[M_Six]

Money talks, I guess. Nico's the better driver by far, but with Lotus's money woes, I guess they had to sell the seat to the highest bidder.

[Chihuahua]

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bad new for Lotus IMO. I fully expect RoGro to have twice as many points, and a fourth of the attitude by round 5.

I had high hopes for Lotus next year. Hulk would score big, and often in that car.

Lotus better stock up on new noses; they're going to need them.

[Handozizle]

Honestly, it's a good gamble by Lotus given their situation. They get the money and who knows, maybe Pastor will improve like Grosjean did in 2013.

I wonder why they didn't snag Perez. He has all the Mexican sponsors and is a pretty good driver.

[Math]

But would Perez bring as much money as Maldonado will do?? Probably not and why they chose MAL..
I find it a bit sad too, HULK would be so much better in a good team and I really like him!
Plus, I really don't like MAL, he seems arrogant and hasn't shown much this season.. Its also saying something that he was on such bad terms with a lot of people at Williams.. It just adds to my thoughts that he's not a nice person to be working with.

But yeah, money is important, especially when Lotus could't grab that 3rd place in the constructors championship by the end of the season.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by Math

But yeah, money is important, especially when Lotus couldn't grab that 3rd place in the constructors championship by the end of the season.

I bet that was the deciding factor. Hulk or Perez are clearly better drivers.

[Math]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I bet that was the deciding factor. Hulk or Perez are clearly better drivers.

Yes, I think so too. Also why they waited till after the last race to make any decision.
A shame GROS fell out in Interlagos and Heikki didn't score any points in the 2 last races. But thats how it is and we will see how it goes for them next year. I really expect a lot from GROS actually, he's shown so much progress this season over last! He seems ready to lead the team to me

[StickMon]

We all knew this would happen.
Lotus needs money, badly. Maldonado has money, badly.
(Don't get me started about Venezuelan politics.)
Let's see how he does.

[Elsabor67]

Disappointing to see how talent can be overruled by money. Would be nice to see both Hulkenberg and Perez in the same team next year beating on the competition in a good car.

[SenorFunkyPants]

I believe that the deal that Lotus had with Quantum motorsport might be going down the tubes...and that Perez and Nico had until Brazil to commit to Force India.
That left Lotus with a tough choice at Brazil - sign a driver they wanted and hope the QM deal went through or take the safe option and sign PM. I guess already having the hot shoe Roman they made the pragmatic decision.
I think that leaves Sutil to Sauber and DiResta most likely out on his ear (which is a shame).

[Math]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

I believe that the deal that Lotus had with Quantum motorsport might be going down the tubes...and that Perez and Nico had until Brazil to commit to Force India.
That left Lotus with a tough choice at Brazil - sign a driver they wanted and hope the QM deal went through or take the safe option and sign PM. I guess already having the hot shoe Roman they made the pragmatic decision.
I think that leaves Sutil to Sauber and DiResta most likely out on his ear (which is a shame).

Why do you think Force india would replace both drivers? Has this been confirmed? I thought nothing was decided yet about Perez, Hulk, Diresta ot Sutil? Or am i mistaken?

[SenorFunkyPants]

Word is that NH has signed a 2 year deal with FI (after a bit of a falling out with Sauber)...Force India will use some of Perez sponsorship money to help pay Nicos wages!
Sutil is apparently taking his sponsor cash to Sauber.
Thats all I've got.

[Chihuahua]

With PM leaving Williams, I fear for that team. Anyone else notice the look on Frank Williams face before the last race? He looks like a totally defeated man. I feel sorry for him. Not only did he recently lose his wife, but the once proud Williams team is in shambles with nothing promising on the horizon as far as I can tell. It's too bad BMW couldn't stick with them after 2005.

I'll root for Hulk at FI if that's where he ends up. I really like him as a driver and hope that one day he gets a ride at a top team.

[solstice]

The engine specifications and output has been frozen since 2007. I think this has helped smaller teams to get sufficient time to work on their chassis to fit engines made by others. Lotus is such a team and so is Williams. RBR is also sourcing it's engine but I have a feeling that they have special treatment and work with Renault as close as possible without being one company and will suffer less from the huge engine changes for next year. I doubt Lotus will be nearly as strong though and that Ferrari and Benz with in house engines developed hand in hand with the chassis will be relatively much stronger than they've been the last couple of years. I would personally not bet on McLaren in it's last year with Benz engines.

I.e Hulk might do just as well in FI as he would have in Lotus. Williams have a really fast driver in BOT and had a very good engine from Renault and still managed pretty much nothing. It's sad and I hope all changes can somehow benefit them next season. It would be very sad for Frank W. to see them totally implode and disappear at this stage of his life.

[954Stealth]

I though for sure they'd have gone for Hulk! He could have put up a bunch of points next year for them. I suppose Mal's sponsorship will float the team for the season since they just bid themselves out of driver and constructor purse money.
Anyone know how many years his contract is for? I haven't looked it up yet

[SenorFunkyPants]

Sad to say but I went from a being a big Williams fan to really disliking them over the way they screwed Damon Hill in his DWC winning year. I haven't been at all saddened by their steady decline, they brought it on themselves with their arrogance.

[Nang Vann]

Interesting.

Can't wait till Melbourne 2014!

[M_Six]

Confirmed. Hulk to FI. Multi-year deal, which is good for him.

[KingOfJericho]

Finally a well-deserved stable seat for him. Hopefully they don't get caught flat-footed next year with all of the mechanical changes.

[Castle]

I really think small teams are going to struggle next year. With all the aero, engine and the proposed new tyre rules, those without a proper simulator and wind tunnel (or the cash to rent it) are going to have a bad time. I almost think they throw in big changes once in a while to favor the big names.

As for PM to Lotus, well, it was down to the money obvoiusly. I think Perez's sponsorship was about half of Maldonado's. And it's not like Perez did a great job with a much better car. Lotus still has to pay Kimi for this whole year. I don't think 2014 is going to be too bright for Lotus, though I hope I'm wrong.
Williams will be OK for 2014, at least. They got a huge severance pay by PM's sponsor (the contract was supposed to run until 2015, I think), so with that money they have 2014 covered. After that, who knows. Specially if they struggle again in 2014.

As sad as it sounds, I think Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren will dominate again with little to no chance for others, specially in the second half of the season. During the first have we might have some surprises, more so if reliability is as poor as expected for the first few races.

[KingOfJericho]

Ferrari and McLaren really struggled this year with relatively minor changes in the regs. I'm not sure they're much better off than the backmarkers given the clean slate approach. I don't know how a team like Ferrari or McLaren, with nearly limitless resources, could botch a season so badly.

[Castle]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

Ferrari and McLaren really struggled this year with relatively minor changes in the regs. I'm not sure they're much better off than the backmarkers given the clean slate approach. I don't know how a team like Ferrari or McLaren, with nearly limitless resources, could botch a season so badly.

Well, I think when there is very little to improve on a car after 10 years of continous improvement you can focus on small parts of the car that will give you a few millisecs, and that's it.
With a clean slate you will have to work on many parts of the car at once, fixing stuff even before improving. That's a tough task to overcome for small teams with limited resources. The big names can always hire out as many people as they see fit in order to improve their car rather quickly, the small teams have to work with what they have.
And as bad a year as Ferrari and McLaren had, they were still up there fighting almost every podium, still far from the small teams in terms or regularity.

[E90SLAM]

Just curious, is Maldonado got this money from bringing sponsors like PDVSA?
And is Grosjean got connection for TOTAL?

So will PDVSA replacing Total as Lotus fuel supplier/sponsor?