Grand Prix Rejects

Posted: **19 Mar 2013, 18:41**

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'm a Robin Frijns man myself

Posted: **19 Mar 2013, 19:06**

from reading various other forums marussia look to have a basic car base but it is solid with plenty of room for development. Have KERS working from the off, good understanding of the coanda exhaust, car looks to be very stable good mech grip just more aero needed

Posted: **19 Mar 2013, 19:21**

takagi_for_the_win wrote:
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'm a Robin Frijns man myself

I gotta pull for Alexander Rossi, the only American currently with a Superlicense. 'Murica!

Posted: **19 Mar 2013, 20:47**

Wallio, Alex Rossi is a very unpopular man with one particular member of this forum (clue, a Scotsman who wants to be Italian). Quite why he holds him in such low esteem has been lost in the mists of time (to me anyway!).

Posted: **19 Mar 2013, 20:54**

Warren Hughes wrote:Wallio, Alex Rossi is a very unpopular man with one particular member of this forum (clue, a Scotsman who wants to be Italian). Quite why he holds him in such low esteem has been lost in the mists of time (to me anyway!).

It's not like Rossi is that good anyway... the only reason he'd ever wind up on the grid is because of his bank balance.

Posted: **19 Mar 2013, 22:24**

Admittedly Connor Daly is a better driver, and less cocky, but Rossi is the only American that has a chance to make it to F1, so I'll take what I can get lol

Posted: **20 Mar 2013, 02:38**

Wallio wrote:Admittedly Connor Daly is a better driver, and less cocky, but Rossi is the only American that has a chance to make it to F1, so I'll take what I can get lol

Of course, neither of them can even vaguely hold a candle to the pure potential and skill of Jake Rosenzweig.

Posted: **20 Mar 2013, 15:45**

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:
Wallio wrote:Admittedly Connor Daly is a better driver, and less cocky, but Rossi is the only American that has a chance to make it to F1, so I'll take what I can get lol

Of course, neither of them can even vaguely hold a candle to the pure potential and skill of Jake Rosenzweig.

I've heard this, but have not seen much of the lad. Although he is running GP2 this year right? I'll have to check him out.

Posted: **20 Mar 2013, 15:57**

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:
Wallio wrote:Admittedly Connor Daly is a better driver, and less cocky, but Rossi is the only American that has a chance to make it to F1, so I'll take what I can get lol

Of course, neither of them can even vaguely hold a candle to the pure potential and skill of Jake Rosenzweig.

Posted: **20 Mar 2013, 16:12**

DanielPT wrote:
UgncreativeUsergname wrote:
Wallio wrote:Admittedly Connor Daly is a better driver, and less cocky, but Rossi is the only American that has a chance to make it to F1, so I'll take what I can get lol

Of course, neither of them can even vaguely hold a candle to the pure potential and skill of Jake Rosenzweig.

Sarcastic

Posted: **20 Mar 2013, 16:47**

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:
DanielPT wrote:
UgncreativeUsergname wrote:Of course, neither of them can even vaguely hold a candle to the pure potential and skill of Jake Rosenzweig.

Sarcastic

There's one thing to be said about Rosenzweig...he has a cool first name. :lol:

Posted: **20 Mar 2013, 17:40**

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:

Sarcastic

[/quote]

Damn I guess i fell for that. But he does get a ton of pub over here, far more thn Rossi, and if you take Daly's father out of it, more than Daly as well. Guess its no wonder I hadn't heard of him results wise then :lol:

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 00:26**

Rossi, Daly, Rosenzweig... clearly none of them are as world class as the greatest driver 'Merica has ever produced.

Don Pentecost.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 10:45**

Apparently Marussia and Caterham discussed a merger over the winter break, but couldn't work out a deal.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 10:50**

Backmarker wrote:Apparently Marussia and Caterham discussed a merger over the winter break, but couldn't work out a deal.

