planetf1.com

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105532

"Formula 1 refugees Kamui Kobayashi and Karun Chandhok are among a raft of new drivers testing for the factory AF Corse Ferrari team in Spain this week."

As a Kobayashi fan, I'm glad he's out looking for drives and not working at his family's restaurant as I believe was possible before his F1 chance. Feel free to discuss

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"I aim to misbehave"

So Kamui has a contract for Ferrari in WEC? Kinda makes this bit a tad pointless..

Well I suppose I will be watching WEC this year. Truly a shame that no one in F1 has picked him up, but I am happy that he is still wants to continue racing.

Seems good to keep his eye in instead of not getting an oppurtunity to show his talent by sitting on the sidelines. Anyway its far from bad to be developing a relationship with a team like Ferrari. Wonder if he still has links with Toyota as if he does I would have though he would be a prime contender for one of their cars.

I would have definitely thought that he would be linked to a seat at Toyota. I think he will be quite formidable even in WEC, though I would rather he drive an LMP1 car.

WEC seems to be developing into a decent championship and affordable the Silverstone event is £35 for a weekend pass which is grandstand seats pitlane walk and autograph session included. With senna and if kk goes the profile will be raised for WEC considerably

They will need to beat out a ton of very fast, very experienced Ferrari GT drivers to get spots. There are guys on the AF Corse roster who have been driving works Ferraris for like 10 years. Salo, Bruni, Vilander, Beretta, Bertolini, Fisi, Melo. They do have a bunch of spots to fill for LM for their 3 Amateur entries though.

Its already plan C for Karun...JRM having withdrawn their LM and WEC entries.

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very true but i think KK will get in he has a big following world wide from his f1 time especially from Japan that alone could swing in his favour, will he be as good as established drivers not straight away but he can adjust and learn from established wec drivers.

Sports car teams at the WEC level don't really go for the crowd drawer types unless they also happen to be the best fit performance-wise. If AF Corse needs to fill their Amateur cars, the guys paying (a huge amount of money) for those entries want to win, not just get to share a car with an F1 reject who has less experience in the car than they do.

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Why so negative? Nothing wrong with them throwing their hats into the ring is there? I'm sure Kobayashi and Chandhok are more than capable of familiarising themselves with a WEC Ferrari. The fact that they no longer have F1 drives doesn't immediately turn them into blithering idiots.

I didn't say otherwise. They ARE f1 rejects, and they DO have less experience in those cars than the gentleman drivers who are paying for those entries. Those are facts, not my opinion of how well they might do.

I expect the full season Pro entries of Beretta and Bruni to be filled up by Vilander, Cioci, Fisi, Salo, and/or Bertolini. I think Matt Griffin and Rui Aguas are available too. The ELMS and ALMS entries are still up in the air. So that leaves 4 seats in their Amateur entries, or 3 Pro seats/4 Am seats at LM. All I said is that sports car teams renting their cars usually stack them with pros who are likely to deliver good results, not just famous names, because the guys renting want to win, not just share a car with those famous names, so anybody from the usual pool who isn't seated for the full WEC season will likely get those spots ahead of KK and Karun unless they are really good. They are both automatically classed as Platinum drivers because they have competed in F1, so that works against them as well as you may only have 1 Platinum or Gold driver in an Amateur entry. Some F1 guys have managed to get themselves downgraded but not below Gold IIRC. And I'm talking Stefan Johansson and Martin Brundle here, not Fisi and Senna.

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do u know that u are literally the only girl in the world that know that much about motorsport ?

Lee McKenzie? Possibly Suzi Perry? There are quite a few female drivers in other race series. That's just off the top of my head, not to mention millions of female fans. Bit of a sexist view there mate.

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"I aim to misbehave"

So Kamui has a contract for Ferrari in WEC? Kinda makes this bit a tad pointless..

Maybe but it could well actually be true!

you would find that lee mckenzie and suzi perry are just presenters and wouldn't know other forms of motorsport other than what they cover. and for the millions female fans (more like thousands) , you would struggle to find one who is a daily poster in a motorsport forum

Lee McKenzie has done motorsport journalism for years, i doubt she only knows F1. And considering the roughly 3.5 billion women on the planet, to think that the motorsport fans are only on there thousands is quite frankly degrading. Their numbers most probably are fewer than men, yes, but that doesn't mean they know less.

