F1 silly season

[EauRouge]

It's getting very silly now with these rumours of Alonso going to Red Bull- can't see it happening. I hope it won't be Kimi either. Seb needs a good number 2 behind him, someone that won't challenge him for the championship. I reckon Ricciardo is Red Bull's best bet.

With the most hillarious tweet “@Lotus_F1Team: You never forget your first time... twitter.com/Lotus_F1Team/status/406453321109471233/photo/1”

Just read that Lotus have confirmed Maldonado and am gutted - not really a surprise to be honest as Rafael Ramirez wanted that to be the case and presumably the oft-promised Quantum money still not appeared so time obviously running out leaving the team with Hobsons choice. Still, at least the team know a good sports psychologist!!! done wonders for Grosjean, although dealing with Maldonado's ego and lack of talent could be one bridge too far.

Such a shame that the power of money has influenced their decision rather than talent and this is the 'test case' everyone was talking about that shows the current shortcomings in F1. Lotus have now gone from having one of the most popular drivers on the grid to one of the least, so cant see that it will enhance their profile or encourage new sponsors as Maldonado is quite frankly a PR disaster and hardly a good ambassador for his country. Bet Williams were glad to be shot of him and suspect he would have been the one left out of the drivers musical chairs had he not been dragging his sack of gold with him.

Wonder if Eric Bouillier will stay at Lotus? Had a rough year last year balancing the books and all the other things going on, but at least he had the comfort of knowing he had Kimi (one of the best on the grid) and an ever improving Romain. Apparently PDSVA were trying to 'ring fence' their contribution to ensure it is used to develop Maldonado's car rather than being used to pay back the loans to Genii, but the 2014 car may not be as good as the previous two years as James Allison not involved in their development, so it would be poetic justice of a kind if after all Maldonado's smirking he gets a duff car when he has been thinking he will get one of the calibre of the E21.

Presume everyone else will now confirm their line-up, although many are an open secret, as the bottle neck of the Lotus drive is now cleared.

Ugh, not bloody Maldonado.

Just wondering if anyone knew the background on Maldonado on how he has got this sponsorship, especially now Hugo Chavez the country's president is dead. Does his father work for PDSVA in senior role or something? Is he related to Chavez? Anyone know????

Something dodgy is going on, that's for sure. I hope Lotus are getting a shitload of money from PDVSA because they'll need it to repair all the cars that Maldonado crashes.

Sounds as though Eric Bouillier is stuck between a rock and a hard place as the oft promised money from Quantum has still not materialised and is in all likelihood, never going to. He will have to balance the books now the money from their position in the constructors championship is known and start on the outstanding payments, so although the team had wanted to sign Hulkenburg, they were left no choice but to go for the money Maldonado brought.

Unfortunately, I suspect that this choice is going to do them more damage in the longer term as looking at any of the comments posted on F1 sites, very few are pleased that Maldonado has been signed and they could find themselves in a downward spiral if it doesn't attract sponsors. Not to mention the reckless driving - Maldonado may show a turn of speed on occasions, but very rarely is it allied with the intelligence and race craft that marks out the better drivers, so it often means that he doesn't finish a race or loses time to have a nose changed during the race and if the team don't finish in as high a position as this year and win the associated money that goes with it at the end of next year, they could well be in an even more precarious position.

Grosjean has managed to improve, yet still maintain speed, so the only hope that Lotus have IMHO is that the same can, by some miracle, happen with Maldonado. (clutching at straws here!)

Hulk signs with Force India again. I wish one of the top teams would snap him up, he's so talented. I bet he'll replace Alonso at Ferrari once he goes.

Can't believe that comment in the article about PDVSA paying Williams £30 mill a year for Maldonado's seat. £30 mill! That's just embarrassing.

re: £30 million to Williams - only logical explanation as to why Maldonado was there............ same as there are 30 million good reasons he is now at Lotus instead of the Hulk..................

All I can think of is £30 mill and Williams still wanted rid of him.

