Pizzonia's last chance

[Diego440]

Marc Gené has ben placed back in the test driving position thanks to his poor performance in the last two races. However, Antonio Pizzonia has been named as the second Williams driver for the forthcoming German Grand Prix but the team will continue to search for its replacement for Ralf Schumacher on a race by race basis while other negotiations continue.

The ultimate aim still appears to be to put Mark Webber in the car but at the moment the team is refusing to talk about the matter as there is much negotiation to be done if that is to be achieved. The announcement that Pizzonia will get the drive gives the Brazilian the chance to prove once and for all that he was not treated fairly at Jaguar Racing last year. Jaguar has always maintained that Pizzonia was dropped because he did not race well.

In testing however Antonio has proved to be immensely quick and his chance at Williams is likely to be make or break for his F1 career. If he does well he could be in with a chance of a full-time drive next year, if not he is unlikely to be able to find another F1 opportunity.

 

[RacyBacy]

Is this not the guy who wrecked a S-Type R while taking a journalist out on a hot lap?

 

[Blake]

roflmfao

 

[Eagle]

Was to be expected after Gene's lacklustre runs so far, I guess the car carried him more last year at Monza.

I don't expect Pizzonia to be any quicker in all honesty, he never seemed remotely impressive last year at Jaguar, being quick in testing is quite different to being out there under the pressures of a race.

If they find a way to get Webber in a Williams before the end of the season I'm going to be mighty surprised.

 

[pimp racer]

Is this not the guy who wrecked a S-Type R while taking a journalist out on a hot lap?

That was funny. I rember watching that.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Was to be expected after Gene's lacklustre runs so far, I guess the car carried him more last year at Monza.

I don't expect Pizzonia to be any quicker in all honesty, he never seemed remotely impressive last year at Jaguar, being quick in testing is quite different to being out there under the pressures of a race.

If they find a way to get Webber in a Williams before the end of the season I'm going to be mighty surprised.

Yep, I agree with all of that.

 

[Wastegate]

At the risk of sticking my neck out, I'd say that I think it's likely that Pizzaman will do better than some of you guys are expecting. Whilst I don't think he'll beat JPM, I do think he'll impress more than Gene did.

 

[Bollocks#999]

I also agree with what Eagle has said there 👍


I had a thought today, could it be that Sir Frank has given Pizzonia a go to see how he fares against Webbers Jag?

 

[Roo]

Aren't the teams only allowed to change the second driver 3 times in a season? If Webber came before the end of the season, wouldn't he have to stay?

Pizzonia crashed at Barcelona whilst taking two of the Autocar journalists (I think one of them was Steve Sutcliffe) out in the S-type R. That was when Sutcliffe drove that years' Jag F1 car.

 

[Eagle]

Teams are allowed to change their number 1 driver only once and their number 2 driver 3 times during a season, unless there are special circumstances, in which case the FIA will assess the situation and make a decision. So yes, were Webber to race, he would be there until the end of the season.

 

[vat_man]

Teams are allowed to change their number 1 driver only once and their number 2 driver 3 times during a season, unless there are special circumstances, in which case the FIA will assess the situation and make a decision. So yes, were Webber to race, he would be there until the end of the season.

First time I'd heard that. Would Ralf be able to slot back in if Webber did a couple of races?

 

[Blake]

Was to be expected after Gene's lacklustre runs so far, I guess the car carried him more last year at Monza.

I don't expect Pizzonia to be any quicker in all honesty, he never seemed remotely impressive last year at Jaguar, being quick in testing is quite different to being out there under the pressures of a race.

If they find a way to get Webber in a Williams before the end of the season I'm going to be mighty surprised.

I also agree with that. Though if Webber did somehow get into Williams by the end oif the season I'm not expecting much at such a late stage. But he's got an advantage over other drivers as he's been racing all season.

 

[Eagle]

First time I'd heard that. Would Ralf be able to slot back in if Webber did a couple of races?

Nope, they'd have used their 3 changes and I doubt FIA would approve any further.

FIA Formula 1 World Championship Sporting Regulations, Regulation 58 - Changes of Driver:

During a season each team will be permitted to use four drivers (excluding any third driver taking part in either of the free practice sessions on the first day of practice). Changes may be made at any time before the start of the qualifying practice session provided any change proposed after 16.00 on the day of scrutineering receives the consent of the stewards.

Additional changes for reasons of force majeure will be considered separately.

Any new driver may score points in the Championship.

Link: http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/1195189551__F1_Sport_Reg_a.pdf

1. Juan Pablo Montoya
2. Ralf Schumacher
3. Marc Gene
4. Antonion Pizzonia

No case of force majeure has occurred.

 

[vat_man]

Thanks - I did believe you, although the rule reads a little different to what you've posted.

The implication from reading the rule is that Pizzonia is their last swap, and they can only put one of the drivers that has already raced in that seat back in there - i.e. Gene or Ralf.

That would imply to me that Williams' attempts to get another driver in there (e.g. Webber, Fisichella or Heidfeld) have failed and the team has given up on that course of action for the season.

