RIP Manor Racing (2010-2017)

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 06 Mar 2013, 12:43

Right then, some more positive news today as Marussia and lighting firm JCC extend a contract that was signed last year. Doesn't look like any expansion on the deal from before, but good news nonetheless!

http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/765/

cbbcisace · Post by **cbbcisace** » 13 Mar 2013, 17:55

@adrimancebo: Muy contento por el venezolano Rodolfo González, que va a ser tercer piloto del equipo Marussia esta temporada. //Very happy with the Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez, who will be third driver this season Marussia.

Post by **Ataxia** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:01

cbbcisace wrote:@adrimancebo: Muy contento por el venezolano Rodolfo González, que va a ser tercer piloto del equipo Marussia esta temporada. //Very happy with the Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez, who will be third driver this season Marussia.

Oh, lord no...

cbbcisace · Post by **cbbcisace** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:10

Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:
cbbcisace wrote:@adrimancebo: Muy contento por el venezolano Rodolfo González, que va a ser tercer piloto del equipo Marussia esta temporada. //Very happy with the Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez, who will be third driver this season Marussia.

Oh, lord no...

Money talks I guess!

Post by **Ataxia** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:26

cbbcisace wrote:
Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:
cbbcisace wrote:@adrimancebo: Muy contento por el venezolano Rodolfo González, que va a ser tercer piloto del equipo Marussia esta temporada. //Very happy with the Venezuelan Rodolfo Gonzalez, who will be third driver this season Marussia.

Oh, lord no...

Money talks I guess!

Yeah, but usually money's coupled with talent. Gonzalez has scored 10 points in 3 seasons of both GP2 and GP2 Asia. Enough said.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:30

Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:Yeah, but usually money's coupled with talent. Gonzalez has scored 10 points in 3 seasons of both GP2 and GP2 Asia. Enough said.

It is still only the third driver.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:43

DanielPT wrote:
Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:Yeah, but usually money's coupled with talent. Gonzalez has scored 10 points in 3 seasons of both GP2 and GP2 Asia. Enough said.

It is still only the third driver.

I'm personally waiting for it to be confirmed by the team, but yes it's only third driver. And for Virgin/Marussia, their list of third drivers has never really inspired much confidence. Razia, Parente and Soucek were involved in 2010, he-of-the-dodgy-neck Sakon Yamamoto got the nod in 2011, and last year Rio Haryanto was on the list alongside Chilton.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:57

AndreaModa wrote:
I'm personally waiting for it to be confirmed by the team, but yes it's only third driver. And for Virgin/Marussia, their list of third drivers has never really inspired much confidence. Razia, Parente and Soucek were involved in 2010, he-of-the-dodgy-neck Sakon Yamamoto got the nod in 2011, and last year Rio Haryanto was on the list alongside Chilton.

Parente didn't actually made it due to similar circumstances as Razia. Still, he won a couple of GP2 races and the FR3.5 championship in 2007 (a season that our pal Van der Garde was also contesting, as a certain Sebastian Vettel who may have fought until the end of that season had he not been busy with something else) so he has some talent. Soucek wasn't a race winner in GP2 but he ended up winning the F2 inaugural season against Wickens, which some consider very talented, so he wasn't hopeless either. The rest of it I agree with your assessment.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 13 Mar 2013, 18:59

DanielPT wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:I'm personally waiting for it to be confirmed by the team, but yes it's only third driver. And for Virgin/Marussia, their list of third drivers has never really inspired much confidence. Razia, Parente and Soucek were involved in 2010, he-of-the-dodgy-neck Sakon Yamamoto got the nod in 2011, and last year Rio Haryanto was on the list alongside Chilton.

Parente didn't actually made it due to similar circumstances as Razia. Still, he won a couple of GP2 races and the FR3.5 championship in 2007 (a season that our pal Van der Garde was also contesting, as a certain Sebastian Vettel who may have fought until the end of that season had he not been busy with something else) so he has some talent. Soucek wasn't a race winner in GP2 but he ended up winning the F2 inaugural season against Wickens, which some consider very talented, so he wasn't hopeless either. The rest of it I agree with your assessment.

