Ferrari announcment in next hour about new Driver???
Discussion
Source - Autosport http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78280
Giancarlo Fisichella will be the second Ferrari driver from the Italian Grand Prix after he was released by his Force India team on Thursday.
Following days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.
The switch of Fisichella comes on the back of his impressive second placed finish at the Belgian Grand Prix for the Silverstone-based team.
Giancarlo Fisichella will be the second Ferrari driver from the Italian Grand Prix after he was released by his Force India team on Thursday.
Following days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.
The switch of Fisichella comes on the back of his impressive second placed finish at the Belgian Grand Prix for the Silverstone-based team.
Edited by Wanta996Gotta on Thursday 3rd September 14:53
Wanta996Gotta said:
Giancarlo Fisichella will be the second Ferrari driver from the Italian Grand Prix after he was released by his Force India team on Thursday.
Following days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.
The switch of Fisichella comes on the back of his impressive second placed finish at the Belgian Grand Prix for the Silverstone-based team.
it would be irresistable for an Italian to get a chance to drive for Ferrari at Monza! especially so late in his careerFollowing days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.
The switch of Fisichella comes on the back of his impressive second placed finish at the Belgian Grand Prix for the Silverstone-based team.
if it also resolves the apparent debts Force India have with Ferrari... then you can understand why FI have released him.
Giancarlo Fisichella will be the second Ferrari driver from the Italian Grand Prix after he was released from his contract by his Force India team on Thursday.
Following days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.
The team said that discussions with Ferrari began in the last 24 hours, once it became clear that Massa was out for the season. Force India owner Dr Vijay Mallya said: "Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari.
"For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this. Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo's long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardise this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India."
Force India is understood to have outstanding debts with Ferrari left over from its customer engine supply deal that ended last year - but Mallya said that commercial factors did not have a role in the outcome.
"We would like to stress that we have not agreed any financial settlement with Ferrari," he said. "This agreement has been made in good faith and for the good of Giancarlo and the sport in general. A competitive Italian driver in a Ferrari for Monza is a positive story for Formula 1, which can only help raise the sport's profile in these difficult times.
"We would like to thank Giancarlo for all his help over the past one and a half seasons and for delivering us our first World Championship points last weekend. He has been an integral part of the team and we owe him a great deal for his input behind the scenes and performance out on track. We wish him all the best for the future.
"For Force India, this sport is a team effort and removing one part, even a major one, will not significantly affect our performance. The competitiveness of the team seen in Belgium was a result of hard work in the factory and wind tunnel and we have further developments coming for the final races, so we are confident this momentum can be sustained. We are now looking forward to a strong finish to the season."
Force India has not made a decision who will drive alongside Adrian Sutil for the rest of the season, although it is expected that Vitantonio Liuzzi will step up from his test drive role.
Following days of speculation about who would line up alongside Kimi Raikkonen now that Felipe Massa is out for the season, Force India confirmed that Fisichella would switch teams from the Italian Grand Prix.
The team said that discussions with Ferrari began in the last 24 hours, once it became clear that Massa was out for the season. Force India owner Dr Vijay Mallya said: "Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari.
"For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this. Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo's long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardise this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India."
Force India is understood to have outstanding debts with Ferrari left over from its customer engine supply deal that ended last year - but Mallya said that commercial factors did not have a role in the outcome.
"We would like to stress that we have not agreed any financial settlement with Ferrari," he said. "This agreement has been made in good faith and for the good of Giancarlo and the sport in general. A competitive Italian driver in a Ferrari for Monza is a positive story for Formula 1, which can only help raise the sport's profile in these difficult times.
"We would like to thank Giancarlo for all his help over the past one and a half seasons and for delivering us our first World Championship points last weekend. He has been an integral part of the team and we owe him a great deal for his input behind the scenes and performance out on track. We wish him all the best for the future.
"For Force India, this sport is a team effort and removing one part, even a major one, will not significantly affect our performance. The competitiveness of the team seen in Belgium was a result of hard work in the factory and wind tunnel and we have further developments coming for the final races, so we are confident this momentum can be sustained. We are now looking forward to a strong finish to the season."
Force India has not made a decision who will drive alongside Adrian Sutil for the rest of the season, although it is expected that Vitantonio Liuzzi will step up from his test drive role.
patmahe said:
Delighted for Fisi, an under-rated driver if you ask me, and deserving of his chance.
Same here, all the best to him.Judging by the press release it's been a fairly amicable affair (though I suspect FI had little option), which is nice to see for a change.
Edited by Stu R on Thursday 3rd September 15:14
Considering the guys experience in F1 and his age, this really must be an absolutely unmissable opportunity for him.
Absolutely stoked for the guy since he drove the backside off the F.I. at Spa.
I guess the slight irony in the situation is that if you based everything on the Spa race, he is actually going to a slower car.
Absolutely stoked for the guy since he drove the backside off the F.I. at Spa.
I guess the slight irony in the situation is that if you based everything on the Spa race, he is actually going to a slower car.
spend said:
The cynical side of me does wonder if the 'last 24 hours' and 'any financial settlement' statements... are specifically to avoid any investigation of how easily KR took the lead at Spa and how strange it appeared that FI didn't appear to try very hard strategically to take a win? 
I think that was something to do with KERSgreat result for fizzy and also liuzzi.
tbh, i would rather have seen what kubi was capable of, and then put klien (another good driver imo) into the BMW seat, but either would have been preferable to badoer staying.
but what happens to fisi for next year - takes a back seat into test driver role? to be honest, it's probably the best place for a test driver to be. badoer out of ferrari? they won't need gene and badoer and fisi and occasionally michael... (and bianchi / bortolotti)
tbh, i would rather have seen what kubi was capable of, and then put klien (another good driver imo) into the BMW seat, but either would have been preferable to badoer staying.
but what happens to fisi for next year - takes a back seat into test driver role? to be honest, it's probably the best place for a test driver to be. badoer out of ferrari? they won't need gene and badoer and fisi and occasionally michael... (and bianchi / bortolotti)
Excellent news - and i told you.
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