Articles Tagged ‘Giancarlo Fisichella’

Force India keeping options open.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 - Posted by Jack Sargeant

Force India logo

Force India are obviously keeping their options for 2010 drivers open – no less than 6 drivers are in the running for the seats, including the drivers who ended last season with the team; Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Giancarlo Fisichella who went to Ferrari last season to cover for the injured Felipe Massa will most likely stay at the Italian team as test driver next season with Massa and Fernando Alonso having the race seats, although Fisichella has not completely ruled himself out, saying:

“Why not? It is open. It could be Force India. There are a lot of teams without drivers so far.”

Another driver in the running is former Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. who was heavily involved in the ‘Crashgate’ scandal, although it seems his whistleblowing has not deterred Force India. Piquet said:

“I am close to Force India at the moment, but to me NASCAR is very interesting, so I don’t know yet what is going to happen. I don’t want to take a decision without knowing how things work here in the United States, so I came to be with the drivers and team owners.

“It is clear that the F1 cars are very much better technologically – the best in the world – but I find that if it is enjoyable, it doesn’t matter if I am racing in karts. The important thing is to compete.”

The other two drivers in the running are Pedro de la Rosa who was denied a drive at the new team Campos for the lack of Spanish sponsors that come with him, although he is still a possibility for the Force India drive.

The final driver rumoured to join the team sure is an interesting one – Scot Paul di Resta. Di Resta finished 3rd in this years prestigious DTM championship driving for the AMG Mercedes team, including one race win on home soil at Brands Hatch. Di Resta is set for a test at Jerez for the team in early December.

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Posted in Ferrari, Force India, News, Rumour | No Comments »

Alonso won’t drive a Ferrari until Feb 2010

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 - Posted by Formula1Blogger

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso will have little to no involvement with the development of his new Ferrari that he hopes will bring him another world championship title in 2010. Alonso, who joins Ferrari now that he has left Renault will not be able to even test the car until February 2010, just 1 month before the first 2010 Grand Prix in Bahrain.

“I will not get to drive the car. This doesn’t give me a lot of chances to give any input up until February 2010, when I’ll get to drive the car for the first time. Up until that point I will try to understand how the team works and prepare for the winter testing as well as I can.”

Alonso probably needs to get together with Giancarlo Fisichella and Luca Badoer, who both struggled with the 2009 F60 Ferrari in 2009. Badoer lasted 2 Grand Prix standing in for the injured Felipe Massa, Fisichella could only manage 9th when he replaced Badoer at the wheel. Fisichella drove 5 race weekends in the car without any pre-testing, but still managed to struggle upto his last moments in the car, where he received 16th in Abu Dhabi.

Our prediction? We think Alonso may struggle the first few races based on what we’ve seen before. That said, he is a different driver altogether to Fisichella or Badoer. Ferrari will need to work more with the 2 time world champion if he struggles, as he definitely doesn’t lack the skill to drive.

Whereas most teams in 2009 have a car that they can carry forward into 2010, Ferrari didn’t have the luxury and stopped developing the F60 back in June. Stefano Domenicali, Team Priniciap recently said,

“We have a car designed with a basis that could not be competitive next year. For that reason we made the decision to stop its evolution. As with everything, time will tell if we were right.”

Ferrari are putting alot of their eggs in one basket on this one, time will truly tell…

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Posted in Ferrari, News | No Comments »

Lewis Hamilton on pole for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 - Posted by Jack Sargeant

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel for tomorrow’s inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit after setting an electrifying lap in Q3, more than 0.5secs faster than the rest of the field.

Hamilton set a 1:40.948 after the chequered flag had dropped in Q3 compared to Vettel’s 1:41.615. The fellow Red Bull driver Mark Webber will line up 3rd alongside Rubens Barrichello and World Champion Jenson Button will start 5th.

Hamilton’s teammate Heikki Kovalainen will start 13th, despite topping Friday Practice 2, although this is because he suffered a brake problem in Q2.

Elsewhere it was a reasonably impressive qualifying session in BMW Sauber’s last ever Grand Prix with Kubica and Heidfeld making it an all BMW 4th row. They qualified 7th and 8th respectively.

Ferrari had another nightmare with Giancarlo Fisichella in particular, who will start last on the grid and Kimi Raikkonen who will start an average 11th on the grid.

It was a disappointing session for Renault as both of their drivers failed to get through Q1. In twice former world champion Fernando Alonso’s final qualifying for Renault he qualified 16th. His teammate Romain Grosjean will start 19th.

The full classification is below. 

(more…)

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Posted in BMW Sauber, Brawn GP, Ferrari, Force India, McLaren, News, Red Bull, Renault, Toro Rosso, Toyota, Williams | No Comments »

Fisi refuses to rule out move back to Force India.

Saturday, October 31st, 2009 - Posted by Jack Sargeant

Giancarlo Fisichella

Many people believe that this will be Giancarlo Fisichella’s last weekend in Formula 1 now he has left Force India for a drive at Ferrari while Felipe Massa is recovering from injury. However Felipe Massa will be back for next season and he will drive alongside Fernando Alonso who is replacing the outgoing Kimi Raikkonen, so where will the 36 year old Italian Fisichella go now?

He has had a less than impressive time since joining Ferrari, but he is refusing to rule out a move back to Force India. He said:

“Why not? It is open. It could be Force India. There are a lot of teams without drivers so far.”

“It is a bit frustrating,” he said. “I would be disappointed, but I am doing my best. It is not easy to jump from Force India and jump to the Ferrari car, which has completely different handling and completely different behaviour.

“I have driven for 14 years in F1 how I want and now I need to change, in braking and downshifting, my style of driving. I am doing my best. In the last couple of races, the race pace was good, the problem was the qualifying session. Here in the long runs I had the same pace as Kimi.”

For more information on the Formula 1 driver lineup for 2010, check out our Ultimate Guide.

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Posted in Ferrari, Force India, News | No Comments »

End of an F1 Season – A Few Goodbyes

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 - Posted by Formula1Blogger

With the 2009 Formula 1 season drawing to a close, there is the inevitable departures of drivers, team members, and in some cases – whole teams that needs to take place. Some will get reshuffled into new teams, some will go altogether, and some new blood will enter the paddock. Here’s a brief rundown of the F1 goodbyes in 2009.

Kimi Raikkonen & Fernando Alonso

Kimi Raikkonnen and Fernando Alonso

After 3 years with Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen is being replaced by Fernando Alonso. Raikkonen is yet to sign a deal with a new team for 2010, however he has been linked with a drive at McLaren and Toyota, the former being the most likely slot.

Raikkonen won the drivers world championship with the team in his debut year, as well as the constructers in 2007 and 2008.

There is also an outside chance the Raikkonen will leave the sport altogether. He has frequently mentioned when interviewed that if the right race seat doesn’t become available he will leave Formula 1 for good. We don’t think he’s bluffing…

Fernando Alonso also leaves his Renault team for the second time in his F1 career. With the team in disarray, Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore also gone, it makes complete sense that Alonso would want to move away. That said, there are some whispers that the Ferrari deal has been in place since last year, however it couldn’t be made then for whatever reasons.

(more…)

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Posted in BMW Sauber, Brawn GP, Ferrari, Force India, McLaren, Renault, Toro Rosso, Toyota, Williams | 1 Comment »