2008 Silly Season Thread (SUPER MERGE)

[Sodemo]

Give Bruno Senna a punt.

I personally wouldn't give Luizzi or Speed the time of day let alone a F1 race drive.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Originally Posted by The Monster

Give Bruno Senna a punt.

I personally wouldn't give Luizzi or Speed the time of day let alone a F1 race drive.

Senna and Bourdais at STR. Wonderful combination, too bad that the team isn't further up the grid!

[Satorian]

I think Heidfeld is going to stay with BMW. There's currently no way to move up team-wise, as Ferrari and McLaren seem mostly settled (Kimi will at least get a second season in my opinion).

But I think Kubica will be forced to leave his cockpit for either Vettel (depending on the exact contract with RBR) or Glock.

Other than that I really want to see Bourdais in a good car. Perhaps a rebounding Renault with Bourdais as driver? Would that be possible?

[flying finn]

OUT
Renault > Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy)
Toyota > Ralf Schumacher (Germany)
Red Bull > David Coulthard (UK)
Honda > Rubens Barrichello (Brazil)
Toro Rosso > Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy)
Spyker > Adrian Sutil (Germany)

MOVE
Super Aguri to Honda > Takuma Sato (Japan)

IN
Renault > Nelson Piquet Jr. (Brazil) (2007 - test driver for Renault)
Toyota > Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) (2007 - test driver for Williams + GP2)
Red Bull > Sebastien Bourdais (France) (2007 - Champ Car)
Toro Rosso > Timo Glock (Germany) (2007 - test driver for BMW + GP2)
Spyker > Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) (2007 - test driver for Red Bull)
Super Aguri > Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) (2007 - A1 GP)
ProDrive > Sebastian Vettel (Germany) (2007 - test driver for BMW)
ProDrive > Gary Paffet (Britain) (2007 - test driver for McLaren)

[Charlies]

There won't be as much movement as last season; McLaren, Ferrari, BMW, and probably Honda, Williams and Red Bull will keep their current line-ups.

I'd say Piquet Jnr. will replace Fisichella, despite Kovalainen's start to the season. He's got potential in the long term.

I think Bourdais will be at STR. They are using a lot of their limited test days for there not to be serious intent. Speed will probably be shown the door.

Who will be in Toyota's second seat is the least predictable, but it certainly won't be Ralf.

With regards to Senna, I think he'd benefit from a second season in GP2 with some F1 tests.

[Smokey 6 litre]

I think Bourdais will get the STR seat, and well worth the chance. i look forward to seeing him.
I agree with Charlies that Bruno Senna could do with another season in GP2.

[Leighton Irwin]

Based on his lack of perfomance so far this year I think you can eliminate Marco A from any F1 seat. I have also read that daddy wants to keep him with him and not have him off in Europe.

[Knowlesy]

Yes, but is Mario or Michael wearing the trousers there?

Marco is having a shocker this season, but a lot of bad luck along the way. It'll get better. Having said that, I don't see him in F1 for a while yet, but it will hopefully happen one day.

[f1manoz]

After his magnificent performances this year, if Heidfeld is not in a BMW next season, I'll eat my hat and put it on YouTube.

[Pro Racer]

i think Heidfeld will be there but will Kubica.

[chunterer]

Yes good point about Robert.

I wonder if his F1 career to date is getting a bit like that of Wurz's when he came in. Superb opportunistic and care free drives to begin with before he got bogged down a bit?

I would've thought he'll get a drive elsewhere if required, but I still reckon that another season with BMW is likely. But those members who said preseason that Heidfeld would deal with the Pole comfortably look like they were quite right!

[Sztepen]

i cant quite see how heidfeld is "dealing comfortably" with Q this year:

remember, in OZ, Rob was running ahead of heidi after the pit stops, but then came the gearbox failure;

in malaysia BMW screwed his qualifying (again), well, the race was nothing special with bumping into heidfeld etc.,

Bahrain - Kub had a huge gap to Nick at the end of the race - but remember the open fuel flap which hampered his aerodynamics

Barcelona and Monaco - Robert was faster both weekends, including qualifying, at the "drivers' tracks" - finished ahead of nick .... so yeah, you may say that nick has the edge ( but it is not my opinion ), but to say that he is dealing comfortably with the pole and roberts drive at bmw come 2008 is in danger is a bit far fetched (IMO of course)

sorry for the OT it wont happen again :P

[FPV GTHO]

Originally Posted by Sztepen

Barcelona and Monaco - Robert was faster both weekends, including qualifying, at the "drivers' tracks"

Barcelona is hardly a drivers track, if anything its one of the most heavily influenced by car performance considering how much of an indicator it is for aero efficiency.

