planetf1.com

yeah , that means he is definitely driving in barcelona test otherwise why bother ? question is is it an evaluation or he is already chosen for the race seat .
Go Sutil

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105563

Rumours of him being considered are after all true.

Either he will just drive at the Barcelona test or he may drive throughout 2013. Either way, I'm happy!

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Always S(mile)!
Unlike Uday!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition
Best Results: 1st with highest ever score of 225 (India 2012) & 2nd (Silverstone 2012)
Recipient of : Rosberg's Chinese Getaway Trophy

lol must be so nerve racking for Bianchi now.

or paul di resta ? you never know . they can kick him out

Di Resta's already confirmed. Personally, I would prefer Bianchi in the seat.

Force India had said that they were considering of retaining Bianchi as the 3rd driver for this year even but they were left in a quandry when Hulk left.

Maybe they still wish to keep Bianchi as 3rd driver. Sutil's rapport with the Force India management must have some weightage.

_________________
Always S(mile)!
Unlike Uday!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition
Best Results: 1st with highest ever score of 225 (India 2012) & 2nd (Silverstone 2012)
Recipient of : Rosberg's Chinese Getaway Trophy

Never liked this guy

Put Bianchi in and see what he does. If he fails then switch.

If it was easy to switch!

If Sutil is getting a testing shot, this is his last chance to rebound back on the F1 grid. If he doesn't impress here, then he will be in F1 again & Bianchi will have a clear way to the 2nd seat.

Am sure Sutil will give it all. He used to always be fast in practice sessions. Since Force India seems to have gotten better than last years car, he may impress enough to get the seat.

_________________
Always S(mile)!
Unlike Uday!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition
Best Results: 1st with highest ever score of 225 (India 2012) & 2nd (Silverstone 2012)
Recipient of : Rosberg's Chinese Getaway Trophy

What a joke they said they wouldn't use the tests as a try out and looks as if they are going to anyway, as for sutil racing for force India i would feel aggrieved if i wad Bianchi he has performed exceptionally the second half of last year and during the close season at testing. I still feel sutil has no place in f1. The force India brand will go down in many peoples estimations if they do take him on i think. Obviously not in sutil fans eyes though.

He's a safe pair of hands at least, Force India could definitely do worse. However if they are going to hire an established driver then I'd much rather see Kobayashi or Kovalainen get the seat.

Maybe but it just means Force India are sticking to their original plan of giving Bianchi the race seat in 2014

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PFI Pick 10 Competition

Current Standing: 16th

Kovalainen - Established?

Did you follow him through his McLaren days? That was his golden chance which he blew away. Kobayashi was a good option but since he is surely not on 2013 grid, it's no use speculating him in the mix.

As of now, it's believed that the seat fitting is for the test. Many in the Force India cap are aware of his capabilities. May be they are testing him to see if he still is the same Sutil that left in 2011. If not, Bianchi will get it. If Sutil is good, he may get it.

The surprise would be, if Force India are sure that Sutil won't have any issues racing any where on the 2013 calendar venues, confirm him by the 2nd test on Tuesday.

Considering that he is getting a seat fitting & that Mallya always took his name when considering a driver in the 2nd seat of Force India, shocks & surprises may come our way.

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Always S(mile)!
Unlike Uday!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition
Best Results: 1st with highest ever score of 225 (India 2012) & 2nd (Silverstone 2012)
Recipient of : Rosberg's Chinese Getaway Trophy

Vijay Mallya is currently recovering from a fractured leg in Goa (India) and Ive been told Sutil along with his family paid him a visit at his Villa recently. So it looks like they are pretty close friends.

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PF1 Pick 10
Aus13: 2nd
Chi13: 3rd

Average driver who'll go nowhere for an average team who'll go nowhere IMO. Di Resta and Sutil did nothing special in 2011, they won't do anything in 2013 to blow people away either. Dull as dishwater.

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1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

What makes you say Force India are an average team?

Ever since VJM took over from Spyker, it's slowly been on the up. It is highly dismissive of you to say that they won't go anywhere. It's about trying. Red Bull were no where and dismissed by many before they shone first in 2009. Today, those people appear quite silly to us.

