Ryan Not A Part Of Toyota???!!!

[Nizmo32_josh]

Sorry i just finished reading this on f1-live.....

Can anyone conferm??


Should the deal be confirmed, Toyota may well have a say on one of the drivers, but given that Ryan Briscoe is no longer involved with the Toyota F1 team, Ricardo Zonta seems the man more likely to race with Jordan.

hrug:

[npperk]

Toyota still have him under contract, but have told him his services are not required for the Formula 1 program.

He won't be third driver, testing or anything like that. He has been told he is allowed to go out and get himself a drive somewhere, but he has to find the funding himself - they will not help him.

Exactly how this situation works, is anyones guess..

[Dixie Flatline]

That seemed to be how it was a couple of months ago, but to me it would make sense for Toyota to put Briscoe in the Jordan rather than Zonta, because Zonta is a fairly well-known quantity at F1 level, given his time with BAR and with Toyota, whereas Toyota have invested a lot of money in Briscoe but don't know yet whether it will pay off.

Briscoe gave an interview a couple of months ago where he said that Toyota had given him blessing to find a team, but weren't going to help him, either financially or otherwise, but the media reports (apart from the one above) I've seen suggest that Toyota are putting Briscoe's name forward for a Jordan drive.

[Nizmo32_josh]

So as far as f1 is concerned he has been sacked...

[oziengineer]

Yep, lining up in Bernie's dole line. That's very bsd news, especially considering he BEAT Christian Klien last year. That is definitely one of F1's worst traits. Top drivers are missing out in drives that they deserve over their deep pocketed contemporaries. And he won't be driving a Jordan, they will most likely be using Toyota power next year.

[Mr V]

Just read This on ITV.com

Jordan are understood to have agreed a deal that will see Toyota tester Ryan Briscoe drive for the team in return.

[darcym]

Look at the quality of potential quality slipping through the F1 net,

Courtney,
Brisco
Davidson
Carroll
Van-der-merve
Watts
Clulas (doomed Toyota kiss of death)
There are tons

And look at the **** flooding in with cash that have made half the F1 grid a laughing stock

Panteno
Yoong
Marques
Klien
baumgardner
Keisa
(and others)

Ok some stars have slipped through the net
Alonso
Kimi
Button
Webber

etc etc

But is it not time F1 backers and F1 teams started selecting quality instead of people from the right country, or people with big fat wallets. If the pinicle of motorsport is half filled with dead beats while quality doesn't get a chance then motorsport is in more trouble than it has ever been

[Skam85]

I wouldn't put Klien on that list, he has done an admirable job. As for the rest, Baumgartner is OK, otherwise I agree entirely.

[Kicking-back]

Kiesa was an F3 and F3000 race winner - and hardly got much of a crack at the F1 whip.

Similarly Pantano came in highly rated.

[BootsOntheSide]

If you're going to slag off drivers, you might want to go to the effort to spell mroe than half their names correctly.

Marques is a pretty reasonable driver, who holds a lot of 'youngest ever' records. He never really got a good situation to prove hismelf at Minardi. Pantano could do the job in the right car as well.

[luke]

Their are a lot more drivers that are potentail F1 drivers and deserve a drive.

I mean in the IRL Tony George spends millions on drivers wages he even paid Al Unser Jr. to come to the series in '00.

Bernie has more money he needs.
If he cares about f1 AS MUCH AS HE SHOULD DO he should give drivers that deserve an F1 ride and give them backing.

Just imagine that if drivers as such Nige and had the talent and couldn't get it that would be tragic.
Nige only just scrapped in.
And the lader is much more difficult to climb than ever and there has been a lot drivers that deserve a ride that havn't got in.

[darcym]

apologies on the spelling, I was typing as thinking I don't think I'd be tested on it.

Klien did do a "fair" job but is fair enough to be in F1 - no it has to be a good or better job. Panteno didn't do a good job - full stop he never got aclimatised to F1, but how you rise to the challange is part of the test of being in F1. Marques seems to have done other good things, but has had a few cracks of hte F1 whip - with poor teams admitidly but has never excelled, which webber, alonso, fisco, truli to a point all did.

[nkh]

Heidfeld isn't the easiest driver to be up against, and when your management and the team doesn't get along well then it's got to be difficult to be Pantano.

Similar, Youngs teammates were Alonso (3 races) and Webber (15 races)... That can't have been easy.

If Webber is just half of what he's been hyped up to be then Klien is the new Rubens

Kiesa did 5 races in circus Verstappen (the only race where Kiesa got to setup the car on his own was the first race where he were 0.15 sec behind Verstappen, the only 'testing' he had got was the millage that was required to get a superlicens). He says that he has about 5-7 mill USD for a seat next year, so maybe he'll be back in a Jordan (who's price were about 7 mill USD last week, but Kiesa doesn't want to pay untill he knows what engines they'll have).

[BootsOntheSide]

Sounds like Kiesa got an extrememly bad deal - I suspect Jos was worried by him from the word go, and his sponsors pressurised Minardi to scupper Nicolas' chances. Certainly Kiesa came across as a literate, intelligent guy, and he did well below F1, so who's to say that he can't do better given another chance?

[darcym]

sounds like half the "rubbish" stated drivers got a tough deal...but they signed it knowing what was coming, and they lined up the managers. eg: if Jordan and Panteno's managment didn't get on - is it wise to change teams or managment ? driving the car is only part of the F1 skill set

[nkh]

I guess the most important thing for most drivers is just to be in F1, it's better to be in a Minardi for a couple of races than to wait forever for a chance to test for Ferrari.

[Dixie Flatline]

BTW, not really thread-related except his name came up above, but James Courtney is setting his sights on getting a gig with Midland F1 for '06, relying upon his old association with Carlin Motorsport to get a leg up on his rivals. Interesting to see what comes of it.

[Kicking-back]

Of course the real story here is that it looks like Ryan Briscoe will have an F1 race drive thanks to Toyota - yet people are accusing them of ditching him!

Be thankful for what they've done for his career

[mac]

Exactly. He is still a part of the Toyota F1 program. They have invested hugely in him (he hasn't paid for a race seat since karts) and are known to be quite impressed with his recent performances on Fridays.

If indeed they had sacked him, do you think they would be trying to include him as part of an engine deal to another team?

PLEASE!

[Adam43]

and a more general question: Aren't they allowed to sack him (if they do)?

[Kicking-back]

Of course they aren't allowed to sack him, Adam, he's Australian

[mac]

Of course they are. But the FACTS are that they haven't.

[Hugh Jarce]

It's all the strategic merry-go-round.

Toyota seem to be spreading their influence as well as their cash!