I keep forgetting about him. Probably because we don't really get any coverage of Formula Renault. What's he doing this year? I can't imagine that Formula V8 3.5 is going anywhere - I'd be getting out as soon as possible, but all of the good GP2 drives are taken and GP3 would be a step down (and likely to die soon if GP2 is reborn as Formula 2).
It's a very deliberate move on their part. They have introduced what they call the "Global Pathway", which is designed to streamline the path from karting to Formula 1. It has cut the status of several series, but the FIA felt that the sheer availability of seats is allowing more pay drivers into the middle echelons, creating a logjam. By controlling the costs in Formula 4, it is hoped that the most-talented drivers will quickly emerge and attract the sponsors. Eventually, it will get to the point where national and regional Formula 4 chanpionships will feed into continental Formula 3 championships like European Formula 3, which will in turn feed into an intercontinental championship like Formula 2, which will be the preferred proving ground for Formula 1. The sheer amount of talent in cost-controlled junior formulae will eventually force pay drivers out. Look at GP2; Daniel de Jong has a seat with MP Motorsport putely because his father has a stake in the team. In terms of pure talent, he has no business being there.
I don't think he needs to. He was impressive in his rookie season, won the title pretty convincingly last year, and has generally been quick in whatever he has been driving. Super Formula is a good move because it is a further step up on terms of power and performance.
I think there's less question marks over Vandoorne's name than Perez or Magnussen. Perez was rated highly enough by Ferrari, but some of Lance Stroll's recent comments about his move to Williams make me wonder if the Ferrari Driver Academy is all that it's cracked up to me; Stroll noted that there was a training regime and some driver mentoring, but no hands-on experience with the team or any simulator work. Perez himself has said that he moved to McLaren too soon. As for Magnussen, he had junior formulae success to his name, but he wasn't a fully-developed talent when he joined the grid. Vandoorne is probably the most well-rounded, consistently-quick and genuinely exciting young driver since Lewis Hamilton.
Only if it involves car design and innovation, since that's what the thread is supposed to be about.
It can be newsworthy all you want it to be, and it is, but where do driver transfers play into it, which is the topic of this thread. Buying, or not buying, into teams is a very constructor-centric topic.
It's the lack of continuity from PM. He initially posted the Alfa news in the constructor thread, but now I get the sense that he doesn't care where he posts things at, which is hypocritical considering he bitched about the Wolfgang Reip thread being posted. He cannot have things both ways.
Only if you assume that I learned nothing from the experience. Given that the title of the constructor thread specifically relates to car design, I don't think soft news about rumours of a take-over should go there. But given that this thread naturally deals with gossip, it seemed the more appropriate place to put it.
So what was the point of the FIA's Superlicense points program if both Manor drivers don't qualify* but they're letting them race anyways?
I'm pretty sure they qualified under the old system, where you could do 300km of testing (provided that you did it across two or more days). Haryanto tested for Manor when they were known as Marussia, and some of his GP2 results would have been enough to maintain it. The points system only comes into effect from this year, but superlicences are valid for several years.
