What's with all the geezers, retreads in F1?

What’s with Formula One’s signing of geezers and retreads these days when there’s a whole bunch of young tigers around, waiting for a shot at the Big Time?

Michael Schumacher (on the cusp of 43) is an exception, He’s won seven World Championships, so he gets a pass.

But the signing the other day of Pedro de la Rosa to a two-year contract by the HRT team was a shocker. The guy’s 40. If he was Superman, I could maybe understand it. But he’s not. He’s a very ordinary driver from Spain who’s had a very ordinary F1 career (one podium in 86 starts) and should be retired.

Kimi Raikkonen’s return to F1 as a Lotus-Renault driver in 2012, announced Tuesday, is also a puzzle. Does anybody seriously think he is going to be anywhere near the pace after a two-year layoff?

Remember Jacques Villeneuve? After getting his butt kicked by Jenson Button at BAR, JV was without a ride for 2004. For reasons never completely clear, Flavio Briatore signed him to drive the final three races of the '04 season for Renault and it was embarrassing to watch because not only did he fail to score points, he failed to finish any of the races on the lead lap.

He said it was the layoff that killed him and that was for less than a full season. Kimi’s been out for two years, so he doesn’t stand a chance.

(By the way, the Kimster spent his time the last two years in the World Rally Championship, where he was largely unnoticed. He took a crack at NASCAR and bombed out there also.)

Mark Webber will turn 36 next season and has already said it will be his last year. Good for him, because despite a victory in the last race at Brazil, he was clearly not the driver this year that he had been in 2010 and things will only get worse.

Jarno Trulli, 37 going on 73 (it seems), will again drive for Lotus in 2012 (when it will be called Caterham) and it boggles the mind that he still has a seat. He has done exactly nothing the last two years – no podiums, no poles, no nothing. He finished 21^st in the world championship of drivers in 2010 and again in 2011.

Who decides to hire these guys?

Poor Rubens Barrichello is 39 and counting and telling everybody that he will drive for food - er, I mean he'll sign to drive for anybody in 2012 for a very small retainer – whatever that means in F1 parlance. Williams hasn’t called him to say he’s still on the team and they were nogotiating with Raikkonen before he signed with Renault.

Presumably, Kimi was too rich for Sir Frank’s blood, hence Rubens’ public declaration that he comes cheap.

It’s a mystery that the old guys and the comeback artists are being courted, particularly when there are drivers out there of the calibre of Nico Hulkenberg, Robert Wickens, Esteban Gutierrez and others, who could properly be called "racers," rather than all the octegenarian "drivers" we’re stuck with now.

Meantime, here’s something to chew on. 

Renault is not anxious to have the injured Robert Kubica return to the team, particularly now that Kimi Raikkonen is the big name associated with it. Although Kubica has said that he won’t be ready for the first race of 2012, the suggestion is that he’s not far off and Autosport has speculated he could do some rehab work at Ferrari.

Now, Ferrari has poured cold water on the speculation but I have a friend who really knows his stuff, who says flatly that the Scuderia’s denial means something is definitely in the works. Writes my friend:

"If Kubica somehow rounded back to form, then the gamble would pay off in a huge way. . . It would put pressure on Felipe Massa if Kubica were to somehow get it back together. Ferrari would not hesitate to dump Massa."

I think he's on to something.

Other racing news: 

– There are problems with the new Dallara Indy car for 2012, the car that Dan Wheldon spent most of 2011 testing. In a nutshell, it’s been significantly slower than expected in tests at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and only marginally quicker in road course trim. Dallara and IndyCar have a mere four months to get everything right, with the opening race of the 2012 IZOD season scheduled for March 28.

– Old-time supermodified star Harvey (Leadfoot) Lennox was inducted into the London Sports Hall of Fame recently. Here’s a link to the induction video:

Harvey Lennox induction

– The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will operate under a new points system in 2012, it was announced this week.The new structure awards points in one-point increments. As an example, race winners earn 43 points (equal to the maximum number of starters), plus three bonus points for the win. Drivers also can earn an extra point for leading a lap and leading the most laps, bringing the race-winning total to a possible maximum of 48 points.

The points system was simplified, NASCAR says, to make it easier for fans, competitors and the industry to understand. All series under the NASCAR umbrella, from Sprint Cup on down, will be scored the same way.

Comments

[Florian]

While there's some truth to this, it's not fair to blame Trulli for not having achieved wins, podiums or pole positions. In a Lotus? Whoever expects that from him must have very limited knowledge of how F1 works. You could just as well blame David Riccardo for his lack of race wins.

Also, the situation with Villeneuve in 2004 was different as he was "thrown into cold water" without being able to test extensively before getting into the Renault. For Kimi, it'll be different.

[DJL]

It's all about the publicity!

