Too bad for Hulkenberg, but apparently Williams seems to need the money from Maldonado (as he seems most likely to get the drive atm). Barrichello is fixed as he can develope a car which is what Williams is really in need. Performance wise they should have kept Hulkenberg or get hold of Heidfeld...
Guess lots depends on the renault drivers and if Ferrari really wants to keep Massa. If they don't they could either get Kubica (who seems to get along with Alonso) or Sutil (haha) or Hulkenberg (as clear #2). Also Petrov isn't comfirmed yet either... I think the chance of a german replacing Petrov is quite high (Sutil, Heidfeld, Hulkenberg).
Didn't Bruno Senna only lap a few tenths of Button in his first 'official' F1 test? So hardly something to write home just about yet, and a track that's rubbered in a bit might help too. Just look at how the track evolved during the race
Ricciardo needs a seat, im not saying it because he is an Aussie but because hes shown some serious talent in F3.5 destroying Brandon Hartley in the same car, problem is he can't go for anything less then a Torro rosso to get noticed and thats likely the best offer he could get as well, but both drivers have a contract for next season.
and for the record, hes best time on the First session would of put him 3rd on the grid in Abu Dhabi.
You can't really compare the times from this test to Qual on saturday, the track has a full race of rubber on it, which Karun Chandhok reckons is worth nearly 1.5 seconds.
So saying that the track is worth that amount, Ricciardo wouldn't have gotten into Q3. You also have to consider that Q3 is basically ran at night, when the track has cooled down a massive amount (7 degrees I heard over the weekend), which accounts for a massive amount of pace aswell, whereas the young drivers test was ran during the day, when it's much warmer.
It's true, take a look at this, it is only from the Japanese GP, can't find the updated table, but it won't be much different.
Group B Drivers Championship
Heikki Kovalainen - 229
Lucas di Grassi - 153
Timo Glock - 153
Jarno Trulli - 150
Karun Chandhok - 131
Bruno Senna - 78
Sakon Yamamoto - 42
This is what the table would have looked like if the bottom 3 teams were the only teams running. As you can see, Chandhok was comfortably beating Senna, even though he had raced in a few less GPs.
Well, those stats are pointless IMO, it's just showing how much problems and retirements drivers from new teams had during the season
Trulli was way faster than the Virgins overall, but he's screwed as he DNFed like 1 GP out of 2.
Glock overpowered di Grassi, yet he's only tieing with him, probably because Glock had more DNFs and reliability problems.
That said it was quite clear Chandhock was clearly better than Senna in most occasions, would've been interresting to see what he would have done against Klien or Yamamoto. He was one of the pleasant surprise of this season, I guess most of the observers thought Senna would dominate since he had a way better pace in GP2 in 2007/2008.
Kind of sad to see how our fast Belgian D'ambrosio is barely getting attention, while clearly showing his speed (also before in the season with the friday tests in a Virgin F1). But Perez or Buurman or Maldonado get more attention (and more likely a seat cause they bring in cash).
Pos Driver Car Time Laps
1. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m38.102s 77
2. Jerome D'Ambrosio Renault 1m38.802s 83
3. Sam Bird Mercedes 1m39.220s 82
4. Gary Paffett McLaren 1m39.760s 84
5. Jules Bianchi Ferrari 1m39.916s 93
6. Sergio Perez Sauber 1m40.543s 91
7. Paul di Resta Force India 1m40.901s 27
8. Pastor Maldonado Williams 1m40.944s 81
9. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1m40.974s 61
10. Yelmer Buurman Force India 1m41.178s 67
11. Davide Valsecchi Hispania 1m43.013s 32
12. Luiz Razia Virgin 1m43.525s 70
13. Josef Kral Hispania 1m44.143s 61
14. Rodolfo Gonzalez Lotus 1m44.312s 41
15. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Lotus 1m45.723s 49
True, but D'Ambrisio's budget is ~5M. While competition can bring in minimal 10M euros. Eitherway, I think if Virgin truly wishes to continue their performance as strong rookie team, they have to pick quality over money - cause otherwise they'll just end up wrong as the past has proven. Of course I'm biased, but it would be nice to see him in a "just a Virgin".
He got the Renault test as a reward for "being the most impressive of Renault's junior drivers during the 2010 season".
I disagree. I guess "competition" means "van der Garde", and I see very little difference of quality between him and D'Ambrosio. Both have a similar pace and experience. I'd say the one who got the most money takes the priority then, quite obviously.
Any million is good to take for a team like Virgin, they were running the worst budget(around $50M AFAIK) in 2010 IIRC.
Taking that into account for the 2nd test Ricciardo would still be 3rd as he was 1.1 seconds faster then Vettels time on a track thats around 1.5 seconds faster.
Apparently, Mark Webber fractured his shoulder before the Japanese GP and chose not to tell anyone but his trainer. Sheds some light on his tail-off towards the end of the season
If you go having fun doing a risky sport with 4 races to go leading an F1 championship and then complain you didn't have full team support. IMO you kinda end up looking like a fool.
haven't any of these drivers ever heard of patrick depailler ? if you're challenging for a title you don't do anything risky outside the car. especially if you're complaining that your team isn't backing you 100%
