2014 grid?

[p-matt]

As Dan's as good as confirmed at Red Bull, it's about time we all had a stab at the rest of the seats:

Red Bull: Vettel / Ricciardo
Mercedes: Hamilton / Rosberg
Ferrari: Alonso / Raikkonen
Lotus: Grosjean / Hulkenberg (if Kimi stays at Lotus, it'll be the Hulk at Ferrari)
McLaren: Button / Perez
Force India: di Resta / Sutil
Toro Rosso: Vergne / Felix da Costa
Sauber: Bianchi / Sirotkin (Bianchi's earned the step up, and promoting him to Sauber might knock some cash off the engine bill. I have faith the Russian deal will go ahead)
Williams: Maldonado / Bottas (although it wouldn't surprise me if Petrov gets Bottas' seat)
Marussia: Chilton / Magnussen (perfect place for Kevin to learn, as Bianchi has shown)
Caterham: Pic / hard to say - none of their juniors are ready. van der Garde isn't really good enough, but he'll be in the frame. Kovalianen is a possible, or maybe someone decent and with money like Felipe Nasr. I'll plump with Nasr.

[Bononi]

The good old off-season dance of the chairs, who's gonna be where...

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

For Caterham I'd say it's between VDG or Kovalainen. Nobody else really unless they want to bring in a Fr3.5 or GP2 runner.

[bella]

caterham are grooming will stevens, who has the prerequisite large wallet and is trained up to the eyeballs in every respect. i wouldn't be surprised if he ended up in a race seat if they needed the dough and/or pic wandered off. if they don't need the dough, they'll park him in gp2, take some more money off him and give him that vague "third driver" designation and let rossi have the f1 seat.

probably extremely unlikely, but it sounds clever

[F1Pete]

Bottas replaced by Petrov??? I don't think so!

[p-matt]

There were rumours that it might happen given Williams' Russian links and the fact he could bring cash.

Unlikely I'd have thought, but then again no one expected Hulkenberg to get dumped for Maldonado

[bella]

petrov's (ex?)manager was given her marching orders (allegedly) from her marketing job with caterham that she took up after petrov lost his drive with caterham, so evidently they've figured out that she's not very good. as if not being able to sell a competent russian driver in f1 to a bunch of rich investors wasn't a big enough hint...

given that he hasn't really driven anything of note for a year and the last thing he did was drive the dtm taxi for vip guests at the moscow round i think lining him up with a williams drive with some mystery money from nowhere... it's a long shot.

[BSchneiderFan]

I think Petrov's time has passed. Sirotkin is the future now as far as Russian sponsorship goes.

[Mr Pink]

Personally I'm hoping Bianchi gets Massas seat if he's gone.

[BSchneiderFan]

Ferrari would be taking a huge chance on Bianchi; he's hardly set the world on fire (albeit in a Marussia), and they could have their pick of much more experienced drivers like Hulkenberg, di Resta, Kobayashi, Grosjean...

[Bononi]

...or Jacques Villeneuve.

[bella]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

Ferrari would be taking a huge chance on Bianchi; he's hardly set the world on fire (albeit in a Marussia)

erm, i don't understand how you DO set the world on fire in a marussia, that's the whole point of him being placed with them in the first place. as long as he keeps chilton a respectable distance behind and rags the last bit of speed out of the car when relevant who cares? what matters is that he learns the tyres, and how to best use them to deliver in qualifying and manage them in the race so he doesn't have to do it in public at the pointy end.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by bella

erm, i don't understand how you DO set the world on fire in a marussia, that's the whole point of him being placed with them in the first place. as long as he keeps chilton a respectable distance behind and rags the last bit of speed out of the car when relevant who cares? what matters is that he learns the tyres, and how to best use them to deliver in qualifying and manage them in the race so he doesn't have to do it in public at the pointy end.

