2013 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX

[MarkedOne8]

James Allen @Jamesallenonf1 2m
” A tragedy” – Valsecchi angry at Lotus’ decision to hire Kovalainen over him http://goo.gl/fb/etxJ1

"In all the drama of the 11th hour arrival at the Austin circuit yesterday of Heikki Kovalainen, there were strong words from Lotus’ reserve driver Davide Valsecchi, who was passed over for the promotion.

GP2 champion Valsecchi has attended every race this year in Lotus colours, waiting for the chance to drive the car, but when the opportunity presented itself, with the injury to Kimi Raikkonen, the team went for Kovalainen.

The Italian was called by team principal Eric Boullier on Wednesday and given the news. They went with Kovalainen because of his greater race experience in F1 and his recent Friday practice experience with Caterham.

Valsecchi did not hide his disappointment when speaking to Italian media yesterday,

“It’s a huge blow to me,” he said. “From the sporting point of view it’s a tragedy. It makes me angry to have lost the battle with Kovalainen who is not a great champion, not even an active driver; his last results were five years ago.

“If they had taken Hulkenberg I could have understood, even Maldonado, but this…

“I was sure that from the point of view of motivation and desire to achieve, the team would have taken me and I would have been right up there.

“Perhaps I lack experience but what chance do you have to gain any? Nevertheless, things change quickly in F1, so I won’t give up and I will be ready if they need me in Brazil.”

[Vanja #66]

Cudan FP1, dosta magle, odlozen pocetak, skracen trening, crvena zastava zbog helikoptera... U svakom slucaju, ne previse reprezentativan. Alonso ispred Buttona, Bottasa i Guttiereza. Daniil Kvyat izuzetan, svega 2 desetinke sporiji od Ricciarda...

[Dule Krtola]

Vettel 18

[Vanja #66]

Pun rezervoar, nema sta drugo da bude...

[Dule Krtola]

Pun rezervoar, nema sta drugo da bude...

Svejedno,baš ga je cool gledati kad je na začelju

[MarkedOne8]

Ne razumem foru i smisao takvih komentara.

Ja uvek kad imam nebitan deo posta dodam i nešto ozbiljnije da ne bi ličilo na spam.

[Vanja #66]

In FP2, the world is back in order...

[Dule Krtola]

Ne razumem foru i smisao takvih komentara.

Šta ne kontaš? Neobično mi gledati Vettela da je pri zečelju,nisam navikao...

Ne treba velika matamatika da se skonta,šta sam htio reć...

[cowwwpa]

vozao se chovek malo turistichki, zamalo da stavi i dve cice kod gornjeg usisnika al nije hteo da nervira charlija ... razgleda lepote texasa, moze mu se jbg

[MarkedOne8]

A Kovalainen brži od Grožana!

[Dule Krtola]

A Kovalainen brži od Grožana!

Iskreno nisam očekivao ovakvo izdanje Neikki-a,al ipak ovo je trening i Gutierrez je bio 4 i 6 na treninzima al to nije njegovo pravo stanje.Neikki je iskusan vozač,može on da osvoji neke bodiće ali teško da može do nećeg višeg.Al iskreno volio bi da i Lotus prestigne Ferrari u konkurenciji konstruktora,pa nek razmilse malo u Ferrari-u šta im se dešava i dokle će padati i tonuti

[MarkedOne8]

Ako je neki slobodan trening relevantan to je FP2. Slobodni treninzi su više relevantni za međutimska poređenja. Heikki ‚‚iz kreveta" bude bolji od Grožana. Ne radi se o Heikkiju koliko o (anti-)Grožanu.

Da, Ferrari se sve sekira što će da izgube drugo ili čak i treće mesto u konstruktorskom. Eno, gore šume i livade oko Maranella. Oh kakve li propasti. Razmišljaju oni odavno o tome, a rešenja već pronalaze. Naše zajedničko mišljenje je da bi još barem trebali šefa tima na pit wallu da zamene.

[MarkedOne8]

Lotus F1 team says time running out for Quantum deal

Lotus Formula 1 team owner Gerard Lopez says his outfit will not wait 'much longer' for new investor Quantum Motorsports to finalise its buy-in deal.

Quantum chiefs announced at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that they had completed their part of an arrangement to purchase a 35 per cent stake in Lotus, with the matter only needing monies to be transferred to Lotus' bank account.

It is understood that those transfers have not been completed yet, despite hopes that matters would get finalised last week.

Although Lotus is still hanging on for Quantum money, Lopez made it clear on Friday that time was running out before it considers a different path for its future.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT about the Quantum situation in the wake of the announcement in Abu Dhabi, Lopez said: "It was their own initiative to announce that the deal was done. It isn't.

"We have always said that if we want to push we have other options. It has got to be the right partnership. That one seemed like the right one, but whether it is going to happen or not, I don't know."

Lopez insisted that Lotus had not yet given up on the Quantum deal being completed, but equally admitted it could not just sit back and give the investors forever to get things sorted.

"It needs to happen eventually," he said. "If it doesn't? Well...right now we are just running things as they are for ourselves, and then we will decide [what to do]. But we are for sure not going to give it forever."

When asked how long the team could wait, and if it was true that the team had set an internal deadline of today for Quantum to get it matters in order, Lopez replied: "All I can say is it will not be much longer."

Although the financial boost that would be delivered from the Quantum deal would be valuable to Lotus, Lopez insisted that the team's future was not dependent on it happening - and that it did not have to seek a fallback option.

"We don't need to [find other investors] if we don't want to," he said.

[MarkedOne8]

Lotus says it would have been 'intriguing' to see Schumacher's form

Lotus owner Gerard Lopez says it would have been 'intriguing' to see how Michael Schumacher fared if he had been keen on a Formula 1 comeback with his team.

Schumacher was one of seven candidates that Lotus put on a shortlist as contenders to replace Kimi Raikkonen for the United States and Brazilian Grands Prix.

In the end, Schumacher was not interested in opening talks, but Lopez still thinks it would have been fascinating to see how he would have got on.

"We wanted an experienced driver," Lopez told AUTOSPORT. "He was not rated higher or less than Heikki [Kovalainen], but we did place calls to different people to see who was where and where they stand.

"I still am very much a fan of F1, and as a fan it would have been intriguing. I don't know if he seriously considered it, I don't know if we were serious, but we thought we should place the call.

"He was on the list of seven. That is it. It would have been fun, maybe."

It is understood that the seven candidates that Lotus singled out for the seat were Schumacher, Nico Hulkenberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Pastor Maldonado, Rubens Barrichello, Kamui Kobayashi and Davide Valsecchi.

UNFAIR TO PROMOTE VALSECCHI

Although some - including Valsecchi himself - were surprised the team did not automatically take its reserve driver, Lopez reckons it would have been unfair to promote him for the final two events of the year amid such pressure to perform.



"If we were at race 10 or 11, he would be in the car for one, two, three or four races because he deserves to drive," said Lopez.

"But him wanting to drive is like a young guy: you want to have a drink, you know it's not good for you and your parents say it is not good for you, but you still want to.

"We know it would not be good for him to come into the last two races when you are fighting Ferrari,

"In his shoes I would kill to drive. To be fair to him - he totally deserves the drive but doesn't deserve to be put in the position where he has to, with Romain [Grosjean], put us in third place or even more in the constructors' championship."

[Vanja #66]

Neverovatno je kako se Maldonado ponasa prema Williamsu u zadnje vreme...

Govedo nezahvalno...