F1000X wrote:BigG80 wrote: What now for Lucas DiGrassi? Should Eytl be preparing his profile for the site or will a few years scratching around in reserve roles, sports cars or something see him back in the paddock?
Start writing it, I think the move to Virgin was his first and last drive. Unless he pulls out a miracle testing role (which under current testing rules is now basically worthless) he's just finished.
A little aside: In light of the current testing rules, I think the big teams should take all their reserve drivers and put them in GP2 seats (sucks for the younger drivers, but oh well) to keep their skills sharp, in case one of the race drivers gets hurt. For example, what if Luca Badoer had spent half a season RACING in GP2 when he was asked to sub in for Massa. Might he have done better? When was the last time he'd actually run an F1 car (not in a straight line) at speed? March? People may disagree with me on this, but I think thats why putting Roman Grosjean in Piquet's seat last year actually made sense at that time.
Does anyone know what it is reserve drivers do during the season at this point? Are they in karts on a daily basis?
Hmm, I suspect that you are right - by failing to match Glock, he didn't enhance his reputation significantly, and his crash at 130R in Suzuka during the warm up lap, whether due to him or the car hurt what little reputation he had left badly (even if it was mechanical, the idea that it was driver error has already been engrained into the minds of all). So, unless he can gather together a significant amount of sponsorship, he is unlikely to find a way back into the sport, at least for the short term.
As for the comments about what the test drivers do, you are right that a number of the current test drivers really spend very little time in the seat in F1, thanks to the ban on testing. OK, some, like Di Resta, were allowed to take part in practise sessions, but he was more of an exception (mainly because Force India may be thinking of giving him a race seat).
Not all reserve drivers do nothing, but most who do race have to do so outside of open wheeler series - Paffett keeps his skills sharp over in DTM, where Di Resta also plies his trade. Bianchi is still focussed on GP2, where he is getting his practise, and I am sure that Gutierrez will either drive in GP2 again or possibly take a step up to GP2 or Formula 2, and Razia, I believe, will stay in GP2 for 2011. Then there is Ricciardo, who will be driving during the first practise session of each race weekend down at Toro Rosso, whilst taking part in the Formula Renault 3.5 series.
And that, for the moment, is about all I can tell for what the reserve drivers do outside of Formula 1 to keep their skills sharp - because quite a few teams are still to announce who their reserve driver is. As we know, Heidfeld left Mercedes GP for Sauber, and has yet to be replaced, and Renault will probably wait until Petrov makes his announcement before they announce their reserve driver. Team Lotus haven't yet announced who will replace Fauzy, now that he is chasing up race seats elsewhere, and naturally we have no idea if HRT will even exist next year, let alone who will drive for them.
