Grand Prix Rejects

mario wrote:Rossi's situation was slightly more complex than that - he chose to stick with No. 46 on his bike, but did use No. 1 on his racing suit (as you can see here, it is on the shoulders of his suit).


The way that the rules are written for F1, it seems that it would have to be one or the other, whereas Rossi effectively wore both numbers (albeit making No. 46 the more prominent of the two). I agree that there might be some drivers who might decline for personal reasons if they did become champion, but it would be unusual - not many other riders have done that in MotoGP, I believe, and there the tradition of having a fixed number of much more recent than in F1.
I suppose that, in time, if a driver became strongly associated with a certain number, like Mansell did with No. 5, then there might be a driver who did decline - that said, that would probably only be the case if a driver either thought it was commercially profitable not to change number or, as in the case of Rossi, had a particularly strong personal reason for not wanting to change.

It's interesting to note, however, that in IndyCar, it is rare for the champion to go for number 1, with Ryan Hunter-Ray being the only recent exception. I'm not sure why that is.

I suppose it's because that all recent Indycar champs bar Hunter-Reay were Ganassi drivers and they have their fixation with their long time numbers 9 and 10.

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It's been a surprisingly quiet off-season indeed mario....given that we're entering a new era in F1, would have expected much more talk and rumours about the new cars and engines by now.

More a case of having nothing to talk about, No new teams, No teams leaving (unless you count pretty baseless rumours about Lotus), no drivers have really done anything out of the ordinary, not even a car launch yet. All ive heard is that Sauber have homologated there chassis and thats it. Hell the only interesting things have been numbers and double points.

Basetornado wrote:More a case of having nothing to talk about, No new teams, No teams leaving (unless you count pretty baseless rumours about Lotus), no drivers have really done anything out of the ordinary, not even a car launch yet. All ive heard is that Sauber have homologated there chassis and thats it. Hell the only interesting things have been numbers and double points.

...And even the unfortunate Schumacher news. And even that thread has gone slightly off-topic, talking about newspapers over the past day or so...

Are we going to see more of ChiltonCraze in 2014?

I'm pretty sure the general chit-chat for pre-season will get better once we start to see launch dates and secret photos. give it time.

AdrianSutil wrote:I'm pretty sure the general chit-chat for pre-season will get better once we start to see launch dates and secret photos. give it time.

We have a lot to look forward too in the next few weeks.

Car launches, driver numbers and the revelation of a Marrussia driver and the Caterham drivers.

Shadaza wrote:We have a lot to look forward too in the next few weeks.

Car launches, driver numbers and the revelation of a Marrussia driver and the Caterham drivers.

Let the Marussia seat go to Maxi pls. Anyway, what I'm looking forward to about the new cars is if whether or not any teams have Brawn BGP001 style noses. It would be a disgrace if none of the teams do this.

Basetornado wrote:More a case of having nothing to talk about, No new teams, No teams leaving (unless you count pretty baseless rumours about Lotus), no drivers have really done anything out of the ordinary, not even a car launch yet. All ive heard is that Sauber have homologated there chassis and thats it. Hell the only interesting things have been numbers and double points.

That is certainly true, but that is what is so odd about the situation in some ways - as giraurd points out, we would normally expect to have seen something about the intentions of the teams for testing by now, even if it was something as simple as a team confirming that they've passed the crash tests (you have to presume that they've all managed to do so, but only Caterham and Sauber have confirmed anything on that point - and out of those two teams, only Caterham has produced any shots of their new chassis).

After all, given the changes in the regulations that are occurring, you might have expected, for example, some of the manufacturers to have announced new technical partnerships with companies like BorgWarner or Honeywell, both of whom have divisions that specialise in designing turbochargers. Similarly, you'd have expected to have heard something from the teams about launch dates, new sponsors - particularly for McLaren given that they have a new title sponsor in the works - or even just the occasional comment from the drivers about their training preparations for 2014.
Even the majority of Pirelli's test session in Bahrain, save the flurry of activity around Rosberg's tyre failure, has passed more or less unremarked upon - which is a touch surprising given Pirelli could have pointed out that only one tyre failure was recorded in the thousands of km that were racked up in that test.

