Your predictions for the driver line-up, 2010
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Sorry for the double-post, but apparently Mike Gascoyne has said that Trulli and Sato are his ideal Lotus line-up and they are waiting for Trulli's Toyota contract to finish before announcing him.
Also apparently, Lotus have been grabbing people from Ferrari and its been said that they may be trying to hire a lot of Toyota staff.
The return of Sato....
Also apparently, Lotus have been grabbing people from Ferrari and its been said that they may be trying to hire a lot of Toyota staff.
The return of Sato....
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Sorry for the double-post, but apparently Mike Gascoyne has said that Trulli and Sato are his ideal Lotus line-up and they are waiting for Trulli's Toyota contract to finish before announcing him.
Also apparently, Lotus have been grabbing people from Ferrari and its been said that they may be trying to hire a lot of Toyota staff.
The return of Sato....
If indeed all of this is true, Lotus looks to be in better shape for next season than I dared to anticipate...
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Wasn't Toro Rosso trying to get Sebastian Loeb into a car at Abu Dhabi, I don't remember where I heard that but they said Loeb couldn't get a Super License, which is simply beyond me, he is a former Rally champ(I don't follow rally much so I can't give an exact number) but couldn't get a super license.
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Reports out of Germany suggest Brawn may be re-named Mercedes for 2010 and run a silver livery.
If this si true, I hope they at least add black and yellow to the mix; if it were down to me, they'de be silver with some black and yellow and be known as Mercedes Brawn. With the team's stunning achievements this season - Ross Brawn has apparently admitted that he shifted development onto the 2010 car early on because he felt the BGP-001 was good enough to see out the season (and it was; Jenson Button was the only driver to score points in every race he finished, and if he hadn't been taken out in Belgium, he would have scored points there, too) - the name Brawn should at least be associated with the team.
And besides, when Loeb was testing with the GP2 Asia teams at Jerez de la Frontera, he was slowest.
If this si true, I hope they at least add black and yellow to the mix; if it were down to me, they'de be silver with some black and yellow and be known as Mercedes Brawn. With the team's stunning achievements this season - Ross Brawn has apparently admitted that he shifted development onto the 2010 car early on because he felt the BGP-001 was good enough to see out the season (and it was; Jenson Button was the only driver to score points in every race he finished, and if he hadn't been taken out in Belgium, he would have scored points there, too) - the name Brawn should at least be associated with the team.
A superlicence requres that a driver achieve a certain place in selected championships in one year, or consistent placing over several: British and Italian F3 and the F3 Euroseries, a top-three finish in Formula Two or GP2, or the top four of Indycar, for instance. Alternatively, a driver may be eligible if he completes three hundred kilometres of testing in a Formula One car, but with testing time being at a premium with the in-season ban, teams are unlikely to run a driver. Special conditions and exemptions may apply - as with Kimi Raikkonen - but the driver must have done time in open-wheel cars. Sebastien Loeb might be a six-time World Rally Champion, but that does not meen he is eligible because the WRC is run to totally different specifications. It isn't even an open-wheel series.
And besides, when Loeb was testing with the GP2 Asia teams at Jerez de la Frontera, he was slowest.
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That's Group Lotus, not Lotus GP, although the exact relationship between these two is still unclear after these and other moves following new Lotus CEO Danny Bahar's declaration to take Lotus (the car manufacturer) back into racing.
http://www.insideline.com/ferrari/dany-bahar-bolts-ferrari-to-become-lotus-ceo.html
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/31/lotus-hires-former-ferrari-fiat-racing-chief-claudio-berro-as-ne/
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Senna's team-mate at Campos likely to be Pastor Maldonado or Vitaly Petrov.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091111091609.shtml
Some reports suggest it will be Maldonado with PDVSA as major sponsor. Interesting to note that I've since learned that Petrov's sponsor is not MegaFon, but Gazprom - a company in the same industry as PDVSA. Both drivers have oil money (admittedly, Gazprom is in natural gas supply, but the new Gazprom Neft arm is in oil).
And why do I know so much about Russian companies?