Well, being forced to have Giedo van der Garde as a driver would have been a dealbreaker in most situations

But seriously though, with Fernandes' money and the people behind the scenes that Marussia have such as Pat Symonds, it would have been very interesting to see how it panned out.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 11:09**

Wizzie wrote:
Backmarker wrote:Apparently Marussia and Caterham discussed a merger over the winter break, but couldn't work out a deal.

Well, being forced to have Giedo van der Garde as a driver would have been a dealbreaker in most situations

But seriously though, with Fernandes' money and the people behind the scenes that Marussia have such as Pat Symonds, it would have been very interesting to see how it panned out.

Materham?

Seriously, I would only like to see such thing if it is the only way of survival for one of them.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 11:36**

DanielPT wrote:
Wizzie wrote:
Backmarker wrote:Apparently Marussia and Caterham discussed a merger over the winter break, but couldn't work out a deal.

Well, being forced to have Giedo van der Garde as a driver would have been a dealbreaker in most situations

But seriously though, with Fernandes' money and the people behind the scenes that Marussia have such as Pat Symonds, it would have been very interesting to see how it panned out.

Materham?

Seriously, I would only like to see such thing if it is the only way of survival for one of them.

Presumably they could have had a Pic-Chilton lineup.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 15:44**

I can only assume (due to Fernades being richer than God) that it was Marussia leading the way on this. So what happens when they beat Catheram and take the 10th place $$$? I love irony.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 16:52**

Wallio wrote:I can only assume (due to Fernades being richer than God) that it was Marussia leading the way on this. So what happens when they beat Catheram and take the 10th place $$$? I love irony.

I feel like Tony Fernandes is getting bored with his toy. That's why he's gone from a decent Trulli-Kovalainen line-up to an understandable Petrov-Kovalainen line-up to a deep-pocketed Pic-van der Garde line-up

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 16:58**

Backmarker wrote:
Wallio wrote:I can only assume (due to Fernades being richer than God) that it was Marussia leading the way on this. So what happens when they beat Catheram and take the 10th place $$$? I love irony.

I feel like Tony Fernandes is getting bored with his toy. That's why he's gone from a decent Trulli-Kovalainen line-up to an understandable Petrov-Kovalainen line-up to a deep-pocketed Pic-van der Garde line-up

He spent his Formula 1 budget on Loïc Rémy instead.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 18:05**

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:
Backmarker wrote:
Wallio wrote:I can only assume (due to Fernades being richer than God) that it was Marussia leading the way on this. So what happens when they beat Catheram and take the 10th place $$$? I love irony.

I feel like Tony Fernandes is getting bored with his toy. That's why he's gone from a decent Trulli-Kovalainen line-up to an understandable Petrov-Kovalainen line-up to a deep-pocketed Pic-van der Garde line-up

He spent his Formula 1 budget on Loïc Rémy instead.

This is the thing. Tony Fernandes is not some megabucks Emirati or Russian, he's very similar to Vijay Mallya, he has quite a diverse portfolio of businesses, but none are that big really. Owning QPR alongside an F1 team is never going to work in the long term. One of the two is going to have to give, and on the basis of them hiring two heavily sponsored drivers in F1, and now likewise for GP2, it tells you everything you need to know about Fernandes' own bank balance, as well as his interest in F1. Does he even turn up to the races anymore?

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 19:12**

AndreaModa wrote:Owning QPR alongside an F1 team is never going to work in the long term. One of the two is going to have to give

Isn't he selling QPR if/when they get relegated this season?

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 19:19**

redbulljack14 wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:Owning QPR alongside an F1 team is never going to work in the long term. One of the two is going to have to give

Isn't he selling QPR if/when they get relegated this season?

I thought he was in it "together with the fans" for "the long haul", that is in terms of ownership. He said he'd step aside from the day-to-day operation if QPR went south, which they look guaranteed to do, but I think he still wants to retain ownership.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 19:41**

AndreaModa wrote:Owning QPR alongside an F1 team is never going to work in the long term. One of the two is going to have to give

Oh both QPR and Caterham have been doing plenty of giving!

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 19:57**

Backmarker wrote:
Wallio wrote:I can only assume (due to Fernades being richer than God) that it was Marussia leading the way on this. So what happens when they beat Catheram and take the 10th place $$$? I love irony.

