planetf1.com

Haha, they should just do a "Stig" and have someone continually walk around in his helmet so no one knows who he is... then in Barcelona just be like. "Oh, by the way, this is our second driver... Nissany, say hello."

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

Though an interesting idea in theory, there's absolutely no way people wouldn't realize it's Nissany driving. He has too much grip.

Yeah, major flaw in the idea there isn't it?
"Yo Vijay, our second driver has been in the gravel trap for seven weeks and can't get out of the car... should we just do the big reveal now?"

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

They could also hire this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycQdNr87cyI Would fulfill the Stig role all right.

On a more serious note, I'm still suspecting Bianchi. There's something going on with FI and Ferrari with Bianchi as the joker.

If the 2nd driver doesn't get finalized by 5th, there is a chance that Force India simulator driver James Rossiter may drive on 1 or 2 days of the Jerez test:-

http://www.f1reader.com/#/news/rossiter-likely-to-drive-at-jerez-66345

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Is Bianchi still on the books as third driver?

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

Just Di Resta on the website under "drivers", no mention of Bianchi anywhere from what I can see. Can't say if he was ever on the web page as a third driver, but he's not on there now.

Edit: Bianchi's website is full of Force India images on the top banner is it a hint? Or just showing that he practiced for them a few times.

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

It was stated that Bianchi was present at the venue of the Ferrari launch, rather at being at Force India's launch.

Is Bianchi in the running even?

Since Di Resta is confirmed, would that make him driver no 1 at the team? If Sutil were to join later, would he be no 2 or no 1?

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That would make sense as he's a Ferrari driver.

If he's still going to be 3rd driver for FI they might bung him in for a few laps of Jerez.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

I read this just some time back. Bob Fernley has stated that cause Hulk left the team, all of their future programs have been shaken. So they need to decide, by keeping in mind the short and long term effects to the team's performance and growth.

This news doesn't help or disregard Bianchi's chances still. As he was present at Ferrari's launch, may be he anticipates that he may be a reserve driver for 1 more year.

Had he felt or if he had got some feelers of being the 2nd driver, he would've been at the Force India launch.

That leaves Sutil and Senna. Both seem to have an equal chance.

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So FI is going to be the last team to name their second driver. This certainly isn't sounding very good.

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F1 fan since 1989

It is seeming harder to believe the team when it says it won't be auditioning drivers during the pre-season testing.

I sort of feel like since they've got to this point, why not?

About all I can see happening that would better FI's position would be that DiResta shows some blistering pace during testing, and one of the pay drivers try to up his bid just to grab the seat. (Though that seems unlikely IMO.) But it doesn't seem to me that the team's choices aren't going to be any better in the lead up to Melbourne than they are currently, so it seems odd it would go into testing with only 1 seat filled, so there really is no advantage to waiting longer and likely disadvantage instead.

Its all well and good having a pool of drivers but said drivers have basically missed out on most seats now not only in f1 but dtm as well, this means the likes of sutil, senna & alg. Could well be sat around twiddling thumbs for a year

is there still any chance for Kobayashi here? I would think his manager would be all over this...

I think he's given up. His manager seems to be a waste of space.

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Mallya said he didn't think he was good enough basically. He wants either Sutil or Bianchi anyway.

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putting my Kobayashi fanboyism aside, I would think that Kobayashi is a pretty *** good option considering that he's now bringing some money now. Bianchi will take a year to get accustomed to F1, so paired with Paul, it would be another poor year for FI. Why would Ferrari push for another new driver of theirs when Perez has just gone completely against Ferrari and signed with McLaren. Sutil has already been out of F1 for a year, not to mention Jaime as well. Senna is probably the biggest dissapointment in F1 in while and deserves no more chances. Which leaves Heikki or Petrov who would also be good options. Considering what I've just said, Force India would be pretty stupid not to take either Kamui, Heikki or Petrov. We all know Paul won't be doing anything interesting in the car this year.

may be its to do with hrt being gone there one les team ,there worried thely never be in q2

Well, considering that Mallya has serious financial issues, I wouldn't say Senna is out of the picture yet. He comes with loads of $$$, and, whilst definitely not the best driver out there, he can't be all that bad...honestly, even in 2012 I didn't think it was such a TOTAL failure...he deceived, yes, but not in an utterly catastrophic way. Anyway, for a pay driver, you could get much, much worse. Not to mention he's no rookie.

