Jordan’s Narain Karthikeyan was very lucky to escape unharmed from a massive accident after crashing into a wall during the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix.
Tag: Toyota
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Caterham Announce Kobayashi & Ericsson
Caterham CEO Tony Fernandes announced earlier today that Kamui Kobayashi and rookie Marcus Ericsson will complete their driver line-up in 2014.
Japan’s Kobayashi returns to Formula 1 after a year’s racing for Ferrari in the World Endurance Championship. Kobayashi made a sensational Formula 1 debut as a stand-in driver for Toyota during the 2009 season which followed with a stint of racing with Sauber from 2010-12.
Kobayashi was quoted as saying that it “was great” to be back in Formula 1 with the Caterham team. “Throughout all our discussions I’ve been very impressed with where they want to take the team, and how much investment has been made already to help them achieve their goals,” Kobayashi told AUTOSPORT.
Marcus Ericsson graduates from GP2 to partner Kobayashi at Caterham for 2014.
“This is a very proud day for me and everyone has helped make my F1 dream come true. I’ll be making the step up to F1 with Caterham in 2014 and I’m already excited about the season ahead, and the first race in Australia in particular,” Ericsson shared with AUTOSPORT.
2013 Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde has inked a deal with Sauber as the team’s test and reserve driver.
Image courtesy of @tedkravitz via Twitter
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FIA accepting applications for a 12th F1 team
The FIA has called for potential new teams to express their interest in participating in Formula 1 “at a competitive level” in 2015 or 2016.The sport’s governing body has opened up a selection process for a new team to join the grid, potentially as early as the start of the 2015 F1 season.Interested applicants have until Friday 3 January 2014 to register a formal expression of interest.
Following the demise of HRT at the end of the 2012 season, we saw only 11 teams take part in this year’s championship.
We’ve not seen a new team in the sport since the start of 2010, when Lotus Racing (Caterham), Virgin (Marussia) and Hispania (HRT) joined the F1 grid. Aside from them, only two other teams – Toyota and Super Aguri – have joined the sport since 2002.A statement on the FIA’s official website read:
“The FIA has decided to open a new selection process to identify a candidate team to participate at a competitive level in the FIA Formula One World Championship from the start of the 2015 or the 2016 season up to 2020 inclusive. The overall long-term interests of the Championship will determine which candidates are selected.”
The FIA also published the requirements for applying as well as the applicable application selection criteria.
Applicants will be judged on:
(a) the technical ability and resources of the team;(b) the ability of the team to raise and maintain sufficient funding to allow participation in the Championship at a competitive level;(c) the team’s experience and human resources;(d) the FIA’s assessment of the value that the candidate may bring to the ChampionsInformation on the candidate’s relevant experience, including technical and racing experience as well as facilities, equipment and engineering resources are also be required. Full Curriculum Vitae of directors and shareholders also need to be submitted and there is a total application fee of $130,000.While the FIA plans to announce any new team on 28th February 2014, they have stated that in the event that “no candidate is deemed suitable by the FIA and the commercial rights holder, no additional team will be selected”.
Photo Credit: By Alan from Doncaster, UK (P1060288) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