Soucek was also 5 years older than the rest of the field when he won GP2, and a massive douche to boot.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 13 Mar 2013, 19:03

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:
DanielPT wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:I'm personally waiting for it to be confirmed by the team, but yes it's only third driver. And for Virgin/Marussia, their list of third drivers has never really inspired much confidence. Razia, Parente and Soucek were involved in 2010, he-of-the-dodgy-neck Sakon Yamamoto got the nod in 2011, and last year Rio Haryanto was on the list alongside Chilton.

Parente didn't actually made it due to similar circumstances as Razia. Still, he won a couple of GP2 races and the FR3.5 championship in 2007 (a season that our pal Van der Garde was also contesting, as a certain Sebastian Vettel who may have fought until the end of that season had he not been busy with something else) so he has some talent. Soucek wasn't a race winner in GP2 but he ended up winning the F2 inaugural season against Wickens, which some consider very talented, so he wasn't hopeless either. The rest of it I agree with your assessment.

Soucek was also 5 years older than the rest of the field when he won GP2, and a massive douche to boot.

Yeah, if I remember rightly he tried to sue the Virgin team in 2010 for dropping him or something. Suffice to say he didn't get far with that! :lol:

Post by **Ataxia** » 14 Mar 2013, 10:21

http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/782/

Confirmed, and he's getting FP1 sessions...lord help us.

I suppose they've got to recoup Razia's lost cash somehow.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 14 Mar 2013, 10:26

Yeah, I guess that's partly to do with it. I wonder if he'll have logos on the car? And which driver will he end up replacing? I can see the team favouring Chilton over Bianchi because he's come through the ranks and been there longer, but arguably Jules has the greater talent, so surely they wouldn't compromise that would they?

John Booth's quote is particularly cringeworthy, he expects Gonzalez to step up to the race drive if either Chilton or Bianchi are ruled out for whatever reason. I wouldn't be too comfortable with that, even counting in my support of the team.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 14 Mar 2013, 12:48

Along with Gonzalez as the new reserve driver, there's been a few other announcements from Marussia regarding sponsors.

Carbon Connect GmbH have come on board, helping the team to become carbon neutral. Not sure about any branding or logos so it must be quite a small deal.
http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/781/beyond-racing

And secondly, Armin Strom have extended their partnership with the team, so it looks like a bigger deal with more logos on the car, which is good news!
http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/780/extra-time

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 14 Mar 2013, 13:47

Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/782/

Confirmed, and he's getting FP1 sessions...lord help us.

I suppose they've got to recoup Razia's lost cash somehow.

At least Rodolfo Gonzalez actually won something in Formula 3, unlike a certain Frenchman...

Post by **Ataxia** » 14 Mar 2013, 14:25

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:
Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/782/

Confirmed, and he's getting FP1 sessions...lord help us.

I suppose they've got to recoup Razia's lost cash somehow.

At least Rodolfo Gonzalez actually won something in Formula 3, unlike a certain Frenchman...

If we're talking Formula 3, I believe a certain Frenchman won German Formula 3. All Gonzalez won was the "British National Class" which is just a bit of a loser prize.

In fact, according to Wikipedia the only race Gonzalez has actually won outside of karts is a Euroseries 3000 race (Auto GP). That's about as prestigious as the Turnip Prize.

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 14 Mar 2013, 14:33

Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:
Stramala [kostas22] wrote:
Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/782/

Confirmed, and he's getting FP1 sessions...lord help us.

I suppose they've got to recoup Razia's lost cash somehow.

At least Rodolfo Gonzalez actually won something in Formula 3, unlike a certain Frenchman...

If we're talking Formula 3, I believe a certain Frenchman won German Formula 3. All Gonzalez won was the "British National Class" which is just a bit of a loser prize.

