Maldonado (and Grosjean) confirmed at Lotus

[Deutsch]

Pastor Maldonado has been confirmed as a Lotus driver for next season, alongside Romain Grosjean:

http://en.espnf1.com/lotusf1/motorsport/story/138139.html

As noted in the article, this should trigger the rest of the driver moves to fall into place. Probably Hülkenberg and Perez at Force India, maybe Sutil at Sauber (apparently the Hulk has burnt his bridges there by looking at other possibilities).

[Hitokiri]

I'm sad...

[Sleepcheap]

Yeah, so it goes. Guess Hulk should have spent some time cultivating wealthy benefactors.

[Hitokiri]

Yeah, so it goes. Guess Hulk should have spent some time cultivating wealthy benefactors.

And who said he hasn't? It's obvious he had enough to get the Force India seat but there are very few who could match the backing of a whole oil company who consequently is owned by a whole government.

[lizardfolk]

Maldonado's last chance to prove he's worth something in F1. I dislike the guy but I actually don't think he's talentless. The win in Spain is not nothing.

But... after a terrible season in Williams he needs to perform here at Lotus

[Privateer]

Maldonado's last chance to prove he's worth something in F1. I dislike the guy but I actually don't think he's talentless. The win in Spain is not nothing.

But... after a terrible season in Williams he needs to perform here at Lotus

You're viewing this all wrong. Maldonado has no such thing as a last chance as long as he provides teams a paycheck with the current state of F1. At the paycheck PDVSA is giving teams, he could be Hiro Matsushita and he would absolutely still be on the grid. Talent is 100% irrelevant to why Maldonado is in the Lotus ride, if they were making the hiring based on talent they would've got Hulkenberg. That is what auto racing is now, in F1 it's just exacerbated due to how huge the team budgets are.

[Frank Capua]

You're viewing this all wrong. Maldonado has no such thing as a last chance as long as he provides teams a paycheck with the current state of F1. At the paycheck PDVSA is giving teams, he could be Hiro Matsushita and he would absolutely still be on the grid. Talent is 100% irrelevant to why Maldonado is in the Lotus ride, if they were making the hiring based on talent they would've got Hulkenberg. That is what auto racing is now, in F1 it's just exacerbated due to how huge the team budgets are.

I don't know... I'm pretty sure GoDaddy couldn't print enough cash to get Danica a ride with Lotus.

Marussia maybe.

[Privateer]

haha, from the Autosport forum:

Lotus signed who?

[Privateer]

I don't know... I'm pretty sure GoDaddy couldn't print enough cash to get Danica a ride with Lotus.

Marussia maybe.

Well Lotus and Caterham may be merging, and Marussia and Sauber may be merging.

[flatlander_48]

That would take it down to 9 teams. Bernie won't allow it...

[Privateer]

That would take it down to 9 teams. Bernie won't allow it...

seeing as Red Bull also own Toro Rosso, if the teams drop to 8 they're required to field 3 cars each

we're almost to December and Lotus still don't have an engine contract

[fondueski]

That's too bad. I was really pulling for Hulkenberg to be alongside Grosjean. Incredible that it's taken Quantum so long to get their act together. What is it three or four months that we've heard that the deal is imminent?

[Hitokiri]

Well Lotus and Caterham may be merging, and Marussia and Sauber may be merging.

Humm...that would be interesting but I remember Bernie saying that he would like to keep 22 cars on the grid no matter what. So unless F1 is adding new teams I can't imagine this happening.

[Joe in LA]

Serious question--why is Hulk leaving Sauber for Force India? I can't beleive Sauber is so upset that he was looking to move up to a race-winning team that they would not resign him--he's the best driver their going to get. Force India doesn't seem to be a real step up, so I can't see why he'd want to do it--unless they pay and Sauber doesn't.

[flatlander_48]

Remember that he did have financial trouble with Sauber. They recently paid him, but I don't know if it was all that he is owed. However, he essentially didn't bring any money to Sauber. And, Sauber is still in financial trouble as the Russian deal hasn't really happened yet. It seems a big question mark over there. I think that's why Hulkenberg went elsewhere. Funny though, Force India had to get current on their previous salary to him before the new deal was signed...