Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Jacques Villeneuve will not be racing. Test and reserve driver Robert Kubica will take his place. He will be the first Pole ever to contest a Formula One grand prix.
BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen said: “Jacques has informed us that he is not ready to race after his Hockenheim accident. Robert has made an outstanding impression with the team so far, both in testing and on the Friday of the race weekends. Now we will see how he performs in a Formula One race. However, we have not yet made a decision on who will drive the car either in the remaining races of the season or next year.”
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.
I checked the BMW F1 web site, and they are talking about Kubica's formative race at HUngaroring. So we shal lsee if JV ever gets a ride in F1 again...
They can't just put JV aside. He has done so well this season and the problems of this weekend weren't only on his car, Heidfeld retired much earlier! I don't want to see JV leave F1 and I think that there are a lot of F1 fans that don't want that!
Kubica does well during the free practice sessions, but will he during a race
Without JV, I don't think BMW would have made what progress they have this year. What did BMW expect their to be first year, podium contenders? While I believe they will replace him, I don't think they should. If they want better results, they should give the former champion a better car.
I have mixed feelings. I'm an avid JV fan, yet I also recognize Kubica has displayed the ability and right to get a seat in the near future.
I don't wish misfortune or problems on Kubica, yet I really don't want the decision makers any reason to allow Kubica to take JV's seat. But the brutal facts are, despite some misfortune, JV has 7 points while Nick has 13. BMW is comfortably 6th in manufacturer's points, and within distance of Toyota to grab 5th.
If Kubica gets any points in Hungary, he just may have a seat for the rest of the year.
With 'Friday' driver Robert Kubica taking over the controls of regular racer Jacques Villeneuve, BMW-Sauber will not run a third car in Hungary, a spokesman confirmed on Wednesday.
With the event in Budapest being the second leg of a European double header, it is understood that there was not enough time after Hockenheim to appoint a new driver.
Teenage star Sebastian Vettel, who tested for the Hinwil-based team at Jerez last month, might have been a logical choice to fill Kubica's boots, but the German crashed heavily at Spa-Francorchamps in a junior single-seater last weekend and sustained an open fracture to his finger.
He will likely be out of the cockpit for weeks.
Asked about the vacant Friday drive in Hungary, BMW spokesman Joerg Kottmeir said: ''We will not run a third car.''
The Munich-based marque's head of communications did not say who would be designated as the official reserve driver.
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
My own opinion is JV as good a driver or better than anybody else in F1!
Kubica as well as some of the other 3rd drivers perform very well in Fridays practice sessions. Keep in mind that if they were truly that good they would be racing regularly. The cars that they are using are not scrutinized to the level of the race day cars weight, engine, and tyres could all be illegal for qualifying and race.
Kubica could potentially be a great driver in the future, is he as good as JV now? Highly doubtful.
Are there some politics going on? Very likely.
I think there will be a lot to talk about Monday morning.
gogglesp wrote:My own opinion is JV as good a driver or better than anybody else in F1!
Kubica as well as some of the other 3rd drivers perform very well in Fridays practice sessions. Keep in mind that if they were truly that good they would be racing regularly. The cars that they are using are not scrutinized to the level of the race day cars weight, engine, and tyres could all be illegal for qualifying and race.
Kubica could potentially be a great driver in the future, is he as good as JV now? Highly doubtful.
Are there some politics going on? Very likely.
I think there will be a lot to talk about Monday morning.
My opinon is he was as good as anyone else hes showing his age i feel. So far all he has managed to accomplish this year is telling MS to retire or boycotting meetings to get some press.
Alot of friday drivers dont have seats because they dont have money backing them up like some of the old guys do.
and it would do a team no good to run a third car udner weight they are basily using it to set up the other two cars so it should be as close as possible
Unlike some other series (CART) all the top F1 drivers are paid to drive by the teams. They don't pay the teams to drive.
Midland, Super Aguri may need money brought to the table by the driver but the top teams pay many millions of dollars to their drivers. Therein lies one of the motivating reasons why teams are leaning towards younger inexperienced drivers, they don't need to pay them as much.
For Williams they get sponsorship from TATA because of Narain and I think Red Bull gets money from Dornbos (sp) like the sponsorship and being a paid driver because I do not think he was part of the Red Bull driver programme, but I could be wrong.
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
JV has driven well this year but I think it would be better if teams started to bring fresh talent into F1.
I read an article about this Robert bloke - and he's supposedly very good, up there with the mega-generation drivers ( Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg...)
