Could they even find two competitive American drivers if they wanted? I presume their plan would be to take drivers from CART/IRL? kevin + http://tullamarine.org
Frentzen terminated his contract with Arrows. He wants to continue driving F1, maybe with Toyota (for McNish) or Sauber (for Massa).
Well, Arrows aren't going to be racing at Hungary this weekend and it seems doubtful they'd race the rest of a season. A really sad state of affairs. Alex Yoong has finally been replaced, but it seems like they didn't have the balls to actually sack him. He's going to be in some training program for the next two races and the comeback for the remaining three. kevin + http://tullamarine.org
Yoong is replaced by English Anthony Davidson in Hungary and Belgium. According to my information the following two races in Monza and Indianapolis he'll be replaced by US driver Bryan Herta before Yoong returns to the final race in Japan. Craig Pollock this week said that the probability to take over the Arrows team is about 80%.
Hungary qualifying ends with disaster for McLaren (Coulthard 10, Raikkonen 11). Result: 1 Barrichello 2 M Schumacher 3 R Schumacher 4 Montoya 5 Fisichella 6 Trulli
Perhaps now that Schumacher has won the title, Ferrari will take Rubinho's car off the jacks for the warm up lap/get the right re-fueling rig working/get the tyres on quicker. Poor chap.
Race Result: 1 Barrichello 2 M Schumacher 3 R Schumacher 4 Raikkonen 5 Coulthard 6 Fisichella Ferrari clinched the constructors championship. Barrichello was more or less guided to the victory to collect points for the vice-championship. McLaren did the best they could do out of their bad starting positions.
I declare that this is the most boring and predictable championship ever. Williams and McLaren had better close the gap, or else the sport will be even more tedious.
Agreed. Disappointing season. Disappointing race. Except for Kimi's excellent overtaking of Montoya. That was about the only excitement in today's race.
Bernie Ecclestone says that the situation couldn't be much better and more interesting. Maybe he should have a look at the TV ratings or all viewers are simply idiots. When McLaren was that superior at the end of the 90s, he was prohibiting their important improvements one after the other - probably we're having a very different situation right now.
Oh sure, when I say it, it's bullshit but when the good Doctor says it, it becomes conventional wisdom around here...
Hey, I defended you before and said that this season offers enough space for criticism. However, some rumors: Arrows is extremely close to bankruptcy. Tom Walkinshaw isn't interested in feeding the team with more and more money. The Arrows crew is still waiting for the July salary and currently isn't working anymore. Also Craig Pollock is meanwhile keeping distance to buying Arrows as they only got the actual cars, the team name and the F1 license - but not even a factory to build a new car. Jaguar wants to get rid off overpaid Eddie Irvine - surely no news. The news are that the 36 year old is rumored to have a new 3 years contract with Ford. And after Eddie Jordan officially announced to drive with Ford engines next season, it is speculated that sponsor Benson&Hedges wants Irvine. Takuma Sato will most likely leave Jordan as he has no positive criteria speaking for him after Honda won't supply the team with engines anymore. Toyota wants to increase their position on the South American market by signing a South American driver. No 1 candidate was Christiano da Matta - the Brazilian already agreed with Toyota, but his employer Newman-Haas demanded a 25 M transfer fee. Next candidate is 22 year old Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia, currently Williams test driver. He'd replace Alan McNish.
Plus Minardi will be getting a much needed cash injection - from the Russians of all people. Probably ahead of the supposed future Moscow grand prix.
Sauber signed Frentzen for the next season instead of Massa. The funny thing is that their drivers next season - Heidfeld and Frentzen - aren't only from the same country, but also from the same city (Mönchengladbach).
Toyota signed BAR's Olivier Panis for the next season and announced to not renew the contracts of Salo and McNish. Panis' current team colleague Jacques Villeneuve rejected a 3 year 50 M offer of some US cart team. Arrows drives to the race in Belgium - eventually they start, but as it seems only if an US investor buys Walkinshaw's team (negotiations are running).
McLarens dominated the free practice today...but then again, McNish did get a 7th place in a free practice before, so that doesn't mean jack...
Qualifying Spa: 1 M Schumacher 2 Raikkonen (best career qualifying so far) 3 Barrichello 4 R Schumacher 5 Coulthard 6 Montoya
Race result: 1 M Schumacher 2 Barrichello 3 Montoya 4 Coulthard 5 R Schumacher 6 Irvine (!) ------ 7 Salo 8 Villeneuve 9 McNish 10 Heidfeld 11 Sato 12 Panis All others out. Nice race if it had taken place without the red ones.
Well chuffed about Irvine getting that point. Shame Pedro's car didn't have the legs to finish. I really hope they don't lose Spa from the racing calendar. A fantastic track. It seems the FIA are hell bent on getting rid of any remotely endearing track that the drivers seem to like (Hockenheim and now Spa possibly).
Yes, Spa is also one of my favourites. Unfortunately FIA (and most of the drivers) just love these high security plastic tracks without spectacular scenes, and short tracks to pass the tribunes as often as possible.
Okay.... let's talk about 2003. Who will be driving for whom? This is all I knew so far. Please fill in. Ferrari: Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello McLaren: DC and Kimi Raikkonen Williams: JPM and Ralf Schumacher Renault: Trulli and Alfonso(?) Sauber: Frentzen and Heidfield Jordan: Giancarlo Fisichella and Sato(?) BAR: JV and Jenson Button Jauguar: Bruce Webber and ??? Toyota: Panis and ???? Minardi: No more Yoong and Webber.
End of F1 boredom? BMW produced a new engine being able to make use of more than the critical 19.000 rpm. Result today: all time average speed record for a single lap (previous record holder: Keke Rosberg in 1984). Qualifying result Monza: 1 Montoya 2 M Schumacher 3 R Schumacher 4 Barrichello 5 Raikkonen 6 Irvine 7 Coulthard 8 de la Rosa 9 Villeneuve 10 Salo