I feel like Tony Fernandes is getting bored with his toy. That's why he's gone from a decent Trulli-Kovalainen line-up to an understandable Petrov-Kovalainen line-up to a deep-pocketed Pic-van der Garde line-up

To be fair, it isn't as if Pic is totally without talent - he has a reasonable record in the junior series (3rd place in FR3.5 and a 4th in GP2 in a year when 2nd to 4th were separated by two points), and most would say that his performance against Glock in 2012 was respectable enough for a rookie driver.

To be honest, Fernandes's approach to Caterham does seem a little odd at times. On the one hand, the team has gone to the expense of a move to Leafield and overhauling the old facilities there, whilst they went to the trouble of poaching John Iley from McLaren only a year after he was promoted to Head of Aerodynamics there and hired Cyril Abiteboul from Renault Sport to take over the Team Principal role. At the senior management layer, therefore, the team has a fair number of talented people amongst its ranks and has continued to expand them, so in terms of manpower and resources the team still seems to be getting some attention (the budget, as far as I am aware, is still reasonably healthy).
On the other hand, though, the driver choice seems relatively weak by comparison - I know that it is probably the case that the team thinks it can gain far more from improving the car than the drivers, but that can only extend so far.

Back to Marussia though, and some of Bianchi's recent comments where he has actually been moderately complimentary about the MR02 - going as far as saying that he was surprised that the car felt a lot better to drive than he had expected it to be.

“I was pretty surprised when I drove it for the first time. My expectation was a lot lower than that, I was really happy when I drove it,” said Bianchi in the press conference ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
“I think we can do a good result. We know what we have to improve again so we’re just trying to do that and trying to improve the car, trying to improve myself as well because I’m new in the team, new in Formula One and I want to show people what I’m able to do so I will try to do my best for all the races now.”

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/03/21/b ... rformance/
OK, I doubt that Marussia will celebrating the news that their car isn't as rubbish as he'd expected, but his optimism doesn't seem totally unjustified - his pace compared to Bottas in Melbourne was fairly respectable even if he did have to make a late unplanned pit stop near the end, and although it has been confirmed that there will not be any updates for Malaysia simply because of time constraints, he seems confident that the increased amount of seat time he racked up in Australia should help offset that.

Posted: **21 Mar 2013, 22:35**

mario wrote:
Backmarker wrote:
I feel like Tony Fernandes is getting bored with his toy. That's why he's gone from a decent Trulli-Kovalainen line-up to an understandable Petrov-Kovalainen line-up to a deep-pocketed Pic-van der Garde line-up

To be fair, it isn't as if Pic is totally without talent - he has a reasonable record in the junior series (3rd place in FR3.5 and a 4th in GP2 in a year when 2nd to 4th were separated by two points), and most would say that his performance against Glock in 2012 was respectable enough for a rookie driver.

To be honest, Fernandes's approach to Caterham does seem a little odd at times. On the one hand, the team has gone to the expense of a move to Leafield and overhauling the old facilities there, whilst they went to the trouble of poaching John Iley from McLaren only a year after he was promoted to Head of Aerodynamics there and hired Cyril Abiteboul from Renault Sport to take over the Team Principal role. At the senior management layer, therefore, the team has a fair number of talented people amongst its ranks and has continued to expand them, so in terms of manpower and resources the team still seems to be getting some attention (the budget, as far as I am aware, is still reasonably healthy).
On the other hand, though, the driver choice seems relatively weak by comparison - I know that it is probably the case that the team thinks it can gain far more from improving the car than the drivers, but that can only extend so far.

I very much agree with this. Still, the team are going with pay-drivers and that, given what mario says here, can only mean they are trying to expand the development budget without having to dig deeper in Fernandes pockets. In the end though, despite all this, Marussia are making them look distinctly sh*t and that is never a good thing.

Posted: **23 Mar 2013, 00:56**

Bam! SponsorWatch!

