Grand Prix Rejects

Since Jos Verstappen and some failed attempts of Kwalbers, Doornbos HoPingtongtjang tung and Nicky Pastorelli, Van der Garde finally arrived.

Giedo van der Garde maakt over twee maanden in het Australische Melbourne zijn debuut in de Formule 1. De Nederlander heeft een deal getekend bij Caterham, waar hij dit jaar de teamgenoot zal zijn van de Fransman Charles Pic.

Het contract wordt later vandaag bekendgemaakt tijdens een persconferentie in Amsterdam. Van der Garde was vorig jaar nog test- en reservecoureur bij het team en mocht tijdens zes vrije trainingen vast wat ervaringen opdoen tijdens een Grand Prix-weekend. De coureur uit Veenendaal was vorig jaar ook voor het vierde seizoen op rij actief in de GP2, de belangrijkste opstapklasse naar de Formule 1, en wist daarin twee zeges te boeken en zesde te worden in het kampioenschap.

De bekendmaking van Van der Garde betekent dat Caterham dit jaar met twee relatief onervaren coureurs aan de start verschijnt. De World Series by Renault-kampioen van 2008 krijgt namelijk Charles Pic als teamgenoot, met wie hij eerder samen in de GP2 reed. De Fransman rijdt dit jaar zijn tweede seizoen in de koningsklasse van de autosport, na vorig jaar zijn debuut te hebben gemaakt bij Marussia.

http://www.gpupdate.net/nl/f1-nieuws/28 ... formule-1/
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2899 ... caterham/|

Finally a Dutchman in the Formula 1
Me so happy, nextyear also Frijns in the F1 believe me.

Not sure if I should laugh uncontrollably or throw my computer across the room, terrible move from Caterham

It is a pathetic move from Caterham. Together with Razia and Chilton, it just shows that talent has no further place at the back of the grid. Only cash. Which can only be good news reject-wise!

Queens Park Racing

DanielPT wrote:It is a pathetic move from Caterham. Together with Razia and Chilton, it just shows that talent has no further place at the back of the grid. Only cash. Which can only be good news reject-wise!

Glancing through his stats on wikipedia it looks like hes had a middling career so far, some decent results and some not so much so theres a bit of talent knocking about. Lets give him a chance

Outstanding Rejectfulness!

Well, at least he knows his way around at Leafield, having been there during his days (or should I say: day) as a SuperAguri reserve driver.

It's sad to have witnessed pay drivers getting more seats each season for a few years now. Caterham clearly is not the same anymore with A bit of Bull (quote: eytl) now in charge.

It should be obvious I'm not a fan of the guy from the Netherlands who did not pay up his SuperAguri contract and then drove the Force 1ndia the very next day, pretending he had never even been presented as the 3rd driver of SuperAguri.

Caterham has been my favourite of the "new" teams even though I quite like Glock. One of those things might have changed now.

Looking at the grid, I wonder who is left for me to cheer for, given so many great drivers have left the series

Surprisingly, I find a pretty obvious answer: Here's to the 2013 WDC campaign of Sergio Perez!

Yannick wrote:Looking at the grid, I wonder who is left for me to cheer for, given so many great drivers have left the series

Surprisingly, I find a pretty obvious answer: Here's to the 2013 WDC campaign of Sergio Perez!

Cheers, then!

AndreaModa wrote:

GwilymJJames wrote:Razia in at Marussia.

NOOOOOOOOO! (Darth Vader-style)

I see it's been confirmed on a few Portuguese-language sites, with an official announcement set for tomorrow (Friday) apparently.

Ah well, best of luck Marussia, at least you'll have the cash to finish the season.

It looks like Razia has slightly jumped the gun, as he appears to have made the announcement that he'll drive on his website before the team has had its chance to make the announcement.

However, speaking of announcements, Force India have now announced that they are pushing back the date by which they'll decide on their second driver - they have now said that they are putting the matter to their shareholders (with the two contenders seemingly being Bianchi and Sutil) and hope to have a decision before the second test session, rather than, as had originally been announced, before the upcoming session in Jerez. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/02/01/f ... barcelona/

"Let's let a bunch of people with no idea of how to run an F1 team, and no real knowledge of good driver attributes pick who should drive for the team. Yeah that's a great idea, what could possibly go wrong there?"

This tells me the decision will be down entirely to financial benefits. Otherwise it would be like asking a child to compare interest rates and pick which bank to get a mortgage with.

AndreaModa wrote:"Let's let a bunch of people with no idea of how to run an F1 team, and no real knowledge of good driver attributes pick who should drive for the team. Yeah that's a great idea, what could possibly go wrong there?"

This tells me the decision will be down entirely to financial benefits. Otherwise it would be like asking a child to compare interest rates and pick which bank to get a mortgage with.

Isn't Force India a private limited company though? In that instance, most of the shareholders are probably business partners (like the Sahara Group) and senior directors and would already have a fairly intimate working knowledge of the team. I wouldn't necessarily say that financial benefits are the sole governing matter either - if it was, Sutil probably wouldn't have had any chance at all given that the amount of money he can raise is pretty limited (if anything, they'd probably have to pay him rather than the other way around).

