Caterham swaps Kamui for Andre at Spa

[Bagwan]

Apparently , Caterham has decided to drop Lotterer into the seat for Spa .

They are saying Kobayashi is still a part of the team , and , as Andre has a good record at Spa , winning even this year in the 24 hr race , it seems it will only be for this race .

Kolles is likely to have been involved as well , as they have ties , and he's working the restructuring in the back rooms .

It should be really interesting to see how he gets on with it , as this will be truly dropping him in the deep end , never having raced in an F1 car before .

[journeyman racer]

Yeah. That's not bad news. Lotterer has had a good career. An F1 start/s, even just some token ones, will add to it.

[truefan72]

so kobayashi , whips ericsson in every metric and was instrumental in car set up and whatever development the team was making and they boot him for one race for lotterer?
makes no sense. if anything they needed to sit ericsson down for a race if they were serious about fielding the 2 strongest drivers. And if it is down to not paying kobayashi, then they are shooting themselves in the foot, because he has the potential of dragging that car much higher on the grid than ericsson. Some strange developments with this new caterham team. SMH

[Bagwan]

so kobayashi , whips ericsson in every metric and was instrumental in car set up and whatever development the team was making and they boot him for one race for lotterer?
makes no sense. if anything they needed to sit ericsson down for a race if they were serious about fielding the 2 strongest drivers. And if it is down to not paying kobayashi, then they are shooting themselves in the foot, because he has the potential of dragging that car much higher on the grid than ericsson. Some strange developments with this new caterham team. SMH

According to Joe , Andre is a good developer , and feedback isn't Kamui's strong point , so they are hoping for direction from him .
He's raced in Japan a lot , so is used to tricky conditions , and is a master of Spa , winning numerous times in other series .
So , it's maybe not so crazy .

And , Ericsson pays to drive , so stays in his seat .

Kobayashi is out of the seat for at least this race , and needs to hope the car does indeed improve , to have any chance of beating anyone but his team mate , but not improved so much that he's out of the seat entirely .
Kinda scary moment for Kamui fans .

They were very careful to note that he's still part of the team , but they didn't say if this was Lotterer's only race .

[steveaki13]

Fair enough TBH. I like to see another driver get a chance.

Good luck I guess

[keysersoze]

That team is an utter mess. Even with two winners (Trulli and Kovalainen) they have been nothing short of miserable.

[truefan72]

According to Joe , Andre is a good developer , and feedback isn't Kamui's strong point , so they are hoping for direction from him .
well perez would beg to differ as he has recently heaped a massive amount of praise towards kobayashi for being instrumental in helping his development at sauber.


He's raced in Japan a lot , so is used to tricky conditions , and is a master of Spa , winning numerous times in other series .
So , it's maybe not so crazy .

And , Ericsson pays to drive , so stays in his seat .

Kobayashi is out of the seat for at least this race , and needs to hope the car does indeed improve , to have any chance of beating anyone but his team mate , but not improved so much that he's out of the seat entirely .
Kinda scary moment for Kamui fans .

They were very careful to note that he's still part of the team , but they didn't say if this was Lotterer's only race .

Yeah ericsson is a pay driver but not covering himself in glory.
lets hope they sort this thing out. I wonder what they are paying lotterer for this one race, or is it some kind of arrangement for some sort of sponsorship?
i can't image that it is a pay drive, but if it is, then caterham are in more serious trouble than before the sale

[GravettFan99]

I was reading an article on Autosport called "The 50 Greatest Drivers to Never Reach F1". Andre was among them. Now he can say that he *has* competed in F1. :)

I think it is more of a money thing. Kobayashi is paid, and Ericsson pays. Lotterer will probably also pay for his drive.

[dj_bytedisaster]

Fair enough TBH. I like to see another driver get a chance.

Good luck I guess

Not to mention that Lotterer as an Audi driver haa way more experience drying hybrid engined cars than any of the current F1 drivers. Normally Joe Sewage doesn't provide much instead of bovine excrement and plugging his commercial projects, but on the account of Lotterer being an accomplished development driver he's quite correct. I think the team doesn't have much confidence in Koba's feedback - engineering-wise.

[Rollo]

Kobayashi is out of the seat for at least this race , and needs to hope the car does indeed improve , to have any chance of beating anyone but his team mate , but not improved so much that he's out of the seat entirely .
Kinda scary moment for Kamui fans .


Oh I don't know. I think that it might make putting the number 10 on a one of the Scuderia's Scarlett horsies a little bit easier.

[zako85]

This doesn't seem shocking. Caterham or its drivers are no longer fighting for any meaningful positions, so Caterham should at least experiment with other drivers for the sake of funding, finding new talent, or improving the car. It's sad Kamui lost a race seat in the process.

[RS]

Pretty decent performance today by Lotterer. Maybe F1 isn't so hard afterall if someone can jump in having not driven an F1 car for 12 years and be on the pace :rolleyes:

[steveaki13]

Pretty decent performance today by Lotterer. Maybe F1 isn't so hard afterall if someone can jump in having not driven an F1 car for 12 years and be on the pace :rolleyes:

and a 17 year old next year will doubtlessly be OK, rather than out of his depth