#2 Ferrari at Monza (Fisichella confirmed)

[noisebox]

Autosport's Jon Noble has tweeted Ferrari will make an announcement at 3:30, UK time. In an hour's time from this post, give or take.

R5 live have said it's between Fisi and a new emerging Brazillian - Roberto Kubica

[Paul Hayes]

It's Fisichella. Just dropped on the wires from PA.

Giancarlo Fisichella has joined Ferrari for the remainder of the 2009 season,
Force India have announced.

031452 SEP 09

[CarlosFerreira]

It's Fisichella. Just dropped on the wires from PA.

Giancarlo Fisichella has joined Ferrari for the remainder of the 2009 season,
Force India have announced.

031452 SEP 09

Noble's saying the same. Force India has spilled the beans. They really are faster than Ferrari...

[lostpin]

It's Fisichella. Just dropped on the wires from PA.

Giancarlo Fisichella has joined Ferrari for the remainder of the 2009 season,
Force India have announced.

031452 SEP 09

Noble's saying the same. Force India has spilled the beans. They really are faster than Ferrari...

Crap. I wanted so much to see Badoer at Monza...

[Nin13]

Giancarlo Fisichella will be the second Ferrari driver from the Italian Grand Prix after he was released from his contract by his Force India team on Thursday.

Following days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.

The team said that discussions with Ferrari began in the last 24 hours, once it became clear that Massa was out for the season. Force India owner Dr Vijay Mallya said: "Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari.

"For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this. Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo's long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardise this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India."

Force India is understood to have outstanding debts with Ferrari left over from its customer engine supply deal that ended last year - but Mallya said that commercial factors did not have a role in the outcome.

"We would like to stress that we have not agreed any financial settlement with Ferrari," he said. "This agreement has been made in good faith and for the good of Giancarlo and the sport in general. A competitive Italian driver in a Ferrari for Monza is a positive story for Formula 1, which can only help raise the sport's profile in these difficult times.

"We would like to thank Giancarlo for all his help over the past one and a half seasons and for delivering us our first World Championship points last weekend. He has been an integral part of the team and we owe him a great deal for his input behind the scenes and performance out on track. We wish him all the best for the future.

"For Force India, this sport is a team effort and removing one part, even a major one, will not significantly affect our performance. The competitiveness of the team seen in Belgium was a result of hard work in the factory and wind tunnel and we have further developments coming for the final races, so we are confident this momentum can be sustained. We are now looking forward to a strong finish to the season."

Force India has not made a decision who will drive alongside Adrian Sutil for the rest of the season, although it is expected that Vitantonio Liuzzi will step up from his test drive role.

From: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78280

[Warren Hughes]

Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo's long-term future with Ferrari

A Ferrari test role for Fisi next season then?

[lostpin]

Well, if nothing else, this means less work for Jamie and Enoch...

[Jack O Malley]

I'm very very happy for Fisico, this has been his dream for his entire career.
By the way, I am so sad for Badoer. I would have loved to see him in Monza.

[JDOD]

Good result for all concerned.

Badoer is saved further embarrasment (and a lynching by the tifosi)
Fisi achieves a dream
Liuzzi gets a proper chance at F1.
Vijay Mallya gets respect (and despite what was said, Ferrari will be off his back now)

[Nuppiz]

Good thing for Fisico, although my F1 reject side just had a breakdown because Badoer couldn't keep it up.

By the way, this has been a very interesting season in that it has featured a lot of driver changes. At the start of this season, the only difference to 2008 was Vettel moving up to RBR to replace Coulthard and Buemi coming in to STR. Now, we've already had five driver changes.

[noisebox]

Gald for Fisi, but also a little sad, I thought he had a real chance in the Force India at Monza. I hope Sutil picks up the mantle and gets a great result next week.

[Yannick]

So that's been decided then.

Thank you Luca Badoer for being the first driver with a profile on the f1rejects.com website to have made an attempt at getting his profile off of the site by making a comeback. We love you here on f1rejects.com, just like we love Ferrari for giving you that chance.

Well, I must say that I'm a bit partial to Ferrari's decision to hire Fisichella, as the Force 1ndia was clearly the faster car at Spa. So is Fisi going to battle with Sutil for the win at Monza now? We'll see.
Good luck to Fisico for the rest of the season on board of the Ferrari. Here's hoping that Fisi still has an option for a seat at Force 1ndia for next year when Massa will be back.

[CarlosFerreira]

So that's been decided then.

Thank you Luca Badoer for being the first driver with a profile on the f1rejects.com website to have made an attempt at getting his profile off of the site by making a comeback. We love you here on f1rejects.com, just like we love Ferrari for giving you that chance.

