Earlier I wrote about the summer break rumors. So of course there is more! So what else is there that I didn't already talk about? I shall list them below in no particular order and start talking.
- Lotus finance problems and Infinity Racing coming to the rescue.
- Bernie Ecclestone gave Lotus money from his own pocket.
- Pastor Maldonado will join Lotus next year and bring money with him.
- Lotus took a step forward, got some new parts and they will dominate the rest of the season.
- Alonso is going back to his old team which is called Lotus nowadays.
- F1 will not go to Russia next year after all?
- The Indian GP is also out?
- Räikkönen's news about going back to Ferrari was just a negotiation tactic.
- Vettel is moving to Ferrari.
- Kovalainen's comeback.
- Sauber's money issues.
Lotus wants to keep Räikkönen for the next season and it sounds very realistic that he would stay. Let's think about the reasons again: less PR and more time for himself, he is clearly the king of the team and the car can fight for high positions. But for how long? What if they don't have enough money?
The Lotus team has said in many interviews that they have everything under control but why doesn't Räikkönen get his salary in time or at all? Why are they promising him money that they clearly don't have?
Räikkönen has been nice enough to let them pay him later. Last year he admitted that he got his salary eventually but very late. They have gotten a lot of sponsors but still the money isn't enough. Now they will probably get Infinity Racing to help them out. I really hope so for their sake because if they don't then they can kiss Räikkönen good bye. I don't think that he likes to wait for his money all the time and listen to their promises that they can't keep.
Maybe Infinity Racing comes to the rescue and wants to buy half of the team? Maybe Lotus will be some day known as Infinity Racing? It wouldn't be a big surprise for me.
I read from a German F1 site called Motorsport-Total that last season they (Lotus) got help from non other than Bernie Ecclestone himself. He paid their debts from his own pocket just to keep them in the series. The problems are much worse than expected. It might even happen that Kimi makes a contract with Lotus but they can't even participate next year because of the finance problems.
Don't be a fool Kimi! Please go ahed and choose Red Bull. They have the best car and so much money that they own two F1 teams and one F1 track! No other team can say the same.
If Kimi would decide to go to Red Bull anyway then Lotus has a backup plan - pay drivers!
Pastor Maldonado doesn't want to stay at Williams if the car is this bad. I mean the last year's car was faster than this year's. Usually the next car is faster than the older one.
Kobayashi, Kovalainen and Maldonado are the biggest candidates to join Lotus according to some papers and magazines. In my opinion they are not taking Kovalainen cause he doesn't have any sponsors that bring money to the team like Maldonado. Actually Kobayashi doesn't have sponsors either but he has money that he collected from his fans. I heard that he got about 1 million dollars and Maldonado's sponsors have more so that gives the advantage back to Maldonado. Let's wait and see what happens.
Some people (including the Lotus team) believe that Lotus is going to start winning races from now on. Grosjean even said that his maiden victory is just around the corner. I think that Kimi might win one or two races this year but they will not win the championship. It will be Sebastian Vettel again which would be very boring.
If Lotus becomes better and Ferrari doesn't then guess who would be interested to go back to his old team? Mr. Fernando Alonso Diaz of course.. or so the rumor says. Maybe if he gets canned from Ferrari but I don't believe this.
Some people say that Kovalainen has been negotiating with Ferrari. Actually he did last year but Ferrari decided to give Massa another chance. Have they negotiated further? Who knows? Kovalainen and Alonso used to be on the same team back in 2006 when Kovalainen was the test driver for Renault. They came along very well and are now friends. It would be nice to see him at Ferrari but I don't believe this either. He will probably replace van der Garde at Caterham next year and that's it.
If you wanna know more about Ferrari then the newest rumor is that Kimi's "Ferrari deal" was just a negotiation tactic. I think it was Kimi's own managers who started spreading this rumor. Or maybe Ferrari spread this rumor themselves to keep Alonso on his toes. You never know.
Vettel is moving to Ferrari. Nobody believed this right? Why would he change to a weaker team?
Sounds a bit stupid but did you know that Schumacher switched to Ferrari in 1996 even though he was in a winning car? He won 2 championships with Benetton and went to Ferrari even though they didn't have the same speed as his old team. Michael Schumacher predicted that this team is going to be good again in the future and he was so right about that. The team had won their last championship in 1979 and Michael won with them in the year 2000. It took 4 years but it was worth it because he won 5 championships in a row.
What else is there to talk about? The Indian GP running out of money but they will be back in 2015.
The Russian GP is also in the papers right now. They say that they are fighting for money and may not even get to host the GP. I think that they are going to sort it all out. No problems there.
Sauber is now also having money issues even though Gutierrez is bringing money in to the team.
It looks like they are forced to sell a part of the team or everything. We shall wait and see what happens with all of these things I just rambled about..
