The 2012 Driver transfer discussion/speculation thread

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MildAshers
Yes, because he took his and Hamilton's fates into his own hands, believing that by acting the way he did it would somehow make it better. F1 has no place for that kind of behaviour regardless.
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No offense, but you're mentioning Hamilton here... :odd:


He's no angel.
 
I have never seen Hamilton physically put someone into the wall. He has done some silly manouvres but Maldonado's was malicious and needed harder punishment.
 
zippy_the_cat
In other news, Luca says he's been sizing up Button, Webber, Rosberg, Perez and Bianchi for Massa's seat in 2013. Notable omission: Kubica. I should think on that list Button and Rosberg are already spoken for: McLaren and Merc have ample funds and engineering talent to keep both in the fold. Webber's probably got Fernando's vote but doesn't square with Ferrari's previously stated desire for a young No. 2.
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Ferrari taking Webber could be a decent short-term move. But i dont see him in the sport past 2015 to be honest...

Perez seems like the obvious choice at this point, unless someone unknown comes through with amazing skill/potential.
 
hawkeye122
Ferrari taking Webber could be a decent short-term move. But i dont see him in the sport past 2015 to be honest...

Perez seems like the obvious choice at this point, unless someone unknown comes through with amazing skill/potential.
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I could see Rosberg in a Ferrari. Button I think McLaren is his calling and I just can't picture him at Ferrari, much less at Ferrari and playing back up driver to Alonso same goes for Webber who has probably had enough of it at RBR. I also agree with Perez, and Bianchi well that's a different story for me.
 
MildAshers
Yes, because he took his and Hamilton's fates into his own hands, believing that by acting the way he did it would somehow make it better. F1 has no place for that kind of behaviour regardless.
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What about Lewis' several incidents with Felipe? You don't think Felipe deserves the same treatment for what he did at India? I watched Felipe hit Lewis, and he looked like he had crosshairs in his mirrors.
 
Well, as I figured the possibility of earlier, Williams is in the market for a new title sponsor having parted ways with AT&T, I don't remember where to go but I know there's a place we can keep an eye on newly registered domains, Which williams will undoubtedly acquire to compliment their new sponsor, point being is that any new title sponsor may be linked with a driver and thus hopefully we can pickup a clue if/when it does happen.

This method has worked to figure out many things going on outside of F1, but we all know how tight F1 teams keep things, it's a question of if they're savvy enough to go as far as to register a new domain at almost the same time as making their driver announcement, if the new sponsor is tied to the TBA driver at all.
 
Unfortuantely, that is let down by the current theory that Williams will be sponsored by Qtel, a Qatari telecom group with no connections to any driver.

Also, you're assuming that Williams would announce their title sponsor before announcing the second driver. If their new title sponsor is connected to their second driver, then they are likely to annouce the driver before the sponsor, since doing it the other way around would no doubt give away the identity of the second driver.
 
Unlikely. Squtters usually register domains with the intention of selling them back to the team for a profit. But this only works if the team wants the domain straight away. All Williams would have to do is sit and wait - eventually, it will cost the person holding the domain name more to hold onto it than they could reasonably get from the team and the domain will lapse, at which point Williams can easily pick it up.

Alternatively, squatters take domains for the sake of getting free web traffic. But in the case of Williams, most people will go through their sponsorless domain name, williamsf1.com. Anyone who does go through the URL with the sponsor name will soon realise that it is not the team website and so migrate to the williamsf1.com domain name. Any use that holding the domain name has will quickly run out.

Even then, Williams can register domain names anonymously through a brand protection service. Back at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, qnbwilliams.com was registered in anticipation of the annoucement that Kimi Raikkonen would race for them, with support from the Qatar National Bank. It obviously never happened. But a quick check through the brand protection service revealed that it was registered in Austria, and no information was given on who registered it. All Williams would have to do is register a few dummy domains - like qtelwilliams.com and embratelwilliams.com and movistarwilliams.com and beelinewilliams.com and so on - and the secret is protected because no-one will know which is the actual domain. Once Williams holds a domain, they can do anything with it, so all the domains can simply lead to a blank page until such time as Williams are ready to re-direct it to their main page.
 
Seems logical at this point that Buemi's being measured up for Webber's seat next year. Though, if he does get the seat for 2013, I doubt his tenure will be nearly as long as Mark's.

But I'm happy for him. Now I wonder where the second ousted STR driver will end up.
 
astrosdude91
Seems logical at this point that Buemi's being measured up for Webber's seat next year. Though, if he does get the seat for 2013, I doubt his tenure will be nearly as long as Mark's.