If GvdG actually signs, this means that Pic will possibly single handedly be the best of the new teams' drivers, especially that we have possibly Razia and Chilton to enter F1.

So we'll have three rookies at the back of the grid, and Pic will have to lead the development of Caterham, if this happens. He'll suddenly be thrown into deep water, and I fear this could backfire later on in the season. Development-wise this is definitely not a good move. They should have kept Petrov, because he has had three seasons by now, and he'd probably give more valuable feedback than vdG.

Edit: does f_e_e_d_b_a_c_k actually change into "Bathplug"? Oh good lord.

To be fair, had HRT survived, they would still have de la Rosa, at least maintaing the illusion that the new teams were interested in using experience to help them crawl up the grid.

Chilton/Razia is the new Montermini/Lavaggi...

Shizuka wrote:Edit: does f_e_e_d_b_a_c_k actually change into "Bathplug"? Oh good lord.

This has been going for a few days. Once I tried to type the term "fully black" with a dash between the words in F1RMGP WEC thread and it became Bathplug too. It seems anything that starts with F and ends with ck are automatically changed to Bathplug, even in legitimate cases aforementioned. I already mailed Jenoch about this one.

Also, should this be on silly season thread?

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:Chilton/Razia is the new Montermini/Lavaggi...

Bah! Now you've said that my support for them has just multiplied exponentially

I was almost certain that he would be the Dutch version of Gary Paffett - connected to F1 for over a decade yet never getting a race seat.

It does make sense if he is signed, it gives them a good cash boost and he has already been in the team for a while as a test driver.

FMecha wrote:This has been going for a few days. Once I tried to type the term "fully black" with a dash between the words in F1RMGP WEC thread and it became Bathplug too. It seems anything that starts with F and ends with ck are automatically changed to Bathplug, even in legitimate cases aforementioned. I already mailed Jenoch about this one.

Oh dear, it's happened again. These guys don't really understand how the forum software works do they? They've clearly used a wildcard (*) in their swear filter, which isn't really a good idea for censoring things, but better for running searches. I wonder what happens if I type in Scunthorpe United?

OK, so there's no wildcard on either side of the word that's bad and begins with C that you probably all know. Still though, silly silly mistake to be making...

So - GP2 3rd, 4th, 6th and probably 2nd all in F1 next season. But not the champion.

VdG-to-Caterham news now merged with the silly season thread.

Whole Russia has something to say about it...

GVdG was one of Spykers test drivers in 2007 IIRC

I can't see either of the two tail-end teams ever graduating into the midfield if they keep having to pick pay drivers.

If senna gets the FI seat this will be the most rejectful silly season of all history.

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:Oh dear, it's happened again. These guys don't really understand how the forum software works do they? They've clearly used a wildcard (*) in their swear filter, which isn't really a good idea for censoring things, but better for running searches. I wonder what happens if I type in Scunthorpe United?

OK, so there's no wildcard on either side of the word that's bad and begins with C that you probably all know. Still though, silly silly mistake to be making...

What about firetruck?

It's a shame that the new teams now have 4 drivers who are considered "pay drivers", as it shows how far, financially at least, they are from the 9 "old" teams. Also, the non-paying drivers, like Kovalainen and Glock, aren't likely to see the cockpit of an F1 car again.

Edit-It would seem firetruc with a "k" on the end isn't liked either.

At least Caterham has given me a reason to hate them again, because they've kicked Petrov out of F1. Unless he gets the Force India (doubtful), I don't think he'll be back in F1 any time soon. ;[

GwilymJJames wrote:So - GP2 3rd, 4th, 6th and probably 2nd all in F1 next season. But not the champion.

Valsecchi is kind of in F1, albeit as a test driver rather than a front line driver - whether he will actually have the opportunity to do anything meaningful is another matter (at least Force India have let their reserve driver take part in multiple free practise sessions - that is one of the few teams where being a reserve driver actually has some meaning).

Dj_bereta wrote:If senna gets the FI seat this will be the most rejectful silly season of all history.

At the moment, that looks unlikely - Bruno seems to have written off any chance of staying in F1 for 2013 quite some time ago, and as far as I am aware neither he nor Force India have made any moves towards talks betwixt themselves.

James1978 wrote:I can't see either of the two tail-end teams ever graduating into the midfield if they keep having to pick pay drivers.

I think that there is a certain amount of necessary cynicism from the tail end teams about these deals - given that the main limiting factor for their success is the car rather than the driver, realistically it is probably easier to try to get an extra $10-15 million from your drivers and concentrate your efforts on the car instead. If, say, you reckon that Kovalainen would be around 0.3s a lap faster than van der Garde (as an example), but van der Garde brings in additional funding that helps unlock 0.5s a lap additional performance from your car, the team gets a greater benefit from having a pay driver than an experienced driver.

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:To be fair, had HRT survived, they would still have de la Rosa, at least maintaing the illusion that the new teams were interested in using experience to help them crawl up the grid.

