2169 replies to this topic

[F.M.]

Van Der Garde confirmed to be racing at Caterham next year

[tarmac]

Nothing announced. MTV3 says so

GVD has most $$$ after Razzia

[F.M.]

Nothing announced. MTV3 says so

GVD has most $$$ after Razzia

Dutch media says yes (PC is ongoing)

http://www.rtl.nl/(/...de_caterham.xml

http://www.nu.nl/spo...j-caterham.html

http://www.ad.nl/ad/...Formule-1.dhtml

And his management already confirmed before the PC he would be racing in F1, just not at which team.

Edited by F.M., 01 February 2013 - 14:44.

[F1FanAJ]

Vander Garde now 100% confirmed at his press conference..!

[matthewf1]

Now confirmed by Caterham. Also some quotes from Cyril Abiteboul:

"W£ continu£ to grow a$ a t£am and w£ ar£ committ£d to giving young tal£nt acro$$ th£ motor$port indu$try th£ chanc£ to grow with u$ and thi$ i$ Gi£do'$ opportunity to $how h£ d£$£rv£$ hi$ plac£ at th£ v£ry high£$t l£v£l of global motor$port,"

[Petroltorque]

The Caterham/ Marussia battle is going to boil down to which team can get the best handle on setup. With effectively 4 rookies the pressure will be on the race engineers to find the sweet spot. Can Caterham afford to finish outside the top 10 constructors standings?

[CatInTheBag]

It looks like Caterham is treating this year as a transitional year for the team, with not much hope to improve, position-wise. As was indicated by Cyril Abitofbull.

On the other hand, its no wrong to want more fund for the team to survive, but I have a hunch that all these actually went to fund a £12.5m bid to buy Chris Samba and whole lot of other
useless players for QPR.

Why bother, if you are half-heartedly attempting to succeed in F1. You just won't, Tony.

Imagine all the £s wasted on QPR actually go to F1. We will be in a lot stronger position with better drivers and facilities like building our own wind tunnel. for instance ?

By the way, welcome to the team, GvdG.

[Red17]

It looks like Caterham is treating this year as a transitional year for the team, with not much hope to improve, position-wise. As was indicated by Cyril Abitofbull.

I was thinking the same thing, new leader, new line-up, new facilities, new techincall department... It's back to 2010.

[MortenF1]

Boring and underwhelming driver choice.

[ApexMouse]

Drivers dont matter for them. They need some serious dollars to actually get something that isnt a total sh**box together. In their defense, they are probably the only recent team that looks like sticking it around past this season.

[onewingedangel]

Van Der Garde must be bringing some serious money. Was expecting Senna for the combination of a solid hand with a budget.

But who knows, he may surprise.

[yaapelsinko]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.
..

[chumma]

I don't think this was a good move by Caterham unless that absolutely needed the money.

[Zedderick]

If I'm slightly bitter, then I'm tempted to think that it's entirely for the money. Rather than have experienced/solid drivers, or at least fairly experienced/solid drivers with some money, and attempt to fight their way into the midfield, they've thrown their hands up, said "well, that hasn't been working; as long as we beat Marussia we'll be fine, for now" and taken on two largely unknown quantities, with lots of money. So basically they're just going to bunker down this "transitional" year and have another crack at the midfield when the game changes in 2014. But, and here's where the devil's advocate pops up, they will have a strong financial base (provided their drivers don't wreck the cars every weekend - there's no certainty that this will be the case at all) plenty of time to develop the 2014 car and they will have spent the year grooming two young(ish, Giedo) drivers to be a strong force heading into the 2014 season. So in many respects, in the long term, it's a sound, strategic decision.
In theory.

Then again, this season it may just turn out that Pic and van der Garde are both blistering quick anyway - or at least one of them is - so it's win-win!

But if my theory is correct, it does sort of mean that 2013 has already been written off before it's started. It's going to be a hard slog for Caterham fans this year, IMO :\

Thought occurs though, I'm at a loss to what the Concord agreement is doing at the moment - if anything at all - so will securing 10th in the championship mean much in the future?

Edited by Zedderick, 01 February 2013 - 22:51.

[JeePee]

Good choice by Caterham. I don't think v.d. Garde is any slower than Petrov.
And it's not like it's a wild guess from Caterham. He knows the team, the team knows him. He's a hard worker and probably has more motivation than Petrov. Let's see if he can beat Pic!

Edited by JeePee, 01 February 2013 - 22:59.

[scheivlak]

If I'm slightly bitter, then I'm tempted to think that it's entirely for the money. Rather than have experienced/solid drivers, or at least fairly experienced/solid drivers with some money

Whatever one can say about Guido and his basic speed he is an experienced/solid driver, or at least a fairly experienced/solid driver with some money

[silencer]

bitter reaction from fins and russians out there.

but I'm looking forward to see this new line up in action.

no hard feelings toward Heikki and Petrov but drivers comes and go but the one that need to stay in this circus for a long time is the team itself.

[smoothcrim]

Van De Garde is a joke,Caterham have no aspirations of moving up the field its just a marketing exercise for their road cars.They wont be around in 2 years.

[CatInTheBag]

For those who still think the team need "pay driver" money to survive, pls don't.

[D.M.N.]

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