July's worst kept secret in F1

[rubystone]

Max likes his arse being smacked

sorry


what I mean is "Vettel confirmed at RBR"

here

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69187

[MrKipling43]

Oh my GOD! Who'da thunk it?!

I look forward to seeing him wipe the floor with Webber.

The interesting question I guess is "who will be at STR"?

Bruno Senna maybe, or one of the Red Bull minions?

[deevlash]

I'll bet my house on it being Senna, if str are still about.

[skinny]

RBR aren't that much better (in terms of car anyway) than STR are they?

[rubystone]

I tell you what, the way Senna drove in the 2nd (wet) GP2 race at Silverstone, there is probably more than one team with their eye on him, both from a talent and sponsor perspective.

If the rumours about the Todts buying (into) STR are true, I could see him driving for them...but not if no suitor comes forward for STR.

[zac510]

I love these - it's always the worst kept secret after the announcement is made!

[rubystone]

skinny said:

RBR aren't that much better (in terms of car anyway) than STR are they?

RBR have the infrastructure to run the car that STR still don't really have. I may be wrong, but I think that the only manufacturing facility STR have is the old Minardi (RIP, never forgotten - by me at least) factory at Faenza. I'm not sure whether that has received (any) significant investment in the manufacturing side though.

As a consequence, I'd contend that STR may be even less attractive than Aguri to a potential purchaser, unless the deal includes engines and funding from Red Bull to bring the facility up to spec.

[rubystone]

zac510 said:

I love these - it's always the worst kept secret after the announcement is made!

If you find the time, read my and Mr Kipling's postings on the thread below.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Sometimes people know more than they can reveal - it's a kind of "embargo" thang y'see....and if you break that embargo you don't get thrown any more tidbits (not that there are many tossed out these days - teams are pretty much tight as a drum since some bloke at Mclaren let his wife photocopy some documents)...

[skinny]

with the whole customer car thing i just assumed that STR would have had investment in order to carry on completely independantly of RBR? of course their race engineers and systems / set-up guys will be better at RBR but it's nowhere near the same step-up as going to one of the top three teams i reckon. i can't see them winning a race this year anyway...

[FourWheelDrift]

And there was me thinking it was Tim O'Glocks ongoing transformation into David Coulthard.

Link to story - Glock: "I can be F1 world champion in 2010"

[rubystone]

FourWheelDrift said:

And there was me thinking it was Tim O'Glocks ongoing transformation into David Coulthard.

Link to story - Glock: "I can be F1 world champion in 2010"

[zac510]

Didn't mean to be a personal attack rubystone, just an observation. Someone said it to me the other day about DC's retirement. Even though DC was saying I want to keep racing up until the press release!

[rubystone]

zac510 said:

Didn't mean to be a personal attack rubystone, just an observation. Someone said it to me the other day about DC's retirement. Even though DC was saying I want to keep racing up until the press release!

I didn't take it as one Zak - just wasn't aware of whether you'd linked the two threads together.

DC's retirement was always on the cards though - he only ever signed a one year extension for 2008 and I think that primarily it was the fact that he realised Newey's magic was no longer enough to produce a race winning car in the timescales he had envisaged which helped his decision to retire. He states that he actually made his mind up at the Canadian GP.

[tim the pool man]

MrKipling43 said:

I look forward to seeing him wipe the floor with Webber.
...

:yawn: Just like any other team mate Webber has ever had? Oh, hang on...

[69elan+2]

To be honest after watching Bruno Senna for a while I was thinking he might come into F1 alittle higher than STR.

[MrKipling43]

tim the pool man said:

MrKipling43 said:

I look forward to seeing him wipe the floor with Webber.
...

:yawn: Just like any other team mate Webber has ever had? Oh, hang on...

Let's look back at Mark Webber's esteemed team mates shall we?

2002 at Minardi: Alex Yoong
2003 at Jaguar: Antonio Pizzonia
2004 at Jaguar: Christian Klien
2005 at Williams: Nick Heidfeld (I'll give you that one)
2006 at Williams: Nico Rosberg (Nico was a rookie and he only scored three more points than him)
2007 at Red Bull: Beaten by DC
2008 at Red Bull: Beating a man who's retiring. Bully for Mark.

It's hardly a a roll call of talent is it?!

Webber is the definition of mediocrity. He runs his mouth - constantly - but never really does anything to back up all that talk.

Edited by MrKipling43 on Friday 18th July 16:21

[Gold]

Webber is 8th at the moment, 1 place off being the best of the rest, beating amongst others Alonso. Whilst he may not be WDC material I have been very impressed with his consistency and I could see him as an excellent 2nd driver at one of the top teams if he ever got the opportunity.

[Scuffers]

Gold said:

Webber is 8th at the moment, 1 place off being the best of the rest, beating amongst others Alonso. Whilst he may not be WDC material I have been very impressed with his consistency and I could see him as an excellent 2nd driver at one of the top teams if he ever got the opportunity.

up to this year he has under-perfomed consistently...

this year he seems to have got better, but his race pace is not up to his qualy prommises

[Fivepercent]

On current form you would wonder why Red Bull don't sell off RBR and keep STR.

Bordais and Vettel both look like they could be F1 race winners.
Webber and Coulthard look like they are there to make up the numbers.

The Ferrari engine is well up on the Renault engine
And that Italian name sounds a lot sexier.

[Airbag]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!