FR3.5 2013 Silly Season

[Go_For_Pole]

Draco or P1?

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by ivanalesi

Surprised to see Ignazio D'Agosto testing...

... considering he was so disappointing in FR2.0. Good karting pedigree though

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

they'll be there. you don't buy out an entire team without the intention of competing for at least a season



i've got my doubts about another team, but i don't know where they're at with finding a buyer.

Would Valles drive himself if it means filling a seat last minute?

[bella]

not sure, i don't know a great deal about their setup and what they're intending to do. but from what he says in that quote it doesn't sound like he's planning to get on the pointy side of a steering wheel again.

(i didn't know draco were looking for an out - seriously?)

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

not sure, i don't know a great deal about their setup and what they're intending to do. but from what he says in that quote it doesn't sound like he's planning to get on the pointy side of a steering wheel again.

(i didn't know draco were looking for an out - seriously?)

No, that is a surprise....

What are Morini and co (if the family is still actively involved) going to do instead? They've been a mainstay at this sort of level for almost as long as DAMS!!

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by bella

i didn't know draco were looking for an out - seriously?

no no, just guessing here but seems like one of the guesses was right

[bella]

or perhaps the other guess wasn't anywhere near right in the first place

going back to draco, i haven't been sure what to make of them at all this season, much like last season or the season before too. i'd like to see muller in a decent car, but i doubt very much the money's there for that kind of drive. shame really.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

or perhaps the other guess wasn't anywhere near right in the first place .

[Alex K]

Looking at photos on AV's website I cannot see that wealth in his team. He probably does it from rented box in industrial estate, and testing, racing on budget with cheap deals on equipment as bella sez. Hope he gets good deals for next year.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Alex K

Looking at photos on AV's website I cannot see that wealth in his team. He probably does it from rented box in industrial estate, and testing, racing on budget with cheap deals on equipment as bella sez. Hope he gets good deals for next year.

Noone wants to see that, organiser, owner, driver or fans, let's hope he can pull together decent enough drivers with funding. I would imagine he will be looking at a Spaniard, Russian or South American in that order!!

[Alex K]

Their on team's website @chunterer.

[bella]

i don't think it really matters. if you're a clued-in driver with a tight budget, surely all you want is a team who are going to throw all the money you can give them at the car, the engineers and the mechanics. who wants to pay for a big shiny box to keep them in when they're not racing? he's already got a good truck through the rfr deal, so that's one of the biggest investments taken care of. they don't have a good or a bad reputation at this stage so they could attract some interesting drivers for 2013.

[BackmarkerUK]

Originally Posted by bella

i don't think it really matters. if you're a clued-in driver with a tight budget, surely all you want is a team who are going to throw all the money you can give them at the car, the engineers and the mechanics. who wants to pay for a big shiny box to keep them in when they're not racing? he's already got a good truck through the rfr deal, so that's one of the biggest investments taken care of. they don't have a good or a bad reputation at this stage so they could attract some interesting drivers for 2013.

They already seemed to be doing better in testing than RFR managed all season (Aleshin's final weekend excluded). It will be interesting to see who is in the seat when they line up on the grid at the first race.

[bella]

oh yeah, they did a good job, but wasn't pic relieved of some lap times for being underweight? nuff sed on that one i think

[BackmarkerUK]

Originally Posted by bella

oh yeah, they did a good job, but wasn't pic relieved of some lap times for being underweight? nuff sed on that one i think

Ah, trying to pull the wool over the sponsor's eyes. Still, Pic and Stockinger would be a good line up for next season, if it came about. Though I wonder whether Pic might make the switch to GP2 next season.

[bella]

yet to be convinced about pic, he was one of the usual couple of drivers a year who were ace at motorland and sort of didn't really turn up for the rest of the season, for whatever reason. good to see him win in moscow though, a fair reward for the promise he had occasionally shown.

however you're right, if av could sign someone of his standing it'd put them in a very good position. not sure about stockinger but i guess i've not seen him race enough.

on another note, it's a shame mitch evans is probably going to end up herded in gp2, isn't it?

[BackmarkerUK]

Originally Posted by bella

on another note, it's a shame mitch evans is probably going to end up herded in gp2, isn't it?

I think GP2 will have a stronger grid next year, so it will be closer to Formula Renault 3.5 in terms of driver skill than it was this year; and then when the 2014 chassis comes in I expect GP2 will be consistently faster than Formula Renault 3.5 again. And I prefer GP2 (though this year was a disappointment)...

[bella]

ack, i don't like doing the which series is stronger than the other crap. let's leave that for another thread.

[cleanup]

Originally Posted by BackmarkerUK

I think GP2 will have a stronger grid next year, so it will be closer to Formula Renault 3.5 in terms of driver skill than it was this year; and then when the 2014 chassis comes in I expect GP2 will be consistently faster than Formula Renault 3.5 again. And I prefer GP2 (though this year was a disappointment)...

In what way was GP2 disappointing this year???

[BackmarkerUK]

Originally Posted by cleanup

In what way was GP2 disappointing this year???

In my opinion:

The championship was over before the series got to Bahrain - even with a massive run without wins, Valsecchi was able to stay ahead to take the title; drivers didn't deliver in a way that was expected of them (Gutiérrez and Ericsson failing to mount title challenges); Razia being a title contender despite having previously been one of the poorer drivers in the series; too few genuine F1 prospects on the grid. There have been far better seasons, and it's to those levels I want to see GP2 perform.

[Mekola]

Being only quite above average in GP2 doesn't mean a poor F1 prospect. Look at Kobayashi, for example. He only excelled in the inter GP2 Asia season between two discrete GP2 Series seasons, and succeeded once he landed in F1.

[chunterer]

Yeah but look at the superb depth in calibre in the first 2 to 3 years compared with the last couple of campaigns?

Night and day.

[bella]

we also have the benefit of hindsight. it's a wonderful thing when judging drivers and teams and full grids. how do we know what we're going to think of this season till a couple of years down the line?

/existential

[chunterer]

On current momentum it would appear that 3.5 will continue to get stronger and GP2 will keep going the other way...

[Kassai]

Bella what do you think of Norman Nato, he seems to be the next french with some potential and he did well during the tests. I feel he had a lot of bad luck in his 2.0 season this year.

The main thing 3.5 lacks in front of GP2 are the pirelli tyres, you can put it how you want but only for the tyres it is worth to do a stint in GP2. Well it is just in my view of very new motorsport follower anyway.