Not really, I fear. If HRT had survived they would have gone for another pay-driver, because their financial situation was as bad as Marussia's and Caterham's. Yeah, DLR had another year signed - but that was back when Thesan Capital seemed to believe that they could make money out of selling a F1 team with no assets.

mario wrote:

Cynon wrote:At least Razia can stop taking up space in all the various junior categories and get his shot in F1. As far as I'm concerned it's a win-win for this forum. If he sucks, then that's fantastic, another reject pay driver, and if he does pretty well, then he can be the champion of the underdog teams.

I think he'd be better suited to the second Caterham and Vitaly Petrov getting the Marussia seat, but good to see that Razia has made it to F1.

Valsecchi, as far as I'm concerned, is another awesome surname that should be in F1. I think he's hoping Grosjean blows his chance with Lotus and is out of F1/that team so he can take the seat alongside Raikkonen, because Force India doesn't look like a good career choice at the present. In other words, I think he's doing a Hulkenberg, and hoping to sit on the sidelines and take his chance in a better car instead of wasting his time in a crap car.

Kovalainen (before midway through 2012) and to a lesser extent Glock have shown that trying to be a hero in a bad team is not exactly viable in this day and age unless you have a fair bit of cash with you so you can take that cash to another team.

So IMO, Valsecchi is taking the best chance he has of landing a good ride.

It is a bit risky to gamble on Grosjean's form continuing to be poor, though, given the training that Grosjean has been doing in the off season (hiring a sports psychologist in late 2012 to change his approach, which seems to be working) - added to that, Grosjean does bring fairly sponsorship to the team (Total), so although his shunts may be costly, that cost is being offset by money from elsewhere. Equally, I am not sure that Lotus would automatically reach for Valsecchi if they chose to kick Grosjean out - given that the team does seem to be stabilising now in terms of performance and money, it is plausible that they might turn to a more experienced driver to take over Grosjean's seat rather than a rookie.

Valsecchi is third driver,but D'Ambrosio is still official reserve driver. What that means in reality is not clear.

This wrote:Valsecchi is third driver,but D'Ambrosio is still official reserve driver. What that means in reality is not clear.

If I understood correctly, Valsecchi is basically first in line if a replacement is needed (in spite of D'Ambrosio's title). I think they would do what McLaren did in 2005 if they needed a reserve for more than one race, i.e. Valsecchi for one race, D'Ambrosio for the next etc.

Meatwad wrote:

This wrote:Valsecchi is third driver,but D'Ambrosio is still official reserve driver. What that means in reality is not clear.

If I understood correctly, Valsecchi is basically first in line if a replacement is needed (in spite of D'Ambrosio's title). I think they would do what McLaren did in 2005 if they needed a reserve for more than one race, i.e. Valsecchi for one race, D'Ambrosio for the next etc.

I think it means they will use D'Ambrosio for unforeseen circumstances (like Kimi getting sick, or Grosjean getting a race-ban again) and Valsecchi for foreseen circumstances (like Grosjean being dumped or Kimi being bored and leaving)

Ferrim wrote:Not really, I fear. If HRT had survived they would have gone for another pay-driver, because their financial situation was as bad as Marussia's and Caterham's. Yeah, DLR had another year signed - but that was back when Thesan Capital seemed to believe that they could make money out of selling a F1 team with no assets.

Ma Qing Hua? He, in my opinion would've been the new Alex Yoong.

Even though we don't appreciate very much all these lacklustre newcomers from GP2, there is no comparison between them and, say, a driver that spends three years in Formula 3000 to score only two points (Mazzacane) or a driver that simply had no relevant career prior to his F1 outing (Yoong). All in all, we have to settle for the fact even the tail of the grid nowadays isn't the disaster we think at first.

As Marussia launch their car tomorrow, I have a feeling that Razia will be confirmed as well...

roblomas52 wrote: DI RESTA LEAKS NEWS THAT SENNA HAS SIGHNED AT FORCE INDIA VIA TWTTER

I thought this had already been debunked? At least I hope it was...

roblomas52 wrote: DI RESTA LEAKS NEWS THAT SENNA HAS SIGHNED AT FORCE INDIA VIA TWTTER

No, he hasn't done anything of the sort - it has been confirmed that the supposed screenshot of Di Resta's Twitter profile with a message welcoming Bruno is in fact a fake that was created by a Brazilian motorsport fan looking to stir up headlines.

mario wrote:

roblomas52 wrote: DI RESTA LEAKS NEWS THAT SENNA HAS SIGHNED AT FORCE INDIA VIA TWTTER

No, he hasn't done anything of the sort - it has been confirmed that the supposed screenshot of Di Resta's Twitter profile with a message welcoming Bruno is in fact a fake that was created by a Brazilian motorsport fan looking to stir up headlines.

And speaking of which roblomas, can you please stop writing important things in 200 font size and all-caps?

Vitaly Petrov's manager has some amusing words for F1 as a whole. Definitely three di Restas.

Cynon wrote:Vitaly Petrov's manager has some amusing words for F1 as a whole. Definitely three di Restas.

She's got a point though...I like Petrov, and think he deserves a go in at least a car like a Force India or a Williams. But...that's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.