During this week’s Young Driver’s “Kindergarten F1: testing session, one promising “Young gun” by the name of Jules Bianchi not only got the Lion’s share of testing duty for one of the Sport’s most revered establishments - Scuderia Ferrari; the 20yr old Frenchman also was given a long-term contract with Ferrari, potentially leading to a future drive at Maranello a la Massa?
The deal is reportedly for 3yrs with extensions, a la “Fredrico suave”, (F. Alonso) albeit at a fraction of the $25m per year the Spaniard is reputed to earn, with Jules base salary rumoured to be $500,000 per year to begin with…
And it’s worth noting that Bianchi’s Manager is Nicolas Todt; son of Messer Jean Todt, Owner of the ART GP2 Team and Felipe Massa’s Manager… As Bianchi will race for ART in the 2010 GP2 Series season and I’d expect to see the Frenchman graduate to Sauber F1 in 2011 if all goes according to plan.
As I’d guess you’d have to say this is a Ferrari insurance plan in case either Massa or Alonso doesn’t pan out next year, leaving the Scuderia in another horrid lurch? As neither Giancarlo Fisichella nor Luca Badoer exactly bailed out Ferrari in 2009, (which the current testing ban didn’t exactly help) while I believe the last French driver to race for Ferrari was someone named Jean Alesi…
The deal is reportedly for 3yrs with extensions, a la “Fredrico suave”, (F. Alonso) albeit at a fraction of the $25m per year the Spaniard is reputed to earn, with Jules base salary rumoured to be $500,000 per year to begin with…
And it’s worth noting that Bianchi’s Manager is Nicolas Todt; son of Messer Jean Todt, Owner of the ART GP2 Team and Felipe Massa’s Manager… As Bianchi will race for ART in the 2010 GP2 Series season and I’d expect to see the Frenchman graduate to Sauber F1 in 2011 if all goes according to plan.
As I’d guess you’d have to say this is a Ferrari insurance plan in case either Massa or Alonso doesn’t pan out next year, leaving the Scuderia in another horrid lurch? As neither Giancarlo Fisichella nor Luca Badoer exactly bailed out Ferrari in 2009, (which the current testing ban didn’t exactly help) while I believe the last French driver to race for Ferrari was someone named Jean Alesi…
