2008 Driver Line Up

[MagpieRacer]

Your point being?

 

[Danny]

BMW have a solid team. Barring an accident (I'm looking at you, Kubica ¬_¬) I can't see him getting one.

 

[Appie]

Well he said that he didnt want to test but to race and now he is saying again for a test contract. Go to LMS or something if you want to race lol

 

[MagpieRacer]

Meh, BMW being a big team now, its probably quite hard to turn down. Plus the fact that Vettel raced from reserve. Kliens probably getting his hopes up.

 

[mipuumal]

Sakon Yamamoto signed as Renault test driver

If they wanted publicity in Japan they could've just signed the Drift King.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Meh, BMW being a big team now, its probably quite hard to turn down. Plus the fact that Vettel raced from reserve. Kliens probably getting his hopes up.

Of another big accident?

Honestly, if something like that happened, Mario Theissen would probably give Asmer a run. He let Vettel have a go at Indy last year, even though hey had Timo Glock in reserve. Sure, Glock had less experience then than Klein does now, but you'd think a driver with some experience would be the natural choice for a race seat. Then Theissen put Vettel behind the wheel and the kid made history.

 

[Blake]

Sakon Yamamoto signed as Renault test driver

If they wanted publicity in Japan they could've just signed the Drift King.

Uh, wow, they’re totally going to rape him and make him the road show mule.

 

[Omnis]

Sakon Yamamoto signed as Renault test driver

If they wanted publicity in Japan they could've just signed the Drift King.

That would've been ultimately awesome.

 

[Muzaffar]

Good thing its Sakon Yamamoto and not Yuji Ide. God knows what he would do if he gets into an F1 car..... Although I feel they could let some better rookies from GP2 have the test driver role instead of another F1 driver (let alone, an unexperienced one...) Don't know though, it could be something, something for sure.....

 

[Metar]

God knows what he would do if he gets into an F1 car.....

He got into one.

Although I feel they could let some better rookies from GP2(let alone, an unexperienced one...)

Your sentence makes no sense. Either he's a rookie, in which case he's inexperienced and deserves a shot, or he isn't, in which case he doesn't? Test-drivers are used by many teams as PR-machines, which completely defies their purpose: Improving the car. Alexander Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa and Luca Badoer are examples of real, efficient test-drivers. Perhaps past their prime, but have a wealth of experience and knowledge. They may be over 30, some with a rather long racing-career, but they deserve a test-driver's role far more than a snot-nosed GP2 driver gunning for the big thing - they know, they don't earn their fame by doing burnouts at the BMW Pitpark.

I don't see why Yamamoto deserves that role any less than other drivers, apart from having already proven himself to be crap - he still has more experience than a GP2 driver and as such would be a better test-driver. Now, we all know he's not going to be the main tester (Alonso'll do that, probably), but rather a roadshow slave - in which case, yes, a GP2 driver might be the better candidate. I still think Renault just need to get a regular, full-time, capable development-driver.

Or, as mipuumal suggested, Keiichi Tsuchiya would be the best roadshow driver imaginable.

 

[Muzaffar]

Okay, sorry Metar for the confusion. Maybe I should say it in a better way. For all I know, Sakon is has some experience in F1 (having raced for 2 years in F1) but I think he would not help out the team enough because he still needs to learn more about F1. Maybe I might be underrating him as a driver, but he just doesn't have that something special..... You know, he's always been outperformed by his teammate (both by Takuma and Sutil) so that doesn't help much does it? But a roadshow slave you say? Don't know much about that, but meh, I guess that wouldn't bother much with the development of the team does it?