Force India driver change

[Jos the Boss]

I'm not bashing Maldonado - I think he's performed solidly this year. I always thought it was harsh that the guy who comprehensively stuffed him as his teammate in GP2 in 2009 got bumped to 3rd driver at FI on the back of Venezualan petro-dollars, in spite of taking Williams' first pole in 5 years.

I know you arent I just wanted to use my joke!

 

[Road of Bones]

Where's that "facepalm" smiley when you need it...?

 

[GermanF1]

I'm assuming GF1 watches the German F1 coverage so hasn't been smashed in the head with a sledgehammer about how good Paul Di Resta is on the BBC Forum like us.

Lol yes that's true, to me it seems that di Resta is doing more or less what could be expected from him, considering the circumstances (he is a rookie in an average team). But I don't see that he is doing magical things with this car. He is an average driver in an average car, being slightly slower than his more experienced teammate (who is also an average driver).

Do you really count Nico Rosberg as German?

Yes I do, why wouldn't I? Just because of his Finnish father? My father is not from Germany originally and I would count myself as German.
And I think Nico comes across as a pretty smart guy, which makes him a pretty likeable chap. I just hope he is not going to turn to be another Nick Heidfeld, who was massively overrated, I guess.

 

[Galahad]

This was the logical decision for Force India, I thought. Will be really interesting to see who comes out on top (the loser of that particular battle is surely going to have their future career options quite severely limited?)

I don't think it's expected for a rookie with minimal testing these days to come straight in and match or beat an experienced team-mate, so providing di Resta follows the usual young driver path of improvement I'd say he's a better bet than Sutil, who seems to have plateaued.

 

[Mezzer]

I'm in no way a Sutil supporter ...He is not a great F1 driver, but maybe di Resta isn't either...

I think its very early days to give an opinion on young Mr di Resta. So far I've been reasonably impressed.

 

[Bill Boddy]

.... Do you really count Nico Rosberg as German?

Since he has a German mother and was born in Germany why not? It's the same as someone who was born in Britain with a British mother being counted as British.

 

[Lewywo4]

I think its very early days to give an opinion on young Mr di Resta. So far I've been reasonably impressed.

It maybe a little early to offer a definitive opinion regarding Paul, but early indicators are pretty good.

 

[Jos the Boss]

With third driver Nico Hulkenberg being linked to a Force India seat alongside Paul di Resta in 2012, current driver Adrian Sutil is still being linked to Williams, but it is understood that 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen is the team's preferred option.

 

[GermanF1]

source?

 

[Jos the Boss]

Check BBC gossip column

 

[Bill Boddy]

The preferred is not always available. I doubt that it is in this case.

 

[GermanF1]

I really don't see Kimi driving for backmarkers next year. And even though it's sad for all of us, Williams have become backmarkers...

To those who say that he would bring a lot of sponsorship money (directly or indirectly), I think even if he would bring 400 million $$ from sponsors, it won't turn Williams into team competing for wins/championships over night (Toyota might know something about that).

It's not going to happen!