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Sebastian Vettel
Michael Schumacher
Nico Hulkenberg

They've had one podium in 5 years. That's worse than an average team actually. Sauber would be your normal average team, a few podiums every now and then, same with Williams these days. Force India are below those guys and with that potential line up they won't get any further up the grid.

Red Bull employed Newey in preparation for those new 09 rules. They knew what they were doing. Force India can only dream of doing such a thing.

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1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

BBC are calling it a shock return. Over here, it's been well known that he's had contact with F1 teams and force india recently. It's not really much of a shock, Karthikeyan to force india would have been much more of a shock.

To my knowledge, Sauber and Williams are usually battling it up in the midfield exactly with Force India. For an average team, I would feel that top-5 finishes, American style, would better reflect their status, rather than podium finishes.

Let's not compare them with RedBull. The amount of money pumped into that team would make even HRT world title contenders in 2-3 years. Unless they have incredibly poor management, such as Toyota, BMW and Honda had. And, up until now, Malyya has shown far more intelligence than most of us (including me) would have credited him when embarking this venture.

I don't know...di Resta , I would expect to come out shining this season or the next. Doesn't look that blunt and mediocre to me, I just feel his time to explode hasn't come yet.

Question is, how good is actually Bianchi compared to Sutil. I've seen him on some GP2 races, I don't recall him clashing the field. He was in the front part of the pack, yes, but not alpha dog. Maybe he's not that good right now, maybe he still needs time to ripe. Otherwise, even though he's a Ferrari academy student, some team would have swiped him from under Ferrari's nose, just like in the Perez case.

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Olivier Panis fan.
...and also Jenson Button fan.

Yes maybe an Average Team but then again their budget is pretty average too (approx 80-90m pounds). Williams and Sauber have a slightly larger (approx 90-120m pounds) yet Williams finished lower than FI for the last 2yrs. 2012 109 points, 2011 68 points. Things are looking up.

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PF1 Pick 10
Aus13: 2nd
Chi13: 3rd

Well i quite would like to see Bianchi get the drive but how confident would you be in di Resta basically leading the team?

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PFI Pick 10 Competition

Current Standing: 16th

Mallya is about to go into financial meltdown when Kingfisher is forced to close it's doors for good. Force India are by no means safe in the near future when it comes to cash.

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1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

With Sutil having been out for a year he's going to be doing that anyway. It isn't a strong line up for a team that claims it wants to move up the grid.

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1994 1995 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

So you rate a driver who continuously lost to Fisichella higher than a driver who continuously lost to Hamilton?

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

Mallya has a lot of different ventures. He into Liqour, Pharmacuticals, Real estate, Leather, Airlines, a Cricket Team, Horse racing, F1 and also into Football (I think). Kingfisher Airlines and Force India are two different entities altogether. One company going down the drain doesnt mean that the others will too. Thats not how businesses work, and moreover in F1 all the money comes from sponsorship and the prize money. So as long as they keep scoring more points thats still moving up. The money will keep coming in

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PF1 Pick 10
Aus13: 2nd
Chi13: 3rd

Not a Kova fan but he at last didn't glass anyone.
Trying Sutil again after sacking him sounds stupid. Only Mallya rates him highly. One 4th place in a decent midfield car in 2,5 years. He would be the only one making a comeback. I already rate the current grid of F1 as pretty average overall and Sutil won't strengthen this at all. Sutil is a journeyman like Heidfeld but at least Heidfeld was exciting to watch.

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F1 fan since 1989

Rife speculation: Force India is delaying a decision, because VJM is trying to sell the team, and wants to offer the choice to potential new owners.

Sutil was pretty good in 2011. Easily in the top 10 of drivers. I think in Dolomites poll forum members voted him something like the 7th best driver on the grid. I would rather see Bianchi as its nice to try new guys out but I have little doubt Sutil would score more points.

They just splashed 50M to build a wind tunnel of their own... And they already launched their car so its highly doubtful he'd sell it so late in the day

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PF1 Pick 10
Aus13: 2nd
Chi13: 3rd

50m of hot air!!! They haven't even identified a possible site for it

At the end of the day the man is a convicted violent thug


I hope he doesn't come back to the sport. I hope bianchi gets the seat instead

All his charges were cleared in Nov 2012 and he is free to travel everywhere. BTW What did he ever do to you?