News in today, which some may have already noticed, Marussia have a new two race deal with Russian stockbroker InstaForex, their logos will go on the front wing endplates this weekend in Malaysia, and also later in the year at Singapore. That brings the total number of Russian sponsors in their portfolio up to two!

Story here:
http://www.marussiaf1team.com/news/799/

Here's hoping there's more where that came from!

Posted: **25 Mar 2013, 22:40**

This team is showing so much good promise right now the way Jules Bianchi is going nice stable basic car with loads of potential to build upon, upgrades that are actually working nothing overly complex about half to three quartes of a seconds off str and williams last 2 races in qualy race pace is pretty decent as well.

It's just a shame Nick Wirth couldn't suck eggs from the start and use some wind tunnel time as well to correlate cfd Pat Symonds doing great job on the development program so far, Can see Marussia get the first point this year

Posted: **25 Mar 2013, 22:44**

Bianchi's 13th in Malaysia will come in handy in the battle for the 10th place Constructor's Cash, if the last few years are to be believed.

Posted: **27 Mar 2013, 10:32**

I can't go on denying it anymore. I have been hiding it from myself. After all these years saying I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot bargepole, it was all a lie.

I am a Jules Bianchi fan.

Nope, still feels weird to say it.

Posted: **27 Mar 2013, 10:58**

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:I can't go on denying it anymore. I have been hiding it from myself. After all these years saying I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot bargepole, it was all a lie.

I am a Jules Bianchi fan.

Nope, still feels weird to say it.

I'm coming to an similarly strange epiphany about Bianchi myself. And to think I spent all these years mercilessly ridiculing him for his inability to string more than half a season together in the junior categories...

Posted: **27 Mar 2013, 13:35**

Wizzie wrote:
Stramala [kostas22] wrote:I can't go on denying it anymore. I have been hiding it from myself. After all these years saying I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot bargepole, it was all a lie.

I am a Jules Bianchi fan.

Nope, still feels weird to say it.

I'm coming to an similarly strange epiphany about Bianchi myself. And to think I spent all these years mercilessly ridiculing him for his inability to string more than half a season together in the junior categories...

I always thought that Bianchi was talented and had pace but I still consider him an unfinished product. Never stopped me from thinking that he deserved an F1 drive and root for him.

Posted: **28 Mar 2013, 11:23**

So, tangentially related to Jules Bianchi: Force India are keeping their engine deal with Mercedes. Weren't they chasing a deal to go back to Ferrari for a while? So if that's now off, and FI's Ferrari-handled ex-third driver is now at Marussia putting the frighteners up Williams and Toro Rosso, how long is it going to be before the official announcement of Marussia-Ferrari for 2014 comes through?

Or am I being an A-level English student and reading information that isn't there?

Posted: **28 Mar 2013, 11:37**

dinizintheoven wrote:So, tangentially related to Jules Bianchi: Force India are keeping their engine deal with Mercedes. Weren't they chasing a deal to go back to Ferrari for a while? So if that's now off, and FI's Ferrari-handled ex-third driver is now at Marussia putting the frighteners up Williams and Toro Rosso, how long is it going to be before the official announcement of Marussia-Ferrari for 2014 comes through?

Or am I being an A-level English student and reading information that isn't there?

There is still the small issue of the McLaren - Marussia technological partnership. But if Ferrari loses Toro Rosso for Renault they would want to do a deal with another team and Marussia could be it.

Posted: **28 Mar 2013, 12:16**

DanielPT wrote:
dinizintheoven wrote:So, tangentially related to Jules Bianchi: Force India are keeping their engine deal with Mercedes. Weren't they chasing a deal to go back to Ferrari for a while? So if that's now off, and FI's Ferrari-handled ex-third driver is now at Marussia putting the frighteners up Williams and Toro Rosso, how long is it going to be before the official announcement of Marussia-Ferrari for 2014 comes through?

Or am I being an A-level English student and reading information that isn't there?

There is still the small issue of the McLaren - Marussia technological partnership. But if Ferrari loses Toro Rosso for Renault they would want to do a deal with another team and Marussia could be it.

And the thing is, where else are Ferrari going to go for customers? There was a rumour a while back that Sauber were looking at a new engine supplier, though with Force India securing the Mercedes units, and Mercedes not wanting to supply more than three teams, I think that's now dead in the water. So for Ferrari, the only real option left is Marussia. The way Bianchi is going anyway I'd put strong money on him doing another year at the team, but by keeping him, they might get some discount on the Ferrari engines, which would no doubt be very attractive to them. Not only do they get one of, if not the best driver they've ever had, but they also get discounted engines.

Posted: **28 Mar 2013, 13:00**

AndreaModa wrote:Not only do they get one of, if not the best driver they've ever had, but they also get discounted engines.

Let's not get carried away. I still rate Glock rather highly and Bianchi is only in his 2nd race battling rookies or almost rookies. We will not know how Glock would fare in this car, but if Bianchi manages a point it is really unlucky for Timo to be ousted just when the team is starting to be competitive.

Posted: **28 Mar 2013, 13:23**

Glock wasn't bad in 2010, he was hungry for it then. But after that he went downhill fast and was never the same again. He always knew that it would ultimately be the end of the road for him in F1 as soon as the 2010 car's pace was revealed so its hardly surprising he lost a lot of motivation over time. He certainly was never as hungry as Bianchi is now, and whilst Jules might be lacking in comparison to Glock in some aspects of the talent department, his desire to succeed is making up for that at the moment in my opinion. You can have the best driver in the world in a car, but if they're not motivated they won't do as well as they could.

Posted: **28 Mar 2013, 15:04**

dinizintheoven wrote:So, tangentially related to Jules Bianchi: Force India are keeping their engine deal with Mercedes. Weren't they chasing a deal to go back to Ferrari for a while? So if that's now off, and FI's Ferrari-handled ex-third driver is now at Marussia putting the frighteners up Williams and Toro Rosso, how long is it going to be before the official announcement of Marussia-Ferrari for 2014 comes through?

Or am I being an A-level English student and reading information that isn't there?

Whilst it has been suggested that Force India did look into the possibility of forming a partnership with Ferrari, it is suggested that Force India were unwilling to sacrifice the research agreement they have with McLaren and the technical support they get from Mercedes for the less certain terms of a partnership which would have been along the lines of the deal which Sauber has with Ferrari.
In particular, it seems that Force India were worried that doing a deal with Ferrari would have also sacrificed some of their independence in the political world of F1, since being a Ferrari customer would also tie them into Ferrari's particular standpoint. Accepting Bianchi, and perhaps a deal for Ferrari drivetrains post 2014, might have had some potential upsides for the future but could have also come with some fairly sizeable drawbacks.

As for the question of Marussia signing a deal with Ferrari, as AndreaModa says, we know that Ferrari are keen to find a new customer given that Toro Rosso are looking at switching from Ferrari to Renault engines in the future. Given that Marussia cannot rely on Cosworth to produce a 2014 spec turbo engine and will therefore need to strike a new deal, they are an obvious potential client, even if the deal that Marussia has with McLaren will complicate matters.
Then again, if the rumours about a possible McLaren-Honda tie up in 2015 are to be believed, then in the longer term Marussia might well find themselves losing some support from McLaren unless they could also secure a Honda engine (a remote probability since McLaren seem to be angling for exclusive support from Honda). In that instance, therefore, there may be less to lose for Marussia, so perhaps the gamble might prove worthwhile.

Posted: **30 Mar 2013, 15:03**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_0gS2Xx9M8 Here's some onboard footage, possibly the first this season. Bianchi at helm. I don't know, it seems to me he's being a little limited by the car.

Posted: **30 Mar 2013, 15:32**

Shizuka wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_0gS2Xx9M8 Here's some onboard footage, possibly the first this season. Bianchi at helm. I don't know, it seems to me he's being a little limited by the car.

The car is a significant step forward but Bianchi was still fighting oversteer at nearly every corner! The difficulty to drive these backmarker cars is brushed over by the tv coverage.

Grand Prix Rejects

RIP Manor Racing (2010-2017)

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