Well, I must say that I'm a bit partial to Ferrari's decision to hire Fisichella, as the Force 1ndia was clearly the faster car at Spa. So is Fisi going to battle with Sutil for the win at Monza now? We'll see.
Good luck to Fisico for the rest of the season on board of the Ferrari. Here's hoping that Fisi still has an option for a seat at Force 1ndia for next year when Massa will be back.

Nope, Sutil will be taken out by Raikkonen, giving Fisichella a clear run FTW.

[noisebox]

Good luck to Fisico for the rest of the season on board of the Ferrari. Here's hoping that Fisi still has an option for a seat at Force 1ndia for next year when Massa will be back.

From the tone of the press release from Force India it seems like he's gone for good.

[alejandro]

In an incredible move, Force India released Giancarlo Fisichella for him to join Ferrari for the rest of 2009.

There were rumours that FI were going to sack Fisico at the end of the year and the terms of the release remain undisclosed.

FI hasn't named who will be their driver for the last 5 races.

And I wonder what will be for Fisi to race together his most feared driver and the main character in his nightmares (remember Suzuka '05: OMG, here comes Kimi, Oh No!!!).

For the time being, Fisi's changing his name to GianJackpot Cindirella.

[shinji]

http://www.f1rejects.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=446&p=10668#p10668

Anyway, what? Gianjackpot Cinderella? I don't think he's motivated by money.

[ZsoltForever]

Luca Badoer was so distraught, he went to the Maranello commissary to have a bite to eat.

Unfortunately, he hit "launch" instead of "lunch". Here's a picture ...



That's Stefano Domenicali looking on. (I hope that isn't a U.S. only reference!)

[FullMetalJack]

Apparently Liuzzi is going to race for Force India for the remainder of the season, which is excellent, hopefully he can get a 5th place at Monza and escape rejectdom.

Good Luck Fisi.

[Henrique]

I hope to see Liuzzi back
Since Fisichella is Italian, he should bring great joy to the tifosi.

[TeamTipper]

Good On Fisichella and I hope he does well. How well will he do at Monza?

[watka]

Fisichella has also been confirmed as Ferrari's test driver next season, so it looks like Force India's driver line-up for 2010 will be Liuzzi and Sutil (unless Sutil gets an offer from McLaren).

[dragonsteincole]

So... wait, if Fisi is confirmed to be the test/reserve driver next year, then did Badoer get completely shafted? because I cant see in 2010 Ferrari having Fisi, Badoer AND Gene as their testing team, if testing regulations stay as they are.

[watka]

You would think so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU

[fjackdaw]

That's awfully sad, what a way to go out. But still, 38, it's pretty old for a driving role in F1.

[Jack O Malley]

Nope, Sutil will be taken out by Raikkonen, giving Fisichella a clear run FTW.

It would be awesome to have Sutil 1st and Fisi 2nd!!!

[captainhappy]

Rejoice all rejects, Luca belongs with us forever. After a couple of friggin BARRIES!

[Henrique]

I didn't expect Fisichella to become test driver, but I would expect Luca Badoer to leave. He proved to be useless for the role of reserve driver and there's no future in F1 for him in sight.

[IntegratorTypeR]

Nope, Sutil will be taken out by Raikkonen, giving Fisichella a clear run FTW.

Sutil is too quick to be in a lapped position and too sensible to be taking out a Ferrari at Monza. What we need is Force India to hire a perverbial Jean-Louis Schlesser, but it seems Renault have already signed a Frenchman as a mid-season replacement, so maybe it'll be Grosjean who makes a Ferrari 1-2 possible.

[Popi_Larrauri]

Rejoice all rejects, Luca belongs with us forever. After a couple of friggin BARRIES!

Give this man a pint!

[Debaser]

Grosjean to be Schelesser and allow a Ferrari 1-2? Nice thought, but I'm gunning for a Sutil win. And seeing as Fisi hasn't driven the Ferrari, I doubt he'll finish in the points. And yes, Badoer as increased is F1 Reject legend with his useless performances these last 2 races.

[jackanderton]

It was an achievement in itself that he managed to return to F1 given his dreadful luck in the 90's and having spent a decade out of the sport. That he managed to return to race for Ferrari in Formula 1 out of all teams is one of the most mind-boggling infinite improbabilities we have ever witnessed.

I'd have kept him for Monza just to see whether his improving form and his familiarity with the circuit made anything happen, but Raikkonen made that improved performance look like a joke at Spa.

Sad to see Fisichella probably ending his Formula 1 career with this switch considering he nearly won in a Force India, surely that should prove to him that he still has 'it', whatever 'it' may be.

[DemocalypseNow]

Don't rule out Fisi for next year at one of the new teams.
Ferrari wants to do what they did with Badoer in '99...having him continue racing for another team.