[nycuk]

Originally Posted by Pro Racer

Panasonic Toyota - Toyota
Jarno Trulli
Franck Montagny

Spyker F1 - Ferrari
Adrian Sutil
Marcus Whinkelhock

Prodrive - McLaren Mercedes
Pedro De La Rosa
Garry Paffet

I can't see both Pedro and Gary at Prodrive, Gary probably, but not both. McLaren won't want to lose both test drivers. Similarly, Toyota won't take a risk on Franck - they are far too conservative to take any big risks!! I gather from a source at Spyker that Sutil has been sounded out about replacing Ralf within the next few days though.

[steve nielsen]

The can do both as Prodrive will run with a 2007 Mclaren chassis and don't forget that Luca Badoer also had a double function in the past(testing at Ferrari and racing at Minardi)

[ThePenguin]

I don't think that we will be seeing both McLaren test drivers at Prodrive, but they will most likely get one of them.

[deeks6]

Lets hope Webber or Nick gets the Ferrari seat after they boot Break-en-em out...

[Dutton]

Oh, yeah, I am sure Ferrari are going to do that. Spend a bunch of cash to get a guy you really want, have to wait a while from signing to having him driving, then kick him out after one season.

Highly likely I am sure.

I am eager to see Nick stay at BMW and for Paffet to get a shot somewhere (although the Paffet thing only with a decent opportunity). Other than that, in terms of things that possibly could happen, I really don't care who goes where.

Well, to say I do not care is not a good way to phrase it. I mean that I have no prefence either way.

[Bluewolf]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Marco is having a shocker this season, but a lot of bad luck along the way. It'll get better. Having said that, I don't see him in F1 for a while yet, but it will hopefully happen one day.

Just a horrible season -- But it's the road courses that count to F1 -- If he shines there, he'll get a chance -- But if I ran an F1 team I would feel much more impressed and much more secure with someone coming out of GP2 -- As far as an American driver goes -- it wouldn't surprise me if Speed was quicker than Marco if they had the same car -- at least Speed was 3rd in his one and only GP2 season and {correct me if I'm wrong} won the Formula Renault Championship and the Eurocup Championship -- Even though I'm an American, I'm much more impressed by the excellent European drivers than most of the drivers here in the states. You can't get a real read on Marco without him facing European drivers for a season. I'm not saying Marco may not do great, but just that he's a completely unknown quantity. All he has at this point is a famous name.

One more thing -- I think it's a mistake that some of you write Speed off. He had an excellent race in Monaco, and if he can have some more impressive performances and outshine Liuzzi overall, he'll surely partner Seabass in '08. I remember hearing people writing Heidfeld off, only to see him come back with some very impressive performances.

[deeks6]

Marco certainly looks like the great man - if he drives half as good as him, he will be pretty good. From what I have seen of him so far, I am impressed and I hope he gets to F1 - thats where the name belongs.

Speed has been a lot more impressive than people give him credit for and IMO he has outperformed Liuzzi and remember how highly rated he was.

It's a crying shame what has happened to open wheel racing in the USA - and the massive money in NASCAR means that few, if any are going to aspire to F1.

[chunterer]

Well Red Bull pulling the plug on supporting young Americans hasn't helped as that scheme needed many years of 'farming' to reap results, surely stopping after getting only one decent drive to F1 was a bit shortsighted?

Speed is certainly a quick driver, no doubt. Pat Long was pretty useful but is now a sportscar pro, Fleming packed it in and headed back to States. I would say Summerton looks decent but he's nothing to do with Red Bull.

Marco needs to be consitently doing well to keep up the media/F1 attention, as would I suspect Graham Rahal in Champcar.

I think there's drivers out there but getting a couple into GP2 as soon as possible would help without a doubt.

Back to topic, I was thinking about upcoming drivers that could be getting F1 race drives by 2009:

I'm not including Vettel, Glock or Nelsinho in this as they are already involved.

Maldonado
Senna
Duran
Aleshin
Andretti or Rahal (not both!)
Nakajima
Chandhok
Tung or Cheng

Some of these will get in talent alone, maybe not next year but probably the next! I would say that most of them because they have some good PR, money and/or nationalities that F1 is trying to make a serious impact in at the moment!

Bet a few of us could think of more candidates as well!

[Pro Racer]

well Red Bull want Vettel back off BMW for 09 (readsomewhere) to either be in a STR or RBR, so either they are going to give one of the STR seats to Sebass (as you wouldn't spend so much testing time with him if it was just a play around) and if the other fails in 08 give that seat to Vettel in 09 or maybe DC or MW could be gone at the end of 08.

[FPV GTHO]

Vettel is yet to compete in even GP2, so i dont think Red Bull are going to rush him into their A team.

[Pro Racer]

i think GP2 beckons in 08 for Vettel and then maybe an F1 drive in 09.

[FPV GTHO]

1 year if he's lucky. Kovalainen and Speed (Hamilton and Rosberg dont count, they won) only spent one year, but guys like Piquet Jnr were there for 2 years.