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PF1 Pick 10
Aus13: 2nd
Chi13: 3rd

his charges weren't cleared he was a convicted felon, it was just a suspended sentence therefore still guilty, he had to pay a fine if he has any similar charges against him in future he will have to serve this punishment and a new one.. He wasn't acquitted. And i am still not 100% convinced he will get in all countries we will have to wait and see.

as for what's he done to anyone.. He is meant to be a professional sportsman and as such should be as such while in public. Committing criminal acts is bad enough but a violent one such as he did should not be excused. Same as footballers many should not be allowed to play again after what they do lee Hughes for example, joey barton another.

Force India won't feel much of an effect from this . People still tuned in to the Bahraini and Chinese GPs and what happens there is rather more than a fight in a bar. It's difficult for aggrieved viewers to hurt Force India. I can't imagine people who love Vijay's beer switching to another brand.

The number of people who want him back after what he did speaks for itself, there is not going to be some kind of near universal boycott that will hit Force India's commercial interests. So while their brand reputation may go down in some people's eyes...I don't think they'll care. By giving him the seat fitting they have signalled they just want the best results possible this year.

This is all assuming of course, that Sutil does the job at the tests and gets the seat. If Bianchi gets within a tenth or two I hope they go with him given Sutil's superior experience. I think it would be a fair reflection of the two's potential in the long term. If Sutil spanks Bianchi by over half a second on the same tyres and fuel loads on long runs then it's difficult to make a case for Bianchi getting the seat from a purely racing standpoint. A moral standpoint is a different matter.

[/quote]Di Resta's already confirmed. Personally, I would prefer Bianchi in the seat.[/quote]

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Lewis Hamilton - 2008 World Drivers Champion! Mercedes - 10 Grand Prix Victories.

Exactly. Kovalainen's stint at McLaren showed that he is not WDC material, but that doesn't mean he's not worthy of a place on the grid. Put him in a midfield car and he will deliver decent results, as he did for Renault in 2007. Personally if money were taken out of the equation I'd take him over Sutil for sure.

Especially considering Kovalainen's performance over Fisichella in his rookie season, compared to Sutil's performance against the Italian in Fisichella's final full season in F1, after having accumulated 2 full seasons experience himself.

oh i agree there wouldn't be a boycott i meant the FI brand reputation will suffer.

What's to say Sutil isn't going to be Force India's 3rd driver next year?

A little part of me wants to see Karthikeyan get the drive - just so we can see how far off the pace he really is!

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#ANYONEBUTVETTEL2013

Pick 10 Competition 2013: Current Championship Standing = 21st with 597 points
Pick 10 Podiums: USA 2012 - 1st Place with 205 points

I don't know why Force India appear to be considering Sutil.

In his many seasons in F1 IMO he's not shown himself to be anything more than a journeyman. They've had di Resta for a couple of years now so I can't see that they would need his experience, particularly given he's also been out of the sport for a year so they don't have continuity or stability with him. It seems far more logical to me to take a chance on a youngster who may be another journeyman, but may also be better.

I read that Sutil had cleared any Visa issues with the countries that F1 is to travel to. Personally I don't like that. The average person who gets themself into strife as he does won't have that possibility and would, with a conviction such as his, be barred from a number of countries on the F1 calendar. Even though it's the 'way of the world' I don't believe higher profile people should be given any concessions. Part of 'doing the time' for his crime is the impact his conviction has on various activities, and if that means travel is restricted then that's something he has to accept.

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Formerly kai_

Meh, FI brand reputation wont suffer because of things like this. Hell the sports where people behave like animals resulting in petty fights, sledging and brawls on live TV does not suffer loss of interest and reputation of that person, team or sport in this world. F1 is almost a civilised gentleman's sport on screen. And that is all that matters. Some followers will scream on forums and then forget about it all soon enough. But if driver like Sutil gets them 1 position up in the WCC, that will be invaluable. Both in terms of commercial interest as well as popularity/support.

People that follow a team rarely ditch them because of their signings even if it upsets them. This is true for all sports, not just F1. I dont ditch the team I support because they sign a player I dont like or even hate or dont think is worthy of place in team. But still cheer for them regardless. So no, FI does not really have to worry about this.