AdrianSutil is right that, once we finally start seeing the cars in action and reports start coming through, things may start picking up - it just seems odd, given the sizeable change in regulations and rationale of the sport, that we're more or less sliding into the first test session with a substantially revised grid and shift in technical regulations with so few comments.

good_ralf wrote:Let the Marussia seat go to Maxi pls. Anyway, what I'm looking forward to about the new cars is if whether or not any teams have Brawn BGP001 style noses. It would be a disgrace if none of the teams do this.

You're likely to be rather disappointed then - whilst it seems that the FIA wanted the noses to be shaped like the BGP001 to reduce the chances of cars being thrown up into the air, it looks like what we are actually likely to get will be a much more ungainly creation. Craig Scarborough reckoned that we might see noses that look more like this:

i.e. the teams will undercut as much as possible to maximise the airflow beneath the nosecose, but retain a small section that drops down to meet the FIA's restrictions on the height of the tip of the nosecone. Of course, Craig Scarborough's interpretation does depend on the teams being able to meet the front crash test with that sort of design, though a clip that Caterham released of their crash test suggests that they might have gone down such a route with their car.

good_Ralf wrote:Let the Marussia seat go to Maxi pls.

Meh. Would rather Giedo van der God got the seat if it meant he stayed in F1. Or, to be honest, anyone else. Max Chilton is the new glass of milk.

mario wrote: only Caterham has produced any shots of their new chassis

There were shots of the Sauber chassis for Adrian Sutil's seat fitting, but they were too closely cropped to see anything.

mario wrote:Even the majority of Pirelli's test session in Bahrain, save the flurry of activity around Rosberg's tyre failure, has passed more or less unremarked upon - which is a touch surprising given Pirelli could have pointed out that only one tyre failure was recorded in the thousands of km that were racked up in that test.

Both sides think the failure rate supports them.

"Pirelli had a tyre failure at the Bahrain test"
"Out of the thousands of kilometres of testing, there was only one tyre failure"

Backmarker wrote:

good_Ralf wrote:Let the Marussia seat go to Maxi pls.

Meh. Would rather Giedo van der God got the seat if it meant he stayed in F1. Or, to be honest, anyone else. Max Chilton is the new glass of milk.[/quote]

How is max the new GOM

TBH I don't really care who gets the Caterham or Marussia seats- Bianchi will thrash them anyway and they will go around slowly at the back with the Toro Rosso's (I think its certain that they won't really move forward)

rachel1990 wrote:TBH I don't really care who gets the Caterham or Marussia seats- Bianchi will thrash them anyway and they will go around slowly at the back with the Toro Rosso's (I think its certain that they won't really move forward)

You know what forum this is, right?

Ataxia wrote:

rachel1990 wrote:TBH I don't really care who gets the Caterham or Marussia seats- Bianchi will thrash them anyway and they will go around slowly at the back with the Toro Rosso's (I think its certain that they won't really move forward)

You know what forum this is, right?

This. The Autosport forums were at the previous junction you know.

Ataxia wrote:

rachel1990 wrote:TBH I don't really care who gets the Caterham or Marussia seats- Bianchi will thrash them anyway and they will go around slowly at the back with the Toro Rosso's (I think its certain that they won't really move forward)

You know what forum this is, right?

As someone who wants GVDG to stay on the grid I am insulted Miss Rachel

Let's speculate as to who could get the Marussia 2nd seat:

1. Max Chilton - Did a good enough job keeping it on the road last season, which meant that Marussia at least saved on repair bills. Showed some signs of improving his pace over the season, but still dead slow. Also apparently has less money to call upon following his dad's departure from Aon. Has the TALENT factor on his side however.