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091111091609.shtml
Some reports suggest it will be Maldonado with PDVSA as major sponsor. Interesting to note that I've since learned that Petrov's sponsor is not MegaFon, but Gazprom - a company in the same industry as PDVSA. Both drivers have oil money (admittedly, Gazprom is in natural gas supply, but the new Gazprom Neft arm is in oil).
And why do I know so much about Russian companies?
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В советской России, водители спонсора корпорации...
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Another silver car? That'd be dull since Mclaren is already running silver cars for several years now. Orange is where it's at:
*EDIT*
Actually, forget that orange colour. I've missed the white-grey-black combo Mclaren-Mercedes were running for years in the Hakkinen-Coulthard-Raikkonen era. I'd more than like to see that combo make a comeback.
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Wasn't McLaren's original team color "Papaya Orange"?
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- Ardius_
Technically their "original" colour was white with a green stripe 
But yes, it was a papaya orange, the same or similar to the above images of the modern test cars.
I still think this was a better orange F1 car though:
Hopefully the new teams will use something different from the typical white, red, or blue that most of the current grid uses. There are far too many cars with white as a major colour.
I think USF1 are intending to use a light blue though, Manor seem to be going for black (which would be awesome) but with the Virgin rumour they may just go boring old red. Campos seem to be usually mainly white with either blue or red (again boring).
So I guess Lotus are the only possible team to bring in some life to the paddock in terms of livery colours, just hopefully not with the catastrophe of colours that was this year's Renault.
When I look back, 2000 was one of the best year's for varied grid colours.
But yes, it was a papaya orange, the same or similar to the above images of the modern test cars.
I still think this was a better orange F1 car though:
Hopefully the new teams will use something different from the typical white, red, or blue that most of the current grid uses. There are far too many cars with white as a major colour.
I think USF1 are intending to use a light blue though, Manor seem to be going for black (which would be awesome) but with the Virgin rumour they may just go boring old red. Campos seem to be usually mainly white with either blue or red (again boring).
So I guess Lotus are the only possible team to bring in some life to the paddock in terms of livery colours, just hopefully not with the catastrophe of colours that was this year's Renault.
When I look back, 2000 was one of the best year's for varied grid colours.
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The Orange Arrows cars were without any doubt one of the better looking cars of the grid, if not the best. I always loved Jaguar's livery, the british racing green with the jaguar logo covering it. I've always been a sucker as well for the '94 Benetton Ford livery, I love that green and blue combo, hence why I am also a sucker for the Sauber Petronas liveries. I agree that too many teams go with white as a base colour, but seeing that BMW and Toyota are leaving, that's going to reduce that number strong as I always thought their whites stood out most from all cars. I hope Lotus will go with a livery similar as in '86, but it'll be exiting to see the new cars.
Oh, and I expect USF1, or USGP or whatever the American team is called to act like proper americans and cover their F1 car with the American flag
Oh, and I expect USF1, or USGP or whatever the American team is called to act like proper americans and cover their F1 car with the American flag
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To be honest, I'll be happy if Lotus go with any of their old liveries, even the early 90s liveries were quite nice.
And yeah the departure of Toyota and BMW has just reminded me that actually manufacturers are also to blame for the boring race liveries we have seen the past 10 years.
The best liveries have nearly always been independent teams, mostly because of their dependencey on sponsorship and they were more likely to change their livery (as manufacturers would want to use their own colours).
At least with Toyota gone, we've got rid of one of the most boring and uninspiring liveries ever created.
At least BMW's had some kind of form to it. The Toyota always looked a mess.
Oh and yes, I miss Jaguar's livery most of all, even though they were a manufacturer, that was how to do a livery well
And yeah the departure of Toyota and BMW has just reminded me that actually manufacturers are also to blame for the boring race liveries we have seen the past 10 years.
The best liveries have nearly always been independent teams, mostly because of their dependencey on sponsorship and they were more likely to change their livery (as manufacturers would want to use their own colours).
At least with Toyota gone, we've got rid of one of the most boring and uninspiring liveries ever created.
At least BMW's had some kind of form to it. The Toyota always looked a mess.
