The 2010 season is over and though severe testing restrictions mean we'll see little substantive F1 news for a while I think it's time to open a 2011 season thread. I'll start. Anyone who paid any attention to the young driver testing sessions at Abu Dhabi had to notice the consistent blistering speed of Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo. He actually beat Vettel's qualifying time by a significant margin. Where does a driver with such apparent talent end up? Signed by Toro Rosso for 2011 to drive in Friday morning practice sessions and as their official reserve driver. :skep: I guess you have to start somewhere. I suppose this says something about the lack of open full-time seats and the glut of talent available?
There has always been more drivers, even really good drivers than there are good seats. Test driver is a good way to get your foot in the door and show your talents whilst developing relationships along the way. In many ways getting a gig as a test driver for a good F1 team is a better career move than racing in a lower series, especially if you have already enjoyed some success in one or more of those series... 2 cents
You're right of course, but that worked a lot better back when there were real test seats. With testing so restricted these days a lot of the limited preseason testing is done by the full-time drivers so testers complain that they're getting little seat time. If I remember correctly in-season testing is verboten. We also saw what happened during the 2010 season with the few Friday drivers sometimes getting laps and sometimes not, and the full-time guys complaining -- rightly so, I think -- about having to give up their race weekend prep time in the car to the Friday-only drivers. I've thought from the beginning that the testing restrictions went too far. I'm less bothered by the impact on car development than the way it restricts development opportunities for young drivers. I guess I just feel sorry for the guy, and not just this guy but all the young drivers we've seen injected directly into the fray lately with little to no time to adapt to the specific car or F1 in general.
Agree with the testing being limited too much. Its supposed to reduce cost which is kinda comical in F1 but to a point test days can be the cheapeast way for a team to develop their program and work on the cars. No testing puts it right back into the hands of the teams with the most money, money they can spend on uber expensive computer simulations and the equipment and engineers to run them.....
Button on losing movable front wings (while gaining movable rear wings) and the addition of KERS. Jens bemoans loss of moveable wing (itv-f1.com)
Kovi put an R8 into the wall too - with his girlfriend on board! He said the throttle stuck. Yeah, right.....because he stuck it - to the floor!
Good video here: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WSNhpLeXek]YouTube - Kovalainen's big crash, ROC 2010 at Dusseldorf (HD)[/ame]
You can see in the video that the rear suspension broke when he hit the wall on the straight - or maybe it broke before that and that's why he hit the wall on the straight.
I thought he just got loose and overcorrected.....but he sure did seem to just turn left, and notice how the other guy has already slowed down, like he knew something was wrong? Article says Heikki said the throttle stuck and that's certainly how it looks, like it's wide open, but......
On the plus side, Kovi's GF now has a bit of first-hand knowledge of what might be going on when she sees him stuff it during a race.
There are other seats locked down (right?) but this is the current list based on official submissions to the FIA. FIA release 2011 entry list (planetf1.com)
You're in good company...Christian Horner agrees... Horner Upset With Webber (formula-one.speedtv.com)
Can you blame him? A lot of money and time is spent in the quest for an F1 title, the least the driver can do while under contract is stay away from things that could keep him from performing at 100%.... If he can't then he should consider his future in mountain bike racing.