As the Formula One circus arrived at Austin in Texas, it seemed bizarrely at one point, that one of the front-running teams in the 2013 championship was struggling to find a driver for one of its cars. The race of course will start without Kimi Raikkonen, who will miss the final two events, to allow treatment for a back injury.
Debilitating pains initially flared up during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend and the Finn has since been receiving physiotherapy ahead of each subsequent race. The injury stems from a testing accident back in 2001, when Raikkonen was driving in his debut season for Sauber.
By receiving immediate surgery on his damaged back, Raikkonen is ensuring he will be fully recovered to carry out a full program of pre-2014 testing for Ferrari. Meanwhile Romain Grosjean will receive his first taste of being the Lotus team leader, but it seemed just a few days before the race that Lotus was struggling to fill Kimi’s place.
The team had the opportunity of running their third driver, former GP2 champion Davide Valsecchi, but deemed him insufficiently experienced. They then offered the drive for the rest of this season to Nico Hulkenberg, favorite for the seat in 2014, but apparently Sauber engine supplier Ferrari stepped in to stymie the deal.
Lotus even contacted Michael Schumacher, but he declined a return from retirement. Finally they opted for Heikki Kovalainen. The former McLaren and Caterham driver actually started his F1 career with the team, then known as Renault, back in 2007. It will be fascinating to see, six years on, how fast
he can fit back into the environment.
Lewis Hamilton no doubt will be hoping that, as in last season’s maiden race at the Circuit of the Americas, he will be able to overturn Sebastian Vettel’s run of victories. Meanwhile, further down the grid the United States Grand Prix is proving critical for the future hopes of drivers from “south of the border”, as the Texans call their neighbors.
There are currently two Mexican drivers and a Venezeulan on the starting grid and so far, none are sure where they will be racing next season. As a predicted quarter of the spectators for this weekend’s race are likely to come from their homelands, it would be logical that any announcements will be made over the race weekend. So far the only news has been bad news.
Sergio Perez, who graduated from Sauber to McLaren, will walk away from the team at the end of a tough season. The McLaren car has singularly failed to live up to expectations and although the 22 year old from Guadalajara has on occasion outpaced team-mate Jenson Button, what sealed his fate was his struggle with the technical knowledge needed to fine-tune the recalcitrant car.
Although largely unknown outside the McLaren team, Kevin Magnusson, the team’s third driver and winner of this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 litre championship, is being promoted to the 2014 race seat. The young Dane, son of former McLaren driver Jan Magnusson, impressed the team with both his pace and technical feedback on the high-tech simulator at Woking.
The new 2014 car, with its new turbocharged, hybrid powertrain will inevitably demand a high technical input from the driver. McLaren clearly believes that Magnusson, despite less racing experience, will prove a better long-term choice as Button’s team-mate.
Many think that Perez may return to his old seat at Sauber, but that could be bad news for his Mexican compatriot, 19 year-old Esteban Guttierez. While the teenager has done well in his rookie season, the confirmation of Felipe Massa alongside Vallteri Bottas at Williams next season, has released the
aggressive talent of Pastor Maldonado onto the driver market and both he and Perez are eyeing places at Sauber.
Just as Perez has access to lucrative Mexican backers, Maldonado also brings several million dollars in sponsorship from his native Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. Sauber suddenly has a hoard of moneyed South Americans bringing both pace and purse to their door.
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