottas
Torro Rosso: Vergne and Ricciardo
Caterham: Pic and TBC
Marussia: Glock and Max Chilton*
HRT: de la Rosa and TBC

Those with a star next to their names havent had their contracts confirmed but almost certainly will be. Those with TBC are the only genuinly free drives left. It looks like the FI seat is between Sutil, Algersuari and Kobayashi. I don't know about Caterham, money was going to be the deciding factor but since they secured 10th in the championship right at the death in Brazil who knows, Kovalainnen, Senna, Petrov and their GP2 driver Guido van der Garde (not really F1 capable IMO) are the names being talked about most.

If HRT are gone I doubt they'll be replaced, there's only a year left unitl a major rules change for 2014 so it wouldn't make sense for anyone to enter before then. 

To be honest, I view Petrov as being distinctly average, Kovalainen has overall been the better driver for Caterham this year.

Apparently some onboard camera footage from Vettels car shows him passing Vergne under yellow flags on lap 3 of the race and the FIA are considering whether to fully investigate. If they do and it's proven he did pass, then they'll have to give him a 25s penalty and that'll drop him to 8th, maybe 9th, and give Alonso the title. Apparently the main confusion is where the yellow flag zone ended as a marshal waving a green flag was ahead of the yellow flag board.

I think it's now official, HRT are gone as they have not made an entry into the 2013 season. The owners are apparently trying to pay off crediters so they can close the team down without debts.

sleeper wrote: I think it's now official, HRT are gone as they have not made an entry into the 2013 season. The owners are apparently trying to pay off crediters so they can close the team down without debts.

^ Agreed. Hopefully by the next year (2014) there will be a new team.

Gerinski wrote: sleeper wrote: I think it's now official, HRT are gone as they have not made an entry into the 2013 season. The owners are apparently trying to pay off crediters so they can close the team down without debts. The latest spanish news say that the team is still for sale and that the FIA told them that if some sound buyer would be found in the next few days they could still accept their inscription for 2013. However this seems unlikely, the most solid candidate would be a group of chinese investors who would promote the driver Ma Qing Hua who has done some test driving for the team this season, but the negotiations are ongoing for some time without success so it is unlikely that a deal could be closed in the coming days. As a spanish I can't help feeling sorry

I think Ma Qing Hua would be the sticking point, there's no way the FIA would give him a superlicence to race in F1, he was out of his depth in F3.