With the story that Red Bull will drop a current driver for 2009 do you see any other teams doing so?

Question

I see the most likely as BMW (Heidfeld) and Renault (Piquet)

Going back to Red Bull I'd drop the pair.

Answer 1

Heidfeld may get dropped if his form doesn't improve, but I expect that later this year we will see his consistency deliver good points.  It's clear that Kubica currently has a big advantage but Heidfeld is a very good driver, and BMW will be hard pressed to find a better replacement.

Piquet has been rubbish so far and may very well be dropped.  With a number of other promising young rookies waiting in the wings, he may be pushed out even before the end of the season.

I wouldn't be surprised if Barrichello is pushed/retired but Honda don't really know what they are doing so will probably keep him for a while.

Coulthard looks like he might be on his last legs.  He's doing quite well but is being consistently outdriven by Webber.   Neither of the Red Bull drivers have ever been true 'top level' drivers (Coulthard was a pretender against Hakkinen, and Webber was never in a top-line team) but they are both strong performers.  Just like BMW with Heidfeld, I think Red Bull will have a hard time finding a suitable replacement for Coulthard.  Talk seems to be focused on Vettel, but he has barely held his rookie teammate at bay this year and has not impressed.

edit: Webber is providing the best results of his career and will likely finish the season with a personal best points haul.  I'm sure that Red Bull are very happy with his performance - consistently beating his teammate, scoring points on merit (not relying on 'luck' and competitor retirements).  They won't release him unless they have two better options, and while there might be one very good driver on the market at the end of the year (Alonso?) it is very unlikely that two Webber-beating drivers will be available to Red Bull.  I expect him to stay.

Answer 2

Well, I've expected RBR to drop one of their drivers next year, DC in this case. He hasn't been doing too well lately and people feel that his time is up. What's more all the points they have were contributed by Webber.

It's too early to decide Heidfeld's future. He's not doing so good now but it could just be a lapse. He'll get back in shape eventually.

Piquet Jr has not been impressive at all so far. flavio may be having some regrets. Sure, he's not outdoing Alonso but he's not helping the team either. If he doesn't improve soon, he'll be axed.

Other than that Williams might want to drop Nakajima. He's only there because of pressure from Toyota. Then Glock should go as well. He's not very impressive, but it's also partly due to bad luck that he hasn't finished a few races. And Force India might just decide that there are better drivers to fill in Sutil's seat. He, too, hasn't really made an impact so far

Answer 3

As with the comments above, its not looking too sprightly for the more mature drivers in the Paddock -Barrichello, Fisichella and Coulthard- with so much fresh blood vying for their drives.   Although Piquet has been pretty poor, it is his first season and it is unfortunately in a hitherto poor car.

If they drop Heidfeld, a driver who has always been in the right place at the wrong time, who wold replace him?!

Answer 4

I don't see Glock staying at Toyota either.

Heidfeld has lost his qualifying edge of late, but still turns it on in the race, admittedly though to do tomorrow. i feel if he is going to be replaced BMW need another experienced campaigner, or they may take a small step back, like Mclaren seems to have done.

I have defended Coulthard to the hills for years but, I think the writing may be on the wall as Webber is making Coulthards mistakes all the worse by consistently scoring points.

webber, I find hard to like but he is doing a fine job so far this year and, in my opinion has already done enough to warrant a 2009 drive.

Its still early but Piquet is soooo disappiontig, the Renault is definatley not great and focus is on alonso, but there seems to be zero improvment as every race goes by.