Ferrari to sign Fisichella to replace Badoer?
Ferrari has had plenty of time to get its hands on Giancarlo Fisichella. The Italian driver has been on the grid since 1995 when he started as a test driver for Minardi, and later driving for Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Renault and now Force India. But the Scuderia wasn't interested. Not until its fortunes were down, and Fisico's were up.
The 36-year-old driver pulled off a shocking command performance at this past weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, grabbing pole position and a relentless second place behind Ferrari's own Kimi Raikkonen. All the while, Ferrari itself has been struggling with its veteran test driver Luca Badoer, who has been suffering from a difficult time readjusting to the competition. The team's test driver, promoted to the race seat after ten years of developmental duties when Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher were both knocked out of commission by head-eye injuries (as has now been revealed), has finished the two races he started so far in 17th and 14th positions. Ferrari is plainly disappointed and embarrassed, but with no junior driver in place for a rainy day, Maranello has been left with little choice.
For his part, Ferrari's outspoken former triple world champion Niki Lauda has called on the team to poach Fisichella from Force India, which is experiencing financial troubles and would surely take the money and run. One way or another, Fisichella's in for a hero's welcome at his home race at Monza into two weeks. And Ferrari will have an experienced Italian driver behind the wheel for the Italian Grand Prix. Exactly which one that will be, however, remains to be seen.
[Source: F1-Live | Image: Fred DuFour/AFP/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
erik1080 8:46AM (9/01/2009)
So THAT explains why Giancarlo didn't overtake Kimi last weekend...
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Sam 10:20AM (9/01/2009)
No Kers explains that...
click.kas 5:32PM (9/01/2009)
lol, that might just be true ,
click this for the whole story http://indianautotalk.com/?p=535
ack154 9:00AM (9/01/2009)
This was basically foreseen through the entire race on Sunday by the Speed presenters. Not to mention Giancarlo has said from basically the beginning of his career that he would drop everything to go to Ferrari if they called.
Guess they might be calling soon...
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Das Borgen 9:19AM (9/01/2009)
an Italian driver driving an Italian F1 car?
Never been heard of, unless you wanna count Badoer, Liuzzi, ......Ascari, Farina........Trulli, Patrese
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Ray 3:32PM (9/01/2009)
Badoer is the only one in that list currently in F1. He wasn't exactly living up to the Ferrari name being 2 seconds of Kimis' pace. While Fisi in the Force India was right on his ass the whole race.
Ian 9:24AM (9/01/2009)
More likely Marc Gene or Sebastian Bourdais.
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hashiryu 9:40AM (9/01/2009)
1- Late
2- Domencali already said no.
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llama81 11:55AM (9/01/2009)
it might just be me, but doesn't all this racing stuff belong on a different website? i can't tell you how hard i cringe when i see racing suits and driver names on the autoblog home page, if the racing stuff has enough interested followers it should spin off into it's own site, oterwise just can all of it and leave us to the intent of the site, to inform about AUTOS, not the soap-opera baloney racing leagues
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FanboyOfTheTruth 1:29PM (9/01/2009)
It's just you. Race cars are autos too. Don't enter the thread if it does not interest you.
ack154 2:34PM (9/01/2009)
Those things they're racing? Ya... some form of automobile. It's relevant. Trust us.
cdwrx 11:52AM (9/01/2009)
That's not what "command performance" means.
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Rizzle 2:55PM (9/01/2009)
On a Force India chassis, yes it is. If you watched the race, Fisichella rode Raikonnen's exhaust all the way to the finish line. I think if it weren't for KERS being used defensively by Raikonnen, we would have had more of a battle.
Still, seeing Raikonnen check his mirrors for Fisichella in the braking zones was awesome.
cdwrx 3:36PM (9/01/2009)
command performance
a performance, as of a play, put on as for a ruler by command or request
Steve 12:27PM (9/01/2009)
BAD MOVE... in a few years GF will be too old, prone to longer injury recovery and loss of coordination. Sign up Alonso... he is a much better driver and a better choice.
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Santosh Tiwari 1:42PM (9/01/2009)
I guess Force India will have to find someone else to fill in his shoes. I hope they are around and competing in F1.
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chan625 3:30PM (9/01/2009)
I think ferrari is more worried @ their driver combo they must b carefull with wat happened btween hamilton and alonso at mclaren so if kimi's leaving for wrc and alonso's sure to fill one seat fisi in 2nd car might create another iteration with alonso in the equation again....and wat @ massa isnt he staying at ferrari?
if he is i dont think they will bother with fisi for just 5 races this season
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Matt W. 7:42PM (9/01/2009)
Alonso & Fisichella.
I have Renault ja vu.
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