F1 2012 Line-up

Red Bull Racing
1 Sebastian VETTEL (GER) - signed to 2014, with options
2 Mark WEBBER (AUS) - signed to 2012
reserve Sebastian BUEMI (SUI)

McLaren - Mercedes
3 Jenson BUTTON (GB) - signed to 2013 with options on 2014
4 Lewis HAMILTON (GB) - signed to 2012
reserve Gary PAFFET (GB)

Ferrari
5 Fernando ALONSO (ESP) - signed to 2016
6 Felipe MASSA (BRA) - signed to 2012 but rumoured to leave afterwards
reserve TBA

Mercedes GP
7 Michael SCHUMACHER (GER) - signed to 2012
8 Nico ROSBERG (GER) - signed to 2013, with options
reserve TBA

Lotus - Renault (formerly Renault GP)
9 Kimi RAIKKONEN (FIN) - signed to 2012?
10 Romain GROSJEAN (FRA) - signed to 2012?
reserve TBA Viatly PETROV (RUS) likely

Force India - Mercedes
11 Paul DI RESTA (GB) - signed to 2012?
12 Nico HULKENBERG (GER) - signed to 2012?
reserve TBA ??

Sauber - Ferrari
14 Kamui KOBAYASHI (JAP) - contracted to 2012
15 Sergio PEREZ (MEX) - contracted on a mutli-year deal
reserve Esteban GUTIERREZ (MEX)

Scuderia Toro Rosso - Ferrari
16 Daniel RICCIARDO (AUS) - signed to 2012?
17 Jean-Eric VERGNE (FRA) - signed to 2012?
reserve TBA

Williams - Renault
18 Bruno SENNA (BRA) - signed to 2012?
19 Pastor MALDONADO (VEN) - signed to 2012
reserve Valtteri BOTTAS (FIN)

Caterham - Renault (formerly Team Lotus - Renault)
20 Heikki KOVALAINEN (FIN) - signed to 2013?
21 Jarno TRULLI (ITA) - signed to 2012
reserve TBA Vitantonio LIUZZI (ITA) rumoured

HRT - Cosworth
22 Pedro DE LA ROSA (ESP) - signed to 2013
23 TBA Dani CLOS (ESP) rumoured
reserve TBA

Marussia - Cosworth (formerly Virgin - Cosworth)
24 Timo GLOCK (GER) - signed to 2014
25 Charles PIC (FRA) - signed to 2012
reserve TBA


2011 drivers with potentially no race seat:
Rubens BARRICHELLO (BRA)
Adrian SUTIL (GER)
Vitantonio LIUZZI (ITA)
Bruno SENNA (BRA)
Jerome D'AMBROSIO (BEL)
Vitaly PETROV (RUS)
Sebastien BUEMI (SWI) - Red Bull Racing reserve driver
Jaime ALGUERSUARI (ESP)

kimi's back! .. that makes 6 WDC's on the grid at once. that must be the most ever in a long time or ever.

Lets get JV back, we can have 7 champions! Lol.
It'll be interesting to see if Kimi can get back up to speed quickly.

YAY - The Iceman...
*EDIT* No wonder Kimi's jumped disciplines: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96585
The WRC commercial rights holder CSI has gone into Administration...
*/EDIT*

The BBC Interlagos coverage suggested that Kimi at Renault (Lotus) was a non-starter...OOOPS!
And then they went on to interview D'Ambrosia alongside the Virgin Technical Director after the race, just an hour before Virgin made Jerome redundant - unfortunate much...

Back on-topic:
If PDVSA don't cough-up the readies, then Jaws is definitely out-of Willies. Personally, if they don't get Kimi either, they'd be fools to dump Rubens. In fact, after this year's demonstration of Rubens' positivity and his general "can-do, will-do for peanuts" attitude, Willies would be foolish to get rid of him period.
As for The Dark Side - Massa is a full-on liability IMHO, and they would do better with Sutil, Hulkenburg, or Senna from the get-go.
And finally Grosjean - I've gone off him big-time. He wasn't stella in his latest GP2 outing considering that he'd already completed some F1 races. And in those F1 races, he looked frankly out-of-his-depth. I think that he's another Pastor: too good for GP2 but not good enough for F1.

i think the renault deal has saved the life of williams. i dont think they would survive an 1 or 2 seasons in their condition.

da silva wrote:Lets get JV back, we can have 7 champions! Lol.
It'll be interesting to see if Kimi can get back up to speed quickly.

Get Kimi back on the Jack Daniels and the boy will never loose a race.

I'll keep the first post updated as we get official signings etc.

webber's last year in 2012...

should be massa's last year this year but it wont be...

i miss Bobby... and i dont think he's coming back...

