Alguersuari claims Bourdais has lost his seat!

The only thing I don't get with F1 contracts is why does the FIA force a driver to stay with a team, like the Buttongate things a few years ago but do not force a team to keep the driver til the end of contract?

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Contract means absolutely nothing. He'll threaten
> to take Red Bull to court, they'll throw a couple
> of million at him and he'll stfu.

Which is pretty much what I was on about. For his own dignity he has to get some sort of compensation out of it, even if it's only a token gesture. I'd actually laugh myself silly if he landed his drive back or got a massive payout out of it.

Then he is an idiot. It isn't possible for us to all know and he doesn't unless he walks everywhere with his head in a bucket of sand. He knew of the situation, he knew he had to perform, and he performed far worse than usual. Maybe that just goes to show how good he is under pressure - just like Le Mans, just like Sebring.

Okay, true. In that respect he perhaps should have raised his game but I can imagine it being the hardest thing to do when your confidence is low.

What if there is a performance clause, and STR can actually boot him. After his poor debut year I'd expect there to be some sort of clause written in given how many other drivers Red Bull have available.

In the same way I expect there to be a clause concerning the teams performance. Clearly they have not understood the car aswell as RedBull, just aswell for Mclaren and Ferrari and Brawn! But STR have fankly been off the pace to where they probably should have been.

At the end of the day Bourdais has not shown why he should be in F1. At no point has he looked even remotely as good as he should, and recently he has just been getting worse. You can't keep a driver on the hope he might improve. After a year and a half of mediocre performances it is time to give someone else a shot.

He hasnt been fantastic but last year had alot of bad luck when it good strong posistions. Not quite as strong as Vettel but not many can match that I bet. Spa just being one example. I felt he did enough to earn his seat for 09, and yes he has disapointed this year with some poor performances, but its been with a poor team. You know aswell I that both Bourdais and Buemi should have scored more than the 7 or so points they have. IMO both drivers have underperformed. I can accept Bourdais being replaced, because he has been the worse. But I just think its very silly of STR to replace him with a driver who's never driven an F1 car around a track. Its not just the driving experience he lacks but mainly its the fact that he is being pitted against 21 drivers in a furious battle for 60odd laps. Mistakes will happen and these mistakes could effect other drivers and teams. Had he driven a couple of test sessions then mistakes would be less probable. Not only that but the reason they have not unlocked the true potential of there could be down to the drivers. Putting the least experienced pairing into a race winning car is just complete lunacy and a complete waste!

If the guy can qualify in the top 15 (with the new car) id be impressed. If he can finish with no faults id be even more impressed.

Renault fan - With Button the FIA did not foce him to stay. It was infact Button who wanted to stay. There was a clear miscommunication between Jenson and his previous management. Without Buttons knowing they went and courted a Williams seat. Button infact paid not to be at Williams. tbh I dont think many people, except Button understand the real going ons about that.

Lopper - id laugh if the payout he gets is the cash STR earn from repsol la caxia!!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2009 05:28PM by chet.

Chet but you can compare Bourdais to Buemi. Buemi is a complete rookie in F1 in every sense of the word. Bourdais time in Champ Car pretty much covers all the time Buemi has had in his racing career, excluding karts!

Button only bought out his contract at Williams as the situation had completely changed from when he signed

Williams in 2004 looked like the better chance for his career, but by mid 2005 they had lost BMW to Sauber for 2006 and were having huge problems with there car aerodynamically

It made more sense to stay at BAR/Honda by then, so he bought out his contract

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

"Spanish media claim he is backed by the oil company Repsol as well as La Caixa, Spain's leading savings bank.

Press sources claim the companies are advancing Two million Euros to the Faenza-based team, guaranteeing Alguersuari the race seat for the forthcoming Hungarian and European Grand Prix.

Even if Toro Rosso decides to oust the rookie after Valencia, the team is able to keep the Spanish sponsorship funds, the newspaper Diario AS reported."


Should that be true, it surely leaves the door open for some exhibition drives by Loeb, Sato, Pantano etc. If he is struggling, it could damage his career forever - one of the major problems of the testing ban. Marc Gene has said that Jaime is facing "the most difficult debut in the history"

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X (@ed24f1)

The teams are limited by the amount of drivers they run, 4 is the max. They have run two already, a 3rd in Hungary so one left after Jamie.

[irl.gpupdate.net]

"The guy was a misery even when he had the best car and was winning everything,"

LOL! About the ride it would be a shame but then motorsport is a shame now. Its not good you are but how deep your poceket is!!!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

That's odd I always got the impression that Tracy and Bourdais were the best of friends.

until they say the contrary, contracts and rights are to be respected no matter the place and time ... from the start, the team knew the characteristics of those who hired and did nothing to solve a request (neutral car) as soon not respected in the contract and so can be legally prosecuted for bourdais :p

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RELEASE => Physics (under FIA Technical Regulations)
MagicDatas? Setups? Pit Stop Strategies? Track Specific Performances? Up2Date GP?
Power Torque Curve? Where's this stuff? All download is available at ..

If there's any performance clauses in Bourdais' contract, and he's broken them, then they're quite right to let him go. If there's none, they're not. But again, contracts can be, ahem, interpreted differently.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Looks like it's official, bit of a non-event, but yeah.

[www.formula1.com]

Now that it's confirmed, I'm looking forward to this actually. Let's see how someone with very little expereince can cope with today's F1 cars. He might be another Kimi Raikonnen, we never know! Because Kimi had only had a few races' worth of single seater experience when he moved to F1, and he had a very good debut in Australia. Pulled out some good qualifying laps and overtakes, if I've found out right.

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2009 01:23PM by flat tyre.

True, but Kimi at least had some testing under his belt, didn't he? Alguersuari will have very little to none. Well, I'm curious to see him.

So F1 will get its youngest-ever driver. A good stat, let's see how he goes.
He must be pretty damn good if Toro Rosso are prepared to parachute him straight into the race seat like this.

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Baby Alonso? No.....in your dreams!

Well thank God he's starting at Hungary and not two races later at Spa. Nevertheless, with two of the fastest GPs and two tricky street races coming up over the next 5 races, it's a baptism of fire. I fully expect to see some armco flying.

I doubt where he starts matters much to him. He'd never driven the British F3 cars until his debut year, and had never driven any of the tracks. He was still champion quite comfortably.

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tbh you cant compare F3 to F1. He had driven Spanish F3 so the cars werent new to him, he also went into the best team and it was no wonder 3 of his team-mates finished 2nd and 3rd (Hartley and someone else I think).

Besides that the F3 field has been pretty sub-standard latley. The prestige of the British F3 championship has deffinatley dropped over the years. I'd say him Hartley and Bird are pretty decent but other than i'd say the Euroseries has been fielding the talent.

Lopper, as long as its armco and none of the other cars its okay! Thats my only real concern, otherwise I reckon he wont be far of Buemi.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

heck, for all we know he could drive a stunning race in spa liek schumacher, and end up signing up for bmw next season.

nobody knows until he races!


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

danm Wrote:
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> heck, for all we know he could drive a stunning
> race in spa liek schumacher, and end up signing up
> for bmw next season.
>
> nobody knows until he races!

The way things currently are, that'd be career suicide. :P

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