Let's talk about......

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HF
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Let's talk about......

Post by HF »

...2008

Well, 2008 is a strange thing for F1. There are so many things that could happen. Now I count the facts we know:

[*]Ralf Schumacher won't drive for Toyota in 2008
[*]Sebastien Bourdais instead of drives for Scuderia Toro Rosso
[*]Valencia will come
[*]The FIA CAN exclude McLaren
[*]New team: Prodrive (if Richards will get everything right)

What'S with the drivers that have a contract in their team?:

McLaren-Mercedes
#1 Hamilton
#2 TBA

Ferrari
#3 Kimi Räikkönen
#4 TBA

BMW
#5 Heidfeld
#6 Kubica

Renault
#7 TBA
#8 TBA

Williams
#9 TBA (Wurz)
#10 TBA

Red Bull
#11 David Coulthard
#12 TBA (Webber)

Toyota
#14 Jarno Trulli
#15 TBA

Super Aguri
#16 Takuma Sato
#17 TBA (Davidson)

Honda
#18 Jenson Button
#19 Rubens Barrichello

Spyker
#20 Adrian Sutil
#21 TBA

Toro Rosso
#22 Sebastian Vettel
#23 Sebastien Bourdais

Prodrive
#25 TBA (de la Rosa)
#26 TBA
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AD
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by AD »

Well, according to Jean Todt this weekend, both Räikkönen and Massa have Ferrari contracts for 2008.

Rosberg is always rumored to go somewhere else, but he and Williams have always been saying the same, that there's a contract.

RBR already confirmed Coulthard and Webber for 2008.

The rest might not fall into place until after the end of the season, if Ron Dennis is saying "now is not the time" to talk about stuff like that.
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Greyhead
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Greyhead »

Ah, the old silly season! I'd like to see Gary Paffett get a seat at Prodrive, if it is a McLaren B-team as rumoured. Obviously he has links with McLaren and Mercedes, he's young and most importantly he's quick!
Glad to see that the less good Schumacher is leaving Toyota, hopefully that's his F1 career over, I'm sure he's a very nice bloke and everything but I've never rated him. It'd be nice to see Sutil in that seat if Toyota can get their act together and produce a decent car...
I can't really see Fisichella staying at Renault, but I imagine another team would offer him a seat. Williams or Toyota I reckon would be most likely. Kovaleinen would probably stay, and maybe Alonso will find his way back there, but I can't really see him going anywhere other than a competive team, something which Renault have not been this season.
Personally I hope Alonso stays at McLaren with Hamilton, their battles could be utterly awesome next season, especially if Hamilton has the #1 on his car. Alonso would have a real point to prove and it could be explosive!
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Greyhead »

Some more news: Alex Wurz has announced his retirement at the end of this season. Apparently he made the decision to retire after the Canadian GP (where he finished 3rd) but decided to carry on out of respect for Williams. So who will replace him? According to sources, Adrian Sutil, Nelson Angelo Piquet and Kazuki Nakajima are most likely.

And Chevrolet's WTCC team have stongly denied rumours linking the less talented Schumacher brother to them next season. So that means he'll be driving a Lacetti in 2008...
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Greyhead »

So Ferrari have re-signed Massa till 2010. Presumably that means no Alonso for the Italians then. Personally I'd like to see him go to a less successful team and turn it around like Schumacher did to Ferrari (Toyota perhaps?) because I think if anyone of the current grid could do it, it would be him. It would mean effectively writing off the next couple of seasons though, which obviously would be a shame for such a talented driver, but I think it would be very interesting.

All just conjecture of course, I don't think for a million years that it would actually happen!
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by HF »

Greyhead wrote:So Ferrari have re-signed Massa till 2010. Presumably that means no Alonso for the Italians then. Personally I'd like to see him go to a less successful team and turn it around like Schumacher did to Ferrari (Toyota perhaps?) because I think if anyone of the current grid could do it, it would be him. It would mean effectively writing off the next couple of seasons though, which obviously would be a shame for such a talented driver, but I think it would be very interesting.

All just conjecture of course, I don't think for a million years that it would actually happen!
Well, this was a thought of me one month ago too! It would be very very very nice but I think it's unrealable.... :(
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Coloni »

What's exactly going to happen to Spyker? Some Indian steel-giant took them over but is he going to rename the team? I expect so as Spyker Cars are now completely out of it.

Can't say I will miss Ralf, the last years weren't very spectacular
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Greyhead »

It'll still be called Spyker, it's not just Vijay Mallya who owns it, it's a consortium which includes him and former Spyker Cars boss Michiel Mol. Basically it just means it's separate from the road car company which has been going through some financial trouble, so if that goes out of business it won't affect the F1 team.
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by HF »

Well, today Ralf announced that he will drive 2008 in F1. But he said no details... 8-[
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Greyhead »

Who could afford his salary though? I can't see him sticking around.
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by HF »

Greyhead wrote:Who could afford his salary though? I can't see him sticking around.
I don't know. The mystic thing is that I didn't read anything in the I-net, I only heard it in the radio... :?:
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by AD »

Well, Ralf apparently said that to a big German newspaper that at least among some Germans has a certain reputation... :wink:

Among some other things, he claims he knows (I'm translating these bits here, of course...) "certain things that make me sleep easy", he adds he "just can't talk about that yet", mentioning he "also" couldn't talk about his move to Toyota for about half a year, so this seems to be in a context of him possibly already knowing where he's going to drive next year, but it might still take some time before an announcement will be made.

He's also commenting on the "money issue" if you want to call it that way, effectively saying that money is not a priority for him as long as it's clear he would not want having to pay to drive somewhere.

I think if that's his take on things, there still might be some options for him to remain in Formula 1, but I'm skeptic if these options (or whatever concrete option he seems to definitively know about, but just can't comment on yet) will put him in any better position than the one he's in with Toyota right now.
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Greyhead »

So it seems I was wrong about Spyker being called Spyker in 2008. Force India F1? What sort of name is that? Doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. "And there goes the Force India F1 Ferrari...". I hope this won't be the name of the chassis as well!
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Coloni
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by Coloni »

Greyhead wrote:So it seems I was wrong about Spyker being called Spyker in 2008. Force India F1? What sort of name is that? Doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. "And there goes the Force India F1 Ferrari...". I hope this won't be the name of the chassis as well!
According to a dutch newspaper, the former-manager of Albers who is still connected to Spyker in some way, thought out this name, it's even Force 1ndia...
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Re: Let's talk about......

Post by TdK »

Coloni wrote:
Greyhead wrote:So it seems I was wrong about Spyker being called Spyker in 2008. Force India F1? What sort of name is that? Doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. "And there goes the Force India F1 Ferrari...". I hope this won't be the name of the chassis as well!
According to a dutch newspaper, the former-manager of Albers who is still connected to Spyker in some way, thought out this name, it's even Force 1ndia...
The man behind the name is lodewijk Varossieau. He is from gr8.industries which is still a sponsor from Spyker F1. And indeed he was Albers former manager.
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