 

[Eagle]

I was under the impression what I posted before was the same as the rules, that's what I recalled reading last time I checked the rules, but it turns out that's not the case, hence the lengthy correction.

 

[Diego440]

There are a number of stories circulating which would seem to indicate that Ralf is going to come back earlier than expected and that Jaguar Racing will not release Mark Webber early - but both should be treated with caution. It is obviously in the interest of the Schumacher management to play up an early return so that Williams would have to consider a financial settlement with Ralf before doing a deal with Webber or Fisi or any other driver. Williams might be willing to sign up Giancarlo Fisichella or Nick Heidfeld if they can be released immediately but obviously Sauber and Jordan respectively are keen for a pay-off as well.

At the same time Jaguar Racing has not yet had to face the actual question of whether a deal with Webber is of more value to the team than a pile of money. When (or perhaps if) that question becomes a reality (when all the other necessary deals have been done) it is going to be a more difficult decision. The fact that these stories are circulating only serves to underline the fact that things are moving under the surface and that Williams's goal is to get one of its 20005 drivers in the car as early as possible.

The problem is that time is running out as no-one is going to get into a Williams without having had at least one decent test before making their debut with the team and with the summer testing ban now approaching it may be that no deal can be done until September.

Thus if Pizzonia can prove himself in Germany and Hungary, he may become a challenger for a seat in 2005.

 

[Blake]

Hmmm...Interesting, IF -- that's a big IF -- he performs well in Germany and Hungary I'm not sure whether they'll mark his performance against that of Marks in the Jag, or whether they'll just take his skill for HIS skill, and put him in a seat. Obviously Williams want next year drivers in their as early as possible for experience in the car so maybe Pizzonia really is being considerred.

On another note, I was just thinking what if you went from a really low team to a top team, and you saw a Ferrari in your mirror, do you think you might accidently move out of the way due to habbit, lmao.

Blake

 

[Dudley]

If they do need another driver they'd have a damn good case for force majure.

 

[Eagle]

How do you figure that? Force majeure did indeed occur, but only to one driver - they're entitled to try three more, nothing happened to Gene and nothing's happened to Pizzonia so that's all their allowed - it's not like they've run out of drivers to fill the car and need more. The FIA isn't going to allow them to swap around all the time just because one doesn't perform.

 

[Blake]

And I don't think they're going to ask Pizzonia to run into a wall and break his leg just so they can play around with another driver (@Giles -- I wasn't wishing for that, it was just a JOKE)

I was talking to a friend at school and he broguht up an interesting point -- MSC won 5 races, then didn't win on the 6th, since he has won 5 races....will he not win the 6th
Blake

 

[GilesGuthrie]

And I don't think they're going to ask Pizzonia to run into a wall and break his leg just so they can play around with another driver (@Giles -- I wasn't wishing for that, it was just a JOKE)

Noted.

If Pizzonia were to be injured, they'd have to put Gene back in the car.

I note that Jordan wanted Williams to "cover the costs" of finding a replacement driver for Heidfeld. There was lots of gum-bumping about "extra engine mileage" etc. But we all know they would have just put Glock back in the car and pocketed the readies.

That's one of the things that annoys me about Eddie: he's all bleeding-heart "the big team ****ed me again", but actually he's just a money-grabbing so-and-so. There's nothing wrong with being money-grabbing, it's just all the whinging that goes with it.

 

[Diego440]

Even if Pizzonia does a good job in Hockenheim, I think he still has a lot of ground to cover before being considered for a more permanent seat in Williams. I see him at best still as a test driver for next season, possibly still with Williams.

Mostlñy because although Fisichella has a contract to stay at Sauber in 2005, it does not look like he's going to. The Roman has emerged in recent days as a contender not only for a drive with the Williams team but also as a possible signing with the Renault team. A deal with Williams is easier because Fisichella has a clause in his contract which allows him to leave Sauber if a Williams seat is offered to him. Having said that it seems that Renault also wants Fisichella to replace Jarno Trulli, who seems increasingly likely to move to Toyota. There is a school of thought that believes that Flavio Briatore is blocking Mark Webber's move to Williams unless Williams agrees to let Fisichella go to Renault. This may sound plausible but when all is said and done Webber is the master of his own destiny and can tell Briatore what he wants to do so the idea that Webber could be a lever for Renault to get Fisichella is not a strong a story as it sounds.

Williams is certainly considering Fisichella but at the same time is not thought to be 100% convinced that signing him is such a good idea and perhaps this will mean that Briatore will end up with Fisichella at Renault if he can work out a deal with Sauber.

If that happens the way will be opened for Sauber to shop around for a new driver and the Swiss team is believed to keen on getting a driver of David Coulthard's experience, although others are pushing for the drive.

The second Williams remains the biggest question and while Nick Heidfeld is a possibility, it could be that the team will go for BAR's test driver Anthony Davidson as a suitable foil for Webber, working on the long-established Williams principle of using the car to create the stars rather than buying in expensive driving talent.