2013 United States Grand Prix *** Spoilers ***

Apparently they offered Kimi's vacant USA & Brazil seat to the Hulk who went as far as to have a seat fitting but ultimately declined the offer in favour of seeing out the season at Sauber.

They say that he remains in "the frame" for the 2014 deal, although it seems to me that some alarm bells (or false pizzerias) may be ringing in his head.

J i m Wrote:
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> There's no real omph behind the Kovalainen rumour,
> as far as I can make out it's basically simply
> Salo suggesting that's it what he would do.
>
> Logistically, it's going to be Valesecchi.


It seems like it is already 100% sure Heikki will drive.

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

Indeed, I may have bazingered on that

Quote
IWE
It seems like it is already 100% sure Heikki will drive.

I think it's just people putting 2 and 2 together from the scraps (Salo's suggestion, Heikki's apparently excessive training this week, etc).

But to be honest, other than the Hulk, he's the obvious choice if they want to try to give themselves a small chance of 2nd or 3rd. It's a heck of an ask of whoever comes in though, and I can only imagine they'll be struggling to get into Q2.

Lol what a shame: [www.welt.de]

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

If they wanted to go for experience, would have preferred Glock to take the drive, but I guess Kovalainen had the experience driving for Caterham on a few Fridays to keep him fresh, and knows more of the team from his stint there in 2007.

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X (@ed24f1)

Seriously, what is the purpose of having a third driver if you won't pick him in a situation like this.

GP2 is quickly losing its purpose in a similar way to F3000.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Ferrari2007 Wrote:
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> Seriously, what is the purpose of having a third
> driver if you won't pick him in a situation like
> this.
>
> GP2 is quickly losing its purpose in a similar way
> to F3000.


I know, I feel sorry for Valsecchi

He was champion in a series with van der Garde, Gutierrez and Chilton, and they all got race seats!

He actually made a very interesting quote about that in a piece I wrote up last week.

“It should be that the champion of the second division gets an F1 race seat, but in this world this is not the way the story is always written.”

“I hope for Leimer that he will have a seat in F1 next year.

“It is not easy to get into the 22 best drivers in the world, but considering some drivers like [Esteban] Gutierrez, [Giedo] van der Garde and [Max] Chilton had the luck to get a place, I hope for Leimer that he will be there – and me as well!”

Obviously it winds him up that even though he won the title, he missed out on a seat.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Ferrari2007 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seriously, what is the purpose of having a third
> driver if you won't pick him in a situation like
> this.
>
> GP2 is quickly losing its purpose in a similar way
> to F3000.

Thanks to current testing limitations there is no purpose..

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2013 03:15PM by IWE.

Quote
Ferrari2007
Seriously, what is the purpose of having a third driver if you won't pick him in a situation like this.

They're more there for simulator work and cover for a driver if he falls ill before third practice, when it would ordinarily be too late to do a deal like this (I can only remember de la Rosa moving from McLaren to Sauber in plain racing gear to cover for Perez in Montreal after he felt dizzy following his Monaco crash).

I was me to believe that the 'Development Driver' did the vast majority of the simulator work.

So in Lotus' case that's Nicolas Prost.

You are right though, I'm sure Valsecchi and D'Ambrosio will do simulator work as well.

I know it'll sound naive, but I honestly feel for Davide Valsecchi here. That was almost certainly the best chance he ever had of racing in Formula One.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Some teams have many drivers doing simulator work for them.

Ferrari

De la Rosa, Gene, Fisichella and whole host of young development drivers

McLaren

Paffet, Turvey, Magunessen, Vandoorne, various other young drivers

Mercedes

Bird, Davidson, Kubica!

Lotus

Valeschecci, Prost, lots of other randoms with money

Force India

Rossiter, Calado, Daly etc

Kovalainen is confirmed as moving from Lotus to Lotus.

Heikki Kovalainen confirmed by Lotus!

Well Valsecchi isn't very happy is he. Don't think that it'll do him much good making comments like that though will it.

[richlandf1.com]

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Can't blame him at all! again, what is the point of hiring a reserve driver when they don't get to step in when the chance arises?????? Ferrari 1999 - they actually put Badoer at Minardi to keep him fresh should he need to step in at Ferrari, then Schuey breaks his leg and they take Salo. Perez misses Canada '11 and its De la Rosa not Gutierez.

Bizarre FP1 session... fog and dodgy choppers.

But some impressive performances to note...

Bottas p3.. less than a tenth off the pace, I mean where the @#$%& did that come from?
Kovalainen, respectably close to Grosjean
Kyvat, only a couple of tenths of Ricciardo

Yeah, the weather seems to be unusually bad for this location at the moment - more like Europe at this time than the southern USA.
Let's see how FP2 works out.

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JB has picked up a three-place grid penalty for passing under the red flag.

Whoops.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions