I would of kept Bourdais really, the testing ban makes its extremely hard for rookies to come into f1 mid-season.
Toro Rosso reportedly replaces Sebastien Bourdais with 19-year-old Jamie Alguersuari
(85 posts, started )
I guess we'll find out which mistake was biggest.
I'd have kept Bourdais myself, but hindsight could turn out to be a wonderful thing!
I'd have kept Bourdais myself, but hindsight could turn out to be a wonderful thing!
Alguersari is better when money is just flowing from his Repsol.
Doesn't mean his driving is better ... Just means his sponsorship money is better than the Frenchman's.
I think they'd have been better to keep Bourdais until the end of the season, at least then they would have know that they had an experienced driver instead of two rookies.
Money > experienced driver.
Fixed it for you
I still think Bourdais should have been kept though, surely STR is in breach of contract?
I think they should've given the seat to Brendon Hartley... He's a great driver and IIRC he did drive the F1 car... But whatever we'll just have to see. Jaime will have the 3 practice sessions to get ready :P thats a true test of skill. I bet he'll score a point :P.
Apparently it is a breach of contract, and Bourdais is contemplating sueing them over it.
Actually I meant that.
I see another Yuji Ide... Some say he's very quick in Red Bull driver search, but wait, Ide was one of leaders in Formula Nippon too. In Barcelona tests in 2006 he was 6sec off leader... So imagine Alguersuari with banned tests in FP/Qual/Race.
Which will get nowhere, the French courts will be out to lunch :P
To which court would he actually take his claim to though, Would it be the FIA court?
IDK, I'm guessing the Arbitration Court in Switzerland
To be fair the super Aguri was using a 2002 Arrows chassis in 06 for the first half of the season.
Agreed, good thinking.
Contracts between drivers and teams have nothing to do with the FIA.
Contracts usually stipulate the laws and jurisdiction of the contract. For example: "This contract is binding in accordance with the laws of Italy, and any disputes arising from this contract must be referred to the Courts of Italy". This is called an exclusive jurisdiction clause.
If the exclusive jurisdiction clause does not stipulate the court, but only the law, then a claim can be lodged in any court, but the laws used to decide the case will be whatever is stipulated on the contract (if contract stipulates Italian law, but Bourdais files his claim in a French court, the French court can rule on the case using Italian laws). If the courts are stipulated, then the laws used will be whatever laws are natively used by that court (Italian courts will obviously use Italian laws).
Idk, STR is Italian (Faenza), so it'd be in Italian court, but previous matters have (IIRC) gone to Switzerland (Think F1 teams threatening to take F1 to court)
...or am I up the wrong tree entirely?
...or am I up the wrong tree entirely?
Can't say. It's entirely dependent on the clauses of the contract, which none of us - AFAIK - has seen.
I think for FIA matters, the court most likely to be litigated in might be French, since the FIA is based in France. I don't know why anyone would want to litigate in a Swiss court, unless they're dealing with Swiss financial institutions.
Between drivers and teams, their contracts have infinite permutations. For all we know, they might as well use the laws of Bolivia.
Bourdais = French.
He will wave the white flag the second he feels any pressure if he decides to sue
He will wave the white flag the second he feels any pressure if he decides to sue
The problem is the US's racing economy. It's terrible. Not only that, but it's quite a polluted farm.
Racing is dirt cheap in the US. A couple million bucks will buy you an IndyCar team. You can race NASCAR on a shoestring budget. I have no idea why this is.
As a result, trying to convince US sponsors to give up 4 million dollars for GP2 is nearly impossible. Why spend 4 million bucks on GP2, in a country/region that "doesn't matter" (to them), when they could spend 2 million and have a nice big sign on a top-flight IndyCar or NASCAR, in their home country, with more media coverage? Marketing suicide, to them.
On the flip side, our (formula) development series' are vastly inferior when it comes to value for money. 400 grand to run Star Mazda. Sure, it's got year-round coverage, but it gets piss poor ratings and even though something like Formula Ford only televises a few races per year, it gets much better viewership, and is half the price. The result of which is dubious sponsors for the US driver and enthusiastic sponsors for the Europe driver.
So, financially, we've got a really bad deal. A high price of entrance (400 grand for SM, 800 grand for Formula Atlantic, 1 million + for Indy Lights), and it's mostly out of pocket, but you have a really easy time keeping the big names with low prices at the top. So once you're in, the company you're with gets used to paying what is basically peanuts, and now if you want to move over to Europe for F1 or somesuch, you're out of luck because the sponsor doesn't want to move from it's nice, cheap, comfy-cushy deal it's got at home base.
And that's just the financial side. Now you're talking flesh and blood economy. Since the US is so appetizing, European drivers who have a few seasons of F3 or F3000 under their belt are coming over here with tons of sponsors who think they're stealing from someone since it's so cheap, sitting in the big name seats and basically preventing a lot of drivers who could have gotten there from ever having a chance and they simply fall off the map. It's getting better, but still, just look at the top drivers in IndyCar. Not too many Americans.
So, when you do get an American who becomes really successful in Open Wheelers, he* tends to stay where he is, becuase he knows that to go out of country will require a lot more effort than it's worth. He makes a good living, and he drives really fast cars with other really fast drivers. As far as he's concerned his "climbing days" are over.
*He being a universal word for "person". I'm not forgetting about Danica Patrick!
Really, the only viable career in the US any more is tin tops. Open Wheelers take too much money for the underfunded drivers initially, and we have an excess of them here (I'm one of them). So the only option is the cheap and dirty stock cars, or the cheap and slightly cleaner** GT/touring cars. Those are where all the really talented kids are going these days.
** Cleaner: simply because I like it more.
Hell, a fully funded drive in the MX-5 Cup or the Jetta TDI Cup (both of which are on TV and both of which have huge prizes) only costs 50 grand. That won't even buy a suspension unit in a Formula 1 car. To get to a real, paid, livable endurance ride you're looking at less than 1 million dollars to get there, and a pretty apetizing sponsorship proposal. Endurance racing = LOTS of screen time, and Stock Car racing = fanatical fans full of fanaticism, all for well under half of what they'd be paying in open wheelers. And they get better viewership.
So, young American drivers grow up mostly wanting fenders, and as a result when they get to the top, they really have nowhere else to go, except maybe down south with Stock cars to Brazil and Mexico, or possibly Europe for Endurance. But neither of those options are really apetizing compared to what they already have in the USA, because it's exactly the same, in a hostile environment and more cost.
Anyway, that's my little financial rant. Bitter? Definitely.
Also quite off topic...So on topic: I think Jaime can do well. At least he didn't crash today. There's a lot of talk about him being too young, but if he's got the skill and the determination why not? Torro Rosso sees something in him. Young kids have gone to college before, how is this different?
You watch. In 10 years, the next generation will come along and they'll be coming in at 18.
TBH my prediction skills rock
WTF
You do know that's a form of racism. Why it's tolerated, I'll never know.
I know but the fact he predicted both things surprises me.
Its a french thing
Taking the piss out of the French is a way of life for any English man...
****ing frogs
Toro Rosso reportedly replaces Sebastien Bourdais with 19-year-old Jamie Alguersuari
(85 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG