Is Vitantonio Liuzzi getting ready to take the place of Giancarlo Fisichella at Force India when his fellow Italian joins Ferrari to replace Luca Badoer at the Italian Grand Prix?
Force India may have denied the rumours but there are reports Liuzzi recently had a seat fitting with the team to get ready for a Monza return alongisde Adrian Sutil. Liuzzi last raced in F1 for Toro Rosso in 2007.
Thanks to SiY for the tip!
Becken
3rd September 2009, 0:17
Kubica Pulls Out of KZ1 World Cup:
http://www.karting1.co.uk/news/?p=1213
sato113
3rd September 2009, 0:57
ooooooh it’s getting exciting!
Alianora La Canta
3rd September 2009, 1:39
This completely baffles me. Wouldn’t Tonio already have had a seat fitting in preparation for the straightline tests he conducted earlier in the year? I don’t understand why Tonio would need another one, irrespective of whether he’s about to be called up to the race team or not.
This is interesting information for me, even if it gives more questions than answers…
Moo Point: Like a cow's opinion, it's Moo!!
3rd September 2009, 9:07
Maybe he’s put weight on or lost weight…
dank
3rd September 2009, 1:39
Why would he have a seat fitting when he’s been conducting straight line tests for them all season?
manatcna
3rd September 2009, 4:46
There’s an echo in here :)
Dan M
3rd September 2009, 5:18
There’s an echo in here
pitt layne
3rd September 2009, 5:51
“Becausa we finally looka ata Fisichella toa drivea da Ferrari. He’sa alwaysa been Italiano butta for first timea he’sa fasta. We needa to filla Massa seata, so we givea heema chancea. Fernando anda Michaela geeva they blessing to Fisichella to drivea for the Scuderia.”
Vincent
3rd September 2009, 8:04
I-a love it whena people write-a stuff witha an Italiana accent!
ajokay
3rd September 2009, 9:21
That really does sound like Dominicali!
Andrew White
3rd September 2009, 12:37
Except he forgot to say ‘for sure’ :P
Vincent
3rd September 2009, 12:58
For-a sure-a I’ma not-a part-a of the-a for-a sure-a competitione.
Michael
3rd September 2009, 22:44
mamma mia spaghetti meat-a-balls!
rampante
3rd September 2009, 8:17
I don’t
Dave Wykes
3rd September 2009, 9:11
Come back Signor Bertorelli…..all is figiven.(even the hat).
dave
Pete Walker
3rd September 2009, 9:15
If thats the case it’ll be great to see Liuzzi back on the grid. He deserves a better shot to prove his talent.
Now we just need a spot for Davidson :)
Richard
3rd September 2009, 9:24
Strange to have a seat fitting when he must already have a seat given the straight line testing he’s done. And he’s got one scheduled for this coming week.
Would love to see Liuzzi back in a race seat, but I would be sad to see Badoer dropped – I know I may be the only one!
Vincent
3rd September 2009, 9:39
Beside the fact that a seat fitting would not be necessary, there has been no seat fitting. Nothing even suggests that this has any source of information. All the article mentions is this:
All that it indicates is that the writer of this article assumed that his F1 duties were to have a seat fitting. It might as well have been a meeting or something of the sort.
People are getting a bit too much involved, or may I say obsessed, in being the first in finding out which driver will replace Badoer, if any.
Whenever a farmer down in Kenya says he thinks Kofi Annan could be at the wheel of the Ferrari in Monza there are still reporters that would write an article stating that he would.
Adrian
4th September 2009, 16:50
It could simply be a case of bad english (or lost in translation if the original article wasn’t in english) and it’s Fisicella who needs a seat fitting at Ferrari (which of course he would!!)
Ringo
3rd September 2009, 10:00
Hey guys.
Sure Tonio would already have a seat for the VJM01, but he’d need a new one for the VJM02.
While I hope, beyond hope, that Liuzzi does get a call up to race for FI in Monza with Fisi moving off to Ferrari, Liuzzi’s seat fitting isn’t as suspect as it looks.
He’s long been scheduled to be driving the VJM02 this week, running one of the team’s permitted straight-line aero tests. He’ll be checking low downforce configuration for Monza with a few additional updates even from Spa.
If he does get the nod for the drive, the timing of the test couldn’t really be any better!
slr
3rd September 2009, 10:07
Replace Sutil with Liuzzi.
Meander
3rd September 2009, 10:40
I like Sutil but I never understood why some people seem to see some mysterious unlocked potential in the guy. They were even linking him to mclaren at some point. I never got it. He’s not THAT good.
Robert McKay
3rd September 2009, 12:45
With the notable exception of Belgium he’s been much quicker than Fisi all year. Indeed one wonders how much of Fisi’s Belgian weekend was him simply driving the nuts off it to impress the Scuderia….!
AndrewT
3rd September 2009, 12:53
I don’t think so…
On qualifyings they beat each other equally, 6-6 according to my notes, but most of the times the difference was only a few hundreds. For example in China, Sutil 1:37,669, Fisichella 1:37,672, thats 0,003, which is technically the same time, or in Hungary 1:21,807 vs 1:21,868.
That’s for qualies. On races the situation has dramatically changed. Sutil got only near a point when some unusual happened on the track, safety car, rain, whatever, so he was only luck to be there, but then blew it away with some stupid mistake.
But Fisi delivered solid performances under normal conditions and finished many times close to the points.
And I think that we can’t expect from Sutil with a 2,5 years of experience to help the engineers improving the car. The man who does it is the other guy with 14 seasons behind him…
Arun Srini
3rd September 2009, 10:34
Mostly should be Liuzzi for Sutil. Would make a perfect reasoning. Fisi to Ferrari?? No future.. too much competition outside the main gate in Maranello for next year’s seat!!
Ringo
3rd September 2009, 11:21
Fisi will replace Badoer as official tester next season. So to see out his F1 racing days with 5 races at Ferrari makes perfect sense. He’s not in competition for a race seat and he knows it. This is the best opportunity he has to go out on a high and secure a pretty decent future at the end of it all.
AndrewT
3rd September 2009, 12:17
well, as far as i can see he deserves something better than a testing role, which means almost nothing considering the current testing bans. and after such an unexpected and stunning performance he delivered in spa, i can’t belive there will be no racing seat for him next year.
if he stays at Force India, so no loan-deal with Ferrari, i guess he could stay there.
there are movements at Williams as well, if they drop the Toyota engines, Nakajima will be out for sure, and if they can’t keep rosberg, one of the options for an experienced leading driver would be Fisi. he could have joined for 2008, but Toyota put Kaz in.
And if Sauber escapes from the danger of being shut down, it’s well known that Peter Sauber is an admirer of Fisi, worked together very well in 2004.
So okay, i get that Liuzzi deserves a racing seat, Kubica deserves a better racing seat, Badoer might not (but ihave to say he is getting better, but obviously won’t get the chance for further improvement).
But how the hell wouldn’t Fisichella deserve a seat for himself?!
TommyB
3rd September 2009, 10:48
via Autosport’s Noble F1
Meander
3rd September 2009, 14:31
GQsm
3rd September 2009, 10:58
Kubica
steph90
3rd September 2009, 14:59
Fisi to Ferrari it’s official
Steve_P
3rd September 2009, 15:00
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78280
Autosport has an article saying Fisi is driving for Ferrari!
PJA
3rd September 2009, 15:06
The Autosport article says
“Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo’s long-term future with Ferrari”
I would take that as meaning he will be the test driver next year. I think if he had wanted he could still of had a race seat at another team next year, But I suppose the pull of a Ferrari race seat for a few races was too much.
It would be funny if Force India out perform Ferrari at the next few races.
varun
3rd September 2009, 15:29
its was a quote from Mallya not autosport
PJA
3rd September 2009, 16:34
Whoops, should have checked what I typed before I submitted.
varun
3rd September 2009, 15:26
Indian new channel says FI release Fisi to join Ferrari
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/force-india-releases-fisichella-to-join-ferrari/100611-5.html
Meander
3rd September 2009, 15:31
Force India beat Ferrari to the announcement.
Waiting for the Ferrari press statement…
-A-
3rd September 2009, 15:42
Good for Fisichella; I imagine he really upped his chances with the surprisingly terrific weekend he could pull off with Force India at Spa.
While it’s not very friendly or fair towards Luca Badoer, sadly, that’s beside the point. Ferrari still has a position to secure in the constructor’s championship this season, and they need to have a driver who can capitalize on the relatively good car they’re having right now just as Raikkonen.
Hopefully, Fisichella will deliver that now. He’s never driven for Ferrari, he can’t test the car in any extensive manner before the Monza weekend gets underway, so I’d like to point out that even with the recent experience driving a 2009 car he most definitely has, this will still be a high pressure situation.
I’m interested to see what Liuzzi could do in the Force India, if indeed he gets the call now to be the replacement there.
StrFerrari4Ever
3rd September 2009, 18:41
That would be brilliant Liuzzi back in F1 :D I think the guy has potential and at Monza he’ll show it. Never really got a chance to show what he was about at Toro Rosso but this time he can show us his speed.
Patrickl
4th September 2009, 8:29
He got two chances and got kicked out after a poor performance with both teams.
Not sure what “potential” you still expect from the guy.
Red Andy
4th September 2009, 10:02
He was overlooked in favour of Klien at Red Bull purely because Klien is Austrian and Liuzzi isn’t. Then he suffered at Toro Rosso, as did his teammate Speed, because neither of them were Sebastian Vettel. So I think it’s fair to say that he hasn’t yet had a fair crack of the whip in F1.
manatcna
4th September 2009, 23:46
I don’t see Liuzzi helping FI next year
Mark Billings
6th September 2009, 17:28
I’m surprised nobody else has seen this…
Bruno Senna put this on Twitter:
Guys, Fisichella’s substitute at Force India will be Liuzzi. I’m still dealing with F1 negotiations, but feel optimistic!
http://twitter.com/BSenna
I’m guessing some fans had asked him if he was stepping in so he tweeted that. Surely Bruno would have inside knowledge, especially as he’s aiming to get an F1 seat next year.
What does everyone else think?