In fact, according to Wikipedia the only race Gonzalez has actually won outside of karts is a Euroseries 3000 race (Auto GP). That's about as prestigious as the Turnip Prize.

Come on, Auto GP is F3-level, it's worth something.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 14 Mar 2013, 19:24

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Come on, Auto GP is F3-level, it's worth something.

I keep hoping that the champion of AutoGp will amount to something and I always get disappointed.
The only really talented drivers to compete there were Grosjean, who managed to miss 1/3rd of the season and still win the championship by a healthy margin and Luca Fillipi.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 15 Mar 2013, 05:07

That series was a joke before it was Auto GP. In my slightly biased opinion AQH is a great driver. He was really good on the most recent test day in GP2

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 15 Mar 2013, 16:33

eurobrun wrote:That series was a joke before it was Auto GP. In my slightly biased opinion AQH is a great driver. He was really good on the most recent test day in GP2

I see... So are you saying that he should forget all those other days, where he was placed 20th, 21st (out of 24), 19th (out of 22), 17th and 12th (out of 26) while being beaten by his team-mate in all but two of those days?

It was in the penultimate day that he was 3rd

Ferrim · Post by **Ferrim** » 15 Mar 2013, 19:33

Oh my. I can't remember a driver with a worse curriculum in lower formulae than what González has. Not since a long time, at least.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 15 Mar 2013, 19:43

We all have favourites here. Mine has been for the past 3 years Antonio Felix da Costa, for Ataxia it's Dillmann, for eurobrun it's Quaife-Hobbs, and presumably some others have one junior driver they expect to make the grade too. I wonder who out of all of us will get it right and have predicted the next young F1 champion before they made it big?

Before people suggest I'm bandwagon jumping on the back of his late season form in 2012 - first reference to AFdC being a world champion; 17 January 2010. Hopefully he doesn't end up in a Marussia, which would ruin that prediction entirely... :roll:

UncreativeUsername37 · Post by **UncreativeUsername37** » 15 Mar 2013, 19:59

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:We all have favourites here. Mine has been for the past 3 years Antonio Felix da Costa, for Ataxia it's Dillmann, for eurobrun it's Quaife-Hobbs, and presumably some others have one junior driver they expect to make the grade too. I wonder who out of all of us will get it right and have predicted the next young F1 champion before they made it big?

Before people suggest I'm bandwagon jumping on the back of his late season form in 2012 - first reference to AFdC being a world champion; 17 January 2010. Hopefully he doesn't end up in a Marussia, which would ruin that prediction entirely...

I've decided just now that I'm adopting Jack Hawksworth despite his move to the IndyCar ladder.

Post by **tommykl** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:01

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:We all have favourites here. Mine has been for the past 3 years Antonio Felix da Costa, for Ataxia it's Dillmann, for eurobrun it's Quaife-Hobbs, and presumably some others have one junior driver they expect to make the grade too. I wonder who out of all of us will get it right and have predicted the next young F1 champion before they made it big?

In my case, it's Stoffel Vandoorne. Just watch him boss everyone in FRenault 3.5 this year.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:03

I'm backing Robin Frijns and Robert Wickens myself.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:15

Frijns (the most local driver, and very talented) and Vandoorne, who is very promising.
It would be epic if we could have a 'battle of the low lands' in a title fight. To think of that, the last time a Dutch driver competed against a Belgian driver was 1994.

GwilymJJames · Post by **GwilymJJames** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:19

Ferrim wrote:Oh my. I can't remember a driver with a worse curriculum in lower formulae than what González has. Not since a long time, at least.

I'm sure we can think of some...

Ma Qing Hua?

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:30

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:We all have favourites here. Mine has been for the past 3 years Antonio Felix da Costa, for Ataxia it's Dillmann, for eurobrun it's Quaife-Hobbs, and presumably some others have one junior driver they expect to make the grade too. I wonder who out of all of us will get it right and have predicted the next young F1 champion before they made it big?

