Lotus F1

Actually there were 6 rookies in 2005 methinks...Jordan and Minardi both opted completely for rookies that year.

There were 8 in 1997 if you count all the drivers who were added during the season like Fontana

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

i doubt there will be 6 rookies, you'd think drivers like de la rosa, klien, sato, pantano etc. could offer good experience to any new team.

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X (@ed24f1)

Dunno...I think it could really depend on who comes in and what form they take; For instance if Lola enter and they Irish it up, a natural choice would be Adam Carroll, tested for BAR before and he seems upbeat about getting a seat next season. USGPE will presumably want US drivers (although I reckon there's a chance they'll extend this to American continent drivers/foreign drivers who have big portfolios in the US; Bourdais could get rescued by them for instance). Senna's been linked with Lotus.

It's all really up in the air though, and if teams do have the money, driver salaries have been excluded from the budget cap, so experienced out-of-a-job drivers could well nab the seats. At 30/40 mil, pay-drives won't be as prevalent as they used be.

The Lopper Wrote:
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> Dunno...I think it could really depend on who
> comes in and what form they take; For instance if
> Lola enter and they Irish it up, a natural choice
> would be Adam Carroll, tested for BAR before and
> he seems upbeat about getting a seat next season.
> USGPE will presumably want US drivers (although I
> reckon there's a chance they'll extend this to
> American continent drivers/foreign drivers who
> have big portfolios in the US; Bourdais could get
> rescued by them for instance). Senna's been linked
> with Lotus.
>
> It's all really up in the air though, and if teams
> do have the money, driver salaries have been
> excluded from the budget cap, so experienced
> out-of-a-job drivers could well nab the seats. At
> 30/40 mil, pay-drives won't be as prevalent as
> they used be.

Bourdais would be a big big waste of time for USGPE.

Speaing of pay drivers, when was the last time we had one? Who was paying after Diniz?

A lot were paying after Diniz. It'd be easier to ask which rookies haven't paid for their seat after Diniz.

Practically all Minardi drivers since 1998... lets see. Tuero, Mazzacane, Young for example, and then it was Albers, Yamamoto, not sure about Yuji Ide

Did Alonso pay as well?

Alonso was managed by Flavio, so the seat was effectively bought for him.

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Alonso was managed by Flavio, so the seat was
> effectively bought for him.


so when did we have the last pay driver? also surely Webber wasnt a pay driver?

it depends on the definition of a pay driver.

many drivers in recent years have 'paid' for their drives with sponsor money, but does that count?

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X (@ed24f1)

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Alonso was managed by Flavio, so the seat was
> effectively bought for him.


not at the time, when alonso was a minardi driver his manager was giancarlo minardi, after 2-3 races they sold his contract to Flavio for a huge sum to finance the rest of the season

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> it depends on the definition of a pay driver.
>
> many drivers in recent years have 'paid' for their
> drives with sponsor money, but does that count?


yes I doubt anyone payed for a drive out of their own bank account, its always been sponsor money, at least from mid 90's.

Heidfeld drove for free at Jordan, so he indirectly, he paid for it. I think Diniz' rich daddy paid for him. And didn't Justin Wilson sell shares of himself to raise money for a seat?

Yes, he ran in Minardi, then in Jaguar and then he had no money and went to... Champ Cars!

Diniz's daddies money didn't just pay for him, it paid for Damon Hill in 1997 as well.

The Lopper Wrote:
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> Diniz's daddies money didn't just pay for him, it
> paid for Damon Hill in 1997 as well.


I was reading about Diniz a while ago, company called Parmalat paid for him, it is not his dads company.

Also i have a feeling we will never really know who paid for who with what unless you are friends with on the team bosses for who the driver drove for. Many of these things are guesstimate rumours, just like what drivers are earning.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2009 10:25PM by gin.

I think the arrangement was for Parmalat to sponsor Diniz in exchange for his dad giving Parmalat a prominent position in the supermarket chain that he owned (ownes?). I doubt that any money from Diniz's family was directly paid to his teams.

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gin, your sig is really disturbing, I much preferred your last one!

tripleM's got it, Diniz was sponsored by Parmalat, the sponsorship was achieved through his father who owned a supermarket chain and is a billionaire. Whether or not Diniz Snr actually paid any money over I can't tell, but effectively it was he who pulled the seat for Diniz Jnr.