2008 Driver Line Up

[Blake]

It wasn’t exactly Renault’s choice to lose Alonso, you know.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Yeah, but being the "favoured son", you'd think Flavio could fight harder to keep Alonso.

 

[Alfaholic]

Yeah, but being the "favoured son", you'd think Flavio could fight harder to keep Alonso.

Didn't Briatore, as Alonso's manager, advise Alonso to take the McLaren deal?

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Didn't Briatore, as Alonso's manager, advise Alonso to take the McLaren deal?

I think that Flav stood to gain from Alonso going to McLaren. 20%, that is.

Plus he gets to place another of his drivers in a race seat, and another in a test seat...

 

[Metar]

And at the time, if I'm not mistaken, Renault wasn't in a position to match and surpass that deal...

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Autosport reports that Trulli has signed with Toyota for 2008.

 

[<_Spike_>]

Well reportedly Hamilton and Alonso have made a little peace pact and found a constructive way to get on with it...hopefully that's that and it won't effect next years lineup, doubt that it would anyway mind you

 

[Metar]

As Niki Lauda commentated during Saturday Practice - "Wer das glaubt, muss sein kopf checken lassen" - "Anyone who believes that should go have himself checked".

 

[mipuumal]

According to a finnish newspaper Timo Glock will be replacing Ralf Schumacher at Toyota next season.

Don't see it on autosport.com so I don't know if it's credible.

 

[livemusic]

Spanish newspaper AS says that Nelsinho Piquet and Heikki Kovalainen will be announced as Renault's drivers for 2008 in Monza. Fisichella would go to Williams, replacing Wurz who would join Prodrive. If there's a Prodrive team next year that is.

http://www.as.com/articulo/motor/Nelsinho/Kovalainen/Renault/2008/dasmot/20070826dasdaimot_7/Tes/

 

[prisonermonkeys]

According to a finnish newspaper Timo Glock will be replacing Ralf Schumacher at Toyota next season.

Don't see it on autosport.com so I don't know if it's credible.

Is it too soon to break out the Moet? Maybe we should wait for official confirmation first ...

Spanish newspaper AS says that Nelsinho Piquet and Heikki Kovalainen will be announced as Renault's drivers for 2008 in Monza. Fisichella would go to Williams, replacing Wurz who would join Prodrive. If there's a Prodrive team next year that is.

http://www.as.com/articulo/motor/Nelsinho/Kovalainen/Renault/2008/dasmot/20070826dasdaimot_7/Tes/

Yeah, I recall Dave Ricahrds was going to make an announcement back at the British Grand Prix. Which, quite obviously, didn't happen, with no explanation as to why ...

 

[Metar]

The German "Bild" joins the Glock-speculators:

http://formula-1.updatesport.com/ne...F1gossip/Glock-now-Toyota-favourite/view.html


Oh, and Sutil has been confirmed to remain at Spyker.

 

[Blake]

Got a source for that Sutil thing?

 

[Metar]

Not at the moment, but I remember www.formula-1.updatesport.com had it, if I'm not mistaken.


EDIT: Apparently, still just a rumor:

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/070822180015.shtml

 

[Lee]

It's reported in the latest issue of f1 Racing that Takuma Sato may be in talks with Williams-Toyota.

 

[Metar]

Is he?

Mind you, though, not Williams nor Toyota confirmed the engine-deal, AFAIK.

 

[Only_in_f1]

Sato and Davidson look set to stay at Super! Aguri.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/62026

 

[<_Spike_>]

Reports in a couple of papers claim Nico Rosberg is in talks with McLaren as the silver arrows look set to offload troublesome Alonso

Ralf Schumacher is reportedly talking to other teams after a dismal season with Toyota

 

[Lee]

Well, Ralf announcing his long-deserved departure from Toyota opens up a seat for '08 at long last!

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

I don't think it's a total stretch of the imagination to consider Alonso going to Toyota. After all, they have the finances to not only pay him a lot of money, but they also have the budget and facilities to put him in a very competitive car... and he would undoubtedly be the #1 driver, which is clearly important to him as well.

I still think he is most likely going to go back to Renault, but if not, Toyota may be his next best choice as neither Ferrari nor BMW have any interest in him.

 

[Danny]

Liuzzi has been linked to a Williams role.

Liuzzi's manager, former Lotus boss Peter Collins, has confirmed that Liuzzi wishes to continue his involvement in F1. He has been linked to a role within the Williams team.

Can't rule out that it could be a drive...

 

[Sting]

Renault have offered Alonso his old seat back t'would seem.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7022171.stm

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Renault have offered Alonso his old seat back t'would seem.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7022171.stm

Briatore is convinced Alonso would not have quit Renault if he had been aware he would receive the same treatment as a rookie.

I notice Flav neglected to mention the fact that "the rookie" was at least Alonso's equal on the track in terms of skill and thus deserving of the treatment he got.

 

[livemusic]

Alonso didn't receive the same treatment as a rookie. The rookie received the same treatment as a champion.

 

[Sting]

McLaren's equal team policy at work there. But when Hamilton is this good, why not?

 

[Lee]

With the latest news of Alex Wurz's retirement and him being replaced by Kazuki Nakajima for the Brazilian GP, the list has been slightly modified.

Nakajima To Replace Wurz

 

[Danny]

Please not permanent, please not permanent.

 

[Sting]

It's not perm as yet: Quoted from BBC NEws: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7035362.stm

Despite being the 2007 Rookie of the Year in the GP2 series, team principal Sir Frank Williams said promoting Nakajima wasn't done with a race seat for the 2008 season in mind.

He said: "You cannot assess a driver's capability on the basis of one race but this is an ideal opportunity to develop Kazuki's experience."

Also I guess counted as rumour and speculation from reading Autosport Magazine, that Karun Chandhok and Narain Karthikeyan might come to drive in Team India, Kingfisher F1 whatever they gonna be called.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

There might be one Indian driver for purely sentimental reasons, but I think the second driver will be whichever rookie can pay the most.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

The drivers I am most interested in seeing what they can do in 2008 are:

• Heikki Kovalainen
• Lewis Hamilton
• Nico Rosberg
• Robert Kubica
• Sebastian Vettel

All of these "young guns" have in my opinion shown a tremendous amount of talent and should make for some exciting moments next year and hopefully in years to come! 👍

I am also looking forward to see how Sebastien Bourdais does in his long awaited first race in F1.