Oh and yes, I miss Jaguar's livery most of all, even though they were a manufacturer, that was how to do a livery well
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Well, I can understand why they went with red and white. It's basically been their colour combo for like...forever in motorsport. The Celica and Corolla rally cars, the GT-One, the Supra at Le Mans, their other C-class Le Mans prototypes, they all were red and white. However, I do think they could've thrown in the green like they did with their Castrol liveries on the 'Rolla and Celica:
I've always thought that was a killer combo.
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It wasn't that it was red and white. That can work, it was that it was a rubbish design.
Their 2001 test car looked way better:
Castrol livery would have been awesome though.
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Ok, quick opinion here, I think that Ferrari will blow out of the gate next year, because of 1. Their drivers, and 2. The fact that they gave up and last years car very early.
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I don't know about that - they didn't make the leaps and bounds with the F60 the way McLaren did when their car. If you look at Raikkonen's results from Belgium onwards, he's all over the place: two podiums, two points finishes and two non-scores. The F60 was only good under certain conditions, whereas the McLaren was the strongest car on the grid. Ferrari would normally go back to their 2008 car and build from that since it was a good platform, but the new regulations for 2009 meant the F2008 is useless for collecting data.
They're Ferrari, so they'll no doubt be strong ... but they're not in a very good position to begin with.
What if they did a black one with sponsors in gold? It wouldn't be John Player Special, of course (do they ever exist any more?), but it could be devastatingly good. And at the same time, reviled by people who think Lotus have no claim to the Lotus name.
The only teams that are probably going to change their liveries for certain will be Brawn and Renault, both becuase they'll be getting new spsonors. I hope that Brawn keep the white, black and yellow - or at least the black and yellow - in some way. I like that they have team colours.
Manor have traditionally run in black (I think), so that will probably be their main colour. I doubt Ferrari will be overly thrilled with them if they want to run a red one because of Virgin, so I could see the team running black with red highlights.
Campos are probably going to have light blue if the take Petrov, or red if they run with Maldonado. I've heard that the car may be light blue even if the take Maldonado because Campos himself is said to be looking at a silver strip. Silver and red would be too much like McLaren. And given the way they ran their GP2 cars, there will probably be red and yellow - the Spanish flag, of course - on the nose or on the air intake.
Lotus' colours are harder to call. The Lotus maque's colours are yellow and green, while Malaysian auto-racing colours are yellow and white. I can see some combination thereof being run on their car.
As for USF1, red, white and blue is the obvious choice, but I think it would be sacreligious to plaster sponsor decals oer the stars and stripes. I think they could run a stars-and-stripes motif on parts of the car where there are no sponsor logos, though.
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3 letters: BMW
Lets not forget here that Honda didn't stop developing in 2008 half way through the season, they stopped developing altogether almost from the start. They used rediculous amounts of money and resources testing at 3 different wind tunnels with 3 different designs for 2009.
BMW gave up about the same time as Ferrari did this year and look where they came in 2009, not to mention Kubica and Heidfeld aren't bad drivers.
So Ferrari aren't guaranteed success just because they started developing earlier than perhaps McLaren or Red Bull. Brawn appears to be the first to have stopped 2009 developments if the words from Ross are to be believed. Which going by your logic would make them more likely to "blow out of the gate" next year?
Man, screw those people. This Malaysian backed Lotus will be more in the spirit of the old Team Lotus than the team ever was between the late 80s and early 90s.
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^I'm going to stick with the theory that its all just a ploy by Martin and Jenson to bring their respective deals around.
Whitmarsh using it to make Kimi accept a lower deal, Jenson to make Brawn accept a higher deal.
I doubt Jenson will so easily leave a team he's stuck with for a long time. However, he did back out of a Williams contract way back when - when he felt that BAR/Honda were a safer option.
I'm not so sure that Brawn are any worse-looking than McLaren though. And Ross Brawn has taken a 3rd team to victory now....it would be foolish to discount him next year.
Whitmarsh using it to make Kimi accept a lower deal, Jenson to make Brawn accept a higher deal.
I doubt Jenson will so easily leave a team he's stuck with for a long time. However, he did back out of a Williams contract way back when - when he felt that BAR/Honda were a safer option.
I'm not so sure that Brawn are any worse-looking than McLaren though. And Ross Brawn has taken a 3rd team to victory now....it would be foolish to discount him next year.
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