F1 links: Alonso to race in Valencia?

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Fernando Alonso ‘will get OK for Valencia’ Grand Prix

"Circuit boss Carlos Moreno Figueroa said: 'We're being told by every side he'll be here.'"

Santander, Alonso and Ferrari

"Santander was keen to join the party with Alonso and so a deal was agreed that will begin in 2010 and will provide Santander with significant badging on the car and an option to become title sponsor in 2011, PMI with a much better return on its investment, Alonso with the hope that he might be able to win another World Championship while Ferrari has the budget it needs – a win-win situation for all concerned."

Toro Rosso settles with Bourdais

"Scuderia Toro Rosso has done a deal with Sebastien Bourdais to avoid legal action with the French racer. It is believed that the team has agreed to pay him his salary plus damages reported to be for $2.1m"

Ken Anderson, Paul Windsor discuss Team US F1’s first season

Peter Windsor: "A lot of people are saying to us, 'Are you interested in Danica? and my reply is in some respects, Danica is too big for us now. She'll probably go to NASCAR and she'll probably do very well there and she'll probably make a fortune. For her to do Formula One, it's a huge commitment at this stage of her career and her expectation level would be very high."

Danica Patrick ‘too big for USF1’

Peter Windsor on Danica Patrick: "She's gone to Europe, she did reasonably well in Formula Ford. She made the commitment, then went back to America and she's done very well in IndyCar. You could argue she's probably the best placed American in he premier single-seater American championship right now, give or take a Graham Rahal or two. Yet not one F1 team the last three years has bothered to give her even a test. I find that unbelievable."

Grand Prix poised to return to Montreal, Ecclestone says

"Apparently the proposal was about $75-million over five years, much less than the offer rejected by Ecclestone last November. It is also thought the deal included a promise to pay Ecclestone the money he was owed under the previous arrangement. Last November, the city offered Ecclestone a five-year package for $110-million in sanctioning fees as well as 75 per cent of the first $10-million in profit and 25 per cent of the rest. In addition, the estimated $20-million from the race's advertising and luxury box revenue would have gone to Ecclestone. His counteroffer of a guaranteed $175-million over five years to keep Montreal on the F1 calendar was too steep for the city and the race was pulled."

Sauber: BMW demands were too high

Peter Sauber: "I am incredibly disappointed and disconsolate. For me this is the bitterest day in my 40-year career in motor sport. It is also a devastating setback for the team."

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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29 comments on “F1 links: Alonso to race in Valencia?”

  1. – I hope Alonso and the Renault will be there to race, and they can escape the penalty with a fine inflicted on them. 20 cars are not much, neither 18.

    – I’m so sorry for Bourdais. I wish Renault would picked him as the replacement for Piquet. I know that there’s not much chance for this, but he tested for them a few years ago, and a Frenchman is something special for a French team. He would deserved this 7-race chance. I guess he wouldn’t care about his 2.1 dollars, if he could drive for the Enstone based team.

    – Leaving Montreal is a sin, (was?) one of the remaining classic tracks, usually the race of the year.

  2. I am a McLaren fan, but have to say that with Alonso driving at you-know-where, and Todt “Newman” elected as FIA boss, it is going to be very dificult to beat Ferrari.

    Hopefully one of these two things wont happen.
    Vatanen 4 Prez !

  3. It would be difficult for Danica to do well in f1 – its a very difficult and specialised world. She is a hot gal, and she will do best staying in the States and driving fast and showing her stuff.
    The only driver now in the US that could do a really good job in USF1 would be Montoya, but he must be happy over there and must have mixed feelings about F1.
    We tend to think in Europe that all US drivers would like to come here, but actually for a U.S. driver it is a lot of risk and also travelling, and in America they have all they want.
    Good luck to the team anyway.

    1. She’s ‘hot’ in every way you can think of!
      Montoya is Columbian, though he *might be naturalized I suppose. But I doubt he’d be interested.