Button for president...

and so long as Alonso is over his mime phase, then he's still probably the best on the grid..

that is unless Vettel still kicks everyone's ass again next year...

ferrari scraped their asses across the line this year...

mclaren fought on well i thought... their drivers are definitely the best combo on the grid...

i think it totally correct for Ricciardo to not displace either of the toro rosso buoys...

2012 will be an interesting year with sutil... been driving well for a few years now... time for a good seat i think...

rosberg and schumi decider in 2012? come on Nico, put that old man down!

and i think it would be more reasonable for Rubens to make way for alot of the young talent that is pooling around at the edges these days... time is time... but he's certainly not taking up as much space as massa is...

and i'd say the technical regs are finally in the ball park with regard to the looks of the cars and entertaining racing...

now to only go to GPs where the grandstands are packed... ...

Maldonado confirmed at Williams.

'My boy', Valtteri Bottas will be the reserve driver. He'll be getting 15 Friday Free Practice 1 runs during the season.

PLAYLIFE wrote:Maldonado confirmed at Williams.

BOO...!
He really is the ULTIMATE renta-driver: Extremely LIMITED talent, tiot at PR, and "aesthetically challenged".
Poor choice, Willies....but we can sadly assume therefore that the PSVSA deal is all kosher.
I was hoping that the PDVSA deal was going south, to allow a decent driver (and/or Rubinho) into Willies. Seems not.

Gelert wrote:

PLAYLIFE wrote:Maldonado confirmed at Williams.

BOO...!
He really is the ULTIMATE renta-driver: Extremely LIMITED talent, tiot at PR, and "aesthetically challenged".
Poor choice, Willies....but we can sadly assume therefore that the PSVSA deal is all kosher.
I was hoping that the PDVSA deal was going south, to allow a decent driver (and/or Rubinho) into Willies. Seems not.

Malform, malware, malpractice, malignant, malevolent, maliscious, malice, malposed, petit mal, grand mal................MALDONADO!

kobayashi is one of my favourites.. i'd love to see him in one of the better cars, i think he'd actually do ok... prob most talented japanese driver i've seen in an F1 car.

..... but no takagi

fat john slots in alongside the iceman....

PLAYLIFE wrote:fat john slots in alongside the iceman....

Bogus...!
What a waste of Senna...and Petrov had some stellar moments in 2011 as well.

Where's that "shakes_head" emoticon got to...? First Jaws, and now Fatjohn...
And all because Frog Boo-llier wants to get some French sponsorship from Total - which maybe he plans to use to help get a French GP going again. But - just at the time that Renault change their name officially to Lotus. What a crock...!

Why didn't DC add this to the Euro-veto this morning...?

da silva wrote:Wholesale changes at Toro Rosso!

Just read about it DS. Shame for this season's drivers as I reckon that they'd done an OK (but not legendary) job - but it's a limited-capacity market, and STR was set-up as a "Learner's Academy".
If STR come out of the box well in Oz, hopefully Daniel Ricciardo (and Jean-Eric Vergne?) will show-up FatJohn and Jaws for what they are.

Gelert wrote:

da silva wrote:Wholesale changes at Toro Rosso!

Just read about it DS. Shame for this season's drivers as I reckon that they'd done an OK (but not legendary) job - but it's a limited-capacity market, and STR was set-up as a "Learner's Academy".
If STR come out of the box well in Oz, hopefully Daniel Ricciardo (and Jean-Eric Vergne?) will show-up FatJohn and Jaws for what they are.

It's high time Massa, Trulli and Barrichello moved over for younger drivers. I'm a little pissed that Vergne gets a chance but Wickens is sat on the sidelines. I don't really rate Danny Ricky after his time at HRT, so I expect JEV to wipe the floor with him.

RB has all but lost his seat now for sure, as a lot of drivers clamber to stay in F1... just waiting for the announcement.

Big shock with the 2012 STR line-up! Didn't see that one coming...

Two rookies (effectively), don't think it's the right decision. Personally I'd have kept Alguersuari on for another season, he seems to have a lot more potential than Buemi and also could help Ricciardo for his first full season.

I'm glad Grosjean gets a proper shot at F1 this time around. I think he's talented and to boot seems like a well-grounded guy (not that that counts for anything in this sport!).

As expected, finally FI announce the Hulk slotting in alongside di Resta.

yeah thats rough on Algi... didnt think daniel did enough at hrt either... but atleast itll be interesting with the rookies...

Sutil was best of the rest last year and he has to move over for a guy that got trounced by Rubens. Crazy.

Buemi given the RBR reserve seat.

Will Alguersuari get the HRT seat to make it an all-Spanish HRT line-up?

No Kubica. I might now refer to him as Mr. glass.

Mr Glass? he wore a section guard rail through the car and through him and out the other side... he's lucky to be alive.

if anything, he's Bobby, and he's a legend!