And, since Force India have not announced their line-up yet, it is clear (at least to me) that they are waiting for the highest bidder. Let's analyze it from that point of view, what do we have? Kovalainen and Petrov were not able to bring enough cash so stay in Caterham, let alone another team...and besides, once you get sacked from a lower team, usually the higher teams don't jump to take you in...Kobayashi announced he managed to raise, through public subscription, about 1 million ...that's not very much, is it? and what happens when the money runs out, another subscription? not very fesable long-term...
And we have Sutil, who has some sponsors (Medion, I think) but Sutil has that legal and image issue hanging like a rope to his neck, and how much money would he bring? and we have Bianchi, which would have Ferrari back-up...now, money-wise, Bianchi IS a big contender to Senna, given the rumored switched to Ferrari customer engines in the future...a big discount in the engines price would count just as much as bringing sponsors in. Probably this is delaying the announcement.

Sure, I would love to see Sutil back, but honestly I'm guessing it's between Senna and Bianchi now.

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I don't think force India know themselves, they told the drivers that they had discounted which basically has left the ones that still claim to be in negotiations which are Bianchi, sutil, senna and alguersuari. Ferrari are talking about giving Bianchi a third driver role, i don't know if that's a just incase or that they don't think he will get the force India drive. As for the other 3 they have not been told they have been ruled out so if they decide Bianchi wont be driver til next year it will be a bidding war, i do think it all hinges on if they get the Ferrari engine deal though regardless of what is said by them.

I think that if Senna was already out of F1 he would have been announced suddently in DTM (like Glock) or in another touring car serie, as he admitted that plans B or C were already prepared in case of missed F1 opportunity.
This let me think that he is still in talks with Force India, actually.

Mallya doesn't have serious financial issues. Some of his companies do. There is a whole lot of difference between those two situations and Force India is completely separate from any of his other companies.

Smart business men keep enough separation between themselves and their companies and between companies. So that if one goes it doesn't cause a domino effect.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

If not Koba or Alguersuari than I want it to be Bianchi. Senna or Sutil would be a step backwards.
Senna is awful in qualifying and his race speed doesn't make up for that.
Sutil the glassing incident aside, what remarkable things has he done in a 5 career period with the same team? He got a 4th place once, yeah the car was rubbish for 2 and half seasons but pretty decent for the other two and a half. If he was that good I would have expected him to get a podium at least. Instead he irritated a lot of people with stupid incidents. That only Mallya wants to offer him a seat and no other team says a lot really. That some Sutil fans already saw him at Ferrari as Massa's replacement or way better than Heidfeld who was just a journeyman, I cringe.

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F1 fan since 1989

Completely agree with You!

Recently, Force India had a tie Up TWSteel and a few other companies that would be Force India's sponsors.

Would either of the companies join Force India if the Force India team were in financial issues?

Their job is not to remove Force India from some debt or save them from not racing on the 2013 grid.

They by signing with Force India, not only do they add to Force India's sponsor list, but also they believe in the team and its future prospects.

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agree he will ensure they are separate but at the same time the less money his other companies make the harder it is to justify taking large amounts of cash from said company for instance directors dividends, this doesn't mean force India are in trouble but would mean he would need to run it in a more prudent manner, if that means taking a pay driver or a driver to get cheaper engines, i think there was an element of truth in bobs statement they wanted Bianchi as reserve again and were planning on having a Ferrari deal in place. Hulk leaving then meant Ferrari are pushing now foe Bianchi to get a seat, FI wont see any benefit til 2014 and probably wanted a sponsored driver for a year, hence it all falls on the outcome of the Ferrari deal as to who gets the seat. Algeursuari doesn't bring in enough sponsorship Imo, so it will probably be senna or sutil if Bianchi doesn't get it. Still foolish not having it sorted before jerez, they say di resta can do the base work? All well and good but drivers have different styles and preferences.