, then , really good that Eau - says it all, really funny, love it - that's my comment of the day.

Although am sure that Williams were delighted to see the back of Maldonado, he seems to think that he was destined for greater things and that Williams were holding him back and says that he set the wheels in motion (pardon the pun!) to get a move to a better seat. I heard that he favoured Sauber, but that it was PDVSA that wanted him at Lotus, which seemed strange as they already had Total as a major sponsor with Grosjean.

Was surprised at the rumour of Marussia in talks with Williams for a merger as it was said if it had gone through that would have been the end of them, so don't see they had anything to gain by it, unless the idea was that they would run two teams like Red Bull and Torro Rosso do now. Strange times in F1, that's for sure................

I think there's so much uncertainty with the new rules. Next year could be really exciting and unpredictable.

Or Seb will win bloody everything again.

My vote's on a bit of both - it'll star off a bit crazy; we'll see some unexpected drama in the first few races, then Red Bull'll figure their cars out and suddenly Vettel will spring into the lead and no one else will get a look in.

Then, maybe, halfway through the season it'll be discovered that Red Bull have found a loop hole which is why they're so fast, and the FIA will add more rules and whatnots ready for 2015.

starT ^

2014 Calender now confirmed, 19 races - so have just put all the dates on my calenders and the pre-season test dates. Mostly the usual suspects on the list, addition of Sochi and the expected ones dropped - India, Korea, New Jersey and Mexico. Not impressed with Interlagos being moved the penultimate race and Yas Marina being the season finale as to me the Brazilian Grand Prix really added to the mix - 2012 was one of my favourite races ever.

New rules being revealed.

I don't mind the idea of double points in the last race.

Drivers picking a number for their entire career- that won't cause any arguments, will it I don't see how that will work, will they all re-shuffle when someone retires and there's a new number up for grabs?

Cost cap- I really hope this will see the end of Maldonado pay drivers.

Ah, y'see I don't really like the double points thing. It's setting one race above the others and saying 'this one is special, and also makes the winners' when, as we saw this year, the Drivers' Championship was actually won several races before the final one. Can't remember when the Constructors' Championship was won, so can't work out whether double points would have affected it.

The BBC says that it would have changed 3 out of the last 20 World Championships...

Also not so keen on the minimum of 2 pit stops. Glad that's been rejected. A lot of the interesting tactics this year were tyre-related, and removing the option of trying for a one-stop gets rid of some of the potential for end-of-race drama.

I'm in favour of the cost cap (so long as it doesn't cause any compromises in safety, obviously!) - can't see any issues with that.

And not really that bothered on the numbers. The current numbering system didn't really mean anything as it wasn't fully based on how the drivers finished the previous year - if you'd done really well, but your teammate did crap, you'd both end up with numbers in the middle of the field. Plus they omit the number 13 which strikes me as a bit of a silly superstition. So yeah - let them have their own numbers. Like how Beckham was always number 7 - it totally makes sense for merchandising, and so I can see the thinking.

I'm wondering if they pick crazy numbers like 2010 (if, for example, Vettel wanted to pick the year he first won?)

Also, I'm not looking forward to the chassis changes, just on an aesthetical note... They need to find a way of making the cars aerodynamic and also keeping them looking good. (Stepped nose, I'm looking at you.)

Apparently Seb is going to become a dad very soon, so will be joining the new dads club which includes Horner, Grosjean, Maldonado, Davidson etc. Had to laugh at one of the comments someone had posted - engineered by Newey, directed by Horner.

Crikey, they must be putting something in the champagne.

I think I'm a bit cynical about the double points thing because the championship will be decided long before the last race. So it's pointless. It's like Schumacher all over again, they're introducing all these weird rules to make it more competitive (remember the sprinkler plan?) and none of them will work. So I'm just kind of shrugging.

BBC to show 9 races next year. Is it going to be gradually reduced until we're left with nothing? I hate the Sky coverage.