  4. haha I bet Montreal are laughing there socks off, they took Bernie on and won, 100 million dollar discount? YES PLEASE.

    1. Yep. And its a great town and track besides. Also about the only place I can recall where you could compare the performance of F1 cars to the old Champ cars. And, btw, the best of the Champ cars would have made the tail end of the F1 grid in those days.

      1. For some reason people like to compare apples to oranges, F1 to Champ/Indycars. Of course F1 is faster than Indycars, if you have a set of rules designed to limit costs you are going to be slower than unlimited costs. Even with a cost limit of 40M/year you can go faster.

        Just the brakes alone make a huge difference. Take the fastest F1 car and replace its carbon fibre brakes with steel. It will go right to the back of the grid.

  5. Talking about the Canadian GP, could Jaques Villeneuve be a suitable USGP1 driver ? he is North American —

    1. Although well-known and widely popular here due to his years of winning in Champ cars and so forth, he’s a Canuck, so probably not in the running if they are serious about only using Americans.
      El Predicto says at least one name chosen will be nearly unknown.

  6. You’re right, they have in America what they want, and this way many Yankee drivers don’t even consider F1 as to top of the motorsports. They are more than happy with nascar and indycar series, and considering some aspects, maybe they are right, those series are more exciting, and there are minimal differences between cars.
    and it’s very intersting, that poor Jacques Villeneuve could’t get a seat there. This weekend he proposed himself to help out a nascar team because of a not fully recovered driver. He is restricted to this, a world champion of Formula One…
    If Miss Patrick wants to the Nascar, then she should go there and waste her talent. However, there’s absolutley no guarantee, that she would perform well in Formula One, so the safest way for her, to stay where she is. But this is something like Landon Donovan wouldn’t accept a contract proposal from the English Premier League, just because he feels well home, and might think, he won’t play 90 minutes every match.

    And back to the USGP, they stated that they want an experienced driver, and a North American youngster. JV is experienced, could fit the slot, but both of them denied talks regarding it. I don’t know wheter they consider Scott Speed as an option, with 1,5 years of F1 experience, but unfortunately Montoya wouldn’t come back at all costs…

    1. With Villeneuve, do you think one of the top NASCAR teams were just going to hand him a seat because he was F1 champion more than a decade ago? Sure, he’s got skills, but there are plenty of drivers who have spent their career in the NASCAR pipeline who are skilled in driving those cars, and deserve just as much of a look. There’s no free lunch in either NASCAR or F1, but you’ll see JV back in action in Montreal in a few weeks with the NASCAR Nationwide series.

      As for Donovan, the difference between he and Patrick is that Landon is actually a talented athlete, while Danica has minimal talent at best. She’s be embarrased if she raced in F1 and she may be even more embarrased if she drives in NASCAR someday…there’s a big difference betwene racing an Indycar around an oval and then pulling a NASCAR machine around it for 400 or 500 miles.

  7. So, Are Team US F1 only wanting 1 American; at least to start with?

    1. They supposedly want one experienced driver to start with, so that means someone like Wurz. They will probably have one American as the second race driver and another few in a developmental role.

  8. I think the F1 authorities shoud give Sauber an extra time to come up with a sponsor package, although I guess the other teams are knocking on the door, for the empty slot.
    Even if they gave the slot to another new team, and Sauber comes up one month later with a budget,perhaps they should be let in because of seniority. An extra team will still fit comfortably in these huge racetracks of today. So that would be one extra team on the grid.

    They are a good team with a solid infrastructure in place.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      9th August 2009, 7:38

      The problem with going to 28 cars is that while modern circuits like Shanghai and Bahrain will be able to accomodate them – hell, I reckon you could get thirty at most modern circuits – pit space at older ones like Monaco and Spa is at a premium, and there simply isn’t enough room.

