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Remarking statement from Robin Frijns. He refused twice to join the Red Bull Driver Program because 'Red Bull treats you like a dog'. http://www.nu.nl/sport/2950610/bij-red- ... ndeld.html

Good thing to say before testing with them...

But he is right. The talent programme looks like a kennel run by Helmut Marko.

Oh it is. Felix da Costa will be in mid-season at the expense of either Ricciardo or Vergne. Both those two are very good and it'll also ruin da Costa's chances too.

Hopefully Alguersuari will get a chance to rebuild his career with Force India next season.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

They aren't the only ones. The McLaren and Mercedes driver programs are a disgrace. Red Bull may throw you in at the deep end and harm your career, but Mercedes don't even get you to F1 before they destroy your career.

And at Ferrari you either win a championship or you're fucked.

It's to revive the Alpine brand and put it in sportscars.

Felix da Costa is about a sure thing as there has been in the RB young driver scheme. Vettel included. His timing will be just right as well, as by 2014 I seriously doubt Webber will be even as quick as he was this year, nevermind 2010.

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For example: Jamie Green

+ Wickens.

Merhi as well.

Gary Paffett, Alex Premat...

Paul di Resta was hardly well-looked after, either.

The Red Bull system isn't perfect, and it has made mistakes (Allmendinger, Wickens, Alguersuari), but it has also given a fair number of drivers a year or two in F1. That is very important; it means that even if a driver isn't good enough to stay on the programme, they still have F1 experience and so can return if the right opportunity arises, as Liuzzi did and Alguersuari will do.

Frijns is entitled to his opinion, but he will be very fortunate to get into anything other than a HRT next year.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Frijns will be Sauber's third driver and then hope that Hulkenberg moves to Ferrari in 2014...

Frijns's problem is his rapid rise - he's won everything. Going back to FR3.5 would be pointless. Going to GP2 can only hinder his reputation. So F1 is the only option.

The matter of fact is that drivers are staying in F1 now for an exceptionally long time, more so that in the past. Jenson Button has started over 200 races and he still has several more years in him. Alonso is only 31 and he's going to hit 200 races next year. There's only 24 seats and every season you could make an argument for about 35 F1 standard drivers - so you're going to get ten that miss out every season.

If you take the 24 guys in F1 now and then consider that you have the likes of Alguersuari, Wickens, Sutil, Buemi, Valsecchi, Frijns, Razia, Gutierrez, Felix da Costa, Bianchi, Bird without a drive then you see my point. All of those guys could do a standard, if not very good, job in F1. And that's ignoring the guys that were at the top of junior formulae five years ago.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Alpine is coming back!

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

The problem in F1 is the lack of teams. A solution would be extending the number of cars and have qualy on time, like in late 80s. It would give more opportunities for new drivers to get a couple qualys to a race and get some visibility and experience.

Some of the wider tracks would allow more racers in (You could cram a 35-car field in India for example), other venues like street races would keep the 26-car limit.

Or allow teams to enter just a few races... Really any flexibility would only help moderating this lack of seats issue.

Anyone else getting tired of the new teams by the way? This is their third season, and they are yet to score a point, and they are even yet to be close to score a point. What are their plans? Surely they must have hoped to at least match the earlier backmarkers pace by now.

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I shagged a couple of loose balls for her in warmups.

It just proofs one cannot simply be succesfull just like that in F1. However, we should have known that. Even Toyota and BAR couldn't buy the success. Toyota was of course hindered by Ralf Schumacher but still...

I wouldn't mind having pre-qualifying back.

another way to fill the grid would be 3-car teams but having 1 team dominate a season and 2 others dominate the field behind that would be extremely boring.

Customer cars would be a good compromise however if the car is 1 to 2 years old.

Well Caterham realised that Gascoyne is shit, building an F1 team in Norfolk was never going to work and moved to Leafield.

Ditto Marussia with Wirth and Sheffield, they're now in Banbury.

HRT have also changed owners and moved to, er, Madrid.

I have hope they can move forwards in 2014. If they don't...

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

There are some big problems in Sao Paulo this year. Last weekend, 26 people were killed by murder incidents. I don't know if that will effect the security of the teams for the last race.

To be honest, no. It has it's charm to see three teams fighting to be tenth in the championship and IMO it's much better to have a 24 car grid then a 18 car grid.

It has its charm when they have the slightest chance of scoring points. The only thing they do now is make sure only one driver except the six driving for the new teams gets knocked out of Q1. It is the lack of apparent improvement that surprises me.

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I shagged a couple of loose balls for her in warmups.