Gutierrez now confirmed, talk of Kobayashi returning to the grid with Caterham, last few pieces falling into place. PDR shot himself in the foot I feel as he bigged himself up too much when things went well and flirted with teams higher on the grid and criticised his team when things didn't go well, so it looks like he will be left without a seat as the Sauber seat he was in with a chance of has now gone.

Have a feeling that Maldonado is going to end up in the equivalent of his Williams car when at Lotus as a lot of key staff have left. Apparently if they haven't been paid and their contracts have been breached they are not obliged to take 'gardening leave' to take up job offers with other teams and can just go to whoever and wherever. I don't think Lotus's troubles are over yet, sadly, as I like the team and would liked to have seen Kimi stay there, think they were well suited.

Williams are back on the rise I suspect as they have made some important changes with new key personnel and I think Massa is going to do well there, I think he will thrive being out of Alonso's shadow and I think he will like the family atmosphere (plus the fact that Smedley will be there too, cant have one without the other it seems).

Anyone know if the Beeb are doing a season review like Sky are? Cant find it on listings, but seem to remember theirs was around New Year last year, so maybe too soon to be looking for it.

Yes, it's on BBC on the 28th at lunchtime.

Crashy Kobayashi's coming back He's so much fun.

Thanks Eau, have set up all the other F1 stuff on the Sky planner, so will find the Beebs show as it should come into the rolling 7 days listing now.

Don't honestly think that they will do the double points for the final race, just think it is one of Bernie's wily ploys to keep everyone talking about F1 during the winter break....... or at least I hope its one of his cunning plans.........

Have you seen Luca di Monte's Christmas message to the fans yet? Saw it on BBC website, looks like he is planning on Bernie not being around too much longer as he was talking about having a group of people looking after the different aspects of F1 rather than just Bernie controlling everything.

Loved the picture of Kimi at the factory, everyone else dressed in Ferrari red, Kimi dressed in black............ I think Ferrari will have a good car this next season with James Allison's involvement, so will be interesting to see if Red Bull struggle to pull off the Constructors this time as Kimi and Fernando, if given a decent car are both points scoring machines and would both be regulars on the podium.

Hope that Daniel R, having been brought through the Red Bull programme isn't too conditioned to knowing his place in the hierarchy and is able to race freely rather than deferring to Vettel all the time. He really is going to have to hit the ground running. I don't see it as a given that Red Bull will win both trophies this year as too many variables come into play. Some very strong driver pairings, but only if they can keep harmony in the team, so should be in interesting season.

I've been planning on Bernie not being around too much longer for years

Sadly I think Ricciardo is going to be a very clear number 2. Red Bull really need to be thinking ahead though, especially if all the Seb to Ferrari rumours are true.

Maybe the final outcome of the court cases he is involved with will sort it out once and for all. CVC have said that he cant stay if he is charged, but to be honest, I think the sport is ready for change. Bernie secured the future of F1 in the early days when everyone else was risk averse and did a great job, but now I think it is time it evolved again as it has now reached a point where it has to reinvent itself again to survive and move forward.

No longer a chance for teams like those started by Frank Williams and Ken Tyrell or Colin Chapman, basically a man with a dream, it is definitely a corporate affair now where the costs mean that teams need to have the funds supplied by the likes of a company like Red Bull and Mercedes.

Smaller teams like Marussia and Caterham find it hard to move from being back markers to mid-field and the same for the mid-field to move to front of grid. We have basically now got a 3 tier situation. Find it utterly ridiculous that the money doled out at the end of the season is done in the way it is, especially when the two (when HRT were still on the grid) who finished last got nothing. It just means that there is no progression for smaller teams through the ranks to bring in an element of competition to the establishment. Rant over!!!

Yes, I hate all the corporate bullshit. I know that money funds the technology but it shouldn't be at the expense of proper competition. We need a budget cap and we need it soon!

I wish there was less of a circus about the whole thing. I want to see gritty, proper, wheel-to-wheel racing, not a personality-free driver saying nice things so as not to offend the sponsors and then spraying champagne at some models being employed as human billboards.