If only they would bring back more open testing, the big teams would be able to bring on talented youngsters instead of going for experienced hacks.
It would also be far easier to determine who truly has talent, and who is just using a car as an excuse.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

But that is Max Chilton he's beating...

[m355y]

Red Bull

1. Vettel
2. Ricciardo

Mercedes

3. Hamilton
4. Rosberg

Ferrari

5. Alonso
6. Hulkenberg

Lotus

7. Raikkonen
8. Grosjean

McLaren

9. Button
10. Perez

Force India

11. Di Resta
12. Sutil

Toro Rosso

14. Vergne
15. Da Costa

Sauber

16. Magnusson
17. Sirotkin

Williams

18. Maldonado
19. Bottas

Caterham

20. Pic
21. Vandoorne

Marussia

22. Bianchi
23. Chilton

Bar a couple of more guessy ones like Vandoorne, Magnusson, I reckon that I'll be close.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

But that is Max Chilton he's beating...

i know, it goes against everything you know, but the guy *isn't that bad*. he's the dictionary definition of "mostly harmless", so far he has kept out of the way, not done too much damage and certainly hasn't been dangerously slow. he's never going to be a race winner, but he's not that bad. bianchi is beating him by a decent margin most of the time, and it says a lot that he has to make a fairly substantial error on a lap (like, go the wrong way round) for chilton to beat him.

it'd be a bit silly to put vandoorne in f1 next year, it's not his experience or racecraft that's a problem but i think he'd gain more from another year outside of it. hopefully mclaren will help pony up the cash. magnussen is ready though.

maybe it's the cloudy nature of gp2, but i just don't see anyone in it who makes me think "they're gonna be good in f1".

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by bella

maybe it's the cloudy nature of gp2, but i just don't see anyone in it who makes me think "they're gonna be good in f1".

Frijns of course!! Nasr, Calado and probably Bird as well. Rossi on his day is awesome, but there have been far too many off days from him over the last few years.

[bella]

rossi makes me angry. i don't understand how someone with so much talent can be so slow.

calado is going that way too - either art have gone way off the boil or he's suffering at the hands of the gp2 lottery. i just can't decide about nasr - it IS odd that he hasn't won yet. poor strategy, or is it excellent strategy because he's always playing exactly the same game and getting the points in rather than the star performances?

you jump up and down and point at frijns, but that's only because of what he has achieved before rather than what he's doing now, right? i'd quite like to see him at williams, but that would mean ousting maldonado, and that would create a cashflow issue approximately the size of marussia :/

[davyboy]

Could McLaren opt to replace Button I wonder ? Maybe he's just being candid here, but there's almost an air of desperation to some of what he says.

[bella]

without wanting to go more silly with the silly season... would alonso go back to mclaren now he'd have obvious number one status?

[pauln]

Surely the problem last time was that he thought he did have obvious number one status, bella?

I very much doubt that McLaren would want him. Kimi on the other hand...

[bella]

well exactly, he thought he did, but he obviously didn't. also hamilton was a bit quicker than he anticipated if he was to be offered first dibs on toys now, then surely he'd be nuts not to seriously consider it?

and really, i thought all the turning up in smart shirts and freshly ironed trousers was exactly what turned kimi off mclaren? they're unlikely to drop that for him now, surely?

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by bella

without wanting to go more silly with the silly season... would alonso go back to mclaren now he'd have obvious number one status?

While we're still in 'silly' form, what about this ? McLaren may be viewing Button as no better than Perez and given the latter has his feet under the table now, they could throw a chance at somebody new - Kevin Magnussen ?

[BSchneiderFan]

If McLaren are thinking of jettisoning Button - and I don't think they are - Räikkönen is the only plausible candidate. Pérez/Magnussen would be a dangerously inexperienced pairing, and McLaren haven't employed a rookie for a long old while.

[p-matt]

Alonso to McLaren isn't really that crazy surely. Ron isn't there anymore, and Perez is no Hamilton.