Monday, June 18, 2007

On the bubble?

Although I try to not fall prey to the countless rumours of race drivers impending demise. It seems that the annual “Silly season” get’s underway earlier and earlier each year.

Of course the most celebrated luminary currently on the hot seat in Formula 1 is none other than Ralf Schumacher. David Hobbs has spent countless hours pointing out the fact that “Schuey Junior” makes an estimated $20+ million per season while running behind Adrian Sutil in the much unloved Spyker F8VII. This has led to the rumours that Honda’s golden boy Takuma Sato is being considered as a possible candidate for “Ralfanso’s” seat next year.

Meanwhile Renault rookie Heikki Kovalainen has been under searing pressure since the beginning of the season. With the “Reggie’s” team boss “Flavour Flav” being extremely critical of the young Finn. And one of the SPEED TV crew even mentioned during the Canada weekend that Flavio had offered Sir Frank Williams a sizeable amount ‘O dinero to take Kovalainen off his hands as Alexander Wurz’s replacement.

Of course there’s nothing like a little media exposure to give a driver that extra “oomph” to perform. As Kovalainen started dead last before finishing 4th. And “Ralfanso” managed to eak out a single point upon finishing in 8th. Yet with “Taku’s” brilliant performance in Canada overshadowing these results. I’m sure that Honda, nee “Super Best Friend’s” will NOT wish to loose the Japanese talent.

And with persistent rumours of Flavor Flav implying that Nelson Piquet Jr. would be debuting as Kovalainen’s replacement at Silverstone. Heikki has managed to knuckle down and continue his upward progression by outperforming team leader “Fishy Fella” for the entire weekend at Indy. Kovalainen collected his second consecutive points scoring finish in 6th at the Brickyard.

Meanwhile Ralfanso had another dismal outing at Indianapolis, where he managed to be entangled in a first lap fracas with “Uncle David” and “Rubinoe.” (Barichello) And with David Hobbs pouring on the accolades for German rookie Sutil. Claiming that the lad will be moving up the grid team wise. This makes me wonder if perhaps Toyota will poach the youngster away from the ailing Spyker concern. This could be the proverbial “win-Win” situation, since Toyota would retain a German driver while being based in colone. And Sutil’s retainer would be much lower then “Ralfie’s.” While Spyker would perhaps get some much needed cash for the deal? As well as freeing up a seat for one or two of it’s young gun test drivers waiting in the wings…