Vettel confirmed at Red Bull

[Born Racer]

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/7/8098.html

[Ralf's Girl]

That's one less team for Alonso to be linked with, then.

[chillibowl]

i guess the only surprise here is that they made the announcement so quickly and that they actually promoted a junior red bull driver to the "a" team for the first time.

but congrats to him and i hope that not worrying about next year really helps his confidence and focus as he has the potential to have a great career.

[nycuk]

No great surprise.

So who to replace him at STR?

A member of the Red Bull Junior Team would be the obvious choice; Buemi or Chandhok perhaps? Too soon for Hartley or Alguersuari?

[Born Racer]

i guess the only surprise here is that they made the announcement so quickly and that they actually promoted a junior red bull driver to the "a" team for the first time.

I don't know if the latter point is a surprise. Vettel seems the only one good enough to have been promoted to Red Bull. Speed and Liuzzi for instance were just a bit average.

[Born Racer]

So who to replace him at STR?

A member of the Red Bull Junior Team would be the obvious choice; Buemi or Chandhok perhaps? Too soon for Hartley or Alguersuari?

Nah, at this stage I would say it should be Senna. He has a lot of potential given his lack of racing experience. Although he perhaps needs another year in GP2. He probably won't get it if he wins the title though.

[alonso11]

Originally Posted by nycuk

No great surprise.

So who to replace him at STR?

A member of the Red Bull Junior Team would be the obvious choice; Buemi or Chandhok perhaps? Too soon for Hartley or Alguersuari?

Buemi does stand a chance

Chandok is more like an FI prospect (if anything)

Hartley is yet to turn a steering wheel in an F1 car and Alquersuari hasnt even seat in one (having said the prestige of British F3 is a far-cry from what it was a few years ago, I doubt anyone would come straight to F1 from there anyway)

I wouldnt rule out the return of Jani and it would be certainly a mistake ruling out Senna (if not for winning GP2 then for the obvious Berger connection)

[alonso11]

Another question is whether we talk about one or two vacancies at STR. Tost doesnt seem to like Bourdais an awful lot and the last driver he didnt really like is racing rather odd looking pickups somewhere far away now

[ralf fan]

Wonder how many hypothetical wins will Sebastien cost Mark.

[Ralf's Girl]

Every race, most likely.

I'd have thought Senna would be top of the list to replace Vettel - there's a question mark over his racing experience, but no more so than a lot of the other possibilities. And he's doing well in GP2, so perhaps there wouldn't be a huge amount to be gained from another year there.

[Born Racer]

I just feel he needs to gain more race experience. With next to no karting background, that's a potential disadvantage. He's still a bit rough round the edges, but looks to be doing a bloody good job. I've been impressed with him more than anyone in GP2 this year given this (Grosjean is good, as is Pantano but he's been around for ages so he should be).

[strider]

Originally Posted by alonso11

Hartley is yet to turn a steering wheel in an F1 car and Alquersuari hasnt even seat in one (having said the prestige of British F3 is a far-cry from what it was a few years ago, I doubt anyone would come straight to F1 from there anyway)

Incorrect, both have already had a run out in a Toro Rosso, although I agree they are not ready for F1 yet. You need to update your view of British F3, btw.

[Bononi]

Great news, no surprise at all.

[alonso11]

Originally Posted by strider

Incorrect, both have already had a run out in a Toro Rosso, although I agree they are not ready for F1 yet. You need to update your view of British F3, btw.

Yea my bad it was Alguersuari who didnt turn the steering wheel yet (as he did straight line testing) I recalled Hartley's experience restricted to straight-line fun too, but true enough, he did have a shake-down.

The standards are getting lower and lower in what was the most prestigeous F3 championships of them all someday. To quote the good old JPM you need to be either blind or stupid (not to notice that) Looking no further than last year: Asmer is quite worthless IMO (despite all the hype) and Engel coming 2nd last year really tells a lot too, these grids are just weak. The place to be is certainly F3euroseries. Browse thru these names and update your views I suggest:

1. Romain Grosjean (Renault tests)
2. Sebastien Buemi (RBR tests)
3. Nicolas Hülkenberg (Williams tests)
4. Kamui Kobayashi (Toyota tests)

1. Paul di Resta (DTM front-runner)
2. Sebastian Vettel (BMW GP, STR GP)
3. Kohei Hirate (Toyota test)
4. Esteban Guerrieri

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mclaren GP)
2. Adrian Sutil (Spyker GP, Force India GP)
3. Lucas di Grassi (Renault tests)
4. Franck Perera (Toyota tests)

1. Jamie Green (DTM front-runner)
2. Alexandre Premat (GP2 front-runner)
3. Nicolas Lapierre (A1GP front-runner)
4. Nico Rosberg (Williams GP)