Before people suggest I'm bandwagon jumping on the back of his late season form in 2012 - first reference to AFdC being a world champion; 17 January 2010. Hopefully he doesn't end up in a Marussia, which would ruin that prediction entirely...

Indeed we have and for obvious reasons mine is Felix da Costa. But I am also backing Vandoorne and a certain Nyck de Vries who is supposedly following the footsteps of a certain Lewis Hamilton. But in relation to the latter I am waiting to see what he does in his second year of Eurocup FR2.0.

the Masked Lapwing · Post by **the Masked Lapwing** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:53

I'm backing Mitch Evans and Robin Frijns. Yes, Evans is a Kiwi, but he's a damn good one.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 15 Mar 2013, 20:56

SponsorWatch, as I'm now calling it, has revealed a few more things today for Marussia. Firstly, they announced a deal with Russian bookmaker Liga Stavok (no I hadn't heard of them either), which will presumably see logos go on the cars later this weekend or at Malaysia.
http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/784/

Secondly, there's a couple of small logos that have appeared down on the side of the car's nose, one confirming why Gonzalez was signed (small PDVSA logo) and another, A-Gas, which is a manufacturer of refrigerants and the like. They're based in Britain but seem to have quite a big presence in Australia too, and on top of there being no official announcement of the partnership, I suspect this might be just a one-race deal. They also have some logos up around the cockit, so it must be a fair bit of money involved. You can see them in this photo:

Also interesting to note the inclusion of Bifold on the side of the rear wing. They've always been on the nose but that's something new. Bigger deal maybe? QNet have disappeared from there at the same time, so they're just on the front wing now.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 15 Mar 2013, 23:48

DanielPT wrote:
eurobrun wrote:That series was a joke before it was Auto GP. In my slightly biased opinion AQH is a great driver. He was really good on the most recent test day in GP2

I see... So are you saying that he should forget all those other days, where he was placed 20th, 21st (out of 24), 19th (out of 22), 17th and 12th (out of 26) while being beaten by his team-mate in all but two of those days?

It was in the penultimate day that he was 3rd

Look at his results in the tests late last year when he was at decent teams. I am expecting him to get a few good results this year in GP2 and then challenge for the championship in 2014

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 16 Mar 2013, 04:32

tommykl wrote:In my case, it's Stoffel Vandoorne. Just watch him boss everyone in FRenault 3.5 this year.

Done some simracing against him. Don't like the guy at all, so he is a driver a I hope never comes to F1 (and with me hoping that, it's a 99.9% possibility that he does end up in F1)

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 16 Mar 2013, 07:04

eurobrun wrote:
DanielPT wrote:
eurobrun wrote:That series was a joke before it was Auto GP. In my slightly biased opinion AQH is a great driver. He was really good on the most recent test day in GP2

I see... So are you saying that he should forget all those other days, where he was placed 20th, 21st (out of 24), 19th (out of 22), 17th and 12th (out of 26) while being beaten by his team-mate in all but two of those days?

It was in the penultimate day that he was 3rd

Look at his results in the tests late last year when he was at decent teams. I am expecting him to get a few good results this year in GP2 and then challenge for the championship in 2014

We will see about it then. And although there are better teams than others in GP2, I remind that the cars are very much equal for everyone.

Syzygy · Post by **Syzygy** » 18 Mar 2013, 04:51

I'd like to give a shout-out to Bianchi's performance at Australia, 15th place and was 11th on fastest laps, only 0.045 seconds slower than Vettel's fastest lap. Not only that, but he looked like he could challenge the Williams all day.

