The 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix will be last for...

[jens]

We may see the end of the F1 season on November 27, but it looks like we may also see the last of quite a few drivers in F1. In some cases we even wouldn't know for sure that their F1 careers have really come to an end, but it would get clarified later. So who are these drivers likely at the end of the road?

Barrichello? He seems to be hoping for a kind of miracle that happened three years ago. In 2008 he also refused to announce retirement, was instead fighting for a seat as long as he could and as a result, he managed to extend his F1 career! But it looks like it's going to be curtains this time, unless Rubens is desperate enough to go and replace Liuzzi at HRT as their 'experienced lead driver'.

Sutil? For a man, who is now only two points shy of ending up as 'best of the rest' behind Top4 teams and has perhaps been the best performing midfield driver this year, the circumstances are cruel that seem to play against continuing his F1 career. But if all the rumours are taken into account, he will have no seat. How odd that this is going to happen after his most impressive season ever.

Buemi? There are four drivers aiming for two STR seats and the Swiss Seb certainly seems to be at the losing end in that battle right now. A competent F1 driver, but never more than that, so getting a 3-year F1 career was as good as he could manage.

Senna? Looks increasingly likely that Grosjean is going to be Lotus Renault GP race driver next year. Senna didn't have an easy task by getting thrown in into the last third of the season, but I guess he hasn't impressed enough to get teams notice him and offer him an extension of F1 career.

Trulli? Although officially his contract has been extended with Lotus/Caterham, there have been increasing rumours that one RB junior driver (Ricciardo/Vergne) could take his seat on the back of recent disappointing performances of the Italian veteran.

D'Ambrosio? According to latest rumours Pic is going to take his seat. In this case his short spell in F1 is certainly going to be over. But I suspect this was always going to be like that anyway.

Liuzzi? He is going to fizzle out of F1 rather silently. I don't know his contract status with HRT and whether it is a multi-year deal or not, but in any case HRT is his only option to have an F1 race seat.

Among drivers, who we have seen during the 2011 season, but we won't see at the season finale, we may have seen the last of Heidfeld, Chandhok and Karthikeyan as well. Oh, and of course de la Rosa.

Perhaps some of these drivers (younger ones) can still somehow make a comeback to F1. Like Wurz and de la Rosa managed after many years of being relegated to a test driver status. But all in all you can discuss about the future motorsport prospects of these drivers, sum up their careers or whatever you'd like. :)

[F1boat]

I wouldn't write off Barrichello so soon. It's time for him to go, IMO, but he wants to drive and is not without qualities.

[Garry Walker]

We may see the end of the F1 season on November 27, but it looks like we may also see the last of quite a few drivers in F1. In some cases we even wouldn't know for sure that their F1 careers have really come to an end, but it would get clarified later. So who are these drivers likely at the end of the road?

Barrichello? He seems to be hoping for a kind of miracle that happened three years ago. In 2008 he also refused to announce retirement, was instead fighting for a seat as long as he could and as a result, he managed to extend his F1 career! But it looks like it's going to be curtains this time, unless Rubens is desperate enough to go and replace Liuzzi at HRT as their 'experienced lead driver'.

Sutil? For a man, who is now only two points shy of ending up as 'best of the rest' behind Top4 teams and has perhaps been the best performing midfield driver this year, the circumstances are cruel that seem to play against continuing his F1 career. But if all the rumours are taken into account, he will have no seat. How odd that this is going to happen after his most impressive season ever.

Buemi? There are four drivers aiming for two STR seats and the Swiss Seb certainly seems to be at the losing end in that battle right now. A competent F1 driver, but never more than that, so getting a 3-year F1 career was as good as he could manage.

Senna? Looks increasingly likely that Grosjean is going to be Lotus Renault GP race driver next year. Senna didn't have an easy task by getting thrown in into the last third of the season, but I guess he hasn't impressed enough to get teams notice him and offer him an extension of F1 career.

Trulli? Although officially his contract has been extended with Lotus/Caterham, there have been increasing rumours that one RB junior driver (Ricciardo/Vergne) could take his seat on the back of recent disappointing performances of the Italian veteran.

D'Ambrosio? According to latest rumours Pic is going to take his seat. In this case his short spell in F1 is certainly going to be over. But I suspect this was always going to be like that anyway.

Liuzzi? He is going to fizzle out of F1 rather silently. I don't know his contract status with HRT and whether it is a multi-year deal or not, but in any case HRT is his only option to have an F1 race seat.

Among drivers, who we have seen during the 2011 season, but we won't see at the season finale, we may have seen the last of Heidfeld, Chandhok and Karthikeyan as well. Oh, and of course de la Rosa.



Out of the drivers you mentioned Sutil and Rubens clearly deserve a place in F1. Sutil very clearly so.
I would like to see a bit more of Senna as well, but probably that is due to his name. Heidfeld would still deserve a season or two as well.
Buemi and Liuzzi have had their chances (the latter far too many) and have shown nothing. I had quite high hopes for Buemi when he came to F1, but he has been a dissapointment.
Trulli has been dissapointing this year, sadly, and I would not be surprised if Lotus got someone else, despite his contract.

D'ambrosio might still retain his seat, there have been rumours that Glock might get the axe (which would be stupid)

[steveaki13]

Unfortunatley there are not enough seats to go around these days.

I fear that Rubens may go into the winter hoping for a drive and we never get a chance to share his last GP.

Sutil could still hang around F1 for a while, but Buemi, Senna and D'Ambrosio are all at risk of disapearing.

As for Liuzzi he is heading backwards. So a test role or touring car drive next I think

[Koz]

Barrichello should go with dignity... He should have retired at the end of 2009. He has had a long career, he sold his soul to the devil.
Then he had a perfect chance, and couldn't do much with it.