Pedro de la Rosa kind of makes sense. Let's face it, it will be a while before HRT's cars are competitive enough that they'll need a hot driver. What HRT really needs right now are two things: a Spanish driver who can be the PR face of their Spanish team, and they need a driver who has a tonne of car development experience who can help them take their car to the next level. With de la Rosa they get both of those things. Car development is basically all that de la Rosa has been doing at McLaren and now he can bring all that experience to HRT. And two years from now, he'll have hopefully helped them improve the car enough that it makes sense to recruit a hot driver. At which point de la Rosa will be able to transition into a "management" role in the team and still be a valuable PR asset. And my guess is he was willing to work cheap.

Schumacher's return was all about the PR. Bernie wanted it, and Mercedes needed it. Mercedes knew their 2010 car was going to suck (Brawn had put all their eggs into the 2009 car to win the championship) so they needed to give people something else to focus on while they spent 2010 (and it looks like 2011) rebuilding If I was a betting man I'd bet that unless MB comes up with a killer car next year and Michael ends up with multiple podium finishes, he'll be done.

As for Rubens: he's still a decent driver, his performance in 2009 with Brawn was more than decent. And most importantly for a cash strapped team, not only does he bring a wealth of experience at a relatively low cost, but unlike the young tigers he's very unlikely to crash the car - crashing is expensive. If he'd been driving a better car this year, say a Sauber or Force India it's likely nobody would be questioning his desire to stick around for another year. Unfortunately he moved to Williams just as they completely forget how to make an F1 car and has been tainted by their failure to deliver something worth racing.

Kimi is the one I really don't understand. Kimi has never been happy doing the kind of PR that F1 really requires, and he doesn't have the kind of nationalistic PR potential that de la Rosa and Schumacher have for their 'home' teams. And as you say, two years out of the car means he's going to be slow, just like Schumacher was in 2010. And to make matters worse, he has no experience with the new tires or DRS and will likely have to spend time adjusting to those changes as well. It will be a minor miracle if he manages to out perform his younger teammate (whoever it ends up being). Frankly if I'd been Genii, I'd have hired Rubens instead of Kimi. He'd be cheaper, he'd be a better teacher for the young teammate(s), and he'd be a HUGE PR asset for both Lotus/Proton and Genii (who just expanded into Brazil). I've been less than impressed with Éric Boullier this year, and his decision to hire Kimi really makes me wonder if he's a prime example of the Peter Principal in action (or if as part of the deal Kimi is now managed by Boullier's Gravity Sports Management).

[driving lessons redditch]

I enjoy reading your post and know these issue.It seems that I lost in the tract and don't have any news gather because of too busy schedule in office I have no time to watch and read news.

[Bill Taylor]

Is Schumacher back for 2012? Could be his year for a couple of podiums, maybe even in a win. Especially given the calibre of some of the drivers it appears he'll be up against.

[Colin W]

Norris said: "Michael Schumacher (on the cusp of 43) is an exception, He’s won seven World Championships, so he gets a pass." I couldn't disagree more. Schuey returned to F1 and was basically irrelevant. Great driver? I may concede that, but what we saw in his heyday is the same thing we are seeing with Vettel today - a "great" driver in a terrific car. Back when Schuey was winning championships, it was Ferrari and then the others. Put the same driver in a Williams then, or even today, and for all his talent, he wouldn't win a thing. In some ways, F1 is all smokes and mirrors. The drivers' championship goes not necessarily to the best driver, but to the driver with the best car. Exhibit A - Fernando Alonso. If he had Vettel's car, and Vettel, the Ferrari, would we be talking Vettel winning the drivers' championship? That said, but for the pedestrian circuits, for the most part I do watch the races.

[AR]

I don't expect miracles from Kimi from the get-go, I'm aware things have changed since he was last in an F1 car. But to underestimate his ability to adapt is, to me, a mistake. Plus, it's not like the guy was bumming around doing nothing during his retirement/sabbatical.

Regarding the Pirelli tyres, yes, he needs to get used to them but let me just point out that he won his WDC crown in his first year at Ferrari running on Bridgestone tyres. For a guy coming off of 5 years on Michelins during his McLaren stints, I'd say that's more than impressive.

And you are very bias in your reporting of his WRC and NASCAR forays. Why do people have such unrealistic expectations? In both racing disciplines, Kimi went into them knowing nothing - did people really thing he would be grabbing the WRC title from Seb Loeb in his first year. It's called a learning curve people! And for someone who hadn't driven in the Trucks series before and only had one weekend trial, how can you say that finishing 15th overall on the lead lap is not a superlative effort?

[DJL]

Everybody keeps talking about how Kimi was able to make the switch from Michelins to Bridgestone without problems back in the good old days. But nobody seems to mention that back in the good old days Kimi had plenty of opportunities to 'test' the tires before he ever had to go racing. Given the current limits on testing, he's not going to get the time he had back then to adjust. And back then he hadn't spent the previous two years not racing in F1. And if anybody says "what about pre-season testing" I'd remind them that's when the team is suppose to be testing, evaluating, and improving the new car. It's not typically used as 'training time' for the driver(s).

simply not going to get a lot of time to adjust to both the new tires, and the new car before he has to go racing.