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Listed below are comments made by cordas between Monday, 30th November 2009 and Saturday, 5th December 2009 (15 Hours Ago) .

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British GP saga close to conclusion 11:44am on 05 Dec 2009 Dear Carlonso,

We aren't arguing about who is the better driver persay (and whilst you point out Kubica beating Heidfeld in 2008 as proof, then surely someone who rates Heidfeld more could point out the other 2 seasons they have been team mates its been Heidfeld who beat Kubica), we are discussing who might be the better driver to fill the 2nd seat at Mercedes.

I just agree with Haug that I think Heidfeld might be the better driver to fill that seat, for the same criteria listed above. Kubica has a reputation for being a difficult driver to manage, he has also looked to be a temperamental driver and one who might rub the driver they have just signed (and his father) up the wrong way.

Personally I would much prefer to watch Kubica race than Heidfeld, because when he is on form in a good car he can be electric. I can just see why Mercedes might see it differently...

As for Kovi... Who? ;-) I bare him no ill will as a driver (unlike others who I would happily see retired), but he hasn't set the world alight at either Renault or McLaren and neither has he shown the promise to. Who knows maybe if he gets picked up by one of the new teams he may find his niche and start to perform, but if he doesn't I won't shed a tear. I would far rather see the likes of Kobiashi, Sutil, Buemi given the chance to shine.
British GP saga close to conclusion 09:35am on 05 Dec 2009 @57 Hmmm...

Not really, just because Kubica has out performed the car a couple of times doesn't excuse the fact that he has also underperformed it on a more regular basis when compared to Heidfeld.

What makes for a better driver? Consistently good or occasional flashes of brilliance?

Ferrari are paying 20odd million this season so they can have a driver who is occasionally brilliant sit out of the sport, and spent 10s of millions more to replace him with a driver who is consistently good....
British GP saga close to conclusion 8:04pm on 04 Dec 2009 54. At 6:39pm on 04 Dec 2009, Lepus_Madidus wrote:

2009 confirms it's the car, not the driver?

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Yup thats why Kovi scored as many points as Lewis, and Piquet Jr and Grosjean both harried Alonso to within an inch of his irrelevant talent.

There is no getting away from it, in F1 the car is important but so is the talent behind the wheel. Certain drivers are able to out perform their car at times, and some drivers need a car that ticks all their boxes to unleash all of their speed. The Brawn started the season as the car to beat, but by the end of the season (well mid season) it was probably the 3rd or 4th fastest car on the track and it was the talent of Jenson that kept him in the title race and ended up bagging him the world championship.
British GP saga close to conclusion 2:41pm on 04 Dec 2009 46. At 10:23am on 04 Dec 2009, Andrew Benson wrote:

Are you really confident that a driver line-up of Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld is going to stand a cat in hell's chance against that lot?

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I would rather put my money on Kubica/Heidfeld. They have worked well together at BMW for years and did develop a championship challenging car in 2008. However they have already signed Rosberg, and he is a driver who has performed consistently well this season and shown flashes of brilliance, so they are 'stuck' with him.

So the question becomes who to pair with Rosberg..... Both Kubica and Heidfeld have their strengths and weaknesses.

One thing that just popped into my head are the rumours about Keke not wanting his son to race alongside Lewis, maybe Mercedes are wanting to keep Rosberg and his father happy and not give him a team mate who might rock the apple cart....
British GP saga close to conclusion 09:10am on 04 Dec 2009 @40 - As a fan I agree that Kubica has the potential to give me more thrilling races to watch than Heidfeld, but the thing is its not fans who get to decide who races in what cars.... that job is left to team bosses, and looking at it from a team bosses perspective I can exactly why they would choose Nick over Robert given that who ever they choose will be partnering Rosberg.

Yorkshiregweilo888 also raises an interesting point, Nick has stated his preference to staying put, and he also has a lot of history with Sauber... I think its time for th F1 Mole to do some digging ;-)

I can't remember an off-season where so much was still up in the air from what teams will make the grid, who will be driving them and even when you look at teams with confirmed line ups both McLaren and Ferrari are heading into possible driver squabbles for primacy. I just can't wait for the season preview and then Bahrain....
British GP saga close to conclusion 00:06am on 04 Dec 2009 @36 - Nice idea, but as Renault want to remain an engine supplier in F1 I would imagine that any selling off of the team will be conditional in the team sticking with Renault engines. Its not a bad engine, Red Bull were certainly quick enough using it.