2. Giedo van der Garde - Surprised everyone last year but not being a complete doughnut. Showed flashes of pace, getting into Q3. Brings a not inconsiderable pot of cash from Macgregor and a few other sponsors, possibly more than Chilton. Dare I say that he is the logical choice for the seat.

3. Vitaly Petrov - The team are (supposedly) Russian. Hmm, what Russian can we think of that's reasonably fast that has some cash?

4. Mikhail Aleshin - Remember me? I'm Russian too?

5. Sergei Sirotkin - The mysterious Russian backers could get annoyed that their boy isn't racing and take their cash elsewhere. I say "cash" in a purely theoretical sense. It would never appear and Marussia would go bust.

6. Luiz Razia - Hey wait! I found a few million down the back of the sofa!

7. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs - British, thoroughly average, has tested for Marussia before, posh sounding guy. Would anyone notice if he replaced Chilton? Probably the lack of talent would give it away.

8. Rodolfo Gonzalez - God no (or God yes for reject fans!), he'd make Maldonado look like Nuvolari.

9. Tio Ellinas - Because of course the Greeks have loads of money to throw around right now.

10. Lucas di Grassi - Formula E might be too fast for him, he'll find the Marussia more comfortable in terms of speed.

11. Vladimir Putin - Because sod it, he's the sort of politician who would nationalise the team and believe that if you want a job done properly, do it yourself.

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:How is max the new GOM

British dullard who gets inordinate amounts of coverage on media as a result of his nationality. But not even as good a driver as Glass of Milk. Half-empty Glass of Milk.

watka wrote:4. Mikhail Aleshin - Remember me? I'm Russian too?

We can already rule Aleshin out - he's signed to drive alongside Simon Pagenaud at Sam Schmidt in IndyCar.

Hey your forgetting Johhny Ceccotto Jnr. Although I think Marussia would run out of Chassis pretty quickly.

No mention of Robert Wickens anywhere??

Aerospeed wrote:No mention of Robert Wickens anywhere??

Because there's no reason he'd get a seat.

Putin. You know you'd watch.

And on the subject of IndyCar #1, i haven't followed for a long time but there used to be a tradition of bad luck associated with that number. Rarely would a reigning champion with the #1 have a good year. Form and luck seem to desert those with #1, it's as if it's slightly cursed. Then again it may be the fact that numbers are more associated with cars and/or drivers in the States.

As long as Giedo van der Garde gets a race seat in F1, I'm happy.

iirc Petrov has the conflict that he's backed by Lada, which is a competitor for Marussia, thus they aren't considering each other.

I can't take Adrian Quaife-Hobbs seriously. His name reminds me too much of that queefing episode of South Park with the sisters who take over Terence and Philip's TV Show.

For some reason Simon Trummer's name always makes me laugh too but that is far more tenuous innuendo-ing.

GVDG for the drive I hope.

I think the reason we are not getting much news is that everybody is trying to hide their hand. I also think that not much will be revealed in Spain either. They will be testing internals and engines, get to know tyres etc. but probably keep the "killer aps" at home as 20 days is a long time to copy anything revolutionary to at least some capacity. Bahrain is where we could see some cars close o race trim. The Lotus engine deal should obviously come before 28th but all the other big news can drag on. The first test at least could be used to evaluate drivers by Caterham and Marussia, the McLaren deal will come sooner or later. It could be Honda, we have already seen a BMW-Sauber Ferrari. Or an interim sponsor... Or something huge, like... like Google and we get to have a horribly hillarious primary coloured livery. But looking at the McLaren image it will be Apple and the official name will be iMacLaren from now on.

Rusujuur wrote:...the McLaren deal will come sooner or later. It could be Honda, we have already seen a BMW-Sauber Ferrari. Or an interim sponsor... Or something huge, like... like Google and we get to have a horribly hillarious primary coloured livery. But looking at the McLaren image it will be Apple and the official name will be iMacLaren from now on.