Liuzzi... Meh, never did much anywhere... Not really impressive against Ricciardo with all his experience...

Senna is nothing but a name...

Sutil, I will be sad to see him go. He's a decent driver now that his crashey phase is over.

Kubica's career seems to be over too... Such a shame, most here thought of him as a future chamption in the making.

[Bolton Midnight]

Kubica's career seems to be over too... Such a shame, most here thought of him as a future chamption in the making.

Even bigger shame is that at the beginning of the season the Renault was a competitive package and with RK on board may well have even won a race, podiums at least.

[driveace]

Maybe Sutil,s problems started with the incident that occurred earlier this year with the Renault director.A cool head at all times,on duty or off !

[Malbec]

Barrichello? He seems to be hoping for a kind of miracle that happened three years ago. In 2008 he also refused to announce retirement, was instead fighting for a seat as long as he could and as a result, he managed to extend his F1 career! But it looks like it's going to be curtains this time, unless Rubens is desperate enough to go and replace Liuzzi at HRT as their 'experienced lead driver'.

I think its the end of the line for Rubens. There are other experienced drivers out there like Heidfeld and Liuzzi looking for drives and sadly I think Rubens' habit of hitting out at his own teams hasn't helped his cause much. I would have liked to see a more dignified exit for a driver I've enjoyed watching in the past but I don't think it'll happen.


Sutil? For a man, who is now only two points shy of ending up as 'best of the rest' behind Top4 teams and has perhaps been the best performing midfield driver this year, the circumstances are cruel that seem to play against continuing his F1 career. But if all the rumours are taken into account, he will have no seat. How odd that this is going to happen after his most impressive season ever.

Stabbing people at nightclubs doesn't help his cause especially as Renault might otherwise be a good destination for him. Also I heard Medion is in trouble so his sole sponsor might disappear. I have to say though that Mallya's choice to make a late driver decision does Sutil no favours as he still 'might' get a drive at FI and can't go around looking for an alternative drive just yet.


Buemi? There are four drivers aiming for two STR seats and the Swiss Seb certainly seems to be at the losing end in that battle right now. A competent F1 driver, but never more than that, so getting a 3-year F1 career was as good as he could manage.

Not that impressed by either STR driver and I think there's an off chance both might be replaced although apparently STR now has a few Spanish sponsor stickers so Jaime might be saved. Buemi is pretty similar on pace to his teammate, but Jaime seems to have made a better impression. Not sure why. Won't be missed much either way.


Senna? Looks increasingly likely that Grosjean is going to be Lotus Renault GP race driver next year. Senna didn't have an easy task by getting thrown in into the last third of the season, but I guess he hasn't impressed enough to get teams notice him and offer him an extension of F1 career.

He's too slow and inconsistent. In order to secure an F1 drive he should have nailed Petrov like Kubica did, instead he's about level. Not bad you might say for someone parachuted in mid-season but I don't think he's anything more than competent. If he was going to have secured a proper drive he'd have done it by now, he's been in/around F1 for three seasons now if you include his aborted Honda/Brawn drive that got cancelled.


Trulli? Although officially his contract has been extended with Lotus/Caterham, there have been increasing rumours that one RB junior driver (Ricciardo/Vergne) could take his seat on the back of recent disappointing performances of the Italian veteran.

Looked pretty handy once his powersteering was to his liking. Hope he stays for one more season and matches Heikki for once.


D'Ambrosio? According to latest rumours Pic is going to take his seat. In this case his short spell in F1 is certainly going to be over. But I suspect this was always going to be like that anyway.

I think he's quite good and has matched or beaten Glock a few times, not that it gets noticed at that end of the grid. There are also rumours that Pic is going to replace Glock as Marussia find his salary a bit of a drain on the team.


Among drivers, who we have seen during the 2011 season, but we won't see at the season finale, we may have seen the last of Heidfeld, Chandhok and Karthikeyan as well. Oh, and of course de la Rosa.

I'm sure Chandhok and Karthikeyan will be rent-a-drivers wheeled out once a year for the Indian GP for a few years yet. If I ran a team I'd take Chandhok just as a team ambassador, his enthusiasm and articulate manner of speaking are both very valuable, I just wouldn't let him anywhere near a car!

De La Rosa is too old but Nick could easily get a stand-in drive for anyone out through injury or not performing well enough. I think people realise that he was dumped at Renault for reasons that had more to do with team politics than his driving.

[Bolton Midnight]

Maybe Sutil,s problems started with the incident that occurred earlier this year with the Renault director.A cool head at all times,on duty or off !

What was that then?

And he stabbed someone, where when ?!?

[Ranger]

F1 driver Sutil to face criminal charges over China fracas?James Allen on F1 (http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/05/f1-driver-sutil-to-face-criminal-charges-over-china-fracas/)

There hasn't been much heard of this since, one would assume a settlement has been reached.

[Bolton Midnight]

Wow

what next maybe he could hump a driver's brothers missus ;-)

[Mekola]

I think Bruno Senna could be bounced back to third/reserve driver role at Lotus (current Renault) for 2012. So he won't be disappearing that easily.

[I am evil Homer]

I wouldn't miss Luizzi, D'Ambrosio or Buemi.

[jens]

Oh, it looks like I have guessed wrong and we have not seen the last of de la Rosa yet. :eek: But it probably means it is over for Liuzzi.

[Ranger]

Oh, it looks like I have guessed wrong and we have not seen the last of de la Rosa yet. :eek: But it probably means it is over for Liuzzi.

At this rate he will be on/off the grid for the next ten years!