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Atom Date: July 17 2007
[ 
Mood: Beating a Dead Horse ]
Mood: Beating a Dead Horse ][ 
Currently: Reading The Ship Who Won by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye ]
Currently: Reading The Ship Who Won by Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye ]This entry follows on from the Spyker entry I did last week.
At some point today, I expect Spyker to state who will be their driver for the rest of 2007. The candidate list appears to have narrowed to three, if you believe the speculation.
Pitpass points out that Narain Karthikeyan "had a chat" with Colin Kolles, and given that he's not done a lot of driving for Williams this year, you have to assume the chat wasn't purely social. We know that Spyker needs more money if it is to be competitive - or even supply the requirements of the car company that is its parent - and I was impressed by his speed in the first part of 2005.
That said, his technique kinda fell to pieces in the second half of the season, and I don't know whether the testing he's done for Williams will have sharpened his edge enough to make him the best candidate. Also, Frank Williams is unlikely to relinquish his secondary tester easily, given that he brings a lot of sponsors to Williams (which is an independent team and needs all the sponsors it can find).
Spyker are considering Klien as well. We know this for a fact, because Klien has tested for Spyker. He did pretty well too, though it's difficult to tell how well, given that every team has different objectives when testing. However, he was much better than Giedo van der Garde, which is as good a reason as any to throw van der Garde off the shortlist. Klien's strong points also include being the most experienced driver on the candidate list. The catch is that he probably doesn't have significant funding and Nick Fry has a track record of not letting testers go without strings attached (ask Anthony Davidson).
That most reputable of rumour machines, Bild, thinks that Winklehock will drive next race. He would be my preferred choice - he looks fast, is familiar with the Spyker and doesn't have to be negotiated out of a test seat. However, even he admitted (to a site called f1grandprix.it that I've never heard of before) that he doesn't have enough sponsorship money for the season.
There is another point in his favour, though - one that proves that mid-season sackings are always messy. Christijan Albers may be starting legal proceedings against Spyker (as if we didn't have enough high-profile court cases in F1 at the moment!) Christijan claims that his drive had a guarantee clause that meant that in the event of a sponsor default. With Mingya claiming it hasn't sponsor Albers or Spyker for some time (despite signage on this year's car), this is set to run and run in the background.
The point of stating all this is that there is a theoretical chance that Albers may claim unfair dismissal and ask for his seat back. The compensation Spyker would have to pay Christijan if his or Mingya's claims are accurate would probably exceed the amount of spare cash Spyker has got. It is possible that Spyker may therefore have no choice but to take Christijan back for the duration of the contract. I would not like to be at Spyker if that happened. However, any contract Spyker enters into now has to have provision to remove the substitute driver in case Albers has to be placed in the team. This is a point that goes heavily in Winklehock's favour.
My tip? Winklehock for the minimum amount of time needed to sort out the Albers debacle, followed by either Albers or Karthikeyan for the rest of the season. Klien will use the lost opportunity as leverage to negotiate a race seat at Honda or Super Aguri for 2008, and Albers will not be seen in F1 after 2007 regardless of what happens next.
At some point today, I expect Spyker to state who will be their driver for the rest of 2007. The candidate list appears to have narrowed to three, if you believe the speculation.
Pitpass points out that Narain Karthikeyan "had a chat" with Colin Kolles, and given that he's not done a lot of driving for Williams this year, you have to assume the chat wasn't purely social. We know that Spyker needs more money if it is to be competitive - or even supply the requirements of the car company that is its parent - and I was impressed by his speed in the first part of 2005.
That said, his technique kinda fell to pieces in the second half of the season, and I don't know whether the testing he's done for Williams will have sharpened his edge enough to make him the best candidate. Also, Frank Williams is unlikely to relinquish his secondary tester easily, given that he brings a lot of sponsors to Williams (which is an independent team and needs all the sponsors it can find).
Spyker are considering Klien as well. We know this for a fact, because Klien has tested for Spyker. He did pretty well too, though it's difficult to tell how well, given that every team has different objectives when testing. However, he was much better than Giedo van der Garde, which is as good a reason as any to throw van der Garde off the shortlist. Klien's strong points also include being the most experienced driver on the candidate list. The catch is that he probably doesn't have significant funding and Nick Fry has a track record of not letting testers go without strings attached (ask Anthony Davidson).
That most reputable of rumour machines, Bild, thinks that Winklehock will drive next race. He would be my preferred choice - he looks fast, is familiar with the Spyker and doesn't have to be negotiated out of a test seat. However, even he admitted (to a site called f1grandprix.it that I've never heard of before) that he doesn't have enough sponsorship money for the season.
There is another point in his favour, though - one that proves that mid-season sackings are always messy. Christijan Albers may be starting legal proceedings against Spyker (as if we didn't have enough high-profile court cases in F1 at the moment!) Christijan claims that his drive had a guarantee clause that meant that in the event of a sponsor default. With Mingya claiming it hasn't sponsor Albers or Spyker for some time (despite signage on this year's car), this is set to run and run in the background.
The point of stating all this is that there is a theoretical chance that Albers may claim unfair dismissal and ask for his seat back. The compensation Spyker would have to pay Christijan if his or Mingya's claims are accurate would probably exceed the amount of spare cash Spyker has got. It is possible that Spyker may therefore have no choice but to take Christijan back for the duration of the contract. I would not like to be at Spyker if that happened. However, any contract Spyker enters into now has to have provision to remove the substitute driver in case Albers has to be placed in the team. This is a point that goes heavily in Winklehock's favour.
My tip? Winklehock for the minimum amount of time needed to sort out the Albers debacle, followed by either Albers or Karthikeyan for the rest of the season. Klien will use the lost opportunity as leverage to negotiate a race seat at Honda or Super Aguri for 2008, and Albers will not be seen in F1 after 2007 regardless of what happens next.
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