But I'm happy for him. Now I wonder where the second ousted STR driver will end up.
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Maybe a seat in WEC or third driver somewhere else.
 
astrosdude91
Seems logical at this point that Buemi's being measured up for Webber's seat next year.
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I'm unsure about this idea. Buemi has said in the past that he has his eye on Webber's seat and wants to take it when Webber leaves/retires - but I think he was a little too distracted by the idea of dirving for Red Bull, and it affected his racing at the time.
 
prisonermonkeys
I'm unsure about this idea. Buemi has said in the past that he has his eye on Webber's seat and wants to take it when Webber leaves/retires - but I think he was a little too distracted by the idea of dirving for Red Bull, and it affected his racing at the time.
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What do you mean it distracted him and affected his racing? Are you referring to his points difference with Alguesuari last year? This is explained by difference in strategies and just plain luck in the races. His qualifying and race pace was usually faster that Jaime's, he was just put on some weaker strategies more often and suffered some bad luck along the way.
This meant the difference between scoring a lot of points and scoring none, as it always does in the midfield.
 
toyotsupra
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/01/05/buemi-reserve-driver-red-bull/

Never thought this would happen Jaime deserves it more then him in my mind.
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Why? Beumi proved, at least to me, that he was the better driver. Only reason Jaime is ahead in the points is because he was often put on a much better strategy, and Buemi has had the luck of the Irish sometimes. Jaime often dropping out of Q1 meant that he would end up having more fresh tyres than Buemi, and all of the other midfielders too, giving him a big advantage come race day.

People say he's young and will get better as he ages, but there is never any guarantee of that happening. Jacques Villineuve, grew up, but progressively got worse, because while his age went up, his maturity and racecraft didn't.
 
Williams are on the look out for a New Title Sponsor for 2012, after AT&T have decided not to renew their contract. Does this mean that either Senna or Sutil's Sponsorship could come into play once again?

Source
 
Tom
Does this mean that either Senna or Sutil's Sponsorship could come into play once again?
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It's impossible to tell; this isn't really indicative of any one driver joining the team, since there are dozens of mobile phone providers worldwide. Any one of them could be the company Williams are talking to. And assuming for the moment that they are talking to a company that sponsors an available driver, why limit it to Sutil and Senna? Vitaly Petrov is backed by the Russian government, so his sponsorship can be run through any company that the government has a stake in ownership. Jaime Alguersuari was fairly popular and dumped unceremoniously, so an opportunistic company might have agreed to sponsor him straight away and made Williams an offer they could not afford to ignore. Even Giedo van der Garde might have branched out and found himself a mobile phone company as a sponsor.
 
Whether or not they need a new title sponsor depends on how much money AT&T paid them to begin with. They could probably survive without them if it's only a few millions, but if it's something like the money PDVSA give them, then they are in big trouble ,and they would need some money from a driver like Senna. If i'm not mistaken Sutil only has a few millions in sponsorship, while Senna's is somewhere over 6 million. I have a feeling Sutil has gone for the reserve driver role at Mercedes though, which has long been empty, if you don't count Anthony Davidson.
 
Peter.
Whether or not they need a new title sponsor depends on how much money AT&T paid them to begin with. They could probably survive without them if it's only a few millions, but if it's something like the money PDVSA give them, then they are in big trouble ,and they would need some money from a driver like Senna. If i'm not mistaken Sutil only has a few millions in sponsorship, while Senna's is somewhere over 6 million. I have a feeling Sutil has gone for the reserve driver role at Mercedes though, which has long been empty, if you don't count Anthony Davidson.
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I'd think that if AT&T was their title sponsor, they contributed a fair bit of money.
 
They contributed considerably less than other title sponsors. AT&T had the naming rights, but for the past five years, the Williams cars have been virtually devoid of AT&T logos. I've heard that AT&T were paying Williams just seven million dollars per year for the deal, when most title sponsorships are at least twice that.
 
Does this really change anything now though? I thought this was simply AT&T seeing out the end of their contract, rather than a sudden decision to leave. Presumably Williams would have negogiated with AT&T last year and realised they would need a new sponsor. Maybe this was the reason Rubens was not signed immediately last year as perhaps they wanted to secure new finance for the team before signing him or see what other choices became available? Maybe they have already signed a new title sponsor and are waiting before announcing it.

Perhaps the talks with Raikkonen last year were an attempt to build up media interest in the team and hence attract a title sponsor?
 
Ardius
I thought this was simply AT&T seeing out the end of their contract, rather than a sudden decision to leave.
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I was under that impression, too. I think people are trying to read too much into things by looking to potential sponsors as a sign of who will join the team.

The first test of the season will be in three weeks. Williams will no doubt have a second driver by then.
 
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