@37 - According to what was said on the Beeb at Abu Dhabi the negotiations were down to working out the fine details or the agreement. Silverstone and the BRDC have to have an agreement that will let them stay in business, and Bernie wants to make sure that he screws every last penny out of them (as well as pursue his personal vendetta).

I think the only reason that Donnington still has 'a hope' is because Bernie wants to use them as leverage against Silverstone, he knows that dropping the British GP would be hugely unpopular with the teams, CVC and the FIA (as well as a huge number of fans, but I don't think he really cares what we think).

Part of the crux of the matter really is Bernie thinks that the British Government should invest in the British GP (as many other national governments do), our government has refused (as it doesn't see why it should fork over money to a private profit making enterprise / sport) and Silverstone (any venue) is caught on the middle.
British GP saga close to conclusion 9:08pm on 03 Dec 2009 @30 I think you are being overly harsh on Heidfeld. I would imagine the reason that Mercedes might favour him over Kubica is because they already have someone who they hope is a flashy young gun in Rosberg, and that they probably hope that by teaming him with fast but solid Nick they will have a well balanced team. Heidfeld is a good driver (not great) he is reliable and consistent, he also has a good reputation when it comes to developing cars.

I think they will be looking to Rosberg to inspire the team and bring the glory whilst Nick does the leg work and makes sure the team finishes well in the constructors.
British GP saga close to conclusion 9:00pm on 03 Dec 2009 @21. I would imagine that Ferrari probably value Alonso more than Massa, my theory behind this is that I think they are looking for a world class driver to build a team around in the same manner that Schumi,Todt, Brawn and co built Ferrari around Schumi, with Irvine, Rubens and then Massa all serving as 2nd fiddle drivers, there to support Schumi's title bid as their 1st priority and pick up points (and wins when Schumi couldn't).

Given what happened to Alonso at McLaren, where he got firmly slapped down when he demanded the team favour him over Lewis and Alonso behaviour when he threatened Ron Dennis with going to the FIA over the spy-gate scandal I am of the assumption that Alonso will be happy to have the Schumi treatment.

Add into this the fact that Ferrari plied Kimi away from McLaren with HUGE bags of cash when Schumi retired and have then kicked him out of the car forthwith to make room for Alonso (including paying Kimi a huge sum of money to sit out of F1 next season). Don't be fooled by any idea that Ferrari are only giving Massa a drive next season by some idea that they 'owe' it to him because of his accident... Sorry but no, I just don't buy that. They are keeping Massa in the car a) because he is quick b) he is relatively consistent (certainly more than Kimi) and c) because he played 2nd fiddle for Schumi, and hope that he will do the same for Alonso (something that no one in their right mind would think that Kimi would do, I would imagine that if they gave Kimi team orders to let Alonso past that he would probably decide to park up or drive him off the road instead).

I also think that Alonso has probably had a say in who his team mate is, and I see him thinking he can beat and dominate Massa were as that just isn't an option with Kimi. Yes he might (and would) beat Kimi at times but I doubt he could ever dominate him, and if the team favoured Alonso over Kimi then I would imagine Kimi would just not bother turning up.

Anyway I am fairly sure that if Massa can race at the front next season (we still don't know how he has recovered from his accident) then we will see tears and tantrums at Ferrari and a new team mate for Alonso by the start of the 2011 season.

Please note these are just my personal ruminations, I claim no special inside knowledge or the like :-)

Oh and Andrew, thanks this article. Its great to check here and find new stuff every few days, keep up the good work. I am just waiting now to see a blog from your good-self (or one of your colleagues) on the teams making up the grid, and a summary of the Renault, Toyota, Sauber Pro-drive e.t.c situation ;-)
British GP saga close to conclusion 5:15pm on 03 Dec 2009 Not sure how Kubica would do alongside Alonso at Ferrari, I can't see Kubica taking the kind of second seat that Alonso will be demanding. I wouldn't be surprised if that Merc aren't looking at Rosberg as their hope for the future and Heidfeld as the strong 2nd car to score points whilst helping to develop the car.
BBC F1 film wins prestigious award 2:28pm on 30 Nov 2009 @56 - I also enjoyed James Allen's commentary on ITV, he has a good grasp of reading the race and working out how the various teams strategies will interact. He rarely made mistakes and provided a fairly insightful view of the sport, also he didn't get carried away and make bizarre comments / predictions that anyone with even a slight understand of the race would know was just jibberish.

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