Bob Fernley is adamant that the delay is not due to money but due to filing up a driver that would help with their goals, as it got shaken up after Hulk left Force India.

Seems Sutil & Bianchi are the top contenders for sure, but he has said that a few other drivers would be i contention incase the 1st two get ruled out. He didn't specify the names but it could mean Senna is 1 of the possible candidates:-

http://www.f1reader.com/#/news/force-india-choice-down-to-bianchi-and-sutil-66413

If not money, but talent, hire some one!

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Actually it can be twisted into more reason.

The F1 team is basically an advertising board. One way to boost sales is better/more advertising. Plus in some places Advertising bills can be off set against tax.

Also sponsorships are not always a simple handing over for cash. A good example is Caterham and the General Electric. Fernandez did a deal with GE for sponsorship but that also included him buying engines or something for his airline. Some of them are a sctratch your back I'll sctratch mine style scenario. Sometimes you get a deal where instead of giving company a a discount of 10% they will give a discount of 5% to the company then give another 10% in sponsorship to the team. This helps everyone involved because the sponsorship can be written of against the tax where as the discount can't.

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Disclaimer: The above post maybe tongue in cheek.

"I thought I'd get your theories, mock them, then embrace my own. The usual."

Yes ge engines have been on his air craft since, not happy about it myself as i work for ge's competitor in that sector.... There are still a fair few that aren't but it was all engines on a certain airframe.

Di Resta has showed us all he has a consistent driving style and takes points ans as always puts on a good show and is the clear first choice... along with Heikki with a little more experience i think is a good pair of drivers for Force India. I would like to see Bianci too in a Formula one car but i think he has yet to show to get a permanent F1 seat.

Well it doesn't look like money is a factor because F1 India were looking to run 2 sponsorless drivers this year, di Resta and the Hulk, Bianchi then coming on board in 2014 along with the Ferrari engines it would seem. Short term they could run either Sutil or Senna who have sponsorship or bring Bianchi in 1 year early but he comes with no money, given the choice between Sutil and Senna i'd go for Sutil because i don't rate Senna, however Senna probably has a bigger sponsorship package.

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Both di resta and hulkenberg have sponsors...

So how much sponsorship do they bring?

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Not sure but hulk is dekra is it who is now with sauber di resta has whyte & mackay. Probably don't bring too much maybe just cover driver wages who knows but they both brought at least one each, in fact isn't hulkenberg the one that gets sponsors tattooed on him as well?

Whyte & Mackay sponsor Force India not Di Resta. They have been owned by Mallya's United Breweries Group since 2007.

People keep mentioning Algy, but he has already been confirmed as a Pirelli driver for 2013, he won't be going to FI.

The strongest likelihood is either Bianchi or Sutil. Senna could be the outside chance.

Force India still feel Bianchi is not experienced enough to take the seat. It all depends if things don't work for Sutil & maybe Senna, then Bianchi would get the nod.

They are thinking so much into their programme for the future. The top teams even don't think that much to get the decision delayed.

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in sure i read he was their ambassador for life.. Even if he is not sponsored its widely believed that force India got reduced price merc engines for giving him a drive, force India say not but would you admit to the media even if it was true that you took a driver soley for engines.

Bianchi with Di resta works for me ^_^

He beat his team mates in both years that the car was competitive. As average as Liuzzi was he was still fairly good, not on the level of Karthikeyan or Chandhok in the Lotus in 2011 for sure. Yet Sutil was regularly making it into Q3 and scoring points while Liuzzi was busy being a backmarker. In 2011 he beat Di resta by a fairly huge margin in percentage terms, and Di Resta is still highly rated by some people, for some reason.

He also managed to get a point in the 2007 Fuji GP, beating superior cars including both Hondas and Trulli's Toyota.

The guy is better than he's made out to be on here and imo couldn't have done much more with a midfield car. If you're talking about best finishes, Hulkenberg also only has a fourth place to his name as the best finish.

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So where does that leave di Resta if Force India go to Ferrari engines in 2014, i'm not sure the Hulk has enough sponsorship that would secure a F1 seat

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