1. Ryan Briscoe (straight to F1 with Toyota tests and GP)
2. Christian Klien (straight to F1 with Jaguar GP and RBR GP)
3. Oliver Pla
4. Markus Winkelhock (Spyker tests and GP)



----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------


1. Marco Asmer (Williams tests, BMW tests)
2. Maro Engel
3. Stephen Jelley (painfully slow in GP2 Asia)
4. Sam Bird (struggles in F3 Euroseries)


1. Mike Conway (Honda tests, GP2 front-runner, the only real talent of them all)
2. Oliver Jarvis (no slouch)
3. Bruno Senna (will test in F1 sooner rather than later)
4. Yelmer Buurman (a Dutch who got the boot from TRUST-Arden...)

1. Alvaro Parente (WSbR champion, another one to watch)
2. Charlie Kimball (struggles in F3 euroseries)
3. Mike Conway
4. Marco Asmer


2004 (thats more like it) :

1. Nelson Angelo Piquet
2. Adam Carroll
3. James Rossiter
4. Clivio Piccione

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Nah, at this stage I would say it should be Senna.

And it shouldn't be too long before we get a 'Mansell' and then maybe someone somewhere will say-"Hey!...wait a minute!"

[dsg]

Originally Posted by ralf fan

Wonder how many hypothetical wins will Sebastien cost Mark.

Yawn, again.

[Peter Ford]

I think webber better watch out, because if vettel continued to beat him in qualifing and the races then he found himself out of f1 pretty quick.

[Pro Racer]

no suprise really.

[dsg]

Originally Posted by Peter Ford

I think webber better watch out, because if vettel continued to beat him in qualifing and the races then he found himself out of f1 pretty quick.

In order to continue, he first must start. It will be interesting to watch.

[FPV GTHO]

I think Senna-STR is more of a reality than perhaps Berger and Tost want to let on. Theyve mentioned that his focus should be GP2, be it aiming for the title or simply more race experience, but Scott Speed was promoted into the team with just a single years GP2 experience. With better nurturing from STR, which would surely happen given the Berger/Senna link, i'm sure there wouldnt be the same issues as what happened with Speed.

I'd hate to see Bourdais dropped after just a single year as well. Next year with the slicks and lower downforce would surely play into his hands with his Champ Car experience. The grooved tyres i suspect havent helped his transition this year.

[rocketracer]

as i mentioned in the silly season thread, i think klien is a prime candidate for one of the STR seats, for the following reasons:

1. prior experience, he's on their books.
2. he's desperately keen for a racing drive
3. he could now be classed as "experienced" in f1 terms

i think he will likely be teamed up with either senna (which lower mid field team could resist bringing that name back into f1?!) or buemi, who i think is class, but still making rookie mistakes. However, i think buemi's the sort of driver who would benefit from "throwing him in the deep end", and similar to kimi, lewis, etc who also came in young, I think he's a swimmer

having said all that, i would really like bourdais to have at least another season to prove his worth... if i was gerhard, i would team up bourdais with klien, and wait another year before bringing in the young gun. the trade off is either senna or buemi might get snapped up by another team and the chance will be gone...

[spider]

I'd have a sizeable bet it will be Bruno, for many reasons. I can't see many teams taking a punt on Bruno next year beside STR. Gerhard will smoothly add him to the team and with Red Bull looking to sell for 2010, the publicity Bruno would give the team would certainly help get them noticed.

I'd be shocked if someone else went there...

[Bononi]

If it happens, I'm not sure it will be good for Senna.

[strider]

Originally Posted by alonso11

The standards are getting lower and lower in what was the most prestigeous F3 championships of them all someday. To quote the good old JPM you need to be either blind or stupid (not to notice that) Looking no further than last year: Asmer is quite worthless IMO (despite all the hype) and Engel coming 2nd last year really tells a lot too, these grids are just weak.

I wasn't actually referring to last year or any of the other years you list, but rather to this season. The competition is far more intense and even his own team doubt if Asmer would win it this year. The top six drivers at this point have each won at least one race and the seventh, Marcus Ericsson, is an odds-on certainty to win before long.

Plus you have the added attraction of a Mugen-Honda engine winning four races, just to upset Mercedes, and Mygale rocking the Dallara applecart by taking a couple of wins.

Apologies for wandering off topic.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Peter Ford

I think webber better watch out, because if vettel continued to beat him in qualifing and the races then he found himself out of f1 pretty quick.

Webber doesn't seem too bothered by the prospect - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69213

As he implies, he handled Rosberg pretty well and I don't see Vettel being any different.

It's mostly down to his own bad career moves, but Mark is still a severely under-rated driver.