Belatti wrote:The thing is, maybe, Renault invested too many years in Kovalainen, like McLaren did with Hamilton. He was part of Renault drivers development program. I imagine Renault dont want to let Kovalainen go that easily, maybe with a contract that says something like: "if Kovalainen is quick as Hamilton, McLaren should sent him back to Renault for 2009" Who knows?
If I where in McLaren i would consider Sutil, too, at least for a couple of tests to see if he is quick enough. This year he did well in that orange trolley, apart from that he is German, doesnt Mercedes want that?
At least TSN reported
(recently) Sutil's manager saying that Adrian is "firmly contracted" with Force India for 2008. If you take that at face value, then he's not going to play "second violin" to Hamilton in any scenario. Kovalainen, well, a month ago he wrote this in his column:
Heikki Kovalainen wrote:The next eight months are very important for my career. Wherever I go or whether I stay, I want to compete and put in the hard work with that team to win the championship.
Equal status with my team-mate is also important. I don't want to turn up in Australia if I know I can't win or fight for the championship.
There are two good seats left at this point, one with Hamilton, one potentially with Alonso. That's one heck of a dilemma, if equal treatment (and not only nominally) is the deal maker or breaker for him, with Flavio going about making statements about how teams must only have one prima donna at a time.
Not to be outdone with all the equality, Piquet Sr. has come out swinging in the defence of Jr., speaking for a Brazilian newspaper, A Tribuna. What can I say? In Formula One it seems to be an era of drivers seeking to be "more equal" than other drivers. Sound familiar?
Nelson Piquet Sr. wrote:It’s time for Nelsinho to show how good he is. He has to walk (into F1) thinking that whoever’s on the other side of the [Renault] pits will be outpaced. There’s no way around it, you’re either that good or not.
If Nelsinho races at Renault with Fernando and is able to beat him in their first qualifying session together, it would be a good start, a way to start demoralizing (Alonso).
RBR's Mateschitz appears uninterested but still seems pretty certain in his knowledge about what Alonso is after. Both of his team's drivers have given interviews to the effect that they're very secure in the knowledge that everything is going to plan with regard to 2008.
Dietrich Mateschitz wrote:If there is speculation in the Italian media that Alonso is about to sign for Red Bull, I can only say - I know nothing about that.
From what I hear, Alonso is speaking to other teams about a one-year only deal. Such a deal is out of question for us. We would prefer to wait a year and prove that we can build a car which is capable of attracting one of the best Grand Prix drivers for 2009.
Besides reflecting on his "relaxedness" about contractual matters with the Canberra Times, Webber offered this opinion - contrasting his rather different (and persistent) tone after the Japan GP this year - about Lewis Hamilton's efforts during 2007:
Mark Webber wrote:It's never been done before and probably won't be done for a long, long time. It was impressive.
He arrived at the top and you see a lot of drivers come in and waste those opportunities but Lewis didn't and he delivered for McLaren. His consistency was a bigger surprise.
All is not as it seems, that's for sure. There's so much of proverbial digestive byproduct flying about in the media at this point that surely some of it will eventually hit a fan. Oh wait, we're discussing it here. Yuck.
Edit: Ben_watkins, sorry to say this (Hakkinen is a fun chap and all that), but he's been pretty much off his game since 2001 or so, and pushing 40. Just compare what Mika did when he last tested with McLaren with Michael's recent antics. Not conclusive, but indicative enough and Hakkinen has drawn the obvious conclusion as well, retiring from racing for good.
, 
the pay-seat policy is not for a winning team such as Mc Laren)[/b]