I think this guy's going to take this team places.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 18 Mar 2013, 10:11

It was a very positive race for a lot of reasons. I do feel a bit sorry for Chilton because Bianchi has stolen the majority of the limelight. If Max hadn't had the contact with Van Der Garde at the beginning, which forced him in for a longer stop, I think both Marussias would have finished ahead of Caterham, but there we go.

madmark1974 · Post by **madmark1974** » 19 Mar 2013, 13:06

The Orange homepage has a story about Marussia, it's quite long but here's the first bit :

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/sports/marussia_baffled_over_delay

Marussia are baffled as to why they have yet to be shown a commercial agreement that ties them into the new Formula One season.

The remaining 10 teams have all signed deals with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone for this year that governs the financial arrangements.

That is despite the fact the latest campaign is being run without a new Concorde Agreement - the tri-partite commercial deal that ties up the teams, the FIA and commercial rights holder CVC - as the latter two parties have yet to finalise terms.

Banbury-based Marussia, however, are currently out on a limb because although they have a valid entry for this season, they stand to lose out if a deal is not signed.

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 19 Mar 2013, 14:59

AndreaModa wrote:It was a very positive race for a lot of reasons. I do feel a bit sorry for Chilton because Bianchi has stolen the majority of the limelight. If Max hadn't had the contact with Van Der Garde at the beginning, which forced him in for a longer stop, I think both Marussias would have finished ahead of Caterham, but there we go.

Good point, Chilton didn't disgrace himself by a long shot, but Bianchi stole all the headlines. I do hope teaming with Bianchi isn't going to ruin Chilton's reputation though, which could be a risk if Bianchi can put in performances like this on a regular basis.

CoopsII · Post by **CoopsII** » 19 Mar 2013, 15:13

AndreaModa wrote:It was a very positive race for a lot of reasons. I do feel a bit sorry for Chilton because Bianchi has stolen the majority of the limelight. If Max hadn't had the contact with Van Der Garde at the beginning, which forced him in for a longer stop, I think both Marussias would have finished ahead of Caterham, but there we go.

Bianchi was outstanding, much better than Id expected.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 19 Mar 2013, 15:21

redbulljack14 wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:It was a very positive race for a lot of reasons. I do feel a bit sorry for Chilton because Bianchi has stolen the majority of the limelight. If Max hadn't had the contact with Van Der Garde at the beginning, which forced him in for a longer stop, I think both Marussias would have finished ahead of Caterham, but there we go.

Good point, Chilton didn't disgrace himself by a long shot, but Bianchi stole all the headlines. I do hope teaming with Bianchi isn't going to ruin Chilton's reputation though, which could be a risk if Bianchi can put in performances like this on a regular basis.

Reputation? What reputation?

FullMetalJack · Post by **FullMetalJack** » 19 Mar 2013, 15:28

DanielPT wrote:
redbulljack14 wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:It was a very positive race for a lot of reasons. I do feel a bit sorry for Chilton because Bianchi has stolen the majority of the limelight. If Max hadn't had the contact with Van Der Garde at the beginning, which forced him in for a longer stop, I think both Marussias would have finished ahead of Caterham, but there we go.

Good point, Chilton didn't disgrace himself by a long shot, but Bianchi stole all the headlines. I do hope teaming with Bianchi isn't going to ruin Chilton's reputation though, which could be a risk if Bianchi can put in performances like this on a regular basis.

Reputation? What reputation?

I meant that he'd have a bad reputation if Bianchi was to repeat his performance on a regular basis. I worded it wrong.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 19 Mar 2013, 15:38

redbulljack14 wrote:I meant that he'd have a bad reputation if Bianchi was to repeat his performance on a regular basis. I worded it wrong.

Well, I think Max Chilton has really not much to lose there. He is in F1 after all and in an era when it is very hard for young drivers to make into. Most people already think that Bianchi is better than him and as long he doesn't disgraces himself he should be fine. And if he manages that and neat pack of money he is very much in line to keep his place in F1. Everything more than this is a big bonus and a big improvement in his season preview prospects. Don't forget that Marussia never had a driver in their second seat for more than a year. The only one to really make it was Charles Pic and he decided to move to Caterham probably thinking they were better. How ironic...