This is also completely off topic.

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"I aim to misbehave"

So Kamui has a contract for Ferrari in WEC? Kinda makes this bit a tad pointless..

Haha I seriously doubt that. I started working in international level sports cars almost 10 yrs ago though, so I'm pretty familiar I've already watched 60 hrs of live sports car racing so far this year

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its such a turn on talking cars all night, none of this jersey shore non-sense

Potter's right, my girlfriend is seriously lacking motorsport knowledge and won't try to learn - "they just go round in a circle", "they all look the same" etc.
I have to get her to leave the room

so u are actually working in motorsport ?

What this odd obsession with someone being an "F1 reject"? Every F1 driver becomes an F1 reject at some point. Plus given how tough sponsorship is these days it's no indicator of a lack of talent.

Im not the one who singled out that phrase as negative.

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I know this is massively off topic but I hope you may forgive me for one post..

I was an active member of this forum for quite a few years but stopped posting for a few reasons, I felt a strong urge to reply to the post above, only to find my account had been deactivated so I've had to make a new one!

As Ashley313 herself said there are many women who are very knowledgeable about F1. I find it quite narrow minded for anyone to say otherwise...yes it is still a very male dominated sport, but several series, for example World Series by Renault now have about a 60/40 split between the genders on attendance at a race weekend. I had hoped that the increased number of female fans and also the increased media coverage of female racing drivers would be obvious to even the casual fans by now. There are many females posting on this forum - although it may not always be obvious from a username, and many female motorsport fans also happen to be very knowledgeable.

This post may annoy some people, but as a female who has to prove her motorsport knowledge on an almost daily basis its a bit of a sensitive topic.

no one has to prove their knowledge, fans are just anyone who has an interest in the sport, be that a casual spectator or die hard enthusiast. The only problem women have us just male insecurities because as children boys play with cars girls with dolls (i know generalization) and cant take a woman knowing more on what is deemed naturally a male subject matter, they find it a slight on their masculinity. As i said before i find it a turn on.

According to Autosport (hard copy) it is thought that Kobayashi has signed a deal with AF Corse to drive for them this year.
It didn't mention Chandhok.

Maybe he didn't do well enough in the test. based on what I've seen of the two drivers I'd take Kobayashi over Chandhok any day too, but then I am biased

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"I aim to misbehave"

So Kamui has a contract for Ferrari in WEC? Kinda makes this bit a tad pointless..

That's a shame, Chandhok had a fairly strong season last year, unfortunately JRM seemed to struggle with the car and he was driving with 2 sportscar greats, would be good to see him back again with another team - not sure where else he would head to, ALMS maybe?

I would be interested to see how Kobayashi does, I'm not sure how well his driving style would suit endurance but I'd like him to surprise me.

Kobayashi Confirmed.
http://corseclienti.ferrari.com/2013en/ ... ising-sun/

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"I aim to misbehave"

So Kamui has a contract for Ferrari in WEC? Kinda makes this bit a tad pointless..

How much are tickets to WEC events? I've never been to a GP because they're out of my budget but if Kamui is going to be at Silverstone I might be able to stretch at the right price

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Official Kamui Kobayashi Fanboy

Fri 12 Apr - TICKET £10pp
Sat 13 Apr - TICKET £15pp
Sun 14 Apr - TICKET £30pp
Fri 12 - Sun 14 Apr - 3 DAY TICKETS £35pp

pretty good prices really

With FREE roving grandstand access at selected grandstands through the weekend, and advance tickets starting at just £15, this is a weekend not to be missed!
Weekend Camping
Adult: £25
Child: £7.50
Programme vouchers are available for £5 in advance and can be exchanged for a programme at the event.


more here....

http://www.silverstone.co.uk/events/FIA ... mpionship/

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Does anyone know what this means for the people who bizarrely donated him money for a F1 drive?

I suppose they now have the opportunity to watch him in WEC

But your text in signature is not removed.

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"OHO!-magazine number 46/2006: - I read somewhere that I drive with the luck of a drunk."

Better?

Really wanna get tickets for the WEC event, but I'm busy that weekend... damn!

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"I aim to misbehave"

So Kamui has a contract for Ferrari in WEC? Kinda makes this bit a tad pointless..