  9. I remember having 28 cars on the grid, not so long ago, in 1994. And Sauber was there.
    I absolutley agree with you Bartholomew, that keeping Sauber should have the priority. 17 years in Formula One is a signal of a strong commitment, and since then illustrious teams went bankrupt, disappeared, what is the guarantee, that a new team taking Saubers slot won’t follow them?
    And the expertise of Willi Rampf and the whole team, the infrastructure in Hinwil shouldn’t be wasted.

    1. Prisoner Monkeys
      9th August 2009, 9:38

      So if my team, Monkeys Racing, applies and is accepted, I should just move over because Sauber came up with a plan to resurrect the team a month after the fact?

      That’s hardly fair.

      1. I would rather say, that no new applications should be allowed. The 3 new teams are in, and if Sauber can get itself together and will be able to race in 2010, then 26 cars will be on the grid. If not, then only 24.
        Allowing a new application is something I would call “hardly fair” against Sauber.

        1. I thought the deadline for new applications had passed.

          In any event if Sauber can get funding he should be on the grid.

          That’s a very big if and I don’t see it happening. A pity really. BMW hss no soul and they will have a hard time ever getting respect from me again.

          1. Prisoner Monkeys
            9th August 2009, 12:30

            The FIA are only considering applications who were on the “reserve” list, teams that did well, but just missed out. It’s believed that Epsilon Euskadi, Prodrive and Superfund at least are on that list; Lola was but withdrew, N.Technology may have been but likewise left, and Litespeed-Lotus may have been as well, but there’s been no word from them.

          2. Lola’s probably kicking themselves for withdrawing and running their mouth right about now!

      2. I’m not sure monkeys can get a Superlicence!

  10. mmm.. Santander, Alonso and Ferrari…

    or a real dark horse… Santander, Alonso and Brawn…

    1. Yeah, he was already linked with Honda a few years ago, and now that Brawn is one of the top teams, it’s not impossible.
      On the other hand Kimi Räikkönen is also rumoured to move to Brawn, however, in this case Alonso could sign to Ferrari.
      And we shouldn’t forget about the current lineup, why would Jenson Button change team after 7 years, and as a favourite for the title. Rubens Barrichello is described as a valuable and loyal member of the team, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he stayed as well.
      And one of the forgotten heroes, Anthony Davidson could get his chance, as he is still the test driver of the team (I couldn’t fin an official confirmation about this on Brawns website. Is he the reserve?)

      1. I can go with Anthony Davidson at Brawn. I think if anyone leaves it will be Rubens not Jensen. Don’t get me wrong, I like Rubens and he seems to be better at setting up the car, but I think maybe his time has come.

        Considering the past 2 years I can’t believe Ross Brawn would take Kimi. It might well be a single year and off to the rally for Kimi.

  11. I wonder if BMW are hoping Peter Sauber will join them again if they do enter ALMS? They will certainly need a good team leader to keep up with the likes of Audi and Peugeot.
    Danica: Wasn’t she talking with at least one F1 team when she was in Europe? (McLaren spring to mind, but it might not have been). I am certain at the time Bernie was asked about women (and Danica in particular) in F1, and was appalled at the prospect….He needs to look at the number of women (British women in particular) who are gradually making their through the different series, and the women in DTM too…
    Alonso: So is this final proof that he IS going to Ferrari in 2010, and that everything said by him and others denying it before has been a complete load of tosh?

    1. Danica was offered a test drive with Honda at least once and maybe more, from what I remember. She turned them all down, although they did run Marco Andretti in a test at Jerez.

      If she ever went to McLaren, I’d throw out all my team gear and root for Ferrari…..she’s not even worthy of being put in the same paragraph as McLaren ;)

      1. As I said, I remembered her having talks, but I couldn’t be sure who it was with!
        If it was Honda, then I suppose that was a link through IRL anyway?

  12. Sarah Fischer was the one that had a chance to test the McLaren a few years ago, I think.

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