Don't give Whitmarsh ideas. McLaren are already embarrassing enough as it is

dr-baker wrote:It's interesting to note, however, that in IndyCar, it is rare for the champion to go for number 1, with Ryan Hunter-Ray being the only recent exception. I'm not sure why that is.

I think a lot of drivers who've used the #1 car haven't been very successful (Scott Dixon in 2004 is the one that springs to mind).

Sublime_FA11C wrote:Putin. You know you'd watch.

And on the subject of IndyCar #1, i haven't followed for a long time but there used to be a tradition of bad luck associated with that number. Rarely would a reigning champion with the #1 have a good year. Form and luck seem to desert those with #1, it's as if it's slightly cursed. Then again it may be the fact that numbers are more associated with cars and/or drivers in the States.

It's more that numbers are associated with the cars in the States. Target didn't want to change from #10 to #1 when Dario was winning the title, and previously, Panther Racing didn't want to change from #4 to #1 either. Scott Dixon's 2004 IRL campaign, when he switched to #1, was a disaster.

BigG80 wrote:I can't take Adrian Quaife-Hobbs seriously. His name reminds me too much of that queefing episode of South Park with the sisters who take over Terence and Philip's TV Show.

I'm not the only one who thought about that, then!

watka wrote:11. Vladimir Putin - Because sod it, he's the sort of politician who would nationalise the team and believe that if you want a job done properly, do it yourself.

12. Don Pentecost - The (future) oldest driver and world champion in F1. He won't let a rich Russian guy take those records, they belong to an American blue collar worker like him. Also tougher than any other driver on this list.

I think Chilton will stay. As for Caterham, Finnish co-commentator Erkki Mustakari has claimed that Kobayashi will almost certainly drive for them next year. Sadly, many of his predictions have turned out to be wrong.

Im expecting Fangio to be brought up as the next Marussia or Caterham driver considering the amount of drivers that have been linked to it.

Meatwad wrote:I think Chilton will stay. As for Caterham, Finnish co-commentator Erkki Mustakari has claimed that Kobayashi will almost certainly drive for them next year. Sadly, many of his predictions have turned out to be wrong.

Eddie Jordan has said van der Garde and Ericsson will drive for Caterham, so there you have it.

And in News I only just found out but others have already proberly written about or knew, apparently the new Ferrari will have its name chosen by Online poll.
Any suggestions?

Basetornado wrote:And in News I only just found out but others have already proberly written about or knew, apparently the new Ferrari will have its name chosen by Online poll.
Any suggestions?

Wouldn't it be hilarious if people all went and voted to call it the MP4/29?

Rusujuur wrote:I think the reason we are not getting much news is that everybody is trying to hide their hand. I also think that not much will be revealed in Spain either. They will be testing internals and engines, get to know tyres etc. but probably keep the "killer aps" at home as 20 days is a long time to copy anything revolutionary to at least some capacity. Bahrain is where we could see some cars close o race trim. The Lotus engine deal should obviously come before 28th but all the other big news can drag on. The first test at least could be used to evaluate drivers by Caterham and Marussia, the McLaren deal will come sooner or later. It could be Honda, we have already seen a BMW-Sauber Ferrari. Or an interim sponsor... Or something huge, like... like Google and we get to have a horribly hillarious primary coloured livery. But looking at the McLaren image it will be Apple and the official name will be iMacLaren from now on.

What's wrong with Apple sponsoring McLaren, eh?

Basetornado wrote:And in News I only just found out but others have already proberly written about or knew, apparently the new Ferrari will have its name chosen by Online poll.
Any suggestions?

NW14 (not winning '14)

Shizuka wrote:

Basetornado wrote:And in News I only just found out but others have already proberly written about or knew, apparently the new Ferrari will have its name chosen by Online poll.
Any suggestions?

NW14 (not winning '14)

LOLJK2014?

That could work too, but it's a little long.

How bout some acronym of Enzo rolling in his grave..