2009 Line-Up Rumour Mill

I see a few parallels with Force India that were once prevalent in the old Jordan team of the very early nineties. Basically money that was being misspent and chanelled into areas that were not productive to moving the team forward. On the face of it, Eddie Jordan and Vijay Mallya are two very similar characters. Jordan was smart enough to realise his over indulgences though, and he hired a financial advisor which eventually brought the Jordan ship under control by about 1993-4. Maybe the sport, business has evolved since then, but Mallya could do worse than take a lesson from history.
 
Oh I completely agree that they are spending their money on the wrong stuff, no doubts about it! Mallya thought signing Fisichella was a coup for the team...

Indians are extremely savvy businessmen, in my experience, he will realise what needs to be done, and will get it done, if not, he will just sell the team two seasons from now. We will see how it goes. It's not a situation like Paul Stoddart where the investment will adversely affect his other businesses, he is far too wealthy for that, however, even having that much wealth, he will know when he's been taken.
 
I think, though, that to run a Formula 1 team succesfully, you need to be much more than a businessman. Teams like Force India need innovation, and you don't get that by running it like a business...
 
chitownjeff said:
^ I've seen a few reports saying they are having money problems.

I found this:
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=35783

basically saying he's dumping too much money into the team image and not cars.
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unwise spending of money doesn't mean it is money problem...

just pure speculation as far as I can see... it's more a case of that Mallayar dude is running an airline, and it just happened to be having the fuel price crisis now and airlines seems to be suffering, so lets cook a story up...:lol:
 
Toro Rosso invites Sato and Buemi for test

02 September 2008

The Scuderia Toro Rosso team has confirmed it will be testing Takuma Sato and Sebastien Buemi later this month. The team will see Sebastian Vettel leave the team at the end of the season and will need to find a good replacement for the German.

Toro Rosso will have Sebastien Buemi behind the wheel in Jerez on 17th September while Takuma Sato will take over a day of testing one day later.

Nineteen-year-old Buemi is well known to the team, as the Swiss driver has come through the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme and is test and reserve driver for Red Bull Racing. His is currently lying fifth in the GP2 championship and has four GP2 victories to his name.

Takuma Sato is Japan's most successful racing driver. The 31 year old has competed in 91 Grands Prix, his best result being a third place finish in the 2004 USA Grand Prix. Taku made the switch from two wheels to four, having been a successful cycle racer in his native Japan. He first made the headlines when he won the hotly contested British Formula 3 championship in 2001, before joining the Jordan F1 team the following year. Three years with BAR Honda followed that, before he joined Super Aguri in 2006. He stayed with the team until it pulled out of the sport after this year's Spanish GP.

"The time has come to try and find a suitable replacement for Vettel, who is joining Red Bull Racing next year," explained team principal Franz Tost. "The Jerez test, the last one of the season, will give us an opportunity to evaluate Buemi and Sato at the same time, as they are both possible candidates for a 2009 seat. Buemi is an obvious candidate, because not only is he already part of the Red Bull family, he is currently performing well in the GP2 series. As for Sato, he has proved worthy of a place in Formula 1 and would be a good fit with the Red Bull spirit, while his recent F1 experience would be undoubtedly valuable to our team."

"I am delighted to be given this opportunity to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, after my season was cut short following the Spanish GP," commented Sato. "It will be especially interesting working with a team that has made so much progress over the course of the year."
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Source
 
Hard to see who is better suited. Berger has said he wants a mixture of youth and experience. Unfortunately his second driver, Bourdais, has neither. If he takes Sato he has two oldish drivers, if he takes Buemi he has no experience. Sack Bourdais and take both on?
 
If Sato performs well and Senna wins the GP2 title (quite unlikely, but not impossible), then I guess we'll be looking at a Sato-Senna race line-up for 2009 in the Toro Rosso team, with Buemi as test/reserve driver.
 
THE REAL STIG said:
I think, though, that to run a Formula 1 team succesfully, you need to be much more than a businessman. Teams like Force India need innovation, and you don't get that by running it like a business...
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That makes me wonder how Flava Flav made it fly ;). You are right, of course, though.

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I cannot wait to see Sato in the cockpit again, I hope he gets the seat, he's so much fun to watch in a car. With Takuma Sato, F1 car's don't have a limit :D
 
Yeah, I would love to see Sato in a Toro Rosso fighting in the midfield...
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
If Sato performs well and Senna wins the GP2 title (quite unlikely, but not impossible), then I guess we'll be looking at a Sato-Senna race line-up for 2009 in the Toro Rosso team, with Buemi as test/reserve driver.
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It seems to me that now Toro Rosso rates Buemi higher than Senna, he will test for the team, alongside Sato, and not Senna.

Does this possibly mean that Senna has already agreed on a contract with another team (there are rumours about a test driver contract with BMW), and that's why Toro Rosso have given up on him?
 
I'm not sure. He is, after all, basically supported by Gerhard Berger, who is now one of the Toro Rosso managers, and was once, as we know, Bruno's uncle's teammate and great friend.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
I'm not sure. He is, after all, basically supported by Gerhard Berger, who is now one of the Toro Rosso managers, and was once, as we know, Bruno's uncle's teammate and great friend.
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Yes, and they praised Bruno a lot some months ago, and it seemed almost sure that he will end up at Toro Rosso.

But lately there have been some comments from Berger suggesting that Buemi might be just as good as Senna, he said that Senna did not convinced him entirely etc. And now they will test Buemi and Sato, with no word of Bruno.

That's why I'm thinking there might be something behind Berger's recent comments, but of course I'm just wondering about the possibilities.
 
yesss i hope sato gets a driving seat in str. he is always interesting to watch if you know what i mean.

is anyone else noticing all the Sebastien/Sebastian popping up in F1? and all at tororoso. coincidence? :hmm:
 
Joc? said:
It seems to me that now Toro Rosso rates Buemi higher than Senna, he will test for the team, alongside Sato, and not Senna.

Does this possibly mean that Senna has already agreed on a contract with another team (there are rumours about a test driver contract with BMW), and that's why Toro Rosso have given up on him?
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I think Bruno is probably signed with another team. If you've watched GP2 closely, you'd see that Senna has been doing better. Granted Senna has one of the best cars this season, and Buemi doesn't, Senna is the one getting the results. If STR isn't interested in him, that tells me another team already has him. I think Gerhard cares more about Bruno's interests, rather than just using him at STR.
 
I'm afraid that Buemi might come to F1 too early, meaning he will never reach the heights he would be capable of with another year or two of development in GP2.
 
Yeah. I think both Senna and Buemi need another year of GP2, if they go into F1 now, they'll do a Piquet and fail. (Yeah, yeah, piquet isn't so bad)
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Fixed that for you.
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Have to agree with you that Scott Speed was a much bigger failure than Piquet has ever been, and will ever be...

...but I'm not still sure he deserves F1 just yet...
 
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