[Hatari]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

The funny thing is that Kolles says that after they fired Chandok due to not meeting his contractual obligations, he was never on HRT's radar. On the other hand, Chandok says HRT made him an offer and that he refused. Wonder who is telling the truth.

HRT are quite desperate, that is evident.
I'm sure hey asked Karun if his sponsorship offering status had improved and if he was in a better position for 2011.

In contrast look at the involvement of Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez, apart from backing Maldonado for the Williams seat, he announced the PDVSA-Williams sponsorship deal himself

Shows how important F1 is in their country.

[anachronix]

Pictures of Rossi & the Ferrari team from Wroom event!

[anachronix]

Pirelli wet weather tyres tested in Yas Marina circuit

YouTube - Pirelli F1 wet night tyre test - Abu Dhabi

Hi-Res pictures here:

Pirelli’s ‘dark water’ test (photo gallery) « Hunnylander's Blog

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by anachronix

Pirelli wet weather tyres tested in Yas Marina circuit

[
Hi-Res pictures here:

Pirelli’s ‘dark water’ test (photo gallery) « Hunnylander's Blog

Looks like the old RedBull car was borrowed for testing.

Nice to see the testing in progress. But that PIRELLI print on the tyre is really absurd

[manubhai]

The Pirelli print may be looking absurd, but the new retro look Alonso's wearing is pretty cool i think. Looking forward to a fantastic year of F1. Not sure if Karthikeyan's gonna make a worthwhile impression.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Looks like the old RedBull car was borrowed for testing.

It's the 2009 Toyota. Pirelli have made a deal with Toyota for their old car and Toyota have provided their engineers for all the Pirelli tests, along with the car.

[Hatari]

Mallya has made a statement to say Force India will soon announce their 2011 driver lineup and are waiting for a few legal hassles to be taken care of.

Which confirms 2011 drivers to be Sutil and Di Riesta with the Hulk being the reserve/test driver

Wonder how much the team will need to pay Luizzi to buy out his contract.
I wonder if he had a non-performance clause in his contract.

[anachronix]

I would love to see Hulk replacing Sutil's seat in a Force India car!

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

It's the 2009 Toyota. Pirelli have made a deal with Toyota for their old car and Toyota have provided their engineers for all the Pirelli tests, along with the car.

Thank you for that info

I presumed seeing the front wings.

Originally Posted by anachronix

I would love to see Hulk replacing Sutil's seat in a Force India car!

That would be a great, provided Mr. Mallya is thinking about something else.

Well, as an INDIAN, i would love to see, 2 Indian Drivers driving the Force India cars on Indian Soil

[Newpunter]

Seems like the delay in announcing the drivers for FI is due to Luizzi's contract. Luizzi has a valid contract to drive for FI in 2011 but the team is keen on Di Resta and they are not big like Ferrari to pay him for not driving the car. Mallya has said that the legal issues will be sorted soon and the drivers announced.

[2theMax]

Hulken should have been on the grid. Sutil has had enough chances and has never burned the charts in qualifying even on FI's best days.

Sad to see a pole sitter watching the race and a rookie racing for the team.

FI should have a better car this year, but poor drivers this year aren't going to take them to the front of the grid.

Well ! we all know Bernie's hidden agenda and the Mclaren connection don't we ?

Kimi and Hulken for FI would have been killer !

[mgh]

How will FI have a better car this year? The car went downhill in the second half of 2010 season. Don't think FI have done anything to improve their technical department.
Mallya needs to have some sponsors other than his own companies to have enough money for better cars/ better drivers.

[Hatari]

^^
If i recall correctly they had stopped development on the 2010 car quite early to focus on 2011.
Though, Luizzi did feel that the loss of James Key as Technical Director (who moved to Sauber) was also a factor to the drop in performance

Given the rookie pay driver culture this year and i'm sure this will continue for years to come, a Friday 2hr test session for rookie drivers only is exactly what is needed.

They will get the worth-its-weight-in-gold time spent in an F1 car and teams will get an extra 2 hrs at a race venue to test new drivers and bits of the car.

With limited testing any rookie driver entering the sport is at a huge disadvantage.

F1 has to get out of this vicious trap of pay drivers at the cost of genuine talent.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Team : Please use the "edit" button if posting within 20 minutes of the first post, instead of creating another back-to-back post.

[anachronix]

News for Mclaren fans!

'Innovative' McLaren will provoke 'lots of discussion'

So MW is hinting at doing a Redbull'10 + Brawn'09 for 2011 with the MP4-26. Interesting!

[route666]

Wishful thinking
Red Bull Racing-Renault

1. Sebastian Vettel
2.Kimi Raikkonen
McLaren-Mercedes

3. Lewis Hamilton
4. Jenson Button
Scuderia Ferrari

5. Fernando Alonso
6. Robert Kubica
Mercedes Grand Prix

7. Michael Schumacher
8. Nico Rosberg
Renault F1 Team

9. Nico Hülkenberg
10.Mark Webber
Williams-Cosworth

11. Felipe Massa
12. Vitaly Petrov
Force India F1 Team-Mercedes

14. Paul di Resta
15. Nick Heidfeld
BMW Sauber-Ferrari

16. Kamui Kobayashi
17. Timo Glock
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari

18. Daniel Ricciardo
19. Jaime Alguersuari
Lotus-Renault

20. Jarno Trulli
21. Heikki Kovalainen
HRT-Cosworth

22. Narain Karthikeyan
23. Pastor Maldonado
Virgin Racing-Cosworth

24. Rubens Barrichello
25. Sergio Perez